In Whitehaven in 1853, the year before the setting of my novel "New Beginnings on Vancouver Island", the Clerk to the Guardians, Christopher Hodgkin issued a proclamation to parents and their guardians that all children must be vaccinated BY ORDER against Cow Pox. Medical practitioners were authorised to vaccinate all persons resident within the appointed… Continue reading Compulsory Cow Pox Vaccination in 1853
My daughter asked me recently how I came up with the names for the characters in my books. Choosing them is actually something I really enjoy and I have several ways of doing it. Sometimes I just have it to hand and that's true of Stag in "New Beginnings on Vancouver Island". https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1913719383/ My hero was… Continue reading How to avoid C. Spray – getting your names right.
Thoughts on 30 December 2020 revisited on Dec 30 2021 A patchwork of flagstones, so beautiful that I could look at it for hours. I am thinking perhaps I should print this off and put it where I can see it for moments of peace during this Covid-19 era. A path leading out of the… Continue reading Flag Stones
Once upon a time there was a Christmas bauble that lived upstairs in the attic of a grandma’s old stone cottage. He was a very jolly bauble and spent most of the year in the big box of Christmas decorations with all his friends: the tinsel, the candles, the coloured lights, the other baubles and… Continue reading The Jolly Bauble – A Children’s Tale
These tiles are from St David's Cathedral in Wales. The artist John Piper recalled how he loved to go to this Cathedral because of the beauty of its tiled floor. I can see his point, the tiles are magnificent. https://www.stdavidscathedral.org.uk/ St David's Cathedral from above. Greater expanse of tiling (later tiles) The mediaeval tiles and… Continue reading Tiles
Seems an age ago that we used to give the dustmen a Christmas box - what we would call a Christmas tip these days. In our household, when I was a child, there would be much discussion over how much to leave and whether it would go to the correct crew. Not tipping apparently ran… Continue reading Dustmen’s Christmas Box
From Lorna's Command Centre 