- Trains and boats and . . .
- Not 20,000 leagues . . .
- What childhood reading did you enjoy?
- The best job ever?
- Meandering across North Tyneside
- Reaching for the stars . . .
- Strikes and spares . . .
- 8 billion . . . and counting
- Launching a career in agricultural research
- A Jackson sesquicentennial . . .
- Deck the halls . . .
- We saw the Fairies Caves but no lonesome pines
- Not necessarily in the right order . . .
- Glass is performance art (Thomas Phifer, architect)
- To the ends of the earth . . .
- I have a confession . . .
- The carnival is over . . .
- On Kielder side . . .
- Plants deserve more than five minutes of fame . . .
- A gong by any other name . . .
- A day out in York . . .
- “The august but elderly testicles of Edward, Duke of Kent . . .”
- The Queen is dead, long live the King!
- Around Northumberland in 96 miles . . . and several thousand years
- Are you a picky eater?
- Beach-combing along the Durham coast
- One of the most beautiful places I have visited . . .
- Mind my Ps and Qs? More like Ws and Cs for me.
- Legacy of an empire
- An Englishman’s home is his castle . . .
- A changing religious landscape . . .
- No fog on the Tyne . . .
- Then from the coast they bore away, and reached the Holy Island’s bay (Sir Walter Scott).
- Mix and match . . . wine and cheese
- A baker’s dozen . . . and a close encounter of the most extraordinary kind!
- Southampton @ 15
- The importance of being Ernest
- Nine towns and cities, four countries, four continents . . .
- Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside . . .
- Time for a national reboot . . .
- Prince of trees . . .
- Birding in the northeast . . .
- Traveling the Lincoln Highway – in literature and life
- What a transatlantic coincidence . . .
- A lifetime of events . . .
- 705,000 words and counting . . .
- Eat ’em to conserve ’em . . .
- Discovering pre-Columbian humanity in the Americas
- Collecting potatoes in Peru – following in Jack Hawkes’ footsteps (Part 2)
- Collecting potatoes in Peru – following in Jack Hawkes’ footsteps (Part 1)
- I thought I was going to have a heart attack
- Is it really five decades?
- Christmas at Wallington
- We called them the ‘Cobridge Alps’ . . .
- A cielo abierto . . .
- We’ve waited four decades . . .
- One year already in the northeast . . .
- Life in a northern town . . .
- Engraved on my mind . . .
- The beguiling girl from Malaga . . .
- “Where did you get that hat?”
- Looking back . . . and looking forward
- The Commonwealth Potato Collection – it really is a treasure trove
- I’m not the one with green fingers . . .
- Castles across Northumberland
- Walking in Hadrian’s footsteps . . .
- For those in peril on the sea . . .
- Traveling back in time in Coquetdale – Nothumberland at its stunning best!
- Not so good in the field . . .
- Leaving academia . . . heading east
- That’s not a fair question . . .
- No vampires . . . not even a Goth!
- Morris dancing and genetic resources – an unlikely combination
- Life goes on . . . taken too soon
- Getting the message out about genetic resources
- Brinkburn: a medieval priory on the banks of the River Coquet in Northumberland
- Every table tells a tale . . .
- Nothing comes for free . . .
- Riding the Metro to the sixteenth century and beyond
- Walking with my mobile – northeast (1)
- Almost as rare as hen’s teeth . . .
- Step inside the world’s most dangerous garden . . .
- Never get lost: numbers or just three words?
- I never aspired to be an academic
- Gibside: home of ‘the Unhappy Countess’
- Being an expat . . .
- Fifty is a mature number . . .
- The past changes a little every time we retell it (Hilary Mantel).
- It’s all NEWS to me. Definitely not fake!
- The darkest hour is just before the dawn (attributed to Thomas Fuller, 1650)
- Exploring the mysteries of sex . . . and taking control!
- Thoughts from a neo-psephologist
- There is no way you can deny it . . .
- Once this Covid-19 business is over . . .
