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w/e 19 April
Well, what a way to end the week. As if last week’s musical extravaganza was not enough, we were treated to a new opera production from Iryna Ilnytska’s Exeter Opera Group. This time she produced a wonderful version of Rossini’s opera Cenerentola (the girl in the cinders…). The show erupted in a cascade of sound, with all the performers portraying their characters with great expression. There were tears, there was much laughter, and, of course, a happy ending to the blossoming romance between the disguised prince and the lowly Cenerentola. The cast – all of them – performed with great skill and dedication, infusing the audience with their evident joy and skills. It was a pleasure to hear and see HoWang Yuen and Wendi Zhang perform as the Prince and Dandini – hope they will now be regulars. Part of me felt wistful as I remembered the times I had been able to help Iryna with cakes, but I am pleased that the ‘hard core’ of supporters from those small, early beginnings in Exeter are still to be found in the much larger audiences of today. And that the warmth of those smaller events is very much still in evidence in these larger venues. It is time for Iryna to shine ever more widely.
Thanks to Iryna’s encouragement, I managed to give a talk at Exeter Library in an ongoing attempt to market my book more widely. Her phrase ‘if not now, when’ resounds in my brain on a frequent basis. I am much better at ensuring others get seen and heard…however, I ventured into Winstone’s Bookshop in Sidmouth bravely bearing a poster for my talk when I was greeted by the assistant reporting my book was selling well 😊 Music to my ears! That gave me added confidence and I gave an updated talk on Friday (being the first anniversary of my book launch for Stargazing for All) to include the recent visit to view the Winchcombe Meteorite, and the moon mission. Biscuits and chat followed.
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w/e 12 April
Musicals, meteorite, and the Moon
What a week! We kicked off with an early glimpse of emerging bluebells up at Hembury Hill Fort with superb views across to Dartmoor. The sun was bright and warm. Spring was definitely in the air.
Sidmouth Musical Theatre wowed a full house on their opening night with their production of Evita. Among the many highlights was the dance by the generals to Dangerous Games, with their fancy footwork. The cast were highly skilled and professional – and I was comparing the narrator with David Essex, whom I had seen back in the day performing that role. David Finlay was a worthy successor! Grace Hensley was outstanding in the title row – with a performance that ranged from light and bright to deep pathos. The rapid on-stage costume changes were brilliantly carried out. A thousand stars were on the stage as well as in the clear, dark sky when we came out. Overall, the standard of performance was rainbow high.
The following day saw us venture out to the Cotswolds for a nice break in the hot sunshine on our way to Cheltenham. The views, again, were superb, and you could see across the Bristol Channel over to the hills near Abergavenny. And we ticked off two prehistoric burial chambers. One of which, at the end of a picnic area, was easily found and accessible to appreciate the chambered nature of the tomb. Wearing a jumper…it was chilly when we had first set out, I was cautioned to take care by a kind walker. It was, dare I say it, almost too hot!
Thursday was a day of many highs. I was beside myself with excitement at not only seeing the famous Winchcombe meteorite on display in the excellent museum but actually meeting and hearing first hand the discovery by Cathryn Wilcock herself. She is a volunteer at the museum and is happy and proud to share her knowledge and excitement surrounding the meteorite. My son had taken us there via the railway of which he is an active member – avidly pointing out the re-laid track he had helped to lay. He is a certified driver of many large vehicles including the track laying machine. This he does for fun in his spare time.
