Dear Mum, The Beast from the East has returned to mark the 3rd anniversary of your departure. The bitter easterly wind scours the valley beyond my window. The view of St Catherine’s is one that you would have loved. My eyes sting with the rawness of the freezing dry Siberian air, even staring through the…

A sense of place and belonging is a powerful emotion. An affinity for a location, the built environment, the vegetation, the air, the view, the very soil under one’s feet spawns nationalistic extremism; but it can simply be an affectionate connection. A guardianship. Gratitude for and enhanced, untarnished memories of a place, given up freely,…