Tag Archives: environmental portrait

Blues musicians rock! The entertainers at the Thredbo Blues Festival last month had me smiling from ear to ear. This little event takes place in the charming alpine village for which it is named, high in Australia’s Snowy Mountains. For two and a half days, the restaurants, bars, and public spaces are bouncing with joyful […]

View full post »

The town of Munnar, in Kerala, South India, was once a popular summer resort for members of the British Raj. Sitting high (1,600 metres – 5,200 feet) in the Western Ghats, this hill station offered cooler summer temperatures than those in the hot and humid coastal cities. Tea plantations were established here in the late […]

View full post »

Is there anything as joyful as being in a room with live music that is being performed by musicians who love what they are doing? I had the pleasure of attending the 31st Thredbo Blues Festival last month. It started on a Friday evening in January, and continued through to late Sunday night. I’ve attended […]

View full post »

Finally! The day dawned clear, and while the mists cloaked the distant mountains, the extensive green hills covered in tea bushes and silver oak trees that surrounded my ‘resort’ had at long-last come into view. I had booked myself in for a week’s stay above Munnar, a town in the Western Ghats in India’s southern […]

View full post »

If you Google “French” and “food” you will get chapter and verse on culinary artistry, precision techniques, high-quality ingredients, and deep cultural significance. On my first trip to France – many, many years ago – I was working for some friends at a small auberge in Parignargues. There, I was introduced to concept of the […]

View full post »