Those who read Greyhares will know that, when out in public, I am an inveterate chatterer. The content of my chat varies, covering anything from idle chit-chat, to serious debate, to the infamous imparting of unsolicited advice. To these more traditional categories, I have just added a fourth - the 'avuncular chat'. Here, the purpose…
Ganga’s Motor Bus
Twice in my life I have felt very close to my grandfather. The first occasion was on a bright day in the late summer of 1933; old and very ill, but optimistic as always, he was wheeled out into his Warwickshire garden to sit for a while in the sun with his legs supported on…
Was that a white rabbit?
It's confession time. Earlier this year I wrote that I was a compulsive chatterbox whenever travelling on busses or trains and that I had resolved to give the habit up [Pipped at the post, Greyhares, 5 May, 2016]. I failed. My silence only lasted a few weeks and I was soon chatting again at full…
Not so fast!
Graham Dukes contemplates Life in the Slow Lane It was not very long ago that I realised how much the slice of the world with which I am in contact was speeding up; it was positively running away from me, but also attempting all the time to drag me along with it. Not, you understand,…
Sharks beware
On 2nd December 2014, almost two years ago, my wife Rohan had a horrible cycling accident. That day, as she was cycling home, she was hit, and then run over, by a van [On Church Road, Greyhares, February 12, 2015]. After two months and ten operations the fractures of her pelvis had knitted, the skin grafts…
On the breadline
Autumn came a little early this year and one morning, well before sunrise, I was the solitary figure freezing outside our local bakery. I had been queuing for hours - well, more precisely 35 minutes - but had I arrived any later my mission could have been jeopardised. The story began some months beforehand when…
To Stevie, with love
There he was;
Thinking inside the box
Forget the shenanigans that go on amongst gardeners at ground level [Divided we stand, Greyhares, 29 August 2016], there is an altogether different world a little higher up amongst the avian community. Life for the birds appears altogether easier, but they too have their problems, and in this instance I am talking about residency. With trees…