• A tenet is a basic principle of belief.

    It is a tenet of mine that that David Tennant was the worst Dr Who ever.

    He will be exter-r-r-r-r-minated!!!!!

    Learn a new word every day.
    Repeat it and remind yourself what it means at least three times in a day.
    Try to use the word in conversation or writing today.
    Get a dictionary and look words up.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmc5xiff9_M

    Here’s something to scare the pants off my author friends! I was wondering last night about the Nuss (see previous word of the day – my daughter says it should be nEss) of being an author.
    How much of the desire to be an author is bound up in the physical property of a book? If books were replaced by downloads, intangible bits of data that you can’t find on a shelf in a library or bookshop, would so many people spend so much time and effort getting their first story published?

    I think there is a difference between authors and writers. Writers can’t help themselves. Authors are people who have their names on books.

    The author status is not the same in film or tv or computer games or the state as it is in the physical ness of being a proper book author.

    The same goes for artwork. However beautiful a digital image it’s status will never compare with a real thing that you can hold or walk around. Or am I just of an older generation holding on to the old ways, while the new generation grasp new images and means of delivery without the burden of history?

    If so, why, when we see something amazing on the internet, do we immediately click through to easyjet and book a flight to see the real thing?

  • It’s slightly warmer today and the quality of the snow is changing, softer and a bit slushier. You can here it in the video of me walking above.
    I walked up to the woods, the sky was dark, it looked like a mist was trying to form and there was no one about. They’ve all gone back to work and school today.
    I walked around what would probably be called scowles around here, but I’m not sure they really are, more slag dumps from quarrying. The forest has an ancient heritage of mining and quarrying which has helped to shape the landscape. The trees and moss and snow soften them making the paths in between really quite romantic.
    Scowles are a Forest oddity, best seen at the wonderful Puzzle Wood. I’ll have to go and have a walk around there one day.