Castle Kaneloon deals with themes of particular interest to me and concerns man's mechanical and technical progression through the 20th century and the awakening of a collective ecological conscience at the dawn of the 21st Century. It will also show you that I am a fan of Sci-Fi and Science Fantasy literature, basically because behind the themes, sometimes a little far-fetched, there's a real concern for the future of our planet and what we're doing with it now.

If my Planet Waves site is dedicated to Mars, and my Silent Wings site is dedicated to Venus, this site is dedicated to "Tellus", "Terra","Gaia"... or if you prefer "Mother Earth". Yes, Castle Kaneloon is a look at the planet and the state its in today, some of man's less intelligent actions and some of mother nature's reactions as she goes inexorably about her business of cleaning up the mess, leaving humanity collectively scratching its head in bewilderment at each new cataclysm. Castle Kaneloon is about the gigantic carbon footprint we are leaving behind. Its also about sparing a thought about the sense of it all if the Yellowstone super caldera explodes.

On a more peaceful note there's also a special section about an amazing bird, my favourite bird, with a misconceived image I would like to see changed: the Albatross.

My 3 other websites touch on other varying themes such as Militaria and Culture (pop art, books, music...) as well as travel, hence the title of the one called "Albatross133", the wanderer. There are also one or two other little surprises! Earth, Wind and Fire...Venus and Mars, everything is relative and helps explain where we're coming from and where we're going.
Talking of going places the voyage continues with a visit to my Albatross133 travel blog page. It’s more about encounters, impressions and reactions rather than a "What we did" recital.

The title of this particular site, "Castle Kaneloon", is taken from a series of books written by Michael Moorcock. Fans of Moorcock will understand the sense of the name "Castle Kaneloon". However if you are not familiar with his works of here is a quick explanation about the choice of title for this site.

Order & Chaos
The title of the site comes from the "Elric" saga and epitomizes a point on a temporal plane where the forces of Law battle to create "Order" out of "Chaos" and where "Chaos" does everything in its power to hinder "Order". An appropriate reference reflecting an apt paradigm about man's persistently vain, and short sighted attempts, to go against some very fundamental rules of Mother Nature's and facing, as a consequence, the wrath and resulting vagaries of Mother Nature, as experienced December 26th 2004, in south east Asia, September 2005in the Gulf of Mexico and on 27 other occasions in 2006, in the north Atlantic.

Man sees himself as being "Order" and considers Mother nature as being chaos and disorder but lets just rectify a point. Nature appears wild and unpredictable, to be tamed by Man's designs. Nature is certainly unrestrictive, both creative and destructive at the same time, but Nature is also imperial in her never random disorder, because everything she does has a reason (I almost said "Logic" but then we're not talking about a computer)...its just different from Man's and although Mother Nature appears cruel in her disdain for Mankind's plans everything she does is a "Natural" response to a particular situation (the best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry)...If only man understand that if he disappeared off the face of the earth tomorrow mother nature would instantly set about reclaiming her rights.

Alternatives
Image the scene. A new type of solar radiation, or some other such Mankind orientated and selective menace, wiped Man... and just Man... off the surface of the planet! With no Man around within 6 months to 1 year highways of the world would be green walkways, within 2 years skyscrapers would start looking like modern day hanging gardens of Babylon or long forgotten temples of Angkor. It seemed far fetched until I also saw a documentary of the cable about just such a scenario and I remembered I read a super science fiction novel some years ago about just such a scenario, by the now passed on English author, Richard Cooper.

It’s also worth mentioning, for the record, that in Moorcock's saga Castle-Kaneloon also has the ability to move whenever new lands are created (you could read "discovered"), thus always remaining on the edge of the world. This could be good description of what certain "Super" powers would just love to be able to do.

Imagine... Big Metropoles in USA, Russia or China decide to install super new technology engines under their cities and take off one day to and go and populate another planet. Sounds far fetched leaving the rest of the world to fend for its poor, decimated and expended self. Far fetched? (I wonder why that thought occurred to James Blish that made him write his saga!!!) Sure but well there are 2 sides to every coin and I'm sure that certain would very happy to start again from scratch and Mother nature would be more than happy to oblige... by putting the clock back some 100,000 years.

click to see larger images

Introspection
As you have gathered by now this site is an introspection about the vagaries of Mother Nature; the causes and effects on mankind and adversely the effects of mankind's tinkering with Mother Nature. Generally we call severe weather or geological hazards "natural disasters" and make a big media circus out of them, discreetly forgetting the not so natural catastrophes such as Bhopal and judging a 7" drop in the water level of the Great lakes to insignificant (as reported in the International Herald tribune - 26/10/2007). Thank heavens the collective conscience is getting organized and using the same media tools the lobbies use to promote their interests, e.g. bio fuels that are reeking havoc in Brazil and elsewhere.

Mankind is slowly beginning to understand that the frenetic race for technological superiority came at a cost. The impact on the planet was immediate. Immediate on a geological time scale and immediate on a Human time scale. Glaciers and ice caps started melting at such a rate that even the hardest line lobbyists are having to make concessions.

Finally if you got this far I guess it's because you're vaguely interested in the subject, decided the style wasn't that bad it was worth reading. It also proves that I'm far from being the only one out there talking into the immense emptiness of the web! Images of the opening scene from the film "Contact", with Jodie Foster, come to mind.

Planet Earth

BTW! The pages are being constantly updated so please feel free to call back anytime and wander round.