It was almost eight weeks before I managed to get to the cottage again, after the brief visit with my cousin for lunch. This time I was able to stay overnight, and the following morning I explored the new house, what I have called the North Block of the property, which was given to Kithsiri’s son Ashan after he got ...

I had a little over six weeks with the puppies after I got back to Canada, weeks in which they grew quickly, for they were over two months before the next journey this year. That journey was also a sentimental occasion, for it was to celebrate my 70th birthday in Oxford. I had had my 50th birthday party there, for ...

There was another picture I took, of the puppies now domiciled there, when I went down to the cottage in late October with my cousin. I show this too here, for was taken on the balcony of Kithsiri’s house, at the gate to the stairway going down to where Bingo lives. He is alone now, after his boon companion Jimmy ...

Sharmini and her family were remarkably hospitable, and sent lots of gifts home, while Mrs Navaratnam loaded me with food after a splendid lunch, so that I did not have to get in more supplies for the days that remained. And this was just as well, for having ventured out on the next day I caught a chill, which made ...

The picture I had tried to upload has not appeared for today’s post, so here it is, but preceded by one of Blackie facing the other way, so you can see at least something of his face

As I have noted, Lara had two other puppies in addition to the four I kept, now sadly three, Of the two of them, Blackie went to Kithsiri’s in May, and Bruno a month later, when I persuaded Kithsiri with a commitment to provide funds for their food. This was a way of ensuring they stayed part of the family, ...

My second trip this year was to Canada, to accompany my cousin Shan whose affairs in Sri Lanka I look after. She had had a delightful six weeks here, with for the first half a friend who had flown out with her, with whom we travelled to different places. Then in the second half she had stayed in Colombo, while ...

I wrote last week to settling down over the last four months to life with my menagerie, three puppies and three older dogs, or rather four for one should include Rocky, who belongs to Kavi but has also devolved to me for feeding, and affection, for the others are not at home as much as I am. The pictures I ...

Having finished the account of my journey to England last year, I move now to this. The highlight of the first half was my trip, to England, which I went to in May, both to celebrate my 70th birthday in Oxford, and to see an area of Britain I had not been in before, Scottish islands. But before I talk ...

So in the last four months and more, a longer period than Bimbo lived, I have grown used to having just the three puppies with me at Lakmahal. Luna who was the second and looked large turned out to be more fur than flesh, and is still the same, though she has not grown very tall. Branco the fourth, who ...

Well over a year has passed since my trip to England in the summer of 2023. I was there for just over two weeks, but reflecting on that period, the places I went to and the friends I met has provided these 22 articles for this facebook series. It has also instilled in me a delight in the pleasures of ...

I wrote last week about the sheer joy of spending much time with the puppies last June, when they were growing up so delightfully and estabilishing their individual personalities. But changes began then, for in June Bruno went away, to join his brother Blackie at Kithsiri’s. He had been meant for Getamanna, from where I had got Toby, but Jothini ...

I wrote last week about the sheer joy of spending much time with the puppies last June, when they were growing up so delightfully and estabilishing their individual personalities. But changes began then, for in June Bruno went away, to join his brother Blackie at Kithsiri’s. He had been meant for Getamanna, from where I had got Toby, but Jothini ...

I noted last week that I had planned to get to Heathrow early on the last day of my nostalgic visit to England this year, since John Harrison with whom I was staying at Eton was due to go to London for lunch. But it was Robert Binyon, a mutual friend, with whom he was to lunch, and I was ...

As the title last week indicated, this series of posts is a recycling of those that have appeared on my Facebook page. But given the difference in the readership of the blog, I wanted to share here too my joy in the puppies. And it has also been interesting to reread, six months later, what I felt in those long ...

Dinner with John Harrison was like dinner with Leslie Mitchell, for he could only do ready made food which he heated up. But like Leslie he also made excellent selections, and the wine was excellent, so we did very well. And then it was early to bed, though not to sleep, for I was carried away by the reading I ...

I wrote this piece in June, when I had got back after two weeks in England, to find the puppies that still remained – Blackie had gone away in early May to Kithsiri’s house – and was overwhelmed at how they had developed. Their exuberance and the joy with which they greeted me also carried me away, for I had ...

After lunch with Sam I walked back to New College in time to say goodbye to Miles and Lammy who were off to London. That afternoon I spent reading in my room, joined there in the evening by Regise, the dog, after the maid had left so that Regise and I were alone in the palatial lodgings. Before that I ...

Blackie left us early in May. We knew this was going to happen, for Kithsiri had asked for him, and it made sense for him to go to his new home when he was two months old, and had had his third vaccine. But it was still a wrench to part from him. As my niece put it, in one ...

While I was with Bruce he had mentioned a stained glass window honouring Oscar Wilde which had been put in a couple of years ago into the back wall of 9, Merton Street where I had lived in my last year as an undergraduate. In the same building, he said, were the etchings by Elizabeth Frink, illustrating aspects of The ...