Sarah Walker

If you are a writer who dares to show your work publicly, you open yourself up to an extra level of scrutiny.

My most recent "bucket-lister" was seeing the Northern Lights. For most of my lifetime you had to book an expensive holiday to the Arctic Circle, or at least decamp to the very north of Scotland, to see this natural marvel.

Firework season is upon us, having been heralded weeks ago by youths obsessed with watching things explode extremely loudly in the air.

Brace yourself. I’m about to have a rant (before I do, as a highly trained journalist and consummate professional, rest assured that I do not rant unless I am 100% certain I have my facts right).

From the ancient Romans last week to the ancient Greeks this! I have just landed back from a wonderful holiday in Crete, the largest and most southerly of the Greek islands.

I studied Greek and Roman history at university and am fascinated by the ancient world and the remnants of the past that lie beneath the ground we walk upon today.

I am beginning to wonder if I should apologise for reintroducing spiders to this column.

I’ve had a lovely message from a reader following my recent column about love locks.

I hope you weren’t too disturbed by my column about house spiders last week. It’s funny how seeing just a picture of an eight-legged arachnid produces a physical shudder in many of us, so apologies for doing it again this week.

The herringbone pattern has featured in a few of my columns of late, most notably in relation to patterns on stones used in Yorkshire moorland cottages, and as a decoration used by clock and watchmakers.