When is a natural woodland not a natural woodland? Answer: when it has been carefully designed, landscaped and dotted with follies. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a delight to explore; quite the contrary!
-
-
Even as a child time seems to speed up as we near the end of summer; how much more so for us now as adults! It seems no time since I was writing about July; now it is almost September.
-
Bright, cheerful, serene, warm, comforting … Words that capture the appeal of the colour yellow. And in this particularly hot Northern Hemisphere summer it’s good to be reminded of the positive qualities of yellow when perhaps some of us feel we’ve seen too much of it! Here in London we have not only bright yellow sun but also yellow grass in our parks and yellowing leaves on the trees.
-
! London hasn’t seen any rain now for 37 days (although a light sprinkling is forecast for this morning before a return to heatwave conditions. The temperature has swung between the high 20s centigrade (reasonably comfortable) to the low and even mid 30s (not so comfortable!)
-
Travel creates adventures. They may seem quite small at the time, like a chance but memorable encounter with a local person that changes your perspective on the world. Or they may seem huge, visiting an iconic world sight that you’ve dreamed about seeing for years. But whether large or small, long planned for or serendipitous, the adventures experienced while travelling are, in my opinion, among the best to be found.
-
It has been hard to find ‘perfect’ days this past June. It started too cool and too dull, then in the space of a few days transformed itself to an extreme heatwave. Temperatures hit 35 Celsius and the high humidity made life in London pretty tough. Such is a our changing climate, unfortunately, and England wasn’t built for heat.
-
The letter B, the second letter of our alphabet, is one of the first a child learns to recognise. ‘A is for Apple, B is for …’ Yes, what objects do begin with a B? I had great fun trawling my archives for these 'B' images!
-
There are no guarantees of whale sightings, as anyone who has ventured out on a whale-watching trip must know. Nature always has the upper hand and may surprise, delight or disappoint. Yet whatever you see, or don’t see, a day out on the water is always a pleasure.
-
Gal Oya is the most untouched and least visited of all of Sri Lanka’s national parks. It was established in 1954 but having been off-limits during the civil war it is only now being re-discovered. On the day we did a jeep safari in the park we seemed to have it to ourselves.
-
From the well-known (think Grand Canyon or Great Pyramid of Giza) to the less lauded (an ancient artefact, a beautiful stained-glass window, a snow-capped mountain, a colourful bird, a surprise encounter with wildlife) … the world is full of wonders. I am fortunate to be able to travel and to appreciate the wonders I am able to discover far from home.
