This started as a blog...... and grew
Yup, many years ago I started writing a blog, mainly focusing on my motorcycle riding and my biggest hobby, aviation. But along the way it evolved, more topics got covered, and the Internet changed as well.
With the event of Facebook a lot of my attention previously given to writing on forums and on this blog, changed.
And also other ways of expressing popped up. New ones came, like the Flightsim Gazette, my Scoop.it magazines, various new websites such as Europerides and FSAddon. You can find them all via the top menu.
And others disappeared, such as my involvement with Avsim, simFlight and even some of the motorcycle/BMW forums.
But I still love writing on various topics AND keeping a little bit of control over what goes where and when.... so my blog lives on... ever changing.....
Enjoy !
Various topics at a glance
My Home Cockpit Project
Italian Stuff
Motor Touring
Aviation
Book Reviews
Flight Simulation
Photography
My Webshop(s}
World War 2 Stuff
How to find my posts
That's easy. Just look BELOW this section and you see my latest posts. And then there are a gazillion choices UP o the menu bar... I categorize what I write and publish. So if you are interested in ITALY, then just click on that and enjoy your reads. If you want scale modelling or aviation... it's all there, neatly arranged.
ENJOY your visit !
New art shop opened
Having been banned from Facebook for the umpteenth time I found some extra time in my busy retired life. So I picked up painting again. And in a special way too. I decided to try my hand at something different than just landscapes, and started experimenting with combining it with…
From Arromanches to the Elbe
by Charles More Marcus Cunliffe and the 144th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps 1944–1945 Marcus Cunliffe was an officer of the 144th Regiment of the Royal Armoured Corps when it landed in Normandy back in June 1944. His notes and diaries are kept in the George Washington University in Washington DC and…
Excellent book on the Battle of the Bulge
The Americans and Germans at Bastogne (Hardback)First-Hand Accounts from the Commandersby Gary Sterne Now here’s a book to my heart !! Not only is its subject about one of the iconic battles in Europe during the Second World War, but also it is chockful of maps and situational sketches. AND…
Beautiful acquarel from Japan
Masato Watanabe is one of my favorite painters. Wish I had his talent, skills, and experience. I can watch his videos for hours…..
Playing artist again
I bought a training course on architectural acquarel techniques, but figured I wanted to try it out on another pet subject: the LST325 in Evansville. Using a photo from Craig as model, I started on my first attempt. Got some of the scaling wrong, but figured to continue anyway, to…
Duel Under the Stars
2020-06-18 The Memoir of a Luftwaffe Night Pilot in World War II by Wilhelm Johnen Another one of my favorite World War 2 books, because it is written relatively shortly after the war, in 1956, by someone who was one of the actively involved participants. In this case, a young…
Bye Bye Zuckerberg
All the way back in November 2008 I added my first friends on Facebook, on my brand new account. I started it out of curiosity because many of my flight simulator friends were talking about it. And those were the ones I added at first, indeed. Now 12 years later…
A lot happened
But unfortunately not on the actually cockpit build….. However, not all is bad, although getting old really feels like it… <grin>. Time passes at lightning speed these days, and so it happened that instead of continuing to build the cockpit, we continued building the house instead. Matter of priorities. But…
Supplying the British Army in the Second World War
2020-06-05 By Janet Macdonald This is a very nice hardback book on a subject that does not get enough coverage, ever….. the supply and support of armies. In this particular book Janet McDonalds takes us along to the humongous efforts that were needed to keep the British armed forces and…
M2/M3 American Half-tracks of the Second World War
2020-04-28 A book of the Landcraft Series (Paperback)By Robert Jackson I read this excellent book by Robert Jackson last night. Taught me a lot about the history of the half-track that I didn’t know. Like all of these books there is a part with the actual history of the development…
NO Facebook, so peaceful
The Facebook Gestapo has locked me out once again, this time for sharing a joke on good old Hitler….. totally irrelevant for their ‘community standards’, whatever those may entail. Totally random too of course, I am just on their blacklist, like some of my friends, for not just posting pink colored,…
Allied Armies in Sicily and Italy, 1943–1945 (Paperback)
2020-04-20 By Simon Forty Images of War – Photographs from Wartime Archives And yet another book in the Images of War series. This one is a definite KEEPER in my library. For one, it provides pictures from MANY resources and lots of those I hadn’t seen yet in other publications.…
IoW – The Americans. From the Ardennes to VE Day
by Brooke S. Blades Yet another book in the excellent series of Images of War. This one is rather bulky, with over 250 pages ! It shows the story of the US Forces from the end of 1944, through the Battle of the Bulge (the German Ardennes offensive), and then…
The F-4 Phantom – book review
Rare Photographs from Wartime Archivesby Martin Bowman Usually I am very happy with this series of ‘Rare Images’ books from Pen & Sword, and the good old Phantom being one of my long-time favorite aircraft I was interested in this book.But truth be told, it was somewhat of a let-down.…
The Second World War Explained
By Michael O’Kelly Here’s an excellent book explaining World War 2 in an overview fashion. Excellent for those who have never really looked into this part of history, excellent for younger readers too. Looking at the many 10’s of thousands of titles on this bit of our history their is…
Shopping Corona-style
So if you think only my good friend Glenn Colin de Kavanagh-Norman can write adventure stories….. think again… . ‘Operation Spesa’ was successful. Today I had to go down the hill…. My anti-migraine meds ran out, and after 15 days without leaving the home, so did some other things like…
Book Review: A Spy in the Sky
A Photographic Reconnaissance Spitfire Pilot in WWII Very interesting book. I love all stories about WW2 written by the people who actually were there, and this one is no exception. It not only tells the story of a young man who joins the RAF (more or less by mistake, to…
Hungarian Armoured Fighting Vehicles
in the second world war Hungarian Armoured Fighting Vehicles in the Second World War (Paperback)Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives Recently I have been reading books about topics that are a little outside my ‘regular interest’, and this little book is one of them. This book by a Spanish(?) author is…
I took a sabbatical from riding
And I have hesitated a long time to tell you all (as if anyone would be interested, really). You would think your life will quiet down once you get older….. well, not so. Time passes more quickly, or so it seems, but things have not become more quiet for Nina…
Absence
Dear readers and Facebook followers. There are 2 reasons for being absent these past few days. First is some heavy migraine attacks lasting multiple days. The other is yet another ban from Farcebook, being squealed upon by some (probably British) expats in Robbie's Expats in Italy Farcebook page. I'll be…
Monte Martano
The mountain across from our place is called Monte Martano and is almost 2000 meters high (6000 feet). You can actually drive up almost to the top, where all the big antennas are. There are gravel roads to the top, and the military fort up there. From the top you…
Me and my Human
This is a test to see if I can get into my human's blog too and tell my stories there. I hope it works!
Christmas under fire, 1944
The last Christmas of World War 2 By Kevin Prenger Here is a world war 2 book that is a little different from what we are used to. For once not about famous or unknown heroes, or battles and campaigns, or analyses of what caused which victory or defeat. No,…
7th SS Mountain Division
by Ian Baxter7th SS Mountain Division Prinz Eugen At War 1941–1945 (Paperback) A History of the Division Another interesting book compiled by Ian Baxter on one of the German SS divisions. Lots of interesting archive photos make up the major part of the book. The 7th SS started in 1941…