I’ve been exploring the meaning of the eight Celtic seasonal festivals for many years, and trying out different ways to celebrate them – often at Hazel Hill Wood. Early in this process, I stayed on the remote island of Inishmore on the west coast of Ireland, where the old Celtic seasonal traditions are still deeply […]
By train through the Brenner Pass, and lots more! Alan Heeks writes… I suspect that most British train lovers, like me, mostly travel across Europe to and from London – radiating out from the Eurostar. Belatedly I’m realising that I’ve missed out on some great rail journeys that run across these radial routes from England. […]
Alan Heeks writes… I’ve been keen to visit Bolzano for many years: perhaps because of Sudtirol’s cross-cultural history, perhaps because I have a friend whose German-speaking mother emigrated to England from here. Anyway, my first visit delighted me: Bolzano has charm, history, and lots more. Bolzano streets Bolzano’s location is magnificent: in a deep Alpine […]
I’ve just returned from a week at the Unicorn Dance Spirit Camp. I was co-leading sessions called Nourishing the Heart, which were a great experience of how to raise spiritual wellbeing. A focus of the whole camp is Dances of Universal Peace: these are akin to circle dances, but the dancers are singing and moving […]
Thomas Mann is an author who deserves to be taken seriously. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929 and is one of Germany’s greatest twentieth-century writers. You may know him through the beautiful film of his novel, Death in Venice. However, The Magic Mountain is not an easy read. It’s over 700 pages […]
American dreams in the mists of time Our hero is Amory Blaine: handsome yet uncertain, desperate to explore life to the full. His life blossoms at Princeton: he loves the beauty of the place, the camaraderie, the magic of staying out all night, singing with “dreaming towers.” But the book plunges on beyond the dream. […]
“We’ve got to stop acting out hate” Charles Eisenstein A recent article by the young American writer Charles Eisenstein offers the best insight I’ve found into the upside of the Trump era. For a start, he points out that no one can pretend anymore that the status quo is basically intact. This period of intensifying […]
Whether happiness and success are linked or opposites has been debated for centuries. In creative arts, misery seems more linked with genius. But football offers us a different view, at least this year. For readers who think football’s a bore, I must say that I find it a rich source of insights and analogies for […]
The re-creation of the British Pullman is a classic British story of eccentric, visionary wealth allied to traditional craftsmanship. James Sherwood rescued carriages from weird locations and states of disarray. Bob Dunn, whose grandfather made marquetry for the original cars, was one of a host of dedicated restorers. Now, for a princely sum, you can […]
This guest blog was written by Maria Trap, and is reproduced with her permission. by Matt Wuerker, Politico After more than 2000 years since the birth of his son God felt that it was more than time to stage the second coming. He felt it was actually getting […]