As a little lad, I used to love it when my Dad and Uncle James started telling stories of their childhood. One of my favourite stories was about the skin of the rice pudding.  This was back in the days when dinner was eaten at mid day and tea was the early evening meal. The…

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we go out for early morning walks, at the time of writing, we were setting off in darkness and arriving home in daylight.  It is a reminder that the days are getting longer now, that this week is the first time that we have set off from…

“You cannot cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore” The above quotation is attributed to Christopher Columbus.  This quote made some kind of sense to me during last summer when I read a delightful book entitled “Four mums in a boat” the wonderful story of four quite ordinary…

I am often in awe of great wordsmiths who write profound lines in poetry, hymns and songs. George Matheson, a blind Scottish minister of religion wrote a famous hymn on the evening before his sisters wedding.  Mattheson had lost his sight aged twenty, while he was trianing for the ministry and engaged to be married. …

“A society grows great when old men plant tress whose shade they know they shall never sit in” Greek proverb” Over the years, I have become a bit of a collector of profound sayings.  The other day I read this saying from Greek philosophy and it struck a chord with me, particulalry in the light…

There is a sign not far away from where I live, a  bit like the one above, which flashes a red angry face in an intimidating manner at motorists who dare to break the speed limit as a clear sign to everybody around that a criminal has scant disregard for the cildren in the school…

In the world, I believe that there are two kinds of people, early birds and night owls and I fall very much into the first category.  I love early mornings and can get through a huge amount of work before the rest of the world wakes up and since the dawn of the digital age,…

I have never been a great lover of parties. I know, that makes me sound like a bit of a misery and I put it down to the fact that I have never really enjoyed surprises, I like to know what to expect and even now have a dread of the unexpected. One of the…

For about thirty years of my career, my Christmas was dominated by the Boxing Day Sales, not that I can ever remember going shopping on Boxing Day. For the first ten years of my working life, I worked in the wholesale trade, selling children’s clothing to retailers, ranging from small shops to department stores and…

Over the years, community Carol singing has been an integral part of my Christmas experience. The first time I ever went Carol Singing, it was with my dad straight after the Church Carol service, we walked around the village and ended up at one of the big houses, where we received hot drinks and mince…