Colours from nature to dye for

Colours from nature to dye for

Bringing the colours of nature into her work, artist and journalist Cathy Dillon is harvesting local plants to create her own pigments and ink   THE EXISTENCE OF COLOUR is one of the great gifts of the physical universe, and the ability to see and appreciate it...
Unstop that writer’s block

Unstop that writer’s block

Ever sat in front of a blank page or screen and felt like your brain was just as empty? There are ways of breaking free of that state and allowing ideas to flood your mind   Everybody, at some time, will have to produce a piece of writing by a deadline (I...
Relentless

Relentless

Even if it seems like it will never end, winter doesn’t last forever. The first harbingers of spring still arrive with a very welcome sense of regularity I was cradling a cup of tea in my hands, letting the heat penetrate into them, when I couldn’t ignore that...
Fan fiction

Fan fiction

Can a third-generation Bertie Wooster get out of his impending marriage to Penny Dreadful? Only Jeeves, great-great-nephew of the original famous Jeeves, can save the day THERE WAS NO TIME TO LOSE. “Jeeves!” I called out. “Jeeves!” “Sir?” He was in the front sitting...
Resolute on New Year’s Eve

Resolute on New Year’s Eve

How can we stay positive as we anxiously enter an uncertain 2023? NEW YEAR’S EVE this year – or rather, last year, or yesterday – was spent in the company of friends in the village in southwest France. It was a convivial occasion during which I drank far too...
Discovering BB’s mysteries

Discovering BB’s mysteries

You are now entering Bussière-Badil in southwestern France. Not everything is what it seems, or what you expect, in Bussière-Badil, well off the beaten track in France. But what can you expect from a village that has been on the maps since 768 CE? When I open the...