As if that wasn’t enough excitement, the evening spent at the Everyman Theatre took me back to 1981 and was money well spent on the good seats that we had. Lee Mead took the lead role of Barnum in this magnificent revival of the original musical. It was an exuberant, energetic, explosion of sound and colour during which we gasped at the exploits of the trapeze artistes, gymnasts, dancers, musicians, and help our breath as Lee replicated, successfully, the tightrope walk across the stage first performed by Michael Crawford back in 1981. My abiding memory of the first time I saw it, was the song The Colours of my Life – and I was not disappointed by the current rendition. It is a glorious melody with beautiful, evocative words, sensitively performed by Lee and his co-star Monique Young, starring as his wife Charity. I was transfixed by it all, the standing ovation was richly deserved, and I am not sure how long I would have stayed had I not been prodded by my husband,,,to catch up with my son who was leaving the auditorium…
Friday saw us relaxing and taking a gentle walk around the nearby park with its pretty lake. Then it was off out for some more excitement. This time the excitement of Gifford’s Circus. And what a treat this was! Beautifully presented, the scene was prettily bucolic with fantasy woodland creatures in the orchestra, and pretty lighting. There was fun and laughter from Mole and Rat duo who caused mayhem off and on stage. There was top class singing and dancing, and breathtaking acrobatics, juggling, and trapeze action. The two young ladies performing on the trapeze seemed to have rubber legs as they elegantly performed mind bending acts high in the air. The acrobat troupe are almost beyond description. Members of the troupe actually bounced off the hands of others and seemed to catapult across the arena. They made themselves into pyramids, jumping from one group to another, and with a finale that defied gravity. A two barrelled construction was wheeled into the arena, with a man in each one. As the barrels turned, so they ran, leapt, turned somersaults, before somehow managing to get onto the outside where they continued running, leaping, performing breathtaking tricks, making it look as natural as walking on the ground.
Meeting up with family on the Saturday was a nice way to round off this extravaganza of fun week, although we were all a bit tired. Tewkesbury is a handy place for us to meet as they live in Derbyshire. The day was cold, windy and not at all springlike. I was wrapped up in many layers and scarves. What a contrast to Wednesday!
Devon greeted us with not one, but three hailstorms. Many flowers had come out in the intervening days but before I could take a photograph, down came the hail.
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w/e 5 April
Joy of joys I discovered that the ice-skating world championships are available via BBC iplayer. What a shame they are not broadcast on mainstream TV, so much talent on display, not least from the two British teams 😊.
Given my love for the Moon, I am surprised that the news of a successful launch taking 4 astronauts to fly around the Moon was not the first item here. Surprisingly, I think it is because we are now so used to seeing astronauts on the space station that it did not seem any different when images were shown of the astronauts going to the Moon. The grainy black and white images from 1969 were so much more exciting!!!
The grumpiness continues, this time regarding hot cross buns…Waitrose (that traditional supermarket) offered a wide variety of flavours with a statement in their magazine that the hot cross buns were for all year not just Easter. I was horrified. I recall the days when they were only available on Good Friday morning from bakers. They were exciting, tasty treats. If something is available all year, then it is not a treat.
We took part in a quiz on Good Friday, winning the best prize of all. Coming last, we were awarded a box of tasty, fresh, real eggs. Eggs that can be turned into more treats.
Easter Saturday saw me glued to my seat, breath held, as the university rowers battled against the ravages of a storm ridden Thames for the annual boat race. It was brilliant! And great views of the best river in the world.
I have to admit to a disappointing Easter Sunday. It is my favourite season and much more joyous and colourful than Christmas, but this year, our local church went with substituting the traditional Eastber service with the popular (and rightly so) more informal monthly service. We had been attending this and thoroughly enjoying it but I found I missed the usual Easter communion, the sprinkling of special water from leaves, the renewal of baptism vows. It felt joyous but somehow hollow. The Easter bonnet parade was a fun addition and I always love a chocolate egg, although having refreshments before the service rather than after is something I felt really uncomfortable with. However, when we had the monthly informal service, those attending the normal communion had to have their refreshments first as that was a shared event between the two groups of people.
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w/e 29 March
And another thing says the grumpy old woman…why oh why are we persisting with ‘putting the clocks forward’. There is much evidence as to its disruptive nature and I, for one, really rail against the mismatch between the time and the solar position. All of a sudden, we are catapulted into lighter evenings while the mornings become darker again. It is unnatural. The only benefit initially is to witness the breakfast time of the birds as their clocks do not change!
