Author: Anthea Bareham

Northern Lights, reindeer antlers and Tesla Taxis – this is Norway!

Anthea Bareham

“Did you see them? Aurora Borealis? The Northern Lights?” I hesitate: “Yes, and no.” “How does that work?” I will explain, but first things first. We don’t ‘do’ cruises, but we made an exception for this holiday, on the basis that to see the Norwegian fjords up close, you probably need to be on a […]

Freedom of movement

Anthea Bareham

There is something disconcerting about wild creatures behaving in an unnatural way, like the pigeon that turned up in our drive one Saturday afternoon. However close we got, he made no attempt to move away from us, seemingly unable or unwilling to fly. It was a hot day, so we gave him water and he […]

‘Regenesis’ by George Monbiot – a review

Anthea Bareham

Farming from the ground up – George Monbiot’s latest book puts food production under the microscope. It’s time to harvest the last of the main crop potatoes, but I have a dilemma. How do I get them out of the ground without disturbing the soil? I have been reading George Monbiot’s book: Regenesis. He devotes […]

You, too, can be a warrior in the war on plastic!

Anthea Bareham

I met Kay Pike when she brought the Plastic Free Axminster stall to All Saints, a village on the outskirts of Axminster. Kay is keen to stress that she is no expert on the subject – I beg to differ. The more she talks – passionately – about the subject of single-use plastic, the more […]

“Treating taxpayers like an ATM machine”

Anthea Bareham
Meme of an ATM reads HMRX Self-servatives

Most people seem to think that Dido Harding’s test and trace programme (NHST&T but nothing to do with the NHS) is a disaster. I won’t go into the reasons why; you can read some of it in the House of Commons committee report. Instead, let’s just look at the costs. The government allocated a budget […]

Spring Bank Holiday cryptic crossword

Anthea Bareham

Most cryptic crossword clues are in two parts: (i) something to indicate the answer and (ii) the word play – references to the letters that make up the answer.  However, in this crossword there are 10 theme words for which there is only the wordplay – nothing to indicate the answer other than the knowledge […]

Easter crossword challenge

Anthea Bareham

Setter’s favourite clue: 3 down. Don’t do cryptics? 9    Badger sought and found a cross breed(9) 10 Bill gets in through Strider (5) 11 About to sicken, I get backbone (5) 12 Anticipating it’s over, puts procedure into first half of game (9) 13 One hears of crazy dare, taken with spirit (7) 14 Takes […]

On feast and famine

Anthea Bareham

Throughout my childhood we had a feast almost every day – not just on special occasions – every day. I expect you did too. We ate meat. Almost every day. Last week I attended a Guardian online webinar, one of Fairtrade Fortnight’s events. The topic was ‘The impact of the climate crisis on global food […]

Cryptic crossword for Christmas

Anthea Bareham

Across 9              Soften up with a brew of tea that is taken around Ms Flanders (9) 10           Trim eyeshades to see the prize (5) 11           A 50:4 mix for 12,14 (5) 12,14      As D Trump digs in, church leaders are in despair for festive fare (9,7) 13,25d    Honest sounding copper is needed for 12,14 (7,4) […]