Sunday

 Pubs! I've been to a few and it inspires me for another couple of blogs. ;)

Mother's Day.  My daughter sent me this photo today.  Usual scruffy self and we are in a place which makes Paul happy, in fact we look rather dissolute! But look over my shoulder and what do you see? Wombles!  For we are in the pub at Wombleton, where we would often go for a meal with Lucy and family when they were up.  Lucy was always welcome at the pub but she preferred home comforts and no walks, she didn't mind being plump.  One of my favourite churches was only a couple of miles away at Kirkdale as well.

The original Wombles of Wimbledon, never watched the programme, wonder if the village of Wombleton was their ancestral home.

The Plough Inn, Wombleton

12th March 2026

 As the world slips into a warlike mode and we hang on the words of a mentally deranged  American whose utterances sink shafts of fear into our souls and yet funnily, we laugh as well as he messes up his words. But then I was reminded of a book I read many years ago.

The book was written by Helena Norberg-Hodge and is called 'Ancient Futures'.  It is about Ladakh and Tibet, two small countries high in the Himalayas. I remember at the time I read the book seeing wretched photos of the Chinese beating up the Tibetans as they annexed Tibet.

Tibet is a wondrous place of high mountains, narrow valleys where the people live and a way of life so different to ours.  This was where I would travel to if asked.  Though of course its absolute coldness as a frozen desert might put me off.  I loved the way you could run your hand over the large prayer wheels that would line a pathway in a Tibetan monastery.  The sanctity of a religion was strongly felt in this land.  The young boy who would become the Dalai Lama chosen from the people themselves.

In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.  Sounds about right to me.

Helena Norberg-Hodge has gone on to better things, but the world definitely hasn't and I wonder whose fault it is that turned those people who were ready to fight for good in the 1960s have now turned into the rather greedy society we have today.

Photos courtesy of Wikipedia.

 

Leh Palace in the country of Ladakh

Potala Palace in Llasa once the capital of Tibet now it is referred to as the Tibet Autonomous region

From the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912 until 1950, Tibet was de facto independent although still claimed by the successor Republic of China. The Republican regime, preoccupied with Warlordism (1916–1928), civil war (1927–1949) and Japanese invasion (1937–1945), was not able to exert authority in Central Tibet. Other regions of ethno-cultural Tibet in eastern Kham and Amdo had been under de jure administration of the Chinese dynastic government since the mid-18th century;^[21] they form parts of the provinces of Quing Hai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan.

You Tube - Ancient Futures

9th March 2026

 I am home alone, the travellers are in the Canary Islands.  My first problem arose this morning, the internet disappeared.  Normally we flick the off button off on the large router, but did I need to do anything to the Smart smaller router in front of it? decided not to and as you can see I gained the internet back again.

The news flows on with dire results.  One thing I don't understand is how the price of oil goes up immediately it is not moving through the seas to us.  I will just put it down to greed and move on.  

Another thing I am geographically unaware of is where the Canary Islands are, and so in true Yorkshire Pudding manner will draw up a map for you.

The one good thing about blogging is it becomes educational as you find out stuff.

Benty Grange Anglo-saxon 7th century helmet

In the Megalithic news there is an article on a Hlaew an Anglo-Saxon or Viking barrow burial in Derbyshire.  In the barrow was found a helmet, adorned with a boar on top of the helmet.  Garnets for eyes and I think gold ringed round the eyes.  The facts can be found here, the helmet can be found at the Weston Park Museum in Sheffield.  But for a much longer read the Wiki has a vast amount of information.  Most interesting for me is the changeover from Paganism to Christianity in the 7th century.  A boar is a symbol of paganism but on the front of the helmet there is a small silver cross.  I wrote and made a small miniature of the Prittlewell Saxon grave in Essex, it can be found here.  

And now I must go for an annual bloodletting, okay it is only a small amount, to see the state of my health and whether my cholesterol or indeed my glucose levels are right.

Walking - 6th March 2026

A blog written back in 2007, when the world was a quieter place and I lived in Bath.  Now my son walks this way uphill on his walks and I have moved on to Yorkshire.  Perhaps I should go back over these old blogs, they have a calming affect.

