My Somerset Life
Brian Snellgrove
Latest Entries
Do We Still Have Free Speech in the UK?
I found myself reflecting on this question after reading a recent article by Matt Goodwin. Whatever one's political position, the subject deserves serious consideration: how free are we in Britain to express unpopular,...
Off to North Wales on a Coach holiday
Last Monday we set off by coach for a four-night stay in Llandudno, North Wales, with a company called Just Go! Holidays. Our coach was due to pick us up in Bath at 9.10 in the morning and actually arrived only five...
An article by Caitlin Johnstone that gave me some comfort
I Still Believe Humanity Is Headed For A Mass Awakening Video reading by Tim Foley: I still believe humanity is headed toward a mass awakening, as unfashionable as that is to admit here in the late 2020s. The...
Making the Best of a Badly Organised Event
Yesterday we had a thoroughly enjoyable day in Bristol, helped considerably by good weather and by one of those intuitive promptings which occasionally tells me that I should be somewhere. I have learned over the years...
The Usefulness of Chat GPT
Are you familiar with ChatGPT? ChatGPT stands for: Chat — because it is designed to communicate conversationally. G — Generative: it generates new text and other content. P — Pre-trained: it was trained on large...
Honest and courageous journalism
I have been questioning what part, if any, of news, never mind mainstream news, should play in my life. So much is lies or obfuscation. Can we learn to say what we believe without fear of consequences. I am...
Barking dogs
For some months now I have been bothered by the barking of dogs near my home. I sometimes wonder whether their owners realise just how intrusive persistent barking can be, particularly in what is normally a peaceful...
Crying and Britishness
https://rumble.com/shorts/v7er1lq Check this one out, sweet hearts, and be amazed. The number of a number of people I see apologising after crying is quite incredible. It just shows how messed up our understanding of...
Peace of mind through stepping away?
Thoreau and the Art of Stepping Away On July 4, 1845, while America celebrated its independence, 28-year-old Harvard graduate Henry David Thoreau walked into the woods outside Concord, Massachusetts, and began an...
Précis of a Castle Cary Museum visit
We drove around today visiting Poundbury, a town created by Prince Charles. More of that later. On our return we passed by Castle Carey and visited the museum The visit to Castle Cary Museum provided a lively...
Things that depress me, and things that raise my spirit
Things That Depress Me There are many things in modern society that leave me feeling discouraged or saddened. Some concern politics, others culture, and others simply the way people relate to one another. Whether or...
profound thoughts on reading and knowledge – anon
I know people who ‘read’ enormously, book for book, letter for letter, yet whom I would not describe as ‘well-read.’ True, they possess a mass of ‘knowledge,’ but their brain is unable to organize and register the...
Welcome to My Somerset Life
A dairy by Brian Snellgrove
1,978,661 words across 1,984 articles
Inspired by Samuel Pepys’ Diary 1633-1703
