What’s in a Name?

Write about your first name: its meaning, significance, etymology, etc. I know I have been quiet recently. I would not say I am 'depressed' as such, because I think I know by now what 'normal' looks like in terms of grief. In fact, there is a wide spectrum of normal. I am grieving. I saw …

Dreams of Loss and Longing

I dreamt about mum. I dreamt that we were living in NW London, where we lived when I was a teenager. She had gone missing from the house, and everybody was in a panic, wondering where to look for her. It is not the first time I have dreamt about that house but it is …

Goodbye Mum

My mum sadly passed away following a stay in hospital linked to vascular dementia. The funeral service we selected rather let us down and could not offer an all-in-one service, so we have had to arrange a burial and a separate memorial instead. Mum's church have kindly agreed to facilitate that as part of their …

Hope and Grief

I suppose I had better get this out of the way. Without putting too fine a point on it, I am no longer pregnant. It has been a week now and although grief has a nasty way of winding you when you least expect it, coming over you in unexpected waves as it does, I …

Red Herrings

In May we started the process of buying a flat. It was beautiful and big, but it had no garden or parking, no garage or storage, and it would have necessitated moving towns amongst other things. It seemed like a good idea at the time - it was a nice town that we all liked …

The Last Straw

Another lick of paint, to cheer things up. What do you think? The sun is shining, but I cannot tell you how deeply low and bad and desperate I feel. I didn't go under when I lost my babies, when my Dad died, when uncle then aunt died in quick succession, when we endured floods, …

RIP Whistler

I wasn't sure how to approach this, as it is all so raw and painful just now so I will just tell you the facts I think. Whistler was a border collie, born and bred on Strawberry Farm near Retford in north Nottinghamshire in the summer of 2003. He came to live in Watford with …

Battle Lines

Summary: Sisko, Bashir, Chief O'Brien and Kira take the Kai on an outing to see the Wormhole, and when there is a distress call, she encourages them to answer it. As a result, they become stranded on a planet where there is continuous war, and the inhabitants have been treated with nanobots which ensure that …

Yahrzeit

Leonard Nimoy - 1931-2015 I wanted to make mention of the fact that today (14th December) would have been my Dad's birthday. For various reasons, I don't have many photos of him (you might say that they mostly all perished on the USS Saratoga at Wolf 359). If I had photos of him, I probably …