Category Archives: History

Back in October of 2008, my husband and I embarked on a self-guided five-day walk in the Pyrenees. He had meetings in Paris and we took the opportunity to get into the countryside before they started. My intention at the time was to write a short article about the trip. Supported walking trips are becoming […]

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Some trips are such a jumble of colours and textures that they more closely resemble a crazy quilt than a tidy tapestry. So it was for me on the short trip to Attapeu Province in Southwestern Laos in January: a mix of Wats (temples), waterfalls and monuments; rural plantations and rough-board housing rubbing shoulders with […]

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“All objects, all phases of culture are alive. They have voices. They speak of their history and interrelatedness. And they are all talking at once!” Camille Paglia I grew up in North America where the artefacts of culture are relatively modern. By contrast, Asian cultural objects speak of time… endless time… with it’s ebb and […]

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  For The Fallen Laurence Binyon, Cornwall, 1915 With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea. Flash of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit, Fallen in the cause of the free. Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres. […]

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The top end of West Virginia is about as far north as you can get and still be in the south.  You needn’t drive many miles to get from wooded, mountainous areas inhabited by tough mountain folk to genteel old towns of stone and brick buildings with iron lattice railings and faux wooden shutters. People […]

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