16th September 2024 - Summoned by Bells

I can't resist it.  I went plodding through my blogs for 'Harvest Festival' blame Sue from Suffolk for that.  I was looking for the baked corn sheaf that was pulled out every year for Harvest Festival, and remembering Christina saying she couldn't remember in which freezer of the villagers it was kept.  But in very cold churches all over the country this traditional act of thanking Our Lord would unwind itself.  As a child saying grace before we started a meal was normal in our schools, not so much probably in the home.

Anyway I stumbled upon John Betjeman poem for Christmas.  Yes it is a bit early but he echoes so much of what I felt as a child when Christmas was on the horizon and we did find the corn sheaf looking immaculate after so much time in the freezer.  The above one though is from somewhere else.

Just as an afterthought and seeing the small mice on the sheaf, there was also another mouse in the church under the wooden font lid, the work of a famous wood carving firm in the area, hiding under the name of 'The Mouseman'

There is also another Betjeman poem in this blog about hungry church mice.  And just to add to the flavour, Jo ringing the bells at the Normanby church, which I believe has now been shut down.

Yesterday

John Atkinson Grimshaw

 The weather information early this morning said there would be strong winds at 11-o-clock. Which is very precise, soon the streets will glitter with rain and the trees become bereft of their leaves, perhaps this painting reminded me as to what too look forward to!  

Grimshaw was born in Leeds and lived in Leeds, in fact the above might be a Leeds park.  And he is seen as a bit of a cheat because he used the method of camera obscura, a lense to project scenes onto the canvas to achieve his paintings, apparently his perspective in his approach to his subject matter was weak.  As his Wiki says he was a painter of "nocturnal scenes in an urban setting".  

What cannot be denied though is the capture of light and the misery of darkening skies and wet slushy leaves under one's feet.  It reminds me of the cold days when you came out of school and had to make the journey home in the gathering gloom.

There is so much art on the net that you would think everyone is becoming an artist.  Craft work as well, in Japan craft is acknowledged under the UNESCO cultural words of 'Intangible Cultural Heritage'.  I just love the word intangible, the object is there but can you understand the work or craft that sits behind it.  All those beautiful Italian religious paintings represent hard work, both intellectually and physically and also of course training over the years.  

They are not just flights of imagination but dedicated hard work. In Japan the art of kintsugi, (joining with gold)  which is repairing broken pottery reminds us that all things have a history we do not need to throw things away. Though of course there is such a lot we would be happy to throw away because of bad design work.

I wanted a decent painting of a tree, or trees, but could not find one.  So as I thumbed through, this character on Lansdown came up. I was tracking Saxon history at the time.

Full of ivy but still standing proud.

Always have an elephant in the room

It wasn't raining.  Taken in Chelmsford

The Imperial Gardens Japan.  Think one tree is a 'cloud' tree

Matilda receiving her award

Rory is always a good interesting talker, especially when I am quilting. ;)

11th September 2024

A day has slipped by.  The 11th September 2019.  Five years since he left this Earth and he is still with me every day.  So to my darling Paul, this is what I wrote .  I could not cope with comments then or now but as he always used to say, he never knew what I was thinking till he read my blog ;).  

so thank you Geoff for reminding me.

10th September 2024

 I have nothing to write about really.  I notice the 'stolen goods' is out of the fridge, probably been thrown away as only Lillie likes steak.  The story is that someone came into the charity shop with no money and went to take some stuff.  She was apprehended, my daughter just tells them to go away and not come back.  But the girl did come back with this piece of expensive meat -'security protected' in exchange for the clothes she wanted.  My daughter found some clothes for free but obviously refused the meat but the girl insisted on leaving it, after all she had no where to cook it.  Is this England I hear you say? Stealing from a charity shop.

Working in a charity shop is good for all the students that volunteer to work there they get to see a different life. 

There are the rogues, there are the poor, and there are those who are always looking for a bargain to sell on and then of course 'ordinary people' who just want some cheaper essential clothing. Charity shops are a game, top designers are hunted for amongst the racks of clothes, football shirts, strange caps.  You may go in on a whim for a jigsaw puzzle but they are essential not only for the money they bring in but for a brief glimpse of the state of the nation.