- What should I call you?
- What a year . . . !
- Of mythical beasts and Pre-Raphaelites
- I was doctored . . . but the benefits were long-lasting
- Memories of Christmas past . . . and building new ones
- Pandemic books – my 2020 reading list
- Donald’s legacy: impeached AND a loser!
- There were three persons in his marriage – William Bell Scott’s ménage à trois
- No longer carrying coals to Newcastle*
- Combatting jet lag for job interviews across the globe
- Growing potatoes – growing professionally
- Our Northumbrian adventure begins . . .
- Moving house: the good, the bad, and the ugly
- What is it about September?
- Late summer blues . . . and yellows, oranges, reds – even some vivid greens
- Two’s company . . .
- The quiet man of GRC
- Trusting during Covid-19
- Moving on . . .
- I’m feeling conflicted . . .
- Taking a last look at Hanbury Hall
- Cockwomble-in-Chief
- Minnesota isn’t the laughing stock, Mr President. You are! Zipp it!
- Science publications that influenced my choice of career . . .
- I don’t need a ‘world-beater’ system
- How much of a game-changer will Covid-19 be?
- Living the life in Costa Rica . . . 1970s style
- What’s on your mind?
- You’ve got mail . . . maybe
- Potatoes or rice?
- Reliving some of our best USA visits
- Toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle mérite (Joseph de Maistre)
- It is always by way of pain one arrives at pleasure (Marquis de Sade)
- Two delightful country houses in deepest Warwickshire
- Nothing to fear but fear itself . . . (Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933)
- Veni, vidi . . . conquest came later
- Doe, a deer, a female deer . . .
- Benign decay in the Northumberland countryside
- Crossing the North Sea by boat and car . . . or so it seemed
- Coping with Covid-19 . . .
- Following in the footsteps of Izaak Walton
- Hidcote: an Arts and Crafts-inspired garden
- Beningbrough Hall: an elegant Georgian mansion in North Yorkshire
- Standen House: where Arts and Crafts meets West Sussex
- Warkworth Castle: a 12th century fortress above the River Coquet in Northumberland
- Farnborough Hall: home of the Holbech family since 1684
- Managing the mail for 150 years
- Cragside: a magnificent creation in the heart of Northumberland (updated 23 October 2020)
- Dunstanburgh Castle: a 14th-century fortification on the coast of Northumberland
- Clent Hills – in the heart of the Midlands
- Inspired by ants?
- ‘Selfie’ has just taken on a new meaning . . .
- Remembering an old friend: Bent Skovmand (1945-2007)
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 26: A sojourn in Sri Lanka
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 25: Walking the Great Wall of China
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 24: A Laotian experience
- It’s hard to be an optimist right now
- Where does our food come from?
- Bromsgrove: my adoptive town . . . but not for too much longer
- Look out, he’s behind you! . . . Oh no, he’s not!
- Genebanks are the future . . . but there is a big challenge ahead
- Never have genebanks been so relevant . . . or needed
- New Year, new job . . .
- Yes, we’ll meet on the other side . . .
- Have [botany] degree . . . will travel (#iamabotanist)
- Edgar L. Jackson (1946-2019)
- What I’ve been reading this year . . .
- Management and science – are they equally important roles for a genebank manager?
- A new beginning for biodiversity . . .
- Perception is truth
- Crossing rivers, valleys, and mountains in the eastern USA
- Beauty born of destruction
- The most recognisable geographical feature
- Bringing a bloody conflict to an end
- Tracks over the mountains
- USA 2019: nine days, ten Northeast and Atlantic states
- The vexation of vexillology . . . or name that flag!
- Are you plant blind?
- Parlez vous?
- What’s wrong with ‘a bowl of alphabet soup’?
- Exploring the southern Lincolnshire Wolds and Cambridgeshire Fens*
- Forever my ‘home town’
- Boris Johnson is a mendacious ****!
