Canada Slim and the Magical Cactus

Landschlacht, Switzerland, Friday 10 April 2020 (Lockdown Day #24) At present, we live in interesting times, as the Chinese curse intended. Stores are shuttered. Church services suspended. My sources of employment closed. My movements outside of the apartment discouraged and travels outside the country denied. For three weeks this has been normal life across this… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Magical Cactus

Canada Slim and the Author’s Apartment 1: Learning

Landschlacht, Switzerland, Thursday 13 June 2019 In everyone’s life there are marker moments that separate who you were from who you are, as significant to the individual as BC and AD are to the Western calendar. I have had my share of such moments in my own life. Some are as obvious as scar tissue… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Author’s Apartment 1: Learning

Canada Slim and the Shrine of Italian Victories

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 25 December 2018 Picture if you will a lake without compare, a Mediterranean oasis immersed in the savage grandeur of alpine mountains. A merger of nature and history brought together to form a corner of Paradise, where sandstone meets spinosa, and lemons are kissed by oleander, where bay and cedar and orange dance… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Shrine of Italian Victories

Canada Slim and the War of the Oranges

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 6 August 2018 Back a few days ago from my third trip to Portugal, my first to Porto and the north of the country. The most western nation of continental Europe, Portugal shares the Iberian Peninsula with Spain, but this land of foggy fishing villages and tiny hamlets set deep in cork forests… Continue reading Canada Slim and the War of the Oranges

Canada Slim and the Holy Field of Sparrows

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 20 July 2018 I have three books in my possession that offer three different ways to consider the Serbian capital city of Belgrade…. I can choose to be as Chris Farmer and be Grumpy in Belgrade, I can choose to be as Momo Kapor and feel The Magic of Belgrade, or I can… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Holy Field of Sparrows

Canada Slim and the Breviary of Bartholomew

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 30 June 2018 “Writing a blog about everything that happens to you will honestly help here.” (Therapist) “Nothing happens to me.”(John Watson, MD) (“A Study in Pink“, Sherlock) Two months ago (30 April) I began this post. Four days later I was involved in an accident resulting in both arms broken. After 3… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Breviary of Bartholomew

Canada Slim and the Evil Road

9 September 2017, Landschlacht, Switzerland I am determined to not write myself into too predictable a rut. There have been a number of themes running through the posts of this blog since I started it back on 18 May 2015. I have written of many things: my travels in Switzerland and abroad, topics currently relevant at the time… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Evil Road

Canada Slim and the Zimmerwald Movement

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 7 September 2017 “I have come not to praise Caesar but to bury him.” (William Shakespeare) “One hundred years after the Revolution took Russia by storm, it might be the right time to re-examine why it happened, how it developed and why its lessons can still shape our vision and understanding of the world… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Zimmerwald Movement

Canada Slim and the Lure of Italian Journeys

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 4 September 2017 It´s not that Switzerland isn´t inspirational. It is. It has inspired Anita Brookner’s Hotel du Lac and Albert Cohen’s Her Lover. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein here and Lord Byron The Prisoner of Chillon. From Julius Caesar to Jean Jacques Rousseau, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and John Le Carré, Hermann Hesse and Patricia Highsmith… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Lure of Italian Journeys