The heating allowance is cause for concern at the moment, poor Starmer has lost all his brownie points alongside his chancellor who made the decision;  who should have it and who should not?  Well if I was in charge of the country (I know you are all grateful I am not).  But I should soak some of the rich buggers who have helped themselves from the till of the Treasury, I believe a third of the Covid handouts went into the pockets of those contractors who supposedly supplied a lot of the stuff.

Yes I know that is normal!  Simon Jenkins said this morning in an article that they could save the same amount of money from HS2 which still has money to be spent on it.  The Stonehenge Tunnel fiasco has been dealt (hopefully) a last blow and will not be built.  It was not a vanity scheme such as HS2 but its disruption of the countryside and especially the history of the landscape was too  big.

8th September 2024

 

A book recommendation:  Once many years ago I read a book by William Dalrymple, the sort of historical adventure book you can't put down.  He is an excellent writer, for a start he introduced me to Stylites.  Men who follow an ascetic religious life by sitting atop pillars in the desert. My mind grappled with the dangers of falling off the pillar once asleep.  Food of course can be winched up in a basket but it is perhaps a better fate than monks or nuns who choose to have themselves walled up in their respective monasteries for the greater glory of their God in Europe.

Well it is already on Audible and already bought so I shall listen to it as I work.

Early rise this morning, constant meowing in my ear at about 5, when eventually, I looked for what was upsetting Mollie, found she had been sick at the bottom of the bed.  She obviously wanted the duvet changed! Who invented the duvet? I know there is logic to changing one but as I carefully lay the four corners out of the duvet, and then offer up the duvet cover why does it always end up such a mess?

A review in The Guardian

7th September 2024 - Lillie off to London

 It is the big move today,  Lillie the last grandchild is moving to London to start her course in drama.  Her father will bring a van and all her stuff will be carted to her rooms at her accommodation.  Three large Ikea bags house all her new kitchen stuff.

It is a big day for my daughter also, the last chick has flown from home but as she has to work needs to catch the coach to Manchester.  This weekend on the M62 a railway bridge is going to be taken down, so not only the motorway disrupted but also the trains.  I can just imagine the trouble with Saturday traffic.  The journey for my daughter adds an extra hour on to travelling time.  According to the news it will only take two weekends on the motorway to dismantle the bridge, maybe they are being over optimistic.

A quiet weekend for me, though a friend is coming on Monday and Matilda is also coming down on Wednesday, she has already moved into the new flat with her friends, eyewatering rent to pay of course.  I have bought a ticket on Omaze (they are expensive) this time for a North Yorkshire house.  If you remember I bought one for a London house to accommodate the grandchildren.  Yes I know winning is nigh impossible but some of the money goes to charity.

There is a scandal over Ticketmaster upping the ticket prices for the latest tickets to the Oasis show, Marina Hyde wrote a scathingly funny piece on it in the Guardian.  Ticketmaster is a 22$ billion dollar company, obviously profit orientated ;) and don't forget the ticket touts selling on as well.

My book came - The Excavation of the Shrine of Apollo at Nettleton, Wiltshire, 1956-1971.  Though published in 1982 it is a perfect example of a an archaeological excavation neatly laid out in the form of reports.  Speculation kept at bay, with none of the who-ha of excited publicity we experience today whenever a 'new discovery' is made.

The funny thing Wedlake, the author, noted that there seemed quite a special feel to this little valley, as I had found out and perhaps the Romans as well.  The land originally belonged to the Dobunni tribe but they made peace fairly early on with the Romans in AD 43, their capital being Cirencester and Roman administration reverted the area to its control.

I have just discovered the following in the Wiki article which perhaps proves the special nature of the valley.  One piece of statue is of Diana the hunter with a hound.  Though the top half is missing

"Stephen Yeates asserts that a study of the religion of the Dobunni has shown that there was a focus on the worship of the natural world. It is possible to identify deities associated with the landscape, for example *Cuda, a mother goddess associated with the Cotswold Hills and its rivers and springs, and Sulis Minerva at Bath. Other cults were defined by social action, such as mining, for example at Lydney Park, and hunting, for example at Pagan's Hill near Chew Stoke."

