The myth of permanent growth ~ or what goes up must come down

The myth of permanent growth ~ or what goes up must come down Recent news reports on the British economy have been pretty depressing lately. I really don’t find either politics or economics even vaguely interesting but I was struck by various things recently. The concept of growth, for example. Some years ago, I was [...]

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“The Black Mist Descended” ~ a guest post by the legendary Jake Barton

 My guest blogger today is the amazing Jake Barton, enigmatic author of Kindle bestselling thrillers Burn, Baby Burn, its sequel Blood and a number of others (one of which is FREE currently). Do go and look him up on Amazon or at his blog:  Ramblings of a Deluded Soul  The following bio is written by Jake at [...]

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Why the poet’s garden may be a jungle, the artist’s house a mess and why writers often live on noodles

Why the poet’s garden may be a jungle, the artist’s house a mess and why writers often live on noodles A couple of years ago, a friend expressed puzzlement at why we had stopped making our own wine and beer. It had been so much a part of our lives that at one time I [...]

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Rakes in the Grass ~ Hidden Triggers for Emotional Meltdowns

Rakes in the Grass ~ Hidden Triggers for Emotional Meltdowns.   I used to think that the kind of accident you see usually in cartoons where someone steps on a rake and it springs up and hits them in the face were pure fantasy. I mean, surely no one could ever be that stupid as [...]

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The Sea-gull’s Tale ~ knowing when or if to intervene

The Sea-gull’s Tale ~ knowing when or if to intervene. The place where I live is rich in wildlife, but where I work that wildlife is mainly confined to a slice of nature that most people would prefer to ignore or destroy. Rats, foxes, pigeons, the occasional rabbit and most of all sea-gulls scurry, flap [...]

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Lost in translation ~ or the perils of being a teacher of English as a foreign language.

Lost in translation ~ perils of being a teacher of English as a foreign language.   As regular readers may have picked up, one of my jobs is as a teacher of English as a foreign language; the summer school is rapidly draining the life out of me as fast as a pint of Guiness [...]

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Being Queen is a lonely thing ~ why life at the top may not be as sweet as you think

(This is a post from almost a year ago that for some reason, WordPress destroyed. For those who are interested, the queen mentioned below is doing very well still and we now have four hives and a spare on a roof somewhere hoping to lure a swarm into it.) Being Queen is a lonely thing…. [...]

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Making an Impression on the world ~ or why we can never be merely observers

Making an impression on the world ~ or why we can never be merely observers  My most recent trip brought home to me in a number of ways how much of an impression we can make as individuals on the world and how easy it is to underestimate the impact our actions and inactions can have [...]

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“If you’re going through Hell, keep going!” or Why Winston Churchill was Right.

  “If you’re going through Hell, keep going” ~ or why Winston Churchill was right       If life is a journey that begins with our birth, then the ultimate destination is death. This is simple logic talking, picking apart a somewhat overused metaphor and deconstructing it. I often wonder at the way the [...]

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Strangers and Pilgrims now available on Kindle and at the iStore

It’s been a long delay but I have finally managed to get Strangers and Pilgrims up on Kindle. So for those who have been delaying till this deed was done, the wait is now over. It’s available from Amazon US  and also from Amazon UK  and I guess also Amazon Germany but I haven’t checked [...]

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