Stuart Aken's Blog, page 13
March 11, 2024
Now the Real Work Begins.
I’ve spent the best part of the last 12 months engaged in research for the new novel I’m now writing. I’ve ended up with three documents totalling 83 pages and 54,468 words, many including links to some of the research sites used for the information. Add to that the 604 pages from the Chronicle of …
March 10, 2024
The Harry Potter Experience:
Warner Bros Studio Tour, London, The Making of Harry Potter. Originally posted on the Medium blogging platform and reproduced here for my regular readers. I’ve read all the Harry Potter books, as our daughter was a fan when a child, and I started by reading the first three to her. She read the rest herself …
March 9, 2024
Oddities Observed On Outings #3 Tiny Snowman
Cute, isn’t it? This tiny snowman was placed atop an old railway sign that still exists alongside a path that now runs along the space once taken up by the railway lines. I was taken with the patience that must have been present in the creator to make such a small, delicate figure out of …
Continue reading Oddities Observed On Outings #3 Tiny Snowman
#ScenicSaturday 9th 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 depicts a calm day on a beach under the chalk cliffs on the northeastern shore of the North Sea at Flamborough, just north of Bridlington in East Yorkshire. Here, …
March 3, 2024
Symbols in Australian Aboriginal Art
The Visual Indigenous Language that Communicates Cultural Life. First published on Medium. I published this on the blog platform, Medium, but only subscribers can read there (it’s worth the small subscription, by the way, as there is a huge variety of good quality work on there), so I decided I’d also post it here for …
March 2, 2024
#ScenicSaturday 2nd March 2024:
This continuing series depicts our beautiful world, encouraging viewers to share them and help save our unique home from human carelessness and indifference. Recent months have seen me featuring only photographs taken in that specific month, though not necessarily the current year. I think, with the UK entering meteorological spring on 1st March, I’ll include …
February 28, 2024
Oddities Observed On Outings #2: Who Put Holes in that Rock?
This is the second in a proposed series on peculiarities I’ve encountered when walking. I originally intended these posts to appear only on Medium, but that’s a platform where most readers subscribe with a small annual fee for the opportunity to read from a vast collection of posts covering an enormous range of interests. It …
Continue reading Oddities Observed On Outings #2: Who Put Holes in that Rock?
February 24, 2024
#ScenicSaturday 24th February 2024:
This continuing series depicts our beautiful world, encouraging viewers to share them and help save our unique home from human carelessness and indifference. Today’s photo depicts a stretch of the beautiful River Wye, which forms a boundary along part of its length between England and Wales. Taken from the English side, it shows a local …
February 21, 2024
The Owl Service, by Alan Garner: #BookReview.
I have no memory of acquiring this book, which is considered a children’s classic. I wonder if the mystery of its origin in my home was a factor in keeping me read it since I found it hard work. Generally, I need to empathise with at least one character in a book to give it …
Continue reading The Owl Service, by Alan Garner: #BookReview.
February 17, 2024
#ScenicSaturday 17th February 2024:
This continuing series depicts our beautiful world, encouraging viewers to share them and help save our unique home from human carelessness and indifference. Today’s photo shows sunlight fanning through the faint February mist in a place we look on as our ‘magical’ forest in the Forest of Dean. The spruce and pines here form such …
