Tag: ecosystem
September Song

It’s the end of September. The leaves are starting to turn in earnest now. Many already lie on the ground, waiting for me to sweep them up. The first chestnuts have fallen too (reminder to self – collect some before they’re all gone). The last few days have all started with mist – each […]
The Wonder of Poohsticks

Walking one of my habitual routes this morning, I stopped by a bridge to play Poohsticks (with myself). One of my three sticks never made it under the bridge. The other two headed straight towards an obstacle but at the last moment were steered round it by the current. Slightly further up they failed to avoid […]
My Master’s project and papers. On Walking, Music and Sustainability

First the project report, which was the main deliverable. Ashridge MSc Sustainability and Responsibility (AMSR). Project Report And then the learning review, the secondary deliverable. Year 2 Learning Review And here’s a couple of photos of my wonderful fellow students and our tutors:
Silly Goose

I’m in the, for me, novel position of looking after some geese these days. This usually involves nothing more than feeding them once a day and trying to keep them out of places they shouldn’t be. But this is breeding season, so there are additional complications. One morning last week I went out to feed […]
Quantum Psycholosography

Why is everything so damned interesting? Some social media friends and I were discussing the huge amount of interesting (and potentially important) stuff that comes our way and that we can’t keep up with. New books and articles pile up half read on our physical or virtual bookshelves. In the last month articles on cognition, […]
This Is Winter Too, (This is Nature Too)

This started out as a photo essay on winter. And then I read an article that disturbed me. I’m a strong supporter of rewilding. I think organizations like Rewilding Britain do great work, so it may seem strange that I was unhappy with this article about them. Near the beginning there’s a quote from George Monbiot […]
Baynes and Bateson

Back in November we said goodbye to a lovely guy and one of the finest musicians I’ve ever played with, Ifor Baynes. Most people who’ll read this have probably never heard of him. Would that the world were different. Ifor actually died in April but this was a memorial organized by some of his closest […]
Ordinary Things

One of the side effects of illness and injury (in my case a slipped disk) can be that your world becomes smaller. You don’t travel for your work. Your chance of being somewhere new is small. You move more slowly and aren’t up to long trips. It’s not feasible to go to all those special places, where […]
A few thoughts on (re)enchantment

Several people reacted to my last blog with the reasonable question of how we can maintain/retain the sensation of enchantment on the bleak, depressing days when everything seems to be wrong with the world (or at least our own bit of it). I have no easy answer to this (if there were one, it probably […]
An Enchantment Tale

It was my birthday but that’s only relevant, because it’s one reason I was in a very relaxed mood and perhaps therefore more open to noticing than usual. That and the radically improved weather. In Amsterdam we have a lot of canals. Everyone knows that from the picture postcards but probably not that, outside of […]