Category: Creativity
-
The Haunted Well Of Avebury
I heard about the haunted pub and the cursed well of Avebury while touring a church in Gloucestershire. I was purchasing a CD of Traditional Country Songs (sung by a small chorus) at the gift shop of St. John the Baptist in Cirencester. I recognized many of the titles from my collection of Irish songs…
-
The Green Man: Watcher Of The Lychgate
I am a conflicting image. Sometimes I appear in churches, carved into the bosses of an archway. At other times, I am associated with pagan symbols of nature worship. I am a man and I am a tree…one part of me morphs into another. I am called The Green Man by those who study the…
-
The Magic Sheep Of Gloucestershire
I was turned into a sheep on May 26th, but I got better and I’m a much better person because of the experience. England, it’s been said, is a magical country and now I can attest to that being a reality. It all started when my wife and I decided to challenge ourselves to taking…
-
Oxford Of My Dreams
I was drifting off to sleep. My dreams began. I felt disoriented. Where was I? I was in Oxford, England to accept an award for “Best Blogger in the World.” I was waiting in a room in one of the 38 colleges that make up the University. I had walked here from the hotel, but…
-
Yes, But Why Can’t You Go Home Again?
It’s a cliché. It’s a meme. It’s been repeated a hundred billion times by three hundred billion people. “You can’t go home again” I’ve read Thomas Wolfe’s book by the same name. It was a long time ago. I may be wrong (correct me if I am), but I do not recall Wolfe ever saying…
-
Dance Like A Wave Of The Sea
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree… –W. B. Yeats Three decades have passed since I last walked the streets of Dublin, Galway and Sligo. A great many things have changed in those years. And, a great many haven’t. The smell of peat-fires in Dublin on a December night, the blasts of…
-
Beaver Lodge Available: No Cable Necessary
[You have to look close for the small blue-gray dish. Trust me, it’s there.] Beavers, as everyone who has studied their natural history can attest, are amazing in a variety of ways. The first thing that comes to mind is that they are considered “Natures Engineers” because they have the instinct to secure a…
-
Digging A Grave On A Beautiful Spring Afternoon
I stood in the soft loam, nine inches below ground level, leaned against my shovel, and thought about death and insects. This is not a difficult thing to do when you’re helping to dig a grave on a day in May when the gnats and flies are biting ankles and arms. After all, it is…
patrickjegan 