Month: February 2016

My Four Green Fields

This is by Hilda van Stockum, a Dutch writer of childrens books and an artist. She spent part of her life in Ireland where she met Evie Hone and painted this portrait, probably at Marley, in Rathfarnham, where Evie had a house and studio.

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Categorised as Art, Family

Fulham Opera

As English National Opera struggles to fill their £5 million annual deficit a new opera house is born. This is St. John’s church in Fulham, West London.

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Categorised as Music

Out of Africa

My cousin, Caroline, made a comment the other day about rowing on the lake at Barmeath. It is always called a lake although I have a suspicion it is really a big pond. Whatever it is, it was created as an ornamental feature with islands and a rustic bridge in the 18th century.

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Categorised as Family

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

I’m not going to apologise for banging on about the In/Out referendum in the UK in June. It is much more important for the UK than any General Election and of great significance for the future of the EU itself.

From Norwich to Venice

In a recent post, More Chronicles of War, I mentioned Diana Cooper’s letters to her son, Darling Monster. This week I had lunch with the darling monster, better known as John Julius Norwich.

Family Holidays

My sister and brother are ten and eleven years older than me, so I am almost an only child. In August my aunt and uncle would come to stay at Barmeath for two weeks with their children, my cousins, Richard and Caroline. This was the highlight of the year for me.

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Categorised as Family

The Jet Set

Like Pooh’s friend Rabbit, I have many friends and relations, amongst them Sir Peter Bazalgette who steps down as boss of the Arts Council next year, but will not disappear into his Notting Hill burrow.

Royal Ginger (not Prince Harry)

Sensing the onset of a cold I have been self-medicating with draughts of the King’s Ginger. The King is Edward VII, who took over the reins from and reigned after his mother, Queen Victoria.

A Storm in a Teacup

On Friday evening I was at the Grassroots Out (GO) rally at the QE II Centre in Westminster; the same evening David Cameron brought his new deal back from Brussels, so the BBC has to give coverage to the GO rally for balance – clever timing by GO, or just lucky? (You won’t join GO… Continue reading A Storm in a Teacup

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Categorised as Politics