Ashleylister

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2334 )

• Build-Up

  

  We are well into the build-up to December's Festive Season, call it what you will... Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Koliada, Laylat al-Raghaib, Saturnalia, Yalda... Read more

  Posted on 18 December 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Robins

  

  (Erithacus rubecula, European Robin) are small birds with a distinctive red breast and are a common sight throughout Britain and indeed, throughout Europe... Read more

  Posted on 18 December 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Robins

  

  Mark Robins scored one of the more iconic goals in his career when he was playing for Manchester United in an away game against Nottingham Forest on the 7th... Read more

  Posted on 17 December 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Build Up

  

  The other week my friend was telling me about the trip she had made to Dubai with her son. She was describing the places they had visited which was interesting... Read more

  Posted on 10 December 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Achievement

  

  “If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.” That is one of my father’s sayings that he was fond of using. I don’t think I ever thought of him as a wise... Read more

  Posted on 04 November 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Trick Or Treating

  

  All Hallows' Eve (aka Hallowe'en), a liturgical event in the Christian calendar observed on 31st October, used to be a simple act of respectful remembrance for... Read more

  Posted on 03 November 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Spookiness

  

  I remember quite clearly sitting in the cafe at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston in about 2012 chatting with a guest for our radio show. Read more

  Posted on 29 October 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Sailing

  

  This evening I'm ruminating on the concept of sailing in the 21st century. Rewind a few hundred years and it was all fairly straightforward: body of water plus... Read more

  Posted on 26 October 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Wedding Cake

  

  It's serendipitous that this was 40 years ago tomorrow (October 19th 1985). Susan and I moved house two days later and lived out of boxes and on wedding cake fo... Read more

  Posted on 26 October 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Lancashire Dead Good Poets' November Open Mic Night

  

  Make a date with us for Firewords Night - our November open mic poetry event on zoom...Join us to read and/or listen along from the comfort of your own fireside... Read more

  Posted on 24 October 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Goal

  

  I stood on the terraces at Bloomfield Road at 2.30 this afternoon wondering what to write my Goal blog about. By 3.45 I knew it wouldn't be about Blackpool FC a... Read more

  Posted on 23 October 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Sailing

  

  The first visual depictions of sailing boats have been dated as far back as 5500 BCE, discovered on painted discs from Mesopotamia. Clay models and iconography... Read more

  Posted on 23 October 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Sailing

  

  How wonderful it would have been to go on the Moody Blues Cruise, or On the Blue Cruise as it was more recently known. A flight to USA then a few days sailing t... Read more

  Posted on 21 October 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Wedding Cakes

  

  You can safely assume that wedding cakes are not an area that I have specialist knowledge of or indeed any knowledge of. I thought I’d better have a quick look... Read more

  Posted on 15 October 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Wedding Cake - Celebration

  

  A cake is a recognised symbol of any celebration and has been for centuries. A wedding cake has always been a traditional centre piece to the occasion of a... Read more

  Posted on 14 October 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Bi-Polarity

  

  Everyone knows that Earth is bi-polar. And many people (not all) are aware that Polar Bears inhabit the Arctic region and adjacent areas (Canada, Greenland,... Read more

  Posted on 13 October 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Polarity

  

  You are invited to come and see the Earth turn’. If I’d been in Paris in 1851 and got that through the post I’d have been right there in the front row. Read more

  Posted on 08 October 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Goal!

  

  In football it’s an old saying that goals win games. How many times have you seen a game where one team has all the possession but fails to score and the other... Read more

  Posted on 03 October 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Goal!

  

  On the 30th July 1966 I was sitting in the front room of our house watching the tv alongside 32.3 million other viewers in addition to the 96,924 at Wembley... Read more

  Posted on 01 October 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Goal!

  

  Final Score: Blackpool 1 Barnsley 0What a goal! It was worth freezing in the rain for that winning thriller that brought a lump to my throat and a tear to my... Read more

  Posted on 30 September 2025 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION