All Purls. No Swine.
The church of my childhood was St. Mary’s, Handsworth, just outside Birmingham, in England. Although I probably attended services there only a few dozen times, while we stayed with Granny and Grandpa during my father’s infrequent “leave” periods from the Colonial Service in Nigeria, it was a bulwark of stability in my life. Like the… Continue reading The Power, and the Glory, of the Word
I offer you another seasonal post, this one of which was first published on Ricochet eight Decembers ago. In fact, it was one of my first posts on the site, after I'd worked up the nerve--having been there for a couple of years, lurking and making the occasional tentative comment--to start writing my heart out. … Continue reading Putting Up the Christmas Tree
https://youtu.be/WKu6HFrtpkM (Apologies for the rather tinny and reedy audio. Entirely my fault. It was a spontaneous reaction, emotion not a bit recollected in tranquility (h/t William Wordsworth). I used the voice recorder of my iPhone, and I was w-a-a-y in the back of the audience. I just wanted you to hear my neighbors and friends, children… Continue reading Hallelujah! Our Long, Dark, Winter Night is Over!
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter. I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired And gobble up… Continue reading Quote of the Day: For the “Specially” Enabled, When it Comes to Growing Old
Beloved stepdaughter is leaving shortly for the trek south-and-west to Chateau Right, where she should arrive mid-afternoon. It's just the two of us (so far) today, but you never know. Angels have a habit of showing up unexpectedly here, and we never turn them away: QOTD: Entertaining Angels Entertaining Angles: Four-legged one's mostly Entertaining Angels:… Continue reading Happy Thanksgiving!
I think this is (at least) the fifth post on this theme that I've written on this site. I take the original injunction (Hebrews 13:2) very seriously: Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. As usual, I'm quoting the KJV, mostly in memory of an elderly Canadian fisherman (deep… Continue reading Entertaining Angels: The Gift from God Edition
My subject is War and the pity of War. The poetry is in the pity"--Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen, beloved son, accomplished poet, and soldier of The Great War, was born 128 years ago, on March 18, 1893 in Oswestry, a Welsh border town, in the county of Shropshire. Readers of Ellis Peters's Brother… Continue reading ‘Sweet and Fitting,’ or ‘Unworthy’ and ‘Distasteful?’ Wilfred Owen vs William Butler Yeats
There are days when I despair for the future of the generations that will come after me. To be clear, though, today isn't one of them. This morning, I was gifted a photograph of 98-year-old Auntie Pat, sitting with my three-month-old niece on her lap. The joy in Pat's face, and the equanimity with which… Continue reading Pee Po Belly Bum…Drawers?
Most truly honoured, and as truly dear, If worth in me or ought I do appear, Who can of right better demand the same Than may your worthy self from whom it came? The principal might yield a greater sum, Yet handled ill, amounts but to this crumb; My stock's so small I know not… Continue reading “To Her Father with Some Verses”
I think back on my early childhood sometimes, and regard it as something of a miracle that I survived to adolescence, let alone adulthood. No child car seats. No seat belts. In fact, my fondest childhood "car" memory is of sitting on the front bench seat next to my Daddy, at about the age of… Continue reading Cautionary Tales, Both Imaginary and Real