30th June 2025

Today I went to the opticians, rather in trepidation that my eyes might be worse, but they were not and I have now acquired another two pairs of glasses that is when they are made up.  One pair 'intermediate' for the computer and the other sunglasses.  My daughter and Lillie took me and we had a few hours out trailing round the thrift shops in this hottest of hot days.  Lunch at Leilas, an Iranian restaurant and listened to the middle aged ladies of Hebden Bridge.  One had the nerve to send her food back because apparently she had all these allergies, which of course she had not had the courtesy in telling the waitress in the first place.  Privileged middle aged women are really rather horrible.

Below we sat in the park whilst waiting for my appointment.  I could not identify those green plants in the centre, the ap came up firstly with Japanese knotweed and then cannabis (well it is Hebden Bridge!) So it still remains a mystery but the Ladies Mantle was lovely.

 This old tree across the flower bed had an intricate shaping of branches shame I did not catch it in my photo.

29th June 2025

I may not have a garden but Andrew keeps an eye on his parent's jungle garden.  So he took these photos from this weeks visit.  He calls it photos from the Prosecco Terrace, which means that he never went down the quarry but took the photos at the top.  But it was a kind thought, I love the blue of the thistles and the yellow/orange of the Californian poppies.

Talking of poppies, there was a story of a beautiful garden in Ireland called Patthana Gardens.  He had shown photos of his poppies on Face Book, but obviously they are 'drug' flowers and his photos were taken down as a punishment (he is back up again).  So the algorithms, or AI, are rather stupid.

 

28th June 2025

woo-woo or unconventional beliefs.  To be found in odd corners of the internet 

let us tackle crop circles.  Last night I asked Google if there were any crop circles in Yorkshire, and yes they do exist though probably not as many as in the South-West of England, especially in Wiltshire, home of most of the fantastical UFO sightings and crop circles.

It is obvious that these circles are manmade, some very clever and mathematically thought out, but the work is pure human energy, using a plank of wood to create the pattern in the wheat.  It makes the farmers cross of course.  There is even a pub where dedicated crop circle makers and fans go.

The Barge Inn

 Here in this Word press article in the Heritage Journal, a rather magnificently designed crop circle (and with accompanying aliens though the policeman who saw them may have been a little tipsy). 

I do not mock for they are clever and brighten up people's lives and as it says in the following article ...

Metaphor is the key: we don’t necessarily have to either believe in, or reject, the phenomena to gain from the vision. By presenting us with unexpected novelty which threatens, cajoles and ultimately ridicules blind belief and its mirrored twin, blind scepticism, we learn new ways to perceive it.

Land Art is practised all round the country, whether in gardens or sculptured forms within a green space.  We have a land artist just round here, who with the clever use of stone, leaf or wood creates patterns on the ground.  Think of sand art, or ice art.  What we see in a clever crop circle is a clever mathematical mind.  There is even in this Guardian article a 'how to make one'

 This Sandal crop circle near Wakefield is strategically placed near a motte and bailey castle, rather clumsy in appearance but becomes part of the landscape of the castle and maybe woo-woo in its placement but isn't there that tiny thrill of something strange happening ;)

27th June 2025

 A coincidence:  Went to Lidl this morning and on the way back decided to stop in the Folklore Centre for coffee, they had hardly opened and I had to wait whilst the coffee machine warmed up. Whilst waiting I picked up a couple of Fortean magazines to read.  This magazine is the home of strange phenomena, aliens, UFOs and portents of things to come.  It is very readable but again not my kind of thing.  But as I flipped through the pages I found an article about a Japanese stone, (a killing stone) and also reference to Erwin Balz, the German doctor who went over to Japan just like my love and he stayed there for 30 years.

It is funny how Japan seems a strange and wonderful place to quite a lot of people.  I note through You Tube that many people are buying the old country houses vacated by their inhabitants and inherited by the families who do not know what to do with them.  So foreigners come along and settle down, working from home helps of course.

But .....................

In 2014 we went to Germany to take 6 scrolls back to the museum they belonged to at Bietigheim - Bissingen.  They had been completed for years but the museum never recalled them.  Above you can see Paul explaining to a party of people the conservation work done.  

