Autobiography

She worked for the education department for more than forty years. At the start it was mostly private companies and computer programming. These were...

Walking along Hergest ridge, comfortable, spongy turf, burbling melodies pour down from skylarks unseen, high in the blue; enjoying the freedom of a...

An intransigent attitude,

Thanks A Bunch It was Easter holidays, I’d been in to do a bit of marking And make sure the ‘Speaking and Listening’ had been entered Sarah a nd the...

[not about 50 years of technological changes this time, but about Mum’s life after his death …]

Under fire from pelting ice granules, like gravel chucked, crunching underfoot – soon melts, sun shines, briefly.

When walk instructions are unclear, and arrow-signs the worse for wear – why does the colour disappear? – they might, if shaped to point the way...

I am from trucks, from tools and computers. I am from the snow under the swing-set. (White, glistening, It tasted like ice.) I am from deer hiding...

The Truth of Things 16/03/2019 How old were you when you first unearthed the truth of things, saw through the illusion youth creates, realised that...

During the year of ’54 households felt the sting of less food after months of income losses. A strike meant everything was at a standstill in town-...

Begin the Beginning Introduction This last mile isn’t even trail at all, but road, near a highway, certainly not the kind of scenery that one thinks...

Dear diary... It was Monday 28 th January 2019, a beautiful day and perfect for a walk into town with my partner...not too hot or too cold. I do try...

We were the last family in our street to get a telephone. Dad just wouldn’t have one. He’d say. “People can call you whenever THEY like. I could be...

Happy birthday...to me

My chest is feeling heavy, My breath feeling short, My brain so complex, Tired at the thought. Breathing slowly, Heart beating fast, So how long,...

a little boy is all— can’t blame him for tears that fall. A bully on his back again – broke his glasses in two this morning at school year 1952— the...

THE PENNILESS BARD Me began me youth in finance In me adulthood me became a penniless bard Still me keeps off the phrases ois, oink and ayes! In me...

Juggling (07.01.19) Flying firebrands, caught by practised hands; I watch the skill he wields - he understands where the spin will end, when it’s...

All the hopes of the year Looked forward to this time Gathering at the end, To finish the year in style. Never enough time to be ourselves, Shops all...

and view personal gems which adorn our apt walls- pictures and cards plus two crow feathers on a trail we hiked. Oh the memories: one son &...

She gave me a box of chocolates: “Have one with me”, I said. The paper was stuck, unpeeled it, and what a sight there was to see! …

Self-hatred? Always, always, always.

I'm smiling like one of those Carousel horses enjoying the Endless ride, while looking Back on moments in my life. Don't mind chasing memories... In...

Living On A Shoestring By Paul McCann Red taxi fare to border town , miles they pile up fast . The taxi man’s doing a ton chewing up the gas . Music...

My mother, had she lived, would have been 90 today. I took the day off work in order to make a pilgrimage and commemorate the occasion. These are rough words, unedited, just as they came to me whilst walking. Not a poem. Not a story. Just words. (my photo)

As wheels of life Keep turning... Remembering That treasured day, Fresh faced was I Back then Monopolized by Love and laughter, I wonder! Did That...

After mum passed away, my brother and I had a small disagreement. Mum had always said "I'll leave this bungalow only when they carry me out in a wooden box!" I thought, then, that it was only right that she should spend her final night before the funeral there. He disagreed, and said it was better that she should stay in the Chapel of Rest, which was just along the road. He said "She's gone now. It's no longer her home." He thought it was morbid. Finally, though, he relented - after I'd persuaded him that it was a tradition in so many cultures. Also, I said, people could call and pay their last respects if they so wished. So, the night before, the coffin was brought into her lounge, and I returned to be there with it. With her. (Image: mine)

Dear diary... eager as I am to complete my bucket list of things to do, my partner was surprised when I declared that a trip to Oxford Castle Dungeon...

Memories of Troy and Ancient Greece, World War 1, and speculations about nearby Albania, from Corfu. A Beautiful Palace on top of a mountain overlooking Corfu Town.