Aggressive. That’s such a useful put-down. As in
“I think there were several very vocal, dare I say aggressive residents that, in my opinion, regardless of what work was being carried out or not, they still would have had reason for complain.”
In this case, the aggressive folk being referred to are Grenfell Tower residents who were complaining about, guess what, fire safety. Continue reading
You’ll both recall that the UK and Commonwealth rights to my ongoing tome A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth were acquired by Picador, notwithstanding inasmuch as which rights to translations into six different foreign languages have also been acquired (they are German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Romanian and simplified Chinese).
I can now announce that the US and Canada rights have gone Continue reading
I’m sitting outside our apartment at Podere Castellaccia, the evening sun still quite high as the maestrale warms the porch.
Our apartment is Grecale, the colder, northeast wind. Castellaccia is a fattoria and azienda vinicola; their olive oil is superb and at 5 Euro a bottle from the cellar door, why would you drink sangiovese from anywhere else?
Alfonzo’s father, Sinibalda, founded the establish Continue reading
By Spudgun67 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
Everyone knows a little something about Rosalind Franklin, whose hundredth birthday it would be today. Some may have little sense of her beyond the belief that she was cheated out of a Nobel Prize by the dastardly actions of Maurice Wilkins at Kings London and, even more, by the cavalier attitude of Jim Watson aided and abetted by Francis Crick. B Continue reading
In the midst of the pandemic, it was time for me to plant my tomatoes. Being unwilling to visit local nurseries for obvious reasons, I did the next best thing and ordered 12 tomato plants online. The drawback was that the selection was limited, and the only plants available then were cherry tomato plants. Not a terrible thing.
Last year, I planted 7 plants adjacent to one area of the backup of my Continue reading
We live currently in a world of great and sometimes terrifying strangeness, where the rules and customs by which we have lived for so long have been turned upside down. Some people may be focussing on whether they need to don smart shirts and make-up on their Zoom calls (the media seems very hung up on our changing dress code in the virtual meeting world), and others whether ‘science’ is going to Continue reading
Comet NEOWISE has come but not yet gone. If there is no cloud cover for the next night or two, you might be able to catch its wispy presence low in the north-west before it fades from view.
Don\’t feel bad if you haven’t heard of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), to give this heavenly traveller its full name. It was only discovered on March 27 this year. There is no previous record of NEOWISE in hu Continue reading
We are shielding, chez Gee, as one of us has pre-existing health complaints, and another is about to have a surgical procedure. The only person who leaves the house is me, and only to walk the dogs, which I do in quiet woods and lanes to minimize human contact.
So there I was on this morning’s walk in a country lane when I sense a cyclist hovering behind me. I turn round, and there’s Continue reading
People often talk about starting books.
People often talk about keeping up the momentum, once one have started.
What people talk less about is how to finish a book.
Continue reading
My new best buds…
When I started out on this blog back in ’08 I made a passing observation about my age, having noticed I was increasingly lifting my glasses to read the date on my watch. Not long afterwards I upgraded to varifocals. Now I have another upgrade to report: I have acquired hearing aids.
It was not an easy transition. Continue reading
