Summer – Kate on her travels

A marvellous midsummer

I have had a most rare vision. I had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was… The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dreamContinue reading “A marvellous midsummer”

Spring is here part II: a calendar year in the countryside

I mentioned last week in my first post about the beginning of spring that every day this year I’m reading The Shakespeare Almanac by Gregory Doran. I’m also reading a book called Wonderland, day by day. Every day in the book focuses on a different aspect of flora and fauna in the UK, as theContinue reading “Spring is here part II: a calendar year in the countryside”

Postcard from…a Japanese heatwave

Longer read 31° degrees Celsius. 88° degrees Fahrenheit. 70% humidity. Welcome to Kyoto in July. Or, to be specific, Kyoto in July 2018. In Japan’s ravishing old capital, and across most of Japan, a heatwave was sweeping through, the worst since records began. And there I was, on holiday with my brother. I’d had bigContinue reading “Postcard from…a Japanese heatwave”

Travel hack: beat the heat

The news continues to stream out of Japan of the unprecedented heatwave, and it makes for sombre reading. The longest and deadliest heatwave since the 19th Century! I visited this wonderful country in the first half of July, knowing it would be hot, but astounded by just how all-consuming and furious the heat was. IContinue reading “Travel hack: beat the heat”