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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Creaking Birds
Flax heads hang, seedless, along my path to work. Spring has melted into summer. The tui no longer cry and creak, fighting for the best food, fearless of mere humans walking by. Now tiny sparrows hop for chaff and crumbs, … Continue reading
Excellence and (selective) envy
From the far side of the world I have been watching those bits of the Games that get shown on NZ television. Fortunately, by dint of early rising, I did get to see much of the wonderful opening ceremony. To … Continue reading
Posted in Places and people, Uncategorized
Tagged Charlotte Dujardin, Jade Jones, Olympics 2012
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Hyperreality and Escape in Iran
The ffotogallery in Cardiff has been exhibiting photographs by and about women in Iran. I caught the last day yesterday. As a whole the exhibition oscillates between celebrating love and marking censorship. The curator, Amek Mahmoodian, has a wonderful exhibit … Continue reading
Most beautiful thing(s)
People around the world have been blogging yesterday and today about their most beautiful things, to mark Fiona Robyn’s new book. Now I have to confess I have not got into the spirit of this, and haven’t read enough other … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Monsters and myths
The Gillian Wearing exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery has had a lot of airplay. I had an hour or so (after one of my frequent visits for hand treatment at the London Whitechapel Hospital) to visit. It reminded me … Continue reading
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This is Illyria, Lady: A short history of the Adriatic
The stretch of sea that reaches, like the long neck of a bottle, from the Ionian to the foot of the Alps has been long overdue for its own narrative. Everyone, it seems, has dipped a toe in its waters. … Continue reading
Posted in Cruising, Reviews, Uncategorized
Tagged Adriatic, Adriatic Sea, Albania, anagrams, Balkan, Balkans, Bosnia Herzegovina, Byzantine Empire, Hav, Jan Morris, Middle Ages, Ottoman Empire, Romans
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Hajj in London
Hajj. Pilgrimage. Sacred journeys undertaken to specific places to celebrate, emphasise, renew faith. A complex, crowded concept. The British Museum Hajj exhibition is a complex concept too (though mercifully not too crowded on a Wednesday morning). The content of the … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews, Uncategorized
Tagged British Museum, Hajj, Idris Khan, Islam, Maha Malluh, Mecca, Ottoman Empire, pilgrimage, Zamzam Well
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Books as precious things
I’m sure, as the press developed, some royal ladies bemoaned the loss of their hand painted, velvet-wrapped prayer books. I can hear them complaining that typeset ink just didn’t look and feel the same as the real thing. Fathers moaned … Continue reading
A philosophy of luck
My friend, Peter Matthiessen, was the first Dane to sail solo round the world. These days he makes Aries wind vanes, very clever self-steering mechanisms that keep a boat sailing at a consistent angle to the wind. Peter has a … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Aries, Melkjeven Commitment, Roaring Girl, Verulam Writers Circle
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Three things
Flat battery, forgotten wallet, wrong train. Bad things come in threes so, fingers crossed, that’s me for today. (Not that I’m superstitious you understand.) This is the last of the wonderful January River of Stones. I’ve lost it a bit … Continue reading