So does 'Genius Loci' exist I wonder? or indeed the modern day version of it, the 'Spirit of Place'

And another question did the Romans build their temples over existing native places of worship, as did the Christian church on some stone circles?  The Romans cut down the sacred trees to be found in pagan towns, see France?? Also the tree being carried on the Gundestrup Cauldron

A reconstruction drawing of the Pagan Hill temple

Notes:  The search engine is such a good addition and I have just found what I was looking for in sacred trees chopped down.  It was St. Martin of Tours AD 3l6 to AD397 and this is what I culled from this Wiki...

"As bishop, Martin set to enthusiastically ordering the destruction of pagan temples, altars and sculptures. Scholars suggest the following account may indicate the depth of the Druidic folk religion in relation to the veneer of Roman classical culture in the area:

"[W]hen in a certain village he had demolished a very ancient temple, and had set about cutting down a pine-tree, which stood close to the temple, the chief priest of that place, and a crowd of other heathens began to oppose him; and these people, though, under the influence of the Lord, they had been quiet while the temple was being overthrown, could not patiently allow the tree to be cut down".

In one instance, the pagans agreed to fell their sacred fir tree, if Martin would stand directly in its path. He did so, and it miraculously missed him. Sulpicius, a classically educated aristocrat, related this anecdote with dramatic details, as a set piece. Sulpicius could not have failed to know the incident the Roman poet Horace recalls in several Odes, of his narrow escape from a falling tree."

5th September 2024 - carp

Streams and mountains beyond end.

This rather bad photo of a Chinese landscape speaks to me of a journey through a landscape.  It is housed in the Cleveland Museum in America, and dated 1100-1150, (I presume AD) Late Northern Song Dynasty.

I found it illustrated in a book of poems of Gary Snyder with the following Chinese poem by Ch'i Shan Wu Chin.

Clearing the mind and sliding in

to that created space,

a web of waters streaming over rocks

air misty but not raining,

seeing this land, from a boat on a lake

or a broad slow river, coasting by.

I am I suppose gathering thoughts together. Watching Liam's blogs on paintings flow by has made me think what do I like in art.  Well sadly not those 'brown' portraits of the eminent males in Europe, nor the flighty fancy of Roman inspired themes and Christian art leaves me very quiet.

Also add to this list of nearly about everything, is Japanese art as well, so why does the above, ink on silk by the way, move me, it must be about the idea of action through a landscape. It is a life that moves through the natural world of trees, rivers, mountains and lakes with a flowing water like movement until it comes to death standing at the end.  As a word jolts the memory so does a picture come into the mind without asking.

Gardens and flowers influence me, at the moment Monet, trying to catch the ephemeral nature of their shapes and colour. One of my inherited treasures is a silk cream piano cover.  It has a Chinese dragon embroidered on it with beautiful intricate flowers and butterflies surrounding it.

What I admire of course is the delicacy of the work; so many hours dedicated to it.

So as I wander through this morning's memories, I thought of the one painting that Paul had that I loved and took pride of place in the sitting room. 

It was a painting that stood in the entrance, maybe of a temple, holding evil at bay and not allowing it into the temple.

Two carp leaping among waves Tsukioka Shuei (1790-1830)

You can find the story of the carp here in this blog.

4th September 2024

I have just worked out what is happening with Mollie.  She missed me over the weekend away and now demands my presence near her.  Her furious yowling at the top of the stairs is explained.  Being 19 years old and deaf explains the rest of it.

Well today I trekked to the other side of town to get her food from Morrison, Purina's Gold pate, though she will eat the Savoury cake if there is nothing else on offer but there is a bit of  battle of wills over that.

I set off just after eight this morning, and walked down the canal, a certain coolness but sun and blue sky, ducks sitting on the side of the canal but no Canadian geese, obviously snoozing somewhere else.  Towards this end you come to a very cobbled path under the road.  But before that I noticed two great escapees of Russian Vine or mile a minute on the other bank.

Plant it at your peril, it is rampant and will happily push through everything even paving.

The narrow road between the steep sides of the valley had commuters going to work, up on the road restaurant owners were opening up and gave me a happy 'good morning', Tod was waking up, though yesterday there was a slightly different story to tell about the road.

The Morrison lorry on a too tight turn. Holding up the traffic for sometime

Narrow roads through steep wooded valleys do not make a happy combination. It took me sometime to find the things I wanted at Morrison, normally we have a fortnightly delivery from them. But they are expensive compared to Lidl and Aldi, Aldi is the one supermarket  I have never visited yet.

