It seems almost impossible to forget the songs we heard in our youth. My best friend at school was a huge David Bowie fan, and, with this month being the anniversary of both Bowie’s birth (in 1947) and his death (in 2016), listening to Radio 6 Music’s retrospective connected me to every day we spent in her living room after school.

My friend emailed me yesterday to say that she and her husband are moving house next week. They’re moving to a smaller and more manageable one-storey house with a garden.

Audrey was getting me a glass of water after I’d ferried some rescued paving stones through her house to her neglected back garden, untouched since her husband died. I’d already cut back some brambles and discovered some grass underneath and she now needed a solid path to be able to get out there to enjoy … Continue reading If you don’t like cats, look away now… →

Loneliness has become a visible public health issue, particularly at this time of year when corporate and media organisations’ Christmas and New Year messages have been about making – or remaking – connections with others. You can see the start of this trend, aimed particularly at older people, in advertising from 2015 onwards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_%26_Partners_Christmas_advert However, despite … Continue reading Connections →

Gill is 64 (so currently pensionless) and lives in rural Scotland surrounded by books. She is a permaculture and forest gardener, a climate change resister, a stickler for honesty and integrity, a breast cancer survivor, an intersectional socialist feminist, and a single parent of twins. She has trained and worked in organisational development for over … Continue reading Guest blogger for January →