THANK YOU
To M, D, I, & P for all you have done for me since I was a toddler.
To S for everything
30/9/25
TO S for the pallet and sisyrinchiums.
AND FOR YOUR PATIENCE, SUPPORT AND KINDNESS OVER THE PAST 6 MONTHS AND FOR DECADES BEFORE
29/9/25
To Abbie for her help, support and great patience as she took me on a great adventure to Baytree Rec where I free-walked almost 200 yards along one side, staying close to the fence with Abbie walking next to me. For then taking me to S’s house to pick up the pallet and sisyrinchiums. For digging out S’s shrub. For taking me to B & Q to buy some paint, a couple of brushes and a few other things. And finally, for taking me to Waitrose to get some cash from the machine.
AND A SINCERE AND HUGE THANK YOU FOR ALL SHE HAS DONE OVER THE PAST 6 MONTHS
AND PREVIOUSLY
26/9/25
To KM for her enormous patience when she walked round the garden with me and I did a lot of freezing and tottering. And thank you too for fetching me some very tasty fish and chips for lunch.
AND A SINCERE AND HUGE THANK YOU FOR ALL SHE HAS DONE OVER THR PAST 6 MONTHS AND PREVIOUSLY
23/9/25
To the Alleyway at Baytree for being an ideal path for me to practise my walking as it has a wall or a fence on both sides.
17/9/25
To Abbie for painting the wall. Brilliant job!
10/9/25
For the rollator which I use all the time around the house and for walks up and down the road.
7/9/25
For the grab rails and to Richard and John for putting them up.
AUGUST 2025
26/08/25
To S for coming over and cooking a very nice fish lunch for both of us.
24/08/25
To Y, my neighbour, for calling through the letterbox to remind me it was black bin day tomorrow and to Becky for her kind and caring manner when she came to give me a blood test.
21/08/25
For the tomatoes I picked from the yard, ripe and ready to eat.
19/08/25
To the gas “gang” for their skills in laying a new gas pipe to my property and other properties in the cul-de-sac. But … my feeling is they could have completed the job sooner and with much less disruption.
15/08/25
To all those who fought the Japanese during the 2nd World War. On the 80th anniversary of VJ Day we must reflect on their incredible courage and always remember those who gave their lives fighting for us.
10/08/25
For the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast and my good memories of them. Today marks one hundred yearsthey have been owned by the National Trust. They are home to a variety of seabirds including the puffin and can be visited by taking a boat from Seahouses.
08/08/25
For Activia yoghurt which I have every day, cherry being my favourite.
For all things which keep us clean and which we need for personal hygiene -showers, baths, basins, lavatories, soap, shampoos, toilet rolls and much more.
JULY 2025
31/07/25
For the life of Greg, an old school mate of mine, who sadly passed away recently. We were in the same class for 7 years at our secondary school and we kept in touch after we both left school and went our separate ways. He was an extremely bright guy who went on to take a law degree at Oxford, gaining the best First Class Honours degree of his year. He went on to become a lawyer. With his dry sense of humour and great modesty he was very likeable. He grew up in the village where I now live and I can see his old house from my window.
I will remember Greg and my thoughts are with his loved ones at this sad time.
29/07/25
For the 2 pieces of cake that KM brought round: fruit cake from Betty’s and a home made coffee and walnut.
28/07/25
To the England women’s football team for the entertainment and excitement they’ve given us over the past few weeks. And also for playing such great football: the beautiful game beautifully played.
27/07/25
To KM for her tea party and the money she raised for the Alzeimer’s society - £400- a fantastic total.
26/07/25
To the Loxton Oak, oak trees everywhere and all trees.
23/07/25
For some great women’s football – semi-final of the Euros. Footie as it should be played – fast, flowing, plenty of skill, not too clinical, nor too perfect, exciting to watch and providing pleasure and enjoyment for players and spectators.
23/07/25
For the late Ozzie Osborne who died yesterday. I was never a fan of his music, nor of his behaviour, but because he shared quite openly his struggle with Parkinson’s he will have raised awareness of the condition – something that is ugently needed.
22/07/25
To S for being on the end of the line when I became very agitated over an online order which had been particularly awkward.
20/07/25
For Churchill, Attlee & Beveridge, 3 towering figures of the war and post-war eras.
15/07/25
For ladybirds and tiger moths. Have seen a lot of the former and S has seen 2 of the latter in her garden.
Golf ball
Tennis/cricket
TMS Arlot, Johnson, Aggers, Blowers
For Weston pier & donkey rides
For birnbeck pier
For dentures
Head & shoulders
Ian’s visit
Alpen
For the yard the rain
For church towers
For views and vistas
06/07/25
For the field opposite and for all farmers out on their tractors.
02/07/25
To Rachel Maskell for staying true to her belief in supporting the vulnerable in society, not Rachel Reeves who seems obsessed with the black hole in the public finances.
JUNE 2025
30/06/25
To Sir Rod for yesterday’s incredible performance at Glasto, his singing and the way he moved.
27/06/25
Thank you for the raspberries – only a few but they tasted good.
