I sat beside a big cannon on Monday. This was not my intention, as I rather like having ear-drums. However, Richard and I arrived late at the Echo Arena due to a heavy traffic jam through Liverpool, and someone else had whizzed our seats. Rather than struggle to find a staff member in the dark, and consequently miss even more of Raymond Gubbay’s Classical Spectacular, we simply helped ourselves to seats elsewhere. Hence our proximity to the cannon. We weren’t the only late arrivals. At least 200 people entered the Arena after us. And we didn’t notice the canon until we’d sat down. How do you miss a whopping great canon? Two, even. It’s a fair question. We were too busy muttering about the traffic jam and uncomfortable seats with stupid plastic arm-rests which are either set too high so your elbow starts aching or else they poke you in the back if you push them into their vertical position. And we were watching the light show. Hmm, Hawkwind could teach their techie team a thing or...

“So,” I said to Richard, “what did you cook for yourself on Saturday night while I was away?” We were on our way back from Lime Street Station where he’d kindly come to collect me after my weekend in Manchester. “I got indigestion,” he said. “What from? What did you eat?” “Pilchards and scrambled egg on toast,” he said, “followed by rhubarb pie. And haggis.”

It looks sunny but it's freezing out there. Emily has dragged her increasingly tattered fleece blanket to the patio windows where she's made herself a nest. Ygraine is reclining on my patchwork cushions in the other room, while pretending to be asleep. I hate to disturb them but tough. They are about to help me continue beaking in my new purple walking boots. My trusty old ones (once blue and grey, now merely grey-ish and grey) are deliciously comfortable but have sprung a leak. They've lasted for something like seven years, and as they regularly get partially dunked in sea water that is no mean feat. The new ones are nowhere near as comfy. At the moment it feels like walking on springy bricks. Still, they are my favourite colour - and we all know how earth shatteringly important that is. Ahem. Cross-posted from:- http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/blogs/booksblog/adelecosgrovebray/display.var.2183659.0.wonderful_words_of_wirral.php Monday saw me putting in a guest ap...

Sunday was fun. My sister Evelyn was here, then Lee arrived, and then Cat came round after she’d finished work. It’s not often that Evelyn is able to see her niece, so they enjoyed getting to know each other a little better over dinner. Earlier in the morning, Richard had cooked the roast lamb with honey and rosemary, and I did the rest of the meal. Cat’s vegetarian, so she peered at our lamb as if it was infected with Ebola. Monday night saw Richard and Lee at the Pacific Road Arts Theatre in Birkenhead, for a Chris Rea concert. Meanwhile, I was at Riverside Writers’ latest meeting, when Tim and I planned the performance programme for Words from Wordsmiths, (which is our contribution to the Wirral Bookfest )  next Monday, on April 7th. Nine members of the group will be taking part, and there will be a variety of fiction genres and poetry on the night. Thanks to West Kirby Library’s staff, we’ll be able to offer tea and coffee. And we’ve been given the use of a microphone, wh...

Can you throw some light on this puzzling stone carving? Located on the foot of Caldy Hill , facing Thurstaston Common, this large slab of rock has obviously lain here for centuries, if not millennia. It is covered in lichen and moss, which has softened the edged of the graffiti carved into it. There’s even a small face peering from the rock. But the real mystery is the strangely-shaped indentation which looks as if a person could fit their back and head inside it. Think of a vertical oblong, with the top two edges rounded off and with a smaller round bit on top. What was it for, and who made it? Was it a modest shelter for shepherds, who would perhaps light a fire then nestle into this odd chair? But surely a small hut would have given more shelter, especially if the wind was blowing towards the rock face. Was it, as someone suggested, a Celtic ossuary carved to hold a display of bones or similar items for religious purposes? Was it a Viking look-out point? The location seem...

"T" Saturday March 8th, 2008. Fly free, old friend.