After the posturing in the media concerning sporting female role models, following on from the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year 2011, (where there were no women in the final sift) I naively expected the press to readjust their thinking. I have just been through the sports pages of the Independent on Saturday, I regularly sit through the BBC sports reports, and there is so rare a sight of women’s sport that one would conclude that the female of the species never leaves its armchair except to wash up or cook. I do realise that it is not about sport but big finance, however, for the health of the nation the press and TV channels must get a grip and start reporting the thousands of unsung heroines who regularly get their kit on and go out there training in all weathers.

I wish you all a healthy year.

Denny Bradbury

December is a merry month; well, so the papers say, shops are decked with baubles St Nick is on his way. But what of all the doubters? The ‘What’s it all abouters?’ Those cynics who, with voices clear, expostulate the drab and drear. Midwinter needs to be cheered up, we need a bit of festive cup; Bright Autumn is long gone, and May, well she’ll be back another day. Not ’til the dark and heavy snows are just a memory, so it goes around the cycle of the year and each must hold to its own sphere. When sunny days bring on the hay, when Spring is fresh and every day is full of hope for good times coming birds are winging, bees are humming.

With every good wish for 2012.

Denny Bradbury

It seems to me that the older I get the less I understand about the human need for conflict. Of course in the hunter gatherer stage of our development we needed to kill or be killed in order to survive. But now, delving into different beliefs it seems we all seek after a ‘spiritual truth’. We all have a need to find the ‘light’ that will illuminate our reason for existing. Why do we not concentrate on our similarities rather than our differences. Variety is the spice of life and it would be awful if  we were all the same but I don’t see a need to kill over belief. I doubt we will ever get rid of greed and of course that is the cause of much conflict but why add to our ills by throwing faith into the mix. It should bind us together as we search for answers rather than split us apart. 

Denny Bradbury

Here is an extract from a poem created to celebrate the balance of nature. It is from my book, A Denagerie of Poems.

Christmas roses that glisten and gladden the eye                                                    winter brings jasmine as steel clouds go by                                                              unbidden flowers within reach of the senses                                                                    look forward not back and enjoy present tenses.

***

If we stop and enjoy what is there all the time                                                         Nature’s cycle of growing and dying sublime                                                                      we renew with her rounding of days short and long                                                          so we gather together and sing her sweet song.

Denny Bradbury

I have just finished reading C J Sansom’s Heartstone. It is his latest in the Matthew Shardlake series set in Tudor England. All are very readable and as with all good books I felt sorry that it had come to an end. I want to find out what happens to the hapless lawyer after his latest adventure.  This book had a particular resonance for me as it takes Matthew to Portchester Castle where I played as a young girl with my sisters. The smell of the sea, the wonderful tower where eventually French prisoners of war would be housed, the grassy moat all brought back wonderful memories. Now I know that it might have housed Catherine Parr I shall look for her shadow next time I visit the castle.

Denny Bradbury