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.10: Dark Clouds over Westminster

Rather apt for current events! A photo taken on iPhone 6s in 2016.

  • Anaerobic Digestion!

    Substack diary no.131: Wednesday, 22nd. April 2026

    It is quite windy out there; I am guessing a ‘fresh breeze’ on the Beaufort scale. Waste teams have not yet caught up with the Easter Bank Holidays, as the garden waste bins remain firmly planted on the pavement. I only put out two of five bins on Monday evening – food waste and garden waste. It struck me this morning that if I have a full garden waste bin I should probably not have a food waste bin.

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  • 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