Rory has asked some superb questions this week:
What do you find yourself splurging on the most?
I’m not much of ‘splurger’ and try to live within my means BUT I find it hard to resist flea market and thrift store books. For the price of a large bag of junk food potato chips, I can get 4 or 5 new batches of ‘mind food’ and/or gifts for my granddaughters. Yes, I have too many books by most people’s standards but having so many avenues of ideas at my fingertips to pursue makes me feel like a kid in a candy store. “Oh, the places I might go!”
What is your top writing tip?
BE YOURSELF. Speak in your own voice and don’t get stuck on following every grammatical rule to the letter.
Note to self: Commas aren’t chocolate sprinkles. Lighten up on them. LOL
Are you a regular recycler, and if so, what are five of your top recycling tips?
No.
Are you someone that wants to be or needs to be heard and seen, or are you content to be found behind the scenes?
I try to be heard but don’t need to be. I’m told that I’m loud and opinionated and that’s true. I just love to learn. If I don’t engage the world and test my ideas on it, I’ll be hampered in that pursuit. I wonder how others can keep information to themselves. It’s the same as not offering hugs or handshakes to other people IMHO. We’re here for a reason and I’m not happy on the sidelines.
How approachable do you think you are in real life and away from the keyboard, and do others feel the same way about you?
Ha! I comically ask if I have a “welcome sign” on my forehead. I’m approached all of the time. I’m big on making eye contact with everyone so that’s part of it. Perhaps my body language has an implied invitation in it too. Once I was waiting to have a prescription filled and a little girl walked over to me and sat on my lap. Her Mom rushed over and said, “Oh my, I hope she isn’t bothering you. She’s usually so shy!”. I told the mom that we were fine and had been exchanging friendly glances from afar.
Once a man walking by me, as I was walking my dogs, stopped in his tracks and returned to where I was then spilled out a tale of his son’s predicament at work asking me (a complete stranger) what I thought about it! He never even introduced himself. LOL
Do you sit more on the fence or the edge of the knife?
I think by now everyone knows that I’m no “fence sitter”.
What do you remember the most about your grandparents?
That answer would require volumes. I am the first child of an oldest and an only child. I was so fortunate to know my grandparents for many, many, years. I also knew 4 of my great grandparents. All of them left an impression on me and made a big positive difference too. That’s why I am a full-time grandma now with my granddaughters. Modern day families are so scattered today that grandparents aren’t part of the upbringing of their grandchildren, and I believe kids are suffering terribly for that.
How important to you is validation from your readers to your written content – do you need acknowledgement from others to create?
I’ve always been creative for my own enjoyment. When others have nice things to say, it’s always a pleasure to hear but never has had any effect on my creative interests. Heck, many family members have just found out that I have a blog and I’ve been doing it for 10+ years, at least. 😉
What is it you would have liked to have been asked about your life but have yet to be?
Why have you “stayed put” all of your life?
I live in the same small city where I was born (My father too.). I married a “hometown fella”. Part of his appeal to me were his roots here. Many people travel the world and explore for their own reasons. With TV and books and, the more recent, internet, I never felt that urge. I believe we have life roles. Family and community are important to me. Like Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home.” My role as a daughter, mother, and granddaughter couldn’t be realized anywhere but at “home”. I believe I live in one of the most beautiful natural settings on Earth-The Berkshire Hills of New England.
Why would I search beyond that?
Being content has always meant more to me than searching for the proverbial “greener pasture”. From what I witness about other people’s lives spent “in search of”, I made a wonderful decision. Not one regret.
https://earthlycomforts.uk/2023/04/02/the-garden-dawdler-2/
Sillyfrog's Blog 
Love your last answer! While I don’t have a hometown as such, I live in beautiful California and have all sorts of natural wonders and manmade stuff too (like museums) right here. I’ve no urge to spend money traveling to strange places, especially now, as you say, when we can see it all online or in books…
It’s a lot like humans wanting to explore the universe when we have yet to fully explore our Earth. Thanks, Paula. ❤
When I was young I did some traveling but now I am happy to stay home and do my traveling with books and TV and internet.
I hear you! Thanks.
“Commas aren’t chocolate sprinkles” – best line ever!
🤣 thanks!
Hey Susan, a great batch of answers, l actually really liked Q9 response, not many people have tackled this question, but well done for tackling it and creating a question for you. It was a question asked of me thirty years ago in an interview for a profiler’s job l was applying for.
It’s funny isn’t it how these days more and more new people are preferring to stay put and explore their own turf so to speak. Maybe covid had a share in that, or maybe it’s a new trend, a fad doing the recycle tour like a Mary Quant mini-skirt.
Ah, the need to “stay put”, my friend, when it comes from a lifetime of choices, hasn’t anything to do with an overreaction to a virus. There’s always a silver lining to events, though. If covid is encouraging families to stay together, that’s one right there. Thanks!
Your questions are something I look forward to!
Good to know and many thanks Susan, wishing you a lovely Tuesday 🙂