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Category Archives: history, politics
skylarks
…. and a post script to the last piece, which could go on and on but here’s just one interesting picture. By early May the snow on the ski runs on Parnassos has melted and the stony base of one … Continue reading
still in Waterloo
An image of the Imax I found on the internet. Out of sight to the left is Waterloo station. The old Shell building behind the Imax has mostly been demolished and replaced with something much bigger. In the foreground you … Continue reading
Posted in and the city, crude satire, going round in circles, history, politics, language
Tagged St John's, Waterloo
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the robin, herbivores in the garden, patriotism, utopia
Bryn Terfel was on R3, a little caption speech for Mendelsohn’s ‘Elijah’ which he listened to at a concert years ago with ‘tears rolling down my cheeks’. I don’t think they roll, do they? not in the sense of turning … Continue reading
garden notes 31, giving up the inula, salvias patens and uliginosa, scientists, Heathrow, myrtle – old wood and new wood
At Heathrow airport, in Terminal 5 departures a series of glass cases show artefacts and copies of artefacts which were found during the building works. One of the biggest archaeological investigations in history. Obviously, since Terminal 5 goes on for … Continue reading
Posted in gardens, history, politics, language
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some notes (on marketing, brexit and language)
I am sorry to announce that I was on a train from Paddington to St Austell just before christmas and as we travelled through the silver-grey Somerset floods in a leisurely row row row your boat sort of way the … Continue reading
Posted in and the city, history, politics, language
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from my diaries for 2016
I ordered some more sunflower seeds from the RSPB and at the end of the transaction appeared the phrase “I helped give nature a home”. Will nature give me one? July 9 from pocket to pocket, to the mantelpiece, … Continue reading
Posted in history, politics, language, my life
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The journey home
I had a ticket – three tickets – for a daring train journey back from Switzerland. Daring to a Brit that is: you wouldn’t contemplate such a journey in this country. It went like this: dep. Pontresina 8.02 arr. Samedan … Continue reading
Posted in diary, history, politics
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on the train
20 September, on the train from Inverness to Edinburgh on the hill going out of Diabaig I reversed a little, as we were two cars caught between Passing Places, and into the ditch I went. I might have been fooled … Continue reading
Posted in diary, history, politics, mountains, flowers, landscapes, walks
Tagged Torridon
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A piece with people, for Sarah
I stayed recently in Anavriti, a village in the mountains of the Peloponnese, at Guesthouse Arhontiko, a wonderful, welcoming place.( the guesthouse ) Maria somehow combines running it and cooking great food with teaching French down in the valley in Sparta. Her … Continue reading
deck chair knee jerk
Some time last year the Minister for Transport, whoever that was and what ever the department is now called, rejected the Mayor of London’s request that more suburban rail services be added to the Overground network and no longer be … Continue reading
Posted in crude satire, history, politics, language
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