Poppy Day
This week you can tell a Brit from the red poppy worn on his or her lapel. Today, I was a lone poppyist in the congregation for a Veterans Day service in the graveyard of Grace Episcopal Church, Yorktown. There
History
Abandoned in Appalachia
If you go on a road trip through the Appalachian mountains you will see lots of old abandoned houses. I often wonder who lived there and why they left. Please click to view a video of selected photos taken over
Spring offensive
On this somber first anniversary of the war in Ukraine and anticipating a spring offensive, I expected to read historical reflections in the media about the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet tanks and troops in 1968. So I am filling
End of Second Elizabethan Age
We are no longer Elizabethans. This view is one of my first memories, from sitting on my father’s shoulders as the golden state coach paraded along the Mall after the Coronation. A symbol has passed that lent a sense of
Bonchurch through Time
My great grandma bought this watercolor by a minor artist of an Isle of Wight scene a century ago. It has hung in our family homes ever since. A housemaid carrying a basket is walking up a winding lane scoured
Pepysing back at the 1665-66 plague of London
I aimed for a weekly post about the health of the natural world, but here I am dwelling on coronavirus again. Is anyone undistracted by this pandemic? This time I dusted off my copies of Samuel Pepys diaries in which
My Neighbor's Maple Syrup Sugar Shack
There’s a family I know in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia that has made maple syrup for over a century. As they are now short-handed of youngsters leaving for city work and the retainers get older and frailer, I
George Washington’s Stars & Stripes
On hearing an organ playing inside a church last Sunday as I strolled along Trumpington Street in Cambridge, England, I felt drawn inside to listen. It was Little Saint Mary’s Church which sits tightly between the Fitzwilliam Museum and Peterhouse