21 of them on 3 vines. OK 3 out of 400 isn’t a lot but we hadn’t expected any, so… Allan (another member of our fledgling Yorkshire Vineyard association and a retired person like me) had grapes on his vines and we had planted at the same time but although his vineyard is nearish to…
Ghost story number 1 : Returned without prejudice
Each month as a way of trying something different I will publish a ghost story. They will be available as an Ebook. This first story is about a man who went to a supermarket and found an aisle that sold items he hadn’t expected to find, items that were to have unhappy consequences.
Forest : bringing you right up to date
Last night I watched a video clip on the internet. Rare for me, take a look if you don’t believe what I’m going to write. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24624615 Big deal, you say. It was a clip on the BBC sport football site, Yes, so? It was a clip of Nottingham Forest’s owner, Fawaz Al Hasawi, talking about, among other…
Emergency blog ; do not read if of a sensitive nature
This blog has a health warning, if you are of a sensitive disposition, don’t read on. You have been warned. Talk about hold the front page. This was not the blog I intended to post this week but for once I am forced by the behaviour of the bastards to post something serious. If you…
Vineyard 5 : The Harvest
“They do it because they love me,” said Chris, the owner of the vineyard. This is in response to my question about whether he paid his grape pickers. About 20 or so of them I reckoned and not a Polish import in sight but of course they wouldn’t be doing it for free. Chris had…
West vs East: daily cultural differences
There are so many little behaviors we learned to avoid when we were children. Our parents admonished us for such things as picking our nose, scratching our butts, eating with our mouths open etc. Most of us, as American adults, have collectively eliminated a cluster of behaviors our culture finds repugnant. We have so successfully…
Vineyard 4 : Trapping Hill Vineyard : windbreaks
“The wild, upper valley of the River Nidd where three stupendous stone structures hold back Gouthwaite, Angram and Scar reservoirs – huge, squat, unbreakable barriers.” This from ‘True North’ a book about, where else, the north, by Martin Wainwright. I copied it down because I thought it gave rather a nice and accurate picture of…
Teaching in China : I guess the grass is not always greener!
The Wall We have been in China now for just over a month. Life has been good. We have reconnected with friends and gotten into a rhythm with teaching, playing and socializing. Rich is particularly settled into his many writing classes and I love my graduate course, Psychology for Language Teachers. Other than a few…
Another bonus blog from our friends retiring to teach in China
THE WEEKEND (September 2, 2013) A typical weekend at home in Vermont includes brief trips into Middlebury to have breakfast or coffee with a friend, get my mail, walk around the farmer’s market, Pick up a few things at local stores and then go home. Rich tends to stay at home puttering around the house, yard or working…
For the comfort of others
I’m publishing this (which doesn’t show me in a good light) because, I am told, it gives comfort to others . If I had written this at the time the vitriol would have destroyed my laptop, dripped through the keyboard and into the hard drive! The subject of this blog? My mother. So if you believe…