Though my main reading genre at the moment is speculative fiction I really love reading well-written books on science and aspects of the planet, especially nature writing. This is a well-written book, covering one of the most unexplored areas of the planet, The Deep Abyss. In the first part of the book we explore various …

Palace Hub Gallery in Redcar
After a lot of thought I finally decided to submit some of my photographic work to the Palace Hub Gallery in Redcar to see if I could get some exhibited. The series was photographs of Redcar beach on a wintery dawn, which gave a really lovely blue cast to the sky. I’ve had three accepted …

Edinburgh Castle
Another note from my iPhone. I was in Edinburgh for the weekend working, and this was be the first time I’ve been alone in Edinburgh for coming on 30 years. I did the tourist walk; along the West End, up Lothian Road, through the Meadows down South Bridges, the Royal Mile up to the Castle …

The 1st DADA Manifesto
by Monsieur Antipyrine – 1916 DADA is our intensity: it erects inconsequential bayonets and the Sumatral head of German babies; Dada is life with neither bedroom slippers nor parallels; it is against and for unity and definately against the future; we are wise enough to know that our brains are going to become flabby cushions, …

In Praise of the Garrulous
A wonderfully, garrulous account of language and its development, but also a warning on where our language could go if we aren’t careful. Love of words, sounds and the full gamut of the English language is sung out loud here, and that song is a rallying cry for those who also love the language as …

The Swallowed Man
Whilst on Furlough 1.0™ I kept seeing this bandied about Twitter and was fascinated by the concept, but the main draw was the stunning cover I kept seeing flashed up on screen. Imagine my delight when I returned to work for that month holiday from lockdown to find it there in the staff room waiting …

Cyanotype
I’ve been thinking about this process for a while as it seemed more straightforward than silver-based development at home and possibly I would be able to use the loft as an area to process the chemicals and the paper as it doesn’t need the absolutes of darkness that silver-based photography requires. The other factor is …

I, for one, welcome our 2021 overlords
That’s been a bit of a year then hasn’t it. Though there have been some ups and downs, personally and at work, thankfully the ‘worst’ that has happened to me has been an extended period of furlough. Though even this ‘worst’ has had a lot of upside. I’ve been able to get on with a …