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Everyone is shaped by many external factors, their parents and upbringing, their environment, their friends and I am no exception.
I have many beliefs. The one thing they have in common is respect for all living things, animals and humans alike. I should also point out that I am not in the least religious in the formal sense and dislike most organised religions in particular. To me Christianity has a lot to answer for. The nearest religion that I could possibly subscribe to would be Buddhism, that at least respects all life irrespective of its usefulness to humankind and reflects the oneness of life itself. Having reached fifty years of age on this earth, I have a lot to be thankful for. Firstly, I am still alive, secondly, I still manage to enjoy a good quality of life despite the ravages of this virus. None of us live in a vacuum, we share so much with other people.
There are many things that make life worth living. For me, the passions in my life are fairly simple but important ingredients in making my life enjoyable. These include music (both classical and pop), love and sex with my partner, gardening, wildlife and the countryside, looking after my three flocks of hens, working on my computer and not least the company of my friends.
My life long interest in classical music dates back to my primary school days, morning assemblies were seldom without their background of classical music. Since those days my passion has grown. I marvel at the sheer invention and diversity of Haydn, the sheer excitement of Stravinsky, the eloquence of Beethoven and the poetry of Mahler to name but a handful of favourite composers. Classical music has lifted my spirits many times when the going was rough and things looked bleak. I also used to love dancing to club music a lot, and enjoyed the opportunity to throw myself around the dancefloor given the right beat.
Gardening became a passion rather late in life. I have always been interested in wildlife and I wondered how I could attract birds and butterflies to the garden. Beds of stinging nettles, buddelias and rotting log piles, slowly gave way to my much loved garden in Stockport, which is certainly a far cry from those early days. In fact, I ended up opening this tiny garden of mine to the public for charity each season. Gardening perhaps above all else has helped me cope with life in general and HIV in particular. There were always plans, plants that need my care and attention, other gardens to visit and visiting wildlife to marvel at. Gardening has been and continues to be a great source of pleasure for me. The natural world is a constant source of wonder and inspiration. Wildlife, wild places and the countryside is vitally important to me, they are food for the spirit in this increasingly depressing materialistic world we live in. Having moved and taken up residence in the Highlands of Scotland, the opportunities for good bird watching and observing other wildlife have greatly increased.
Keeping hens is a more recent interest and I have 16 Lohmann Browns hens, 8 Bovans Nera, 3 Bluebells, 5 Marans, 5 Light Sussex, 6 Silkie bantams, 4 Araucanas and 11 Silver Laced Wyandotte bantams, all laying lots of lovely free range eggs. We recently acquired 3 cockerals (one for each flock), the first is a Maran named 'Troy', the second is a Welsummer called 'Rocky'and last but not least 'Sampson' our Silver Laced Wyandotte bantam cockeral. I have always liked hens from being a small child and my very own first ones arrived in March, 2004. Six brown hens comprised my first small flock, since then I have slowly increased them to the present total of 55 altogther. They are very interesting creatures and really do blossom as individuals when allowed room to makes nests, scratch around outside and indulge in very amusing dust baths. My lot certainly look very happy hens indeed.
In July of 2006 we got ourselves a trio of pure white Embden geese, three females. There are very intelligent and interesting large birds with bags of personality
Computering and web site building is also a late development. When I have finally put my hens to bed in the evening, I like to read my emails from friends and continue work on my web sites, there is nothing I like better than to start work on some new web page. Juggling with html is something I never thought I would be doing and actually enjoying. You can view our 'Sleepy Hollow' picture gallery here!
My passions keep me going. The local countryside and its wildlife, my hens clucking and joyfully announcing the next egg, contact with people the world over through my computer and that Curlew calling outside as I write, remind me that spring is on the way and summer not far behind!
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