Knoxville – Summer of 1915
As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods: They kill us for their sport (King Lear) As flies to wanton boys are we...
Author: Meirion Harries
Honey Means Money
Money Bees (c) Meirion Harries In the last post, I meant to add that stores changing the tempo of their canned music to influence the...
My Octopus Friend
Do you ever have periods where too many things that you don’t know enough about collide and tangle? It happened to me last night when...
If I Had You … Like You Got Me
Edouard-Scott de Martinville developed a machine for recording sound some twenty years before Edison. His phonautograph “wrote” the patterns of a person’s voice onto a...
I Stand a Wreck on Error’s Shore
San Francisco, August 25, 1863 Quite a night, last night. Tom Meacham’s promotional blurb for the new show at his Opera House – a melodrama...
Four Accountants
Last night the waters of San Francisco harbour rippled to the sound of a YouTube film that has been viewed 31 million times. Not, as...
Tokens of an Omnipotent Civilisation
The rule for our voyage is to keep ever onwards – to sail always in new waters – so inevitably we named our yacht Heraclitus...
A Martinez and Some Tomatoes
The place to be in 1863 San Francisco is the bar in the Occidental Hotel on Montgomery Street where the legendary Jerry Thomas held sway...
Ships Have Meanings
The Mayflower 400 is a fully-autonomous ship sailing across the Atlantic - and it raises questions that go back to the origins of the Untied States.
Identity and Consequences
The Makah have lived for nearly 3,000 years on the north-western tip of the United States - and they are a people whose lives, traditions, and identity are intimately bound up with whaling.
The Finality of Holes
If you like photography and/or poetry, this post might upset you. You will know many of the photographs commissioned by the Farm Security Administration in...
Tom Eliot and Paul Nash
T S Eliot used to live not far from us in London. Senior members of our family who visited his flat remember the wonderful collection...
Eliot, Woolf and Sontag
We are back on the ocean. The Heraclitus has survived the long lay up and she looks fine on the grey sea today. We sail...
Reclaiming Native Truth
The work of photographers like Thomas Ryan RedCorn and Zig Jackson are working to reclaim native truth from the stereotypes of Edward Curtis and the movie industry.
The Bald Eagle
A bald eagle terrifies Minnie and sparks an account of the significance of eagles to Indigenous peoples and of the existential threat of wind turbines.
National Peanut Butter Day
We celebrate National Peanut Butter Day, calculate calories and meet George Washington Carver at Tuskegee.
At Night the Salmon Move
After a hash brown breakfast cup, the story continues with the removal of the dams on the Elwha and the task of managing 32 million tons of slurry. Washington State weighs in with a strategy for carbon neutrality by 2050.
Redemption Song
Raymond Carver as inspiration for country musicians. Redemption and the first part of the story of the Klallam people.
Took Away Our Native Tongue
Took away our native tongue And taught their English to our young: our new sound system and a look at Indigenous languages
Ancient Rhinos
The Race Marshal catches a ghost shark and I tell the story of the extinct American rhino and the bas relief at Ashfall.
Minnie and the Killer Whale
Minnie spots a killer whale - one of the orcas of the Salish Sea. We hear about the Chinook of the Fraser River and sonar testing by the US Navy.
The Good in All of the Bad
A tweet from the Navajo Nation's Health Department Director starts a chain of thought through Indigenous peoples' suffering to the extraordinary kindness of the Irish.
Woolly Dogs
I make marrons glaces and am burnt by hot syrup. Barking dogs on the shore lead to a conversation about dog wool.
The Japanese Connection
A truffled breakfast and a discussion of ocean currents and the spread of mushrooms. I mistake the Native American Flute for a shakuhachi.
Ancient Seas
Looking back to a fragmented North America and the catastrophe that might have befallen the Heraclitus many millions of years ago. We lunch on aglio e olio.
Truffle Season
In Seattle, sitting out the terrible forest fires; thinking about truffles, quinces and marrons glaces.
Booktown USA
We sail past Annie Proulx's house and mull over Seattle's literary fame - more bookstores per capita than anywhere else in the USA and possibly more wonderful authors.
The Grand Depart
At ease on Heraclitus reflecting on coyotes, Boeing and injera and wat. We sail with the rising tide.