19th November 2024

Yes we have a light dusting of snow but the trains are still running this cold morning. Lillie in London on the phone to her mum last night, demanded to see outside the window, of course in overheated London snow is rarely found.  

Which brings me to climate change, deniers please turn away now, you don't have to read what I write. I have been watching the footage of the misery and full scale landscape change the hurricane Helene brought on the people of Ashville in North Carolina.  Tons of mud and trees swept down the hill sides, houses sailed along the river, roads disappeared, the tarmac picked up like cardboard by the rushing water.  Bridges disappeared. 

The volunteers came to help, but lives have been shattered, rumours are fueling worry that children might be taken away by  social officers. Water and electricity is slowly being brought in.  The river water is poisonous the cadaver dogs die after drinking it.

People make do, don't they ever? But in as much as the Ashville and surrounding district is in a terrible state, so the same thing has happened in Spain in the Valencia floods.  Cars piled up like toys in narrow streets, 200 odd dead, I think it is similar for Ashville dead.

The weather has suddenly become heavier and wilder, the rain beats down with fury, the icebergs and glaciers breakdown and flow more freely and the scientists warn us that this is definitely climate change.

Natural or manmade make your choice.

Now to something more cheerful, how our young adapt.  Let us introduce 'Wet Leg' theme song on Morris dancing, it is so full of splendid gaiety, Aril will love it (or maybe you won't) .  How myths and magic light up a sometimes very dark world.

   BBC news Morris Dancing

18th November 2024

Small treasures:  I had a sort out over the weekend, and unearthed the following two prints by Em Parkinson, not on blogger anymore I think.  The first is of my beautiful Moss, long gone but always remembered for his sensible character.  The second one is of course the two magpies, a favourite bird of mine, I love their playful nature.

Those are knitting needles

 

The following two large photos I have decided to frame before they deteriorate.  The first is of  course of the great Cove stones at Avebury.  There were originally three stones, these pair are seen as male and female and if you want to read more about them and see some of Stukeley drawings of them then I suggest you go to this very informative page.

The second one is an enormous stone I think situated near the path up to the great run of sarsens at the top.  

You may note that editing has become somewhat difficult with my photos, ran out of cloud space this morning and had to buy more space, and when I try to  bring my photos out of the cloud, my editing is very meagre.

I love the Cove stones, the largest is reckoned to be a hundred tons and may have been standing before they were seen as  sacred stones.  There is probably a third of the stone buried.  At the Stanton Drew circles (again a very large circle with smaller circles inside) there was another grouping of stones near the church which was also called a Cove but now it is thought that these three stones are the remains of a long barrow.

Explanation of Cove Stones: ' A cove is a tightly concentrated group of large standing stones found in Neolithic and Bronze Age England. Coves are square or rectangular in plan and seem to have served as small enclosures within other henge, stone circle or avenue features. They consist of three or four orthostats placed together.'

15th November 2024

 

I love this quote because it is patently untrue.  Was it tongue in cheek I wonder?  I had the volumes of 'Modern Painter' but they were lengthy with words and rather dull.  Poor Ruskin is forever scarred in the public eye with his inability to sleep with his wife.  See I have also done it! He was an art critic first and foremost, living a comfortable life on the earnings of his father's business.  No need for work but a lifetime of writing on art.  Bless his soul, but a lot of it was dull.

I am thumbing through an old blog of mine, 'Poems, Paintings and Photos'.  It is the year 2008, I have gone through a divorce and living with my beloved Paul. I am learning about the joys of the Essex countryside.  It is tranquil and flat, we wander by the river and end up at the Cat's pub,  deep in the country side only open a couple of days a week. Cat paintings adorn the walls, no dogs allowed, there is a resident cat.  A large barn at the side of the pub holds two great steam engines.  This is retiree land, you draw up the portcullis and live in comfortable style in a small village of expensive houses, away from the troubles of the world.

I find an article by Paul Devereux on art he is more interested in the way art has developed, sometimes land based, as humans slowly evolve and those first cave paintings and rock markings start to talk the language.  Firstly it is about hunting and the animals that exist around them, but suddenly hand prints appear, an acknowledgement of their human presence.

In the year of 2008 I chatted to myself, on my voyage of discovery.  Did I find any thing, the answer is probably not, but I walked the Avebury landscape, following in the footsteps of the old ones.  Watched the neopagans come and worship at the Swallowhead Springs. I cannot take on any religion for the fact of the matter is all of them are belief systems concocted by humans.  Mostly to control.