As I have a slightly different routine on Monday for walking the dog, I walk nearer home up the slopes of the Lansdown. My walk takes me through several fields to Primrose Hill Wood, a newly established 25 acre wood situated midway between Beckford Tower and Weston.

On Saturday I had driven to Braythwaite in freezing weather, a hawk had been sitting hunched and cold on a wire, normally he can be seen hovering with that perfect precision in the wind holding a perfect balance between earth and sky. Half a minute later two great buzzards swooped over the car, the feathered tips of their wings marking their great wingspan. I felt their hunger in the cold morning as they scouted for food. But Monday's weather was misty as we set up the hill.

Moss in a reenactment of last week when he lost a ball down a drain at the end of a track, managed to do it once more to his absolute astonishment, he gazed somewhat disbelievingly into the drain that now holds two of his unretrievable balls.A stick though will be found and his walk will bounce along in its normal way. The path through the fields is well used by walkers and MOD people who work at the old Foxhill outpost along the top of the Lansdown.

Coming up to Primrose Wood you are met by a steel gate fitted into the deer fence that surrounds the wood, there are many deer that live up on the slopes of the Lansdown, the land is not heavily farmed and they range quite freely.
The trees in the wood are now 10 to 12 foot high, and are growing strongly. There has been a 'suburban' hand in the choice and planting of shrubs and trees, a formality that jars one's expectation of a proper wood.

The Trust has hung up notices asking for wild plants for insect life such as butterflies. Hemp agrimony I have in the garden and also Dames Violet, or Hesperis Matronalis (sweet rocket) to give it a more stately name, so next spring I will leave some there. The leaves are off the trees, except for the bright golden yellow of the larch firs, it is just a tracery of branches everywhere with the strong red wands of dogwood shrubs lining the path.
Primrose Wood is part of the linking corridor of woods that are part of the national reforesting scheme, Shiner's Wood under Kelston Hill is another newly planted wood, it will take many years before they achieve maturity and then decline with decaying grace as the old woods do that cling to the steep escarpments.
On the way back I meet a dog walking friend, and as we go through an old iron post gate on the path, he points out deer hair. Apparently last week a frightened deer had tried to force its ways through the 6 inch bars and had of course got jammed. The RSPCA came and hooded the little creature and then with a car jack forced the iron bars wide releasing the trapped animal.

Cowslip - Primula Veris

 

Albrecht Dürer, Tuft of Cowslips, 1526, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,

I like Durer as an artist, there is an accuracy in his paintings.  His Hare painting always appears on my Easter blog as well.  The leaves in the painting above somewhat dull but this could be due to age. 

The Cowslip has got an umbel of flowerheads, meaning they all spring at the same end of the stalk.  It is sweetly fragrant as a flower and Robert Louis Stevenson in his childish  poem the  'Cow' asks the cow to eat sweet herbs in the meadow to flavour the milk she gives.  But it is William Shakespeare who conjures up cowslips and fairies in this poem. It is called 'A Fairy Song'

 Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire!
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the Fairy Queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green;
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours;
In those freckles live their savours;
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.

According to Grigson the old archaic name for cowslip was Paigle which according to the internet was used in the 15th century.  Cowslip once cowslop relates to the fact that this flower was always to be found in the meadows where the cows roamed and obviously cowpats occurred - need I go further?
It seems to follow the fairy name mostly in Somerset, and also 'keys' feature a lot in its local descriptions.

The key theme relates back to a Northern European story, that Saint Peter once dropped his keys in surprise when he was told that a duplicate keys had been made.  Where the keys dropped cowslips sprang up.  All due to the nodding head of the flowers just like a bunch of keys jangling.
What did it cure in medieval sympathetic medicine?  paralysis and as well the palsy of trembling hands, maybe because the flower heads trembled in the wind.  But it made a sweet wine also of the countryside and was much loved for its fragrance.

Oxlip - Primula Elatior - Off-spring of Cowslip

Primula Elatior or Oxlip.  Courtesy Woodland Trust 

Trying to be more methodical:  Tackling the species that we think of as primulas is fairly easy but slightly confusing.  The naming and ordering of a species complicated.  It would be lovely to start with a simple word, such as, did you know primrose meant prima rosa which means first rose?  But there is so much more to the primrose and her offsprings, because I don't want to be rude here but the plant can be a bit promiscuous. 

