This blog starts with some observations about colour. More precisely about two birds whose feathers are of the brightest colours though seeing them in their full splendour has proved difficult.  For years I had assumed that there was nothing in nature more colourful than the iridescent blue of a kingfisher. Rohan and I have twice…

It happens that I am mesmerised whenever I watch someone create something of beauty. It feels very special, for example, when I see a potter place a shapeless lump of clay on her wheel and then, using her hands moulds that clay into a beautiful vase. And the feeling is similar when I see a…

It is rare to find someone who has never suffered from the side effects of a medicine. Importantly, these effects increase the more potent the drug, the greater the number of medicines taken and as we age. To offset the problem, however, there are some controls  -  medicines are only allowed to be sold if…

For people like me, general elections are the most important and the most gripping of events in the political calendar. It is not just that the ballot box serves as the hub of democracy, it is also because the process focuses each nation’s minds and ultimately plays on our emotions. Democracy is a wonderful mechanism…

Large parts of our garden in France have been turned upside-down. A path divides our main lawn into two halves and while nothing has been touched on the right, the left has become unrecognisable. It is on that left that our extension is being built and so where there was once a lawn there is…

As long as I can remember I have loved fish - eating them that is!  As a young child they were specially prized as during the Second World War and for several years after fish was one of the few tasty and nutritious foods that were not rationed. Dover sole was amongst my favourites, as…

This blog stems largely from something I have puzzled over for years and which arises when I am out walking in the French countryside. It is all about the way people behave when they meet ‘strangers’.  A favourite path of mine starts just near our house in Brittany. It is usually empty but sometimes when…

Our home in London is in a suburb bordered by three large parks. In keeping, in any week during the spring and summer, it would be unusual if we did not see urban foxes either sauntering down one of our roads or walking along the top of the wall at the back of our garden.…

Over the years I have had two serious altercations with potholes. The first took place on a rainy day just before I retired, when I mistook a deep pothole for a puddle. I flew over the handlebars, hit my head on the tarmac and momentarily lost consciousness. A cyclist behind me stopped and called for…

Almost a year ago Rohan and I went to the local Mairie (the Town Hall of our tiny village) to ask whether we could build an extension. The plans for enlarging our Tréguennec outhouse were outlined, questions were asked about its purpose and various official documents were reviewed. Not long after, the secretary who runs…