The scrolls belonged to a German doctor called Erwin Balz (1814 to 1913)who had spent 30 years in Japan practising Western medicine.  

In the museum in the town, which is very charming, there is a room devoted to Balz, though apparently much of the things he collected went to Stuttgart museum.  But I did take some photos of the room and of the little garden dedicated to him.  

It was freezing cold in Germany but the mayor gave us a special tour and the people from the museum were also generous with their time.

North Stoke: Reminiscing 

Holly thought the coincidence very striking, but of course it made me sad but there again it brought back memories.

As for  the article - Fox on the Rocks, Cursed Stone and Vulpine Spirits, this is what Balz wrote..

Possession by foxes (kitsuni-tsuki) is a form of nervous disorder or delusion not uncommonly observed in Japan.  Having entered the human being, sometimes through the breast, more often through the space between the finger nails and the flesh, the fox lives a life of his own, apart from the proper self of the person who is harbouring him.  There thus results a sort of double entity or double consciousness.

The person possessed hears and understands that the fox inside says or thinks, and the two often engage in a loud and violent dispute. The fox speaking in a voice altogether different from that which is natural to the individual.

As for the killing stone - beware, it cracked open on 7th March 2022 and its evil spirit trapped for a 1000 years is now at liberty!

A book - Stone Land by Fiona Robertson

West Kennet Long Barrow

well an article grabbed my attention this morning, forget the Salt Path.  So what was this all about.  It was an article in The Telegraph, not a paper I read, but it sung the praises of this latest book release on the 19th of this month.  Stone Lands by Fiona Robertson.  

The story line has the same sad pattern of illness in the husband of the writer, as in The Salt Path written by Raynor Winn only this time it is incurable cancer with only a few months to live.   Both were in their 50s and a loving couple.  So Fiona Robertson has written about an abiding passion of hers which are the old prehistoric stones and of course her love and life with her husband.  So yes it is sad.

Also for me it was the turning point of Avebury that has focused my life, and in both our lives, the stones, the long barrows and Silbury Hill, still one of the biggest prehistoric mounds in Europe, are the same places we would visit.  Once bitten by the intrigue of this monument, it becomes a lode star in one's life.  I, on my journey to Wales to find somewhere to live, stopped and wondered and then bought a house in the town of Calne about 6 miles away.  Life unfolded, I met my second husband and took up archaeology and then 30 odd years later met the love of my life there.  So Avebury is important.

I am not going to recommend the book though, because it is not only a love letter about her husband but goes into detailed account of the archaeological history of the place.  You may want to hear about the 'marmalade king' Alexander Keiller and his reconstruction of some of the stones but unless you are acquainted with the stones and their folklore and history it may flow over one's mind without leaving an impression.

Almost forgot.  I am listening to it on Audible.

24th June 2025

 Everyone is back home.  Several documentaries were seen by the two who went off to Sheffield, including 'Black Lace' as well.  Sad how we grow from the fresh skinny youths of young into...... well I will let your imagination ride on that note.  Their song 'Agadoo' that  has fallen through the years sadly ;)

Lillie had travelled down first class from London, apparently you can bid, if you have a second class ticket that is, for a first class, so £13 extra bid secured a seat.  Not that she made much of it, did not have a free meal and stuck with a chocolate drink on the journey.  It must have made the train assistant miserable, but it is useful to know you can bid for a first class ticket. Who hasn't walked by empty first class carriages thinking what a waste of space as all the other carriages fill up pretty quickly.

What else?  I have been watching 'A Murder at the End of the World' (ItvX) which does not have rave reviews rather there is the complaint that it was over long and dull.  It is set in Iceland so has lots of snow and storms.  It came over to me as rather surrealistic and out of this world.

The storyline definitely was.  Mad genius billionaire father creating another world for his son had invited world experts on a number of things.  But two get murdered, you will be surprised who did it! But Agatha Christie would have made it shorter.   Interesting how AI figured in it but then if I went further might give the killer away;)

I love memes, you may not....

A wander. 22nd June 2025

 

There is a Winter Solstice at Stoney Littleton, when the sun shines down the central aisle of the chamber.  Luckily this Neolithic phenomena is not well known  and Stoney Littleton remains a peaceful place.  Here below is someone capturing the moment.  I do not follow the practice of geomancy by the way.  But the layering of theories in this century reaches ever new heights and it is the curious minds of so many to find explanations for everything.  Along the way of course dubious theories arise.

