Although I’ve enjoyed my time here in Antigua so far, my visit has been tinged with great sadness at the news on Saturday that my beautiful friend Jean Hewitt had died.  She joins the lengthening list of phenomenal women that I’ve loved and lost this year.

How ironic that she should die on a Saturday morning, as Saturday was always ‘Dancing Day’ for so many, many children, my own daughter included, for so many years.

And  ‘beautiful’ is a word that applies to Jean like few other people because she was a beautiful person outside and in,

She was a … Read the rest »

The silence is almost tangible.  It’s six am and I’m sitting on the veranda of Avocado Cottage, in the rocking  chair, immersing myself in the peace and quiet of this early morning bliss.  Occasionally the stillness is violated by the screech of a cockerel from further up the lane but apart from that there’s nothing.  Not even the whisperings of a gentle breeze.  It’s something I always notice when I get up very early; there’s no breeze, it‘s a late riser.

I don’t know if I’m going to be able to post this as soon as it’s finished as the … Read the rest »

Well, that’s that then.  Mum’s flat is sold; we completed on Wednesday and what an emotional roller-coaster of a day it was!  Emptying the flat of everything was as if she’d died again.  The poor removal men must have thought they were dealing with a very weird woman who burst into tears when all they’d asked was “Is the headboard going?”. 

What a wrench!  And the new owner has gone straight in and ripped up carpets and started pI’ainting – all things I’d have done if I’d been given a mortgage – yet her doing this, with what is now … Read the rest »

My dear regular readers will know that a month or so back I stopped watching the news because the manipulation by the broadcasters, and the supposition – one news bulletin I watched contained four items in the “this could happen!” vein – and the continual negativity and pessimism just got to me.  I actually didn’t miss it; I could eat dinner whenever I liked without  waiting for the Six O’Clock News to end and it was quite liberating not to know or care what was happening or what might happen if x y or z came to pass and to … Read the rest »