A shortened version of a message I read on Facebook goes like this: “A young woman watched her new neighbour hang out her washing and she complained to her husband that the clothes were not properly washed as they looked dirty. She considered telling her neighbour and was even going to offer her some washing…

When our sports team wins a cup or our country wins a battle, we arrange a victory parade. The open topped bus is driven slowly through the town, with the smiling heroes on top waving to their adoring fans. It’s a tradition that seems to have started in Roman times, when, on the day of…

For what feels like years we have been waiting for repairs to be carried out to remake the footpath beside the river just along the road from our house. In very heavy rain a couple of Boxing Days ago, the erosion of soil, made worse by high water levels led to a partial collapse of…

The beautiful sight of daffodils at this time of the year reminds me of the first of two separate Easter Day sermons I heard many years ago. Possibly a reader of this contribution may have heard the same stories, from the same speakers, as they are well worth repeating. The first speaker related how he…

In Eddie Askew’s book he tells us of a friend who had a really refreshing holiday on a narrow boat on a canal.  They watched the life all around them and noticed that the butterflies were flying faster than they were going. Years ago I went on a week’s holiday on a narrow boat holiday,…