Adding So Much to Life: Art

     Art continues to be a stimulating influence.  I went to an interesting talk by Charlotte Crawley on portrait-painting at the Castle Museum.  She is always an illuminating speaker who makes lots of interesting connections,

No Slacking at the Barre!

     All our ballet classes have been pushing up the level recently and we have been kept (often literally) on our toes.  Yes, we spend a lot of time balancing, but several classes also seem to conspire to get us doing strenuous

Remembrance Day and Fall of Berlin Wall

     The ongoing loss of so many of our young servicemen in Afghanistan makes Remembrance Sunday even more poignant in our time.  What a shame that loss of life in war is not allowed to become an outmoded phenomenon that hardly

Don't Be Afraid of Drawing!

     With practice anyone can learn to draw.  I was never remarkable at it at school, but I enjoy trying to come to grips with it in retirement, and it's satisfying to be able to give some sort of approximation of what one sees. 

A Trip to London

     Half-term Monday saw me making one of my occasional visits to London for cultural stimulation.  The train journey gave me the opportunity to catch up on blog-writing (there seems to be so little  time these days!) and

A Day of Colour In Cambridge

     Last week I had a day in Cambridge for a study session on 800 Years of Colour at the Fitzwilliam Museum.  A conservation scientist would be talking about artists' materials throughout the ages, and would be taking us round

Another Go at Tap-Dancing

            The other weekend I was able to have another go at tap-dancing at the more basic level I needed.  I’d attended classes sporadically, but I was the only complete beginner and therefore

Workshops And More With Northern Ballet Theatre

     One of Norfolk Dance's many virtues is to arrange ballet workshops for us with dance companies who come to perform at the Theatre Royal.  At the end of September there was one based on the Northern Ballet Theatre's current

So Many Ballet Opportunities

     As an older dancer I'm really lucky in the varied opportunities there are now to do ballet in the Norwich area - regular dance classes, occasional workshops with visiting companies like the Northern Ballet Theatre, and watching

Potpourri of Things to Spice Up Life

Over the past 3 weeks or so since my return from Majorca there have been various things adding colour to my life.  I am rediscovering carbohydrates, once avoided as presumed fattening.  As a direct result of the sickness incurred in Majorca

Back to Ballet Classes at Central School With A New Teacher

     Over the past couple of weeks we've been doing our Friday morning ballet class, during Jane's convalescence, with a new teacher, Kerry, who normally teaches children at the Central School.  This has been very stimulating. 

Visit to the Home of the Best Ice-Cream

     In the context of the current Norfolk Food Festival my husband and I paid a visit to the headquarters of our favourite ice-cream, Norfolk County Dairy Ice Cream at the Lakenham Creamery in Trafalgar Street.  (They also make

Back to Ballet Classes at Norfolk Dance

       We are all very happy to be back in ballet class, although there wasn't the long gap this time that there was last summer.  Norfolk Dance Beginners was the first one to kick off, and I've now been to two of its classes.

Norwich Heritage Open Days

     I always love visiting buildings and collections of things, so I was delighted to take advantage of the four Norwich Heritage Open Days again as I do each year, usually going to see different venues from before.  This year

Painting Holiday in Majorca

     A couple of days after the ballet summer school I took off from Norwich Airport with a group of like-minded individuals to spend a week painting on the island of Majorca.  We were all local people, who had the good fortune