So, my father’s funeral has been and gone, as has my curtailed Findhorn retreat and my own same-day 59th birthday. And while my sibs, my kids (excepting daughter in NZ) and nephews/nieces were there with my steps to see Dad off in Birmingham, for ancient but still important family reasons, my Mum and I needed … Read more …
Just to prove that I am blogging from the real Scotland, and not like Neil Armstrong from a Hollywood studio (OK, I know men went to the moon), a couple of Very Scottish Photos. One of an abandoned, ruined but thoroughly Wromantic 18th century barracks built by the English in their initially vain (and perhaps … Read more …
The photo doesn’t show it very clearly, but with the journey resumed by train from Edinburgh to the Highlands, across the Forth Bridge (see pillars in the background), I’m moved to wonder whether we as humans really deserve to survive. My tendon is behaving itself after all, to my surprise, but this morning in Edinburgh, … Read more …
Readers of this blog from last year may recall my Europe trip being held up for several weeks in Vienna and Budapest with a sore left ankle. Well, Achilles is back, and the rest of the body to which the tendon is attached is, after just one day, laid up in Hawick, stlll Scottish borders, … Read more …
It’s so good – and knackering – to be on the road and the bike again. From Hexham in the far English North across a sunlit Hadrian’s Wall and to Kielder Water some 40 miles into a determined headwind Sun in the morning casting a bulky shadow of self, heavily-loaded panniers and Raven (readers of … Read more …
I’ve just chanced on a brilliant, and indeed inspiring cartoon by Leo Murray about the tipping point and why this time in human history matters so terribly much. It’s the best and most accessible exposition by far that I’ve seen on the science and implications of what’s happening with the climate, and what it means … Read more …
First the good news. We now have a solar water heater installed, as of this week – and it’s brilliant. I’m sure that it took vastly more CO2 to construct and install than it will ever save. But when things get bad, and gas goes off, at least we’ll have hot water. As long, that … Read more …
A couple of short thoughts before I get on my bike on Saturday and start pedalling (with a bit of interim help from CrossCountry Trains) from Hexham to Inverness, for a week at the Findhorn Foundation contemplating the current spring awakening. (I may well blog along the way – keeps the mind safely occupied over … Read more …
(Reposting this with proper formatting and also correcting a fairly major Freudian slip, which suggested that flying and driving might be a meaningful contribution to combatting climate change…. A reminder that it’s best not to post things very late at night and in a hurry.) In an earlier post, this blog tackled the challenge of whether … Read more …
Just back from seeing The Age of Stupid, a new UK-produced film looking back from an imagined hot world in 2055 from on mankind’s failure to take the steps that would have saved our homo sapiens from catastrophe. I guess I’d hoped for a repeat and equally inspirational experience of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth – … Read more …