Cycling through Mordor

In the week I spent in New Zealand I met more geologists than in the rest of my life put together. That’s because in Finland, the interesting geology happened thousands or millions of years ago. There, it’s happening right now. After the Sword Symposium, and before heading off to Sydney to teach a seminar, I … Read more

Progress Report: Letters Home, Abandonment, and the Matron Effect

This is a progress report for the “get over boarding school” project. If you’re here looking for some technical sword stuff, I suggest going here or here. I usually edit my posts quite carefully. Not this one, because if I do, I will end up deleting the whole thing. So please bear with me. Shortly … Read more

3 guidelines for tourists. And the highlights of Florence

While living in Lucca, I am taking advantage of the opportunity to see something of the rest of Tuscany, and indeed Italy. Most recently, I went to Florence to catch up with Heidi Zimmerman, she of the sumptuous Meyer longsword plate reproductions, as she passed through with Chris Vanslambrouck (who was touring Italy teaching Meyer). I took the … Read more