This is not me, it is Roger Medearis’ Granny, but this is how I see myself, ageing amongst fruit and flowers, beside field and water in the sound of church bells.  Roger Medearis called his painting “Godly Susan” … Continue reading →

  In the past decade, Ireland was on the Pig’s Back. For the previous century and a half there had been a constant flow of emigration. Then with the new millennium came the Celtic Tiger economy. From all over the … Continue reading →

  My friend Janis has a problem.  She collects dogs. Big dogs. And then, when she has the dogs, she doesn’t – like the rest of us – just let them run riot, she brings them to a “Université des … Continue reading →

  Yesterday we went to Villefranche-sur-Saone for the Beaujolais Marathon, part of the weekend celebration for the ‘percée” or opening of the first barrel of this year’s Beaujolais Nouveau wine.  Villefranche S/Saone, capital of the Départament of Beaujolais, is a … Continue reading →

Listen, big boy, Now that I’ve got you made, Goodness, but I’m afraid, Something’s going to happen to you……   Grenoble is the capital of the Départament of Isere and of the French Alps, and the second most important city … Continue reading →

It is not just because he is always cheerful and the most wonderful company and lives in a big house in the Languedoc that Martin Dwyer is probably the most popular of all our circle, friends for four decades. It … Continue reading →

  Do you suffer from night starvation?  No, I thought not.   Maybe in 1931 when the phrase was first used by the Horlicks company to promote their syrupy drink, people in Britain – who had eaten their main meal … Continue reading →

                                  In Ireland, ‘Boru’ means a High King called Brian (d. April 1014.)  In France “Le Bourru” means a Vin Blanc Extremely Noveau…more grape … Continue reading →

  All is not fair in love (nor indeed, in war) for a difficult life choice is in determining between elegant hands and a trim waistline, or the love of cherries. I have decided that the joy, wellbeing, artistic and … Continue reading →