Roscoe’s Farm is no more. My childhood home, where I lived for the first 23 years of my life now goes by the name of Rustic Oak Farm with huge signs excitedly announcing the change. The new name has none of the history nor prompts any of the questions that passers-by will ponder – who […]
A couple of weeks ago I’d decided not to write a letter this year. For the past 4½ months, all that has occupied our time has been dealing with tradesmen since we have had the entire rear of the house reworked to form a single kitchen/dining/sitting area. Whilst it has been the top of our […]
The weather this summer has been great for outdoor activities, and so, encouraged by the Tour de France in Yorkshire, I’ve cycled into work on many occasions and enjoyed three cycle touring breaks. The touring has been mainly round Scotland, with the most remote trip taking in a circuit of Arran, continuing right round the […]
Hello everyone, and welcome to this year’s verbal stroll through the past twelve months. The metaphor fails immediately, however, since the first thing that comes to mind when reviewing 2013 is cycling, not strolling. A few years ago, I had an idea that I needed to cycle from Land’s End to John o’ Groats, but […]
There’s rather a lot to tell you this year, but as usual, I’ll limit myself to 2000 words and see how much I can cover. Communications are big this year, since both Geraldine and I became smartphone users. Geraldine started it off when she saw the benefit of responding to emails ‘on the go’, and […]
I hope that in this poor economic climate, this card and letter finds you safe, secure and content. This time last year, Geraldine’s job was under threat, and so, as a form of insurance, she decided to branch out in a new direction and became trained as a marriage celebrant. This is something that she […]
This year, I have some very sad news to start with: Geraldine’s Mum, who had been suffering from cancer for some time, finally lost her battle in July this year after a short stay in St Catherine’s Hospital. She was cheerful early Friday evening when we saw her, but by 9pm she had suffered a […]
Well, it’s early December and I am once more bemoaning the anticipation of the end of yet another year whilst I have barely got used to the new one. The ‘noughties’ are coming to an end, to be replaced with… what? Has anyone yet decided what the next decade will be called? The ‘teenies’? I […]
This year’s most annoying phrase has to be ‘going forward’. I listen to the Today programme every morning and almost without fail, some politician or other will say something like “Of course, going forward what we shall do is…”. In my day, time only ever went forward, so the phrase was never required, but there […]
It’s been a rather difficult year for me, because as some of you will know, I lost my Mum in early autumn. She had been getting progressively more poorly since she turned 80 last year, but in the spring she suffered a stroke which set her back significantly and appeared to take away her formerly […]