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.

  • Reform What?

    Substack diary no. 140: Friday, 1st. May 2026

    The almost complete lack of noise today is Covid-like; a lockdown silence where human sounds are notable by their almost complete absence. Even nature is quiet this morning, with almost no breeze and a dull grey sky with no hint of precipitation. A car pulls into the cul-de-sac. I hear a creaky wardrobe door being opened next door. I strain to hear anything else – there is nothing. The clatter of pigeon claws on the roof above me. Why so quiet?

    Well, to those of us of a certain age today is May Day, where workers meet to rail against injustice and exploitation, or to celebrate the occasional victory. Having been demonised for decades by the media, most of which is owned or covertly influenced by the British Establishment, May Day has been consigned to a dustbin marked ‘history best forgotten’. Today is not a Bank Holiday. Monday is a Bank Holiday, and the May Day of old has been erased and replaced with Early May Bank Holiday. How brutally unimaginative and shallow.

    So why so quiet? I have no idea. Perhaps it is simply the beginning of Bank Holiday Weekend and a lot of workers have decided they rather like the idea of the occasional 4-day weekend. And why not? Workers are under attack like never before and often, sadly, from Emperors with no clothes who are pretending to be something they are not. And, even more sadly, a multitude of workers are falling for the fog of Orwellian lies disguised as sound-bite logic. So much so that a political party of and for the British Establishment have somehow duped them into believing they are anti-establishment. This is turkey’s voting for Christmas and lemmings voting for an increase in the number and height of cliffs. What exactly is it they want to Reform, other than to remove barriers to the growth of the already staggering wealth and power of their chums in the Establishment?

  • Swansea field trip: the final days fading away into beer and a failed attempt to get home

    27th-29th March 1976

    After all the usual excitement of a geography field trip – touring the Gower Peninsula, measuring plant and soil types on a Valleys hillside, visiting Merthyr Tydfil and Port Talbot/Neath and a very strange remote pub – the final few days of the geography field trip just sort of fizzled out, but not without a cocktail of disappointment, amusement and beer.

    Saturday 27th. March

    The weekend started with a member of our group – Derek – wandering off on his own first thing. I am sorry to say that I do not remember Derek, but in my defence I certainly knew him then – and it was 50 years ago after all!.

    Most of us decided to head for the University and town libraries, which seemed eminently sensible – but not me. In the end I did a Derek and went for a walk around the city and nearby villages looking for tourist attractions. I have always been a bit of an explorer – a feature of my character that has never left me. Yes, on a visit to California I would of course visit Hollywood, but I would also drive up Route 1 towards Santa Barbara and take a random dirt road east, just to see what was there.

    (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