If there’s one thing I innately love, I think it would be the rain. The half-hearted drizzle, as much as it appears pathetic, even to me, I find it reassuring in a subtle way. The wind behind it pushes me forwards, hurrying my day so that I meet the next significant person in my life – someone who would have passed me by otherwise. An unsteady smile exchanged as a peace treaty after our umbrellas battle and shake their tears into our eyes.

Lazy but steady rain is often despised by others. It gently tramples our conservatory windows, rooves, and skylights in some sort of aggressive ballet. The dancers don’t stop for hours and stay on their toes all night until finally, they tire out, and only the strongest ballerinas continue to perform. It takes a few hours more before they discard their shoes at last and the noise stops.

My favourite type of rain, though – the one that trumps them all – is the type of rain that blinds. At least, surrounds you with a showery wall so you can only see 2or 3 feet in front of you. I love the rain that drenches me through, sticks my hair to my ever-glowing face and leaves me beaming as brightly as I ever could. That’s my favourite rain:

The dancing in the street rain. The splash in puddles like you’re Gene Kelly rain. The snuggle up by the fire with a cup of tea and chick flick rain. The cat clawing at the door rain. The deafening rows of the gods up above as they pound the Earth in their overwhelming rage.

If there’s one thing I innately love its’ the rain. The grey days with the windows open, listening to the patter-patter-pat outside

First of all: Happy 2017! I feel honoured to be the first TOE to post this year and I hope you enjoy our new content.

For the past year or so, I’ve been doing Monthly Wrap Ups on my blog Another Ranting Reader  – one of my favourite things to post, as a matter of fact – and in those posts, I discuss what music I’ve been loving that particular month. Now that it’s the end of my first full year of Monthly Wrap Ups, I thought it would be fun to look back through and create a playlist for my 2016, with a few extras added in here and there.

1. I Feel Fine (cover) – Dodie Clark

2. Lavender’s Blue – Cinderella 2015

3. How Long Will I Love You – Jon Boden,

4. Rumble – West Side Story

5. America – West Side Story

6. Somewhere – West Side Story

7. Us – Regina Spektor

8. Bluebird- Christina Perri

9. Samson – Regina Spektor

10. Five Colours in her Hair - McFly

11. Fidelity – Regina Spektor

12. Ballad of Paul K - McFly

13. Concentration Music – Found on YouTube

14. An Unsolved Mystery – Melanie Baker

15. Down – Dodie Clark

16. She Falls Asleep - McFly

17. Intertwined – Dodie Clark

18. Broccoli - McFly

19. Regina Spektor – Laughing With

20. Dancing Queen – ABBA

21. Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood

22. Waterloo – ABBA

23. Our Last Summer –ABBA

24. The Day Before You Came – ABBA

25. Songbird – Fleetwood Mac

26. Second Hand News – Fleetwood Mac

27. Pull Shapes- The Pipettes

28. Angeleyes – ABBA

29. Mr. Medicine – Eliza Doolittle

30. Dance With Me Tonight – Olly Murs

31. Honey Honey - ABBA

32. Shout Out to My Ex – Little Mix

33. Tourist – Jon Cozart

34. A non-love song- Dodie Clark

35. Ours- Taylor Swift

36. Defying Gravity – Wicked

37. Back to December - Ours

38. Dear Happy – Dodie Clark

39. Mean – Taylor Swift

40. When – Dodie Clark

41. When You’re an Addams – Addams Family Musical

42. Alexander Hamilton – Hamilton Musical

43. All I Want for Christmas – Mariah Carey

44. Fairytale of New York – The Pogues and  Kirsty MacColl

45.Last Christmas – WHAM!

46. Popular – Wicked

47. Mr. Brightside – The Killers

What did your 2016 sound like?

Happiness is oven-baked pizza

and family nights in.

Happiness is comparing your friends

to whacky film characters and

throwing popcorn into their target teeth.

Happiness is concerts,

shouting over the din.

Happiness is cold nights out

and nostalgia drinks.

Happiness is finishing a project,

but still knowing there’s a long way to go.

Happiness is Christmas lights

and local parades.

Happiness is fluffy socks

and baggy jumpers.

Happiness is my dad’s bad jokes,

my mum’s freshly made risotto

and my brother’s cotton pyjamas

as we say goodnight.

Happiness is tea and biscuits,

crossed off to-do lists

and laughing with the people

you miss.

I love poetry. I’d maybe go so far to say that I’m a bit of an addict right now. And I have written lots of poems, with a new one or two appearing each day. If you’re like me and love poetry but want to write more of it, here are 5 tips I have for you.

Or a notebook, whichever works best for you.

I always get little ideas or lines popping into my head at the most random of moments, and I know that if I don’t write it down somewhere I’ll forget it and that line or idea could have the potential to continue on to something really great! So I make sure to write it down whenever I can. I can then come back and work on it. Obviously, I don’t write down all of my ideas but the majority I manage to salvage by doing this.

2. Read LOTS of other people’s work

By reading lots of poetry, you are adding to your vocabulary and learning about your craft. The more poems you consume, the better your poems will become. You can adopt different styles and get inspired by poets who will quickly become your favourites. This is a way to get inspired and want to write more. The will to write has to be acted upon in order for you to actually write. If you’re writing poetry, you need to read poetry. Simple as that.

3. Got a spare thought? A feeling you can’t properly express? Write a poem about it.

The subject of your poems can be anything. Literally anything. Most take inspiration from their feelings, and that could be about any feeling you experience. There’s nothing dictating what you can write about nor how you write, so make up your own rules.

4. Make writing part of your day-to-day routine

When I first started getting into poetry, I’d sit down before I went to bed and try to write something. It wasn’t any good really, but it was something and I was only just starting so it was never going to be any good. I don’t even know if my poems are any good now but this post isn’t about the quality of my poetry. I digress… The point is that I now write a poem nearly every day before I go to bed. Admittedly, not every day I do nor do I always start a new one every day, but I at least edit one or read something. It’s all in the routine.

5. Put pen to paper/fingers to keyboard and WRITE!

It’s the only real way to get more written.