Ichabod's Day

I have recently re-started my fund raising efforts for selected animal charities. I have a number of gifts for you to look through to see if you would like to purchase to help me in my endeavours. There is quite an eclectic mix of things ranging from knitted egg cosies, pins and broaches through to Distant Reiki sessions, stopping through a few products made from my own home-grown herbs . Please feel free to take a look under the "Gifts for Donations" tabs at the side of the blog. I will add/remove products as I progress through the seasons and through my interests in crafts and wellbeing. Many thanks

My Grandad (front right) Thomas Stephen Card This weekend I have managed to catch up with a few BBC programmes that have been made using digitally remastered material from interviews done in the1960s  with those serving and living through World War I. Photographs and interviews which give a clearer insight into what it must have been like 100 years ago this year since it started. There are many acts of remembrance planned this yea r, I for one will be scattering poppy seeds in a few weeks time. I was inspired to write the following using some of the words spoken by the old soldiers during the programmes, it just somehow seems the right thing to do: For those at the front, keep the home fires burning, Say the right things and  try to understand. They were the longest of hours and the shortest of hours. For those at the front, Remember. For those at the front, without action it's really rather fun. There's German voices singing "C'mon over Tommy" - p...

On a rather quick jaunt to France recently to stay with my sister I fell in love with a troglodyte!  Let me explain .. previously I thought this was a derogatory term for someone who was stuck in the past, someone who actively avoided and even discouraged progress. I know this because a rather erudite school friend used to call everyone this back in '79 as we started 6th form - and I thought this was the height of cool. As I got older (and possibly wiser - hmm not sure!) I also realised that maybe they did exist, common definitions talk about cave dwellers and ancient races- H.G.Wells' 1895 The Time Machine's Morlocks were perhaps based on this race of people? So, how could I possibly, in 2013 meet one and fall for one? It all began one warm Thursday morning.......after 10 years Ryanair have finally decided to fly from Manchester to Tours which is where my sister now lives (having had the house for 10 years before moving across fully earlier this year). Now I had ...

I have thought long and hard before writing this post. Partly  because by sharing this I am sharing something very personal and partly because I tend not to use this blog (my personal one) to share "serious" issues. So why am I about to share some very personal information you may ask? Well, given the circumstances and what has been happening to me over the last 9 weeks I feel I have a strong message and one that I want to make everyone aware of. So, what am I about to share? Well, nothing too revealing or salacious. Facebook friends may have an inkling on some of the status updates and link sharing I have been doing, and of course many close friends and family will know - 9 weeks ago today I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. It was a total shock!! Following a routine blood test I was called in to discuss the situation and was booked in for a glucose tolerance test. It was this test that confirmed the diagnosis. Apart from the shock, and the ineffective way that bad...

This weekend I took a long-planned for Road Trip down memory Lane with my sister (who is older than me by almost 5 years). As children we moved around a lot - on average every 2 years until I was 7 and my sister 12 which has meant that our formative memories are of many different houses, schools and areas. The older I get the more important it seems for me to have a clearer picture of my memories. Snippets of events I remember but they merge into each other, whereas my sister has a clearer memory of where things happened. I suppose you might say that I wanted the timeline of my early life to be in order! (Being such a control freak!). At times I often wondered if such things were memories that I had of things that really happened or whether over the years I had either dreamt them or just got a feel from old photographs and conversations of others. I have memories gong back to when I was 2 or 3 - and my sister, using me as a play thing, made me jump from a chair - in the process sma...

(Attributed to the Maori) The sky may be clouded, but ever the sun,  Will sweep on its course till the cycle is run. and when into chaos the system is hurled,  Again shall the Builder, rebuild a new world. Your path may be clouded, uncertain your goal,  Move on, for your orbit is fixed to your soul. And though may it lead you through darkness of night,  The torch of the Builder shall give it new light. You were, you will be,  Know this while you are,  Your spirit has travelled both long and afar, It rose from the source, to the Source it returns,  The spark which was lighted eternally burns. It slept in a jewel, it leapt in a wave,  It roamed in a forest, it rose from the grave. It took on strange garbs for long eons of years,  And now in the soul of yourself it appears. From body to body your spirit speeds on,  It seeks a new form when the old one has gone. And the form that it find...