Meanderings I Dedication (October 2011)
Journal
Volume 2 : November 26, 2021
Meanderings I
Dedication
(October 2011)
What seems aeons ago, a little boy was playing as happy as a lark with his sisters and cousins in a rather posh garden in Leamington Spa. The grown-ups were taking afternoon tea on the other side of the French windows, those windows equally posh with a diagonal pattern and lead framework, and the huge hydrangea bushes.
The large garden had a beautiful birdbath and this inquisitive little boy decided he needed to see into the actual bath, the problem was he could barely see over it. So he decided to heave himself up and oh, the end of the world came, as the heavy stone circular bath crashed to the ground leaving its glorious pillar an inglorious stump!
The Earth paused, the clocks stopped, the birds ceased to sing, even the wind gasped.
No. The grown-ups didn't seem to feel the earth shudder. And quick as lightning this little boy’s eldest sister Carol, and his cousins Vanessa and Nicola, all put their backs to the grown-ups and lifted it up and restored the birdbath to its preeminence, albeit minus the water. The winds heaved a sigh of relief and the birds began to sing again and the little boy vowed he’d never ever, ever, ever again touch a birdbath.
I don't think the grown-ups ever did find out, and today the birdbath sits in another very special garden in Gloucestershire, at the foot of which still sits the earless rabbit and the little boy.
I dedicate this book to my sisters Carol and Vanessa and also to my cousins Vanessa and Nicola, my younger sister Vanessa, being named after our cousin by the grown-ups!
It seems this little boy has spent a lifetime upturning birdbaths of one sort or another! But hey Ho! The family always rallies as it has in 2011 when, I confess, I really did think the end had come!
October 2011
Liverpool
Kenneth Thomas Webb
Liverpool and Gloucestershire
November 26, 2021
All Rights Reserved
United Kingdom - Ukraine - Denmark - Germany - Australia - New Zealand - Canada - USA
© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2022
One of the Fifteen Founding Members of the Leaders Lodge
… An Inglorious Stump
as it is today, along with the little boy and the earless rabbit, just as they were on the day the Earth paused and the wind gasped … Why is it that this little boy is now old, whereas the little boy in stone remains unchanged?!
Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.
He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.
Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.
In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.