Then because I am idly passing through, the Ruralists appear with their paintings.  Which I had seen at the Victoria Gallery in Bath.  A group of painters drawn together in 1976, similar to the Pre-Raphaelites, but their artwork doesn't please as much.  But they had captured Avebury in some of their paintings and Silbury Hill with owls swooping past.

  

Of course there came another scandal with Graham Ovendon, one of the group, when he served a jail sentence for abusing a child/children.  He painted quite a few children, the judge said at his time of sentencing that Ovendon's work should be destroyed and the Tate immediately took down his paintings but reinstated four abstract paintings in 2015.  Like Ruskin and Lewis Carroll his interest in young nubile female children can be seen in many of his paintings.

Poems, paintings and photos: August 1st Partial eclipse of the Sun

Poems, paintings and photos: The Brotherhood of the Ruralists

14th November 2024

 

Well words jumble in my mind but two words have just come to the fore.  In an article by John Naughton - IA slop and enshittification.  I suppose you could describe it as the manipulation of writing and creating imaginative truth.  I have become aware of my increasing tendency to question all I see in photographs because there are plenty of clever people out there ready to play with Peruvian temples in the jungle and animals that don't exist.  But of course, that is not the only thing turned on its head.  With everyone taking to writing podcasts and blogs - where is the truth going?

Andrew our computer expert in the household says AI is exciting, so does Zuckerberg and Musk, do I want my life dictated to by those two though?  I notice that Microsoft through Bing when asked a question will always show me the nearest thing I can buy in that name and not the actual question I asked.  Google is much better.  My granddaughters should a question arise will consult their phones before anything else.

Musk of course is also under scrutiny for his use of Twitter/X to put forward his 'dreams' of the future, he also can manipulate the actual threads to his way of thinking - scary, yes?

There is a lot of talk about Bishop Welby in the news, he has resigned over the scandal of John Smyth.  Abuse of young children is a scandal, it thrives in secret and perhaps now needs a washing in public. 

My first husband had scars on his back from being whipped in his public school, we do not accept it today but probably from Victorian times it allowed males (and maybe females) to carry out their wretched business.  Whether in posh schools or children's home.  Why we may ask did the wider community of people such as the churches, councils and police see it best to hide these crimes?

It still happens, two Catholic colleges in North Yorkshire have had the same charges brought against them.  The government report only came out last year.

I am only going to stick (mostly) with the BBC for news and The Guardian who has given up on social media.  And I never joined X  but will still keep my F/B account for all the beautiful roses and paintings that go through ;)

Child abuse inquiry: School 'reputations put before victims' - BBC News

12th November 2024

Catching up on the weekend:  It is lovely to have Matilda round we have both decided on Xmas presents, I  want a wooden shawl brooch, and she will get fingerless gloves (and her ration of Xmas money if you are reading this Matilda).  We had a raclette for our meal on Sunday which she wanted and went out to 'Honest John' restaurant yesterday in Tod. Honest John Fielden (1784 to 1849.)  He was a member of parliament and his family were good people (might even say they were socialists ;) in his employment of local people .  

The restaurant was originally a bank, though to be honest it could also have had an earlier life as a chapel.  But it has a a good menu, and I had the halloumi salad.

Afterwards we went to the organic shop that is just down the road.  Firstly I wanted to buy vegetarian pate, been eating a meat one, which though nice I shouldn't buy though Mollie the cat likes it.  Then a wooden nail brush, because not only is it good for nails but scrubbing dirty potatoes as well. 

Nutritional Yeast was also bought, not for me but my daughter.  She had heard it tasted like cheese (it doesn't) and is a poor substitute.  I bought myself an extra 'rainbow mug' because I am always leaving the first one around the house.  

Go to the organic shop and the prices are expensive.  Though I can agree that organic raising of crops can be expensive, their prices go through an awful amount of stuff we can buy and I often wonder if it is justified.

I mentioned to someone yesterday that Paul had gone to Japan after art school at the invitation of a rich American woman called Ruth Fuller-Sasaki.  He had arrived, no money and no where to stay, at Tokyo rail station at midnight and did not know what to do.  Luckily the station master called the police who took him to a hostel.  The start of Paul's 20 year stay in Japan.

