Global Tipping Point

‘Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.’ – Abraham Lincoln I learnt a new word this month: permacrisis.  You don’t need to be a language expert to work out that … More Global Tipping Point

Post-Christmas 2023

‘I felt overstuffed and dull and disappointed, the way I always do the day after Christmas, as if whatever it was the pine boughs and the candles and the silver and gilt-ribboned presents and the birch-log fires and the Christmas turkey and the carols at the piano promised never came to pass.’  Sylvia Plath – … More Post-Christmas 2023

Christmas Contrasts

‘May you never be too grown up to search the skies on Christmas Eve.’ Anon I once had a group of eight-year-olds ask me if we had elephants in our garden in South Africa.  It’s amazing which images persist and what impressions stick.  I could have told them that Cape Town is actually a very … More Christmas Contrasts

Counting Down

Small beginnings are the launching pad to great endings – Joyce Meyer (American author & speaker) The reviews are in, the blog tour is over and now it’s just a question of two online book launches before Charlie Peach’s Pumpkins and other stories is truly out there in the big, wide world.  I’m really looking … More Counting Down

Time to Face the Music

‘An unreviewed book is a struck bell that gives no resonance… Reviewing makes reading a participant sport, not a spectator sport.’  Patricia Hampl – American memoirist, writer, lecturer, and educator. Last month I celebrated the birth, or arrival, of my new book baby: Charlie Peach’s Pumpkins and other stories. While I recognise that my followers … More Time to Face the Music

Keep looking up

I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1-2 I’ve been fortunate to be able to see the local Helderberg mountains this week, here in the Western Cape.  There have been days when the lingering wet winter … More Keep looking up

up, tiddly up, up

“I think it is a pity to lose the romantic side of flying and simply to accept it as a common means of transport.” – Amy Johnson – first woman to fly solo from London to Australia I used to think that air travel was incredibly glamorous. My dad sometimes had to travel to various … More up, tiddly up, up