by Alice Bulmer | Nov 1, 2023 | Becoming Alice, Family skeletons, Life and death
It’s a weird time of year, here in Aotearoa-NZ. The last days of October and the beginning of November. In the Southern Hemisphere it’s simultaneously spring and Hallowe’en. We have kids dressed as ghosts and goblins, walking the streets in the evening sun,...
by Alice Bulmer | Sep 28, 2023 | Becoming Alice, Ecology, Favourite, Life and death
There’s a small worm farm tucked away under a tree in my back garden. It’s not a fancy worm bin. Just some stacked plastic boxes with lids and dividers. At any time of the year, it contains thousands of wriggly creatures. Willingly consuming potato peels, apple cores,...
by Alice | Oct 29, 2020 | Family skeletons, Favourite, Life and death
This post is about my English grandmother, Dorothy Bulmer, nee Dorothy Hermon Hughes. Dorothy was born in Bangor in 1897. My father, Ralph Bulmer, was her eldest son. Dorothy was very proud of her ancestors. Thanks to her, I know a fair amount about my family tree....
by Alice | Nov 2, 2018 | Becoming Alice, Life and death, Storytelling
I consider myself lucky to have had three grandmothers. At the age of 24 I was gifted a new grandmother, Dr Mary O’Meara Pepper. I received things from my bonus grandmother that I’m only now making sense of, more than three decades later. Like,...
by Alice | May 31, 2018 | Books, Life and death, technology
For the last six months I’ve been having the delightful experience of discovering a new favourite author. Lois McMaster Bujold isn’t a household name like Diana Gabaldon, or JK Rowling, or Charlaine Harris, or even Ursula K Le Guin. But I think she should be. Bujold...
by Alice | Dec 9, 2016 | Becoming Alice, Ecology, Family skeletons, Life and death
This is a post about my father, Ralph Bulmer, a man literally larger than life. Ralph died more than a quarter of a century ago, at the age of 60. My half-brother Richard, who was only four, has no memories of our father. So, Rich, this is for you. And for the...
