The Bloggler

This is a Sunday Stills Photography Challenge Post One of my favourite landscapes in the UK is the impressive coastal area of  Gwynedd, North Wales.  These photographs feature views around Portmeirion, Porthmadog and Borth-y-Gest on the estuary of the Afon Glaslyn, one of the area’s primary rivers.  Many of you will recognise Portmeirion - the enchanting Italianate style village on the coast of North Wales, the set for the famous 60s tv series The Prisoner.  (Portmeirion is featured in my post,  'We are all Prisoners now' .) To see more of my photos of this area and specifically Portmeirion, visit my album on Flickr   ( Copyright©2021 All rights reserved). Portmeirion   Portmeirion   Coastal walk, Portmeirion Borth-y-Gest   Porthmadog   Borth-y-Gest

I’ve got to the point where I am seriously rationing my news intake.  The more I read in order to get a clear understanding of news events, the more questions are raised in my mind, the bleaker the scenario becomes, the more the world seems a constant threat and the more anxious I get.  (I touched on this in my post from November last year: ‘ The Co-vid 19 Infodemic ’.)  And when, occasionally, good news comes along, it is soon dashed by some other negative development.   For example, there was the uplifting news this week that covid rates in my area have been reducing at a rate of 20% week on week (after the people of Greater Manchester have followed strict lockdown restrictions since July 2020).  My mood continued to lift when I saw reports on the impressive speed of vaccinations in the North West.  The next news is that: (a) there are concerns that the planned time lag between the first and second vaccinations will be too long for the vaccine to fulfil its tested efficiency level; (

For Dan’s  ThursdayDoors Photo Challenge I took these photos on holiday in Funchal, Madeira in 2012. The Old Town ( Zona Velha ), one of the most popular tourist attractions in Funchal, used to be a bad neighborhood avoided by tourists. It all started to change around 2010, thanks to the initiative of some great local artists. The local government supported the restoration project, provided paint supplies to artists, who began the journey of “bringing life” to this great area. The project is called “The Art of Open Doors”.  Some of the frontages of the older buildings have been beautifully painted and restored also.  Hope you like them.     Have a look at Dan’s blog,  T hursday Doors  for more stories of fascinating buildings and their doors.

Welcome to my first ‘ My Music ’ post.  This one is on the theme of ‘ Why I love this Song ’ - one of the themes I suggested in my last post.  The song I’ve chosen is ‘ AJA ’, the title track of one of my all time favourite albums, from the American band Steely Dan. It was recorded in 1977.  I’ve chosen it because to me, it is quite simply a masterpiece.  It is as close as you will get to perfection.  It is the high point of an album filled with high points. Essentially it is a jazz rock song, with elements of jazz fusion and progressive rock, written and composed by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.  Although they are New York musicians, the sound on the track and the album as a whole is very Californian in feel. Becker and Fagen play guitar and synthesizer, respectively, on the song and Fagan sings lead vocals. The other parts are played by a line up of the best session/studio musicians you could hope for. Here is the full line up. Donald Fagen  – lead vocals, synthesizer, police

You might have noticed that ‘My Music’ page has gone, but you most probably have not.  When I started this Blog, I thought it would be great to feature my love of music - either through my various posts or a dedicated ‘Music’ page.  I love listening to and discussing music with friends but this would allow me to share what I liked with anyone out there, and I would discover new music through discussions with other Bloggers - a more sociable and enjoyable pastime than just spending hours on Spotify. So, on ‘My Music’ page, I started off recommending songs from old and new bands just as they struck me at the time. I provided a few notes and a video link. But, however wonderful and eclectic my choices were, I began to wonder if it was just a bit indulgent. Why should anyone choose to listen to my random music choices without the benefit of some opinion or interesting background information?   I decided it wasn’t engaging enough to encourage readers to return on a regular basis.   It w

Like many people in lockdown, I find I am spending more and more time surfing the internet for shopping, research, blogging and socialising.   So why am I finding this process more and more difficult and stressful?   I started to wonder if I am becoming senile but it seems that cleverer and younger people than I are becoming just as frustrated with it. I used to be able to search for information without too much difficulty but now the search engines seem determined to make it as difficult as possible.   These days I end up with eyestrain or a migraine due to the constant battle of wading through page after page of badly-disguised sales pages masquerading as impartial content. These search engines like to interpret my searches in a way which suits them - often responding to the odd word rather than the actual group of words I type in.    It’s like asking a question of a narcissistic, numpty of a ‘nerd’ who is hard of hearing, whose first language isn’t English, and just wants to hav