But that first year was spent at a temple as a monk before he moved on to a university and a job in conservation. He had this odd little book called the 'Wooden Fish' which had  'four vows'.  The first one rings strongly with me, the second one is more difficult and the last two too religious to be undertaken.

 North Stoke: 'Right Action'

North Stoke: Greensted Church, Essex

Dana Fraser

9th November 2024

 I have been looking through links on Bensozia's blog (thank you so much) page and came across this one on the Brothers Grimms.  I remember having a book on their folktales.  Rather cruel of course the stories, I am still haunted by the girl who had to dance even as her feet bled.  Perhaps that is why as a child I read all the grown-up ghost stories at the library that influenced my taste in prehistoric burial cromlechs but what came out of the article was how the brothers  influenced such writers as C.S.Lewis, Tolkien. Beatrice Potter and George Lucas of Star War fame.  I find the last slightly puzzling but did love the films - childish I know.

"Without the labors of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, there would be no Peter Rabbit, no Middle-earth, no Narnia, and definitely no Star Wars."    

We read history through the narrow focus of our own background and subjectively the German Grimm brothers could be seen as a bit of a catalyst towards the Nazi regime later on.  But never forget we pick up on things through time, the Swastika for instance has been used symbolically throughout the centuries in many religions as a peace loving sign.  The crude and easy way we use words to bring down other people is the fault of the person using it.

Bensozia has also written about his understanding of the most recent event to hit our keyboards, which has left some rejoicing whilst others weeping in despair.  Take your choice on Trump;(  Why Trump Won. This paragraph puts it down to the price of eggs..............

Human Nature. If you want a negative lesson from this election, it would be that most people are selfish, insufficiently moral, generally unthoughtful, and don't give a damn about people not like themselves. The average Trump voter didn't care about his bursting closet of scandals, his rancid rhetoric, or his constant lying, because the price of eggs was too high. 

I am going to pick up on the words 'insufficiently moral' to describe another person who struck me as very similar.  I had watched "The Post Office Scandal" recently and of course Paula Vennells CEO of the PO from 2012 to 2019, who so vehemently denied any knowledge of what had gone on in the terrible campaign against the poor sub-postmasters, many of them driven to financial ruin by a computer system called Horizon that did not work.  But the real crime was the manipulation of the same system secretly by a team of operators who altered the information on the sub-postmasters computers.

I watched her tears as she was questioned by the committee and thought (a profound swearword here) how can she talk this gobbledy goose nonsense that she was unaware of what was happening through her chairmanship.  It was established of course that she did know and she was stripped of her CBE.  She was also a woman of the cloth!!

End of rant hopefully...........

Jacquetta Hawkes

But then Murr can say it so much better

Trevethy Quoit

 

Pulling things out of the past.  Trevethy Quoit is probably  one of the strangest cromlechs in Cornwall.  Sitting in a field by a row of houses with a hole in the capstone and a squared entrance maybe, reminding you of similar Russian holed cromlechs.  Roy Goutte is an amateur archaeologist to his very bones.  Turning over a problem in his mind till he eventually found a solution, 

I have walked round a stone circle with him, and noted the triangulated shape of some stones, could they be female? 

It is called a Portal Dolmen because of the 'doorway' and is one of those strange burial places of the Neolithic age.  The following photos I took in 2014, and no I wasn't drunk at the time, as I definitely thought odd angles would bring out the weirdness of the stones.

Trethevy Quoit: Cornwall’s Megalithic Masterpiece | The Heritage Trust

"The earliest name recorded for these prehistoric structures in Cornwall is Cromlegh in an early 10th century charter for St Buryan. (Crom meaning curved, legh meaning slab in Cornish.) This word is closely related to the Welsh equivalent, ‘Cromlech‘. Where the term ‘quoit’ comes from isn’t entirely clear. Some believe the name has a connection to the game ‘Quoits’, others that it comes from a Cornish dialect word."

If you go to The Cornish Bird website you will find further explanations of how the word developed for quoit.

King Arthur's Hall news

There is also good news!!! Tom Stephenson has been ill and is now recovering, thanks to his partner for keeping us up to date.  Whilst wishing a Happy Birthday to a long ago friend from the prehistoric side of my past. I stumbled on the great news that King Arthur's Hall on Bodmin Moor is prehistoric in its date.  So to an old friend who I feel is no longer around, Roy Goutte.  Roy it was your nagging that did it and I remember the wonderful time Paul and I had when you took us around your part of Cornwall.  See here for the Heritage Trust article.

