“The more we have the courage to walk new paths the more we must remain rooted in our own tradition, open to others who let us know that we are not alone and permit us to acquire a wider vision of reality.” - Raimon Panikkar . Bright sunlight filtered through the curly leaves of the contorted hazel tree to cast green-gold dapples over the Grove. I’d been meditating for a while, trying to fend off the hen which kept pecking at the beads on my sandals. And the dog whose nose was edging ever-closer to my cup of tea. Ah, blessed solitude. No wonder the Buddha didn’t have a menagerie with him beneath the Bodhi tree. Or maybe he did, hmm? My fluffy and feathered buddies follow me around the house and garden, constant companions who demand to join in with everything. They tread the same ground beneath the same sky as me, but who really knows how a chicken, cat or dog views the world? How do human lives seem to them - magical, perhaps? Godlike? Bewildering? Largely irrelevant so long as...

“You have a refrigeration problem,” said the fridge repair man. Hence the overwhelming lack of chill, hmm? The madly-gurgling contraption was barely two years old. We are not pleased. Certainly we will not be purchasing that brand again. The repair man said he could try re-gassing it but the likelihood of this lasting more than a day or so was slim to anorexic. Fortunately the modest freezer section wasn’t full to capacity. There were several tubs of home-made soups and Bolognese sauces which are now on the compost heap. And there was one lone samosa lurking in a corner. Last night’s meal was a bacon feast. We’ll be having roast chicken tonight, and again tomorrow night. Well, these things can’t be refrozen…. And the kitchen bin is filled with ice-cream (sugary poison anyway) and a spectacularly vile apple strudel whose twin was mostly fed to the dogs at New Year. Emily buried her share in the garden. To the best of my knowledge she’s yet to dig it up again. Our new fridge-fr...

asato mā sadgamaya tamaso mā jyotirgamaya mṛtyor mā amṛtaṁ gamaya From the unreal lead me to the real, From darkness lead me to light, From death lead me to immortality. - Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Have you ever stopped to wonder just how much of reality you simply don't notice? Gurdjieff used to talk about "buffers", and how people block out reality in accordance with their own mindset. He termed this semi-aware state "sleep" and insisted that the vast majority of people live out their entire lives as slaves to this condition of automatic self-hypnosis. He developed what he called the Stop Exercise, which was a method of bringing each practitioner into an awareness of their own state of “sleep”. He devised all sorts of irritating, annoying and seemingly pointless tasks for people to do with the sole intention of jolting them from their unconscious habits. This wasn’t a new idea, of course. Many monastic orders and religious teachings have u...

It’s strange to realise that we’re only eleven days from the summer solstice and yet spring blossom lingers on the trees here. How are you planning to spend the solstice? Do you do anything to celebrate the year’s longest day? Many people assume I’ll be heading off to Stonehenge. They’re wrong. I much prefer to visit such places when I’m the only person around, so that means out-of-season and usually in weather which deters everyone else. I have my reasons. In all truth, I’ve never once been to Stonehenge. When I was a child, my parents tried visiting it but couldn’t find it. I kept insisting they were walking in the wrong direction…. Speaking of amusing visits, much fun was had during a recent weekend break with friends. Topics for discussion were kittens, pregnancy, the whereabouts of food deliveries and the mysteries of the universe - all splendid stuff! Returning home, chaos awaited. Can’t I leave this house for a few days without mayhem erupting?!! The dogs had sulked, t...

I’m in the process of developing three new fictional characters for Fabian . I use a combination of methods when creating new people. There’s no right and wrong way to do these things. It’s more a case of experimenting to discover what works for you. For example, with one of these new characters I used a rather direct method. He appears very briefly in Rowan , so I already had his first name and the fact that he’s a musician. I wanted physical contrast with my other main male characters, so choices about looks were easily arrived at. I also wanted a personality which would provide a strong contrast to my other main characters, and so he was given a big, bombastic name to match his loud, exuberant traits and the plot role he plays. For a middle name, I thought of those marvellous Victorian names, heavy with pomp. The surname had been floating around in my mind for a while, and I liked the feel of it and it sounded right. Then I encountered a touch of serendipity. As his is a very ...

The contents are: Peter Hurd: The Literary Chicken; Carbon Footprints; A Matter of Principle. Tim Hulme: The Sugar Loaf; The Mckechnie Plunger; One More Day. Carol Falaki: Equal Footing; I Am; Eran . Peter Caton: The 437; Grandads; Zi and The Boy. Adele Cosgrove-Bray: Food; Party Time; Shell Boy . Andy Siddle: Old Poet; The Old Wirral Line; The Present. Eileen Brown: Waiting; Autumn . Catherine Evans-Hewitt: Celebrity . Clive McLaren: Crippen's Couplet; Water Refelctions; Handsome Is As Handsome Does. The anthology costs £3 and is available  from Riverside Writers' events; Lingham's Bookshop in West Kirby, Wirral; Hoylake Library; West Kirby Library. By the way, Shell Boy features Rowan, albeit in an anonymous capacity.

 If you like children's books, then give  Ingo by Helen Dunmore a try. This story about mermaids off the Cornish coast was imaginative and thoughtful, and introduces the reader to two modern-day children who are grieving for their father. The mermaids may be enchanting but can they be trusted? I can’t wait to read the second in the new series. Also good was   North Child   by Edith Pattou , which has elements of Beauty and the Beast and The Snow Queen. The heroine comes from a farming family who’ve run into hard times. She is pushed into a dangerous and scary life with a talking polar bear - but who is the polite stranger who sleeps beside her each night? Several members of Riverside Writers enjoy reading children’s literature. They admit that having kids or grandkids is a great excuse to indulge in the latest stories. I have no such excuse - but who cares! On Monday, May 24th, local author and playwright Marc Gee will be giving a public talk about his w...