Around about this time last year I was walking into town and noticed something in the gutter. It was a green plastic soldier – rather scratched and distorted, having been crushed by parked cars and half hidden by fallen leaves. It made me think of the tomb of the unknown soldier in Westminster Abbey. Originally…

Rightly or wrongly, hundreds of prisoners have been released from jail early having completed just part of their sentence. Jesus identified with the Messianic prophecy that he had come to ‘preach the good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, release the oppressed and proclaim the year…

I was the party pooping parent who never took their children trick or treat-ing. I was the teacher who didn’t do orange and black displays of pumpkins and cats or read witchy stories at this time of the year. I’ve always hated Halloween. Even now I think it is the worst week of ‘Strictly’ with…

This was Christine’s second thought for the day, published first in April 2022 My Mum always says I am the most stubborn of her four children. I can remember one dinnertime, when I was very little, my Dad saying that I couldn’t get down from the table until I had a clean plate. I don’t…

We’ve just returned from spending a few days in Cornwall. While we were there, we visited the Merry Maidens Stone Circle which dates from 2500-1500 BC. It consists of 19 stones equally spaced except for a gap that was probably the entrance. The stones vary in height from 0.9m to 1.4m, graded so that the…

For the last couple of seasons, I have attempted to grow tomatoes. I’ve been bought three plants from the Spring Church plant sale – carefully chosen by people who know what to look for in a healthy plant. We’ve bought the correct peat-free grow bag, selected an appropriately sunny location, cut the pack and planted…

In the final episode of Freddie Flintoff’s ‘Field of Dreams’ series two, we watched as his young team played and lost to a more experienced team on a world class pitch in India before they travelled home. It has become apparent, as the programmes progressed that cricket itself became the medium by which these young…

My son and his partner have split up. He hasn’t seen his children for four months. During the last week of the school holidays, it was arranged that he and I meet them in a park. The two older children were there with their friends and they acknowledged him as they played on the climbing…

Today, as I write this, it’s reportedly the hottest day of the year. It seems unbelievable to think that by the time it’s read, we will be thinking about going back to school and there will be an autumn nip in the air. Through the summer, Julian has been having a half day on a…

This week on ‘Field of Dreams’, the lads got invited to an evening with the British Ambassador in Kolkutta. Dress code was formal and of course none of them had suits, so Freddie took them along to an Indian bespoke tailor where they were all measured up and could choose fabrics for their new outfits.…