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New Year – old me
By Christine Swan I’m not usually one for resolutions but I did fleetingly think about what I could change as a self-improvement target. Instead, I have settled to consider all of the things that…
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The D’Arras family – Huguenot weavers
By Christine Swan I always look forward to planning European trips so I am considering where to visit in 2025. I have devoted a lot of time to exploring my Huguenot ancestry. This is…
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2024 – a year in review part 2
By Christine Swan In this second review of 2024, I recount my life and times between July and December. July was not quite the summer month that I had hoped for. Although there was…
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2024 – the year in review part 1
By Christine Swan As the year rolls towards a close, I like to take some time to reflect on events, places visited, and time spent. I have a diverse mix of memories but many…
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Simba – the unexpected kitten
By Christine Swan “Do we want a kitten?” my daughter asked on one of the first Sundays after she had gone to university. “It’s urgent, it’s got to go now.” I still didn’t really…
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The Deightons of Bethnal Green – a silk weaving dynasty
By Christine Swan “We are descended from Huguenots”, was one of my father’s mantras. He told me that this explained my grandfather’s love of gardening, interest in science and his own keeping of small…
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2024 – a year of theatre trips
By Christine Swan I have a particular love of being transported somewhere else for a couple of hours, punctuated by relaxing conversation, good food, and the occasional G + T. My own performing career…
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A thought provoking milestone
By Christine Swan This week would have been my late mother’s one hundredth birthday. Sadly this is not a milestone that she lived to see as she passed away two years ago. I couldn’t…
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The Gaffes of Canterbury
By Christine Swan In my previous post, I described how Judith du Hamel had travelled from Leiden in the Netherlands to Canterbury as a young woman in the 1660s. This may have been as…
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Kindness costs nothing
By Christine Swan It is easy to become overwhelmed when there seems to be so much division in the world and countless reasons to feel angry. This week, a couple of incidents caused me…
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Nicholas du Hamel – wolkamer
by Christine Swan I have decided to journey back about four hundred years in this week’s post. After an exciting few days in Leiden, Netherlands, I wanted to share with you my amazing journey…
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Lockdown butterflies
By Christine Swan I know that for many, the Covid lockdowns were a horrendous and very worrying time. This post in no way attempts to undermine this fact. On a grey day in London,…
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Awful Rigours and Wretched Pay 