In his short story, The Capital of the World, Ernest Hemmingway introduces a cast of characters linked to the bullfight. One of these, he matter-of-factly describes as a coward. Hemmingway chooses not to qualify or mediate this epithet, although he does explain how it came about: the man has been gored by a bull, and […]
Posts
I’ve lived in Gloucestershire for nearly 25 years, but until this month I’d never witnessed the Severn Bore. This is the phenomenon of an inrushing wave that sweeps along the river as it narrows from Sharpness all the way to the first weirs just past Gloucester. The bore is caused by the incoming rising sea […]
Spend week from Sunday 29 January 2023 in Coniston, volunteering at the Youth Hostel. Opportunities for walking are restricted to the evenings, mostly in twilight or darkness. It feels like the village is taking a breath and rediscovering its normalcy outside of the tourist season. Most of the folk around appear to be local, doing […]
Winter walk home from Colesbourne. Well above freezing, but still feel the chill. Skeletal trees. Hawk circling overhead, I think that some poor rodent that has made it this far through winter will today have to become a meal for the bird.
It’s a fine winter day: clear, but with the temperature not likely to rise more than a degree or two above freezing. I’ve conceived the idea to complete a triangle: first to Stratford-on-Avon by B-roads; then, along canal tow-paths to Birmingham or its environs; then, either train home or cycle down the Worcester canal towards […]
Week in Pembrokeshire in a YHA work-party to paint and decorate Pwll Deri. Turns out I’m the only person who turns up, and the hostel manager appears for about an hour on two of the days. So rather a solitary experience. I do my bit of painting, and tidy up around the hostel, pulling up […]