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Christopher’s Tree 2020

In previous years, Christopher’s stepfather Peter has made a point of meeting up with me for lunch on his way home from his annual summer holiday with friends in Wales. Like so much else, that looks like it’s just not going to happen this year. Both Peter and his friends are of an age where […]

Needle Felting Fail

I was given a needle felting kit for my birthday. It’s not a craft I’ve ever tried before, but according to the kit it was “easy peasy” and suitable for complete beginners from the age of 10 years upwards. The reality was rather different! The result looks like a diseased bird crossed with Marge Simpson…… […]

A few days exploring Roman York

After the very long and tiring “final quarter” of the financial year, I was badly in need of a holiday. But preferably not one that would be too exhausting. So I booked myself a few days away in York. I last went there about two years ago on business, and had just half a day […]

Eighty Years Ago

My neighbours are renovating their cottage which is grade II listed. They are understandably keen to collect images and information about how it used to look, so have been looking through piles of old postcards and photos of the locality. They came across this lovely example from 1937 which is of my cottage. The first […]

Christopher’s Tree in summer

Christopher ‘s stepfather, Peter, has sent me the latest annual update on “Christopher’s Tree”, which is on Woodland Trust land near to where he grew up in Kent.  We had problems in getting the photo to me, as my mailbox was too full to accept a full-sized image and I still don’t know the password […]

Easter in Charlestown

After the end-of-year mayhem at work, I really needed a break over Easter – somewhere where I could just relax and do very little whilst recharging my batteries. So I booked a long weekend’s break in Cornwall, in a self-catering apartment just outside St Austell. I don’t know Cornwall at all well, but I rather […]

A few days by the sea

The conference was very interesting, but extremely hard work. So I was very pleased that I’d had the foresight to book the following week off work on leave. The parents of a good friend of mine from university own a seaside holiday home which they let out commercially during the school holidays. But in low […]

A Trip to Brighton 

My job seems to involve visiting a lot of universities at the moment – this week it was the University of Sussex at Brighton. The journey to Brighton from Malvern is an absolute pig – I’m not happy to drive that far at the moment, and there is no easy route by rail. The quickest […]

Down the staircase

As I had stayed in the same hotel last year, I thought I knew what to expect. It’s a 2* establishment, so has fairly basic facilities, in a converted Ottoman mansion two minutes from the harbour. There are just nine rooms, one on the ground floor, and the other eight around the courtyard, accessed off […]

Christopher’s Tree

Christopher’s stepfather, Peter, goes to stay with some friends of his in mid-Wales for a week’s holiday most summers. To get there, he pretty much has to drive past the end of my road, so we try to meet up for a pub lunch either on his way there or as a stop on the […]