Northern Lights and Low Expectations

Northern Lights and Low Expectations

A humorous reflection on life’s lowered expectations, fine dining dreams gone cold, and existential musings from an Arctic kitchen. There comes a point in every man’s life when he realizes that all the years of carefully curated knowledge, refined tastes, and grand...
Rules and Unwritten Rules

Rules and Unwritten Rules

Indifference is not a response in unsettled times Love, not indifference, protects. Here is a Downy woodpecker by Maria Corcacas. This morning, as the ‘dim temple of the Dawn1’ paled the sky, our red-headed male downy woodpecker announced his return with his staccato...
Unique Places #1 – Windy Troy

Unique Places #1 – Windy Troy

I’ve walked many ancient sites, but Troy is different. Homer writes of ‘windy Troy’, and when I stood upon the ruined battlements, looking out toward the sapphire sea, it was constant and strong. I thought of exhausted sailors rowing past Cape Sigeion, and their...
Forgotten Heroes #5 – Filippa the Flaxen

Forgotten Heroes #5 – Filippa the Flaxen

Filippa the Flaxen, Queen of East Anglia, with hair like soft strands of warm gold, shimmering in sunlight, the colour of the muted sun, is seldom remembered these days. Once upon a time, though, her people, the Flax, were cultivated and eaten in much greater...