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I Meant to Say
There are some things I wish I had said but didn’t, some things I did say but wish I hadn’t. I don’t suppose any of us get it right all the time. Indeed, what would we do if given a second chance to say what we had wanted to say all along? Would we take it? Would it change things for the better? I dare not guess but, just to set the record straight, here are a few of the things I would like to say if I had my time again… As a school girl: To my Irish, English teacher, *Sister Marguerite, who came across to where I…
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The Dress
There are times when one thoughtful act can change the way the world sees you – or the way you think it sees you – even if you are only seven years old and your world is a little smaller than it will one day be. I was still seven years old when the year turned to 1964. I observed the world as the youngest of three sisters, the third of four children. My viewpoint was inevitably coloured by their experiences. My oldest sister, the elder by seven and a quarter years, was practically a grown-up in my eyes. She knew about the Beatles and dancing and had a record player in…
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Lost in the Woods
Tuesday 26th: Flossie here – by the skin of my teeth! I have had a traumatic day. The Boss seems to think she had the worst deal but what does she know? Was she the one bemused and lost in a sea of half familiar faces? Let me start at the beginning. The warm, sunny weather continues today and we jump in the car bright and early in readiness for our trip to the woods. The last few trips have been a pleasure. The Boss has taken to parking in a different place which is much closer to the burbling brooks and bluebells. She thinks it is aesthetically pleasing to…
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An Audience with Grace
The first time I had a short story published I was ecstatic. It didn’t pay a fortune but the real pleasure came from seeing my story appear in print with a glorious illustration to boot. I wrote several short stories in the mid to late nineties for ‘My Weekly,’ – a long-established, women’s magazine that is still going strong today. Each time I had a story published, I felt that frisson of excitement that any writer gets from seeing one’s words in print. I was delighted to find myself in the company of such celebrated writers as Catherine Cookson and always pleased to note that I was placed next to her…
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Are you being served?
Self service is not always what it is cracked up to be. Take yesterday morning for instance. On the way to visit my new grandson and his parents, Zoe and I stopped at ‘Marks and Spencer’ to pick up a few supplies for lunch. Being just off the motorway, M&S would be a quick and easy place to stop we reasoned. We gathered what we needed in record time. We loaded the goods into our basket and headed for the check-out. “We may as well go through self-serve,” Zoe observed. I was, it has to be said, dubious. My experience of these ‘self-serve’ checkouts has never been good. I normally pick…
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He is here!
Eleven days late but perfect in every way, our new little grandson has finally arrived.
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In the blink of an eye…
I was thinking the other day, how fast time goes. Now, when my mind moves in this particular direction, it normally flies ahead showing me how little time we have left. I then take a backward look and pull myself up sharply telling myself to ‘stop right there, enjoy today’, there would be no point to life if we did not stop to experience it. The far wiser me, knows that we truly do arrive everywhere in a blink of an eye. When my first daughter was born, I remember gazing at her tiny form and wondering at the fact that one day she would be eighteen, I would be…
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Gas-tri-onics
(Written April 1st) Now I know it is April Fool’s Day but really – can this be right? It is definitely NOT ‘A Gas’. You may recall that we had a lot of trouble with our central heating boiler last December and again after Christmas but you may not know that the problems dragged on well into January when British Gas decided to flush the entire system. This didn’t happen immediately of course because they cancelled the appointment twice. February dawned before an engineer finally arrived to do the job. After being without heating for so many weeks we were ecstatic when the boiler burst into life even if it had taken an…
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The Final Countdown
The final instalment from memories of my lone trip to California in 1997 Standing on The Golden Gate Bridge, we must present an odd sight by anyone’s standards. I am trying not to look like a typical tourist but am failing miserably as I point the camera and exclaim at the views. My friend clutches the straw hat to her head in an act of desperation, lest the wind snatch it from her and send it flying across the bay. Her skirts have given up and billow in the wind. Annie is wearing full make-up and high heels, making her tower head and shoulders above me. I feel very under…
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5 ways to use an ‘Elizabethan Collar’ (if you are a dog)
Flossie here. I have been convalescing. (An operation of the female kind left me with some fetching stitches) For two weeks I have been sporting a rather ridiculous Cone on my head. The cone prevented me from licking the said stitches. This would have been a very bad thing apparently. I know this because every time I attempted it, the Boss intervened and the aptly named, Elizabethan Collar, was brought out. At first, I admit, this unusual headgear worried me. It did not seem to mean that I was about to go out for a walk – unlike the Halti which goes over my nose and can be annoying…
