For a time, while researching materials for some of my stories and novels, my travels took me to Germany and the U.K. I spent a few years in Heidelberg, Germany, which is a very magnificent city with many attractions for its residents and tourists alike. Nearby is the village of Mauer, inhabitants of about 3,000, where the significant find of Homo heidelbergensis was made. Admittedly, those small hairs at the back of my neck raised, standing at the very site of this discovery.
Although early Homo specimens are now known from a number of African, Asian and European Middle Pleistocene sites, the taxon Homo heidelbergensis was initially introduced for the Mauer jaw recovered in 1907. Fossil hominids from the earlier Middle Pleistocene of Europe are very rare and the Mauer mandible is generally accepted as one of the most ancient, with an age of (about 650,000 years). For more story and pictures on Homo Heidelbergensis, please click here .
Subsequently, I resided in the lovely village of Hartley Wintney, Hampshire in the UK. The present community of Hartley Wintney was built around the London-Exeter coach road (now the A30) in the 18th Century. The part timbered building in the photograph is one of several coaching inns in the village from that period. It is called the Lamb Hotel, and I managed to reside there for a few days.
The name recorded in the 13th century as Hertleye Wynteneye means "the clearing in the forest where the deer graze by Winta's island". Winta was probably a Saxon who held an island in the marshes of the Hart valley where a priory of Cistercian nuns was founded in 1190. One of Hartley Wintney's best known features are the Mildmay Oaks. These were planted by Lady St John Mildmay in response to the call, in 1807, by Admiral Collingwood following the Battle of Trafalgar for landowners to plant Oaks to provide timber for Naval ships.
Many were the days that I wandered through these oaks and on the path displayed in the following picture.
The two-story townhouse, along with its front and rear country gardens, in which I resided is just to the right of this picture, no more than 50 yards away. Great memories of a lovely time and great neighbors!
"Jacob's Ladder", a Science Fiction Short Story, published in The WritersNet Anthology of Prose, Volume one, Fiction , produced and edited by Gary Kessler for the Writer's Club Press (December 2002), available at Amazon and other fine bookstores (ISBN 0-595-65040-6).
Winner of The International Library Poetry Competition for the poem "Lovers", published in "Barefoot Afternoons", by Watermark Press (February 2003), (ISBN 0-7951-5150-0).
"Legends of Nevermore County", an anthology of eight short stories, published by PublishAmerica (December 2005) (ISBN 1-4241-0370-3).
"All About Eve and Other Things", a volume of poetry and essays, published by PublishAmerica (January 2006) (ISBN:1-4241-0339-8).
For a time, while researching materials for some of my stories and novels, my travels took me to Germany and the U.K. I spent a few years in Heidelberg, Germany, which is a very magnificent city with many attractions for its residents and tourists alike. Nearby is the village of Mauer, inhabitants of about 3,000, where the significant find of Homo heidelbergensis was made. Admittedly, those small hairs at the back of my neck raised, standing at the very site of this discovery.
Subsequently, I resided in the lovely village of Hartley Wintney, Hampshire in the UK. The present community of Hartley Wintney was built around the London-Exeter coach road (now the A30) in the 18th Century. The part timbered building in the photograph is one of several coaching inns in the village from that period. It is called the Lamb Hotel, and I managed to reside there for a few days.
