never knowingly without a pen
Well, it's nearly the end of November and the daily blogging challenge, so it's nearly December and of course I still buy my children Advent Calendars. The chocolate thing is very new to me. I grew up in the 1960s and I was grateful just to open a window and see a donkey or a… Continue reading Advent Calendars: Weekly Photo Challenge
We have mushrooms or toadstools growing in our garden. When our daughter was little, she told us these were fairies' houses and they needed water to make them grow so that the fairies would have more room. Recently I found a letter she'd put into a box and left next to the mushrooms: Dear Fairies I have… Continue reading Fairies in the garden
This week's photo challenge at WordPress is 'Tiny'. I put a pea in the picture to show you how tiny the smallest doll is. We have quite a few sets of these Babushka Dolls as my daughter used to collect them. I suppose the picture really should be thumbnail To see everyone else's take on… Continue reading Tiny: smaller than a pea
The Lexicon of Love was the debut album by the British new wave band ABC, released in 1982, and I've pinched the title for this blog post. I've been tempted by the Weekly Photo Challenge again which, this week, is 'Alphabet'. I've chosen this title because ABC has reminded me of my first wedding anniversary,… Continue reading The Lexicon of Love
'Fresh' is this week's Photo Challenge at WordPress and here are a few daffodils (from our front garden) which always put me in mind of Spring, season of fresh, new beginnings. I'm not feeling all that 'new' myself, after a busy few weeks at home and work. However, things I am looking forward to include:… Continue reading Not feeling all that ‘fresh’.
This week's photo challenge is to take a minimalist photo and this shot of my daughter holding a tiny image of a poppy reminded me of some of the WWI poetry I read with members of my read aloud, reading groups this week. A particular favourite was 'In Flanders Fields' by John McCrae. One woman liked the mention… Continue reading A small poppy
Two days after Swindon Poetry Festival, I am still in a high and happy poetry place, and I risk losing my euphoria if I try to set down in words what it was about Swindon that I loved so much. Luckily, there are already two brilliant posts for you to read, as Robert Peake and… Continue reading Swindon Poetry Festival 2014
In January this year, I took a photo from my kitchen window every day and posted it on Instagram. The photos I took at night, or very early in the morning, before it turned light, are the most interesting I think. (The ones taken during the day mostly involve wheelie bins on our patio...). In the photo below,… Continue reading In the wee small hours, someone’s working
It used to be dark green but, sadly, the green eventually peeled away (actually, I peeled it away, in moments of absent-mindedness). There have been times when I thought it missing forever, and I celebrated as heartily as the shepherd finding his lost sheep when it was found: in the dungeon that lies in the depths of our… Continue reading The enduring appeal of a fountain pen.
This week's photo challenge, 'Humanity', is a chance to tell you about my Dad, Basil Patrick Dominic Corcoran (1923 - 1992), who showed me how to be a human, who left school at 14 to be a butcher's delivery boy, who fell off the too-big delivery bike, who mixed up the paper-wrapped meat parcels, who delivered the wrong… Continue reading My Dad showed me how to be human
Josephine Corcoran 