reading | Wait until next year

July 28, 2016

Making up our lives – gardening, writing and “My Roots” by Monty Don

Recently I’ve heard a fair few people talk about that old curse May You Live In Interesting Times. And Interesting may be one of the more polite adjectives I might think of when thinking of 2016. And when you live in interesting times there is a great temptation to escape. In the past I might have escaped via the bottle, or a YouTube rabbit hole of nostalgic clips, or some daft game on a mobile phone. And I’m not sure any of those are entirely bad, at least in moderation. But in 2016 I have escaped by gardening. Except I don’t think it is just escape. I think it is more than that. Perhaps I should just let someone else say this more eloquently. Read the rest of this entry »

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March 20, 2016

Any tense/eventual ruins

Image from page 84 of

A couple of quotations. Read the rest of this entry »

February 12, 2014

Thoughts from your correspondent

The more eagle-eyed of you might have noticed I’ve been enjoying a brief sabbatical from this place. Now, I’m eager to move this post beyond just one of those “I haven’t been posting for a while” posts or one of those “Here’s a bit of a holding message, as I might not be posting a while” posts. There is probably more to it than that. Plus, those posts, certainly when executed by me, aren’t that interesting. The draft post I’ve since scrapped for being boring, self-indulgent and basically pointless is evidence enough of that. This is no guarantee that this post will be any less boring, self-indulgent or pointless. But bear with me. Read the rest of this entry »

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November 14, 2013

Pay attention

A painting showing astronaut John Young reflecting pensively.

I’m probably reading too many things right now. I have several books on the go, plus some other books that I haven’t officially given up on, but probably won’t be picking up any time soon. There are a few magazines and old newspapers kicking about, with articles destined to never be read. My Instapaper account is neglected. So are some of my favourite blogs. But I keep plugging away. Read the rest of this entry »

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July 28, 2013

Sunday Reading

By no popular demand whatsoever, a return of one of those posts with links to things I’ve been reading, or planning to read, with little or no context whatsoever. Hopefully you’ll find something here worth reading. Read the rest of this entry »

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