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Continue reading →: Keep On Keeping On..A more or less typical day on the road. If for any reason thought turned towards settling down and living in one place for a while, another reason to shelve that and keep on keeping on. Unpredictable. Adventurous – new people, new places. Fun. There were some things I wanted…
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Continue reading →: Rare Singles by Benjamin Myers
Published 2024 – north of England literature Myers is clearly a passionate and versatile writer. I wonder though that sometimes his passion gets the better of him and manifests itself as a sort of whimsical reminiscence in books like The Offing, The Perfect Golden Circle, and this.This is perfectly enjoyable,…
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Continue reading →: The Bothnian Sea National ParkThe Bothnian Sea National Park, or Selkämeri, was established in 2011 and occupies a 160 kilometre strip along the coast. 98% of it is water. There isn’t much hiking or cycling to be done, most of its visitors come for bird-watching, pootling around in a kayak, or diving. Nonetheless I…
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Continue reading →: Notes From An Island by Tove Jannson
translated from the Swedish by Alexander Chee Tove Jannson, a Finn who wrote in Swedish, was best known for her children’s books, The Moomins series, which she began in 1945. These may be her claim to fame, but she had a darker and more humorous heart; “I could vomit all…
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Continue reading →: Trails of Isojärvi National ParkThe National Park has two entrances, Heretty to the south, and Kaatvuori on its north side. I parked up at Heretty and was the only vehicle there on Monday night, though was joined on Tuesday by a few hikers including a group of 17 year old students from a nearby…
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Continue reading →: The Iron Staircase by Georges Simenon
translated from the French by Eileen Ellenbogen I’ll just start off by saying I am a big Simenon fan, more so of his stand-alones and romans- durs than his Maigret novels, though I do enjoy those as well.I’m trying to get a copy of every English translation and still have…
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Continue reading →: Isojärvi National ParkSunday morning in Southern Konnevesi National Park was quiet, and much cooler after than rain from the previous day. We repeated the hike that we had done yesterday, but in reverse. Just before we were going to depart a lady in a high visibility jacket stopped me. She was a…
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Continue reading →: Southern Konnevesi National ParkDay 132 of the course and the only real rain day I’ve had so far. There have been part days typical of the ocean coast with occasional fronts passing across in a couple of hours, but even these have been few. The storm broke about 9:30 pm last night and…
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Continue reading →: Red Crosses by Sasha Filipenko
translated from the Russian (though the author is from Belarus) by Ellen Vayner First published in Minsk in 2018, Filipenko’s novel features two main characters, 30 year old Sasha, a soccer referee who lives with his young daughter, and 90 year old Tatiana Alexeyevna who is in the early stages…
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Continue reading →: In The Beginning Was The Sea by Tomás González
translated from the Spanish (Colombia) by Frank Wynne This isn’t as good as The Storm, but González’s prose is still captivating, especially when he writes about the sea, which is the case in both novels. It is about a young and ambitious couple (J. and Elena) who seek out the…
To live more widely
supera superiora sequi
SafeReturnDoubtful is my alias.
Where is Andy?
I was so much older then…
Quote of the Week
Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, ‘What road do I take?’ The cat asked, ‘Where do you want to go?’ ‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered. ‘Then,’ said the cat, ‘it really doesn’t matter, does it?’
Lewis Carroll
Safe Return Doubtful 