“Your time on earth is limited. Don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

I spent much of yesterday at one of my favourite places – the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon. I’m hoping to help them out as a voluntary writer from time to time as they develop their digital platforms for children. Meanwhile, they’ve asked me for a few activities they can hand out in school holidays [...]

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The Castrato and His Wife

There is something infinitely sad about listening to the unnaturally high, reedy voice of Alessandro Moreschi, the last castrato singer and the only one to ever make a sound recording (in 1902). When he died in 1922, Moreschi was a relic of a past era. The height of the fashion for castrati coincided with the [...]

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Almonds on our tree

IMG_0479, a photo by mefinx on Flickr. The weather this Saturday was unseasonably warm (27C!) and beautiful, so we harvested things in the garden. I volunteered to strip the almond tree. We’ve had our tree about three years and this spring it did us proud with a glorious show of blossom. A good half of [...]

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