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
Tag: history
Mad honey
Sunday 5 July 2026 Sighnaghi, Signagi Municipality, Georgia As my days decrease here in this country, my chronicles come closer to arriving in it. Mad honey has been intoxicating travellers along the Black Sea coast for over 2,000 years…. Sunday 10 May 2026 Trabzon-Rize Shuttle Bus The Difficult Daughter A day that began as a… Continue reading Mad honey
A cacophony of sax and violins?
Sunday 7 December 2025 There is a familiar joke — one that sounds almost like a mondegreen (a misunderstood or misinterpreted word or phrase resulting from a mishearing of the lyrics of a song) — That people don’t want “sex and violence” in schools, but everyone loves “sax and violins”. It is a playful pun, yes, but it captures something surprisingly… Continue reading A cacophony of sax and violins?
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
Invisible
Christian Friedrich Hebbel (1813 – 1863) was a German dramatist, lyric poet and novelist. Above: Friedrich Hebbel Besides his major works, the two tragedies Agnes Bernauer and Maria Magdalena, his love poems such as Sie seh’n sich nicht wieder (They Will Not See Each Other Again) and Wenn die Rosen ewig blühten (When the Roses Bloom Forever), nature poems such as Sommerbild (Summer Picture) and Herbstbild (Autumn… Continue reading Invisible
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 cheese transporter
“Inside every human being, there is a loneliness greater than any storm. Some try to fill it with people, others with dreams. And a few, poor souls, only ever find the silence inside growing louder.” Sabahattin Ali, Kürk Mantolu Madonna (Madonna in a Fur Coat) Above: Turkish writer Sabahattin Ali Spring arrived this week, with… Continue reading The cheese transporter
Bruggwald
Landschlacht, Switzerland Wednesday 23 April 2025 In the event of something happening to me,There is something I would like you all to see.It’s just a photograph of someone that I knew. Have you seen my wife, Mr Jones?Do you know what it’s like on the outside?Don’t go talking too loud, you’ll cause a landslide, Mr.… Continue reading Bruggwald
This mediocre adventure
Journal de Jules Renard February 28, 1895 “I think that if I had to choose a profession all over again, I would not be a writer. I would be a peasant. A peasant doesn’t need to please anyone but the land. The land does not flatter in return. Writers grow hunchbacked over paper, hungrily awaiting… Continue reading This mediocre adventure
Circus
Sunday 6 April 2025 Kreuzlingen, Canton Thurgau, Schweiz “Damn everything but the circus! The average ‘painter’ ‘sculptor’ ‘poet’ ‘composer’ ‘playwright’ is a person who cannot leap through a hoop from the back of a galloping horse, make people laugh with a clown’s mouth, orchestrate twenty lions.“ e.e. cummings Above: American poet Edward Estlin Cummings (1894 – 1962) Kreuzlingen is a municipality in the… Continue reading Circus