24/06/25
For the white blossom of my cherry tree and its fragrance.
For the life of BV who recently died. He was the husband of NH, a lovely German au-pair who helped our mum when we were little boys. B & N eventually moved to Canada but we kept in touch with them.
To all the rescue workers, professionals and ordinary folk, who are digging through the rubble of buildings destroyed in the earthquake.
To P for frying my 2 eggs to perfection.
To T & C for the postcard from the Victoria Falls plus all the postcards they've sent me for as long as we've knnown each other.
For the solar eclipse, it reminds us of our place in the Universe.
Thank you to S for all the support you gave D.
23/06/25
To D for coming down from Lincolnshire to visit her sister. But sorry you had your medical problem and had to stay overnight in hospital.
Thank you to the paramedics who took you in and thank you to everyone who looked after you so well .
21/06/25
For the Summer Solstice and the crowds of people at Stonehenge who saw the sunrise. Since the sun is the source of life on our planet it seems sensible enough to treat it with a certain amount of revelance.
19/06/25
For the sun.
Too hot for me today at 29 degrees. But without it I wouldn’t be writing this and there would be no one around to read it. 
17/6/25
To the person at the dentist’s who helped me sit on the chair in the waiting room.
To the two people who helped me out after my epic session and to Sarah who gave me her arm.
To the dental nurse who assisted my dentist whilst he was doing repairs to my teeth for about an hour and 20 minutes.
To Tom for his incredible skills, dexterity and expertise in the way he did my fillings. I’m in awe of what he and other dentists do.
For the various implements he used including one called the excavator!
14/6/25
For my yellow short sleeve shirt – bought in a charity shop years ago for a family day when the dress code was colours of the rainbow.
13/06/25
To my Parkinson’s consultant for his support, his friendly manner and his caring nature. His thoughts were that I should always use my rollator because this was the safest way for me to move around. I place him in the “good guy” column.
08/06/25
For the life of Willie Davies, one of my teachers, who will be fondly remembered by many of his former pupils. W T H Davies was a gifted rugby player who played outside half for Wales in the late 1930s. And as a teenager he was also a member of the Swansea team which famously beat the All Blacks in 1935. He later became a highly respected PE and geography teacher at Weston Grammar School.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Davies_(rugby)
Click the above link to read about Willie
07/06/25
For memories of former teachers and everything they taught me.
For all those working in the formal business of education – in schools, colleges and universities.
06/06/25
To Margaret for the long chat about PD and how she is getting on with it.
04/06/25
To Simon who works for Rob for getting a portable thermostat fixed up.
MAY 2025
31/5/25
To S for the home grown strawberries. Went down a treat.
For another beautiful rose. Its name says it all: Avec Amour.
25/5/25
To KM for kindly coming round and helping with my boiler.
To the owner of a gas boiler business for explaining that it would be OK to switch on my boiler again when the pressure was topped up.
24/5/25
For this beautiful rose. Its name is PEACE..
To S for the walk up to Spooky Lane and back, and for the garden tour.
13/5/25
For Kate’s video.
12/05/25
For the courgette seeds that have germinated so quickly on my window sill.
To Asda for a very tasty chicken pie and the chunky leeks I had with it.
For the hawthorn blossom on my tree which I can see just outside my lounge window.
10/5/25
For the swifts which have arrived early in Britain this year.
What an incredible creature this is.
08/5/25
To an amazing generation of courageous and resilient UK citizens who exactly 80 years ago were finally able to celebrate VE Day.
See my post about this here:
05/5/25
To Powergen and everyone involved in restoring my electricity.
04/5/25
To those who organised the May Day Fair and to those who helped on the day.
01/5/25
For a sunny May Day and the harmless and happy tradition of dancing round a maypole.
April 2025
23/4/25
For the Pope. He was a good and very caring person who followed the precepts of Christ. Whatever our beliefs, and whether we share his belief in God or not, the world would be a better place if we all tried to do the same.
To T & C for their blubell card and Easter greetings.
And thank you for brambles as well as bluebells; brambles with their pretty flowers that attract the pollinators, and their tasty fruits, the blackberries.
18/4/25
For Good Friday, a day which perhaps we should use much more than we do to reflect on the Easter message.
For my kitchen window sill, or kitchen garden as I call it, and the seedlings that are growing there.
17/4/25
For Maundy Thursday, which is today, and for the enduring commandment Jesus gave his disciples on the first Maundy Thursday: love one another.
16/4/25
To Asda, for their steak pie, and for their cauliflower. Also to the farmer in Cornwall who grew it and the lorry driver who brought it up here.
14/4/25
To Abbie, for an amazing session doing the garden – putting new compost in patio pots and arranging them so well, weeding the rose bed, planting the onions and potatoes, and mowing the lawn.
To the person who saw me struggling to go inside the vaccination centre and very kindly let me hold onto him, to the person who gave me my booster jab, and to her and the volunteer who helped me to the back door.
13/4/25
To S, for planting hellebore, watering lupins and moving pots to the yard.
11/4/25
To, KM for cleaning the house so nicely.