This is the realm of Ana the Imp. Abandon hope all ye who enter here. :-)

I started a course of flying lessons at the beginning of last month. I said when I took the controls of the plane for the first time that I would be thinking of Amelia Earhart, the legendary American flyer, a person who’s become something of a personal avatar for me. I thought I would add a few words in personal tribute to this wonderful woman, an angel from the age of flight exploration, who disappeared all those…

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The Green…

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ter is almost upon us, a term I prefer to Ostara, favoured by those in the wiccan movement. Yes, I know it's the most significant day in the Christian calendar but many of the tings most associated with Easter have nothing at all to do with Christianity, most particularly those egg-delivering bunnies! It also has links with old pagan fertility rituals, of the renewal of times, of new birth and new beginnings. It is… Continue

Martin Scorsese is one of the great American film makers with some real classics to his credit; movies like Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas and The Aviator-a personal favourite of mine. So, given these impressive achievements, and given the directors obvious love of the medium, I really had to go and see Shutter Island, a psychological thriller set in Ashecliffe Hospital for the… Continue