The sun is fighting to break through an early mist to allow weak shadows to fall onto grass Between the silent granite sentry posts that hold the stories of my new adopted friends. The stones carry names etched in mottled script telling of lives cut short or lived long And I stop to talk with…
Numbers are important: 24333732
Time was seeping away for me as I ran up and down the hills in Wrecclesham, carrying a rucksack of tins. These were used to weigh me down and came from my day job I had delivering groceries to small shops in South London from a distribution depot in Farnham. The drivers were allowed to…
The way it was and might be again
It was one of those bright June evenings, still summer cold yet windy. He pulled up outside the Guildhall and parked his motorcycle into a ‘mother and child’ bay and killed the engine. The exhausts started to ping as they cooled. He moved his waist on the seat for a last look at his face…
What was I thinking, intruding on your weekend
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing and especially if that knowledge is taught at the bosom of the Honourable Artillery Company. Puttees had been introduced from India in 1902 and were in use within the British Army till 1938. Their calf height was then lowered till in the 1980s they were finally retired or…
I’m now in love
Load this link and then go back to this page and maybe sing along to my words in red on this 10cc classic. I'm not in loveI‘m now in loveSo don't forget itYou won’t regret itIt's just a silly phase I'm going throughIt’s been a while as we worked it outAnd just becauseAnd if you…
The virus will die
Go your own way by Fleetwood Mac You can go your own wayGo your own wayYou can call itAnother lonely dayOr you can go your own way Go and take the coward’s way outIt's not for you to brave the brick wallOr on the allocated day on a gurney strapped Not begging for redemption or…
Thoughts on Derek Mahon’s poetry using his inspirational lines
“I wake in a dark flat to the soft roar of the world” She felt warm under the sheet that was pulled up high over her head. Her breathing gave away that she was alive to the watcher. He was sitting at the end of the bed, bow-tie draped around his neck, the once white…
Trump pardons Olin
20/1/2021: President Trump has granted a full pardon to Clarence Olin Freeman. Mr. Freeman was convicted in 1965 for operating an illegal whiskey still. He received 9 months imprisonment and 5 years’ probation. He died in 2019. The fly screen was swinging on rusted hinges. The house, long abandoned and silent, was typical of the…
Would you swap a fridge for a friend?
Life and the direction that one is given, depends on the luck one makes and a determination to make ‘tomorrow a better day’, a phrase taken from Captain Tom. I moved to Somerset last spring to repair my life into the smallest house ever called The Reading Room. Originally it was built for the farm…
Dementia Diary (the end)
My mother is very near to her end now, her breathing slow and she refuses water and food. Her thyroid, devoid of medication constricts her throat and she lies on her side, shielding herself from residual pain from the hip operation though I am sure it was just patched up at her age. Her body…
