Middlefocus

  I nearly walked past this shrub earlier on.   I'm glad I didn't because a little while later this natural occurence had disappeared.   A mist of web and raindrops had cloaked the plant. Entrapment by spiders surely to lure in unwary insects. The strategy reminded me a little of the Sirenes singing in the Ulysses epic. So as not to yield to the tempting invitation the hero in that story had himself bound to the ship's mast while the sailors had their ears blocked with wax so they couldn't hear the fateful song. It succeeded in the story but I am not sure how it worked out for the insects or the spiders in the shrub. I cannot really criticise the insects for falling prey.  It's part of the natural cycle of things.  And anyway, I stopped to investigate so I guess I too fell for the strategy. Glad I stopped and paid attention though. Would have "mist" it otherwise. Have you had a similar experience? Spotted any other of nature's fatal attractions?

  One of my favourite "curious openings" snapped on a trip to Granada, Andalucia, Spain back in 2023.  I remember that I spotted it and returned to take the picture. I wondered then and have wondered since why such a lovely door received so much graffiti attention.  You will see the starred handle easily enough but the keyhole is tiny. It seems out of proportion with the stature of the door. I wonder who passes through the opening and what stories lie behind.  Were the inhabitants present when the "artists" went to work? Did they hear the spray can hiss and splatter?  Or did they return home to find the damage done?  Was it one night's work or spread over time?  A recurrent problem? Was the apparent sturdiness of the door the very thing that drew the antisocial behaviour?   Curious indeed.

  Where Are The Kings Donal Ryan Transworld Digital, Penguin Random House, via NetGalley Advance Reader Copy (ARC) Read on Kindle Publication date: August 2026 4* I have physical copies of all of Donal Ryan's books, so when NetGalley offered me an advance reader copy of Where Are the Kings for review, I jumped at the chance.  The title immediately intrigued me.  Was a question mark missing? A glance at the dedication page deepened the mystery.  There was an extract from WB Yeats's On Baile's Strand, depicting someone fighting "crowns" on the waves amid cries of "Where are the kings?" The passage hints at struggle, grief and perhaps even madness—elements that resonate throughout the novel. Just a few minutes into the first chapter, I read: “There doesn't have to be a reason for crying. 
Sometimes crying just starts itself up in a person, and the person has no control of it.” This is our young protagonist, 12-year-old Jack, watching his mother. What a ...

    Night Flight , Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, with an introduction by André Gide Translated by Stuart Gilbert, Penguin Books, 1940 edition. This English translation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Vol de Nuit came from a late friend's bookshelves. The Penguin edition with its distinctive orange-and-white cover, denoting works of fiction, is now 86 years old and the content very much of its time.  Aviation was in its pioneering age and although the events described are tragic, the French writer, André Gide in his introduction writes "great though these risks still are, they are growing daily less, for each successive trip facilitates and improves the prospects of the next one."  Sadly those diminishing risks were not realised as is apparent by  another book from the same shelves—a book that survived an air crash. Back in 2001 my friend had ordered a title on the Geology of Ireland from a bookseller in Selkirk, Scotland. The book was on board an aircraft that crashe...

Walking a beach today, we came across a group of stones balanced on top of each other. Not a natural formation and clearly someone had found the time to engage in creative effort. How much time? How much effort? No doubt it was a meditation of sorts. Picking the right stones and shells to lend structure and support. The stack looked as if it would topple over at the slightest touch but no…it resisted the incoming waves that washed and frothed around. I stepped into the foam to get a close-up picture. I thought of other times; childhood, when armed with buckets and spades we sculpted with sand. This seemed the product of maturer effort - a rock castle and moat. Later we watched as a small flock of turnstones flew down, plumage the colour of the foreshore, and got busy living up to their appellation, flicking over pebbles in search of food. Did the stack look out of place to the birds? Upset their larder? Not a bit of it, they took it in their glide. A small stone stack, kinder to the en...

  There are times when I feel that I have to clear out some of my books. It’s not that I no longer appreciate those that I have decided to re-home, it’s more about making more space to let in the new. My latest dispersal included several books not on display but stored away in cupboards. It has been years since I opened them and I decided that they needed a more conscientious custodian.  Use them or diffuse them!  is my new guiding mantra. Mind you, flicking through some that I had earmarked for donation, I found myself rereading. Interest renewed I decided to keep them. They live to light another day. I wondered how much I had invested in the books and did a quick online search to check availability and current values. Even some of my pristine hard covers were only just a few £ pounds and there were loads for sale. So having decided to send the books on their way to new owners, it would be relatively simple and cheap to buy them again if I found I was missing them. Selec...

  Preparing for our trip to the Czech Republic I purchased a copy of Vaclav Havel's Power of the Powerless with an introduction by Professor Timothy Snyder. I've made this contract with myself that wherever I go abroad I'll delve into appropriate literature from the country, get a book, bring it with me and read it when there.  A cultural backcloth to the visit. In situ reading. Close to our hotel in Prague we spotted this memorial to the Velvet Revolution and returned to picture it with the book. Power of the Powerless is a challenging although instructive read. Notes: Check out the Vintage edition of the book here. See this related Wikipedia article here. Find the Velvet Revolution Memorial on Národní Trida in Prague

  Sense? Pencil shavings. Trees. Fallen by the wayside. Sawdust. Pooled like blood.

The beautiful church in central France where I met the Refugee Woman and Child I wrote the following poem 50 years ago. Scalded by an experience I found that I could only express my feelings through writing it. Whatever the poem lacks in style and structure, the act of going home and penning it had a powerful effect. Powerful enough to have stayed with me for 50 years. Still vivid in my memory. I had been at a church service in a town in France and during the ceremony a woman, clearly a refugee, head covered in a blanket and carrying an infant made her way up the aisle through the congregation reaching out her hand for money. It was a direct approach to a captive audience. I remember seeing the celebrant taking her to the side and discree tly giving her some money. She hadn’t finished just yet however and continued her path through the church, having much less success with others in attendance. Then our eyes met. The look in those eyes. Defiant dignity. I felt really uncomfortable as s...

  I always like to begin writing in a fresh notebook and diaries are special in that regard as a new year, whether calendar or academic, offers the promise of starting again. Gathering up my store of diaries, I look back and see that I first started using the Collins Essential One day type (pictured above) in 2021. That diary format tied in nicely with a new year’s resolution to write around 300 words a day. I guess that I have nurtured and stuck to that habit as lots of words have been written over the years. I had used Moleskin notebooks for a long time before that mainly to capture ideas and snippets of information. The Moleskins also doubled up with journal entries and travel logs. The issue I always had was how to track and call up the information my notebooks contained. I’ve made various attempts to index the contents with limited success. As well as my diary, I still use a notebook to record ideas and snippets but treat it as a kind of commonplace book. My latest one has a f...