I suppose that now, as an old woman who likes her own company and is often at home, my dearest belonging is my dog, Lola, closely followed by my iPad. I’ve written about Lola in earlier posts so I’ll write about my iPad and other dear belongings.

My iPad contains many of my thoughts, a large chunk of an autobiography, a lot of books, loads of music, messages to and from my nearest and dearest, photographs that don’t go back far enough, (but I’m working on that), tv and radio programmes, Wordle and other word games, all the newspapers and magazines that I could want, and shops from whom I can order my groceries, clothes, more books, even shoes – in fact just about anything I want or need!

If there were a slow-burning fire approaching my home, I would save Lola and my iPad first, then as many of my paintings and some of Julian’s as I could, plus a good few photographs which aren’t stored on my iPad, and then a few of my old games and jigsaws as well as some of my small wooden boxes and other items that I would miss. (See past posts on buttons, sewing tools etc). If I had time I’d grab the old bag of soft toys from my childhood and that of ‘Veronica’ and Chloe.

Though it would be useful to have some clothes and shoes, they would come quite far down on a list of things I must save. I hate to think that I would never again have my collection of jugs, the indoor plants, the furniture and ‘stuff’ that I have accumulated over the years and all the paints and brushes and sketchbooks as well, but I can’t imagine having enough time to save everything I would want to keep!

What I wouldn’t save is any of the many things in the cellar (fake Christmas trees, old flexes and wires, plugs, tins of paint that are so old they must only have dust inside, hammers and chisels, nails and screws – you know the types of things. I also wouldn’t bother with radios, tvs, or appliances of any sort.