23rd July 2026

 

Wild Icelandic ponies on my front page greet me this morning, they are similar to our Dartmoor and Exmoor ponies.  When William Morris made a visit to Iceland he bought back a pony for his children.  Now that is a present that needed some packaging on the boat!  He was called Mouse.  Note I call the above ponies because they look below 14 hands but there is a tendency nowadays to call most ponies as horses but I am not going to check.

When I view my tablet I get a whole lot of different news, especially at the moment with philosophical homilies. yes they can be boring.  Though those of us who grow old would perhaps like The Marginalian  An American magazine, I think on screen as well. 

There had been an article on growing old, Bertrand Russell was quoted as was Henry Miller.  Everyone down the centuries have words to say before they face their end.

Do we see things differently from the Americans? Silly question of course we do but I think in our feelings towards the philosophical art forms we tread the same ground or pathways.  The intelligentsia of the past is brought forward into the present.  History as a written word which  in our Western world is in Roman and Greek time makes this happen.

But I will stop being gloomy and mark my latest find, a rather romantic view of Richard Jeffries.  A video that traces the past of this writer and perhaps a reminder that it is good to protect our old cottages and villages from the vandals who will 'do them up'

And just as I was writing, an email from Rebecca Solnit came through.  It unfortunately contains rotten detail of rape and therefore comes with a warning but interestingly covers the new film of Odyssey as well.  Anyway it is a record of today.