Stephen Fothergill
@stephenfothergill.bsky.social
Baby Boomer, born in a pub beside the River Don at Attercliffe. Lover of blancmange, dark-brown tea, and penguins! Increasingly apolitical.
Enjoying gorgeous Indian Ocean sunsets and the beaches of Sri Lanka. Twenty years since I was last here. Far too long! 😃
October 9, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Enjoying gorgeous Indian Ocean sunsets and the beaches of Sri Lanka. Twenty years since I was last here. Far too long! 😃
Quite spectacular sights as the Pacific Ocean crashes against rocks at Watsons Bay near Sydney.
August 7, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Quite spectacular sights as the Pacific Ocean crashes against rocks at Watsons Bay near Sydney.
Dawn breaking at 36000 feet above the Pacific Ocean as we approach Western Australia on our journey to Sydney.
July 31, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Dawn breaking at 36000 feet above the Pacific Ocean as we approach Western Australia on our journey to Sydney.
It’s our last night in Greece and we’re back ‘home’ in Athens close-by the Plaka in hotel that has a roof terrace providing this most glorious view of the Acropolis. We just sat there drinking Raki-on-ice and allowing the view to burn into memory. I’m sad to be leaving. I love Greece. I really do!
May 8, 2025 at 3:54 AM
It’s our last night in Greece and we’re back ‘home’ in Athens close-by the Plaka in hotel that has a roof terrace providing this most glorious view of the Acropolis. We just sat there drinking Raki-on-ice and allowing the view to burn into memory. I’m sad to be leaving. I love Greece. I really do!
Tomorrow we say a sad goodbye to Crete. For we’ve really enjoyed our stay in Chania, a compensation for the nightmarish few days spent in Elounda. There is no denying Chania’s reputation as a tourist trap, but there’s more to the ‘Old Town’ than people realise.
May 6, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Tomorrow we say a sad goodbye to Crete. For we’ve really enjoyed our stay in Chania, a compensation for the nightmarish few days spent in Elounda. There is no denying Chania’s reputation as a tourist trap, but there’s more to the ‘Old Town’ than people realise.
Prior to Crete we stopped off for a couple of days in Santorini. I’m sure most are aware of the gobsmacking beauty of the fabled Atlantis, and it certainly is an astounding island, but two days was enough! Not a place for the traveler on a tight budget!
May 4, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Prior to Crete we stopped off for a couple of days in Santorini. I’m sure most are aware of the gobsmacking beauty of the fabled Atlantis, and it certainly is an astounding island, but two days was enough! Not a place for the traveler on a tight budget!
Our final destination, Chania-Crete, before returning to Athens for the flight home. Fortunately, Chania is a good way to end our ‘odyssey’. It’s a lively and very picturesque town. A mixture of history and modernity, archeology and hedonism! Prior to this we were in Elounda. More on that later!
May 4, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Our final destination, Chania-Crete, before returning to Athens for the flight home. Fortunately, Chania is a good way to end our ‘odyssey’. It’s a lively and very picturesque town. A mixture of history and modernity, archeology and hedonism! Prior to this we were in Elounda. More on that later!
A Bougainvillea blooming very early in Parikia, the lovely main town on the island of Paros.
April 23, 2025 at 6:47 PM
A Bougainvillea blooming very early in Parikia, the lovely main town on the island of Paros.
We just spent a wonderful six days on the island of Paros. Staying at a hotel that was sooo laid back, it was impossible not to chill right out! But on to Santorini, and it is completely the opposite of Paros. Beautiful, stunning, but definitely not relaxing. Here are the last two sunsets.
April 23, 2025 at 5:55 PM
We just spent a wonderful six days on the island of Paros. Staying at a hotel that was sooo laid back, it was impossible not to chill right out! But on to Santorini, and it is completely the opposite of Paros. Beautiful, stunning, but definitely not relaxing. Here are the last two sunsets.
Departed Athens after three weeks and headed for the Aegean island of Naxos, where the weather is cool but gloriously sunny, the food is deliciously rustic and cheap, and the people are less flashy and more friendly. Chill time, now! Here for a week, and then off to close-by Paros!