My relationship with this barrow is because of the history that is wrapped in its very stones.  You will see at the entrance a fossilised ammonite stone, already giving the people who raised this barrow a name.  But where did it come from?

Well ammonites are found in the quarries around Keynsham not too far from Stoney Littleton. The name Keynsham is founded on the name of Saint Kayne who apparently lived in a forest bedeviled by snakes and she had turned these snakes into stones.  The same legend applies to Whitby Abbey as well, as Saint Hilde also turned the snakes into stone and threw them over the cliff.  A story made up for the fossilised ammonite stones.

But it was the walk down a small green lane that always started off the adventure to the barrow.  Moss happily leading the way, you would come to a point in the river and a little bridge over it opposite a cottage.  A walk up the hill and through a very, very stony patch of wildflowers, the red poppies dominant. Up to the stile, where I would struggle to lift Moss over and into the little fenced off area of the compound, what the camera or drone of the film doesn't show is the wild flowers that flower on top of the mound in this barren desert of farmland.  The sweet smelling Ladies Bedstraw covering the mound.

A fuller description. Or when I said "sod painting the utility room' and I first met Littlestone or Paul.

"Geomancy, a compound of Greek roots denoting "earth divination", was originally used to mean methods of divination that interpret geographic features, markings on the ground, or the patterns formed by soil, rocks, or sand. Its definition has expanded over time (along with the recognized definition of the suffix -mancy), to include any spiritual, metaphysical, or pseudoscientific practice that is related to the Earth. In recent times the term has been applied to a wide range of other occult and fringe activities, including Earth mysteries and the introduction of ley lines and Bau-Biologie "

The Elephant in the room

21st June 2025

 This really is miscellaneous;  Sweet cheese.  Or to be more precise Wensleydale Cranberry Cheese, which for some reason I have fallen in love with.  It is made at the cheese factory in Hayes, in North Yorkshire.  So it is the latest love in my life.

We have two cheese shops in Tod, run by the same family, one in the market and the other down town (don't start singing Petulia Clarke's Down Town).  The other cheese I picked up at the market was organic brie (a decent brie at last) manufactured up in the hills between Hebden Bridge and Todmorden.  It is called Pextenement Farm, a very strange name you can find it here.

We are a cheese family, raclette cheese melted onto new potatoes with pickles is a favourite, alongside fondue, all very Swiss.  When you are nine tenths vegetarian cheese is a must for protein.

The weekend is quiet, Karen and Andrew are off to Sheffield to watch documentaries at the Docfest.  Another event happening up North, that you will not hear much about.  Then Lillie back on Sunday.

I let the Solstice pass yesterday without comment, though I did wonder about where people were celebrating it.  Stonehenge of course with all the ramadazzle of neodruids playing their part in welcoming the longest day of summer.  And what a fine dry summer it has been up to now.

The video from Stonehenge of the actual time yesterday when people gathered to watch the sun come up through the stones, is not very good.  English Heritage do apologise for the camera work but if you start at about 12.44 inside the video you will see a gentle picture of  people just being with stones, nature and other people such a change from war talk!

Where would I have been had I the choice? Maybe Stanton Drew Stone circles or Stoney Littleton long barrow, but my heart is there for the moment anyway.

Well a little introduction Stanton Drew for it has plenty of its own folklore, firstly a talk on Youtube by Megalithomania and then a couple of blogs.

Stanton Drew and Folklore

Druidical Bath

Stanton Drew stone circles.   Wiki entry. By Rodw - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, 

  Stoney Littleton Long barrow. Wiki entry -  Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net).

temporary break

 I don't want to blog today, so these two photos will suffice.  Tired bees need a little pick me up now and then.  Soaked paper with water and sugar.

Lucy she had a lovely blue merle coat , which occasionally got cut.  She loved the girl who clipped her, or at least her car when Lucy got picked up, the footwell was piled high with snacking rubbish, a good place to rummage.

