This blog stems largely from something I have puzzled over for years and which arises when I am out walking in the French countryside. It is all about the way people behave when they meet ‘strangers’.  A favourite path of mine starts just near our house in Brittany. It is usually empty but sometimes when…

Our home in London is in a suburb bordered by three large parks. In keeping, in any week during the spring and summer, it would be unusual if we did not see urban foxes either sauntering down one of our roads or walking along the top of the wall at the back of our garden.…

Over the years I have had two serious altercations with potholes. The first took place on a rainy day just before I retired, when I mistook a deep pothole for a puddle. I flew over the handlebars, hit my head on the tarmac and momentarily lost consciousness. A cyclist behind me stopped and called for…

Almost a year ago Rohan and I went to the local Mairie (the Town Hall of our tiny village) to ask whether we could build an extension. The plans for enlarging our Tréguennec outhouse were outlined, questions were asked about its purpose and various official documents were reviewed. Not long after, the secretary who runs…

Several years ago I launched a project to save one of my ‘treasures’ from damage. I recruited a team of helpers - guardians - and in this blog I describe what happened. Importantly, the project fits with what I have been doing for years.  I am always on the look out for interesting or unusual…

While these days we occasionally go to the cinema, visits to theatres or concerts are rare, and trips to see opera or ballet even more so. Outings have not been helped by the Covid pandemic and only now have visits started to come back, such that in the last few weeks I have been reminded…

Each day after my gym sessions I have a cuppa with friends. Our cafe is at the quiet end of a large room that looks out over a swimming pool. By tradition, the other end serves as a meeting place both for children as they wait the few minutes before getting ready to swim, and…

                     Each morning after my session in the gym, I have a coffee and a chat with two friends. Recently, we talked about professional vocabularies - as a doctor I spent years learning new terms, many derived from Latin or Greek. By way of an illustration, I…

In last week’s blog (published on 10 February), I asked readers to suggest a word similar to ‘vista’ but which could be used to refer to a scene in a small room rather than in a large outside space. In response, ‘Merrily’ wrote asking me to find - if needs be to invent - one…

Most readers will know of my love for words and in whatever I write I try to use words that express my thoughts with precision. This blog is about an occasion when the word I sought did not seem to exist; well, despite a search through several dictionaries, I could not find the one I…