April 11, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Departed Athens after three weeks and headed for the Aegean island of Naxos, where the weather is cool but gloriously sunny, the food is deliciously rustic and cheap, and the people are less flashy and more friendly. Chill time, now! Here for a week, and then off to close-by Paros!
In Athens after a long, long time. It is better than I remember it. Great transport system, drivers less crazy, less pollution, and the Acropolis/Parthenon is more awe-inspiring than ever. It really is a beautiful sight, particularly when the sun sets and the lights are on. 🥲🥲🥲
March 24, 2025 at 9:29 PM
In Athens after a long, long time. It is better than I remember it. Great transport system, drivers less crazy, less pollution, and the Acropolis/Parthenon is more awe-inspiring than ever. It really is a beautiful sight, particularly when the sun sets and the lights are on. 🥲🥲🥲
Spent a lovely day at Oulton Broad. East Anglia is a beautiful region, and the people who live in it should count themselves very lucky. We will be leaving in two weeks, and I just want to say thank you to all the lovely people who have made us so welcome. I’ll be back! 🤪
March 2, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Spent a lovely day at Oulton Broad. East Anglia is a beautiful region, and the people who live in it should count themselves very lucky. We will be leaving in two weeks, and I just want to say thank you to all the lovely people who have made us so welcome. I’ll be back! 🤪
Visit to Burgh Castle, a 3rd century Roman Fort, just three miles outside Great Yarmouth. Idyllic countryside. Salt marshes, reed beds and, except for a single train passing in the distance, just the sounds of curlews, peewits and waterfowl. A barn owl skimmed our heads as it headed out on the hunt.
February 25, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Visit to Burgh Castle, a 3rd century Roman Fort, just three miles outside Great Yarmouth. Idyllic countryside. Salt marshes, reed beds and, except for a single train passing in the distance, just the sounds of curlews, peewits and waterfowl. A barn owl skimmed our heads as it headed out on the hunt.
Many of the Wallington villagers were able to recognise their ‘animal’ characters when Animal Farm was published. In fact one of the neighbouring farms to The Stores was Manor Farm, which coincidentally is the same name in the book.Even the fictitious village is similarly named Willingdon.
February 12, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Many of the Wallington villagers were able to recognise their ‘animal’ characters when Animal Farm was published. In fact one of the neighbouring farms to The Stores was Manor Farm, which coincidentally is the same name in the book.Even the fictitious village is similarly named Willingdon.
Then and now. Orwell and Eileen’s cottage ‘The Stores’ in Wallington, Hertfordshire. Though not born in Hertfordshire, Orwell spent almost a fifth of his life in the county. The figure at the gate in the ‘then’ picture could possibly be Orwell himself. It is hard to tell.
February 12, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Then and now. Orwell and Eileen’s cottage ‘The Stores’ in Wallington, Hertfordshire. Though not born in Hertfordshire, Orwell spent almost a fifth of his life in the county. The figure at the gate in the ‘then’ picture could possibly be Orwell himself. It is hard to tell.
#malcolmlowry The White Cottage, Church Lane, Ripe, where Lowry died on 26 June 1957 in extremely dubious circumstances. His death was recorded by the coroner as “by misadventure”! Yet he was found lying prostrate on his own bedroom floor. Why misadventure? That’s a mystery that may never be solved!
February 7, 2025 at 2:08 PM
#malcolmlowry The White Cottage, Church Lane, Ripe, where Lowry died on 26 June 1957 in extremely dubious circumstances. His death was recorded by the coroner as “by misadventure”! Yet he was found lying prostrate on his own bedroom floor. Why misadventure? That’s a mystery that may never be solved!
#julianahoratiaewing Juliana (lower right) with elder sister Madge and her husband Francis McKenzie Smith at their home, Barnes Hall, around 1880. The stern expressions are due to the motionless photo poses required at the time. The youth is Madge’s son, William McKenzie Smith, who lived until 1956.
February 7, 2025 at 1:51 PM
#julianahoratiaewing Juliana (lower right) with elder sister Madge and her husband Francis McKenzie Smith at their home, Barnes Hall, around 1880. The stern expressions are due to the motionless photo poses required at the time. The youth is Madge’s son, William McKenzie Smith, who lived until 1956.
#malcolmlowry The graves of Lowry and his wife Marjorie in the graveyard at Ripe, East Sussex. Not together as in life. Inexplicably, though they are buried in the same graveyard, they are at least thirty metres apart!
