Category: nature

The Bowling Green Nature Reserve, Topsham

During my trip to Topsham, Devon, I visited  the Bowling Green Marsh Nature Reserve. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Bowling Green Nature Reserve is on the junction of the River Exe and the River Clyst, close Topsham. The Lookout Hide viewing platform is described as “an ideal spot to watch birds up […]

Finding my roots in Topsham, Devon

In August 2022, I finally (after Covid travel delays) was able to explore my ancestral home of Topsham, in Devon. (These images were taken over several days,  back posted to August 30, 2022 to keep the blog in chronological order), For two centuries, sailors from the Pennell family on my father’s side lived, worked and […]

My visit to Highgate East Cemetery

During my visit to London, I met veteran videographer Brian Kelly, who took me and my nephew Christopher Christou on a tour of the famed Highgate East Cemetery. (My second great grandfather George Hugh Doherty Pennell (1832-1902) is buried at Highgate but due to post Covid staffing issues, it wasn’t possible to locate the grave […]

Portraits of Northwestern Crows

The weather in Kitimat has been awful during most of the fall, cold, windy, rainy, foggy and generally miserable. Not unexpected in a La Nina year. I went down to Kitamaat Village for the monthly bird count in a rain squall. So the visibility was pretty bad. As I was about to leave, a half […]

Remembering my visit to Florence, Oregon, which inspired the novel Dune

It was forty years ago, in August, 1980, that a friend and I drove from Vancouver, BC, where I was living at the time, to spend a weekend at Florence, Oregon, which inspired Frank Herbert to write the famous novel Dune. Like many at the time, I was entranced by Dune as soon as I […]