Blog
Changing Stones
Inbetween my time in the memorial gardens and near the Victoria Wood statue the other day, I picked up a newspaper produced by Bury Art Museum and Scuplture Centre on the area around these features, which lies close to the museum itself. It includes a quotation from John Ruskin, which is taken from his essay, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, first published in 1849. He talks about the value o
Continuing Synchronicities
Yesterday I wrote about Jini Reddy's book, Wanderland and, in particular, how synchronicities form part of her search for magic in the landscape.
Combining the Land and the Human
Just over three weeks ago, I wrote a blog about our relationship with the land. Yesterday, I wrote about a particular place in an urban setting. Perhaps partly because my focus was slightly different, I didn't at first realise how much these two blogs could be linked and I'm going to do that now.
Everyday Heroes
I have written before about how sometimes a series of thoughts forms a set of cascades through my mind like a mountain stream.
Our connection to the land
Sometimes, a series of thoughts that I have begins with particular words. An English word that is not in common usage is “heft”. If something has “heft”, it has weight or importance. It can also be used as a verb: to “heft” something is to lift it or even to pick it up to check its weight. But there is another meaning which does not always appear in the dictionary.
Fertile Ground
This morning I was thinking about the image of how powerful ideas can be when received into “fertile soil”, which is ready for “planting”. As usual, when I start to use an image, it began with one particular aspect, namely a sense of expectancy or even excitement when there is this possibility. However, that became a more extended meditation on this image as time went by.
Polar Ice
I started writing this at the end of a week (in mid-May 2024) in which both the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and the Leader of the Opposition, Sir Keir Starmer, had made significant political speeches. Keir Starmer’s, in particular, had something of the feel of a “manifesto launch”. Some weeks later, having not posted this before this point, we are now in the middle of an election campaign.
Agent for Change
There have been a number of changes to the MPs in the UK Parliament featured in the media over quite a large part of 2023. Some of these have already taken place, but the majority are still in the offing. I want to write here about one that has affected me more than most. Given the subjects I have covered in blogs here over the last few years, it perhaps won’t come as a surprise that it is t
Do No Harm
Rishi Sunak has today announced changes to some practical elements of the government's climate change strategy. He has suggested that this is in order to reduce the burden for this on the people of this country. I find it difficult to believe that this is actually what is going on. I have no idea if it will be published but I have sent the letter below to The Guardian:
Seeing Beyond
I haven’t posted a blog on here for quite some while. I’ll explain why at the end of this piece. This was actually written about six months ago, but I am only now going ahead and posting it.