Author Archives: admin

Reading List 3

Posted on July 2, 2015 by admin

45 books finished in the first half of the year. I’d roughly divide them into: Proper Litercher Quarantine — Jim Crace All That I Am — Anna Funder The Inn at the Edge of the World — Alice Thomas Ellis … Continue reading →

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Nesting

Posted on June 26, 2015 by admin

We’ve been rather fixated on the storks recently, but other birds have been equally industrious. Not far from the storks’ nest, a rather elegant pigeon had made her nest on a street sign. One chick died and was ejected: She … Continue reading →

Posted in Nature, Slovakia | 1 Comment

Morava Meadow

Posted on June 21, 2015 by admin

The meadow by the Morava river has been busy over the last few weeks. Of course the storks are the stars; we first saw them on eggs on April 3rd; by 16th May the chicks had hatched, and they’ve been … Continue reading →

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A Year at the Shore

Posted on May 23, 2015 by admin

In Andrew O’Hagan’s “Our Fathers”, the narrator as a young boy is given a book by his old teacher as a parting gift: “A Year at the Shore”, by Philip Henry Gosse. Intrigued, I found a scan of the book … Continue reading →

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New Storks

Posted on May 17, 2015 by admin

The storks have had a visit from the stork: We counted four, or possibly five little dinosaurs.   Mum and Dad did some yoga together at changeover time:

Posted in Nature, Slovakia | 1 Comment

A Desk-Book of Errors in English

Posted on May 9, 2015 by admin

  My latest Distributed Proofreaders book has just been posted on Project Gutenberg: A Desk-Book of Errors in English, by Frank H. Vizetelly.  I first discovered this book via a little blog post noting the flapdoodlish nature of Vizetelly’s condemnation … Continue reading →

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Great and Small

Posted on May 8, 2015 by admin

As a distraction from the manifold failings of the British Labour party, we went today for a walk along the Slovak-Hungarian border, on the Danube floodplain. This turned out to be much more satisfactory. We saw* buzzards: a marsh harrier … Continue reading →

Posted in Hungary, Nature, Slovakia | 1 Comment

Beautiful Big Bird Barneys

Posted on May 3, 2015 by admin

If there’s one thing more impressive than a bird of prey soaring overhead, it’s two birds of prey having a damn good go at each other. On our recent visit to Britain, the Headington Red Kites put on quite a … Continue reading →

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Curtain-twitching

Posted on April 19, 2015 by admin

Saturday was a quiet day, mostly staying in and taking pictures of the neighbours through the window. Fortunately, our neighbours are exhibitionists:   According to Wikipedia, kestrels generally raise around four chicks per pair, so this could be a lively … Continue reading →

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Big Birds

Posted on April 12, 2015 by admin

As well as the storks, we’ve come across quite a few big birds in the last few weeks. Herons occupy the same kind of territory as the storks: One of the biggest surprises buzzed overhead while we were admiring the … Continue reading →

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