By Michael Downing Angus We limped into Oban as a result of the flat tire merit badge we earned making our way from Glasgow up along Loch Lomond. Our tow truck driver was awesome, though. At first, we barely understood him but then, pretty quickly, we were able to dial in. He was going back... Continue Reading →

By Michael Downing A Treacherous Road The road that runs alongside the west bank of Loch Lomond up into the Highlands--called the A82--logs ~170 accidents each year. That's one every two days. In April 2023, a woman and her dog were killed in a collision with a bus and five people were hurt in a... Continue Reading →

By Michael Downing Glasgow We only had about four hours for Glasgow. Headed from Manchester to Oban, we took the Glasgow exit and found a parking garage. Not much time, but we'll find the good stuff. Glasgow was beautiful. We popped out of the mall at the top of the hill where we parked and... Continue Reading →

By Michael Downing Liverpool We hopped the train from Manchester to Liverpool and found ourselves trundling along toward where the mouth of the River Mersey meets the Irish Sea. Liverpool's population as of 2019 was 496,784, making it just a bit smaller than Manchester. It is the fifth largest city in the UK, and part... Continue Reading →

By Michael Downing After nine amazing days in London, we took an Uber back to Heathrow, rented a Nissan Juke, and began our trek to Shakespeare's birthplace: Stratford-Upon-Avon. Stratford is a beautiful little town. We took pictures with Shakespeare's statue in the middle of the square, visited Shakespeare's birthplace, and popped into a cool little... Continue Reading →

By Michael Downing On Finally Becoming an Artist I have never considered myself an artist. It wasn't until about ten years ago when Jackie finally convinced me that for not being an artist, I sure do create a lot of art. My art is practical, though. It involves taking the individual components of a house and... Continue Reading →

By Michael Downing Tate Modern Tate Modern is beautiful. Located on London's South Bank, it houses "the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is one of the largest modern and contemporary museums in the world. During our visit, the works of two artists were... Continue Reading →

By Michael Downing Shakespeare's Globe The original Globe Theatre is where William Shakespeare staged his plays back in the late 1500s; Shakespeare's Globe is the contemporary reconstruction of the theatee that is located near the original site. As always, Wikipedia gives us verified facts quickly: "The modern Shakespeare's Globe was founded by the actor and director Sam Wanamaker,... Continue Reading →

By Michael Downing My World of Shakespeare Back in the 1990s when I lived in Pittsburgh, I put together a full-time teaching schedule by teaching courses at various community colleges, including Butler County Community College, the Community College of Beaver County, and Community College of Allegheny County (Boyce Campus). My schedule was spread out between... Continue Reading →

By Michael Downing JRR Tolkien In the last post, I wrote about Poets' Corner at Westminster. At the end of that essay, I mentioned how I was disappointed by the fact that JRR Tolkien's name had not yet been included at the Abbey. So let me say it: JRR Tolkien (1892-1973) is a giant of... Continue Reading →