We Will Remember Them
Harry Patch who was 111 years old, will be buried today after what will be a moving and what appears to be a national ceremony of some significance for all of us. As I write, crowds gather outside Wells Cathedral…
Cricket Stumped
Sometime ago, I found myself standing in a Philadelphia park with a grizzled old black ex-cop. We were watching a cricket match and I was struggling to explain the rules of this complex and absorbing English sport. He said, without…
Kungfu And The Grindea Technique – Music And Martial Arts In Agreement
As I wrote yesterday, I spent all of last week at my kungfu club’s summer camp (www.whitecranefightingarts.com) where the underlying theme was correct posture and the ancient Chinese theories behind it. I wasn’t always well enough to go to all…
Kungfu in the forest
I spent last week under canvas in a forest practising Kungfu and having an amazingly good time for someone who has spent the last nine months almost home-bound recovering from a brain haemorrhage. It was the annual Kungfu Summer Camp…
Ruby – joy in adversity
I have been talking about all my pets on here this week and really there shouldn’t be an entry for today. When my old dog Ralph, the Springer Spaniel, died in his extreme old age, I decided that that was…
Ralph – the best of dogs
Ralph was a Springer Spaniel. He was a merry beast with a sense of fun that never left him in his nearly sixteen years. There was nothing better in his opinion than running for miles, chasing rabbits, seagulls, ducks and…
Baby Teggs – cat as cabbage
This is the third of the pets I am introducing to you this week – the animals in my life. Baby Teggs, as her name implies, was the daughter of my cat Teggs. She was a cuddly kitten who grew…
My Cat Teggs – her serene majesty
This week I am showing you some of the animals that have shared my homes over the years. Teggs was my second cat and she, like her illustrious predecessor Sidney was also a black and white cat. I had planned…
Sidney – the wildest of cats.
This week I thought I would introduce you to some of the animals who have been important in my life. This is Sidney. He was my first pet. I am not counting all those much loved childhood dogs and cats…
My Garden Gets X-Rated in July
After the perfect English months of May and June, July can come as a disappointment in this country – if you have a garden that is. Down here in East Sussex in the South East of England, we have had…