A Traveller’s Eye, A Thinker’s Heart
I like to tell stories. I like to take photos.
And I like to share them. Enjoy.
-
THE ROADSIDE MARKET IN PNG
If you want a good sweetpotato in Papua New Guinea you don’t need to go to a supermarket. Just pull over on the road … on almost any road (but there are not too many roads in this super rugged country). My hosts from the National Agricultural Research Institute and I drove past a market
-
I DON’T CARE SWEETPOTATOES
There’s a sweetpotato in Papua New Guinea called ‘gimane’. But the farmers prefer to call it ‘I don’t care’. It’s because it grows so well they don’t have to care about much once they get a vine or tuber in the ground and it’ll grow. No fertilizers, no insecticides … not really much to care
-
SAKE IN AN IZAKAYA WITH A FRIEND
In December 1981, I was standing on the sidewalk in San José, Costa Rica while watching the Tope parade. A marching band clad in blue uniforms pounded away on their instruments. I looked out amongst the band members and spotted my mate Glen Snyder blowing away on his trombone while keeping in step. Glen and
-
JOSHUA TREES AND FAN PALMS
In a good year, the Mojave Desert will get 100 mm of precipitation. So, plants need to fiercely compete for limited resources or develop mechanisms to survive by living on next to nothing in terms of precipitation. The Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia) is one of those species which has mastered desert living. Its broad root
-
A DAYAK WELCOME IN BORNEO
The inter-tribal warfare amongst the Dayak people of Borneo in the old days was pretty brutal. But once the tribes made peace they welcomed their former enemies in a ceremony called ‘tampung tawar’. Now the Dayak use the ceremony to welcome visitors. My colleague, Beri, and I came to the village of Tumbang Samui in
-
THE ROADTRIP TO THE ‘WORLD’S BEST BEACH’
It’s a long way to Esperance. A full day’s drive from our home in Halls Head. But we’d be remiss if we didn’t take our German visitors to Lucky Bay … a beach recently listed as the #1 beach in the World (https://worlds50beaches.com/top-50-worlds-best-beaches/). We wanted to give our guests, Heiko and Susanne, a full Aussie
-
FROM SYRIA TO HALLS HEAD
Great friendships know no geographic boundaries. So, when Padma and I moved to one of the most remote locations on Earth, we fully expected to be able to get together on occasion with our friends. Padma and I formed many great friendships more than 30 years ago while we lived in Syria. We kept in
-
HOWELL NEWCOMB (1825-1889)
My second great grandfatherHowell Newcomb was born on October 6, 1825, in Adams, Ohio, to Jane Dubois, age 37, and Joseph Newcomb, age 40. He was the youngest of eight children. Howell is a peculiar name but there appears to be a reason. Jane Dubois’s sister, Leah, married Charles Howell. Their son Sheppard Howell was
-
LABORATORY SMILES IN MAPUTO
It’s hard to put a spin on a visit to a soil lab and make it interesting. So I won’t try. I visited the labs of IIAM, Mozambique’s agricultural research institute, to learn of their efforts to map levels of salinity in soil in the country. I saw lots of technicians in lab coats measuring
Adventure Adventures Agriculture Austria Backpacking Bangladesh Belize Benin Bolivia Botswana California Canada Cassava Chickpea Colombia Community Seedbanks Costa Rica COVID Cowpea Crop Diversity Current Affairs Czech Republic Ecuador Egypt Environment Eulogy Family Finger millet Finland Flora Food Security Forestry France Friends Georgia Germany Grasspea Greece Guatemala History Hitchhiking Honduras ICARDA India Indonesia Ireland Italy Japan Kazakhstan Kenya Kyrgyzstan Language Laos Lebanon Liberia Life's Experiences Literature Lousiana Malaysia Media Mexico Monaco Morocco Mozambique Nature Nicaragua Norway Pakistan Papua New Guinea Peace Corps Peru Philosophical Photography pigeonpea Portugal Potato Recollections Religion Rice Sierra Leone Singapore Sorghum South Australia Spain Sweden Sweetpotato Switzerland Syria Tanzania The Gambia The Netherlands Togo Turkey United States Vietnam Washington Western Australia Wine Wisconsin Zimbabwe
What are you looking for?
If you see this after your page is loaded completely, leafletJS files are missing.