I was browsing through my LinkedIn profile to update details and noted that I am months behind on reviews of books I have read. I will post some old and new reviews on this site under the category Book Babbles…
The Ink Dark Moon edited by Jane Hirschfeld and Mariko Aratani is one the best books I have read in a long time. Here is what I wrote last year about the book for my LinkedIn review: Continue reading →
Yesterday afternoon we drove 90 miles to a surprise party Brunch for a friend’s 65th Birthday. Despite it being well over 100 degrees in Modesto, we old folk boogied and danced the early hours of the afternoon. (Most of us don’t do the early hours of the morning any more.) I am an occasionallyenergetic, frantic dancer and one track, as it always has, moved me to the dance floor, imploring anybody to dance with me: Spencer Davis’ 1967 rocker Gimme Some Lovin’ - a hit that stirs strong memories of tea breaks. Continue reading →
Many years ago, we were walking along a miserable stretch of Pennine Way. Once a cobbled Roman road it had become a rutted farm track; bounded by low, gray, wet rock walls. Clag was down to the ground - so some would say it was foggy. But we were in the mountains, and it was wet, chilling, gray clouds we were walking through. Continue reading →
California is the birthplace of much that is odd. Hurrah!!
But recently, the State Legislature abolished the California State Board for Geologists and Geophysicists and tacked the rump onto the State Board for Professional Engineers and Licensed Surveyors. Continue reading →
“If I fall into that lot I’ll get badly hurt”, I warned myself, as I came to and looked down from the top of the cliff into the tangle of evil Devil’s Club lurking pointedly below. Continue reading →
A time there was, 40 years ago, when two-way radio was the only way to communicate in remote places. Life in mineral and geotechnical exploration bush camps – fancy with wood floors/canned oysters for snacks/carpentered loos; or more commonly: primitive with pine-top carpets/PBJ for supper/bough over a pit privy – depended on battery-operated radios. Continue reading →
In 1994-1995 Julie and I lived in London. It was newish to her; oldish to me since I had lived there between 1953 and 1969. I had accepted the invitation to be an Academic Visitor at the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, University of London. No money could be paid to me but it was honor all the same. In our late 40′s we said “What the Heck – Lets have an adventure!” Julie quit her job and for the first time in her life, did not have another one to got to. Continue reading →
A friend called me about two weeks ago, giddy with the excitement of a crazy new romance. She was excitedly flushed with urgent juices. She is a creative, literate woman; and in her bright-eyed joy was reading poetry again, and loving Christina Rossetti’s 1859 poem Goblin Market. Continue reading →