This page contains longer, titled posts that I have made to my blog, so as to more easily separate them from other posts that I make here. If you would like to subscribe to the feed for this page, point your RSS reader here.
Wednesday, January 7, 2026
I was gifted a year’s subscription to The Sun Magazine for my last birthday. The first issue took a while in arriving, but since it has I have been held by the articles in the magazine. I have long been aware of The Sun Magazine, but for some reason have never picked up a copy to read. I have been trying to put my finger on what I like about the articles - both fiction and non-fiction - that The Sun publishes.
Friday, January 2, 2026
I have just spent almost 40 minutes on a tech support line this afternoon. I have no idea where in the world my call landed? From the accent and voices that I heard in the background, it could well not have been the US (where I live)…..And I have to remember that my accent is in no way a native US accent. Even after living here for almost 19 years, I still detect a slight pause in some people if they are meeting me for the first time and an accent comes out of my mouth that they were not expecting.
Thursday, January 1, 2026
My wife and I went for a walk this morning to welcome in the New Year. Although it is overcast and raining now, early morning was clear with only scattered cloud. We walked by the cliffs near to Ho’okipa beach Park, a favourite place for us. There is an old lava flow to walk out on and from there we took in the views looking towards the West Maui Mountains, Mauna Kahālāwai.
Wednesday, December 24, 2025
Since moving to the US I have taken to reading Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas In Wales each year. My father’s side of my family is from Wales and I lived in South East Wales for 17 years. My home is in Maui, my heart is in Wales. Reading Thomas’ account of Christmases that he had spent as a child in Wales takes me back to locations that used to be so close, and so common in mentions that I never took much notice of them.
Friday, December 19, 2025
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Sunday, December 14, 2025
I was driving in the car yesterday listening to some Holiday music, music that I actually didn’t like (they were just on whichever Playlist was playing at that time) and it made me wonder what Christmas songs I do like (I am going to say Christmas here as opposed to Holiday, as Christmas was the word that was used to describe this time of year when I was growing up in Britain.
Thursday, December 11, 2025
The scene as we left the Candle Light Ceremony at my grandson’s school last night. Grades 3 and 7 took part last night, other grades will do their own Candle Light Ceremony through the week. Kindergarten, my other grandson’s class, will be on Sunday evening. It was a peaceful, meditative evening, recognizing the shortening days, the external darkness and the light within each of us, particularly the children taking part.
Thursday, December 4, 2025
No matter where I have traveled, it is the people that I have met and seen along the way that have made the journey. Yes, I have gazed out onto scenery that has moved me and stayed with me long after I have travelled onto new vistas. Yes, I have gone searching for solitude in nature, away from the busyness of everyday life and the concrete jungles of our modern cities.
Sunday, November 30, 2025
I have just gone searching back through my blog. It seems that I have written about migraines on a number of occasions. There is probably a reason for that - I get migraines with irregular frequency. I have another migraine right now. This migraine has come two weeks after the last one cleared, and that one lasted four days. I have no idea what caused this one. In fact I don’t have any idea what have caused any of the migraines that I have had since I was in my mid-teens.
Thursday, November 27, 2025
I love this recent post by Alexandra Wolfe about Time. Profound and special. It’s also a worthwhile reflection when all around you feels stuck or not going well - in time it will all turn to dust, it will all be a distant memory. Anyway, Alex’s post felt all the more pertinent to me as I had just returned from a visit to the island of O’ahu. In the Hawai’i island chain, O’ahu is older than Maui.
Sunday, November 16, 2025
I was sitting writing a post yesterday when one of my grandson’s showed up. He asked if he could do some typing - I was using the portable keyboard that bought for my iPhone a year ago. So I passed the keyboard over to him and he started running his fingers across the keyboard. Here’s a section of what he wrote. If you look carefully you can see his name.
Thursday, November 13, 2025
The migraine might not have gone, but acupuncture worked wonders yesterday. I felt like a pin cushion as I lay on the therapy table. Some of the needles were for the migraine, others for other disparate murmurings that my acupuncturist could detect in my pulses. Needles were placed in my ear. These were for the migraine I was told. When one went in I almost left the table. With an apology, my acupuncturist rarely hits a point that hurts that much, he tried again.
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
I just watched this interview with Pete Townsend by Steven Colbert on The Late Show. I was watching something unrelated on YouTube, noticed this interview in the list of videos to the right and decided to click on it. I honestly didn’t expect to get very far with it, I’m on my way to bed, but I found the conversation fascinating. Pete Townsend is 80 years old, he says so in the interview, and just has so much to share from his 50 years in the music business…and life.
Tuesday, November 11, 2025
I don’t know where this post will go? I am writing with a migraine. My head is telling me to rest, to get away from the screen. However it is raining outside, no one is around and I had a full and emotional weekend and feel that I want to just get some words out. I have ideas of what those words might cover and those ideas are all vying for my attention so I don’t think any one subject will arise front and center, and some will probably not even make an appearance here. It’s almost as though I have to get the mess out before anything else can make its presence felt.
