One of the distressing items that sometimes comes up on the news is a report on a medical facility where standards have fallen far short of what is required and harm has occurred to individuals whilst they are vulnerable, sick and in need of professional care. This “thought” is not intended to undermine the serious…
I have always thought of roses as blooming in June in particular, but plants are responding to global warming and moving through their cycle earlier, so I have been enjoying my roses in May as well as June this year. A few years ago, I treated myself to my first, but not last, David Austin…
This week I want to share with you an experience I had last Friday June 19th. I had spent 4 days in the East Midlands on holiday and needed to return to Ipswich from Derby in time for a commitment on the Saturday. I caught a train that left Derby station at 13.08 and arrived…
My fourth and last thought from Bristol is inspired by my visit to the harbour. I was advised that a walk round Bristol harbour is one of the most pleasurable experiences of sightseeing in Bristol. In fact, it was bitterly cold when I was there and we opted for a boat trip in a covered…
I am still sharing some memories of my visit to Bristol last February and have now moved on to the Anglican cathedral. The building was originally an Abbey dedicated to St Augustine and founded in 1140. It became a cathedral in 1542 following the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry Eighth. The building is beautiful, light, airy and welcoming. You can’t go…
Having taken you to Bristol in my last week’s thought I am remaining there for 2 or 3 more weeks, and this week I am still at John Wesley’s New Room. In the 18th century Bristol was the largest UK city after London and levels of poverty and sickness were very high. The city was…
In February I had a most interesting, if cold, visit to Bristol to visit my granddaughter who is now studying there. A priority on the sightseeing list was to visit the “New Room”. I knew it had been an important site in the development of Methodism but had never studied its history. Our visit there…
One of my favourite television programmes is ” Race Across the World”. If you watch it you will be used to the pattern but if you don’t, I will explain briefly that 5 couples start off on a journey through a number of countries, with a budget equivalent to the air fare if they were…
A lot of us find partings difficult to handle. You only have to stand on a station platform or airport departure area to see people hugging, perhaps crying, and waving sadly as they go their separate ways. Looking back on my life experiences I think some of the hardest goodbyes I have said were to…
Do you think that food cooked outside tastes better? I have certainly enjoyed food cooked on barbecues on a number of occasions, though there have been one or two instances of my making discreet use of someone’s kitchen bin to dispose of a burnt offering! Barbecues have certainly become more popular in Britain recently despite…