Alan Williams's Blog, page 21

Book Review: “Into The Tangled Bank” by Lev Parikian

Into The Tangled Bank – In which our author ventures outdoors to consider the British in nature by Lev Parikian

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Lev Parikian takes us on a nature tour from lying on the pavement outside his house looking at a common blue butterfly to ringing birds on Skokholm island. As he points out “Nature means different things to different people”, and he covers all sorts of perspectives including his own and those of famous naturalists such as Charles Darwin, Gilbert White, Gavin...

Black Lives Matter TWTW # 80

Catalysed by the murder by a police officer of George Floyd, there have been numerous protests around the world and in some cases violence. Some of this violence has been perpetuated by law enforcement, seemingly emboldened in America by a President who seeks to divide the country. But this is not an issue solely limited to America, my own country is not innocent.

The racism has to stop. I write those five words as a privileged white person who in many ways can’t begin to understand what has be...

Suspicious Puddles TWTW # 79

Hello and welcome to the sunny south coast of the UK where that strange orange orb in the sky has been slowly roasting me all week.

I’ve mostly been at home – but things have been pretty quiet, although there are a couple of high spots to share and things to talk about. How’s your week been?

I received my developed film back from the processors, both this photo and the one above are from that roll. I opted for negatives and a transfer to USB stick (that I supplied) as this seemed like the cheap...

Analogue Sunshine TWTW # 78

Hello again, thanks for stopping by.

This week Summer seemed to arrive. Temperatures in the mid to high 20’s, cloudless sunny skies.

Time felt like it was well spent this week, whether it was work related or something else. Days felt like they were packed.

As the week wore on and it got hotter it became harder to sleep at night and I can’t say I was disappointed when things cooled down again on Friday.

You might remember that for my birthday I asked for some 35mm film for my old cameras, my fr...

Lockdown Locks TWTW # 77

Well its been a week of video calls and conferences, phone calls and other physically distanced conversations. Some of my calls went about as well as the one below, but most were much better.

You can also see one of mine that was recorded for my review of The Cabinet of Calm, which was posted last Saturday and can be found here.

Outside of that Ive enjoyed extra dog walks, now back to at least twice a day since Wednesday, but otherwise our routine has been the same and were still observing...

Book Review: The Cabinet of Calm by Paul Anthony Jones

[image error] The Cabinet of Calm by Paul Anthony Jones

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Ive been aware of this author for a while, I have a number of his books on my shelves all of them packed full of words, their meanings and etymology.

The Cabinet of Calm is no exception, but it is also different for it is a collection of words to find solace in troubling times. Prescient then you might say, given that weve all been under some form of lockdown for a while and our futures have an amount of uncertainty in...

Just Walking The Dog # TWTW 76

[image error]Well another week is over and another one starts. At the moment its bright and sunny out there, if a little windy and were just back from our blustery dog walk. It might be that later in the week we can also reinstate our second dog walk. Although that remains to be seen.

The lockdown rules are set to change this week, and although a second dog walk each day (or unlimited exercise as seems to be the rumour would be welcome) ultimately I suspect this means little or no change for our daily...

Weeding & Seeding TWTW # 75

[image error]In another time, Id have been at the dentist this past week, but as politicians and journalists seem to be keen to remind us the new normal means those sorts of appointments are not, at present, part of those arrangements. Admittedly I will not miss having to pay the bill.

Otherwise its been a quiet week, Ive mostly been doing a little work, reading, watching the moon, listening to the rain fall and to owls hooting somewhere behind the house.

I had a trip to the allotment to do as much...

TWTW # 74

Im a little late posting this because of, well home baking and online shopping basically. My days are a little less structured, which can make for doing things at interesting times.

[image error]This past week has been a little bit of a repeat of the one before. In a bizarre lockdown twist I cant get my car fixed because although the garages are open, the parts stores (or at least the one that supplies the parts for my car) are not. The mechanic was quite frustrated because a lot of his customers are in...

The Day is My Oyster TWTW # 73

[image error]This week has been a pretty stressful one. Im not intending to go into  detail, but lets just say additional isolation caused by coronavirus lockdown and Alzheimers are not good bedfellows.

To make matters worse my car has sprung a coolant leak which I cant get access to fix so Ive had to track down a garage that is open and willing to have a look at the problem. Where this falls within the realms of essential or non-essential isnt clear but without the car its going to be difficult to do...