I don't know why my father cut down the lilac tree at the top of our garden in Worcester - I must have been about eight at the time and perhaps that's when the vegetable plot gave way to lawns and borders and a rethink of that top corner. But from childhood I have always looked forward to the coming of spring and lilac blossom has always embodied that for me. The scent never fails to awaken in me a sense of hope and looking forward. So now, sitting on top of my filing cabinet is a beautiful scented candle that perfumes the whole room even when unlit. And the association with my childhood, the memories evoked, lead on to my other perfect present .....
Exeter University offers a distance learning course on "Writing Memoir And Family History". I'm well into recording and publishing sections of the family history (witness several of the blog entries below!) but writing memoir has seemed a bit self-indulgent in the past. However, if any of my writing survives for future generations the family history wouldn't be complete without at least a mention of my life as part of that - and, if I'm going to include it, I'd like to write it in the same sort of social context as I'm using for Digging Up The Family. So the idea of a short course which encourages, supports and perhaps helps structure the venture certainly appealed. It doesn't start until March but I'm certainly looking forward to it.
(PS. Hopefully my present to my husband - a tripod for his camera - is equally appropriate. Last Christmas my daughter and I gave him a landscape photography course. We seem to have developed very absorbing hobbies that keep us both out of trouble and make birthday / Christmas presents no problem!)
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