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 ›
I like being a tourist and doing touristy things. I don’t go as far as wearing a kissmequick hat, but I like to see the sights and take the photos. Most of all I like quirky forms of transport. This holiday has been no exception. Now that we’ve settled in to our charming hotel, we […]Read Post ›
This is my grandfather as I never knew him. He was born in 1878 and died during the Second World War, a captive in Siberia. His story is a very interesting one, but one which I shall leave for another day. Today I was thinking about him as I was wrapping parcels to send […]Read Post ›
For JR Marguerite was the Diana to my Anne of Green Gables – many were the glasses of “raspberry cordial” that we shared, many potatoes peeled and eaten, many world problems discussed and solved, many evenings spent together, many days out, and in; generally, someone I relied on to be there when I needed her […]Read Post ›
For AAK My father passed his driving test when he was about 45 and immediately bought a car. Of course. An Austin A40: YMD 457 I think was the registration. Then he bought an Austin 1100 and we went to Poland in it. I have written bits about that journey. Six years later I was […]Read Post ›
Life Through Basia's Eyes 