I thought to start with the Oxlip, you can see how the flower buds cluster to one side.  The oxlip is only to be found on the East side of the country according to The Woodland Trust but I think intense farming has obliterated it elsewhere.  You can tell the plant belongs to the primrose by the lined, wrinkled nature of the leaves but not so deeply lined as the primrose leaves itself.

'Veris' Means spring, the flowers of spring are beautiful.

Now Grigson will write this "The coarse hybrid between Cowslip and Primrose which lacks the charm of either parent"  But then he is not talking about the Woodland Oxlip above, which one has to admit is a fairly elegant plant and only to be found in East Anglia.  But the names it was called by in past times such as Oxlip, Bedlam Cowslip or Bullslop shows a negative difference in seeing the plant.  AND, according to Grigson the plant wasn't just confined to the East but could be found in Dorset, Kent and the Midlands to name but a couple of other places. I sometimes wonder whether Grigson had actually seen an oxlip, if he had, he would be more generous.

Marjorie Blamey's page of the Primula race and you can see the Oxlip sitting between a primrose and a cowslip.  Though I counted in the index 20 odd primulas plants listed,  I am not going to do all of them - heaven forbid.

Books

It took me ages to take the above photo with my phone - but I won in the end.  I had decided to learn something about the primula/primrose and so went on a book hunt for my four favourite books which tell me the facts and folklore I need to know.

I had lost 'The illustrated Flora' by Marjorie Blamey and Christopher Gray-Wilson a practical recording of all the wild flowers we come across in Britain and looked for it's 'orange cover'.  Well stupid it is a dark green.  Each book is crafted by the person who wrote it, and in the case of the Blamey book  also by the illustrations.  The book below is the Phillips book which has photographs of all the wild flowers.  They have a dead look to them, presumably because it would take hours before he got them home to photo.

The two favourites are of course Grigson's 'Englishman's Flora' a cornucopia of completely useless facts but so much more informative that anything AI can conjuror.  A particular plant can have a dozen nicknames from different parts of the country.  And of course plants were used for medicinal purposes or culinary cooking.

But my most favoured book is the Robinson 'English Flower Garden' late 19th century a great tome of a book with it's information gathered over time.  The illustrations are made on wood and a joy to behold, also may I say as good as any photo.  The provenance of the vast array of plants that we have in our gardens come from overseas, from specific zones where they grow, have you ever seen wild roses in China for instance?  The great plant hunters of the 19th centuries brought these treasures back in glass Wardian cases.  

It was of course the wealthy who planted these new exotics in their vast gardens a bit like Robinson above at Gravetye Manor in Sussex.

Saint David

 It is Saint David's Day and I can't think of better words than Jan Morris in a 'Matter of Wales', who wrote of my most favourite place on Earth...

"The holiest Welsh place is Dewisland, Pebidog, a stony protrusion from the coast of Dyfed, which was once a spiritual hub of the whole Celtic world.  Not only does the countryside there seem holy by its very nature, so ascetic but so exciting, all bare rock and heather headland falling to the wild Atlantic sea, but its associations too are intensely sanctified.  Here the Celtic missionaries came and went, on their journeys through the western seas, and here the itinerant Irish preachers landed on their way  to evangelize a pagan Europe.  Everywhere there are the remains of shrines and chapels, - neither the Welsh nor the Normans ever fortified the peninsula, in respect for its sacred meaning; and in the middle of it stands the most venerated structure of all, the cathedral of Dewi Sant, St.David, not only the mother church of Welsh Christianity, but the vortex of all that is holy in Wales".

St.David's Cathedral. Creative Commons

Facts or fiction?  2008

He was known traditionally as The Waterman as he and his monks were ascetic teetotallers and vegetarians. He is associated with over 50 churches in South Wales, most in the south west, Glastonbury was also claimed to have been founded by David. And another tale tells that it was Arthur who allowed Dewi to move his see and that soon after Arthur's death, David died in 544 aged 82 and he was honourably buried by Maelgyn Gwynedd.

