I’ve had lower back pain since my mid to late twenties. Everything to do with over flexibility, high arabesques, dazzling contretemps, amazingly flat turn outs and a lot of peer pressure to keep my place on company; to be the best. For almost two decades my body gave its all and then the creaking and…

In December we had some more visiting animals. This time a small herd of miniature horse. Oh my gosh, how adorable! They weren’t interested in carrots, although I did offer, and they stayed pretty close to each other, herd mentality especially useful when you’re short on stature! After consulting with our immediate neighbours we found…

Slowly God is returning my time to me and I’m faithfully loosening my grip. Subbing at school is dwindling and there are whole months when I feel as though I’m getting lost in the shuffle, the stable where I happily groomed up to 10 horses several times a week has closed the boarding portion and…

The time had come for us to re-decorate.  I don’t quite know why we chose to repaint the kitchen; Perhaps because it was August and we were having summer-holiday-fever. We wanted to deepen the turquoise so we brought the walls and the cabinets up a couple of shades to match the back splash… Of course,…

Texas’ weather is as unpredictable as England’s. This summer was no exception. Remembering 2011 – – our sons were living alone at Collins while we were in London for a year and experienced a record breaking hot and dry summer – -this year we had no significant rain from the first week in June until…

I love to hang out my washing. The sheets and pillow cases, the t-shirts and shorts, the pj’s and frocks, that dance and cavort on the line until dry. Folded while crisp and smelling of the outdoors, then packed away into drawers, the linen cupboard or on hangers in the closet. I grew up with…

I once heard a photographer say, “You’re trying to draw the viewer’s attention to what you’re seeing.” The same with words; the writer or speaker is painting a picture for her audience exclusively drawn from her perspective, enticing mental images to arise that jog a memory, raise a question, or break a heart. I love…

To be honest I really wasn’t surprised by what I found when I entered my uncle’s house that first day. It had not been renovated and as I’ve said before, I suspect the wallpaper was original since it was peeling in the corners.  I could be wrong, fifty-six years is a long time, he may…

At the beginning of 2020 Hubs and I travelled to England for a cultural break. It was January, no-one goes to England in the winter for the weather, and since London is my hometown and we’re used to carrying on regardless we spent the month visiting museums and art galleries, attending West End Shows and seeing friends…

Once I graduated from college and left England to live in Texas my relationship with my Uncle was relegated to regular as clockwork cards on birthdays, Christmas and Easter. All simply signed, ‘from Uncle Tony’. Nothing else; no little snippets of news or personal sentiments. I would send him cards too with long letters enclosed…