Seasons of Vermont

A final leaf falls to conclude a muddy autumn, and mark the beginnning of a new, crisp season. The first snow, fallen just this morning, lies evenly untouched except for some tracks of a wandering fox, and the icy wind. The house is a very visible landmark against the dull brown of the trees and … More Seasons of Vermont

A Martian Triumph

My name is Jaff. I live in number 5 Moonlight Avenue in 99 Martian House. This is the story of how I beat my annoying teacher Mrs. Thinman. I am nine years old and what you humans call an alien. I go to school in a floating classroom and live in a levitating house above … More A Martian Triumph

My colour poem

Green is the colour of the lean string bean Which I wash squeaky clean. Green is the colour of the crocodile Who always makes me run a couple miles. Italian hills are always bright green; I’ve been there and it’s what I’ve seen. Green is the colour of leaves on a glower, So is the … More My colour poem

Bikes and dragons

I have not been a model of blogging activity in 2016. Now I’ve been forced to write something because the Foxcub has sent me a poem (see next post). Since you can boast about your niece, I think, without sounding dreadful: she’s been told she has a writing age of 13 (she’s 7). (In contrast, … More Bikes and dragons

An African Journey

In June 1938, my great-aunt Katharine set off from Dorset in the south-west of England to the boat train at Tilbury on the Thames, from where she sailed to Tangiers. A month later she was in Nairobi, staying with her brother Cenydd and his wife Alison, my grandparents. They had settled in Kenya twenty years before, in a … More An African Journey

Home and away

July, school holidays. The foxcub and her brood have left the 45 degree heat of The Sandpit to return home to England; we remain in Sydney with a short trip to Kangaroo Valley. The big skies above the Hume Highway remind me why, when I first came to Australia, I fell for it – its … More Home and away