View from the Potting Shed

Tomorrow, I’m preaching once again at St Mary’s, Newport-on-Tay so having had a full and busy week I’m sitting at my PC on Saturday morning/afternoon pouring over the gospel reading (John 4: 5-42) searching for inspiration.
I already have a sermon that I’ve preached on this Sunday in the lectionary (Year A, Lent 3) but I’m […]

Clearing out stuff at Mum’s the other week I came across this story of mine that I’d written at primary school. I thought I’d share it with you. It’s called “Come to the Land of Skull Bay”.
Format
Before I share the story, I thought I’d make mention of the format that I found this story […]

The front

The back
Back in the day, I had friends who sent me postcards. These days they either e-mail, send an expensive text, or we just chat as usual via Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger). This week’s archive postcard is from Chomas, a friend of mine from school days.
Before you read the text […]

I found a box of old postcards today. Expect to see them appear on the blog through the coming months.
For starters I thought I’d share with you this postcard from my school friend Alasdair — who was always known to us as “Egg” back in the day — from a holiday he enjoyed (?) in […]

This week I received a package from Hodder Education in the post. It contained my complimentary copies of Teach Yourself Mahjong (Third Edition) by David Pritchard. And me. (ISBN-13: 978-0-340-92726-7, ISBN-10: 0-340-92726-7.)
While I’ve probably blogged this before it’s probably worth repeating that the reason I came to update the third edition was that the […]

Another poem by Billy Collins.
Introduction to Poetry
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a colour slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them […]

This evening I was listening to Chain Reaction on BBC Radio 4, a show where last week’s interviewee becomes this week’s interviewer. Tonight poet John Hegley interviewed comedian and actor Jack Dee.
It was a fascinating interview, particularly while he was talking about exploring his vocation. At one point he thought he might become […]