I don’t think that in the past I have appreciated sufficiently the importance of the daily postal delivery. An accumulated problem of the holiday congestion, the recent severe weather and the sheer inefficiency of the Post Office has resulted in the fact that yesterday we received our first delivery in two weeks. Oddly this has … Read more

Actually, no, I’m going forward. I made a booking today for a short stay in a small Derbyshire cottage in which I have stayed on a previous occasion. I do hope that this experience will have the stimulating effect I have experienced when I have done this kind of thing before. My enthusiasm has been … Read more

Yes: I know that we are more than half way through January, but today has been important to me as an occasion on which I have (at last) begun to think properly about the coming year. I had a very good meeting with the person who is taking on the reconstruction of my website, giving … Read more

I am well into the process of preparing a revised version of this website. It is turning out to be far more of an effort than I anticipated …. even with the backing of a web-designer who actually knows what she is doing. My major task has been to decide which pictures to keep, which … Read more

What a difference a week can make! This is true both of the weather and life. Suddenly we find ourselves surviving a week in which the constant sub-zero temperatures have done nothing whatsoever to move the foot of snow with has fallen …. with no prospect of change for some time. It’s funny! I almost … Read more

It is a curious fact that the Christmas-New Year period induces a kind of internet hibernation. Life becomes very introverted, with attention being centred on the family and close friends. This state of affairs has been intensified in my case by two factors. The weather has been spectacularly “seasonal” with several falls of deep-snow, which … Read more

…. and the new order. A Happy Christmas and New Year to all visitors to this site. May it be a year of creativity for you, and of enjoyment in the creativity of other people. As regular readers will be aware, the site is undergoing redevelopment at the moment. I hope that it will not … Read more

Although in my present condition I hardly qualify as a “Merry Gentleman” I have decided that I ought to take seriously the advice of the carol. In fact, I have to confess that I am at the end of my resources. I am very, very tired, and if I don’t rest voluntarily I fear that … Read more