by Valerie | Mar 7, 2018 | Uncategorized
I was in a pleasant conversation a few days ago with three friends. While sitting on a sofa next to one of them, I looked out of the first floor bay window down on a typical calm suburban back garden with a lawn, shrubs and mature trees. I lowered my head to rummage... by Valerie | Feb 28, 2018 | Uncategorized
I can’t free my mind of an article I read recently concerning an exhibition in London. It described a couple who kept snakes in their London flat. Memories stirred: of a vicar visiting a parishioner, a visit to a zoo, to a Palladian villa, or of opening a cupboard... by Valerie | Oct 5, 2017 | art, General interest, history, museums, people, travel, Uncategorized
Last Monday, after seeing a Canadian friend who has been living in London for 25 years and a young Italian post-graduate medical student, I wandered through Hyde Park to pause beside Prince Albert. He was seated high above me under a golden canopy, but we were... by Valerie | Jul 19, 2017 | General interest, history, people, travel, Uncategorized
When driving through the patchwork of green fields and grazing sheep in North Yorkshire this weekend, I marvelled at the hard simplicity of the stone walls. Once these hillsides and valleys crossed by fast-flowing rivers must have been as strewn with stones as the... 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 | Jun 19, 2017 | Uncategorized
Time to think has raced past me week after week while I organise a house clearance and experience how discouragingly difficult it is to find space to put furniture, bedding and too many objects while deciding whether to keep them or not. When still in the midst...
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