Some days ago, a little boy here in Sweden died. Children do that now and then, however much we don’t want it to happen, but in this particular case the boy didn’t die due to an accident or to illness. No, he died due to being forgotten. After having spent the entire day strapped into […]
In recent years, we’ve heard a lot about light pollution, this being the encroachment of electrical light on the darkness of night. I don’t think anyone denies the benefit of artificial light – for those of us that live in the northern hemisphere, life would be very, very, very (you get the picture, right?) dark
Having children is a good way of expanding your knowledge – sometimes into areas you never thought you were interested in. I guess most parents have suffered Dinosauritis in one degree or other, and even if giant reptiles are not my cup of tea, it is difficult not to be swept along when an enthusiastic
Welcome to Sweden, staunch home of the Lutheran church as is displayed by the relatively large number of religious red letter days in our calendar. Not that Swedes are particularly religious – not these days. Neither are we pagan, but some rituals are hard to kill, and no matter Anselm (our apostle) no matter the
We have recently cleared a plot of land of trees. The plot is about 1500 square metres, of a size with a potato patch large enough to feed a family of six over the winter – just. In total, we have taken down 150 odd trees. Okay, we haven’t taken them down. A man with
There is a contradiction in the title of this post – well, it was there already back when Simon and Garfunkel wrote the original song. After all, silence assumes that there are no sounds – it sort of goes with the concept. Silence may be mute but it can be tangible, like “a heavy silence
There are words that lie like melting toffee in my mouth – words like twilight, ubiquitous and cornucopia (I’d like one of those, but unfortunately they seem to be very rare) (Abundantia and her magic horn – by Rubens) There are words that empower me, words like knowledge, leadership and ambition. (Or maybe all this
A woman’s got to do what a woman’s got to do – a reflection on the word “MUST” Read More »
Except of course, that beauty is generally quite subjective isn’t it? Where some go “oooh” and “aaah” while gaping at the Grand Canyon, others may be quite unmoved – or battling vertigo. Beauty in human beings is not only subjective, it is also fashion driven, so that what might be the hottest of looks in
A letter to someone very dear: “Time is running out. I want to tell you that I love you, so very much do I love you. But my tongue is glued to my palate, my vocal chords are incapable of forming that necessary initial vowel. There are times when I dislike you, when I find
My books are set in the seventeenth century for a variety of reasons, none of which have anything to do with the prevailing fashions of the time. Still, as a conscientious writer I spend a lot of time investigating what people wore, partly to get the details right in my books, partly because you never
Dressed for success – wardrobe issues for the reluctant time traveller. Read More »