Social Life

I have tried to ignore Prince Charles. Certainly, his treatment of Diana was diabolical. However, his rather weird behaviour has always made him look eccentric. In Britain, we have always ignored [...]

The hazards of being a pensioner creep up on you. However, at 75, I am now quite skilled at avoidance techniques. This really started after we did a long walk in London and stopped at a cafe [...]

We found it, finally, and felt flushed with success. Having parked by the Beggars Plot, we walked into Bradwell along rows of cottages built of limestone rubble. They looked cosy but the [...]

My father was a good father. He lavished love on his children. Subsequently, he supported them through school and took them on holidays. He then supported their children through university. Those [...]

We walk up Main Street and turn left up Old Smithy Lane. The first cottage has a sign outside, “An old rooster lives here with a young chick”. We climb up past the old smithy and the [...]

In the past, Ann and I lived just outside the Lake District. Even by the early 1980’s, the area was full of dead villages. The cottages still stood, but the owners dwelt in Newcastle and [...]

The derelict cottage in the Peak reads rather like an old poem. Indeed, it even sounds like an old poem as the moping owl calls in the dead of night. The photograph shows the building exactly as [...]

Ah, life in the countryside. Back in Christchurch, my mountain jacket or duvet, and my big leather walking boots were, let’s say, overkill. Wearing them seemed odd and set me apart from [...]

I periodically sprinkle the word woke into my posts. That makes me, a pensioner, appear in touch with the modern world even if I have no idea what it really means. Well, that might have to stop [...]

As I slave over these posts I often have to fall back on the dictionary. Perhaps that is not apparent when you read them! The moment I sift through the pages, I recall a gruff man holding a [...]