This is an interesting thought.......

Thinking of the summer..........

Thinking of summer escapes!

Maya Angelou - what an amazing life and woman

Prolific American author, poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou has died at 86.
She was known for her inspiring words that shed light onto the beauty and injustices of the world. She defied labels. She was a walking encyclopedia of careers and passions. She wrote 36 books. She was an actress, director, playwright, composer, singer and dancer. She once worked as a madam in a brothel and as the first female and first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco.

She was best known for her debut memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), which remains widely read in schools. She described being raped at 8 (by her mother's boyfriend) and becoming an unwed mother at 17.

She was friends with Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Oprah Winfrey who hosted grand birthday parties for Angelou.

With her death we lose her immense wisdom. These quotes say a lot about who she was and what she stood for. These are two of my favourites - what a wise woman a real original.

24 hours in Bristol .......Banksy. Daughter and Dr Hembry ......14th and 15th May

Twenty four hours in Bristol and it was action packed. I had an appointment with Dr Hembry as I had not had a catch up review with her for some time. As daughter is now working for 6 months in Bristol,  I decided to have an overnight stop see her and see more of Bristol.

Bristol is such an up and coming city I was keen to explore. Her apartment is just off the steep Park Street so very central - perfect for exploring the city on foot or the no 8 bus!

Park Street - doesn't look too steep but it is!

Here are some of the highlights.......

Dinner with daughter at the Cowshed Bar & Grill in Clifton - delicious food.

This is what I ate ....

Grilled Asparagus with Button Mushrooms, Hollandaise Sauce ; Toasted Brioche 

Pan Seared Trout Fillets with Minted Crushed Peas, Parisienne Saffron Potatoes and Lemon Truffle Cream

It was such a sunny evening and a very smart Cow shed!

Daughter knows how to choose a good restaurant! She's had plenty of practice ! These London girls!


Breakfast the following day was at Bills with daughter before she had to go off to work.

Morning Tea at Bill's Cafe - they are getting everywhere!!

Leaving me to explore the city.....

The Wills Building - the view from the roof terrace at daughter's apartment

Some Banksy pictures .........well he reputedly lives here. I love the fact that he is still anonymous!

Kitty - came across her by the markets

Mobile Lovers - in the Museum ( for the moment)

A statue decorated by Banksy - again in the museum

A wander through Clifton Village - very countrified part of Bristol.

Stop for a mid morning green tea

Wander around the expensive shops

 And the main reason for coming to Bristol a visit to see Dr Hembry who has her practice in Clifton.

She only has some rooms in this beautiful villa

All went well with the catch up and review of the supplement regime - so all good news.

For those of you who love to read about Colin.....

Bath time ....better just stand here and it'll soon be over

Lovely Ruthie who always bathes me - she's very good and never gets soap in my eyes!

Looking so cute! Smelling of bananas and mango - who said that was a good perfume for doggies?

Feeling Low.....

Feeling low this morning .... combination of the weather and news of a friend who has liver mets when she was just finishing her treatment.....and what she and her family are going through and I visited the past - not a good thing to do.

Then I saw these quotes and they resonated so well with me.

                                          And so I off to get a better attitude.

Colin always does this...........

Martin Creed at the Hayward Gallery a very unexpected exhibition -

Earlier in May I went with Sarah to the South Bank

To a Martin Creed Exhibition which was a bit weird and conceptual which I found very amusing

One of the exhibits - a room full of balloons - hilarious fun!

The Jonathan Dimbleby doctrine: You don’t beat cancer by not talking about it -

While I was having an afternoon cup of tea this afternoon at Treacle (where I had not been for a while) I read this article in The Independent Newspaper.

I find it incredible that back in the 1960s that having cancer was such a taboo - Dimbleby believes "The reasons for the taboo are complex, but were in part because people were “terrified”.

In the last 50 years, not only has the cancer taboo begun to break down, but huge leaps have been made in the treatment of cancer. This year – for the first time – Cancer Research UK has predicted that half of all people diagnosed with the disease today will survive.

"Treatment, Dimbleby says, is “light years better” than that which his father received."

But then I remembered my Auntie Myra had breast cancer back in the 1970s - it was a taboo - no one spoke about in the family and she became a recluse and only survived a few months after diagnosis. This happened in my life time!

I thought about my own diagnosis and treatment and how different my experience has been. I have been open about having cancer since the start. I could not have gone through what I have been through without the support of my lovely family and friends - how terrible isolating it would have been to have gone through this experience without them being there for me at every step of the way.

I am so grateful that we have made progress in tearing apart the taboo surrounding cancer. I appreciate that not everyone will have been able to be so open about having cancer and I hope that they find some support through their diagnosis and treatment - as the Cancer Charity Macmillan advertising campaign emphasised - No one should face cancer alone.

One for David and his colleagues .......

Woof woof Manchester librarians! Yes it's me Colin!

Of course it is - especially with a dog called Colin.