Palm Sunday saw us join a decent group of people at St Michael’s Churchyard to process down the steep hill to St Paul’s. Even in Victorian times, that hill was deemed off-putting to churchgoers, hence the newer St Paul’s in the High Street. We sang and waved our palms as we wended our way down the hill. One or two passersby took out their cameras to capture this traditional scene.
Apart from that, most of last week was spent recovering and doing the laundry, and having some plumbing work done (thank you to our friends, for whom a nice lunch was payment enough 😊)
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Riding the Rails
w/e 22 March – Riding the Rails
This week’s bulletin is all about the long weekend from Friday to Monday, so strictly speaking this is w/e 23 March!
‘Busy’. That is the one word which sums up the area we visited. Busy, built up, and big. It was bewildering as so much had changed since I had last been there. This time it was as though I had never been there before in my life.
Having to travel by train certainly added to the already convoluted arrangements. What would have been easy and quick by car, took us on a meander on the rails, passing so many towns close together, so unlike lovely Devon.
Day 1 saw us travel from gently rolling landscapes to the flatter plains of the southeast. We enjoyed some precious time with a friend in Newbury who made us welcome with a delicious lunch, before delivering us back to the rails for our night stop in Bracknell, the place in which I struggled to identify anything familiar. There were not many stars.
Day 2 was full of sunshine and warmth from seeing an old friend. We began the day with a light breakfast and a stroll outside to see if I could identify the nearby roundabout. I could not. I felt hemmed in. There were no hills, no points of reference.
Defeated by the public transport, a taxi swiftly took us to the venue where a celebration of a recent marriage of the friend’s daughter was to take place. There were lots of people. We sat with the groom’s friendly parents which was really nice. I spoke to people from the Old Days, most of whom remembered and recognised me. There was a tasty selection of buffet food, with champagne and wedding cake. Thankfully, my friend gave us a lift back to the hotel from where we enjoyed a short walk to a local feature called Bill Hill. This was an odd hill topped with a Bronze Age round barrow, with bluebells just beginning to come out. It was great to see a patch of Berkshire violets and some cowslips, and views of the surrounding forest of fir trees. The pleasant walk was accompanied by the constant drone of traffic.
Day 3 saw us travel (by train!) back to Reading and thence to Maidenhead for a Sunday lunch gathering with some other old friends. Lunch was delicious and we were able to catch up comfortably in a quiet corner of a once-familiar pub. That sounds bad! It was once a familiar landmark, near some relatives of mine…that is what I mean. We spent the rest of the all too short afternoon at one of the friend’s homes before being taken to the railway station for another leg of our journey. It was back to Reading again, before heading to Newbury, again, but this time to spend some time, including an overnight stop, with my daughter. We were feeling more than a bit weary by this stage, although I soon perked up to enjoy a nice evening chatting with my daughter.
Day 4 was hard. Time with friends and family had flown by and now we were dropped off at Newbury station to head towards Reading for the final time, to transfer to the line back to the southwest. The weather thankfully was dry although turning a little cooler. I was looking forward to putting on a thicker jumper. The train was busy and we were crammed in our seats with our small cases on our laps, until a helpful guard took us down to another carriage where there was luggage space. We then settled back and dozed while the towns gave way to rolling hills once more. Axminster was reached and time to retrieve our cases. Roy strode off to his choir, while I caught the bus to Tesco for milk and then home.
The garden was ablaze of colour, more blossom had come out in the warm sunshine. I soon settled down with a nice cup of tea to enjoy the birds and the blossom.
Was it worth it? Yes, of course, it was. I miss my friends. Although I have rebuilt my life here, part of me will always remain in that pretty part of Berkshire where the Thames gloriously weaves it way upstream into the Chilterns.
