Interference
July 26, 2024 1 CommentMain image by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash 15 July 2024 Today, 15th July, is huge. One of those mega dates, loaded with meaning. Forever huge. For ever. 15th July 2017 we had Mike’s Celebration of Life. Three months after his death, still in shock (such vital protection) I was very numb. I remember where it […]
Read MoreReasons Not To, & Reasons To
July 26, 2024 1 CommentMain photo by Joshua Fuller on Unsplash. Other photo my own. 7 July 2024 I am sitting in bed in a hotel in Verbier, Switzerland, when “normalement” I “should” be “walking swiftly” up a great big mountain as part of a mountain trail run. But literally an hour ago, I decided I would not start. […]
Read MoreIt’s Not An Easy Story To Hear
July 26, 2024 3 Comments23 June 2024 Photos our own – from 2008 when Julia was four. I was in my kitchen at home, and a young man was stood on a chair, reaching up above the cupboards, presumably to fix something. One of the lightbulbs is forever blowing – it’s true. I didn’t know the young man, but […]
Read MoreTears in Montpellier Railway Station
July 26, 2024 2 Comments16 June 2024 Photo by Andrik Langfield on Unsplash I am in Montpellier St Roch railway station. As in many French train stations, there’s a piano for travellers to while away their wait, and play on a while. I never know whether it’s the pianist or listeners who most benefit. I love it. I’ve never […]
Read MoreMoving home – and knowing it’s your last time
July 26, 2024 1 CommentMain image by Mantas Hesthaven on Unsplash 1 June 2024 I just said goodbye – or at least “au revoir” – to my neighbour. Let’s call her Marie. She is 82, and starting to decline cognitively, and to a lesser degree, physically. Her three daughters, who all live fairly close by, have been very hands-on […]
Read MoreOh darling – where are you?
July 26, 2024 1 CommentPhoto by me – A red rose – Julia’s favourite flower. 19 May 2024 Many years ago – perhaps 20 or even more years ago – my dad talked about how he “checked that his brain was still functioning properly, every morning, on waking”. His check-in practice was to run his mind through each of […]
Read MoreMy Non-Deep Time of Mothering
July 26, 2024 No CommentsMain image by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash 2nd May 2024 Twenty-five years ago today, 2nd May 1999, I became a mother for the first time. It was a Sunday. Our son Ben was born at 14h10 CEST, in Annemasse, France, barely an hour after Mike and I arrived at the hospital. It had been snowing […]
Read MoreMore Than Human Losses
July 26, 2024 3 CommentsPhotos my own – main photo with Ben, Megan and Julia, the day Black arrived – 22 April 2011 23 April 2024 A long, long time ago, back in the last millennium when many more species (if not exactly dinosaurs) still roamed the earth, I read “My Family and Other Animals” by Gerald Durrell. Even […]
Read MoreLoved Top To Bottom and Head to Toe
July 26, 2024 1 CommentImage generated by AI – a woman rooted in love, loved from above and below 😉 17 April 2024 Today my elder daughter, Megan, turned 23. She was born at 1h25 a.m. A potentially inconvenient time, other than I’d been in hospital already for quite a few weeks (four? I honestly forget) on a permanent […]
Read MoreThirteenth of April
July 26, 2024 No CommentsPhotos my own/from my own collection. Main photo featuring stunning flowers received this week from precious Joan, Mike and Julia’s funeral cards, and a birthday card for Julia from her tree letter box. 13th April 2024 Twenty-eight years ago today, 13th April 1996, in Grasmere, Cumbria, it was trying hard to snow. Snowing in mid-April? […]
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