patrickjegan

[King Richard I, the Lionheart. Source: Google search.] Even the bravest of us loath war, and those who long for it are the most dangerous. ~~Richard I. If Richard I really did say this, he likely didn’t see himself as particularly dangerous. But the infidels (Muslims led by Sultan Saladin) that he was fighting during the Third Crusade to ‘liberate’ the Holy Land most likely had a different…

[GEFJON. The Norse goddess of the plow, holds the power to move the earth and foretell people’s destinies. It is also the name of the Viking cruise boat that will take us to Amsterdam. Source: Wall mural on the Viking Gefjon. Photo is mine.] This is where I came in. Budapest: Where East meets West. The Blue Danube is something more than a waltz by Johann Strauss. ~~Tom Kelly Guilty of…

[Not my photo of an earthworm shaped like a heart sitting on grass and dirt. Source: MBCheatham] Outbreaks of unvarnished truths in the backyard of our true self can be very precious and inspiring, even though we might inconsistently be tempted to give in to the exhilarating perfume of fables and fair tales or to flattering praise and fiction. ~~Erik Pevernagie I’m in a cemetery standing under…

[A ‘new’ vintage postcard of our apartment building. Out apartment is shown by the black arrow. Source: Public Domain.] Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same. You realize what’s changed is you. ~~F. Scott Fitzgerald I slid out of our four-poster and onto the creaky wooden floor. It’s the third morning for Mariam and me in our new apartment. I make my…

[The Highway of Tears. Map Source: Google Search.] Please help us find who’s out there. Help us put a stop to the Highway of Tears. ~~Indigenous Arts & Stories He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it. ~~Jessica McDiarmid, Highway of Tears I’ve driven Highway 16…

[The green fields of Ireland. Photo is mine.] With a bog, and its buried contents, the past is no longer behind you, but palpably beneath your feet. A secret history is stacked just a few feet below the modern world in which you’re standing. ~~Terry Eagleton It’s closing in on St. Patrick’s Day and since I will be quite busy in the next few weeks, I thought I’d put out this long-planned…

[From the Nutritional Label of a Trail Mix. Photo is mine.] If they want to sell us Frankenfood, perhaps it’s time to gather the villagers, light some torches and head to the castle. ~~Paul Lewis. From a letter to the New York Times in 1992. Lewis coined the term: Frankenfood. Oh dear! While I was opening WordPress to write this blog post I noticed something. I did not successfully post a blog…

[If you know me, you know this house. 420 Front St. Owego, NY. Photo is mine.] I can see a better time when all our dreams come true. ~~Fairytale of New York. Shane Patrick Lysaght Macgowan Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~~Marcel Proust The photo above. My childhood home. See the brown painted bay window on the…

[On the left, in the distance, just beyond the white house, just hidden in the morning fog, is the riverbank where I played away my childhood. Photo is mine.] Great Grandpa, what’s an Imaginarium? Oh, Great Grandson, it’s like a rambling and cluttered room, an old room, a very big room. There are lots of books, on magic and myth, truth and nonsense, ideas and quotes, sad stories and impossibly…

[Unenhanced photo of the moon. Sailing west, looking south. The North Atlantic Ocean. Photo is mine.] Whenever people look at clouds they do not see their real shape, which is no shape at all, or every shape, because they are constantly changing. They see whatever it is that their heart yearns for. ~~Eduardo Agualusa, A General Theory of Oblivion Whatever it is their hearts yearn for…Hmm. We…

[The Lychgate of All Saints Church in Minstead, New Forest. This gate is where the funeral party rests the coffin and meets the Vicar in preparation for the burial. Photo is mine.] ‘Tis now the very witching time of night, when churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out contagion to this world. ~~ William Shakespeare Hamlet We were staying for five days in Minstead, in the heart of the New…

[Ceiling of the nave in Bath Abbey. Photo is mine.] Oh! Who can ever get tired of Bath? ~~Jane Austen Northanger Abbey Like a grandfather clock on the landing of a staircase of an old house, like a circular staircase leading to the dark places in a haunted Irish castle, like an elderly couple at the end of long day of driving, things and people wind down. We’re winding down. Our fantastic…

[A face carved into clay. Guardian of Hell Lane? Omen? Warning? Demon? Photo is mine.] Greenways, droveways, stanways, stoweys, bradways, whiteways, reddaways, radways, rudways, halsways, roundways, trodds, footpaths, fieldpaths, leys, dykes, drongs, sarns, snickets, bostles, shutes, driftways, lichways, sandways, ridings, halter-paths, cartways, carneys, causeways, here-paths – & also fearways,…

[South of Shaftesbury the gentle hills of Dorset go on and on. It was a pleasant afternoon drive. The next day proved to be very different. Photo is mine.] I’ll huff and I”ll puff and I’ll blow your house down. ~~The Big Bad Wolf The south coast of Dorset. The Jurassic Coast. The smugglers and the shepherds ruled the day here once upon a time. Thomas Hardy wrote novels based on this ancient…

[A detail of an art exhibition in the nave of Bath Abbey. Photo is mine.] A premature victim of the Exertions of an ardent and fuperier mind. ~~From an epitaph inscribed on white marble, on the north wall of the nave of Bath Abbey. who passed on to his reward in 27 January, 1792. Aged 32 years. He also was A truly Honeft Man. Back in the late 18th century, they often used ‘f‘ in place of ‘s‘.…

[Standing in the English rain, waiting for the sun. The author standing near the entrance of the Natural History Museum, London. Photo taken by Mariam Voutsis.] The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage. ~~Mark Russel Slainte, Ireland. Allow me, gentle reader, to add a gentle coda to our gentle trip to Ireland. When last sat…

[Redwood Castle, Lorrha, Co Tipperary, Ireland. Photo is mine.] So, are ye staying the night? ~~Coleesa Egan My last blog post, No. 6 in my series. Oh, my last post from nearly a week ago. What can an honest man say about my determination to spend the night in my ancestral castle, reputed to be haunted? Actually, nothing. We did not spend the night there. I had every intention to do so, even…