Writing associations… I don’t mean groups, but how we hear a story or a name and link them. I was watching on TV “Turn of the screw,” and the first thing that came to mind was Henry James, the author. This got me thinking how many times we do it. There are obvious cases where [...]
I am a simple gardener–I spade, sow, seed, water, then I plant and wait. Loving variety, I am also an eclectic gardener, never like Secret Garden’s Frances Hodgson Bennett’s garden where three hundred coral-pink roses bloomed. Three hundred roses on my fifty by seventy-five foot plot would require me to move my house, although I [...]
Artist Paul Cezanne spoke to the question when he said: “A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art. Emotion is the starting point, the beginning and the end. Craftsmanship and technique are in the middle.” You may remember reading that the first time I saw a photograph of Jean Moulin, [...]
Every year without fail, I take the time to lose myself totally in the words of J.R.R Tolkien. First I re-read The Hobbit as if it was that very first time I picked up my copy of it, fifty plus years ago now. And then after a few days, once I have completed it, I [...]
When my interest in Motor-X or Scrambling as we Brits call it started. The big names on television races were the likes of Jeff Smith, Dave Bickers, Chris Horsefield, Arthur Browning, the Rickman brothers and the Lampkin family. Bikes were predominantly UK with BSA, Greeves and AJS at the head of the races. At this [...]
I was having a chat on Facebook on the last night of 2011 with Brian, an old mate of mine from the many happy years I spent, living in Hamilton, New Zealand, who now resides in Canada. Both he and I worked at the University of Waikato, located in Hamilton, at the time. Like good [...]
The two tractors pulled up side by side, two elderly farmers discussing the harvest, and the effect of the weather on the grapes. Their trailers, one full, one empty, who’s grapes were already being crushed and filtered finished their conversation and departed on their John Deer tractors.
Once a week I go dancing. But not just dancing. I go Folk Dancing! Last time I folk danced, I was in third grade, once a week, in the long pause. It was for whoever wanted to join. Now I am 30 years old, again it came my way. At the beginning I just sat [...]