Home again to wait for Post Office parcels.  I had missed one yesterday because it needed a signature, so I waited in the kitchen for her.  Poor lass she was so apologetic about the signature, she had asked her supervisor could she leave it inside the door but of course he said no.  Have you seen the unintelligible scribble we have to put on a PO phone but I assured her that I didn't mind sitting around in the kitchen.  Three parcels came today, Lillie's of course and another one.

3rd September 2024

Over these springs Minerva presides and in her temple the perpetual fire never whitens into ash but as the flame fades turns into rocky lumps.   Solinus

I have been listening to music this morning, the soft tone of Nick Drake on a recurring link and then 'Blessings' which I will put below, for it will soften the furious bosom wherever it may rest.  Sadness has a healing aspect to it, the imagination wanders and we should be grateful for past memories.

I am glad I invested in a hard backed notebook, I copy out words that pass by and they are caught for evermore. The foolishness of gods at the great Roman temple of Bath as written by Solinus.  The coal came from just up the road at Camerton, silly how belief hits facts!

This morning Rebecca Solnit, gave a link to an essay writer who wrote about 'Why AI Isn't Going to make Art - Ted Chiang'.

It’s harder to imagine a program that, over many sessions, helps you write a good novel. This hypothetical writing program might require you to enter a hundred thousand words of prompts in order for it to generate an entirely different hundred thousand words that make up the novel you’re envisioning. It’s not clear to me what such a program would look like. Theoretically, if such a program existed, the user could perhaps deserve to be called the author. But, again, I don’t think companies like OpenAI want to create versions of ChatGPT that require just as much effort from users as writing a novel from scratch. The selling point of generative A.I. is that these programs generate vastly more than you put into them, and that is precisely what prevents them from being effective tools for artists.

Now when I write anything a nuisance little thing flies out from the corner as my co-pilot, (expletive deleted) if I accidentally touch goodness knows what. Andrew explained that my fears are unwarranted but words are having a very good time of it on social media.  Do like the fact that X + Musk has been banned from Brazil and Pavel Durov + Telegram has been arrested in France.  Freedom of speech unfortunately does not mean that speech is now truthful and factual.

But I must stop waffling, the freezer needs to be switched back on and the dry laundry folded.  Lillie leaves next week, but an old neighbour comes for a couple of days and also Matilda down from London.

Ruminations but I am not a cow!

I am sitting here slightly exhausted after having prepared tea for tonight. It involved pulling every scrape of chicken off the carcass then mixing in tarragon, mustard, cheese and cream. Vegetables and potatoes done.  So should anything happen in the next few hours, at least there will be a meal on the table.

Mollie my cat is very quiet, I wonder if she is on the way out, still eating and demanding to sleep on me through the night.  She had given me a rest from this the last few weeks by going to sleep in the attic room but now has decided that my room is better.

Listening to 'Ann Cleeves - The Dark Wives'.  It is rather good a 'Vera' story but less emphasis on her and more on her two sergeants, Joe and Rosie.  Perhaps the author is pensioning her off, real life actress has said she is leaving the series.

The terrible tragedy of the six Israeli hostages killed yesterday, their smiling faces not showing what it must have been like at all as hostages, who killed them is now being argued over. I have amongst my drafts the smiling face of Hind Rajab, the little Palestinian girl killed in a car.  All deliberate death is senseless and all break the heart.

Now I have hit a sad note, but not all news is good.  William Blake said something, and it really needs a philosophical answer because I am not sure he is right.  Joy by William Blake.

Joy and woe are woven fine,

A clothing for the soul divine;

Under every grief and pine

Runs a joy with silken twine.

It is right it should be so;

And when this we rightly know,

Safely through the world we go.

Well in the  safe but dull Todmorden, there are two/three big issues.  A Cycle track of about half a mile and of course parking near the market. How they rage those car owning fiends. Also against the pedestrianised crossings the poor pedestrians use - too many, too many. Just by pressing a knob, the traffic slows to a halt and we cross in safety.  Such minor problems but the breath of the moaning class.  

And what about mending the potholes for goodness sake says someone else and Josh patiently points out then rather then do it now, it is best to wait for all the utilities to dig their holes to repair everything and then to tarmac the road. And another complaint comes in, Hebden Bridge is being destroyed by the filming around the town.  This highlighting of the town is dragging in terrible stag and hen parties.