Do you write a Diary?
Do you write a diary? I do, I have since I was 12. And I have kept them all.
My first ever entry was on January 1st 1980.
'Snowy (mouse) had her babies. I also played with Nicky Hunter and wrote thank you letters'.
There wasn't much room for each entry in my first diary, and yes I kept and bred mice, in fact I had a lovely little business going with the local pet shop and sold the young mice for extra money.
I soon learnt that I preferred diaries that had blank pages so I could write as little or as much as I wanted.
Over time this developed into a real love of stationary, so much so, that now write my diaries in a Moleskine pad with a Palomino Blackwing 602 pencil, which is, allegedly, what Hemingway wrote with. I think/hope some of Hemingway's genius will rub off on me when I am writing (I am fully aware of how pretentious this sounds, but in the spirit of honesty ...).
OK OK, so I'm a stationary snob, so shoot me, I can't help it, I love me some stationary, I have a Filofax with Dodo pad innards.
And yet I also like my technology, but I think it's OK to like both.
I prefer a book to a Kindle (tried one, didn't like it).
I like a new books because I love the smell, although I think Libraries are wonderful, I like my books to be bent to my will - yes I break the back, yes I take them in the bath (on the rare occasions I have time for one), I leave coffee cups on them to hold them open and they end up with coffee rings, and sometimes I even write little notes in them, once my book is my book, it's mine. I think it is almost like an animal scenting a thing to make sure everyone knows who the thing belongs to.
But I digress, as I often do, I write a diary, but over the last few years, I have wrote less. Thankfully, this year my lovely husband bought me Dawn French's Me You Diary, where she writes something and you write something, and it has really got me back into it.
Most of my diaries are bulging with all sorts of bits and bobs.
I do worry that the current generation and those to come, won't have this, they won't have the physicality of a diary or a letter or a postcard sent from a friend when you are feeling low. All they will get is a little sad face emoji and a wave via text.
I have letters and poems, my Dad wrote for my Mum and they are beautiful, Dad's handwriting all squirly and Mum's all copperplate, so personal and lovely.
And of course, they won't enjoy the feel and touch of lovely stationary.
I have personalised my diary and 'scented' it so it is completely mine, I have always used my diaries as scrap books as well as something to write in. I ripped out the pages I needed to write in when I went on holiday and Sellotaped them back in when I got back, I have pressed flowers and put them on the front and Dawn, as I now know her, gets you to stick a photo of yourself into the diary every few months, which is something I would never do, but it's kinda nice.
So thanks to Dawn French I am now fully back on the Diary gravy train, and loving it, and although I write this blog, in a diary I can write whatever I like, there is no self censorship, no political correctness, just me, and one day my children can read them, like I read my Mum and Dad's letters, and feel a huge personal connection - hopefully.
So go on, start writing a diary, it's never to late to start.
If you like this please like and share - Thanks
My first ever entry was on January 1st 1980.
'Snowy (mouse) had her babies. I also played with Nicky Hunter and wrote thank you letters'.
There wasn't much room for each entry in my first diary, and yes I kept and bred mice, in fact I had a lovely little business going with the local pet shop and sold the young mice for extra money.
I soon learnt that I preferred diaries that had blank pages so I could write as little or as much as I wanted.
Over time this developed into a real love of stationary, so much so, that now write my diaries in a Moleskine pad with a Palomino Blackwing 602 pencil, which is, allegedly, what Hemingway wrote with. I think/hope some of Hemingway's genius will rub off on me when I am writing (I am fully aware of how pretentious this sounds, but in the spirit of honesty ...).
OK OK, so I'm a stationary snob, so shoot me, I can't help it, I love me some stationary, I have a Filofax with Dodo pad innards.
And yet I also like my technology, but I think it's OK to like both.
I prefer a book to a Kindle (tried one, didn't like it).
I like a new books because I love the smell, although I think Libraries are wonderful, I like my books to be bent to my will - yes I break the back, yes I take them in the bath (on the rare occasions I have time for one), I leave coffee cups on them to hold them open and they end up with coffee rings, and sometimes I even write little notes in them, once my book is my book, it's mine. I think it is almost like an animal scenting a thing to make sure everyone knows who the thing belongs to.
But I digress, as I often do, I write a diary, but over the last few years, I have wrote less. Thankfully, this year my lovely husband bought me Dawn French's Me You Diary, where she writes something and you write something, and it has really got me back into it.
I do worry that the current generation and those to come, won't have this, they won't have the physicality of a diary or a letter or a postcard sent from a friend when you are feeling low. All they will get is a little sad face emoji and a wave via text.
I have letters and poems, my Dad wrote for my Mum and they are beautiful, Dad's handwriting all squirly and Mum's all copperplate, so personal and lovely.
And of course, they won't enjoy the feel and touch of lovely stationary.
I have personalised my diary and 'scented' it so it is completely mine, I have always used my diaries as scrap books as well as something to write in. I ripped out the pages I needed to write in when I went on holiday and Sellotaped them back in when I got back, I have pressed flowers and put them on the front and Dawn, as I now know her, gets you to stick a photo of yourself into the diary every few months, which is something I would never do, but it's kinda nice.
So thanks to Dawn French I am now fully back on the Diary gravy train, and loving it, and although I write this blog, in a diary I can write whatever I like, there is no self censorship, no political correctness, just me, and one day my children can read them, like I read my Mum and Dad's letters, and feel a huge personal connection - hopefully.
So go on, start writing a diary, it's never to late to start.
If you like this please like and share - Thanks
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