Just look at these wonderful gates. They’re in Berkeley, California. The decorations are cut out of the metal – leaves of bog rosemary, blue oak, sugar bush, California Buckeye, California Maidenhair, and many more. Rivers and trains, roads and tools are represented. Looking at them you can see all of Berkeley life. Names of… Continue reading Community Beautifiers
Category: Uncategorized
A Day at the Festival
3 000 New Testaments burned, by order of a Bishop Fight, not facts, are more important to today’s press. The Malawian government seems to be preventing poor people from being educated We are killing our planet Racial prejudice is still blindingly rife in this country In the random events I chose to attend that day at the… Continue reading A Day at the Festival
Community Gardeners
It seemed like a good idea at the time. I once infiltrated a posh Herb Workshop on a massive Gloucestshire estate, hoping to pick up cooking tips using herbs. Bad bad idea. The situation turned prickly after the lemon balm tea and lavender-bud shortbread, when we had to explain why we were there. All had… Continue reading Community Gardeners
A Community of Listeners
I came across something startling today. I was so surprised I did a double take. A father didn’t have a phone in his hand as he took his two children to school. Had to check again: no, he really really didn’t. I myself was doing my usual morning walk. Yes. Doing. Not necessarily seeing or enjoying or… Continue reading A Community of Listeners
Pantomime Time — oh yes it is!
When husband John first mentioned the word “pantomime” to me his American bride, I was quite sure that I knew what he was talking about: actors in make-up who could silently and dramatically describe a wall, running, going upstairs, and much more, just with their bodies and no props. “Oh no,” he laughed. “This kind… Continue reading Pantomime Time — oh yes it is!
January 24th is Peanut Butter Day
Living in a cramped maroon room with an exquisite view of the brickwork on the neighbouring building outside my window taught me much about life during my graduate days in Ithaca, New York. My octogenarian landlady downstairs, gave the same piano piece to all her students, and ate fried potatoes for supper everyday. Occasionally I’d join her… Continue reading January 24th is Peanut Butter Day
Twelfth Night Party
I am delighted to live in a country where it’s possible to celebrate twelve days of Christmas. Thank you, Great Britain, for inventing it! No need to get cards and letters to people by the 25th of December. Let them arrive after the first day of Christmas, when people have more time to read… Continue reading Twelfth Night Party
The Launderette (Laundromat) Community.
Something was definitely wrong. Okay I know that my American accent causes English people to be on their guard, and why not? Here comes a mouth wider and louder than theirs, regaling them with boring stories of their town “back home”. But I was already on my best subdued behaviour when the launderette manager, (whose… Continue reading The Launderette (Laundromat) Community.
The Steinbeck House
How many of you retired folk wake up one morning and say, “I think I’ll buy me an old house, turn it into a restaurant, and get it registered as literary landmark”? Not your ordinary retirement activity, is it? Not quite sitting and staring at the middle distance waiting for a daughter to ring, or wandering… Continue reading The Steinbeck House
A Make-Do Community
“And to top it all”, she wailed, “when I emptied the last tin of fruit cocktail into the bowl, it wasn’t fruit cocktail. It was cooked carrots.” Tehran, Iran, early 1970s. I was pretty sure I knew how that could have happened. I’d been in a favourite shop that week, and saw proprietor and minion… Continue reading A Make-Do Community
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