Brief Interlude

Artist - Anne Cotterill

So what did I see yesterday when I went and posted a letter but the first signs of spring.

Crinkled leaves, pale lemon buds = wild primroses.  They arrive tucked into woods amongst the trees, the old leaves of last year still strewn untidily around. I am wearing a jumper I knitted in the same soft yellow colour and it always brightens my day.  Always loved primroses, they come in various shapes and sizes, from the Alpines to our own cold weather loving wild primrose.  Gertrude Jekyll described them thus,

 "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" .

25th February 2025

 Before I launch myself into a jigsaw, wordle, spelling bee and codewords  I will put down some of the references that have passed by in the last couple of days.

Firstly, Jolly's down Milsom Street in Bath.  This departmental store so noticeable as you walked down Milsom Street, owned by 'The House of Fraser' and very classy to boot, hardly went in there myself, is to close and manifest itself in another version. It is one of the oldest department stores in Europe.

Temple Mill Works

Secondly,  the redundant flax mill Temple Works in Leeds has had a grant of ten million pounds for conversion into the British Library northern outpost.  It has an Egyptian Revival frontage and one wonders at these Victorian owners of old why they spent so much money on grandiose schemes.  But it is good that it is being saved.  One of these Northern mills traits are enormous spaces which housed the looms.  Drafty old halls are probably quite amenable to shelves of books.

Todmorden town hall

Lastly, whilst contemplating the fate of Northern Victorian buildings my mind went back to the town hall in Todmorden.  A very classic 'Roman' facade this building has.  To my eye it sits rather sadly at a roundabout of roads, though central, it has no gathering open space for the people of Todmorden but has a very fine assembly room.

Then of course the politics that flow at the moment.  I had subscribed to Robert Reich on Substack, but then other things started coming through, such as an article by 'Old Goats'.  Most of what I read tends to flow away from me but I did find one name mentioned that always fills me with crossness.

Bradenstoke Abbey

Yes, William Randolph Hurst, one of the 'great' names of America.  Well he nicked parts of our buildings, mainly Bradenstoke Abbey in Wiltshire and then left all the stones to rot in a barn.  I think he took them to build a hotel, doesn't he remind you of someone?  Well he also dabbled in films such as this....de ja vue??

The essay it came in though was from the 'Old Goats' on Substack.....

23rd February 2024 - Lina Ghotmeh

 

Lina Ghotmeh with Nicholas Cullinan in the Western Range of the British Museum 

Lina Ghotmeh Lebanese born architect has won the contract to alter/renew the British Museum.  I learnt that this morning when in my emails Mike Pitt's latest blog came through.  Mike Pitt is the editor of 'British Archaeology' and a writer of  good archaeological books.  Many years ago when he ran the cafe at Avebury with his partner he was also a friend of Pauls.  There were parties apparently in the big old house, next to the loos, I believe, where before Avebury became Avebury to the neo-pagans, people gathered.

But that is but tittle-tattle, what do you notice first of all?  she is female and it still surprises me that a woman can be an architect - it should not of course.  In fact 31% is the figure, almost a third so not really bad.  Her mother who was also an architect had four children therefore was more occupied with her family than her work.  But Lina did not start out in architecture, she was interested in many things, biology and archaeology to name but two.  Studying in Paris though she got a degree in architecture and Paris is where she operates from.  Her work, like so many architects reflects designs of the world around her, whether it be geology or the natural.  Stone Garden in Beirut is extraordinary and she has also done some work in this country in the construction of 'The Serpentine Pavilion' in 2023.  Which seems to be renewed every so often.

Serpentine Pavilion

So here is Mike Pitt's Digging Deeper link  I hope she achieves her goal along with her team.

And just a thought. "A museum of the world, for the world" Neil Macgregor.

There is always trouble brewing at museums about how they acquired their artefacts, and shouldn't they give back some of them to the countries they came from.  But a central gathering of history is just as important for knowledge.

My favourite museum happens to be Wells Museum, a miscellany of stuff;)

British Museum Western Range Competition - Lina Ghotmeh Architecture on Vimeo

22nd February 2025

 

Ubud Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary in Bali

These creatures are probably wiser than those who are governing us at the moment, the photo appeared as I switched on this morning.  I have been bereft of words lately but slowly I recover from this virus cold thing and when I can stop falling asleep during the day I shall be up and away.......

Yesterday I sorted my room so that I can fit another small table in to house my sewing machine.  I like patchworking but with only one table to work on which contains a large computer, it is difficult to cut and arrange the pieces with the sewing machine there.

It has also been a week of getting used to another person around the place, Andrew.  He fits in quite well!  Though I think ordering pizzas on his night to cook is a cool way of getting out of cooking but there again he does work.

