April Photoblogging Challenge, Day 25: Spine suggested by @thedimpause

A row of book spines. All but one is blue and all the blue books are by Herbert Casson.

🥱 I woke up late this morning, for me. I went out late to listen to music and watch fireworks (after having already fallen asleep). It was a pleasure to see families out and about enjoying themselves. And the fireworks were good.

🥱 I woke up late this morning, for me. I went out late to listen to music and watch fireworks (after having already fallen asleep). It was a pleasure to see families out and about enjoying themselves. And the fireworks were good.

Just home from an evening walk along the Sado River. Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution here in Portugal. In Alcácer do Sal tonight Rui Veloso will be on stage beside the Sado at 10:00pm with fireworks at midnight…and then the party goes on until the early hours.

I don’t know how much I will manage to see tonight, but we were treated to a sound check by Rui on our walk. The first time that I have heard his music, and I liked it.

View through street seating for a bar by the Sado River in Alcácer do Sal, Portugal

April Photoblogging Challenge, Day 24: Light suggested by @eumrz

An ornate light mounted on a wooden wall. The light is made up of a number of lights at right angles to each other. In front on a plinth on a tiled floor, is a telephone

I just watched The Elephant Whisperers on Netflix. I don’t know why it has taken me so long to get round to seeing this short documentary? Beautifully filmed - the scenery, the wildlife - and holding the simplicity and yet depth of the heartfelt human/animal interaction.

April Photoblogging Challenge, Day 23: Dreamy suggested by @maique

A lake surrounded by a woodland with moss, a hut on the bank and a moored rowing boat

April Photoblogging Challenge, Day 22: Blue suggested by @lzbth

A blue shed with random ornaments and dolls hung on the front

Monday April 22, 2024 Newsletter letter

Monday April 22, 2024 Olá Friends, This letter is coming to you from Portugal. I arrived here from England two days ago. I had a good time back home but as always found it hard to leave. Hard to leave the UK, hard to leave my mother, hard to leave familiar surroundings and places that hold memories…but life moves on and I had to get down to Portugal ahead of my wife’s arrival this coming week.

Continue reading →

😶‍🌫️ I’m waking up to one of those misty mornings that I sense will transform into a beautiful sunny, and maybe hot day.

😶‍🌫️ I’m waking up to one of those misty mornings that I sense will transform into a beautiful sunny, and maybe hot day.

Mountains, Rain, and Pat Metheny

I sit here in 2024 in a house in Portugal, and a piece of music transports me back to 1985, to a hiking hut somewhere in mountains of the Southern Alps of New Zealand. Almost forty years have passed, but the memory is vivid and the effect of that time on my life feels as real now as it did all the way back then. Let me give you some context.

Continue reading →

April Photoblogging Challenge, Day 21: Mountain suggested by @dejus

A road running through the mountains of the Lake District with slate in the foreground.

April Photoblogging Challenge, Day 20: Ice suggested by @the

This photograph shows the terminus of the Batura Glacier in the Karakorum mountains of Pakistan. It sits at around 4,000m (13,123ft), and at the time that I visited the glacier terminated 0.5km from the Karakoram Highway.

The terminus of the Batura Glacier in Pakistan showing a wall of ice with rocks and boulders in the foreground.

🇵🇹 Olá Portugal

🇵🇹 Olá Portugal

April Photoblogging Challenge, Day 19: Birthday suggested by me (@crossingthethreshold)

A series of small flags on a piece of string spelling out Happy Birthday. Strung above an open glass door with a view to outside

April Photoblogging Challenge, Day 18: Mood suggested by @agilelisa

A rowing boat and small sail boat moored in a river estuary. In the foreground is a small rusty walkway. In the background are rolling green meadows and buildings just poking over the trees.

April Photoblogging Challenge, Day 17: Transcendence suggested by @drewbelf

Tibetan Buddhist Stupa

April Photoblogging Challenge, Day 16: Flâneur suggested by @chrisaldrich

People walking along a street in Kyoto, Japan.