My thoughts about books, writing, life and so many other things….Judy Leigh/ Elena Collins.
I love this term – the oxygen of publicity. Although - didn't Margaret Thatcher come up with it first, in the context of learning to starve the oxygen from terrorism, or something? I'm using it here to refer to negative views and comments that seem to fill the internet and the airwaves and come to …
Now it's 2023, I've been thinking about my hopes for the new year...
These are interesting but difficult times as the country, indeed much of the world, learns to deal with Covid-19, and it will be fascinating to discover at a later date how we’ll all emerge from the current state of lockdown. There are things happening now that I’d never have thought possible several weeks ago, before …
Continue reading A couple of things I’ve learned from lockdown
I have to admit, I’m a summer person and the warmer months always seem to pass too quickly. It’s good to be outside in the sunshine, walking in the countryside, travelling to new places in the van, enjoying the open space on the beach. I love to cross the channel, go to France and beyond …
Continue reading Autumn is here – what will it bring, though?
From our first day at school – maybe even before that – we are told that bullying is wrong. It's not difficult to work out morally. When a person is marginalised, abused, made to feel isolated, hurt, it can't be right. Schools and institutions do their best to eradicate it yet, headteachers admit, it is …
After the EU vote went the way of the Leave Campaign, many people have said, 'The country has made a choice and we must stick with it.' Others suggest, 'You can't keep having another vote until you get the result you want.' The British people are, essentially, stoics, especially the English with our stiff upper …
Continue reading If the EU vote had been a second hand bike…
So the world is imploding. All sorts of worms are crawling out of the opened can.The negative feelings of the disenfranchised are manifesting themselves as widespread disagreement and arguments and dissatisfaction and we're seeing Facebook memes of Pooh Bear and Piglet healing rifts between polarised friends. Everyone has a strong opinion - thank goodness for Free Speech, …
Continue reading Words to stem the storm or at least hold the tide back for a moment.
... some moments are nice, some are nicer, some are even worth writing about. - Charles Bukowski I didn't intend to blog about politics so frequently, but the changes in the political climate in Britain at the moment are monumental and too elusive not to savour on a blog post. We're in a unique time where change is happening …
The days have gone when the Labour Party were the party of the working people. I think this is the case now, given the huge numbers who voted for Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Nigel Farage's Leave campaign and who contributed towards their majority. I've read a variety of slogans and opinions on Facebook and …
Continue reading On Stronger In, the Brexit victory and what happens next…
Introducing Pushkin. Alexandra Pushkin or Alexandra Pushkin-Boots. Or sometimes Pyuuuuuuuuuushkin or Little Pushkin or Ditta Puuuushkin or Puskh. Or Puuuussshhhy. Or Ditta. As T. S. Eliot says in 'The Naming of Cats': 'a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES...' Eliot says that a cat's ... mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation Of the thought, …
That quintessence of dust 