- Biddulph Grange – a masterpiece of Victorian garden design
- In the footsteps of Mr Darcy
- Turbocharging rice photosynthesis – the vision and legacy of John Sheehy, a brilliant scientist
- ‘Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen’. Benjamin Disraeli
- ‘Ménage à trois’ . . . ?
- 1066 and all that . . .
- “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life”. Charles Darwin
- “The Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye.”
- Chartwell: a family home where history was written (updated 30 March 2020)
- From the Second World War to the Cretaceous: exploring East Sussex and Kent over 84 million years
- Around the world through 191 airports . . . and counting
- Walking with my mobile: [3] Water and steel
- On yer bike . . . !
- Of Prime Ministers and Presidents . . .
- You’d be hard-pushed to be ‘one over the eight’ in Bromsgrove (updated 18 April)
- Walking with my mobile: [2] Exploring my hometown
- Everyone’s a taxonomist
- It’s all in the timing . . .
- Walking with my mobile: [1] Out and about on 20 March
- How we speak . . .
- I had a dream . . .
- It’s time to cut the Brexitian knot
- The perfect Brexit storm
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 23: An Anglo-Italian connection
- The will of the British people?
- A stroll in the park
- When the history of Brexit comes to be written
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 22: Iberian capitals
- You can do better than this, Network Rail (updated 18 February & 14 April)
- Lentils (and Mrs. Vavilov) on my mind . . .
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 21: Taking in Tokyo (and Tsukuba)
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 20: Volcanoes, temples, and rice in Bali
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 19: O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
- A botanical field trip to the south of Peru . . . 45 years ago
- Killing me softly . . . memories maketh the man!
- I’m a 19th century sort of person . . . and a Kindle convert
- A year full of heritage
- Discovering Vavilov, and building a career in plant genetic resources: (3) Becoming a genebanker in the 1990s, and beyond
- Discovering Vavilov, and building a career in plant genetic resources: (2) Training the next generation of specialists in the 1980s
- Discovering Vavilov, and building a career in plant genetic resources: (1) Starting out in South America in the 1970s
- With The Beatles . . .
- Three score and ten . . .
- If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
- A calamity averted
- Riding a big wave of nostalgia for Peru
- A ‘heavenly’ icon of the North
- ‘Acropolis’ of the North
- Governed by the rule of St Benedict (updated)*
- Feeling a little moonstruck today . . .
- Gelia Castillo – a synthesis tour de force
- Brexiteers are like turkeys voting for Christmas
- I was angry (still am), but now I’m also embarrassed
- In perpetuity . . . or longer (updated 17 October 2018)
- Whither the grasspea?
- Summer has returned . . . for one day only
- Bull is the name . . . history is the game
- It’s the border, stupid
- Where’s Baldrick when you need him?
- Kernow a’gas dynergh – Welcome to Cornwall (5): Magnificent mansions
- Kernow a’gas dynergh – Welcome to Cornwall (4): An impressive horticultural legacy
- Kernow a’gas dynergh – Welcome to Cornwall (3): Stepping back in time
- Kernow a’gas dynergh – Welcome to Cornwall (2): Coast to coast
- Kernow a’gas dynergh – Welcome to Cornwall (1): The journey south . . . and back
- Losing my religion . . .
- The emperor has no clothes . . .
- Relaxing in Minnesota
- Make that 20,001
- Blown away by Mt Washington . . .
- Sometimes, history just passes me by . . . particularly in Ohio
- Driving on the ‘wrong’ side
- Planning a USA road trip
- Massachusetts to Minnesota (4): heading west through NY, PA, OH, KY and IN, then on to MN
- Massachusetts to Minnesota (3): onwards to Niagara Falls
- Massachusetts to Minnesota (2): a week in Maine
- Massachusetts to Minnesota (1): the first three days in MA, VT and NH
- Disillusionment also comes with age, not just youth . . .
- Candles, paraffin lamps, electricity . . . and a ‘rule of thumb’
- A working-class movement for political reform
- Spring is in the air in Worcestershire
- Almost 400 years of history in the vicinity . . .
