Personal | Frances Bell

When you cannot string words together as a narrative, turn to textile art

My last post (one of only two since my oldest son Dan Bell died on 1 July 2021) was Loosely connected thoughts on the anniversary of the death of my son Dan Bell – Part 1 , where I wrote about writing, including academic writing (from which I had quickly stepped away when Dan was…

Loosely connected thoughts on the anniversary of the death of my son Dan Bell – Part 1

1. Friday 1 July is the first anniversary of Dan’s death. I find writing very difficult and have done over some time. Still, I know that writing (privately and publicly) is a good way for me to address that difficulty. Writing, thinking, reading, talking with good friends, loving my family and friends, sewing, knitting, quilting:…

A letter I sent to my Macclesfield MP today

Dear Mr Rutley, You are my MP (I live at XXXXXXXX) and whilst I did not vote for you, I have no reason to doubt your integrity. Also, I understand that you served as a government whip until recently. You are in a good position to understand the responsibilities shouldered by those who seek to…

Trees, Memories and Hope

This is my first post since December 2020. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then, for all of us. If we thought that 2020 was strange, I don’t think that we could have anticipated 2021. In our 2020 Christmas card, the greeting was: With best wishes to you and yours in…

An 80th Wedding Anniversary

On 26 December 1940, my parents, Vincent Richardson and Elise Crampsey, got married at the Sacred Heart Church in Drummond Place, Grangemouth, one of many couples getting married in that year. I can’t find the data for Scotland but 1940 was the peak year for marriages in England and Wales from 1862-2009. Vincent hailed from…

Gradually, then Suddenly – caring and careful responses to COVID-19

“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.” “What brought it on?” “Friends,” said Mike. “I had a lot of friends. False friends. Then I had creditors, too. Probably had more creditors than anybody in England.” https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/08/06/bankrupt/ The idea of gradually then suddenly was playing around in my…

Reflecting before #ALTC : Rear view mirror and forward vision

Objects in Mirror are closer than they appear by Aniket Thakur CC BY 2.0 In preparation for our interactive presentation at ALTC 2018 A personal, feminist and critical retrospective of Learning (and) Technology, 1994-2018, Catherine Cronin and I are sharing blog posts of our personal and feminist histories in education and technology that are sometimes…

Reflecting on death as a friend of life

Jenny Mackness wrote a beautiful blog post Death is a friend of life on her return from a 4 day course with Ian McGilchrist that explores the divided brain. But Iain McGilchrist’s view is that life is literally on its way out in relation to the way in which we live our lives and…

Open by Accident

In 1996, I was lecturing in Information Systems in the Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences at University of Salford. A colleague ran a Lotus Notes Server (under his desk as I recall) that hosted a Student Information System – and I had an account on the server for that reason. And then – Lotus…

A memory thanks to Seymour Papert

Papert’s death this week crossed my timeline in Maha Bali’s blog post and Audrey Watters’ newsletter No.173. I wondered when I had first heard of Seymour Papert. I remember studying Piaget’s work on my PG Certificate of Education course at the University of Liverpool in 1987/88 but can’t recall studying the work of Papert, his…