February 5, 2025 at 11:02 PM
#malcolmlowry The graves of Lowry and his wife Marjorie in the graveyard at Ripe, East Sussex. Not together as in life. Inexplicably, though they are buried in the same graveyard, they are at least thirty metres apart!
#harukimurakami When writing a novel, my rule is to produce roughly ten Japanese manuscript pages (the equivalent of sixteen hundred English words) every day. I force myself to somehow fulfil my quota. Why do I do it this way? […] to maintain a steady pace when tackling a big project.
February 5, 2025 at 10:37 PM
#harukimurakami When writing a novel, my rule is to produce roughly ten Japanese manuscript pages (the equivalent of sixteen hundred English words) every day. I force myself to somehow fulfil my quota. Why do I do it this way? […] to maintain a steady pace when tackling a big project.
#malcolmlowry Peter Finch as Geoffrey Firmin, Lowry’s hopelessly tragical protagonist in John Huston’s brilliant 1984 film of Lowry’s unspeakably bleak ‘Under The Volcano’, perhaps the best novel of the twentieth century by an English writer.
February 1, 2025 at 11:51 PM
#malcolmlowry Peter Finch as Geoffrey Firmin, Lowry’s hopelessly tragical protagonist in John Huston’s brilliant 1984 film of Lowry’s unspeakably bleak ‘Under The Volcano’, perhaps the best novel of the twentieth century by an English writer.
Malcolm Lowry, who never owned a house in his life. When he wanted a place to live he chose a piece of land and built a shack upon it. Then he sat down to write, and drink. The latter too much, the former not nearly enough! What he did write, though, is very close to the twentieth century’s best!
January 30, 2025 at 11:27 PM
Malcolm Lowry, who never owned a house in his life. When he wanted a place to live he chose a piece of land and built a shack upon it. Then he sat down to write, and drink. The latter too much, the former not nearly enough! What he did write, though, is very close to the twentieth century’s best!
#julianahoratiaewing Juliana Ewing and Rex, her husband, in mid-1883 at the time of their reunion, after years apart due to her being too ill to join him in his army postings to Malta and Ceylon. From her letters it is clear that she loved him deeply, but this image suggests tension between them.
January 30, 2025 at 8:46 AM
#julianahoratiaewing Juliana Ewing and Rex, her husband, in mid-1883 at the time of their reunion, after years apart due to her being too ill to join him in his army postings to Malta and Ceylon. From her letters it is clear that she loved him deeply, but this image suggests tension between them.
#Banksy In Great Yarmouth and came across this Banksy. The last thing I expected to see! Also the glorious College of Art, seemingly abandoned, the students long gone! Who cares about the town when it seems not to care about itself? At least it cared enough to protect the Banksy from vandals.
January 23, 2025 at 2:13 PM
#Banksy In Great Yarmouth and came across this Banksy. The last thing I expected to see! Also the glorious College of Art, seemingly abandoned, the students long gone! Who cares about the town when it seems not to care about itself? At least it cared enough to protect the Banksy from vandals.
Today is seventy-five years to the day since George Orwell died, and twenty-five years to the day since I visited his grave at Sutton Courtenay. I became lost and entered the churchyard at dusk. What a sombre and chilling experience that was. I have never returned, and shiver just thinking about it!
January 21, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Today is seventy-five years to the day since George Orwell died, and twenty-five years to the day since I visited his grave at Sutton Courtenay. I became lost and entered the churchyard at dusk. What a sombre and chilling experience that was. I have never returned, and shiver just thinking about it!
Another view of the vicarage at St. Mary’s Ecclesfield, Sheffield, Juliana Ewing’s birthplace. Where she lived until 1 June 1867 when she married Alexander Ewing, an officer of the Army Pay Corps. A fine musician and composer, he was also a devout Anglican and shared in Juliana’s literary interests.
January 21, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Another view of the vicarage at St. Mary’s Ecclesfield, Sheffield, Juliana Ewing’s birthplace. Where she lived until 1 June 1867 when she married Alexander Ewing, an officer of the Army Pay Corps. A fine musician and composer, he was also a devout Anglican and shared in Juliana’s literary interests.