A couple of memes to follow and a video of Ian Hislop turning his wicked tongue to pulling down the clowns, and here I mean Musk and Trump, over the years.  We will survive such wretched characters mark my words ;)

 

20th February 2025

Idly thumbing through a small book by Virginia Woolf, it is a chapter from 'A Room of One's Own', the chapter is called 'Liberty'.  Woolf writes on how women through the ages belonged, I can think of no better word, to men.  The middle class woman was earmarked, often from a baby, to marry into her equivalence.  No matter that she may have wanted different her life was set in stone by men.  Woolf muses on the fact that what would have happened if Shakespeare had had a sister, what would have happened to her? She imagines her going up to London and presenting herself at a theatre because she wanted to be an actress.  Being laughed out of the circle of men who only looked upon her as a 'piece of flesh'. She is rescued by a theatre manager, but hey babe, she gets pregnant by him and has a child.  So what does she do?  Yes, she kills herself, because she loses respect in the eyes of the people around her.

Enough of that.  I have been musing on what to wear to the wedding of my first grandchild to get married.  This marriage will take place in August of this year and the two young people are already preparing for it.  What present shall I buy for them, or perhaps money.  I remember the wedding list we prepared in my first marriage to Tom's grandfather.  There was a teamaker.  It produced after a lot of grumbling percolating noises a hideous cup of stewed tea, and you had to go and get the milk out of the fridge anyway.  There was a china dinner set, ivy leafed round the edges, towels and a silver tea service, which meant I had to clean it, till eventually it went to the back of the cupboard.

So I went to 'Seasalt' for a dress, there is a simple pretty blue one that took my fancy, but I shall need to shorten the hem - is it too early?  No hat, small people look silly in hats.  A cardigan rather than a jacket, I hate the idea of dressing up just for the day.  But...............did I ever expect to see my grandchildren married?? especially in this day when we live with our partners without the legal code of marriage.  So it is a good time still to be alive and experiencing the life events we all go through.

Ordinariness

Six years ago this Ukranian children's choir recorded this.  I am  wondering where they are all now, and how they feel about their future which is still being threatened by Russia. Gamely, or perhaps the better word is interferingly, the man of the moment, the one who is dictating how he would like the world run is having words with his Russian counterpart.  Unfortunately he is fighting real men in Ukraine!

The lyrics to the song - Something Just Like This

"I've been reading books of old, the legends and the myths
Achilles and his gold, Hercules and his gifts
Spider-Man's control and Batman with his fists
And clearly, I don't see myself upon that list

But she said, "Where d'you wanna go? How much you wanna risk?
I'm not looking for somebody with some superhuman gifts
Some superhero, some fairy tale bliss
Just something I can turn to, somebody I can kiss"

Classic FM

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Natural Sacred Landscape link.

Sacred Landscape 2007  ?

15th February 2025

 The house is in a bit of a turmoil - it is being sorted and Andrews bits and pieces fitted in.  I am still ill with this wretched cold/flu/unknown bug which is about to decimate the world? who knows.  It will get worse if we have to get builders in when Adam has done his architectural plans, then we shall have to go into a holiday cottage.

Just received two overdue birthday presents from Andrew and Tom.  Tom's is a book on folklore and Andrew's a framed photo of the three females he has to put up with.  Good thing though it is not my night to cook, not till Tuesday.

I was a bit sad as we looked at the jumble of stuff in the attic room, it will still keep half its jumble but the other half of the room will have the double bed and wardrobe for all the stray grandchildren that come and go. Some of my stuff has gone into storage and I think so has the small Edwardian nursing chair which always gave me  pleasure when I looked at it..  The chinoiserie style chair which I have clung to over many years, broken on one side and completely useless except as decoration is still up there.

It's Pangolin Day today, we are eating them too fast poor creatures, it breaks your heart.  Not in this country but in others.  Did you see that wonderful piece of video of the whale swallowing a man, luckily the man got spat out again fairly unharmed, so Jonah I believe you got swallowed by that whale but as for divine intervention well that was just a story, the whale just found you inedible!

14th February 2025

 

Happy Valentine's day everyone

xxx

A small political note

 Well for those always ready to slam the EU as a waste of space, a joint statement has been made by the countries of the EU to stand by Ukraine.

I know Ellen is always worried about what is to happen in America under the 'leadership' of her country.  Well there really is a backlash when you try to take over the world....

