I am a 'maven', a collector of all manner of things - a good tune, my childhood toys, decent words.....All hail great words!

un p'tit coin d'paradis, as someone once sang, for me means:

a little corner of England, forever green, amidst the bluebell woods

un coin de la Suisse, my spiritual home from home, always, perhaps picking the edelweiss near Chasseral

a bit of the land of Oz, my current homeland, birthplace of my children.

We fly many flags in our household

My moniker's always been 'Farkle'

to which I've added 'Sparkle'

I'm a bower bird, filling my nest with shiny, happy sparkly things and people along the way. If I were a bird, I'd be a bluebird, so I say this with some authority: don't go in search of the enigmatic bluebird of happiness, it's likely to have been living alongside you *all this time*.

So, know that it's there and relax, and just enjoy the moment: you'll never be younger, nor have a bigger future in which to achieve than you have, right at this moment, so grab it and go!

IN a perfect world, I would run a store called SERENDIPITY which would be part bookstore (new and old and fully browsable), part poster store (esp, vintage travel and food ones), part cupcakery, part novelty cake shop, part dolly shop, part stationer's, part craft store, part knicknackery and minis. It's always good to have a dream.....