Learning in the u3a movement

Cycling on a warm sunny day in the Pentland Hills earlier this month, I thought it was time for my bike to have a wee rest.

Even the most active gardener needs to take time out.

This is me - fun and loving, healing and spiritual.

A while ago for a special birthday someone made this caricature of me. Oh to be playing cricket again!

This is me! Enjoying lockdown in the present, reminders of past adventures and future planning.

"An Eclectic Man": Presented with the cartoon on my retirement which illustrates some of my influences and beneath a few more!

This is me feeling very protective towards a small part of our collection of bedding plants grown from seed and being given lots of care and attention during 'lockdown'. The hope is that they will provide a riot of colour in the garden and, perhaps, create a feeling of optimism over the forthcoming weeks and months.

I have always knitted and stitched and grown things all my life. I love colour, and get much pleasure from being creative, and from being outside in the garden as well.

I confess, I am a map addict. I would have been an explorer in another time. I can finally open up maps, lungs and doors and escape into the wild, blue yonder!

This is me staying at home during the pandemic.

Since retiring due to ill health I am now a fully qualified Chief Cook & Bottle Washer!

This is just simply two things I love: reading and flowers. The book is 'A God in Ruins' by Kate Atkinson, who is one of my favourite authors, and the flowers are ones I photograph regularly in my garden.

Anyone who knows me is aware that I am a pedant about the misuse of the English language. My particular bête noire is the misapplication of apostrophies. Takeaway shops advertise Pizza's and Kebabs. if Kebabs is written in the plural form why do they think that a pizza possesses something?! Another pet hate of mine is the lack of an apostrophe in words that are conjugated. 'You are' should be written 'you're' not 'your'. 'Invite' is a verb; invitation is a noun but everyone nowadays seems to say "I have received an invite to....... Grr! I could go on but you can see now why people would know that dictionaries and books on the English language represent me as a person.

Born in Wallsend on Tyne and loving the river and it’s industrial history I’ve selected items and significant books that are close to my heart. Enjoy painting, and photography to relax after recovering from cancer.

Rosemary, my namesake, for Remembrance of close family for whom I mourn and also representing life and joy in my beloved garden together with scent and taste. No longer young, like me, the recycled frame offered a creative opportunity for appropriate embellishment in Photoshop which challenged my patience and skill with layers in Photoshop.