Meeting place

2024-03-26 -

More park life!

◆ While my husband and I were out for a walk recently, the sound of laughter coming from a children’s playground was so infectious that we moved closer to investigate.

Imagine our surprise when we saw that all the swings were occupied by elderly ladies.

A coachload on a church outing hadn’t been able to resist the playpark attractions. Those fun-loving ladies were proof that laughter really is the best medicine around.

Charlotte Macauley, Co Down

Kindness is key

◆ Your article on how Pet Love is True Love really spoke to me as I’ve just lost the love of my life, Billy, aged 12. Supportive friends make all the difference, those who have dogs themselves particularly understand, but how especially kind it was of my friend, who doesn’t have a dog, to take me to Billy’s favourite beach for the day and walk along it with me. She checked to see if this would help me and it certainly did. Such empathy and kindness from friends at this time makes life so much brighter. Thank you to them all.

Angela Hindle, North Duffield

No evil here

◆ This photo was taken recently at my granddaughter’s wedding, of me in the middle, her other grandmother on the right and my sister-in-law. We decided to pose as See No Evil, Speak No Evil and Hear No Evil. Our combined age is over 250 years but we can still enjoy ourselves! June Chapman, Cambridge

Poetry corner

So, I’ve noticed a change in

the start of a sentence

So I don’t want to keep you

in any suspense

But young folk now start

every sentence with ‘So’ Which seems to have

replaced Innit and I Dunno. What’s your job? ‘So I work

in a shop’

‘So I’m a typist’, ‘So I’m

training to be a cop’

‘So’ has become a much

overused word

Like so many words that

I’ve overheard.

But then in my day

everything was ‘fab’. Except when it wasn’t and

just a square drag. So Michael Jackson said

‘Oh man that’s really bad’ Which helped to create

another verbal fad.

So now we start each

sentence with So.

So, where it will end

I really don’t know.

Name and address supplied

All abuzz

◆ Seeing the spider web in the recent Yours magazine reminded me of this photo of a wasps’ nest I took several years ago. I thought it was so beautiful. It had been sprayed and you can see a dead wasp at the bottom. I have never forgotten the magic of this construction. Name and address supplied

Spice solution

◆ I sympathise with reader Joan Marriott’s problems with spice jars, in issue 448. The simplest solution is to change her brand to ones with wider necks each time she needs to replace her current ones. Sainsbury’s and M&S both sell herbs in such containers. In the meantime, she might try decanting her current ones into jam or similar jars with screw tops to keep them fresh and dry. I really hopes this helps. C. Fletcher, Basildon

◆ My greatgrandchild presented me with a lovely colourful plant. I asked what it was called and she said it was a ‘gerbil’. It turned out to be a gerbera. Heather McEwen, Norwich

Wonderful walks

◆ The recent letter from Glynis Pierson in Yours

(about having fun with children for free) really got me thinking. Our children were happily entertained while growing up (they are both now in their 30s) with two firm favourites of ours: dark walks and beach walks.

We would set off excitedly in the winter months around 3pm and it grew darker as we went, and our rambles became an exciting, mysterious experience where maybe strange spooky things lurked!

Beach walks involved great long shore rambles finding all sorts of interesting things such as seashells, sea glass, and driftwood, and we would often participate in ‘international rescues’ (remember Stingray and Thunderbirds?!) involving liberating crabs, starfish and even squids from their sandy, stranded graves back out into the water when they were left high and dry on shore! This taught our children respect for nature, the natural world and all who inhabited it, and they both still enjoy regular walks.

Lisette Davidson, Nairn