An achievable dream and a very good cause

Lord David Prosser has been a generous mentor and an all-round good friend to me for some time now so when I read his post this morning I knew exactly what I had to do. This post is about Lord David, his wife Lady Julia and a small, very worthy dream we can bring to life – if all of us work together.

The story begins with Lady Julia – who loves horses and all creatures great and small – and the pancreatic cancer she has been battling for about a year. I’ve never ‘spoken’ to Lady J but I feel as if I know her through Lord David’s books. She is a plucky woman who has continued to follow her dream despite the disease that has been whittling away at her strength.

For Lady J the dream is to keep riding horses for as long as possible but riding with pancreatic cancer requires the kind of support only available at riding schools certified for the disabled. The place where she is riding at the moment is called Pennant Park. I’ll quote Lord David about the problem :

‘We really do need to try and get the arena [at Pennant Park] enclosed and a hoist fitted. Once done they can apply for RDA accreditation and Julia will only have a small distance to travel while she still can, but the place can bring pleasure to untold numbers of disabled people as well.’

Retrofitting Pennant Park will cost 20,000 pounds. That is not a huge sum in the grand scheme of things. It is an achievable dream and one that I support 100%. I hope that some of you will agree that it is a good cause as well.

At the moment Lord David is looking at ways to allow friends and well-wishers to make a donation to the Pennant Park project and as soon as he has that sorted out I’ll write another post with the details of where and how we can make donations.

In the meantime I’m asking you all to spread the word. The most wonderful thing about online communities is that we are less than 6 degrees of separation from everyone else so please, follow this link to Lord David’s blog, read about this gallant fight and do what you can to make Lady Julia’s modest dream come true!

Huge hugs to all of you,

Meeks

And let there be…More Barsetshire Diary!

Here in Australia it’s Friday already and what better way of starting happy hour than by telling you all about ‘More Barsetshire Diary’, the third book by Lord David Prosser.

For those who have not yet discovered Lord David’s humorous tales of life in Barsetshire do not fear – each of the books can be read without reference to the previous ones, however once you visit Barsetshire I think you will find the place addictive and the characters unforgettable.

In More Barsetshire Diary Lord David, our seemingly naive and very slightly daft hero takes on the herculean task of trying to turn Awful Edna into a charismatic political contender in the local government stakes. Edna, who is married to the present Mayor, is a prickly character who has the people skills of a porcupine and the dress-sense of Bozo the Clown.  To complicate matters, Lady Julia [Lord David's wife and much loved 'regular'] has been dragooned into helping raise funds for the restoration of a run-down ancestral seat belonging to Dowager Duchess Diana. The Dowager Duchess is twice as formidable as Edna and failure is not an option! Between Lady J, Edna and the Duchess Lord David is forced to reveal that he has a secret weapon – diplomacy!

Of course while Lord David is putting his talents to the service of Duchess and county, Oscar is putting his talents into Lord David, one claw at a time. In this David and Goliath struggle between man and cat, the cat always wins but is that not how it should be?

I knew before I even turned to the first page that I was coming ‘home’ and I was not disappointed. The delicious humour I have come to expect from Lord David was as witty as ever but this time I discovered some hilarious cartoons added to the mix.  I laughed my way through this delightful book and I’m sure my life expectancy has increased because of it! Forget the vitamin supplements and just spend a few hours chuckling as you read More Barsetshire Diary; I guarantee you will feel better for it!