Opinion

Today is Obama Day

Returning to The Hovel after a short relapse at Mamage Mansion (aka The Laundry House), where the electricity works and the water is hot for a bath, is fridge shivery, about as cold as iced yoghurt. Outside the snow lies thin and crisp and the wind cuts slices out of my face. Inside the fire [...]

“even if the cockcrow heralds the dawn, sleep on”

By Magnus Wolfe Murray It was my day to go to the regional capital, Viana do Castelo, quite a nice Port town nestled between the sea and the mouth of the river Lima. I wanted to dig through an old register of watermills in Monção county, where we live. For some reason it’s held there, [...]

A train in Europe

It’s Christmas time and I want to visit my family.  They live in Scotland, me in Portugal.  Having learned about the major impacts of air travel to greenhouse gas emissions and the subsequent increase in global warming, I realised that we should do our best not to fly, but to go by land.  There are [...]