February 28th is St.David's Eve and one of the favoured nights for the Cwn Annwn (hounds of Annwn, the Underworld) to take to the skies. They race and howl across the firmament, souls of the damned they hunt for more souls to feed the furnaces of hell. Sometimes they are seen as huge dogs with human head - a pre-christian belief that lasted in rural Wales until the 19th C.

in the Gwaun valley in Pembs.

Old St.Davids Day (March 12th) was the time when the wax candle on the table was replaced by a wooden one, signifying that supper could be eaten without candlelight - the end of the winter months.

As he did only drink what crystal Hodney yields,

And fed upon the leeks he gathered in the fields

In memory of whom, in each revolving year,

The Welshmen, on his day, that sacred herb do wear.

Another story says that it was St.David's spirit who convinced the Welsh to wear a leek, so that they could be distinguished in the battle on Hatfield Moors in 633.

------------------------

His mother was Saint Non and her chapel can be found here on the cliff top.  Saint David was supposedly born in the centre of a stone circle and whilst a storm raged outside the storm everything was still inside.

Saint Non's medieval chapel

Sanctity: Would you find it here on this ground, you can see the little bell tower of the chapel protruding above the hill and I have a poor photo of the inside dedicated to three saints.  Saint Bridget, Saint Non, and Saint Wilfred, all Celtic saints.

There are many legends that surround Saint David, stories that mingle both Christian and Celtic tales.  A cold winter's night, a warm fire, who would not want to listen to those tales of long ago.  Slightly stretched by the imagination, flavoured with the new God, but there was a miracle spring that gushed forth on the birth of David.  Believe that if you will.

Sometimes I get cross ;)

 Anyone's Child  An organisation that questions the way drugs are handled in this country.  So we leave the manufacture and distribution of drugs to the criminal element in this country do we?  Or do we accept that a different approach might be needed.  For instance by legalising drugs and setting up medical centres to which these people can go and get help, and yes, even drugs.  All of a sudden we have control.  It won't be easy but considering we have a very large drug problem in this country, though not as bad as America, we should perhaps start practicing a more humane approach. So what did Polanski say  Not quite a free for all approach after all was it.  The fact that children can buy drugs in school is a shocking admission for a country to admit to.

'Muzzies' what does that word mean? Racism.  Well I expect you can translate easily enough it into Muslims.  That sparked a moment of anger.  I had just been listening to a funny Muslim man asking what made him different.  He had just voted for a white blonde female and a gay Jewish man without any problem at all! Muslim people are part of our communities Up North - get over it!

 People are not second class because of their background, it could be anyone of us out there trying to survive.  Humanity should share the distinction of compassion and kindness to their fellow human beings, instead a few of us tend to throw labels around humiliating those less better of. 

The Greens WIN

Zack Polanski and Hannah Spencer, new parliamentary MP

If you support the Green Party than today is a breakthrough to rejoice in, the hard work the volunteers put in without the benefit of  billionaire backers paid its way.  The nasty headline I read on the Telegraph last night didn't reach its goal.  I mean who reads the wretched paper anyway.  Farage is left mumbling in his lost sea of racist rhetoric.

 The Green Party has just won a significant political seat in Gorton and Denton' winning by a clear majority over the Reform party and of course the Labour party.

Hannah is young, vibrant, a plumber by trade, and a woman, let us hope she survives.  As for Zack, indomitable, hardworking, always in the news, he needs a rest.

How did I hear the news? 5.30 am this morning as Andrew came rushing down the stairs - shouting they've won!

Let the young go forward, it may not be how I want it, or you, but we definitely need some radical change in our politics that doesn't include Farage.

14,980 votes Greens,  Reform UK 10,578, Labour 9364.  Turnout 47.6%

The London Economic+3

24th February 2026

 

The wild primrose - Primula vulgaris. Creative Commons

It is the time of the primrose.  That pale lemon flower of the woods.  The bright harsh colours of the cultivated primula I can walk past with barely a glance but the little wild primrose has a yellow that always calls back to you.

Yet I have never owned an Auricula primrose theatre.  Why do these plants need coddling? it is because their 'mealy' surfaced flowers don't like rain.  As always W. Robinson - The English Flower Garden 1895 describes more accurately.  

