My grandfather Sidney Albert lived simply. He lived in a small house in the country, grew his own vegetables, kept a few chickens and all his food was cooked at home in the kitchen. His house had no electricity or gas; it was kept warm by a wood-burning stove and lit by oil lamps and candles. I was very young when he died, but I do remember him wearing a collarless shirt, black worsted trousers, braces (that’s suspenders in North America) and a waistcoat. He never ever went out without…

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The English physicist Isaac Newton had a bit of thing about the number seven; so convinced was he that it was the number God had chosen to order the universe, that he looked for it everywhere. He was convinced that the Sun had seven planets, that the rainbow was made up of seven colours and that the number seven was at the heart of all creation.



Unfortunately, any five year old will ask the question ‘Isn’t indigo just dark blue?’, and put a hole through his argument. Of course it is… Continue

Hay%20Quaker%20Plain%20Calendar%202014.pdf

Richard Davies made the first reference to Almeley Meeting in their travels about 1669. Roger Pritchard gave the meeting house, an adaptation of earlier cottage buildings, to Friends in 1672. Since then it has been used almost continuously by Friends. Edward Pritchard, son of Roger, was one of the thirteen signatories…

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Quakers, as you will know, are not great ones for celebrations. The idea is that every day is a sacred gift of God and that setting days aside as ‘special’ really has no meaning. Having said this, most ‘modern Quakers’ will take breaks at Easter and Christmas as  secular holidays, because the rest of the world does so, and, after all, it’s a break. I myself as a Quaker was once very dismissive of all festivals until I came upon the strange Etruscan myth of Tages, by chance. The…

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