THERE WAS A time early in my adult life when I felt cut off from who I knew myself to be. Fate… circumstance… cultural expectations… supposed financial realities… the strident conformist opinions of key ‘guides’ in my life… all of these factors (and more) contrived to keep me living a life that felt to me […]
A FEW WEEKS ago I added a blog post that described one of the main reasons why my Colorado home has come to mean so much to me: The Living Land – Colorado Wildlife Photos #1. (The reason, to put it simply, is because my home is a living land, abundantly rich with life, and
The Living Land – Colorado Wildlife Photos #2 Read More »
I LOVE WHERE I live. I mean, really love it. I love it to the point where it feels more like an extension of who I am than simply a place I happen to be. Even though I grew up some 5,000 miles away in a thoroughly different environment, the environment that I now call
The Living Land – Colorado Wildlife Photos #1 Read More »
AFTER A WILD WEEK of snow and grayness, my little corner of Colorado has returned to horizon-to-horizon blue skies, to bright sunshine, to skin-soothing warmth, and to a rapid thaw. Deep snow is softening, sinking away. Water is gushing. Even though a certain dark cloud lingers on the horizon, today’s glorious brightness is keeping me
Storms Always Pass Read More »
AUTUMN COMES EARLY to Colorado’s high country. It doesn’t wait until October to get going the way it does back where I grew up in London, but instead begins altering the landscape even before August is done. The thrill and wonder of it catches me out pretty much every year. When I set out uphill
Autumn Comes Early Read More »
LAST YEAR I had a plan: to get to know one place. To spend twelve months travelling in only one spot. Why? Well, the reasons were many. Some were understood. Some were deeper and less understood. Some were probably hidden even from me. And some were shallow. One reason was to write a book about
SPRING COULD WELL be my favourite season in the High Country. The fading away of feet of snow, the re-emergence of the living earth after being buried for so long, the first flush of green, the first flowers, the return of blissful warmth on bare arms and legs that had previously been encased in layers
From White to Green Read More »
ON THE SECOND day of June, 1993, I fell down a mountain. It nearly killed me. On the twentieth day of August, 1994, I went back. Happily, this second visit went better. There were no finger nails lost, you’ll be glad to know. No cartwheeling down glaciers. But there were tears, and not only from
A Return To Hohtürli Read More »
ON THURSDAY LAST week I saw mention on social media that a powerful solar storm was about to begin. Potentially, it would be so powerful that a consequence of it – the aurora borealis – would be observable at far lower latitudes than usual. But I quickly discounted it. The chances of seeing the northern
Is this real life? Is this fantasy? Read More »
AMONGST THE MANY trips I’ve taken this past winter eight of them have been to the same location, to a wild spot often overlooked: a forested ridge that rises above a broad pass. Returning to this place again and again has been a joy. In fact, going back has felt more joyful each time, like
Connections, Love, and an Igloo Read More »