Timeline
MLK went for a hike
June 4, 2026
Lament: Singing with nightingales
... A nocturnal pilgrimage
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MLK went on an adventure
May 1, 2026
Oxford May Morning: Over the rainbow
... 500 years of dawn singing
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May 1, 2026
"Oxford ... exhaled the soft airs of centuries of youth. It was this cloistral hush which gave our laughter its resonance, and carried it still, joyously, over the intervening clamour” - Evelyn Waugh
Serafina and I got up before dawn to take part in the ancient Beltane celebrations. At first light, we
MLK went for a hike
April 14, 2026
Oxford: Dancing in the streets
... all we need is music, sweet music
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April 14, 2026
Walking the streets of Oxford is never dull. Suddenly beautiful people appear as if from nowhere, dancing in the streets like Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, spreading so much joy and flourishing:
Callin' out around the world
Are you ready for a brand new beat
Summer's here and the time is right
For
MLK went gravel riding
April 9, 2026
Flowering: Days we left behind
... chasing flowers in the woods
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April 9, 2026
And so Serafina and I were back to chasing flowers at dawn... Lately we have been exploring Chinese poetry from the Tang dynasty, and as we walked along in the woods above the river, Serafina reminded me of the poem by Du Fu (杜甫, 712–770)
Walking Alone by the River Seeking Flowers
At Mistress Huang’s
MLK went gravel riding
April 4, 2026
Willowbrook Farm: In search of Easter
... cycling north along the canal
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April 4, 2026
On a windy Easter day where the sun decided to come out only occasionally, we first ran our usual 5km morning ParkRun, full of smiles and joy. We then cycled north along the Oxford canal. It is a route I have taken many times before. And invariably we stopped by Shipton-on-Cherwell, where Mike Oldfield
MLK went running
March 29, 2026
Oxford: A prayer in spring
... springtime flowers and a sundown
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March 29, 2026
Back in the Ox, the cherry blossom trees were busy worshipping the sun and as night started falling Serafina started reciting a prayer for spring:
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the
MLK went for a hike
March 24, 2026
Lutetia: Dancing in the streets
... are you ready for a brand new beat?
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March 24, 2026
It was another enchanting afternoon in Lutetia Parisiorum, as the Roman called the place that eventually became Paris.
No longer a small marshy settlement located on the left back of La Seine and Île de la Cité, Paris has grown into one of the most exciting capitals with so much to offer, so many moments
MLK went running
March 22, 2026
Paris: Twelve hours of sun from dawn to dusk
... spring has sprung on World Poetry Day
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March 22, 2026
In Paris for the World Poetry Day brought a full twelve hours of sun from dawn to dusk.
We started with a golden dawn in Montmartre overlooking the great city awakening, still seeing faint traces of the graffiti "T'es pas là, mais t'es partout" reminding me of my late great friend..
We ran to Louvre and
MLK went running
March 15, 2026
Bookends: You are so beautiful
... from dawn to dusk in early spring
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March 15, 2026
It felt like one of those days in early spring where the sun comes out from time to time, and where spring is poised and ready. Clearly not long now before everything will start to bloom...
But meanwhile, Serafina and I walked along together; dawn and dusk acting like bookends:
Time it was,
And what
MLK went gravel riding
March 8, 2026
Foggy dawn: Shotover search for the sun
... just one of the common miracles
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March 8, 2026
We had been promised another glorious dawn and so I cycled up Shotover hill to once again experience the glorious views over Oxfordshire. But the fog would not lift and instead my old stomping grounds felt almost mysterious. So once again I relied on Serafina to lift my spirits. She rose through the
MLK went for a hike
March 6, 2026
Dreamtime: Songlines stretching continents and ages
... dreamers know of a placid ecstasy and ease of heart
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March 6, 2026
"... Proust, more perspicaciously than any other writer, reminds us that the 'walks' of childhood form the raw material of our intelligence." - Bruce Chatwin
When we woke up before dawn and walked down to the great river, Serafina immediately starting talking about the links between two great yet different
MLK went for a hike
March 2, 2026
Budapest: Nature's first green is gold
... So dawn goes down to day. / Nothing gold can stay.
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March 2, 2026
Having sung for my supper, I was free to roam Budapest. This was my first time visiting and friends spoke of months of winter greyness - but now the sun had come out and spring felt near.
Unable to fly but still perched in my backpack, Serafina could not help herself but take breathtaking footage of
MLK went for a hike
February 27, 2026
Aurora: Walking the dew
... There is no time like Spring / When life’s alive in everything
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February 28, 2026
Up before dawn again, Serafina perched in my coat pocket; everything still heavy but walking the dew in the quiet of the dawning and then Christina Rosetti's words came to me:
There is no time like Spring,
When life’s alive in everything,
Before new nestlings sing,
Before cleft swallows speed their
MLK went for a hike
February 23, 2026
Heavy: I have been holding something
... every time I feel a weight upon me / I hold a line / To keep it all inside
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February 23, 2026
For a moment, the seemingly endless rain finally cleared, and Serafina and I wandered aimlessly into a sunken world, full of the water from the confluences of seven rivers.
The water felt like tears; with grief and sorrow once again invading our lives and everything feeling so heavy. With time, perhaps
MLK went for a hike
January 31, 2026
Eruption: The Peace of Wild Things
... who do not tax their lives with forethought / of grief
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January 31, 2026
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not
June 4, 2026
On a moonless night, folksinger Sam Lee led us deep into a coppiced wood at a secret location in Southern England. Earlier in the evening, we had gathered around a campfire, sharing food, drink, stories and music before embarking on our nocturnal pilgrimage at midnight. We walked slowly, single file