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AA Gill & British Pubs

In Food, Books, UK by tony3 Comments

Breadtag Sagas ©: Author Tony,  1 December 2020 AA Gill & British Pubs AA Gill & Jeffrey Steingarten Two wonderful food writers are the late AA Gill, UK and Jeffrey Steingarten, USA. Both have a unique voice and have brought something special to ‘foodie’ writing. Both writers have created a persona, which whilst probably not true adds something immeasurable to …

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Johannes Vermeer Paintings

In Travel, Art, The Netherlands by tony2 Comments

Breadtag Sagas ©: Author Tony,  13 April 2020  Johannes Vermeer Paintings (1632-1675) Personal Background In my last article International Peasant Foods, I spoke of a trip from Canada down through Mexico and South America, which included two-and-a half weeks in New York. From this article and the one on Winnipeg food you may have gathered that I was a conventional …

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The Second Coming WB Yeats

In Books, The rest, Ireland by tony1 Comment

Featured Image: WB Yeats, Poetry Foundation from Chicago History Museum    Breadtag Sagas ©: Author Tony,  4 February 2018 The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats — a muse on literature Prologue Cast a cold Eye On Life, on Death. Horseman, pass by! Epitaph on Yeats grave, Drumcliff, County Sligo When I was living in Derry, I stopped at Yeats’ grave …

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Bosch 500th Centenary Exhibition, The Prado 2016

In Travel, Art, Spain by tonyLeave a Comment

   Breadtag Sagas ©: Author Tony,  4 November 2016  The two 500th year Bosch Exhibitions in the Netherlands and Spain Hieronymus Bosch: Visions of Genius, Noordbrabants Museum, Den Bosch, Netherlands from 13 February to 8 May 2016. Bosch: The 5th Centenary Exhibition, Museo del Prado, Madrid from 31 May to 11 September 2016. Introduction, controversy and a little spite We’ve got to take …

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Dog Story

In Travel, The rest, UK by tony4 Comments

Featured image: Jack, Dukie and Denise    Breadtag Sagas ©: Author Tony,  20 September 2016 Doggie Tails Original title, which I much prefer. House-sitting, Buckinghamshire, UK Setting The Chiltern Hills form a chalk escarpment in South East England. We were house-sitters in two locations here in Buckinghamshire during the summer of 2014. The first place we spent one week, had a …

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AirBNB Adventures 1: Italy & Sicily 2012

In Travel, Italy by tony2 Comments

Featured image: View of Ortygia Island, the historical centre of Syracuse, Sicily    Breadtag Sagas ©: Author Tony,  25 May 2016 AirBNB Adventure 1: Florence to Syracuse, Italy & Sicily 2012 Introduction In thinking about this series, I decided to contact all my previous AirBNB hosts to ask whether they were still active and wanted to be identified specifically or …

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Giulia Enders, Gut

In Germany, Books, The rest by tony2 Comments

   Breadtag Sagas ©: Author Tony, 21 February 2016 Introduction Giulia Enders Gut: the inside story of our body’s most under-rated organ 2015. Enders honesty about herself in the beginning of her Foreward is astonishing and endearing. I was born by caesarean section, she says and goes on to say that she couldn’t breast feed and was lactose intolerant until the age …

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Postcard from The Rock of Cashel

In Travel, Ireland by tonyLeave a Comment

Featured image: The Rock of Cashel, Old Tower, 1101    Breadtag Sagas ©: Author Tony,  24 January 2016 My postcard series is idiosyncratic. The postcards are short descriptions of travel and places, but there is no theme or rhyme or reason. They are short snippets about things that you might not have heard about or experienced otherwise. The series so …

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Luhmühlen Horse Trials 2014

In Travel, Germany by tonyLeave a Comment

Featured image: Lucinda Fredericks AUS Flying Finish, Jump 5 ICE-VIBE Oxer, Luhmühlen 2014    Breadtag Sagas ©: Authors Denise & Tony,  25 November 2015    Luhmühlen CCI**** Three-Day Event 12-15 June, 2014    Introduction to the sport    Having covered an esoteric sport in Addicted to Sumo too a few weeks ago, Tony thought it was time to cover another: also …

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What travel costs 6: Dubrovnik, Croatia

In Croatia, Travel by tony2 Comments

Featured photo: Old City of Dubrovnik, walls & Lokrum Island    Breadtag Sagas ©: Author Tony,  26 August 2015 I started my series of travel writing with a bee in my bonnet about what things cost. In once sense it is a nice snapshot in time of how much the type of long leisurely travel we tended to do did …

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What travel costs 5: Germany

In Travel, Germany by tonyLeave a Comment

Featured photo: Newly sown field near Großenkneten    Breadtag Sagas ©: Author Tony,  15 August 2015 I started my series of travel writing with a bee in my bonnet about what things cost. In once sense it is a nice snapshot in time of how much the type of long leisurely travel we tended to do did cost. It made …

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Hieronymus Bosch painter, 1450-1516

In Art, The Netherlands by tony1 Comment

    The featured image is The Garden of Earthly Delights 1500-05 Triptych: Central panel 220×195 cm; wings each 220×97 cm, Madrid    Breadtag Sagas ©: Author Tony  7 July 2015     Introduction and biography    My interest in Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) is primarily as an artist. I have used his grotesque human beings, nightmare visions, strange beasts and creatures of evil …

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Postcard from Vienna: Michaelerplatz sculpture

In Austria, Travel, Art by tonyLeave a Comment

   Breadtag Sagas ©: Author Tony  28 June 2015 My postcard series is idiosyncratic. The postcards are short descriptions of travel and places, but there is no theme or rhyme or reason. They are short snippets about things that you might not have heard about or experienced otherwise. The series so far are: 1 Boudhanath Stupa, Nepal, 2 Dubai, UAE, 3 …

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British Food — an appraisal of the middle

In Food, Travel, UK by tonyLeave a Comment

    Breadtag Sagas ©: Author Tony  May 2015    Trip to the UK 16 July to 16 September 2014    In Britain or in far-flung outposts around the world in what either used to be the British Empire or in countries influenced by Britain, one meets the British. And when the conversation turns to food, the Brits inevitably bore you about how …