Category Archives: Postcards 2023

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Here’s a word game as the year ends

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Wreath

Time is proving hard to catch hold of at this time of year, so here’s a plan to help see The Phraser through to the end of its 365 days of blogging.

The idea is that the post on each of the remaining days will be of something related to the season. There will be a photograph with a word beneath it, and the challenge will be to make a sentence using words starting with each of the letters in the name of the item in the image. Today, for example, the image is a wreath – W R E A T H.

Here is a sentence linked to those letters. Hope you might try too, if you have the time. There must be better ideas out there than the one below.

W – Will R – robin – E – eat – A – all – T – the – H – holly

Will robin eat all the holly?

Thanks for reading. Tomorrow the word will be a little trickier.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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My last London bus trip for the year

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“The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what’s in between.” Norton Juster, The Phantom Tolbooth

This bus ride was not long one. It took me from Shoreditch back to St Paul’s. We wound our way past the big-atriumed office blocks, and the pavements filling up with City workers as the light faded into dark.

On this trip it was the vast and sparsely occupied ground floors – the atria – that caught my attention. The reason for these huge, apparently under utilised spaces, has never been clear to me, unless their real purpose is just to let everyone know how important they are.

Anyway, I had a window seat on the top floor of the bus, and was able to admire these entrances from above. In one I saw an Aston Martin racing car looking a little nonplussed at being there, and then, a few doors down, I saw the enormous aquarium in the photograph above. The scale of the aquarium, the blue of it, and the sight of the fish swimming to and fro, took me completely by surprise. It also took the shine off some of the Christmas trees that came next. Some were gleaming in baubles and lights, others were more restrained, and a few even deigned to step outside their buildings to cheer up the passers by. But … however hard the trees tried, they never quite achieved the same splash as the fish, at least not in my list of favourites.

As for any of them noticing us, I don’t think they did. We passed by unremarked. Just another red bus, windows bright and steamy, rumbling on its way.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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The Tree of Kindness – London

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“We are a charity and social business providing homes, jobs, food and support to empower people to transform their own lives.
Our vision is a society where no one should have to be homeless. We challenge the status quo by pioneering solutions that create lasting change.” Social Bite

The tree in the photograph above was standing in the same spot last year – vivid and demanding to be noticed. This year I tried to catch the amazing light displays while passing on a bus, but they changed as fast as we moved, and the best result was this.

My first impression of the tree was that it was an eye-catching design statement, and I assumed that Charing Cross Station had decided that the season was right for some dramatic decoration. However, a little research soon ended that theory. The tree in the photograph is in fact the Tree of Kindness, put in this spot by Social Bite who describe themselves as “a movement to end homelessness”. Their foundations lie in a coffee shop in Edinburgh, where a young, homeless man came to look for a job in 2012. Out of that first contact grew Social Bite.

Their website shows an impressive list of projects, as well as providing more information about the tree in London. The hope is that the public will donate to support the charity either delivering presents to the tree which will be passed on to those experiencing homelessness, (there are guidelines as to what and how to give on Social Bite’s website), or else that people might donate online (information about that too is on the website). I also read, in case you’re interested in taking something to the London Tree of Kindness, that it will be accepting donations until 8pm on Friday 22 December.

And if you’re not in London there are another four of these vibrant trees in Scotland – Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Dundee.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023