‘People boil in oil while blocks of ice stand watching’. I am not a theatre critic. When I go to watch a play, I like to totally lose myself in the story and not concern myself with the actors’ abilities. If they are actors worth their merit, then that is how it should be. [...]

 To a Snowdrop.  Lone Flower, hemmed in with snows and white as they But hardier far, once more I see thee bend Thy forehead, as if fearful to offend, Like an unbidden guest. Though day by day, Storms, sallying from the mountain-tops, waylay The rising sun, and on the plains descend; Yet art thou welcome, [...]

  The cheerful girl with bouncy, golden curls was almost five. Wandering along the toy aisle of the supermarket she saw them. A circle of glistening, white pearls in a pink, foil box.“Oh please, Mummy. Can I have them? Please, Mummy, please!” Quickly the mother checked the underside of the little box and then looked back into the [...]

  A father was trying to read the newspaper, but his young son kept interrupting him. Finally, the father grew tired of this and, tearing a page from the newspaper – one that bore a map of the world – he cut it into several pieces and handed them to the child. “Right, now you’ve got something to [...]

  What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there [...]

     The Language of Flowers.    Whate delight, in some sweet spot    Combining love with garden plot,    At once to cultivate one’s flowers    And one’s epistolary powers!    Growing one’s own choice words and fancies    In orange tubs, and beds of pansies;    One’s sighs and passionate declarations    In odorous rhetoric [...]

            ‘This little light o’ mine, I’m gonna let it shine, This little light o’ mine, I’m gonna let it shine, This little light o’ mine, I’m gonna let it shine, Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. ‘                            Harry Dixon Loes (1895-1965)    Also known as ‘Scarborough Pier Light’, Scarborough Lighthouse dates [...]

  Theodore E. Steinway, president of Steinway and Sons, once noted, “In one of our concert grand pianos, 243 taut strings exert a pull of 40,000 pounds on an iron frame. It is proof that out of great tension may come great harmony.”

                                              When I was a child, there was a huge, fundraising initiative in our area. I participated in countless sponsored walks, knits and silences,  filled Smartie tubes with three-penny bits, pulled my go-cart around the streets collecting for jumble sales and made chocolate crispy cakes to sell at coffee mornings. We were raising money to build [...]

                   The Ceremonies For Candlemas Day. Kindle the Christmas brand, and then Till sunset let it burn; Which quench’d, then lay it up again, Till Christmas next return. Part must be kept, wherewith to teend The Christmas log next year; And where ’tis safely kept, the fiend Can do no mischief there.                                    Robert Herrick [...]