We always used to go places as a family and end up coming home with something to remind us of where we had been. Rarely was it something you could buy. When the motorbike and sidecar broke down in Hertfordshire we sat in a field and I strung a load of acorns together in necklaces….
What Makes A Difference
When I was about fifteen I remember sitting on a beach near where we lived with my uncle who was reading me something he had written about the universe being anti-gravitational (don’t ask! He had a friend whose PhD was on ‘the eleven dimensions’) and I noted that he was frightened of the sea. He…
Quests
I am not sure but I think everyone could do with a quest now and then. We don’t put on metal armour, hitch ourselves to a horse, and go and find a damsel that needs rescuing or a dragon that needs taming anymore. But the need to be doing something is very much in us….
The God We Want
Immanuel Kant observed that arguments for proofs that god exists were either so woolly they could be torn down with ease by reasoned argument, or so abstract reason couldn’t even get a handle on them. In both instances the arguments were of no value to the thinker in proving god exists. Baruch Spinoza, a man…
A Modern Sonnet
I wrote this yesterday morning. For some reason I was quite pleased I had written anything! I thought I would post it so you would know how I spent part of my morning: We’re all writers penning on Time’s paper The incremental moments of our lives Sculpting with water like luckless shapers The haphazard follies…
Just Play The Game
I was always taught at school that sport was wonderful for one’s health, matured the mind and taught one to play fair. Then I heard a senior boy saying to his rugby team, ‘I want you to come off that field with blood on your shirt and I don’t want it to be yours.’ Fair?…
Unintended Consequences
I am not a huge fan of conspiracy theories. That conspiracies and cabals exist I am certain sure, and there are plenty of Star Chamber moments in every nation’s history. But the idea of some hidden group manipulating world history, that terrible events were the consequence of secret plots designed to propagate one political philosophy…
Village Life
Is a little different to city life. A farmer gets up at four thirty in the morning to start their day. Most things in their life are apportioned to cost and time from feeding animals to treats for the kids. The local shop is small and opens at eight and the post office opens too…
Green Vote
I have to pass comment on the United Kingdom General Election if only in memory of the many thousands of people who have died over the years to make elections possible. The leader of the UK Green Party has won a seat in Brighton. I remember many years ago canvassing in south east Cornwall for…
Primroses
The primroses have been flowering for quite a while now but this year they are abundant and as always, welcome. Being in a reasonably mild part of the United Kingdom we are fortunate that they flower through to December and will start around late February – so pretty close to all year round. There used…