#303
Category Archives: Book
#243
#68
Death and Service – The Book
Okay, so this seems to be a thing now…
So, after a year of combining my love of photography with those of genealogy and social history, my first book (eek!) is now available to buy.
hose gravestones has a story connected to it, a story of family and of tragedy, a story of life on the battlefield and of love on the home front.
These were men and women from over sixty regiments, drawn to the cause from all corners of the Empire. They were wounded in battle or succumbed to disease, they were caught up in accidents or died at their own hands. These were soldiers of all ranks, age and class; brave pioneers of aviation; people seeking adventure on the high seas. Above all these were hopes, dreams and aspirations lost, cut tragically short for King and Country.
This book aims to shed light on the servicemen and women behind the names on these gravestones, to bring those long-forgotten names to life again, a century after they were lost.”
Available as an eBook and paperback, you can find it on Amazon by clicking on the image above.
An A-Z of Somerset Villages
With everything else that has been going on in the world, it’s taken a while to get there, but here is the complete list of alphabetical Somerset villages posts. What started out in August 2020 as something of a lockdown photographic project, helping me explore parts of my new home county that I might normally bypass, became much more than just something to challenge my satnav.
Twenty six villages, each with their own individual personalities and traits. Each came into being in different ways, for different reasons, but each brings something different to the county, adding different stories to the county’s history.
(The previously mentioned disclaimers apply to the alphabetical journey. There are no villages in Somerset beginning with a J or a V, so K and W are doubled up. Zeals is technically not in Somerset, but is within a few hundred yards of the border, so I have taken the liberty of including it in the list, as there are no other places in the county starting with that letter.)
Click on an image to visit the village post.
Mellifont Abbey
The gate swung open unbidden. The creaking of the hinges shattered the calm of the trees surrounding him, bringing him sharply to his senses.
Beyond the gate he could make out a building. The windows were shuttered, but he had a feeling that the house wasn’t empty, merely sleeping, waiting for the moment when someone would arrive to wake it from its reverie.
The lawns were tended, and he wanted to take a step forward, to get a better look at the garden, but immediately felt as if he would be trespassing, unwanted, into grounds that had been perfectly manicured by a gardener who had every intention of keeping them that way, no matter what happened.
To walk forward or to turn and run? Intruders were definitely not welcome here, and, without any shadow of a doubt, he would be intruding. But he also felt that it was too late. With the opening of that gate, the barrier had been broken and he was left with only one choice.
He felt himself take a step towards the Abbey…
Homeopathy
Ahead of this weekend’s Mass Observation post, a little bit of randomness I came across during a walk the other day.
Picture this: You’re walking along a rarely used country lane, the only things around you are field and the occasional farm building.
You see something out of the corner of your eye – a flash of colour in amongst the green vegetation.
It is a book.
Homeopathy for Babies and Children was either outgrown or dismissed as new age bunkum, something you’d only find in somewhere like Glastonbury…
Oh, wait…
CKPonderingsToo 