A compendium of musical delights by Alan and Margaret Ashworth
AN abiding memory of primary school days is desperately needing a number two but holding it in until home time. One reason was the disgusting state of the bogs; out … Continue readingIzal, a proper pain in the derrière
FOR a while last week we thought the winter was over. We had three perfect days of lovely warm sunshine. Of course it couldn’t last, and out came the thermal … Continue readingThe green, green grass of home
IN previous columns here, here, here and here I wrote about Homage to PG Wodehouse, a 1973 tribute edited by Thelma Cazalet-Keir, sister-in-law of Wodehouse’s beloved stepdaughter Leonora. My final extracts begin with an account by the … Continue readingA final homage to Wodehouse
I am handing the first section of today’s column to my husband Alan. NO matter how closely we monitor the contents of our kitchen fruit bowl, throughout the warmer months … Continue readingA flurry of fruit flies
FOLLOWING my series of comedy gems, which you can revisit here, here, here and here, it’s time to present a selection of readers’ favourites which escaped my gaze. The first, the Arthur Haynes Show, was suggested by … Continue readingComic gems from you, the readers
THERE can’t be many municipal tips which are home to an ostentation/pride/muster of peacocks (choose your collective noun), but ours at the nearby market town of Clitheroe is one. The local … Continue readingPeacock of the midden
I AM no great fan of Nigella Lawson’s TV cookery programmes, where she simpers her way through a recipe, licking her fingers in a culinary version of soft porn. Likewise, … Continue readingA toast to the anchovy
WHILE our daughter Elizabeth was visiting last week, we were in the front room on Thursday evening when we noticed a visitor in the field at the back. With great … Continue readingThanks for dropping in, deer
IN previous columns (here, here and here) I wrote about Homage to PG Wodehouse, a 1973 tribute compiled by Thelma Cazalet-Keir, sister-in-law of Wodehouse’s beloved stepdaughter Leonora. Here is part of the contribution by journalist … Continue readingMugg meets the Master
LAST week contributor Derek Reynolds left a comment about a wonderful visitor near his Shropshire garden: ‘For the first time in my life, I heard a nightingale. Yesterday evening my … Continue readingSerenaded by a nightingale