16th June 2025

 We have to wait for history to turn the next page.  Be thankful that amidst the horror of war people stand up for the right choice.  So for one day people in America showed what they felt and I think it worked.  So breath a sigh of relief for a moment before the next moment comes flying in.  And of course it already has in the exchange of rockets between Israel an Iran.

Trump may have to learn that people don't worship  would be kings, authoritarianism doesn't work. and as for king of all you see, that was a childhood game before we learnt how to live with others.  His humiliation (I am almost feeling sorry for him for goodness sake) is there for all the world to see, No wonder he fell asleep.

Something different. A short walk to the market down Pollination path.   

People moan about Ladies Mantle for spreading itself everywhere.
How can you? it is so beautiful.

14th June 2025 - Tod

A walk down to Morrisons via the canal. I have occasionally written of the plants and vegetables growing in my town of Todmorden, it is has been given the name of 'Incredible Edible'.  At the moment it is all looking beautiful, so on my hunting out of cat food for a very picky cat I took this half mile walk.

We seem to have missed the storms, Andrew went out early to walk up to Stoodley Pike, a very long uphill walk and just missed the few drops of rain that fell on the way back. 

Tod still tries to keep the somewhat old fashioned market both inside market and outside one and we do have vegetable boxes from the larger area of Yorkshire.  We lost internet yesterday it was a weird experience not being able to read my mail this morning.  But all is fine now, a switch off and then switch on and lo and behold - the world came into focus again.

 

13th Friday - yikes!

 Well the good news.  Singing cicadas will be reintroduced to the New Forest over the next few years. They are French! So they will have to learn the English songs.  But it is so heartwarming that people care and that these eleven little precious insects hold the key to once more cicadas singing in the New Forest again.  I am sure Heywood Sumner of who I just recently wrote about would be pleased to hear that.

Bad news.  The Israel state cannot get enough of war and so have started on Iran, once known as Persia.  A romantic name to fall in love with.  My ex-sister-in law once brought back to Switzerland Persian rugs.  Ours was a rich deep patterned brown, but my old labrador chewed a hole in it.  Has no one realised that once you kill in war, hate will proliferate and then there is a never ending war of hatred.

Then there is Lucy, who had no concept of war, reading the doggy runes of this stone.  Who has passed this way on their dog walk, who has peed on the stone, a lifetime away for me but still a comfort for that which is normal in life.

Governor Newsome

 Newsome's Full Speech: The Californian Governor speaking up against Trump.

11th June 2025 - Heywood Sumner

 Well sparked once more by a fellow blogger Debby made me remember a favourite artist.  The trigger was bee skeps and how I had written about them, I had a picture of a painting of skeps done by Heywood Sumner, friend of William Morris.  I loved the light paint wash Sumner did of the New Forest with its trees.  His black and white archaeological drawings as well.  Also, having a bit of a fight with myself about acquiring another print.  This time of Yorkshire countryside, but there is just  around the corner - the owner, he might even be the artist himself, he tried to lure me in a few weeks back but I was steadfast and refused - but his work is good.  His gallery is here.  So maybe.....

Anyway I have collected the blogs I wrote at the time when I came across his work in a library book and a few of his paintings for your.  Enjoy, pleasant England at its best, sadly he could not draw horses though.

 

And of course the bee skeps that started this train of thought.

In the blog I found this picture is a lovely poem of despair by by R.S. Thomas,  Also, one of my favourite writers, Richard Jeffries on 'Humble bees'

Funnily enough in contrast to my last blog, which showed the hard side of agriculture in England, the artwork of this time about the countryside was fairly soft and romantised.

Earlier blog

10th June - Hartley

Yesterday I was shopping in Lidl and came across these lovely white spring onions.  There was about six boxes of them.  They glowed with freshness .

They reminded me of a photograph in an old book of mine,  Dorothy Hartley - The Countryman's England, published 1935 and full of fascinating photos of old England between the two wars of course.  Ellen had said how she had imagined England and I can see how the 'pretty' picture of farming, cottages and people, of this country must still be held in people's hearts.  Well we all know what happened to those cottages, nice chunk of expensive property now, though they still might have roses round the door.  But Helen Allingham in the Victorian era would probably have turned in her grave as she wandered around painting bucolic scenes of cottage gardens.

So here is a few of the photos, slightly washed out.  That is not the fault of my camera but of pictures taken years ago.