Cornwall Cogitation 16/194 Saturday 20 April 20119 Tragedy befell Paris, a nation, and the world as fire raged in Notre-Dame on Monday evening. The 850-year-old Gothic cathedral suffered a mortal, though thankfully nonfatal, blow. A Parisian journalist, interviewed on BBC Breakfast, on Tuesday spoke of the 12th-century cathedral as--what I interpret--a culturally-inspiring part of her …
Author: John Bender
Hi, my name is John Bender, retired and loving it. I'm writing to help interested people cross bridges to and from the past. Stories from the past can shed light on life in the present and illuminate the future. We've got a lot of living to do. Let's do it!
Ancient, awesome, Jane Austen’s Bath
Featured image: Tulips welcomed the rain more than I did on Tuesday during our visit to Bath, in County Somerset, UK. Cornwall Cogitation 15/193 Saturday 13 April 2019 Past voices echo plaintively over Bath, UK. Bath is a place to soak or soak up. We did the latter. Bath's most famous resident, Jane Austen (1775-1817), …
Like a song of a magical week
Featured image: A fitting note from the daffodil fairy. Cornwall Cogitation 14/192 Saturday 6 April 2019 What do the opera The Magic Flute, the movies Fisherman's Friends,The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society, The Bookshop, Trerice (a National Trust property) and daffodils have in common? All were part of our week, a week of …
Live (more) outdoors
Featured image: A cup of hot chocolate after lunch at Trenance Chocolate cafe and factory at Mullion during Monday's glorious walk along the south (English Channel) coast. Still taste it. Cogitation 13/191 Saturday 30 March 2019 Let's turn "inside," "outside." Normally, leaving home, office or school means going to another indoor destination. The objective is …
Happy? Hope so
Featured image: One happy winter robin, welcoming spring. Cornwall Cogitation 12/190 Saturday 23 March 2019 Happiness is a feeling of gladness, a response to something causing joy or good fortune. Happy-go-lucky children, for instance, show us a carefree and cheerful world. Wednesday was World Happiness Day. Happiness can be ranked nation by nation. Besides a …
What’s afoot in the UK?
Featured image: Geraniums in a planter at St Erth train station brighten our wait for the branch line train to Carbis Bay on our return Thursday from Penzance. Cornwall Cogitation 11/189 Saturday 16 March 2018 I wish I knew the solution to the United Kingdom's legislative chaos in coming up with an approved deal to …
Blow, blow, blow March winds, blow
Featured image: Tide's in between St Michael's Mount and Marazion, where we visited Monday. Cornwall Cogitation 10/188 Saturday 9 March 2019 March winds barreled in from the sea, whizzing past us on footpaths with glee, tireless. Monday alternated with high winds, sun, showers, cloud and hail as temperatures fell back to normal from February highs. …
Spring came in winter
Featured image: Cultivating an earthly paradise at Trengwainton Garden. Cornwall Cogitation 9/187 Friday 1 March 2019 A year ago, the Beast from the East stopped the UK in its tracks. This year, unseasonably warm temperatures prevailed all through February. In Cornwall, it's been like a spring feast sandwiched between slumbering giant winter. I've used sunscreen …
Celebrate life, past, present, coming
Featured image: It took a child for me to notice this gum collection bin at St Erth train station. Passing by us, he told his mother about its purpose to prevent harm to birds. Cornwall Cogitation 8/186 Saturday 23 February 2019 What better way to celebrate life, past, present and dawning than by a winter …
We’ve ‘arrived’
Featured image: Snowdrops, a most welcome mid-February sight as we were walking to St Ives. Cornwall Cogitation 7/185 Saturday 16 February 2019 Arrived , , , ha, ha. We've arrived in Carbis Bay/St Ives, Cornwall UK in the physical sense, minus any implied pretension. Ha, ha. We're grateful for safe travel and delighted to unpack …
It's About Now 