- ‘High hills surround the valley, encircling it like a crown’ (Walter Daniel, 1167)
- ‘Abandon hope, all ye who enter here . . . ‘
- Daffodils and doves . . . but no fireworks
- Crystal balls, accountability and risk: planning and managing agricultural research for development (R4D)
- Development aid is under threat . . . and Brexit isn’t helping
- Taking back control?
- There’s more to genebanking than meets the eye (or should be)
- No time for complacency . . .
- Before the ‘Beast from the East’ strikes
- Mark making tools, paper, and a steady hand
- Fashion, so said Louis XIV, is the mirror of history
- The Birmingham Class of ’71: plant genetic resources pioneers
- Taking in the central sierra . . .
- Breathing life into history
- Wishing I was in Cuzco . . .
- How long is a piece of string?
- Brexit means Brexit. What an almighty cock-up!
- A stroll in the park . . . at Croome
- And pigs might fly . . .
- He had the patience of Job
- Heading south to the highest lake in the world
- Laos – jewel in the rice biodiversity crown
- Coast and mountains – remembering a 1974 road trip in northern Peru
- Has global warming changed the landscape?
- In a corner of Pueblo Libre, Lima . . . one of the most important buildings in Peru
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 18: Where East meets West
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 17: Not quite a Damascene experience
- No longer Queen of the Skies
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 16. Crossing the glittering mountains of Canada
- Learning about crop wild relatives
- Civil War destruction . . . genebank redemption
- Genetic resources in safe hands
- Just a few taps is all it takes nowadays
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 15. In my father’s footsteps
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 14. On opposite coasts
- Navigating the Stourport Ring
- Elgar’s county – a land of hope and glory?
- Guayabo National Monument in Costa Rica
- No laughing matter
- Beets, ‘beans’, and Canaries
- End of an era . . .
- Studying at Southampton, 1967-1970
- Please, sir, I want some more
- “By God, sir, I’ve lost my leg!” . . . “By God, sir, so you have!”
- Springhill: a complicated genealogy
- In the blink of an eye, it seems, 50 years have passed
- The Full Monty
- Fermanagh’s finest . . .
- Let’s call the whole thing off . . .
- Deceptively sumptuous in Co. Armagh . . . women and children first
- Linked by an Irish harp table . . .
- No longer on my travel bucket list . . . another igneous encounter
- A National Trust trip around Northern Ireland
- Peeling away the veneers of history
- Erddig: ‘Where fragrance, peace and beauty reign’ (Philip Yorke II)
- “Well, tests ain’t fair. Those that study have an unfair advantage. It’s always been that way.” (Allan Dare Pearce)
- The perfect country house . . . a stunning English treasure
- The sting was in the tail . . . or was it?
- Ten days, eleven states (7): Revisiting the Twin Cities
- Ten days, eleven states (6): The mighty Mississippi, or is it?
- Ten days, eleven states (5): The longest cave system in the world
- Ten days, eleven states (4): It’s all in the branding
- Ten days, eleven states (3): Ambling through the Appalachians
- Wandering along the tranquil River Wye at The Weir Garden (updated 2019-03-29)
- Ten days, eleven states (2): Sauntering around Savannah
- Rooms open to the sky
- Ten days, eleven states (1): Almost 2800 miles from Georgia to Minnesota
- Croft Castle – spanning the dynasties
- Earning a crust in the 1960s, part-time
- Royalty and religion (and oak trees) in Shropshire
- A Restoration idiosyncrasy . . .
- In search of bluebells
- A congregation of corvids
- There’s beauty in numbers . . .
- ‘Georgian grandeur on a human scale’
- Majesty in the landscape . . . and it was all in the mind’s eye
- Outside the EU . . . even before Brexit
- When is an earworm not an earworm?
- Rice Today . . . and tomorrow
- There’s more to genetic resources than Svalbard
- Only a heartbeat away – who was that Vice President?
- “Oi’ll give it foive”
- Narcissus was an amateur compared to The Donald
- America the Beautiful, Donald the Ugly!
- Christmas is over . . . time to take the tree down
- I’m a Kindle virgin . . .
- No longer screaming like a badger . . . thank goodness
- Please don’t mock The Donald – he’s such a sensitive boy
- Post-truth is the new kid on the block . . .
- It’s all about Trust and Heritage
- After 157 years, Dickens’s words still ring true
- Silent witness to centuries of history
- Genebanking, East Africa style
- Genebanking Down Under
- A sign of the times . . .
- Photographing the Summit-Selby neighbourhood of St Paul
- Can’t see the wood for the trees . . .
- Meandering beside the mighty Mississippi in Minnesota
- ¿Cómo está?
- A bridge too four . . .
- Half price books, full value history . . .
- It’s amazing what a difference an extra four inches can make . . .
- Not bad for ‘just a small island’
- Apartments fit for a King – Bolsover Castle
- Dyrham Park: a tale of two architects
- Homes fit for a king (or queen): one slighted, the other opulent . . .
- ‘A banker by hobby . . . a gardener by profession’
- Here a henge, there a henge . . .
- Almost 500 years and 21 monarchs later . . .
- A new railway station for Bromsgrove (updated 5 October 2018)
- Light of foot, nimble of finger . . .
- If it’s Wednesday, it must be Colombia . . .
- Dance as if no one is watching . . .
- Two years in the planning . . .
- The Captain’s cat . . .
- Retired? Never been busier . . .
- Be careful what you wish for . . .
- Plant Genetic Resources: Our challenges, our food, our future
- On the ecclesiastical trail in Shropshire . . .
- Three sheets to the wind . . .
- The innate hostility of inanimate things
- Four seasons in one day . . . and white asparagus
- Dr. M. Redux . . . courtesy of the National Trust!
- A triple century . . .
- On political campaigns . . .
- Through hard work, great things are achieved
- Once upon a time in Barsetshire
- Nature abhors a vacuum . . .
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 13. Tales (mainly) from the ‘Ring of Fire’
- Farewell to a Queen . . .
- It’s not an accolade . . .
- ‘Leave’ is not in my vocabulary . . .
- How many crop varieties can you name?
- Just an occasional whimper . . .
- Four years on . . . and still the same sense of pride
- Making progress . . . one step at a time
- A reply from my Member of Parliament . . .
- A wounded badger update . . .
- Music can stir such improbable memories . . .
- Just 120 feet . . . and history was made
- Industrial heritage is all around . . .
- Screaming like a wounded badger . . .
- A Balanced Diet: the year in review
- 2015: a great year for National Trust and English Heritage visits
- It’s publish or perish, Jim – but not as we know it
- The passion and intemperance of ignorance . . .
- A balmy day (and Victorian Christmas) at Charlecote Park
- Gardens, apples and pumpkins
- Transitions . . .
- Season’s Greetings 2015
- Santa’s the name, ho-ho-hoing’s the game
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 12. Hong Kong and Macau
- Sky-high paddies . . .
- An exceptional CEO: Bob Zeigler, IRRI Director General, 2005-2015
- Lakes and leaves – spending time in the Twin Cities
- Little Big Man – Tom Clemeno (1956-2015)
- Completing a PhD – was it worth the effort?
- ‘Perhaps the most typically American place in America’. (James Bryce, 1888)
- I am an ‘app neophyte’
- Delta Comfort+: an aviation oxymoron?
- Letting the train take the strain – Amtrak-style
- ‘Where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.’
- It’s the Pinoy in me . . .
- Research impact is all around – or at least it should be.
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 11. Peru: jewel of the Andes
- The ‘tourism’ of genebanks
- Like a lady revealing her petticoats . . .
- When is white not white? When it’s green, of course.
- I used to be uncertain, but now I’m not so sure (updated 5 December 2015)
- ‘More glass than wall’ – a palace or prison?
