For five years I’d put off having a hip replacement. I knew things were getting worse when our dog Poppy had to keep waiting for me to catch up as I slowly shuffled across the fields. I wasn’t so much scared about the pain or things that could go wrong in the operation. The main …
Nearly twenty years ago a five year old girl was playing Mary in the school Nativity Play. When it was her cue to leave the stage she did so with Joseph in his tea towel but forgot the Baby Jesus who she left abandoned on the stage. As the audience started to realise her mistake …
As I sat in the church today I willed a butterfly to appear. A hundred of them softly floating around would have been perfect but just one would have done as a sign for the family in pain in the front row. Today was the day we said our goodbyes to Linda. Because she’d known …
I heard a ghost on the radio the other day. I was meant to be going to my pilates class before heading to my clinic in Cornbury Park to see a client. A national radio programme was playing in the background as I got ready. I was about to head out of the door when …
We went looking for a rainbow today. As the downpour ceased and the sun shone momentarily through the clouds I knew it would be out there somewhere. So, throwing on our coats, we started off round the village. As we looked for rainbows we passed by the cemetery, peaceful behind the low walls, and I …
How often do you say thank you to yourself? Do you ever utter those two words, not to anyone else but to yourself? Even being a polite person, I don’t think that I actually physically say those words to myself. Ever. Until tonight that is. Being technologically challenged, I just tweeted myself on Twitter, …
When I was little I went with my Mum to buy her a Mothers’ Day present. In my innocent, five year old way she helped me choose a little dish, which I paid for with some money she gave me and then my Mum let me carry it home to give to her as a …
Do you remember the television programme ‘Stars In Their Eyes’ where contestants impersonated showbiz stars, saying “Tonight I’m going to be…’”? They then disappeared through the doors, and reappeared in a puff of smoke as the famous singer they were going to impersonate. Well, yesterday, I decided to do an experiment on myself and become …
As the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve many people here in Oxfordshire were filled with a wonderful sense of optimism and determination about reaching their goals and resolutions this coming year. That’s brilliant. You really can be all you want to be. Sometimes the initial enthusiasm lasts for a day or so, maybe …
Several years ago I planted a hydrangea in a pot. For the first few years it grew well and then suddenly seemed to have had enough of life and gave up. There were no flowers and really no leaves to speak of. Just some stumpy brown wood. Being a haphazard kind of gardener I meant …