Provence and the neighboring region of Languedoc-Roussillon in the Southf of France are renowned worldwide as a shining haven of hedonism. My wife Vicki and I fell in love with the area during a visit in the summer of 1987 and after a brief search we bought a house in a dwindling village called Saint-Pons-la-Calm in the Languedoc. Like most historic villages in the Rhone region it was built…
‘Harbinger’ is the word used to describe the sign-bearers that tell us spring is imminent. I had to look it up on Wiki for it is an uncommon word and I have used it with no idea what its derivation might be. Webster says it dates from early Middle Ages (1125-1175) and means a herald, ‘one that goes before’. ‘Harbinger of Spring’ is the common name of a small…
Astrology, historically reputed as serious science, has largely declined in modern regard. If anyone besides Oedipus ever had reason to bewail the slings and arrows of his outrageous fortune it was James Jonathan Hughes Delight Lucas, my great-great grandfather. Unfortunately when I was a young man I lacked sufficient curiosity or close contact with my uncle Joe to press him for his knowledge of the voluminous business and…
The snow has thawed on my deck overlooking Discovery Bay on the Pacific coast of northwest Washington State and has revealed the two fossils which ‘live’ there – if that’s an acceptable term for creatures which died at least 120 million years ago. I collected them at Whale Chine on the south coast of the Isle of Wight and have evidently treasured them sufficiently to carry them half way…