history – Page 2 – Through a glass darkly

Through a glass darkly – 146

We are just back from a week down south, with the children and grand-children, and I have been re-reading Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, published in 1945 the year I was born. I guess this book has been around all my life. There was certainly a paperback copy in our house in Wimbledon Park Road, theContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 146”

Through a glass darkly – 144

Trump’s re-election is a mystery to me and to many European social democrats. [I would say ‘liberals’, but I am no longer sure what the word means.] We all know that he is a a self-obsessed egomaniac. And that he is a serial liar. And that he is a serial abuser of women. And aContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 144”

Through a glass darkly – 141

We spent Christmas at Homelands at Lundin Links, enjoying time with Craig and Amelia and Eloïse, and the hospitality of Jan and Colin and Kitty. It was mild and dry, and our room looked across the links golf course to the coastal path of the Firth of Forth. Remembering the Sixties October 1962 is whereContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 141”

Through a glass darkly – 136

Back to Maredsous Maredsous is a Benedictine abbey in Wallonia, in southern Belgium. It was founded as a priory in 1872 on the initiative of Beuron Abbey, a major Benedictine house in Germany, and was raised to the status of an abbey by Pope Leo XIII in 1878. Since 1926 the abbey has been awardedContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 136”

Through a glass darkly – 135

Down in Wycombe “You’re a lovely old man”, the girl at the check-in desk said to me. I’m not sure if it was a compliment. This was at Heathrow on the return journey. Of which more below. We are just back from ten days down in Wycombe. Craig was away for a week walking theContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 135”

Through a glass darkly – 125

Clearing out So, we are busy clearing stuff out in anticipation of selling the house and moving to a retirement apartment in Hexham. [Spoiler alert: We won’t move to Hexham, but it was the only thing that McCarthy and Stone could offer when I looked on their website for a retirement apartment in or aroundContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 125”