Tag Archives: bernard

17 January 2009

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Another three-mile walk today, and the halfway point turned out to be French Church Farm (pictured), on Caistor Lane, where my paternal grandparents lived when I first knew them, in the early 50s or very late 40s. Later they moved up the road to The Hawthorns, a bungalow about half a mile away but on the main Norwich-Poringland road. I suspect the first at least was rented, and possibly the second. Strangely, despite all the changes in Poringland, The Hawthorns remains more or less as I always remember it – at least from the road. I assume that the chemical toilet has been replaced. French Church Farm now looks smart and is probably worth quite a lot. The barn where the pigs used to be has now been converted into a rather swish-looking quite separate residence.

The countryside there is quite undulating and strangely beautiful, at least in winter. There was a bit of a wind, but it wasn’t too cold, and we would have walked further if Dot hadn’t had stomach problems, which meant we had to cut it short. We’d parked on the low ridge where we saw the shrew a few days ago and have now completed another section of a walk given in a book we got for Christmas from Dot’s cousin Peter.

On Thursday we went to Bernard O’Brien’s funeral at Earlham Crematorium. I didn’t know he’d died till Peter Wright rang on Wednesday to let me know. Apparently he died on Christmas Eve: he’d been unwell for some time – with bad arthritis apart from anything else. His death resulted from pneumonia and heart failure. Bernard and his wife Barbara (and son Bart) had been our neighbours at Yelverton for 12 years. They lived in a chalet bungalow called Mallow, and Bernard was very mellow – a gentle giant who was generous and kindhearted as well as rather eccentric and full of esoteric knowledge. He made me a 7×7 “chessboard” which I still have beside my computer. There’s a Viking game you can play on it, and I may take it up in his memory. Barbara looked quite well, and Bart was extremely emotional.

I’ve decided to sort out all the files in my room, which is a bit of a mammoth task, but I suspect it will free up lots of space. I am determined to enter some competitions and am digging out a couple of plays I wrote but never got round to offering to anyone. They don’t seem bad to me, but then they probably wouldn’t, would they? I wrote a very short piece yesterday to enter in a short short story competition. I’d also like to continue with my autobiography-up-to-a-point, encouraged by Peter Beales publishing his. He sent it to us yesterday, and Dot has already started reading it. Haven’t written any poems this year yet, but I’ve discovered a few from the past that I think are quite good and might be worth entering in competitions.

We’ve just been practising the songs for tomorrow. I’ve written a new one, called Echoes of God, but I’m not sure it’s quite ready to be sung.

Norwich City have just won 4-0 after sacking their manager. Brian Gunn was the caretaker manager for today. Perhaps he should have a shot at it…

14 January 2009

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We’ve just been for a three-mile walk at Venta Icenorum, the Roman town about three miles outside Norwich, and this is Dot approaching the church in a mist that lifted as we arrived and came down again as we left. Other pictures on Flickr. In between, quite briefly, bright sunshine. We did the longer walk around the site, found a couple of swans on the river, which was flowing briskly, and some magpies on the hill on the other side. The combination of mist and sunshine was spectacular at times, with naked trees coming out of the mist like Romans emerging from the past. After finishing the round we walked a further mile and a quarter on permissive paths that have only recently been opened along the sides of fields. We walked up to a low ridge (the only sort you get in Norfolk) and sighted a tiny shrew by a marker post. Then walked past an Anglo-Saxon burial site marked by pines reaching into the sky, through the mist, towards the sun. All very pleasand and unexpected: in Norwich it has been bright sunshine all the way.

Earlier today looked at some cottages in Scotland for a possible holiday with David and Vicky and the children. We also received the sad news that Bernard O’Brien had died on Christmas Eve. It is his funeral tomorrow, and we hope to go. Bernard was our neighbour for 12 years in Yelverton – a gentle, eccentric giant.

Dot has been busy with her philosophy for children. She spent most of Monday at Terrington St Clement with Sue and Roger Eagle, and they have another three dates there in the next couple of months. Then she was down at Barbara’s all yesterday afternoon after we had had our hair cut. Naturally I have been putting the time to good use, though I can’t quite remember what I did. Our Tuesday Group was at the Archers’ last night, which meant we didn’t have to worry about cooking.