Stuart Aken's Blog, page 12
April 21, 2024
A Short Visit to Wiltshire: #1, Silbury Hill
This short series of posts, relating to places of interest in the English County of Wiltshire, is intended to help visitors know what to expect. I’m not presenting any real details of history, etc., simply describing as well as I can, with the aid of photographs, how to get there and what you might see. …
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April 20, 2024
#ScenicSaturday 20th April 2024:
This continuing series of posts depicts our beautiful world, encouraging viewers to share them and help save our unique home from human carelessness and indifference. Today’s photo of a willow tree on the banks of the River Wye was taken some years ago on a visit to Tintern, a small village in Wales, where an …
April 14, 2024
Oddities Observed On Outings #7
Walking on the lovely Greek island of Zakynthos, called Zante by the younger generation, in September 2023, we consulted a map I’d bought online for guidance. It took us to places we’d otherwise never have visited. On one of our almost daily walks, we followed the winding roads from our hotel up into the hills, …
April 13, 2024
#ScenicSaturday 13th April 2024:
This continuing series of posts depicts our beautiful world, encouraging viewers to share them and help save our unique home from human carelessness and indifference. Today’s photo shows an unusual view of trees. This one taken from a hot-air balloon ride we took for my wife’s birthday in April 2022. We took off from Bath …
April 12, 2024
The Golden Age of Roman Britain, by Guy de la Bédoyère: #BookReview.
Much more archaeology has been done since this book was published in 1999, and that will inevitably render some of the observations here less certain, but the bulk of the text is clearly based on sound academic research. One thing I must question, however, is the title. It’s either favouring the wealthy landowners or perhaps …
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April 7, 2024
How Goes the WIP, 7th April?
Just to update you, I last posted about the WIP on 25th March, here. At that time, the word count was 42,025. I’m now at 62,531, and still enjoying the creative process. The characters are mostly behaving themselves and, so far, I’m not having to allow for too many retrospective changes when I get to …
April 6, 2024
#ScenicSaturday 6th April 2024:
This continuing series of posts depicts our beautiful world, encouraging viewers to share them and help save our unique home from human carelessness and indifference. Today’s photo shows a narrow trail running between stands of tall pines and spruce through the Forest of Dean. The path runs from the road for some distance to pass …
April 1, 2024
Oddities Observed On Outings #6
This beautifully crafted, sorrowing and burdened representation of the Biblical Eve, apparently carrying the weight of her so-called sins in that enormous apple, used to stand on a grassy hillside crossed by a public footpath not far from where I live. The wooden statue stood for many years but has recently vanished. I don’t know …
March 30, 2024
#ScenicSaturday 30th March 2024:
This continuing series of posts depicts our beautiful world, encouraging viewers to share them and help save our unique home from human carelessness and indifference. Today’s photo shows a landlubber’s view of a rough bay on the Greek Island of Rhodes. It’s from October 2017, and I hope it’ll warm the cockles of your heart …
March 29, 2024
The Fabled Coast, by Sophia Kingshill & Jennifer Westwood: #BookReview.
Subtitled ‘Legends & Traditions from Around the Shores of Britain and Ireland’ the 510 pages of this weighty tome reveal the origins of many a dark tale and some amusing stories. The place of superstition in forming and embellishing folk tales and traditions is illustrated in this well researched book. It is fascinating how many …
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