This picture was taken in 2009 at Lake Bunyoni in Uganda, Africa. My wife, Clare, and I were walking along a path when some children from a nearby village greeted us and decided to walk with us. One child, whose …
As you might have seen in ‘The cat sat on the mat’, it is a lot of fun to let the mind run free by applying the simple ‘Who, what, where, why, when, and how.’ As an extension of that …
This picture was taken in Manaus, Brazil, in 2007. It is a city near the meeting of the Rio Negro (Black River) and the Rio Solimoes in the Amazon Rainforest. Actually, the literal ‘meeting of the rivers’ is fascinating. Because …
This photo was taken in 2014 near Grenfell in country New South Wales, Australia. I love travelling along country roads. They lead to farms, and kids on bikes, and ants busy at their nests, and corridors of shade, and corrugations …
This photo was taken in 2007 at a dry-cleaners in La Candelaria district of Bogota, Colombia. The dog, whose name I’ve long since forgotten, was ‘the minister for first impressions.’ In other words, he was the first staff member to …
To over-write. To under-write. To get it just about write right! Writing and the teaching of writing isn’t easy. Indeed, for many students and educators it is one of the most difficult parts of formal learning. As we stress at …
When conducting workshops, I often invite students to share their work by reading it aloud to their classmates. All too often those who volunteer pre-empt their reading by saying things such as: ‘I’m not a very good writer, but….’ ‘I …
Have you ever written a postcard? Perhaps you may not know what a postcard is? As the name suggests a postcard is a card you can post. (Yes, the old-fashioned way through the mail!). Sending postcards used to be a …
The other day, while working in my garden early after sunrise, I stopped to take a picture of one of nature’s gifts to us. It was a spiderweb dripping with pearls of dew in a barren rosebush. So beautiful. Within …
It was my first trip to Chicago. Back in 1995. March, I think. Bone-bitingly cold. (Locals say they have only two seasons in ‘the windy city’: winter and construction season). A former girlfriend and I caught a train out to …