The Power of Friendship I wanted to share a personal story with my readers today about an authors’ group I belong to that started many decades ago. Originally there were about ten people in the group. I won’t mention names, but they will know who they are. Then life happened. One in the group moved […]
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The Strange Thing That Happened One September While investigating the things that have happened throughout time in September, I discovered an alarming thing! In 1752, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the American colonies all officially implemented the Gregorian Calendar which had first been developed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. It would replace and correct
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How Was Your Summer? As we head towards the end of August and into September, we will arrive at what I always think of as a “new year”. This feeling goes back to my school or college days when everything new started in September. It continued with my children’s school days and now my grandchildren.
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No Place Like Home During my life, I have been lucky enough to have travelled to many different countries and have stayed in a multitude of different hotels through the years. Some were 5-star or better; some mediocre and some (in my youth) hostels or cheap hotels. They all have one thing in common. They
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What does December mean? Another year is almost over. It went by in a flash! December is all about Christmas although many stores were already in Christmas mode before Halloween. I still remember the “good old days” when the Christmas rush did not start until the middle of December and, in the far off distant
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November Blues Welcome to November, the month of dreary rain, gunpowder plots, beheadings, doom, and gloom! Or so it would seem, according to history. The word ‘November’ comes from the Latin word novem meaning nine because November was once the ninth month of the year (in the Roman calendar.) Today, of course, in the Gregorian
The term “dog days” dates back to ancient times when people in different parts of the world began drawing images of the sky by connecting the dots of stars, now called constellations. These dots allowed people around the world to “see” certain images. Our European ancestors saw bears (hence Ursa Major and Ursa Minor), some
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When you’ve been writing and publishing as long as I have, you’ve seen it all—or most of it! I wrote my first story when I was six and had my first article published in a local newspaper when I was twelve—which was a long time ago! But it was in the 1970s and 1980s that
Although William Shakespeare apparently died in 1616 on this date (April 23rd), his words have remained timeless—partly because he was able to capture human emotions that are still relevant today. We still use many of the expressions he coined in his plays such as “love is blind” from The Merchant of Venice, “break the ice”
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“The First of April, some do say, Is set apart for All Fools’ Day. But why the people call it so, Nor I, nor they themselves do know. But on this day are people sent On purpose for pure merriment.” I wonder how many people still consider April 1st as being ‘open season’ to
