Antipodes

During the night after Sophia left us, the Albertine came out in bloom. [Click to enlarge] That will be an annual reminder of Sophi...

b 25 July 1998 Beauvoir-en-Royans d 29 May 2012 St-Jean-en-Royans During the final weeks and days, I appreciated greatly the wise and ...

Let me get this out of my system right away, so that I'll feel less guilty this evening. I intend to watch the Eurovision song contest ....

I'm fascinated by the craftsmanship of the bright fellows who earn their living writing speeches for leading figures such as heads of st...

As I've often said already in this blog, I refer to Skeffington in Leicestershire as my patriarchal village because we have every reason...

On the slopes just above my house, the gully where Gamone Creek flows (when there's rain) is, at present, a dark and humid jungle. And t...

I'm pleased to discover that I haven't lost a single rose or peony plant since I planted them in 2009. This year, the Gay Paree is ...

It's nice and reassuring for an Antipodean European such as me to realize that we can look in on US weirdies as if we were visiting a so...

I'm surprised — amused, not irritated—to find Richard Dawkins arguing in favor of the idea that the King James Bible is "a great w...

In a month's time, the computing world will be celebrating the centenary of Alan Turing , who was born in London on 23 June 1912. ...

Over the last week, Sophia has been avoiding all meat-based food including, above all, her customary croquettes . She's surviving on ra...

After endless health problems (some of which were hereditary), Robin Gibb has finally left us, at the age of 62. During the '60s and ...

Three psychology researchers (including the Queenslander Matthew Thompson ) have hit upon one of the most amazing distortion illusions I...

Between Barack Obama and François Hollande , an introductory exchange of a few words on the theme of US cheeseburgers and French fries migh...

We've all heard that black is beautiful. It's time now, for the Anglo-Saxon world, to learn that socialism is not a dirty word. Here...

For ages, I had a widget in the right-hand column that highlighted recent comments. Recently this widget seemed to break down, and I haven...

I was thrilled by yesterday's presidential happenings. To start the ball rolling at the Elysée Palace, viewers saw Nicolas Sarkozy wear...

Over the last week or so, my lovely 13-year-old dog Sophia has been affected by alarming health problems, and I'm trying desperately to...

When I was a schoolboy, we were expected to learn an assortment of curious old units of weights and measures. One of the strangest of these ...