King Arthur's Hall

Bodmin Moor King Arthur site five times older than thought - researchers - BBC News

Of course King Arthur's Hall was prehistoric, the arrangement of a square was unusual, may have in fact been rearranged in medieval times but those stones had a reason to be there, with a tor of course always in sight

Roy, Paul and Paul's cousin and husband

Me being pulled up? Note one of Roy's sheepdog at his side.  Roy trained sheepdogs and I think one even went out to Australia Andrew!

I remember being so excited about this place

Solving Mysteries

Catching the moment

Apples

 Sifting through my photos on Flickr I came across photos of some of the fruit I grew.  Each apple tree planted with a certain amount of hope and now probably uprooted.  There is nothing quite like apple blossom in the spring.  As a child I grew up in a garden with large fruit trees probably planted in the late Victorian time.  We climbed those trees my brother and I, settled in their large branches and saw the apples stored in golden coloured large baskets down in the cellar.  The sweet smell always hitting your nose when you raised the latch to the cellar.

So the Bath garden which was a good size and went across a small valley was ideal for the fruit trees.   we have lost the great apple orchards of this country, especially Kent.  Nowadays go into the supermarkets and buy sour foreign plums, or pay a price for the Pink Lady apple but the great variety of English apples have been lost to the orchards being 'grubbed up' as not profitable.

Even the famous Bramley apple original tree of which its many cuttings went to be planted in many an orchard is now dying of disease, but at least we have its children.

May King

Deacon Pears

I have several books all from the 1930s, such names as H. J. Massingham, Dorothy Hartley and Edward Thomas all figure within them.  They write about the English countryside with such passion and nostalgia (gosh they would be heartbroken now if they saw the great fields decimated of their hedgerows).  

The books are all printed by the publisher Batsford, I wonder if they still operate?  I remember years ago a Batsford person came down to discuss one of my late husband's books to be published.

My daughter has just come in to tell me that Mollie the cat is raising hell, she has a very loud voice, about the fact that the the door to the attic room is shut and she can't go in. This is because the bed has been made up in there for Matilda who is coming down tomorrow.  It is cheaper for Matilda to have her hair done in Todmorden then London!

There are some lovely black and white photos in the books.  An idyllic countryside with the farmworkers laying the hedges, or bringing in the harvest.  Farms nestled in valleys and spring time orchards and of course the hop pickers from London down in the Kentish countryside.

5th November 2024

 

The Peace Of Wild Things

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry

Why that poem? yesterday I was hunting around my books for the Welsh vicar R. S. Thomas gloomy poems.  A favourite of both mine and Weaver of Grasses heart. But I could not find the one I wanted.  Today of course has brought a different set of circumstances, the beginning of the voting in America, so perhaps an American farmer will do equally well.  

So as dawn struggles to emerge through the cloudy grey skies and I wait for the geese to come in to their daytime quarters.  I will recommend another video to listen to.  Again it is a historic look back through the history of Russia and the Soviet Union but Professor Tim Snyder is seemingly an academic well read, so you will find him here.  Also, if you go to Youtube he has is own space in which he talks.  I will not plead mercy for it being political, or topical and should not be on a blog.  Unless we get politics and history firmly learnt about there is no point to grumbling about our own British small history.

So having girded up my loins today ??? Well the last few weeks I have been nervous of putting my quilt together, but after breakfast I cleared the kitchen table and once the shopping is done with, will lay the three layers together and pin them.

And small fact learnt from watching Alice Roberts the other day on her travels round the East.  Turkey was unfolded in full beautiful colour and that glorious blue, turquoise colour tiles that I love so much.  Of course, turquoise/Turkey, though the word meandered through the French as well.

This is the wool I am spinning at the moment, my camera on the phone has coloured it almost turquoise but in real life it is a much gentler blue the blue of a bird's egg.

2nd November 2024

Well in light of people downplaying the budget that Reeves has put her neck on the line for, the following is what our Labour member of parliament Josh Fenton-Glenn has written on F/B. I note that the inheritance tax as far as small farms are concerned has not been addressed. But never worry dear people, I shall keep an eye on that. And with all those clever lawyers around I am sure the problem will be overcome.

Two sides will interpret the figures, Mr/Mrs Glum and then there are the people who accept that life has some difficulties. Count your blessings.