 "The florists' favourites are distinguished by the dense mealy matter with which the parts of the flower are covered

they are divided by florists into four sections - green edged, gray edged,, white edged and selfs.  In the green-edged varieties the 'gorge' or the throat of the flower is usually yellow or yellowish; this is surrounded by a ring varying in width, of white powdery matter, which is surrounded by a ring of some dark colour and beyond this is a green edge..."

At one stage in history probably from the 18th century, an auricula theatre in the yard of  terraced houses was often kept, a bit like keeping pigeons I suppose.

Delving further into primroses, brings to mind Gertrude Jekyll, and her description of a "the Primrose garden in season a river of gold and silver flowering through a copse of silver stemmed young birch for a hundred yards or more" 
and to read on.... the primroses were the celebrated Munstead Strain developed by crossing the variety Golden Plover with a very pale, almost white polyanthus found in a cottage garden, see below.

Taken from the Gardener's Essential - Gertrude Jekyll

Through the years I had collected the beautiful Barnhaven primroses, their double petalled plants in blue and other colours here  but no more.  But then my daughter's new partner produced parent gardeners in their Jungle garden and there at the bottom of the quarry was the famous, well to me at least, the delicate  Candelabra primulas, happily settling themselves into the damp earth.

Anne Cotterill. Artists can even paint them ;)

25th February 2025

I put those photos up yesterday with not much explanation because of a headache.  And then I find there are occasions when people do not understand the creatures around them such as the badger.  Well let us say I have been an animal activist occasionally through my life and at one time campaigned and went on protection rounds to keep an eye on the badgers in the place I lived, which was the outskirts of Bath.  The enemy was badger baiters, they came from Bristol in their white vans with their dogs and raided a venerable old badger holt on the hills behind the village.  You can imagine the dogs killing the badgers.  A bill finally went through Parliament protecting the badgers and making it a criminal offense to take badgers from the wild.

Then of course TB was recognised in the badgers, and then these creatures were  killed and gassed to stop the badgers infecting the cows with the disease but it is a two way problem of course.

In my youth as well I sported on my car leaflets condemning the use of beagle dogs in experiments of finding out whether shampoo hurt our human eyes or even worse making these poor dogs inhale cigarette smoke to see what damage cigarettes would inflict.  I think we have grown up a bit more as to experimentation, but every time you condemn animal activists remember the cruelty inflicted on innocent animals.

And then my tale of an encounter in the back garden at midnight many years ago with a badger.  I have always had animals so this is about my chickens.  Woken up by a squawking chicken, I rushed out with my faithful Moss by my side.  A badger was chasing the chicken around the garden, it had obviously lifted the nesting box lid and the bird had flown out.

The badger seemed oblivious of my presence and Moss sat at the top of a flight of steps refusing to be part of the gang chasing a wild animal.  Eventually pennies dropped and the badger made its escape.  The chicken unharmed but shaken was eventually found cowering behind a plant.

Badger setts can be found all over the country, they are the permanent residence of creatures who are almost tribal in their manner and when we break up these family groups it is very cruel.   There is even a badger sett in the East Kennet long barrow, though it is on private farmland difficult to see.                              

24th February 2026

 As today is a migraine day, I shall have my own photography day

This is Byland Abbey of the Cistercian order.  Hidden in the country and difficult to find.  We asked a village postman and he gave directions and then raced off after us in the post van because he thought we might go to the old Byland Abbey - sweet. Chosen because of the blue sky, it was incredibly hot and the Rose window's half curve against the sky.  Why two Bylands?

'The Bells, the bells' Wiki will give you the answer.

Probably a favourite flower the foxglove.  I always wanted a pale yellow one, but I think this is a verdant plant ready to turn pink.

 
The beck at Murk Mire a favourite walk

A rabbit hole impossible to go down when you are  a rather plump spaniel.  But the badger and fox hole had possibilities and several times I have sat on the ground hauling Lucy's plump behind out.

An abundant crab apple tree and below, the bank where the rabbits lived.  The badger lived at the beginning of the bank, (badgers eat rabbit) and the fox hole was over by the river.  Predators had the perfect pantry!

