Jun 8th, 2008
English as a Fecund Language
A Chicken and Egg Situation I spent a while teaching English as a second language in Thailand many years ago, and had a splendid time. Not only did I find the language (especially the written characters) more beautiful than my own English equivalent; the culture, the etiquette, the people, the weather, the food, everything beguiled [...]
Jun 1st, 2008
Digging For Victory: Sky Farmers and Guerrilla Gardeners
Old News: Gardening is In Once again in the UK it has been suggested that we are behind the eco-friendly times, now caught red-faced and red-handed with basket-full of imported vegetables. The production and transportation of food is responsible for 23% of our carbon footprint; above home energy, personal travel, and running shared services like [...]
May 25th, 2008
Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov
The Song-Bird of St Petersburg pays tribute to Sri Chinmoy at the Royal Albert Hall Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov is a living paradigm in the world of music and poetry, justly lauded in his Russian homeland and throughout the world. Tapping the ‘infinite silence’ within as a source of his prolific creativity, his songs are his [...]
Mar 25th, 2008
The Railway People
There was an earthquake in England last month. It was a small one, but our biggest in a quarter century, so it caused due commotion. It woke my friend in town, and in her half-sleep she thought the wind had got up and was buffeting her house. It woke me too, I remembered later. “It’s [...]
Nov 25th, 2007
Greyfriar’s Bobby: A Small Scottish Saint
I’d put off visiting Scotland for over a year, even though York is inexcusably close, and even though a very kind open invitation stood since I moved north from Wales. That’s the trouble with open invitations, and things that are close: they hover just below the top of the list of things one may do, [...]
Sep 23rd, 2007
A Foreign Tourist At Home: York Minster
I was brought up as an atheist, so it may count as rebellion that I went to church today: a Sunday… perhaps… until you hear I went as a tourist. I am not an atheist, far from it. I must get that straight. Straight away. I never have been. I am not a Christian either. [...]
May 15th, 2007
Living Outside The Box
Browsing through GoodNewsNetwork today I found this article about shipping container housing. “Inexpensive and abundant, old shipping containers are turning into good looking affordable housing,” so it claims. Further research brought me to similar programmes around the world, including the UK’s Container City. The second development (pictured) comprises 22 studios over 5 floors and took [...]
May 8th, 2007
Training for the Olimpicks
If you missed (as I did) the National Worm Charming Championships on Sunday, and you have a soft spot for silly British sports, don’t worry, there’s still time to train for the Olimpicks. If you don’t (as I don’t) fancy the competitive Shin Kicking, there’s “the traditional sackrace where the sack is tied round the [...]
Mar 5th, 2007
Meadow Revival
“There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,The earth, and every common sightTo me did seemApparelled in celestial light,The glory and the freshness of a dream.It is not now as it hath been of yore;–Turn wheresoe’er I may,By night or day,The things which I have seen I now can see no more.”William WordsworthFrom Ode [...]
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