Setting off

Back blip, as Tuesday was fully occupied with tidying up the borrowed house in Anglesey, packing stuff and ourselves into cars and driving home in torrential rain.

Here, Ruth is writing some 'thank you' notes in the house visitors' book, under the beady eye of Fraser Brockington - the man who originally renovated the house, partly using material salvaged from a lost ship.  Consequently the house has a pleasantly idiosyncratic character; as it faces west in a windswept spot, being there really can feel like being on a ship at times.

I spent the final 15 years or so of my career working in the academic public health section of Sheffield University's medical faculty, researching and teaching in various areas related to the sociology of health and health policy.  So I have some particular reasons for appreciating the echoes of Fraser Brockington's presence, in this house.  He was a true pioneer of public health and social medicine. Among many other achievements, his work was influential in introducing the provision of free school milk to children in the UK.  He lived to the ripe old age of 101, and there's more info here, in his obituary, for anyone who would like to know more:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/nov/30/guardianobituaries.education