- Iron and stone . . . heritage in Shropshire’s landscape
- Opportunities delayed: INGER @ 40
- Thank you Science!
- Indulging my [genetic resources] fantasies . . .
- While My Guitar Gently Weeps . . .
- A lifetime’s work . . .
- Dum-dee dum-dee dum-dee dum, dum-dee dum-dee dum dum . . .
- “Education isn’t what you learn, it’s what you do with what you learn.” Anon.
- ‘When a family lives in the same place for 400 years they end up with a diverse collection of art, furniture and curiosities.’
- All families have their problems – some more than others
- The Man [on] the Moon (updated 20 July 2019)
- The man behind the logo . . .
- Tredegar House – home of the Morgans
- Pigeons and peers – a des-res for doves and aristocrats
- Landscapes of ‘The Lewis Man’
- A glorious Hebridean double act . . .
- Peace and tranquility . . . just west of the M6 in Lancashire
- Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing . . .
- The end of the road . . .
- Returning to Hogha Gearraidh after 49 years
- Gardens, lochs and castles
- Fàilte gu Alba – expansive landscapes and big skies
- O ye’ll tak’ the high road and I’ll tak the low road . . . Fàilte gu Alba!
- Keeping up standards . . . but whose?
- Don’t put all your eggs in one basket . . . or your seeds in a single genebank
- Herefordshire’s Goodrich Castle . . . yet another castle slighted
- ‘England’s Sistine Chapel’ (Simon Jenkins)
- “The world is not going to be solved by legislation” (William Howard Taft – 27th POTUS*)
- The election dust is settling
- What’s wrong with a rogue apostrophe or an Oxford comma?
- ‘Mont St Jean’, ‘La Belle Alliance’ or just plain ‘Waterloo’?
- A castle slighted – if only walls could talk
- Just twenty miles but more than a thousand years . . .
- Three, five or seven? On the Tresham Trail.
- What’s in a name? I’m on a germplasm ID crusade!
- J Trevor Williams, genetic resources champion, passes away at 76
- Getting to know IRRI . . .
- Safeguarding rice biodiversity . . .
- Food for the soul . . .
- No fire in the belly . . .
- Dr Richard L Sawyer (1921-2015), first Director General of the International Potato Center (CIP)
- The humble spud
- First impressions: two weeks in 1967
- From a single potato tuber to one tonne in a year? Yes, it can be done.
- 1989: the plant genetic resources course at Birmingham celebrates 20 years
- “There isn’t a tree to hang a man, water to drown a man nor soil to bury a man”.
- Almost a ‘Swiss cheese’ faux pas!
- When all night long a chap remains . . . WS Gilbert (1882)
- Just three generations . . .
- Spreading the good news about rice . . . the 4th International Rice Congress
- Season’s Greetings
- An 18th century landscape of temples and statues
- Tis well. (George Washington, 14 December 1799)
- Strange shapes on the skyline
- Canals and hedges – the formality and beauty of an Anglo-Dutch water garden
- The perfect picnic spot . . .
- Clickety click!
- The Emirates A380-800 – what a bird!
- Mr Blue Sky . . .
- Hardly a high plains drifter . . .
- Earth, wind, fire and water . . . Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks
- ‘The most beautiful roadway in America’
- They fought to defend their way of life . . .
- Presidential faces in the sky
- South Dakota’s Badlands . . .
- A close encounter of the igneous kind . . .
- An eventful start to my journey home . . .
- Chilling in Los Baños . . .
- More Loire Valley than Thames . . .
- ‘Capability’ by name, ‘Capability’ by nature . . . (updated 27 July 2017)
- Lost in the mists of time . . .
- Visiting again after almost 50 years . . .
- A house beautiful . . .
- Christmas in July . . .
- Go West, young man . . .
- The joys of gardening . . .
- It was inevitable, really . . .
- ‘. . . tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today’. (John Dryden, 1631-1700)
- Silent witness to the English Civil Wars and the Industrial Revolution . . .
