by Valerie | Jul 14, 2017 | art, Fashion, General interest, history, people, travel
‘Is Iran a police state?’ I asked Ali, our excellent guide. He hesitated. The organisers of our tour of Iran asked us not to name anyone we would like to meet there as we are requested to do on our visa application. Any meetings should be arranged through our guide.... by Valerie | Jul 4, 2017 | art, Fashion, Fifties, General interest, history, museums, people, travel
Tehran, we were warned, would be characterless. It was. There was no heart to the town which seemed like a lot of villages which had spread and amalgamated into an amorphous mass. I remember endless streets that all looked the same as we went from one museum to... by Valerie | Jun 27, 2017 | General interest, history, people, travel, Uncategorized
Whenever one wonders where the idea of a garden started, one finds that the Garden of Eden was first realised in Persia and travelled the world woven into prized carpets. That must explain why the gardens in India, from Kashmir to Agra, were created by Muslim... by Valerie | Mar 21, 2017 | Fifties, General interest, history, people, travel, Uncategorized
The year has come round with the Annual General Meeting for the Friends of our local country house. Officers for the coming year were re-elected unanimously as so often happens, but no treasurer. I wanted to suggest paying a local accountant to help a volunteer as few... by Valerie | Mar 13, 2017 | General interest, history, people, Uncategorized
In my wanderings in the Middle East I may have visited a district east of Jordon where the episode of the Gadarene swine is said to have taken place. As recounted in the New Testament, Jesus was accosted by a madman. Jesus freed him from his ‘devils’ which entered the... by Valerie | Mar 1, 2017 | General interest, history, people, travel, Uncategorized
Some years ago I was enjoying a dinner party in New York when our host raised a glass to ‘the Red, White and Blue’. Bewildered I raised my glass with the words ‘bleu, blanc, rouge’ echoing in my mind. At a pause in the conversation I asked who or what we were drinking...
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