Dear friends, When your day starts at 4.30 with a hot coffee in the dark hours just before dawn, the stars above and only the silence of the desert for company, you know it will be a busy day, and so it was. A couple of hour's drive across the desert to the city of [...]
Dear friends, The day we made the Wahiba Sands crossing was wonderful - the stark beauty of the desert, a few camels, a little excitement and thrills as we did some 'dune bashing', sunset on the dunes, dinner under the stars and a full moon, with music and chilled wine. Ancient and modern, practical and [...]
Dear friends, Driving eastwards from Muscat we passed through villages, wadis and towns, sometimes right along the coast, at other times flying along a smooth modern highway. We walked a little in Wadi Tiwi and also in the old port of Sur, and we arrived at the Raz Al Jinz Turtle reserved as the sun [...]
Dear friends, For my last blog from the Solomons, I want to take you on a visit to the village of Kolomosu on the island of Santa Ysabel, which 50 years ago used to take about three hours from our island school with three of us paddling in a dugout canoe. This year, it took [...]
Dear friends, As promised, here is a quick look at a trip I made out of Honiara along the north coast to Lela Beach to check out a weaving festival which I saw advertised around town. The site was right on the beach and not so many people around in the morning although I gather [...]
Dear friends, This month I had the wonderful experience of revisiting the Solomon Islands, fifty years after I taught there as a young volunteer. I spent a couple of days in Honiara, exploring the city, meeting a few people who have been my contacts, visiting the local market and a weaving festival. Honiara was buzzing [...]
Dear friends, After my couple of weeks in Canada, I ventured south over the border to the beautiful state of Vermont to visit another friend. I had thought to do just a single post from Vermont, but even in the short two-day stay with Lois I realised her garden alone was worth a story, and [...]
Dear readers, My last blog from my recent US/Canada trip is from the beautiful Green Mountain State of Vermont where I had a brief two-day visit with my friend Lois. We had one day of sunshine and one of rain, but either way the countryside and the places she took me were grand. So here [...]
Dear friends, One of the highlights of my North American trip was to be able to attend the wedding celebrations of a dear colleague and friend Andrée to her charming partner Denis. Together with a few other Red Cross colleagues we spent several days with Andrée and Denis at their home in Bromont, Quebec, and then joined [...]
Dear Friends, A brief visit to the wonderful city of Montreal gave me a chance to shoot a few photos of buildings and graffiti around town and to enjoy a little of the Summer Music Festival. The city is celebrating its 375th anniversary. The mighty St Lawrence River close to Montreal. Approaching the city of [...]