The Joe Collier Blog

One morning, Rohan’s elderly, hand-me-down sewing machine wouldn’t start. In her search for a cause she found a tiny screw and several metal pieces loose in the lower bobbin case - the chamber into which the machine’s main needle dips to pick up a second thread.  Neither of us could screw the pieces together again and…

Since I retired my relationship with animals has changed enormously - I now speak to them! Whether it is a bird, a frog or a hedgehog, I find myself greeting them with at least a ‘Hello’. And there is more; on walks in the countryside or when working in the garden I now identify with them; guessing what they might…

I have always chatted, and as I get older I chat more. Sometimes it is an exchange with a passer-by who I have not met before and am unlikely to meet again. On other occasions it is with people I see regularly, and these days a lot of chatting goes on at our local sports…

By any measure, the events over the last few weeks have been difficult. As with the sale of any treasured possession, we were faced with a challenging mixture of anxiety and conflict.  We own a studio in Paris. For many years it has been let but just after Christmas our most recent tenants left. Knowing…

Amongst the fittings in our house, it is the curtains that are particularly dear to me and all will have been bought and made to last. Indeed, an inventory tells how one pair is over fifty years old, two are in their thirties and the youngest will be twenty this spring. With such long service…

We have just come back from a wonderful week in Tréguennec. As usual, the winter winds off the Atlantic were fierce and the rain horizontal but it didn’t matter. With careful planning and nifty footwork we still managed to go for walks and to tidy up parts of the garden, and during most evenings to…

I should start by saying that I like to know how things work. My curiosity, however is selective, I have a special fascination for human inventions, the simpler the better. A few weeks ago I helped open one of the gates of a canal lock and it was thrilling to feel that I was working with a device invented over…

This blog was inspired by two events that occurred this Autumn. Both raised issues about words, not those written in poems or books, or even in science, but those used as people speak with one another. But the events had something else in common, rather than touching on words used in everyday conversation, both raised…

I am very used to losing things - I have done it for years. Most of the objects are soon found, with their loss rarely causing more than mild anxiety and perhaps some agitation. Sometimes, however, emotions spill over. This blog is about the intense feelings that occurred when I lost, and then found a much-loved watch.…

A few weeks ago I had lunch in Paris with a close friend and it was a meal that so nearly did not happen. Tentative arrangements had started in the Spring. Out of the blue, Tom (see illustration), who lives in Australia, wrote to me saying he and his family planned to be in London at the…