- History is more than skin deep . . .
- Sister, nanny, nurse, wife, mother . . .
- An extraordinary ordinary man . . .
- With a little help from my friends . . .
- A modern plague . . .
- 11-11-11
- Yellow – the color that promises so much . . .
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 10. Follow the yellow brick road
- I’d rather have a bottle in front of me . . .
- Around the world in 40 years. Part 9. That is the trouble with flying: we always have to return to airports . . . (Henry Minizburg)
- Study botany and the world’s your oyster . . .
- The fruit that keeps on giving . . .
- ¿Donde esta el baño?
- A canal for all seasons . . .
- What if?
- “Do you find the defendant guilty or not guilty?” We never got to decide.
- It was colder than a witch’s tit . . .
- Something for your Christmas stocking – Plant Genetic Resources and Climate Change hits the shelves 11 December!
- It’s official – I’m an OAP
- Plant Genetic Resources and Climate Change: available mid-December 2013
- Orange and Green: tribal loyalties and conflict in Northern Ireland
- A tale of Dublin soul . . .
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 8. SPQR
- The beauty (and wonder) of diversity
- You CAN teach an old dog new tricks . . .
- Science matters to us all . . .
- A terrace, temples and time to enjoy them . . .
- The Lady of the North
- Held to ransom . . .
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 7. Letting the train take the strain
- Where do I come from?
- When coal was king . . .
- And now there are four . . .
- A walk down memory lane . . . literally
- Little Moreton Hall – an iconic Tudor manor house
- A majestic link with the agriculture of medieval England
- Veni, vidi . . . and took lots of photos
- Would I eat genetically-modified foods? Damn right I would! (Updated 2020-02-18 & 2021-01-08)
- Plant Genetic Resources and Climate Change – publication by the end of the year*
- The prescience of political cartoonists
- Dudmaston – in the same family for more than 800 years
- 400 years of prosperity . . . then along came Henry VIII
- ‘The bowler is Holding, the batsman’s Willey’
- Three days, three houses . . .
- An apo in the Northeast
- Leek – Queen of the Moorlands (updated 2018-11-05)
- Ireland’s turbulent history
- The majesty of Kedleston Hall
- Capes, coves . . . and endless beaches – the beauty of Oregon
- Fulfilling our apostolic duties in the USA
- 400 years of decline in the heart of the Cotswolds . . .
- The coastal giants of northern California
- The blue waters of Crater Lake, Oregon
- A Minnesota monsoon . . . and more
- How costly can the letter ‘e’ be?
- Dr Joe Smartt
- The RHS Chelsea Flower Show . . . 100 not out!
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 6. Trekking the red wine trail
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 5. Under African skies.
- 600 years in the same family
- Where good science matters . . . and it’s all relevant
- Plant Genetic Resources and Climate Change – in the production phase at last
- Thank you, Margaret Thatcher – a perspective
- Hanbury Hall – a disputed date
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 4. Elections and bombs in Jo’burg
- Around the world in 40 years . . . Part 3. Guatemala
- Rice for the world . . .
- “I’m all for censorship. If ever I see a double entendre, I whip it out.” Kenneth Horne
- From car park to cathedral . . . missing no longer!
- Lucy in the sky . . .
- Three revolutions . . .
- A Friday morning in February . . .
- Guitar heroes
- Insalata mista – taxonomy in action (Updated: 20 September 2022)
- 100 posts . . . and still counting
- Tikal – may the force be with you
- A dog named HMV . . .
- Around the world . . . in 40 years. Part 2. Winter days in Santiago
- The missing monarchs . . .
- Orcas are social animals . . .
- What is the link between Jeff Lynne, Armchair Theatre, and Hobart, Tasmania?
- Like a duck to water . . . scuba diving in the Philippines
- It was 40 years ago today . . .
- Hobbits can pass unseen by most if they choose which gives us a distinct advantage (Gandalf) . . .
- Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness . . . Jane Austen
- The Night Before Christmas
- The Beatles, blogs, and long-lost friends . . .
- When you’ve heard one bagpipe tune, you’ve heard them both . . . (Jack Finney) – updated 7 November 2018
- When I get older, losing my hair . . .
- Are there degrees of tyranny?
- Around the world . . . in 40 years. Part 1: Home is where the heart is.
- Running a genebank for rice . . .
- Management vocabulary . . . just five simple words needed
- Children of the Irish diaspora . . .
- Why do joggers look so miserable?
- No action, no risk . . .
- Plant Genetic Resources and Climate Change
- Not just castles in the air . . .
- I’m no petrolhead . . .
- Thanks to Lufthansa . . .
- Charles Paget Wade – collector extraordinaire
- Ancient woodland . . . and medieval lifestyle
- Anything you can do I can do better . . . performance management and monitoring
- TV habits . . .
- Indiana Me . . . temples in the jungle
- A state of decline . . . repair, not restore
- Just a late summer morning walk . . .
- My style is ‘eclectic’ . . .
- Early morning cup of tea . . .
- I was inspired . . .
- Among the green hills . . .
- More rabbit than Sainsbury’s
- It’s all relative really – why some superlatives annoy me
- Warwickshire country retreats . . .
- Quirky, eccentric even . . . quintessentially British
- It’s all in the genes . . .
- Being British . . .
- The Minnesota Riviera . . .
- Eating out for breakfast – a great American tradition
- Grandparenting duties . . .
- Supervising graduate students . . .
- My favorite weather is bird-chirping weather (Loire Hartwould) – all year round
- Pitting my wits . . .
- Cave canem . . .
- Anilao: jewel in the Philippines diving crown
- Publish and be damned . . . or perish?
- PRECODEPA – one of the CGIAR’s first research networks
- Lies, damned lies, and statistics
- Has the Earth ever moved for you?
- Proud to be a botanist
- Early days in Lima – 1973
- Birmingham – a center for potato studies
- All about Eves . . .
- Were we that restless?
- Making science accessible: getting the message across or dumbing down?
- The Beatles, Lonnie, and me . . .
- Fleetwood Mac – a passion (almost obsession)
- The cave dwellers of south Staffordshire
- Déjà vu, again?
- Genetic resources – the impact of the University of Birmingham
- Perú – país precioso
- Spring is sprung . . .
- Staffordshire oatcakes – a local delicacy
- Investing in diversity . . . the IRRI genebank
- The agricultural terraces of Cuyo Cuyo, southern Peru
- AKUS – just simply the best
- Norman Borlaug – tireless advocate of research for development
- Standing on Vavilov’s shoulders . . .
- After Fred and Ginger, they broke the mould – almost
- Kit Carson: he led the way . . .
- A knotty dilemma . . . what to wear to an investiture at Buckingham Palace
- They’re changing the guard at Buckingham Palace . . .
- Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin (updated 4 Jan 2013).
- Barack Obama belts out the blues at event with Mick Jagger
- 50 years, and still going strong . . .
- Potatoes – the real treasure of the Incas . . .
- BBC News – Canadian government is ‘muzzling its scientists’
- French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky sings ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ by Handel
- Dumbing down science . . . only in The Sun
- MI5 spied on Charlie Chaplin after FBI asked for help to banish him from US
- Love it or hate it . . .
- City in the sky . . . celebrating Machu Picchu
- Catholic tastes in music – a challenge for a desert island castaway
- Joke of the year
- On being a Grandad . . .
- Sticks and hankies – a tale of Red Stags
- ‘Thank you, Margaret Thatcher’ – my Pioneer Interview with Gene Hettel
- Jim Bryan – a friend indeed
- Jack Hawkes – a plant genetic resources pioneer
- India tells Britain: no more aid, thank you
- The (new) Age of Steam
- DPPC . . . beginning and end
- Cruza 148 . . . the serendipity of disease resistance
- Spirit of the Industrial Revolution
A balanced diet . . . 