Posts recording our stay in Italy in September. We thoroughly enjoyed it, so we’re sharing our experience. You’ll get the (almost) full story of our travels, activities, and experiences; warts and all, in instalments.Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7. Part 8. Part 9. Part 10. Part 1129th …
Continue reading Italy: Trip of a Lifetime. Part 12
Science fiction is a broad genre, as is fantasy. Sometimes the two are mixed, as in this piece of imaginative narrative. The book deals with a scenario only too likely should we continue to abuse nature and the environment in the ways we have for the past couple of centuries. However, I have some concerns …
Continue reading Water Entanglement, by Claudiu Murgan: #BookReview.
One of the many small islands on the lake. Posts recording our stay in Italy in September. We thoroughly enjoyed it, so we’re sharing our experience. You’ll get the (almost) full story of our travels, activities, and experiences; warts and all, in instalments. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. …
Continue reading Italy: Trip of a Lifetime. Part 11
Lake Maggiore seen from Ristorante Cardini in Someraro.These posts record our stay in Italy in September. We thoroughly enjoyed it, so we’re sharing our experience. You’ll get the (almost) full story of our travels, activities, and experiences; warts and all, in instalments.Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7. …
Continue reading Italy: Trip of a Lifetime. Part 10
A break from the relentless imperative of the internet is calling. This brief note is to let you know I’ll be absent from the internet, away from the keyboard and screen, for an unspecified period not likely to be longer than a couple of weeks, or so! I need time away from the chaos, insanity, …
Continue reading An Extended Pause.
You can find the whole text, with accompanying pictures of my Year in the Forest of Dean by following this link. Enjoy!
Monday; the weekend over, a new week starting. Here, in Lydbrook, we’d had a pretty busy few days and were missing our usual walks in the Forest of Dean. The sky, alternately threatening and promising, made us wonder about our best option. The village has two very good, and reasonably-priced, pubs that serve …
Continue reading A Taste of Village Life
Monday, we travelled to Southampton for the funeral of a much-loved old lady. Aunt Vera, elder sister of my dad, Ken, fell and broke her hip. At the grand old age of 103, she was quite frail and failed to recover from the op to mend the break. She was a woman who enjoyed life, …
Continue reading Celebrating a Life Well-Lived
This surprising book exudes the author’s enduring sense of wonder and delight at the natural world. Such qualities, when demonstrated by a leading academic, who is also a well-loved and respected TV presenter, can motivate and inspire. I hope many non-scientists read this book. Not an ‘easy’ read, it demands attention and concentration. But it …
Continue reading Forces of Nature, by Professor Brian Cox, Reviewed.
A few days ago, Valerie and I took a ‘quick’ walk following a tough stint in the garden. No surprise that, as we walked one of the tracks we favour, we impulsively decided it was time to explore a faint track we’d noticed a few times previously. Track? It was more like a scramble up …
Continue reading A Sunday Walk in the Forest
Today marks 2 years in our new home in the Forest of Dean. The move away from East Yorkshire, family and friends, was planned and chosen, but none the easier for that. But it was the right time and, we hoped, the right place. Somewhere to settle for our retirement. A place where we could …
Continue reading A Day for Celebration
Let’s face it, the past few days, weeks and months have been pretty traumatic. In UK, the unresolved Brexit situation lingers. Devastating earthquakes, typhoons and hurricanes, have caused destruction worldwide. And a new President Elect threatens changes of real consequence to more than just the USA. So it’s been a pretty torrid time. Hope’s depressed, …
Continue reading A Walk in the Autumn Forest
Nestling close to Turkey, so you feel you might swim the channel to the mainland, lies the Aegean island of Samos. If you dared that swim, though, you’d probably be swept into the wilder parts of the sea never to be seen: the undercurrents are very strong! Valerie and I hadn’t visited Samos and chose …
Continue reading A Sojourn on Samos.
We live in a place of outstanding beauty, my wife and I. If possible, we walk in the Forest of Dean every day. Today, we took a fairly familiar route but followed the trail the opposite way round from previous walks. That, in itself, is a stimulus to the brain, of course. Different viewpoints bring …
Continue reading A Sense of Wonder
Yesterday was my birthday (68, for those who care) and Valerie and I had planned a visit to a local feature I’ve wanted to photograph for a while. The weather, however, had different plans. The morning forecast was pretty dire, with predicted heavy rain and the possibility of thunderstorms. Not ideal weather for the 9-mile …
Continue reading How Soon Nature Retakes Expropriated Land!
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Antidote to the Novel
Stuart Aken 