The schools are out, and here in the UK, summer is proving to be a bit of a washout. It’s interesting to see how ancient festivals based around the seasons still play out in our modern-day lives. We still tether school holidays to Christian festivals. These echo older traditions based around the agricultural year. The …
Read more “Lammas, the Harvest, and an eccentric Cornish pastor”
Rough Tor I have walked to the summit of Rough Tor countless times. In the snow. In the blistering hot sunshine. With a full-on gale robbing my breath away. Suited and booted in the rain washing down the slope in streams. I have been going up here when I was probably too small to walk …
Read more “Murder on Bodmin Moor: The Tragic Story of Charlotte Dymond and Matthew Weekes”
The Moor The moor is a human landscape. Another part of the agricultural desert normally associated with fields the size of football stadiums, stripped of the true natural world. We often call the moors wild places, but they are far from it. For thousands of years, the human hand has cleaved away Britain’s temperate rainforests …
I must admit, I never used to be the keenest of fans on the classics such as Thomas Hardy. Yet, after watching every conceivable adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd, I gave the book a go. The impetus was also spurred on by the fact my Dad keeps sheep. After this, I kept seeing …