I experienced two events yesterday morning: the first, a visit to great-grandparents where a quirky collection of toys were brought down, including a Russian doll set of Lenin, Stalin, Gorbachev and Kruschev (I think), and two pencils with some post-its.  We spent a peaceful 3/4 hour as the children drew and delivered sweet notes to…

I had this memory today when watching an episode of Garfield, of sitting at our kitchen table when I was about six, and my dad teaching me how to spell the word ‘procrastination’.  There will have been reasons for his choice of word – probably I had provoked it – but I can’t remember them…

Kneading 6 pizzas-worth of dough, with today’s dinner in the oven and tomorrow’s on the hob, it dawned on me that, perhaps,  I was doing too many things at once. Sadly, this is what I’m like: a little thought sneaks into my head about how happy I would feel if I got such and such…

It began to shout – you can’t keep me here forever.  And then, it pushed itself out. So, here’s what happened.  We’d just unblocked our chimney, in preparation for getting a stove installed.  There was a powerful draught, and on advice, we put a plastic bag in the bottom, to stop the wind howling down. …

Sitting here, cowboys, horses and wigwams lying around my feet, I’m beginning to feel a wierd sort of toy nostalgia.  I remember the Playmobil American settlers, and their campfires, milk pails and wagons that my brothers had.  We put shoe-boxes on their sides to make huts and stables, and I would pull them all close…

I hauled 3 months worth of luggage into a boxy room, and looked out the door, across the hall at a girl sitting cross-legged on the bed, lava-lamp beside her, incense thickly wafting into the corridor.  There were other intimidating people on the floor, but the one I remember most clearly had black hair, black…

This thought has been brewing in my head a long time, but today C.S.Lewis, one of my heroes, said it out loud for me: “of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you” (Mere Christianity). A few months ago, I started getting horrible bouts of vertigo.  Every…

There’s another mystery out my window.  An immaculately dressed, fully made-up lady walks past at least four times a day.  From this angle, it would be even more puzzling, but when I stand up, I see a tall, graceful dog bouncing on a lead in front of her.  In a stange kind of way, the…

He’s been told that the cancer has not been eliminated, but has spread.  There was no-one with him when he heard the news.  His wife is herself too incapacitated and confused to leave the nursing home, and their two children live abroad. He didn’t know how he was going to tell any of them.  He…