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w/e 15 March
Saddened by reading on the BBC News website that hereditary peers are to be phased out. They are politically neutral, have inherited lots of land and property many of whom have given a lot to society over the years, and by being in the House of Lords I think instils a sense of having to give back. No doubt there are some who do not. But on the whole, they are a neutral counterbalance to the political House of Commons.
Enjoyed a lovely weekend away visiting my son. We helped with putting a fence up, supervised by some friendly robins. Lots of lovely British banter with and by passers-by such as ‘you’re getting there’, ‘cor, that looks good’, ‘is it a sculpture?’ (a stump needed taking out!), and ‘lovely weather for it’.
We travelled by train. Oh, it sounds so nice. But oh the horror of Cheltenham Spa station on race day. There were thousands of ‘em dressed like clones in estate agent trousers, with flat caps. It happened to be the weekend of Mothering Sunday and my son’s birthday, and was actually a postponed visit from a few weeks’ ago when my son had a bad cold.
And then there was the return journey. Ordeal by cattle truck as the aptly named Cross Country service contained four coaches to carry two trainloads of people. Thankfully, at Bristol I was able to grab a seat and shortly after, so did my husband, although he had the suitcase on his lap. Bad, yes, but not quite so bad as our journey a few years’ ago from Harrogate when he had to have a suitcase on his lap for the entire journey.
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International Women’s Day
Can’t do better than to include my report from last night’s performance of Carmen by the amazing Iryna Ilnytska:
EXETER OPERA GROUP
‘CARMEN’ AT TEIGNMOUTH MUSIC FESTIVAL
“It can’t get better than this!” exclaimed Barry. And yet, each performance by this talented group of singers does get better each time. From the opening bars of the overture, the audience was enthralled by the humour, the joy of the performers, the later pathos as the story took a darker turn, and laughed, gasped, and clapped in all the right places.
Bizet’s beautiful music and well-known songs transported us to a world of warmth and sunshine, a world away from the chilly, damp, and murky evening outside. Organised as part of Teignmouth Music Festival, the event was held in the imposing church of St Michael the Archangel, whose stained-glass windows glowed invitingly from outside, and attended by an enthusiastic audience of around 60 people. We enjoyed coffee and cake during the interval, which also provided an opportunity for friendly conversation and to speak with the cast.
Exeter Opera Group was established by mezzo soprano, Iryna Ilnytska in 2024 following many years of performing as a soloist and with other groups throughout Exeter. She is a force of nature who draws people in with her warmth and friendliness. Her voice is superb but, not only that, she also manages to transform into character in a way not often seen.
Special mention needs to be made of the pianist, Tim Laurence-Othen, who played tirelessly and seemingly effortlessly, and brilliantly, for the entire performance. We were also treated to a performance by flautist, Suzanne de Lozey, as we settled down after the interval. The overall event was a feast of sound and colour to delight the senses.
As well as directing and performing, Iryna works tirelessly to raise funds for Ukrainian volunteers and injured servicemen. Money raised goes directly to where it is needed. Her next fundraising concert is: May 22 Exeter Cathedral 1pm.
Karen Hedges
8 March 2026
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1st March
It’s sobering to realise that last week saw the 4th anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine. My poor Ukrainian friend saw her family home in the Donetsk area, bombed, could not visit her parents there but had to go to Kiev, had a daughter, married, all without her family on hand. She fundraises tirelessly for the volunteers she knows out there.
Education has been another sombre topic with reviews of SEND education support, a drive to improve behaviour by men towards women by beginning with education in schools. I wrote an essay a few years’ ago bemoaning the young age at which children, boys in particular, begin school and expected to sit still. There is no sadder sight than seeing young, lively, Year 1 boys outside a classroom for ‘bad’ behaviour. It has been shown in other countries that a later start means children are more prepared to sit still in a classroom with better social skills.
Bizarrely, the cost of train tickets to Berkshire and back cost more than a week’s holiday in the sun. It is what it is, I said to the ticket person. The whole process was more complicated than booking a round the world trip (which I did once upon a time).