Swallets or meres?

 Monday Morning:  Andrew (at 7.0 clock) has gone swimming.  The new rage in the household, not me of course but it is the new exercise.  Andrew is a great walker as well, and my daughter is getting there ;)

Well I found this video online (Map Reading Company) about how to walk up hill and down by this guide.  In actual fact I had come across another video of his about a Yorkshire field and he had given a talk about the history of the field and how it had accumulated its bumps and hillocks.  And to be honest after reading about Shake holes, potholes and coal mining holes I am not sure I want to put a foot on much of the Yorkshire landscape.  And the wisest words - do not go on the uplands of Yorkshire in the dark, or you may fall down a hole.

Well I have decided I am too old to do much walking so I will just write about it.  The first thing I noticed in this second video was different words to describe the naming of place.  How a word would take on an Anglo-Saxon meaning, then later a Viking sub word would be added and then the word would meld into what we call medieval.  Though I still do not understand how the word 'goblin' formed itself from Robin.

But I squeaked slightly when he described a clay dewpond as a 'mere'.  These ponds along the trackway he was walking were made for the cattle driven down from Scotland to the markets in Yorkshire and further South.

Interesting fact;  The dogs who would drive these animals, when their job was finished would be sent back home by themselves to Scotland and the inns and drinking houses would feed them as they passed through.

Local names are fascinating and in my part of the country which was Wiltshire/Somerset, the sink holes or shafts you found were called 'swallets' and were seen by the people of the Iron Age as portals into the underworld. (I wrote so much about this in 2008 that I will give just one link.  And finish with one of my bad videos....

20th February 2026 - Pandora's Box

 

1901 - Art Nouveau classic, Todmorden

It has a pretty facade this cafe, we went to lunch there yesterday.  It sells an all day breakfast menu, in vegan, vegetarian and meat style.  It is called 'The Kindness Cafe' and was pretty full when we were there.  I had a half of an avocado in my vegan mix, which I felt rather strange about, especially as I like a french dressing on my avocado. But vegetarian sausages, tofu scrambled eggs (not bad), hash browns, tomatoes and mushrooms were on my plate.  It seemed a meeting place for people who were working on their laptops.

I have written about the Co-op role in Britain before here. but there is a good, but far too expensive book, on the architectural history of the Co-op written by Lynn Pearson.  One of the things you notice "Up North" are very large buildings from the nineteenth century in the cities and towns.  All built by people who believed in sharing - gives you grounds for thought!

What Else? I watched the last episodes of Mackenzie Crook's 'False Prophets'.

Full of pathos and gentle funny comedy of the characters and those 'prophets' grotesque, but lots of lovely twists and turns and the 'hero' Pearce Quigley brilliant.  What is a homunculus? I don't know but they are scary.  See Guardian revue here.

And so to the latest news, well radio RU3, quiet music to accompany your day will be my choice.  We settled kingship when Charles 1st was executed and royalty became part of the state's function, alongside the Protestant church and Parliament.  This whole business of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor being arrested will dominate the news for years to come.  Lets hope that American law will also consider making some arrests of those named in the Epstein files.  It is a bit like that mysterious black box that appeared in the film 2001 - Space Odyssey.  The secrets are flying out.

Just look at his face. Is he looking into the future I wonder?

Britain's 10 best Co-op buildings - Lynn Pearson

A video on colour

How many colours?  Enjoy the video

If you spin wool than probably you have also tried dyeing the wool with plant materials.  I spent several years doing it.   You need to work outside because it is messy.  You learn along the way, how plants behave.  The above video introduces you to the Japanese way of thinking about colour and it is very restful.

There is a thrill when you dye with indigo, it changes colour from a greenish hue to a beautiful blue as the air oxygenates the wool.  A brief moment of magic..

Mostly you will get soft greens, yellows.

Paul, being a collector of all things Japanese, had  glass topped cases of natural dyes both plant and mineral, you can see them here.

  My mother-in-law years ago gave me a Chinese silk piano cloth, beautifully embroidered with a great dragon and flowers, but it had lost all its colour.  Is now a cream background in which the embroidery shows up as a soft dove grey.  The colour bleached out by time.