String Knife Paper

Busi Valley – From Harare to the bush again

Knowledge had re-assured me that the people in Busi Valley knew we were coming to do five days field work. My plan was to drive down to Gokwe, a little town in the Midlands of Zimbabwe, stay at th…

String Knife Paper@SKPguy13h

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String Knife Paper · Nov 9, 2026 · 4:54 PM UTC

Bird’s Eye View of a Wildfowl State – Prairie

The trail was a well marked tarmacced path and not very long. I could see the small escarpment that was the main quarry just beyond a range of trees. Between me and it was a rare site in modern A…

String Knife Paper@SKPguy22h

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String Knife Paper · Nov 9, 2026 · 8:24 AM UTC

Bird’s Eye View of a Wildfowl State – A sacred site

I bypassed the centre of town, drove past a small strip of eateries and car services, and came round the north side to where the entrance to a small park was marked by a modest paved road. Althoug…

String Knife Paper@SKPguy22h

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String Knife Paper · Nov 9, 2026 · 8:23 AM UTC

The Port Run – Festival, Freeloading and Frazzling

To visit the first post for The Port Run click here. The next to last night in Porto was their big annual festival – celebrating the city’s patron saint, St John. It seemed that the main i…

String Knife Paper · Nov 8, 2026 · 3:42 PM UTC

The Port Run – Heading back to Porto

The point has probably been overstressed, but from that visit to Taylors in the mountains, we had a wonderful time. The bus ride back to Lamego, the next day where we did our individual projects,…

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String Knife Paper · Nov 8, 2026 · 3:42 PM UTC

Bird’s Eye View of a Wildfowl State – A sacred site

I bypassed the centre of town, drove past a small strip of eateries and car services, and came round the north side to where the entrance to a small park was marked by a modest paved road. Althoug…

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String Knife Paper · Nov 8, 2026 · 7:57 AM UTC

Bird’s Eye View of a Wildfowl State – Crossing the State Line

Next day, the Sunday, was another perfectly sunny day and I headed east along the Interstate and into Minnesota. With this I had now been in three states, for as well as Minnesota and South Dakot…

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String Knife Paper · Nov 8, 2026 · 7:57 AM UTC

The Port Run – Moulding of the family

As for our lecturers, we felt at the start that we had been short changed. Our original partnership was to have been Ian Simmons, an eminent biogeographer and ecologist, a wonderful and provoking…

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String Knife Paper · Nov 7, 2026 · 2:49 PM UTC

The Port Run – Growing the grapes; Living with your colleagues

But the finest part of the whole time in Portugal was the prequel to the port story. This was the day that we went right up into the interior to the Quinta Vargelles, the jewel in the crown of th…

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String Knife Paper · Nov 7, 2026 · 2:49 PM UTC

Bird’s Eye View of a Wildfowl State – Loving and admiring the Dakotans

This last couple of words is not meant to insult the South Dakotans, though. Very little has been actually easy about setting up these idyllic towns, and Brookings was the best of them by far havi…

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String Knife Paper · Nov 7, 2026 · 7:36 AM UTC

Bird’s Eye View of a Wildfowl State – Evening in Brookings

In the mean time the sun had dipped over the horizon and the temperature was less dipping, more plummeting past freezing. We headed back to the car park, loaded the dog in the trunk and drove back…

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String Knife Paper · Nov 7, 2026 · 7:36 AM UTC

The Port Run – Staircase and life in the Mountains

The staircase leads up to the lightly ornate pilgrimage church of Nosa Senhora de Remédios and you are supposed to walk up on your knees. Preserving my joints for future adventures, I walked it a…

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String Knife Paper · Nov 6, 2026 · 4:37 PM UTC

The Port Run – Heading inland

Our day out in the Minho was amongst the most enjoyable of those first few days. One forgets that although Portugal is part of Iberia, it faces the Atlantic, and the north is subject to the very w…

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String Knife Paper · Nov 6, 2026 · 4:37 PM UTC

Bird’s Eye View of a Wildfowl State – The missing part of the story

For as we wandered round the lake, even though it was a bitterly cold fall afternoon and the sun had barely half an hour left in the sky, the Oakwood park lakes were busy with fowl activity. There…

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String Knife Paper · Nov 6, 2026 · 7:15 AM UTC

Bird’s Eye View of a Wildfowl State – In the lakes

We entered the gate to one of those amazing American parks, where the amenities are all pristine, the car parks and roads perfectly tarmacced and the verges cut to a standard short clip length. Th…

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String Knife Paper · Nov 6, 2026 · 7:15 AM UTC

The Port Run – Settling into routine

Feeling rather warm inside, we went off up in to the streets up the hill from the Rio Douro. Villa Nova de Gaia had two main central areas, one was the port lodges and the rabbit warren of street…

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String Knife Paper · Nov 5, 2026 · 4:03 PM UTC

The Port Run – Introduction to the drink

The gorge of the Douro was impressive enough with its steep sides and the granite houses almost growing from the bedrock, and with the huge metal bridges spanning the width, but Porto’s most famou…

String Knife Paper · Nov 5, 2026 · 4:03 PM UTC

Bird’s Eye View of a Wildfowl State – Packing Up then Heading Out

Someone new had turned up at the airfield and came over with our groundcrew man; Gray had promised him a ride. So we pulled the craft back on to the runway, waited for our plane to taxi on out and…

String Knife Paper · Nov 5, 2026 · 7:10 AM UTC

Bird’s Eye View of a Wildfowl State – Bird’s Eye View of the game

Gray mentioned to me that he had made a promise and we had an appointment. It being a Saturday afternoon, a college football game was underway at the University Stadium. I had already spotted it …

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String Knife Paper · Nov 5, 2026 · 7:09 AM UTC

The Port Run – Exploring the Old Town

A peculiar beauty existed in these narrow streets. The repetitiveness of the doorways, mainly simple wooden slats with a number painted on, or with a small blue porcelain plaque nailed to the wall…