Thoughts from a Devon Sitting Room

Recording my life in diaries and photographs, from heady days as a student in London in the 1970’s to being a pensioner on a low income today. My writing is a mixture of insight – from knowledge & experience – and history. I explore my professional and personal interests – energy & climate change, history, politics, music, film, food & drink… the list goes on!

50 YEARS OF PHOTOS

No.9: Golden afternoon in Le Castellet

1982: relaxing in Le Castellet in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region in south-east France. I love this area – not too far from Toulon.

Photographed with Canon 450D. Negative scanned using Silverfast 9SE & Silverfast HDR. Processed using Lightroom.

  • Nervous Sleep!

    No.112, Tuesday, 31st. March 2026

    I feel tired this morning and my eyes feel heavy and dry. These were common symptoms during my later working life, which I put down to getting out of bed mechanically rather than naturally. In other words, when the alarm went off, which in turn was set in accordance with the demands of my employer and the vagaries of commuting.

    These days I can please myself. However, there are times when a feature of working life upsets my natural rhythm, and the inevitable result is sore, dry, heavy eyes. Back then I would sometimes be woken by nerves, especially if I had to be out of bed at an earlier time than usual. I would go to bed knowing this, and consequently not sleep well. I would wake up far too early and clock-watch. Five minutes to six. Then, ten minutes later look at the clock; two minutes to six. My judgement of passing of time was off.

    (more…)
  • Who decides what is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty?

    Wednesday & Thursday, 24th/25th. March 1976

    Swansea field trip day 3

    Day 3 and our intrepid geographers make the short trip from Swansea University to the Gower Peninsula. We were here to gain a ‘feel’ for the place in a combination of coach tour and very windy hill walking.

    I am fairly sure that the objective for the day was to ensure we were told as little about the objective as possible, in order to ensure we would develop as objective a view of the landscape as possible. Does that make sense?

    Possibly not, but all became clear as we headed back, sooner than anticipated, to university. An early dinner followed by “…a bloody great long lecture on landscape evaluation…” according to my ever-so succinct diary entry.

    I was not expecting this, and I suspect most of us were now thinking that perhaps we should have paid more attention on our little tour. For some reason I found that many of my classmates seemed to be focussing a greater than usual degree of attention on me. Very nice, but why?

    (more…)

Recent posts

So who is Colin Anderson?

A Devonian with stories to tell and a love of history, science, philosophy, environment, & entertainment.

An increasing number of people I know are either down the rabbit hole or caught in its event horizon, which I find distressing. I prefer the real world and, like a frantic sponge, I cannot help but soak up knowledge, insight & quality.

Which I like to share…

USA 2016 travelogue

Scotland 2022 travelogue