Magpies are magnificent. Distinctive by their black and white plumage, they are intelligent and inquisitive – and more superstitions surround magpies than any other wild bird. The most common one is that it is unlucky to see a lone magpie but two […]
In five weeks time, I’m going to be a grandmother for the third time. Its a role I love – and I’ve managed to get in plenty of training and practice with grandchildren numbers 1 and 2.
It’s grand to be […]
May has been glorious. I love my garden at this time of the year – it’s so green, so overgrown, so soothing. I am reminded of Andrew Marvell’s wonderful poem: ‘The Garden’. Here is my favourite stanza which echos my […]
This time last week it snowed. Snow can be a big problem for elderly isolated people and stranded motorists but I defy anyone, when they open the curtains on the first morning after snow has fallen, not to gasp with […]
This is the first Sunday in December and a poem beckons. I decide to read one of my favourites: ‘Sunday Morning’ by the American poet, Wallace Stevens. This poem was published in 1915 when the poet was 36.
It is a […]
A week ago was my Birthday and I spent it travelling to Elba, an island of the coast of Italy, to attend a wedding. The day was a transition not only from one country to another but also from a […]
My other half has decided to spend about three months this summer cruising in a small 32ft boat around the British Isles – some 2,500 miles. He has persuaded some other lunatics to join him at various points so he always […]
I was driving along a country road in Somerset recently and I came across this delightful road sign, which I’ve not seen before. Ever since reading ‘The Wind in the […]
I have recently returned from a short holiday in ‘Paradise’ – or to be more accurate a tiny island in an isolated atoll in a wide ocean – or to be more precise: Fonimagoodhoo Island in Baa Atoll in the […]
January 2018 is memorable (or rather unmemorable) for having the longest number of sunless days and hours of any January since records began, so I’m told. It was a dark, dismal, dank month – and – to add adverbs (now […]