Do you like your first name? I really hope so! It is the thing that I am most grateful to my parents for. I wish I had asked my father in which book he had discovered it. When I started at the Red Maids’ School, there was only one other Esmé, and she was in my form. She was a boarder, and I was a day-girl I am grateful …

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Before we went to live in France in 1980, I thought that my female friends there would be excellent cooks! Not so: many of my English friends are more talented. We were very often invited to join them for dinner and it was usually the husband who cooked the meal. My son is an excellent cook, far better than me or …

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Thank you to those readers who told me that they liked my poem in last month’s magazine. That was very kind, so here is another. Eternity means ‘time without end’. It is the same word in French: we share so many important ones! I remember at a party once, a friend said to me: “An hour at a party goes by in a flash, but …

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I have just read our September ‘Frenchay Community News’ which pleased me! Thank you Alan for your poem, which I enjoyed reading! Now I hope that more of you will write one and give it to the Editor. Some people have said that they couldn’t write one. It’s not true, everyone can, and why not try? First of all, think of …

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What a wide subject! I have a large book called ‘The Soup Bible’ which has 200 recipes. I eat soup almost daily. Why? I have lost my appetite and also have difficulty in swallowing. I cook a meal almost every lunchtime, but sometimes cannot eat it. I tip it into my food processor and add juice before spinning it into …

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I expect that most of you reading this have a favourite painter. Everyone who knows me realises that I am a devoted fan of the French Artist Claude Monet His paintings are said to be the most well known and loved works of art in the world. I have many books full of copies of his most famous works. Just a short time …

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This is my 221st article in this magazine, so please forgive me if I ever repeat myself. It would have been the 222nd, but, one month during the pandemic, there was no magazine. I have not featured our lovely Queen and her family before, but we have just had her special weekend! She certainly deserves all the praise …

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Yes, on the last day of April, my family joined me in celebrating this event. What fun we had! On the previous Sunday, I shared a special service in Frenchay Church, and kind friends had the spire lit for me on the 30th. How lucky I am! I still have a party to look forward to, to be given by my neighbours who are also …

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Unlike myself, I hope that you eat proper meals! Hopefully my family will join me for lunch at the end of April, for my first restaurant visit for several years! I have booked a French restaurant in Clifton Village, and my son and his ‘clan’ are coming down from York and Manchester, whilst my daughter and her family …

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As April is my birthday month, I am being self-indulgent and writing about two of my favourite subjects – the artist Claude Monet and waterlilies. Monet was born in Paris in 1840, but his famous work was achieved in Giverny. This is where the River Seine meets the River Epte, and is just 75 kilometres north of …

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