Category Archives: Uncategorized

It’s autumn. Leaves are falling from trees in our garden. I’ve cleared them several times. It’s an ongoing, continuing task at this time of year. At our ‘Singing for Wellbeing’ group yesterday we sung ‘Autumn Leaves’. People in the autumn of their lives singing about autumn: The falling leavesDrift by the windowThe autumn leavesOf redContinue reading “Autumn Leaves”

Yesterday somebody said: ‘It’s just a walk in the park’… Public parks became popular in the nineteenth century. A leisurely walk in the park was an escape from the hustle and bustle of city life, a place to enjoy fresh air and natural beauty… A ‘walk in the park’ today describes an easy or effortlessContinue reading “A Walk In The Park”

Chris has organised a raffle to raise money for our local air-ambulance. Yesterday, at Men’s Shed, he was using all of his powers of persuasion in a direct yet humorous way. He was subjected to good-natured abuse, but he ensured that his friends parted with their money. Some had said that it would be goodContinue reading “Authentic Consistency”

Yesterday, in our car, taking Grandson-Luca into Lowestoft, the road past the station was blocked off. There was a deep hole, several metres across in the middle of the road. This led to a nonsense conversation that was based around the notion that you can’t have half a hole, but that two halves make aContinue reading “The Hole and the Whole Hole”

Jesus described the mustard seed: ’…the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.’ A small seed becomes a big plant Many studies have shown that singing can make a big differenceContinue reading “The Mustard Seed – Small Becomes Big”

In Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the  foul-tempered Queen of Hearts character regularly shouts ‘Off with his (or her) head!’ whenever anyone upsets her. In Carroll’s bonkers world, where the Queen plays croquet using live hedgehogs as balls and flamingos as mallets, we’re told: ‘The Queen had only one way of settling all difficulties,Continue reading “Off With His Head!”

I’ve started playing through my CD collection. They’re stored in alphabetical order. This week there’s been Bryan Adams, Louis Armstrong, J.S. Bach, The Bachelors… and Mike Batt. He wrote a number of great songs – including ‘Bright Eyes’: Is it a kind of dreamFloating out on the tideFollowing the river of death downstream?Oh, is itContinue reading “Bright Eyes”

In 1963, Harvey Ball, a graphic artist from Worcester, Massachusetts, created the smiley face symbol that’s become popular throughout the world. In 1999, World Smile Day, the first Friday in October, was first celebrated. Harvey wanted people to smile, create small acts of kindness, make others smile…. Yesterday, World Smile Day, Seagull Theatre said: ‘WeContinue reading “The Smile”

At our Seagull Theatre meeting Des presented his ‘Management Report’. We heard about the events and performances over the past three months, ticket sales, bar takings, community activities, new projects. It was all good news. He moved on to plans for the future, including progress on next year’s proposed Lowestoft Carnival. There hasn’t been oneContinue reading “Desirable but Difficult”

I have a folder containing my certificates. My first, from school, celebrates that in 1960 I could swim three lengths of our swimming pool; the most recent, from the ‘International Boatbuilding Training College, Lowestoft’, states that in 2020 I ‘successfully completed a course in woodworking machine regulations, and safe use of wood machines’.   InContinue reading “Certificates and Safeguarding”