Machine Gun Vignettes I His agapanthus were the best in the village. His shining pride and joy. Retired 10 years his days were spent tending the garden. Precision was his game. A ruler was used at sowing. His petunias sparkled. On his berm a row of bright plastic signs prohibited any excretion of excrement or…
Food: El Estofado – Spanish Stew
As I make my own idiosyncratic chorizo and Picante Pimentón de la Vera each Autumn and grow most of my own vegetables, Spanish inspired stews bursting with spicy smoky flavours are a common dish around here. After frying chorizo, Pimentón, onions and garlic, plucked Cavello Nero and chard get slow cooked with dried beans from…
Travel: Length of the Earth
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” J.R.R. Tolkien Jet lag again ripped us from sleep in the early hours. Icy fresh air floated in the window and took the edge off the central heating. We persevered through the caffeine-free hours of purgatory and presented…
Travel: In Search of Mutton Pie
Oamaru, July 2025 I rise after a night drinking with Michael O’Brien in his cottage. Last time I did so I bore the brunt of a mortal liver the next day, every footstep was a lash of self-flagellation. Today though I am buoyed by the fact that I showed relative self-control the night before. My…
Travel: Crisp And Clean
“Crisp and clean. No caffeine.” RZA , Coffee and Cigarettes Our jetlag wrenched us from sleep at 2am. In an act of cruelty that frankly jeopardizes Canada’s inclusion in the commonwealth there was no coffee or tea making facilities in the hotel room. I took to twitter to voice my anguish and was told that…
The Session 147: Morse
Two of my passions go hand in hand. I am an evangelical proponent of both traditional British beer and murder mystery fiction. While they intersect a lot, the writing of Colin Dexter is perhaps where the Venn diagram is at its most pure. Dexter’s Chief Inspecter Morse is an amalgam of Dexters own passions and…
Travel: Canadian Nice
“I believe the world needs more Canada”- Bono I think airports say a lot about the country they are verandahs to. In Sydney they call you mate before hauling you off to be swabbed for explosives, at Heathrow there is a resigned down beat air of lost grandeur and milky tea, in Chiang Mai there…
Travel: Beside the Seaside
“the first thing he espied was the wine lodge door stood open invitingly to quench his thirst, he toddled inside and called out for a wine which grew to eight or nine, till his nose began to shine.” John H. Glover-Kind I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside. This was our last full day…
Travel: Rag and Bone Man
“contenting myself with observing that I shall not abandon the facts until there shall have been a considerable spontaneous combustion of the testimony” Krook , Rag and Bone Man in Bleakhouse , Charles Dickens My apologies for the delay in continuing the trip write up. Life got in the way upon my return to NZ….
Life: This too shall pass- the beer that changed my life.
“این هم بگذرد in npam begzard And this too shall pass.” Persian proverb. In early 2025 the partners of North End Brewing Co are diverting paths and founding brewer Kieran Haslett-Moore is leaving the company amid a restructure. A new brewer is being sought. Twelve years ago, the first commercial batch of the beer now…
Raise the Dawn 