Agriculture Week in France, 13-24 May

Alternative medecine: moles

France, News & features, Normandy Notebook / By ajh

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, News & features / By ajh

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

France, News & features, Normandy Notebook / By ajh

[caption id="attachment_3964" align="alignleft" width="233"] La Chapelle Thomas at the 12th ...

Doctor Who?

France, News & features / By ajh

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

Whaling, ancient and modern

Alaska, News & features / By ajh

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

Iceland, News & features / By ajh

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

Iceland, News & features / By ajh

"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, News & features / By ajh

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

France, News & features / By ajh

[caption id="attachment_3952" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] © ajh[/caption] The titanic ope...

Kotzebue(ty) in Alaska

Alaska, News & features / By ajh

[caption id="attachment_3576" align="alignleft" width="226"] © angelajanehoward[/caption] It was the 4th

May Day, rickets, and the Forêt de Brotonne

France, News & features, Normandy Notebook / By ajh

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

France, News & features / By ajh

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

France, News & features, Normandy Notebook / By ajh

[multilanguage_switcher]If you went down to our woods eight years ago you'd have heard and seen ten beehives

Tall Ship

France, Poetry / By ajh

Parade down the Seine estuary She slides over still-water, sails spread like a swan ribbons flickering, kites in the wind; proud her prow, stroked by…

Bee Flash

France, News & features / By ajh

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

Spot the Bee with the number plate in London

News & features / By ajh

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

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

France, News & features, Normandy Notebook / By ajh

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

Glyphosate: the War on Weeds

France, News & features, Normandy Notebook / By ajh

[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

France, News & features / By ajh

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”

Iceland, News & features / By ajh

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…