In the name of progress, I learned our friendly local bank will close next year. Apparently, the post office will gain an extra counter for those who wish to deal with a human and to take coins out of the bank.
Well, I think it’s time for some positive comments with the knowledge that with February having now marched off, Welsh cakes and daffodils take centre stage. My Welsh husband is currently in the kitchen making a fresh batch, while vases of bright yellow daffs bedeck the rooms with cheerfulness. Bread of heaven indeed.
More positive news with a sighting of some early flowering cowslips on our afternoon stroll. One day nothing is there, the next they are out in all their glory. Amazing nature.
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w/e 22 February
I am a lizard. At last! The sun has climbed high enough up in the sky to beam into our little sunlounge. Where lounging in the sun has to be done. It is so nice to feel the warmth of the sun on one’s back when out for a stroll. More and more flowers have been enticed to show their colours, with yellows and purples adding to the early white of snowdrops.
What a glorious treat the winter Olympics have been with the many breathtaking exploits. The curling proved to be an unexpected delight with its technical aims and frantic ice brushing.
As I realised we are already nearing the end of February, I made haste to pick up the phone to wish a couple of friends happy new year before it really proved too late and into the Easter season.
My arm continues to be a bit painful although I am gradually getting more movement in it. The escapade brought joy into people’s lives as they could not process how a non-slip mat managed to slip me up. It could only happen to me!
At the Norman Lockyer Observatory I was privileged to show the Lockyer telescope and archives to a guest speaker from the Met Office, and found we knew the same people. Not really surprising but made me feel a bit of a dinosaur when told some of these had trained that person and were now retired. I still feel in my forties. The guest really was.
So, with advice seemingly everywhere to keep supple, eat well, move more, I shall endeavour to get back to where I was in January when I was exercising along to an online exercise chap with the evidence becoming apparent in my arms. Pottering in the garden beckons, alongside trying my hand at some water colouring of the pretty plants. Unable to see the stars outside due to the clouds, I was delighted to be given a starry jigsaw courtesy of my local library.
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w/e 15 February
It is with disbelief that I read that 2026 is the National Year of Reading, at a time when local libraries are under threat of closure. The world has gone mad. School libraries have long been an issue with hours cut, staff expected to run the library ‘in their spare time’ or with volunteers. With all the news focussed on the cost of living, it is surprising that more people do not use libraries. However, there is much in the news about screen time, as well as the pressure for ‘results’, and there is much more back-to-back organised activities for children than there ever has been. With both parents expected to have a career, there is less time for leisure with one’s children it seems.
Counter to this gloomy news, is the heartening meeting with a parent of a former young observer who was ‘over the moon’ to have bumped into me. I was told that the young person is set for an internship at CERN and is indebted to me and a colleague for our efforts with a group of young people at the Norman Lockyer Observatory. I loved leading the younger part of the group and was sad to have to stand down when my father was suffering from dementia, at the same time as my mother-in-law was also hospitalised. It was a busy and fraught time. Then came the Pandemic.
Valentine’s Day comes and goes in our house with a nod to the occasion by way of a heart-shaped cake, which this year was upside down pear cake for a change. With it occurring on a Saturday this year, there was plenty of scope for increased commercialisation and bucket loads of flowers in the foyer of our local supermarket.
A Sunday drive to take Mum to a garden centre became a rather ambitious adventure along busy lanes due to road closures from flood damage, dodging potholes and puddles, while enjoying the sight of drifts of snowdrops and daffodils on the verges.
As I sadly did not get to visit Milan for the Winter Olympics, I have been watching curling, skeleton, skiing, and skating live or via iPlayer. I also caught up with the European Ice Dance Championships, before seeing the latest competitions. So many hours of delight. The skill and beauty of the performances defied belief on occasion, with the skaters seemingly to possess rubber legs.
And so another week begins of rain and cold, yet Thursday looks to contain a ray of hope for a glimpse of those elusive stars. At least our star has shown itself now and again.
Karen Hedges 