Mick Canning's Blog, page 16
December 9, 2020
Winter – 4
Mid-winter is the nadir of the year, and although winter does not ease its grip on the land for several months yet, at least the long, slow, lengthening of the days begins. I have no idea how arbitrary the date of 25th December is for our celebration of Christmas day (Orthodox Christians celebrate it on …
December 6, 2020
Sunday Supplement – 1
This arrived at the beginning of the week: the new CD from Belbury Poly on Ghost Box Records. I listened to the podcast of Uncanny Landscapes #5 interviewing Jim Jupp (The Belbury Poly) back in September, and had been meaning to buy this since then. Inspired by British myth and legend, The Gone Away is …
December 3, 2020
Winter – 3
Winter would have brought a period of enforced leisure for our ancestors. Their days would have become shorter with the increasing hours of darkness, until in midwinter the daylight hours would make up only one third of the time. All outdoor activities would effectively cease in the darkness, and even during the day the worsening …
November 27, 2020
Winter – 2
Nature dies down in winter. Certainly, at those latitudes where the days become much shorter and the temperatures plummet. Both wind and rain seem to become more frequent. Snow. It is a period of rest and renewal after autumn has put on a final glorious display of colour. Animals adapt to this in one of …
November 23, 2020
Winter – 1
The long-range weather forecast is predicting generally mild, wet weather in the run-up to Christmas. So still no sign of ‘winter’ yet. Although there is a lot to be said for mild weather, we need the cold of winter to help to break up the soil for the following year and kill off many pests. …
November 16, 2020
R. I. P. Winter
It’s beginning to feel both as though autumn has been with us forever, and that it is especially reluctant to leave us, this year. This year has been a mast year; the trees and bushes have been laden with prodigious quantities of nuts and berries. The hawthorns, especially, seem to be weighed down with berries, …
October 13, 2020
At Last!
Well, that’s it. I’ve done it. It’s finished. Somewhere around mid-morning yesterday, probably just before eleven o’clock. And in the end it wasn’t too difficult; not too painful, anyway. I thought I was going to have more problems than I did, actually. Fortunately, though, it all went quite smoothly in the end. In fact, I’m …
August 24, 2020
The Conquering Hero Comes!
This is another day when I feel frustrated because I’d like to be out travelling, although I did get to have a great long walk on the South Downs on Saturday. But rather than post about that at the moment, I have a fancy to re-post this piece I wrote a few years ago: I’ve …
August 18, 2020
The Cold Caller (3)
Previous parts can be found here (1) and here (2) ‘What is it, Sahil?’ ‘It was a threatening client, sir.’ ‘So, you know how to deal with them, don’t you?’ ‘It is not so easy. He is very difficult, he knows me.’ ‘I do not think that is likely. Why do you think it?’ ‘He knows my …
August 15, 2020
The Cold Caller (2)
Part 1 can be found here. For a couple of days, the incident was always at the back of my mind, but slowly I began to forget it. It must have been about a week later, when they called me at work. I had just put down the receiver after making a sale, when the phone …
