Category Archives: Reflections

Canadian Rockies in winter

Posted on February 8, 2025 by BarryH

Where to begin. The contrast between the Greek islands in summer and the Canadian Rockies in the middle of winter couldn’t be more stark. Truth is, I love extremes of weather, can’t be doing with never-ending greyness. True, the latest … Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, Grey Britain, Hiking, Landscape, Mountains, Nature, Photography, Reflections, Weather, Wildlife, Winter | Tagged alberta, Banff, Bow Falls, Bow River, Canada, canadian rockies, climate change, hoar frost, ice, thermal springs, travel, warming winters, winter | 1 Comment

Symi: Summertime blues …. and getting it wrong again.

Posted on June 25, 2024 by BarryH

I began this post at the end of May Written in 1935 for Porgy and Bess, George Gerswin’s ‘Summertime’ is the most covered song in the world, probably in excess of 25,000 times. Eddie Cochran wrote and sang ‘Summertime Blues’ … Continue reading →

Posted in Greece, Grey Britain, Grumpy Old Men, Health and humour, Hiking, Mountains, Reflections | Tagged accidents, adventure, age, Dr Michael Mosely, Extreme heat, google maps, Greece, heatwave, hiking, mountains, Symi, travel, trekking | 7 Comments

Nisyros: cause and philosophical effect

Posted on November 2, 2023 by BarryH

When the mythical apple mythically fell on Isaac Newton’s head, he formulated the Law of Gravitation, hypothesizing that not only did the apple descend to his head but that the earth on which he was sitting, rose up to meet … Continue reading →

Posted in Greece, Health and humour, Hiking, Landscape, Mountains, Nature, Photography, Reflections, Uncategorized, Weather | Tagged caldera, Craters Stavros monastery, Greek mythology, hubris, Newton's Law of Gravitation, Nikia, Nisyros, Nisyros walks, Symi | 5 Comments

Remembering

Posted on October 28, 2022 by BarryH

Thirteen years, always in my mind

Posted in Autumn, Landscape, Mountains, Reflections | 1 Comment

The Year of the Parsnip

Posted on April 25, 2021 by BarryH

This is the Year of the Ox, to be precise, the Year of the Metal Ox. It began on 12 February and replaced the Year of the Rat. At least for the Chinese. For me, 1 March marked the end … Continue reading →

Posted in Grey Britain, Health and humour, Nature, Photography, Reflections, Spring, Wales, Weather | Tagged cancelled flights, Covid-19, flowers, gardening, Greece, parsnips, psychology, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, spring, vegetables | Leave a comment

Rambling through the grey and rising above it …… occasionally

Posted on February 8, 2021 by BarryH

I’ve written before on the psychology of time, about which I read initially in Thomas Mann’s book ‘The Magic Mountain’ when I was in the 6th form and more recently in Claudia Hammond’s ‘Time Warped’, published 2012, exactly 100 years … Continue reading →

Posted in Grey Britain, Hiking, Landscape, Mountains, Nature, Photography, Pontypool, Reflections, Wales, Weather, Wildlife, Winter | Tagged brecon beacons national park, Covid Pandemic, Gwent, Holiday Paradox, Jackdaws, Magic Mountain, mist, Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal, philosophy of time, Pontypool, Pontypool Folly Tower, snow, Thomas Mann | 2 Comments

Rising above the grey

Posted on December 5, 2020 by BarryH

Rather than ushering in the Mediterranean to the UK, climate change is bringing increasing greyness interspersed with ‘extreme weather events’. Gradual descent into winter in November used to be marked by a week of hard frosts, sometimes with temperatures lower … Continue reading →

Posted in Grey Britain, Health and humour, Hiking, Landscape, Monmouthshire, Mountains, Nature, Photography, Pontypool, Reflections, Wales, Weather, Winter | Tagged brecon beacons national park, frost, Gwent, mist, Pontypool, Pontypool Folly Tower, Sunshine, Wales | 2 Comments

Locked-down in Wales

Posted on November 4, 2020 by BarryH

Since I arrived home from Greece in early September there have been various shades of lockdown. It would be more pleasant and safer to have stayed on Symi but unfortunately not to be. I would have been tempted to stay … Continue reading →

Posted in Autumn, Grey Britain, Grumpy Old Men, Health and humour, Hiking, Landscape, Monmouthshire, Mountains, Nature, Photography, Pontypool, Reflections, Wales, Weather | Tagged acers, autumn, books, Brugmantsia, Covid-19, fruit and veg, gardens, Wales | 3 Comments

Greece, Symi: here’s hoping

Posted on August 17, 2020 by BarryH

I usually come back from Greece to the UK for August, partly because of the heat but mostly in order to sort out my garden, harvest fruit and veg and store it away for the winter months. In the throes … Continue reading →

Posted in Autumn, Greece, Landscape, Mountains, Nature, Photography, Reflections, Uncategorized, Weather, Wildlife | Tagged autumn, autumn crocus, biarum marmarisense, Covid-19, fauna, Flora, Greece, Sea squill, Symi | 4 Comments

Spring in the Brecon Beacons: The long and the short view of The Covid Lockdown

Posted on June 6, 2020 by BarryH

September 1961. I started in the Sixth Form and my GCE ‘A’ level course. Perhaps more importantly, I now had access to the Sixth Form Library which hitherto I didn’t even know existed. It was like Aladdin’s Cave. The only … Continue reading →

Posted in Hiking, Landscape, Mountains, Nature, Photography, Pontypool, Reflections, Spring, Wales, Weather | Tagged bluebells, brecon beacons national park, Covid Lockdown, Covid-19, Flora, Holiday Paradox, Mynydd Garn Wen, paragliding, Philosophy, philosophy of time, Pontypool Folly, Sunshine, The Blorenge, The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann, Thursday Clap, white bluebells | 3 Comments