Opinion

A forgotten path tucked away in Bury St Edmunds town centre has prompted some discussion on these letters pages in recent weeks.

Winter has us firmly in its grasp, though contrary to some people’s assumptions the countryside is still full of life – you just have to know where and when to look.

When I left London, kicking and screaming all the way with the words of Samuel Johnson ringing in my ears, I was initially bedevilled by every cliche and lazy assumption about the countryside – boring; where you retire to; insular and culturally narrow; full of late adopters, etc. etc.

2014 was a great year for wildlife at Lackford. Starting with our smaller birds, 2014 proved to be an amazing breeding season for most with one of the best breeding seasons for many a year.

You’ve probably seen a lot about New Year resolutions already, but it is a great time to take a fresh look at what you’re doing with social media in your business. Or the perfect time to get going if you haven’t started already.

“The Bury Free Press will be open to communications from all parties. We invite assistance and suggestions from every class. We shall not afford space to gratify personal resentment or disappointed spleen.”

If Christmas is the loveliest time of the year, what follows next is more a feeling of trepidation and concern.

When our children were young, we often found that carefully chosen Christmas gifts were more or less discarded by Boxing Day – in favour of the packaging they came in.

I have been a teacher for more years than I care to count so there is very little that fazes me. When I was asked though to write this newspaper column I felt terrified.

If you were to make a list of the top discussion topics of my friends, politics might not be on it. Young people in the UK have a reputation – probably deserved – for not caring about what happens in the Westminster bubble. 18-24 aged turnout at the 2010 election was just 44% - the lowest of any age bracket.

It happens every year - commentators urging us to clean up our collective act when a new year dawns as if the past one has been such a miserable failure.

Another festive season is here and we are all no doubt just a little older, wiser, poorer and fatter than we were a month ago.

Everyone says you should be on social media and it can be an important element in any marketing plan. However, it may not be right for everyone and other marketing tools may be more effective.

Thanks to some clever marketing by the Post Office, the robin remains very much the bird of the festive season.

As we nibble through the Christmas leftovers and mince pies, The Rubbish Diet social enterprise is now getting prepared for the New Year celebrations, launching its biggest national campaign yet.

It’s that time of year again. We’re often told that in an age of presents, parties and pigs-in-blankets, it can be all too easy to forget the ‘real’ message of Christmas. The Christmas which is founded on the story of the nativity – on the birth of humanity’s saviour on Earth – is a time when we preach tolerance and peace. It’s not about the insular family occasion which dominates the Western view of the 25th December.

Last week I collected our Christmas tree, so I now feel very festive It’s lovely to come downstairs to make the morning tea and be greeted by the fresh pine scent of the tree; it really does set me up for the day.

Perhaps the Christmases of our childhood always seem brighter, shinier and more tinsel-strewn than in reality they could ever have been.

I love Christmas, always have and always will. This love affair all started, as it always should, thanks to the festive attitude of my parents. Small things they did for me and my four brothers have stayed with me and been adopted by me, now writing this as a father-of-two.

With less than a week to go, I wanted to wish all the Bury Free Press readers a very happy Christmas.