Anne-apolis

 Earlier this year, I published a blog on care homes , reflecting on my experiences while visiting my mom and engaging with some of the activities that she is fortunate to have available to her. More recently, I have spent much more time with her at her care home, helping her to rehabilitate from a spell in hospital. An important part of this was helping to restore her mobility - even at the age of 94, she has almost full mobility, giving her a level of independence that is core to her wellbeing and self esteem. In the first weeks back from hospital, my mom was accommodated in a high-care ward so that she could have round-the-clock nursing support, but the plan was to see if she could rehabilitate to move back to her own room in the mid-care section. I was very involved with the nursing staff of the home and the physiotherapists in encouraging her to walk, initially to the communal lounge, and as time went on, all the way to her old room. In this process, I became aware of some ver...

  Apart from a small handful of visits to the UK, my knowledge of the English countryside is entirely based on the extensive literature that describes it, in both novels and poetry. While I am sure that it is beautiful in all seasons, spring is quite extraordinary, with lush vegetation and a constantly changing array of wild flowers and butterflies. I stayed in High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire for most of May, and we went for walks nearly every day, in what has been observed as the sunniest spring in recorded history in the UK. View over barley fields Much of the English countryside is taken up with farming, but the fields are lined with natural vegetation and interspersed with miniature nature reserves and reclaimed meadows of wild flowers. Even golf courses have natural woodland on their perimeter, fully accessible to the public, and great for walking the dog. Public pathway adjacent to a golf course In the south of England, there is a gradual transition from the natural landscape...

 My knowledge of British New Towns is grounded town planning theory, referring to those towns designed to alleviate population growth in London after World War II. When I was putting together a course on the history of urban design, it came as a surprise that there was a much older "new town" founded in Edinburgh in 1767, which I was fortunate to be able to explore in April this year. Charlotte Square, Edinburgh New Town Edinburgh Old Town has its origins in the early Middle Ages, from the 7th Century, located on a spur of rock with extinct volcanoes on the west and east end, with two lakes (in Scotland called a loch) each parallel to the spur of rock, to the south and north. When it was decided to lay out a new suburb for the wealthy, the old city having become overcrowded, the decision was to locate it to the north of North Loch with bridges connecting it to the old town. It was planned on strictly geometrical lines, with three main parallel streets, with a large grassed sq...