Devonshire magazine November December 2018

In association with the HOME DESIGN YEARBOOK
But here’s the thing...
PRE-CHRISTMAS QUIZ
Whether you were one of
that number or not, with
Christmas just around the
corner, we thought some
of its findings were worth
summarising here.
Five things people say loneliness is.
1. Having nobody to talk to.
2. Feeling disconnected from the world.
3. Feeling left out.
4. Sadness.
5. Not feeling understood.
Firstly, a THIRD of us often
or very often feel lonely.
Being alone is not the same
as being lonely.
Young people can feel lonely
with such intensity because
they have less experience of
regulating their emotions
and this might be only the
first or second time they’ve
felt lonely in their lives and
they haven’t had the chance
to learn that loneliness often
passes.
It may be comforting to
know that there is now
an appointed ‘Minister
for Loneliness’, her name
is Tracey Crouch.
ANSWER TO QUIZ
What, asked Jimmy Durante,
is the opposite of loneliness?
SOME 2,800 WEST COUNTRY FOLK were
among the 55,000 who took part in the recent
BBC survey into loneliness.
People feel ashamed about
feeling lonely but these same
people can score higher on
empathy.
People who say they often
feel lonely report poorer health. (One in five
GP appointments are thought to be brought
about as a result of loneliness).
Olden days readers will recall that the
much loved American entertainer Jimmy
‘Schnozzle’ Durante once said that “the
opposite of loneliness is happiness” and
sang about it on the last three minutes of
the soundtrack in “Sleepless in Seattle”.
You can hear it again on youtube by tapping
in Jimmy Durante, Make Someone Happy.
poet found himself in Teignmouth and had
some fairly unromantic things to say about
his three month stay.
The weather kept him indoors, much of his
time spent writing, including one piece of
what he called ‘doggerel verse’ about the
town itself.
Stirring stuff
STIRRING THE CHRISTMAS PUDDING is
as much a chore as it ever was -which is why,
many centuries ago women hit on the bright
idea of calling it ‘a tradition’ and that every
member of the family might make a wish as
they stirred. Hmm!
Stir-up Sunday this year is Sunday, 25th
November. Alternatively Harrods “Decadent
Christmas Pudding” this year can be had
for £24.00 plus £5.95 for delivery. Saves all
that stirring.
Season of mists and
mellow rainfulness?
EXACTLY TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO
this December, John Keats the Romantic
“Being agog to see some Devonshire, I would
have taken a walk the first day, but the rain
would not let me”.
“The green is beautiful, as they say, and pity
it is that it is amphibious - mais! but alas! the
flowers here wait as naturally for the rain
twice a day as the mussels do for the tide”.
Especially sensitive were those Romantics
when confronted with Nature.
JOHN FISHER
hubcast
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What’s on in Devon
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