Well, there’s no gardening getting done at the moment. The weather, though sunny, is very cold with a wicked wind and Peter is on the settee suffering from a heavy cold. He’s had it ages and can’t seem to shake it. I keep waiting to get it myself. Sods law being what it is I expect I’ll have it for Xmas. I tried going for a walk and a potter about this afternoon, but my heart’s not in it, so my thoughts turned to less physical and much warmer pursuits.

I wrote the other day about the poetry book I found that had belonged to my mum. It got me thinking. At this point Peter usually says he can smell burning rubber!

As a child I wasn’t really into poetry but I was obsessed with quotations and sayings, and collected my favourites in an exercise book. (People of a certain age will know the sort of book I mean. It had lots of weird tables on the back cover. Remember?) Sadly, I no longer have it but do wonder what I would make of it if I saw it now.

I can only remember 2 things that were in it, and strangely they are more poetry than prose. Here goes:

“My mind might soar like any bird, but half the time it hurries,
Along a little cinder path of useless cares and worries.”

But my absolute favourite, which I’ve since found out was written by R L Sharpe is:

“Each was given a bag of tools, an un-hewn rock, a book of rules.
Each had to make ere life had flown, a stumbling block or stepping stone.”

If there had been the Internet when I was growing up I would have spent hours finding inspirational quotes for my little book.

You’d think that in the 40+ years that have elapsed since my tastes might have changed or at least my sense of humour matured. Sadly you’d be wrong on both counts.

I still like a good inspirational quote, but my favourites now are the silly, often pithy, one-liners that I come upon occasionally. Here are just a few of my current favourites.

“If I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong.”

“I didn’t say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.”

“Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.”

“War does not determine who is right – only who is left.”

“If you choke a smurf, what color does he turn?”

And my absolute favourite of the moment,

“What if the hokey cokey really is what it’s all about?”

Scary thought eh? Hope I’ve made you smile.