"AN HISTORIC BUDGET FOR CALDER VALLEY AND THE NHS

Today I sat in the House of Commons for the first budget delivered by a female chancellor in this country's history. The budget was delivered against a backdrop of a damaged economy and a public realm on it’s knees. It was a budget rooted in reality, based on the first spending review of all government departments since 2021. So this was our chance to balance the economy and reverse austerity of over a decade. Cuts don’t show when you wake up the next day, but over years not one of us can fail to see the impact on the country. It is a budget for our NHS and for the people of Calder Valley.

The budget announced today was a bold plan to stabilise public finances, investing to drive growth. It addresses the issues we face here in Calder Valley, whilst protecting your wage slip. There is a huge amount to cover, but here are some of the key points for our flood-prone constituency of rural areas and market towns:

An increase in the National Living Wage of 6.7% to £12.21 per hour from April 2025. No increase in basic, higher or additional rates of income tax, National Insurance or VAT.

£1 billion to extend the Household Support Fund and Discretionary Housing Payments in 2025-26, which will be used by local authorities to address immediate hardship and crisis.

Maintain the state pension triple lock for the duration of this Parliament. The basic and new state pension will increase by 4.1% in 2025/26, meaning over 12 million pensioners will receive up to £470 per year.

Working age benefits to be increased in 2025/26 by the consumer price index inflation rate of 1.7% and a new fair repayment rate which caps debt repayments made in Universal Credit.

Freeze on fuel duty and extending the temporary 5p cut for one year, meaning you will pay no more at the pumps.

Fairer business rates, with specific support for small and medium-sized businesses and those in retail, hospitality and leisure. Alongside this, support for small businesses to implement changes to employer National Insurance payments, including increasing employment allowance.

Support for our small brewers in the Calder Valley through a cut to alcohol duty on draught products.

More opportunities to own a home. Alongside an ambitious programme of house building, stamp duty will increase for second homes, buy-to-let, and commercial purchases of residential property.

Investment in the natural environment and in climate mitigation and adaptation to protect the economy from the impacts of climate change, including a more productive and environmentally sustainable agricultural sector in England.

Investment in flood resilience to support the building of new flood defences alongside the maintenance of existing assets to protect communities.

Investment in improving public transport, including the electrification of the TransPennine route. This will mean fast connections from Huddersfield, brilliant news for residents in the Lower Valley.

Real terms increase in core local government spending power of around 3.2%, including at least £600 million of new grant funding to support social care. Longer-term reforms to allow local councils like Calderdale to plan for the future.

£6.7 billion of capital funding in 2025/26 for education in England, a real terms increase of 19% from 2024/25. This includes £1.4 billion for the school rebuilding programme, an increase of £550 million on this year. There is also a £1 billion uplift for SEND.

And the greatest investment priority of all for this government, our NHS. It should be there when we need it. Spending will increase by £22.6 billion from 2023/24 to 2025/26. This provides a two-year average real terms NHS growth rate of 4.0%, the highest since before 2010 (excluding the pandemic). This will support the NHS to deliver 40,000 extra elective appointments a week and make progress towards the commitment that patients should expect to wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment.

There is so much more to say, and in the coming weeks I’ll be seeking to clarify some of the finer details in terms of impact for the projects here. But for now, I just wanted to take a moment to highlight Labour’s ambition for the country. Times are still tough, but in the longer term this will be transformative and I’m excited to work to deliver it.

Guardian article

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31st October 2024

Well that wasn't too bad was it?  Of course I mean The Budget, Reeves managed beautifully I thought.  Yes I know there were things some people are cross about and apparently from what I have heard she did not go for more tax from the rich and you get a penny less on beer, tradition always goes down well with budgets.

Above is some of the photos I took of Hebden Bridge, as usual I was hurried on by my family.  The above photo is of the park as we waited for the bus (20 minutes).  As an aside Andy Burnham in Manchester has refused to raise the bus fare from £2 to £3 for Manchester, not following his government then.

I did not listen to the hee-hawing braying sound of parliament as the measures were enunciated.  It is such a pantomime of excessive bad behaviour, that I wonder whether Rachel Reeves should have made some enforcing laws of good behaviour as well.

Happy Halloween everyone and remember to lock your doors!

Earlier blog on Halloween 2009

 “It is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in the broken world." Mary Oliver