The Moderate Voice: The British View of Trump

10th February 2025

There is the hard news full of fear and fright and then there is the soft news.  Today it is the Charlcombe Lane Toads that provide the happy news.  It is their spring time of massing once more at the ponds to follow the annual ritual of mating.  Volunteers go up to the lane and help the toads and frogs also across the lane to safety from passing cars and once more this little haven of protection fulfils its duty to the natural world.  The lane is closed down for 6 weeks.

My son and I dug two ponds in the Bath garden many years ago. The first one was smallish and it was hard work, we left the rubber sheeting inside the dug out pond folded over.  Next morning I came down and flicked the sheeting over and there inside were two newts waiting for the water.  The valley had at one time had a stream running through and somehow the newts must have understood the meaning of the hole we had dug.

This pond gave great pleasure, frogs came down to mate and we had tadpoles swimming around, until, tiny as your thumb, small frogs would appear in the grass.  It is not all sweetness and light though, occasionally one would find a drowned female frog, the instance of rape in the frog world was wretched, as males piled onto the poor female.

A mating of blue damselflies

Damselflies and dragonflies clung to the iris leaves in the summer, and once the miracle of rebirth, as a chrysalis hanging on, slowly gave birth to a dragonfly as I sat there on the stones we had surrounded the pond with.  The second pond was larger and wider, also shallow and the goldfish had young in it, though of course the heron was a visitor to the ponds in search of a tasty snack.

Golden eyed dragonfly emerging

Creating a garden for the many creatures that should be allowed to occupy it. 2008

8th February 2025

How can the heart be sad and happy at the same time I wonder.  Listen to Erland Cooper's music-folded Landscape.  He was born in Orkney so his music has all the pathos and yet the beauty of these empty landscapes.  Voices intermingle with the music, songs break in and this young lad stands solemn and still.

Today another three Israeli hostages have been released, thin and gaunt they arrive to the rapturous joy of their relatives and also the Palestinian prisoners released fold into the arms of their relatives.

Cruelty exists side by side with compassion, two opposites and yet one needs the other.

Which in turn reminds me of another composer of the 20th century.  John Tavener and 'The Protecting Veil'. Religious music at its best.

 

7th February 2025

Being ill, though not for long.  A sort of flu developed from a bad cough, though my daughter says it might have been the vaccination for pneumonia I had a couple of days ago.  I am glad I was vaccinated, the virus injected is dead and it is just supposed to stimulate the immune system.

So there is not much happening at the moment, tomorrow Andrew's friend, who is an architect comes down from London to discuss the changes to the house and to see if the basement can be turned into living quarters.  Andrew's friend was part of the team that restored Bradford's Odeon cinema for the year 2025 of the City of Culture for Bradford.

So life is quiet, except for Mollie, who is such a demanding little madam of a cat, demanding that the electric radiator be put on, or food produced at a moments notice.

So I have been looking back at old blogs, and came across Bartlow Mounds, on the border between Cambridge and Essex counties.  A favourite dragon in the church at Bartlow.  An old blog to remind me of the magic of the place.

Community Wealth in Viking Age.

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The Fight back:  USaid has started proceedings,   Whoever let Musk anywhere near power should really be frightened of allowing this mad megalomanic to bring such catastrophic action to what is happening.

3rd February 2025

 

Another photo from Maldon, I think it is a sea holly, a maritime plant, that doesn't love water but a dry hot place near a wall. Same as the Californian poppies that dance at its roots.

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To record the day:  Which is noteworthy in the fact that Andrew will be moving in.  His workplace will be in the large bedroom next door.  Most of his stuff is going into storage but there will be furniture coming soon.  Andrew is a walker, so must walk a couple of times a day, so will do all the small shopping when needed ;) We all have our cooking days, I have three in the week.

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Apart from that, I listened to a tentative morning 'Dawn's Chorus' when a blackbird sung its heart out, presumably because of the slightly warmer temperature.  So Hardy's frail winter's blackbird is going but as we know, even though the light returns the winter cold can last well into April, with even snow in May.

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A wander down a favourite river

Flooding at the Chelmer Mill

The meeting of the rivers

The Chelmer and Blackwater navigational River

1st February 2025

Remember summer? So someone on a blog mentioned the Battle of Maldon in Essex and I remembered a couple of trips there.  Not much to write at the moment but have been watching videos on both Australia and Japan.  What do I learn?  that Australian property is becoming very expensive, similar to Britain.  But that there is in Japan many, many empty houses out in the countryside just left to rot. I wonder with the uptake of working from home if we will not see a greater movement of people around the world?  Would you go to Japan, and do that thing most Britishers adore doing which is 'doing up' a run down property?

Pretty gardens in Maldon

But English silver is not so softly won:

first iron and edge shall make arbitrement

Harsh war-trial, ere we yield tribute'

The Battle of Maldon. 2010

Another visit -2014