Abnormally Normal, Normally Abnormal
February 14, 2025 1 CommentImage by Roger Chapman on Unsplash 17 October 2024 Today, home feels like home. Again. It feels weird—and lovely. Soothing, even. There’s something surreal about having my two eldest children back in the house at a time other than Christmas. For so long, it’s just been me, Black the dog, and Silver the cat—our once […]
Read MoreMedjool’s Conversation with Gaia
February 14, 2025 1 CommentImage by DALL.E and photo by me Written by Medjool during August 2024, posted here on 5 October 2024. Translated and shortened from the French original which was rather more beautiful and poetic. (As always, posts on my psychedelic experiences (in this experience I was a co-sitter, not a participant), I am not advocating their […]
Read MoreAnd Julia?
February 14, 2025 2 CommentsPhotos taken by friends 3 October 2024 Yesterday I caught up with a friend-former colleague, John C. We go back somewhere between 15-20 years and have both professional and sports-leisure interests in common – so there is always plenty to talk about. His sporting endeavours have always been about five notches (on a scale of […]
Read MoreCall Me By My Loves
February 14, 2025 2 CommentsImage by Omer Salom on Unsplash 2 October 2024 It still happens. That in a moment, here or there, at home or up high in mountain ranges, somewhere I feel particularly safe and relaxed, that I call out to Medjool using Mike’s name. “Mike?” I say, or perhaps, “hey, Mike!”, or simply “Mike”. I catch […]
Read MoreEquinoxal Menopause
February 14, 2025 4 Comments22nd September 2024 All photos my own, taken yesterday or today Today, 22nd September 2024, I am “officially” menopaused, which means that it has been exactly a year since the first day of my last period. Yesterday I was still peri-menopausal, and tomorrow I will be post-menopausal. “Menopause”, technically, is a very brief thing, even […]
Read MoreLove and Light – though not in a corny way
February 14, 2025 No CommentsImages coaxed out of DALL.E 31 August 2024 Sometimes – (quite often, actually) – my blog post writing comes about because of a specific, one-off experience. A major – or minor – thing happens, and I write about it. It could be a dream or nightmare, a conversation I have just had with someone, and […]
Read MoreLiving and Embracing Paradoxes & Polarities
February 14, 2025 No CommentsAll images generated with a lot of coaxing of DALL.E 20 August 2024 And so on to my second LSD trip. This was in early April this year, just a few weeks after my first experience, and I had been invited (“because we like you!”) to join a very small group of psychedelics facilitators and […]
Read MoreLoss, Separation, Despair
February 14, 2025 1 Comment16th August 2024 Images generated by DALL.E except where indicated Five months ago, in mid-March 2024, I had my first LSD experience. Yup. Really. Out of respect for the medicine, I like to write out, at least once, the full name: Lysergic Acid Diethylamide. Okay – LSD from now on. LSD is a powerful hallucinogenic […]
Read MoreErm, he’s not my husband
February 14, 2025 7 CommentsPhoto my own – taken this afternoon, Lin, Lake Ohrid, Albania 12 August 2024 Earlier this afternoon, while I was sitting on this “garden sofa” with my laptop, on this absolutely gorgeous terrace at a B&B in Lin on Lake Ohrid, Albania, a fellow resident smiled at me and said, “Your husband is a really […]
Read MoreCompassion Without Borders / Dhembshuri Pa Kufi
February 14, 2025 No CommentsPhotos my own, taken in Berat on 2nd and 3rd August in Berat, Albania. 4th August 2024 Following our Peaks of the Balkans hike (a 10+ day walk around the high mountain borders of Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro), Medjool and I are now enjoying being “conventional tourists” – visiting and delighting in the historic, cultural […]
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