Looking at this bowl this morning as it catches and reflects the light in the most beautiful ways, I was reminded of my sojourn in Reggio Emilia about fifteen years ago. People who knew me then will roll their eyes at this point, because I returned from a week’s educational course so full of unbearable […]Read Post ›
A few weeks ago my best friend’s brother died. He was also my husband’s cousin, and I’ve written about Tom before, I think. It was sudden, and shocking, and extremely sad. Tributes and memories poured in and many people came to the funeral. Including Tom’s childhood friends and members of his group, Just an Odd […]Read Post ›
It is exactly six years since Sharon went to meet her maker. Not an expression I would normally use, but her faith was her driving force. Everything she did was for the gleaner glory of God – very unusual in this day and age – but she sowed love everywhere. Fiercely intelligent, ferociously clever, her […]Read Post ›
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Amos6:1a, 4-7 Those who sprawl and those who bawl will be exiled The almighty Lord says this: “Woe to those ensconced so snugly in Zion and to those who feel so safe on the mountain of Samaria. Lying on ivory beds and sprawling on their divans, they […]Read Post ›
We planted this Camellia over thirty years ago. We chose it because it was supposed to be winter flowering. Our garden in London is tiny and north facing and we thought it would cheer us up. Well, it definitely had a mind of its own. The first few years produced a few desultory blooms and […]Read Post ›
I wonder who remembers this face. If any of his family ever come across it then please get in touch. David’s birthday was on 15th March. He used to joke about the portents and then one day his worst fear was realised and he sadly died in May 1990, a very few weeks after being […]Read Post ›
No. Not the band but the area of London. Walthamstow. The Far Eastern end of the Victoria Line. Not difficult to get to from where I live. Ealing. The most western end of the Central Line. But a long way nevertheless. I went in order to make the typical Polish Londoner’s pilgrimage to the William […]Read Post ›
Today is the first day I came out of my almost voluntary six week incarceration. Apart from three days over Christmas itself I have spent the last few weeks writing a souvenir ptogramme for the upcoming Golden Jubilee Polish ball. A big event to be held at the London Guildhall so worthy of a nice […]Read Post ›
For the Mhinisteir’s wife Today is the sixth of December. For me the real beginning of the Christmas season. This was the day when good children were given a little present and naughty children a birch rod. One year my mother gave me a rod. It was very small and gilded. Very pretty. But a […]Read Post ›
George Sand has always been a very romantic figure in my imagination. Ever since I was at my boarding school in Ealing, when Mother Mary Dominic swore me to secrecy not to let the other nuns know that I knew, she divulged that Chopin’s lover, that very wicked woman, had actually been a pupil at […]Read Post ›
Life Through Basia's Eyes 