Sunday 19 July 2026 Landschlacht, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland Above: St. Leonhard’s Chapel, Landschlacht While the cat’s away, the mouse will play. While the wife’s away, the hubby will play. She Who Must Be Obeyed is spending the next 24 hours in Zürich. Above: Zürich, Switzerland I decide to revisit another Wednesday. Wednesday 13 May 2026… Continue reading Playground
Category: mortality
Synod
Above: Holy Trinity Cathedral, Tbilisi, Georgia Wednesday 15 July 2026 Landschlacht, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland Violent wind. Heavy rain. Hailstones. Nothing about the weather yesterday did I have any control over. Above: Weather Wizard (Mark Mardon) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. We readily speak of acts of God. Earthquakes. Floods. Lightning. Events beyond human control.… Continue reading Synod
The dream weaver’s visit
Friday 8 July 2026 Landschlacht, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland Day Three of my exile from Georgia and I am still finding topics for the blog about the journey to Georgia… Above: Landschlacht, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland Sunday 10 May 2026 Rize, Rize Province, Türkiye Mountain Shores, Part Three I wandered down towards the beach. Beach? Sorry, no.… Continue reading The dream weaver’s visit
What’s in a name?
Tuesday 7 July 2026 Sighnaghi, Signagi Municipality, Kakheti, Georgia Above: Sighnaghi, Signagi Municipality, Kakheti, Georgia In four hours I ride to Tbilisi Airport to catch my 0600 flight to Zürich. Above: Tbilisi International Airport, Tbilisi, Georgia Above: Zürich, Canton Zürich, Switzerland I will miss travelling – been doing this since 10 May – and my… Continue reading What’s in a name?
Flight to Trabzon
Above: Trabzon Airport Sighnaghi, Kakheti, Georgia Above: The town of Sighnaghi Sunday 5 July 2026 There is a certain irony in writing these words this morning. In three days I shall leave Georgia by air, while describing another flight — one that carried me to Trabzon two months ago, two days before I entered Georgia… Continue reading Flight to Trabzon
The big chill / The last station
Above: Lev Tolstoy railway station, Russia Wednesday 7 December 2025 Ankara, Türkiye Above: Ankara in winter “We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting.” Kahlil Gibran Above: Lebanese-American writer Kahlil Gibran (1883 – 1931) I sit in my room on a December evening in Ankara with the windows open to… Continue reading The big chill / The last station
Lament of the Akedah
Saturday 6 December 2025 Ankara, Türkiye There are stories humanity tells itself when the world grows too large to understand. Among the oldest, the Akedah — the Binding of Isaac — stands as a wound passed from generation to generation. A father raises a knife over his own child, convinced that the divine has demanded… Continue reading Lament of the Akedah
The weeping guitar
Canadian Thanksgiving Sunday Sunday 12 October 2025 Ankara, Türkiye Above: Images of Ankara There are mornings when the world feels unbearably heavy — when the weight of its sorrows presses upon the heart so insistently that even gratitude struggles to breathe. This is one such morning. Two images linger in my mind: Above: Flag of… Continue reading The weeping guitar
The ostrich in the room
Sunday 5 October 2025 Ankara, Türkiye Above: Başkent Millet Bahçesi Park, Ankara, Türkiye There is an old story about the ostrich, repeated since the days of Pliny the Elder, that when danger approaches the bird buries its head in the sand, imagining that what it cannot see cannot see it. In Natural History, Pliny the… Continue reading The ostrich in the room
The Ballad of the Whispering Swamp
Now gather ’round where the fireflies danceAnd the fog drapes low like a bridal trance,Where the trees lean in with a listening grace,And the swamp wears time on its wrinkled face. They say there’s a place by the Dnipro’s bendWhere the world forgets how the war must end—Where frogs sit still like philosopher kings,And counsel… Continue reading The Ballad of the Whispering Swamp