Latest Blog Posts

Posted 11 min 18 sec ago

Richard de Bold was my 24x great-grandfather, who died in 1211. He was lord of the manor of Bold which is in old Lancashire but present-day Merseyside. Bold is an odd word for a place and a surname. The Bold Parish Council’s site cheerfully offers the following explanation:

Posted 11 min 28 sec ago

Posted 1 day 11 min ago

Rhododendron kiusianum, the Kyushu azalea is a striking flower. The Kyushu region of Japan includes the city of Nagasaki, the infamous recipient of Bockscar’s ‘Fat Man’, the atomic bomb which forced an end to the War in the pacific in 1945. It seems strange that so beautiful a flower should be associated with a place known for its appalling devastation and destruction.

Posted 2 days 11 min ago

Atheist: "If God made everything, then who made God? Hmmm?"

Christian: "If the Cook cooked the burger, then who cooked the Cook? Hmmm?"

Posted 2 days 11 min ago

Posted 3 days 11 min ago

While seeking churches to inspect in Stockport, I came across these cars. Are they breaking the law? They are not parked on the double yellow lines, not technically, anyway. They block the pavement, certainly, and fatter pedestrians would be unable to pass them without walking on the road.

Posted 3 days 11 min ago

Posted 4 days 11 min ago

Posted 4 days 11 min ago

St Andrew’s Church in the Lincolnshire village of Apley has to be one of the smallest in the county. A cheerful little Victorian edifice from 1871, it may once have served as a mortuary chapel where corpses were stored ahead of burials. An older church nearby was demolished and that which was dedicated to the dead became a place of fellowship for the living.