World Oceans Day

Alternative medecine: moles

Blog, Features, Articles, France, Normandy Notebook / By ajh / March 7, 2016

On the barbed wire fence by the farm up the road we counted 120 moles strung up in the sun like socks hung out to…

An Orthodox Tlingit in Alaska

Alaska, Blog, Features, Articles / By ajh / March 14, 2016

We were sitting on the steps of an orthodox church, its gold-tipped dome shimmering like a glorious crown in the sun.  It stood on a…

Leprosy and La Chapelle Saint Thomas

Blog, Features, Articles, France, Normandy Notebook / By ajh / March 17, 2016

The small Leper colony in the woods down the hill with its Saint Thomas Chapel dates back to the 12th Century. We have been coming…

Doctor Who?

Blog, Features, Articles, France / By ajh / March 20, 2016

[caption id="attachment_3928" align="alignleft" width="161"] Alex Proimos Flickr[/caption]The medical face of Fra...

Whaling, ancient and modern

Alaska, Blog, Features, Articles / By ajh / March 30, 2016

Many are familiar with paintings and sketches of men in open boats on high waves hurling harpoons at giant whales.  From the Japanese to the…

Iceland’s geothermal standard

Blog, Features, Articles, Iceland / By ajh / April 7, 2016

After visiting the geothermal glasshouses in Flúðir, Iceland, and hearing about rising electricity costs despite all the waterfalls and geothermal hotspots in the ...

Independent People: Iceland, Fire and (pr)ice

Blog, Features, Articles, Iceland / By ajh / April 7, 2016

"The love of freedom and independence has always been characteristic of the Icelandic People."  Independent People, by Halldor Laxness, Nobel Prize in Literature. [caption id="attachment_3903"…

A Whale of a Time

Alaska, Blog, Features, Articles / By ajh / April 19, 2016

Barrow Whaling Festival: the Nalukataq The fog stretched out like a grey pall beneath us. Visibility was nil; we were as if wrapped in a…

Paris a rival for London, Berlin? Les folies de grandeur

Blog, Features, Articles, France / By ajh / April 20, 2016

The titanic operations to create ‘Grand Paris’ are under way.  From now until 2030, a huge new rail infrastructure around Paris linking the suburbs, together…

Kotzebue(ty) in Alaska

Alaska, Blog, Features, Articles / By ajh / April 28, 2016

It was the 4th of July and we were in the Iñupiat town of Kotzebue, the largest community in Northwest Alaska.  Kotzebue is on the…

May Day, rickets, and the Forêt de Brotonne

Blog, Features, Articles, France, Normandy Notebook / By ajh / May 8, 2016

On May the 1st we took to the woods.  If you go down a track in the Forêt de Brotonne - the Forest of Brotonne…

Mud and Massacre: Verdun 100 years on

Blog, Features, Articles, France / By ajh / May 29, 2016

France and Germany come together today, 29th May 2016, at Verdun to commemorate the centenary of the longest and one of the fiercest battles of…

To Bee or not to Bee

Blog, Features, Articles, France, Normandy Notebook / By ajh / June 6, 2016

If you went down to our woods eight years ago you'd have heard and seen ten beehives amongst the birches.  ...

Bee Flash

Blog, Features, Articles, France / By ajh / June 16, 2016

[caption id="attachment_1114" align="alignleft" width="182"]

Spot the Bee with the number plate in London

Blog, Features, Articles / By ajh / June 22, 2016

[caption id="attachment_1143" align="alignleft" width="136"] courtesy: BBC.[/capti...

I’m All Right Jack. What the French say about Brexit.

Blog, Features, Articles, France, Normandy Notebook / By ajh / June 27, 2016

[caption id="attachment_1151" align="alignleft" width="200"] "Union" Jack?[/captio...

Glyphosate: the War on Weeds

Blog, Features, Articles, France, Normandy Notebook / By ajh / July 12, 2016

[multilanguage_switcher]The five-acre field up our road stretched out like a yellow pall under the sky, desiccated.  The local farmer had sprayed it before re-ploughing and…

France votes in ban on neonicotinoids

Blog, Features, Articles, France / By ajh / July 24, 2016

The ban in France on neonicotinoids takes effect on 1st September 2018.  Dispensations for farmers will be possible up to July 2020.  Industrial giants Bayer…

Feast and Famine: Icelandic “Moss”

Blog, Features, Articles, Iceland / By ajh / September 10, 2016

In Iceland, vast swathes of silvery moss spread over endless stretches of land which has been ripped up by volcanic shifts and eruptions.  Unlike the…

Archangels and Angelica

Blog, Features, Articles, Iceland / By ajh / September 26, 2016

A half crazed warrior Thorgeir and his poet brother Thormod were in the Icelandic mountains picking angelica for their soups, salads, and medicinal remedies.  At…