Good morning from Marbury. I’ll let you decide whether it’s looking brown or looking golden.
Realms of Gold
@petergknight.bsky.social
I used to say I was a Geographer, and I suppose I still am. Wrote some books about glaciers. Now working on one about lakes. I sometimes think about calling myself a writer. I also paint a bit. Two cats & a collie. Books. 53°N, 2°40'W.
The season is certainly moving on. It’s only a few weeks ago that the sun was rising behind the tree on the left, but now it has started its swing back to the south. Good morning from Marbury.
I have some sort of Geographical OCD: I always need to know where north is, I need to identify where any program or movie on TV was shot, and I get wound up when people tag places that are an hour apart with the #10minutesfromhome hashtag. They can’t both be 10 minutes away if they’re an hour apart.
The 1st time I heard of Mikhail Bulgakov was when someone was pointing out his house to me: "Bulgakov lived here!" I remember the occasion as a snapshot of memory but can't recall where I was at the time. Apparently he lived in both Moscow & Kyiv, so it could have been either. Must scour old photos.
tome-raiders.bsky.social@tome-raiders.bsky.social · 2w agoOn my night stand #booksky 💙📚
I am writing a book about #lakes. Here's an interesting fact I just wrote into it: if you threw a penny into the deepest part of Lake Baikal (the deepest lake in the world) it would take about an hour to sink to the bottom. I now need a witty line about how it takes a while for the penny to drop.
I’m also pleased to have copies of the first issue of the Glacialists’ Magazine (a forerunner of the Journal of Glaciology) and of the Journal of Glaciology itself. #bibliophile
I really need to sort out my books. I have lots of interesting things but they are all jumbled up. Perhaps even if they want to live in their eclectic tribes I should make a catalogue of where the most interesting ones live. This one currently lives next to the poet Pablo Neruda for some reason.
The beach at midnight. All we can hear is the sea And our beating hearts. #dailyhaikuprompt (beach)
#45YearsAgoToday 17/07/81 I think I was in Kyiv, before the USSR broke up, on an epic roadtrip that included Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Czechoslovakia, E.Germany, Poland... Saw Tolstoy's grave. Had my hair cut by a KGB officer. Went to a garden party in Moscow for the wedding of Charles & Diana.
40 years ago today, July 17th 1986, I was in Riobamba, Ecuador. My travelling companion was sick, according to my diary, so it was a quiet day and we stayed in the town. #40yearsagotoday Photos are from a day or two around that time: Riobamba townscape and some "people" shots.
I was absent-mindedly filling in one of those "where have you visited?" world maps, and I realised I just don't actually know whether or not I've been to Bulgaria... and likewise Hungary. Is that a problem lots of people have, or it it just me?
It’s years and years since I did any painting. Used to do lots, then stopped. But I forced myself to at least have a go this morning to get started again. Small sketch 7x5 inches in “water soluble oil” (because those were the first paints in the cupboard) of a view on the canal near where I live.
I was photographing bits of village landscape, planning to do a painting, but I stretched the zoom and crop potential of my phone camera so much that the photos started coming out like the paintings I had planned! Really keen, but really struggling, to get back to doing some painting.
Bits the collie waiting and watching for his Mom to come over the field.
One of my favourite poems is this one by Mervyn Peake: “Sensitive Head”.
Summer in the village. We have a beautiful lake (Marbury Big Mere) right in our tiny village, with the church looking out across it.
Oh no! Who poured all the burning gold into the canal this morning?
The moon, so thin. And the aircraft’s trail so faint. I worry for them both!
“The Butterfly and Thistle” would be a good name for a country pub.
