There is nothing like having guests for dinner to make you tidy up!  I have a dinner party book where I record who we have had for dinner, what we have eaten and what I wore… Anal.. I know.  But I love it! ha!

It makes me realise that we haven’t entertained properly since the Big Man’s birthday in May.

It was in June and the summer that my Mum started her downhill slide in to aggression, paranoia and frustration…

It was over the summer our lives shifted into a different a gear as James moved to London…

It was at the end of the summer that I hung up my apron and closed my entertaining diary.

It is interesting to see that at the end of the summer, I started my blog… and I can see the greyness and dark thoughts and feelings weaving in to my written words.

So as I prepare the house for guests tonight, I move sofa’s that haven’t been moved in 6 months and find a sheen of silver dust.  I shake out curtains and watch the particles glitter in the sunlight…  I move the wine stores and find them laced together with cobwebs…

The dust and cobwebs have been gathering and collecting beautifully… but it is time for them to go..  I polish and suck up the dust, throw out useless items, collect various pieces to take to charity..

 

It is cathartic…  cleansing.

 

I am reminded of one of my favourite phrases – the mental gardening.  As I sweep away physical dust, I empty my mind of emotional deposits.  I explore in to some of the darkest corners and draw out some of the darkest feelings I have harboured for nearly 2 years…  I suck it out…. and just as I click the release button on the hoover, I do the same for my mind.

 

Out with the cobwebs which ensnare the dust.

Out with the feelings that trap the dark thoughts…

 

Let the party begin!