Wednesday, November 5, 2025
I’m returning here to the subject of RSS Readers mainly because I wrote about them a year ago here and here and I feel as though those posts are now misleading of the the landscape that I now reside in. Not completely, but some clarification could be needed…should you be interested!
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
One thing that our increasingly wet weather has produced is a lot of snails. They are everywhere…outside, that is. I don’t think that I have ever seen so many here?
If I am walking around outside I have to watch where I am putting my feet, especially at night when they are most active. There is nothing worse than that crunch as I step one, sadly ending another life.
Monday, October 27, 2025
All credit to the artist(s) 🎨
Driving from the north east of the island, The Bunker is visible from a distance. If you are aware of what the last painting looked like, you’ll notice any changes as you approach the field from the east. This morning I did notice a difference, though found it hard to believe given that it was updated only a couple of days ago. I was early and had time, so I pulled over to jump the fence and walk over to the building.
Sunday, October 26, 2025
Last week’s busyness and frustration saw me not posting any rainbow photos. That does not mean that there were none, as there most certainly were. I captured a number of them and am now posting them here in order to catch up.
Saturday, October 25, 2025
Well this all started with David over at Forking Mad back in April 2025. Since then a few others have jumped in, take a look at the Community Echoes at the end of this post.
Now, less than a week before November in the same year, and I have caught up with the questions and decided to give them a go.
Saturday, October 25, 2025
All credit to the artist(s) 🎨
I noticed a new face to The Bunker as I drove by yesterday, but time did not allow me to stop, clamber over the gate, walk across the field and take a photo. So passing that way this morning, and having time to do all of the above…I did so!
Saturday, October 18, 2025
I spent today making a few cosmetic changes to my website. For the most part longer posts to my blog are headed with a title. This isn’t always true. There are a couple of longer posts which are without a title, but it is true enough for that to be a guiding light for how to find a longer post here. Thinking that some visitors might prefer to go straight to longer posts, or at least have a doorway that leads directly to them, I have added a new menu item to the navigation bar, Longer Reads.
Friday, October 17, 2025
The 98th Maui County Fair ran for four days, ending on Sunday October 5th. This was the first County Fair since COVID, and from what I have heard and experienced was packed from the day that it opened. I’ve read it reported that 30,000 people were in attendance on some days (every day?). Waiting for rides at times, especially going into the weekend evenings, was 45 minutes to an hour.
Monday, October 13, 2025
With a dose of curiosity I recently asked Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s ChatGPT the following question, “Can you please look at the website www.crossingthethreshold.net and tell me what sort of person you think David Johnson is?" When I make use of AI, ChatGPT has been the platform that I go to. Why? Probably because as far as I am aware it was the first to appear for mainstream use, I started tinkering with it and over time have got used to its idiosyncrasies.
Saturday, October 11, 2025
I have just read BinaryDigit’s Trying to Blog More Often. This was responded to in turn by, Robert Birming and his post, Write whatever whenever, Sylvia and her post, Blogging for joy’s sake, and Alexandra and her post, For the love of the written word. There are possibly others out there as well? Do let me know if you are one. Why do I blog? I find it hard to put my finger on one solid reason,
Thursday, October 9, 2025
This will probably sound eternally ungrateful to those who would love some good weather, but I am getting fed up with these days of clear blue skies and hot sun! We are in the second week of October for goodness sake. Autumn is here. Where is the rain? In the past this has been a time to start dropping into the rainy season. Maybe not everyday, but at least enough rain to keep the world around us green…and to spice up the weather….
Sunday, September 28, 2025
…if that even.
I’ve been going through a couple of folders that I have of blog posts that I started but for reasons that I don’t remember, never were finished.
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
All credit to the artist(s) 🎨
Heading into town this afternoon I passed the cliffs where The Bunker sits. I noticed a change to its face and so pulled over to take a photo.
Tuesday, September 23, 2025
I know that it is easy to exaggerate the severity of events, but a bush fire here on north shore of Maui this afternoon has set phones buzzing with alerts, road closures and stores closing in the town of Paia. I have been nowhere near that area today, so cannot speak to what is exactly happening on the ground (though friends live and work nearby). However, I can see smoke rising over the hills to the west. The town of Paia, which is just north of the fire, is only twenty minutes drive away.
Monday, September 22, 2025
Reading this recent story by Robert Birming reminded me of a story from when I was in my teens and going to school in England. I use to cycle to school, enjoying the freedom it gave me, being able to dodge in and out of the traffic as the cars sat waiting at junctions and roundabouts during the early morning rush hour. I remember one day passing one of the school’s physical education teachers who was walking to work.
Sunday, September 21, 2025
If I am walking around a museum, you will probably find me quietly taking in what I am looking at. If I am walking through or looking out on a landscape or wilderness, I will no doubt be doing that in silence. Just taking in what that scene is saying to me, how I am seeing it, how it is moving me. I don’t need in that moment to create an external commentary on what I am looking at.