My husband Brian is an enthusiastic gardener, and very good at it. In between undergraduate and postgraduate studies he worked full-time as a gardener at his old college. When we first met he would tell stories about the exhilaration of physical labour in the depths of winter, and being able to eat two lunches […]

  The search for the story of your family is exhilarating, frustrating, time consuming and can be expensive; it’s wonderful!   Slowly your heritage is revealed, you meet fellow researchers, you have the joy of sharing what you have found and being given wonderful information that you only dreamt of finding. You find cousins four times […]

What a boring but necessary task I have embarked upon!  As I am moving to Sri Lanka for a year I began a very long and tedious list of what must be put in place. I like lists and best of all I like crossing things off them. I had the obvious chores listed; arrange […]

 The Featured Image is courtesy of The Hermannsburg Potters. The Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair celebrates its 10th year in August and Fifty Five Plus is proud to once again support this important showcase of Aboriginal and Torres Strait talent. This year the event doubles in size to encompass fashion, film and a panel discussion. I […]

  As the US Presidential race draws to a conclusion, it is perhaps timely to revisit this seminal work first published in 1995 and released again in 2004 with an updated preface by the author. Barack Obama was elected President of the USA in November 2008, some years later than the publication of Dreams From […]

  This is a story that has been told many times before but rarely with such appeal and sensitivity. Brooklyn relates some of the fears, hopes and the harsh realities that immigrants have encountered for centuries when starting life anew in a foreign land. It is also about rebuilding relationships, building trust and faith, understanding […]

The featured image is of  Barbara & Ian Pollard at Hazelbury Manor We believe that relationships thrive on shared interests, and one that we cultivated together from the beginning was a love of visiting gardens. In the UK there’s a ‘yellow book’ of private gardens open to the public once a year for charity, organised […]

Volunteering – My Story Volunteering – the word conjures up sausage sizzles, cake stalls, second hand shops, car washes and ticket selling. Not for me I thought. I was retired, fit and healthy but I was busy looking after husband, David, playing golf, gardening, walking my two dogs, going to movies with friends, sewing, reading, […]