DAYS ARE WHERE WE LIVE
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The blog is becoming sad and bedraggled, and spoiling its noble record. It’s not surprising…I’ve done it for twenty years. I first began in June 2006. Admittedly it was originally only a web presence, a blog in name only, hatched because PLOTTING FOR BEGINNERS had just been published. It only became a recognisable blog in the late summer of 2008, with posts like this: Wednesday August 27, 2008…
Hello. What to talk about? Andy Burnham and his refreshing approach? The fact that he knows how to connect, and he seems to care about ordinary people? Or Andy Burnham and the fact he voted for the Iraq war, against the Chilcot report, and the fact that there has been a US bombing mission started from a U.K. airbase? OMG. None of these. Here is the official selfie from my fabulous holiday at Het’s…
I am staying with my dear friend Het in Cornwall. It’s heaven. Dave is at home, watering the plants. This is the view from my bed last evening. How lucky am I? I don’t feel like writing any more, but I heartily recommend this piece on Garrison Keillor’s blog. https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/a-long-night-on-the-east-side/
I refer you to this article in Middle East Eye: https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/gaza-west-must-act-save-hussam-abu-safiya-risk-killed-captivity And to this one in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/06/detained-gaza-doctor-almost-unrecognisable-injuries-israeli-jail-hussam-abu-safiya Please write to Yvette Cooper and insist that pressure is brought to bear on Israel to…
The headlines say the UK is investing £4.7 billion in defence. I call it warfare. Why aren’t we investing in diplomacy? Why aren’t we investing in STOPPING a war from happening? In Gaza, horrors continue. This is an excerpt from the Refuser Solidarity Network’s latest bulletin (RFN is an organisation that supports conscientious objectors in Israel): In Colorado, there is good news. Jewish Voice…
We have had roofers here for over a week, with scaffolding round most of the house and a skip in the drive. But the front garden looks beautiful if rather wild - here’s a video: And the back garden looks even wilder, though still beautiful. Ignore the scaffolding pole. Stay cool.
First - thank goodness for the sound majority of Andy Burnham. Phew. Reform was soundly beaten. 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 Now for what I wanted to write about today. In my last post I wrote about Len. Check it out. When I first wrote that post I was sitting in bed. I couldn’t remember how the inscription read on his bench. (At that time I thought there was only one bench.) So I asked Google AI if it…
I was standing in the check out queue in Sainsbury’s, watching a man take an age to pack his shopping, while the cashier sat watching him, and we all waited patiently, and I thought about Len. Len was a middle aged man who worked in the Co-op supermarket in Bakewell, 20 years ago, in the days when I often did a weekly shop there. That was before ALDI arrived a mile away and before the Co-op…
This week is Refugee Week. I was online looking for something I’d written in The Times and instead of finding it, I came across a piece I’d written some time ago for national Quakers about my concern for refugees. I thought you might like to read it. Follow this link: https://www.quaker.org.uk/action/our-stories/bridges-not-walls And here are a few photos from our Refugee Hospitality Days over the…
“David was an inspiration to artists and an evangelist for joy who gave the gift of his art to a world that really needs more not less of him right now.” Tacita Dean, artist She speaks for me. He was an inspiration. I loved his colour, his continual exploration and I loved his accessibility, his lack of arty-fartyness, his humour, his dress sense, and his joy. And I appreciated the fact that he…
