tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56135853015846308322024-03-18T09:48:57.190+00:00North StokeA magpie's miscellanythelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.comBlogger3053125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-75143271195233482622024-03-17T11:20:00.003+00:002024-03-17T14:14:21.395+00:0017th March 2024 - Druids, etc.<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://northstoke.blogspot.com/2009/02/john-wood-and-stanton-drew-circle.html"> <span style="color: red;">Druidical Bath</span></a><span style="color: red;">:</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I enjoyed the talk yesterday afternoon, Suzanne Owen gave a good lecture. It made me pull out all my blogs and books. I have read a lot on the Iron Age, the Celtic Age and the gods of this time. Here I would recommend Anne Ross - <i>Pagan Celtic Britain</i>, and Miranda Green - <i>Symbol</i> <i>and Image in Celtic Religious Art</i>. It was discovering the prehistory round the city of Bath my hometown for 27 years that introduced me to our own native gods that lived in the landscape and in stone statues and carvings.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">We can never know the real story of the religious beliefs and myths that dominate people's thinking but the Druids were captured in the imagination of people through the ages. For a quick read on the subject, and images of people burning in wicker baskets try Stuart Piggott - <i>The Druids </i>or for a longer read Professor Ronald Hutton - <i>Mistletoe and Blood. </i>William<i> </i>Stukeley for instance fashioned part of his garden into an imitation of a stone circle with an apple tree in its centre with mistletoe growing through its branches.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: start;">Stukeley took up a post in Lincolnshire as a vicar, he was by now married but unfortunately his wife had suffered two miscarriages, he had apparently left London in a huff, as his ideas were the butt and ridicule of his friends and mentors. But when he settled in to his new home he created a garden and here part of his 'mystical' relationship to Druidry and the ancient monuments comes to the fore, for it was in his garden that he created a 'sacred landscape'. It included a </span><span style="text-align: start;">Temple of the Druids,</span><span style="text-align: start;"> which consisted of concentric circles of hazels and evergreens modelled on Stonehenge, an apple tree with mistletoe growing in its branches was at the centre of the circle. Apparently he also had a 'tumulus' beside the temple and a little chapel which contained a roman altar. One of the babes from the miscarriage was buried in the camomile lawn that faced the altar. A rather sad footnote to end on, this man possessed by an illusionary religion that coloured his viewpoint of the 'old stones', but perhaps all the paraphenalia in the garden was an expression of the vision he had invoked from a long gone history, none of which was true, a human desire to create a belief system once removed from the Anglican church he was avowed to.</span></span></i></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: start;">Debby mentioned the other day that she loved oak trees and of course the story of the word Druid is supposed to come from the word oak - <i>oak seeker </i>or the Irish-Gaelic <i>Doires. </i>We have Tacitus with his wild Druidical people dancing amongst the blood spattered groves of Anglesey. Was Tacitus a good journalist;)</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: start;">I wanted to ask questions but deferred doing so. My one question was 'what about the Coligny Calendar?' where did it fit in both Celtic and Druidical landscape. Suzanne Owen had said and it is known that there is no literature from the Gallic and Brittonic people but surely is because it has all disappeared with time. The calendar, or at least what remains of it is complicated, <span style="color: red;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coligny_calendar">you can see it here</a>. </span>Of course the neodruids of today have taken it up, it is a solar/lunar calendar and only partly recovered.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQodmMTo1nJv7xCLuzdQSx4VZMqimF6Q6SXv_ToZ-UGh1cMIzJ3_UpAhbRfmwE5p5qm3VHxJabMNuDWXsOEgh4s8v524VAr7xzYbzyVMJ0pJlaymh_8DSlmTP99WUxFMpIpH5LRGnikuUe2e4ItzZgc0OfOpkBGh7F0NZOZDFCVJ7EjgKh_8dlKQy8Zv4y/s496/Coligny-closeup.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="496" data-original-width="440" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQodmMTo1nJv7xCLuzdQSx4VZMqimF6Q6SXv_ToZ-UGh1cMIzJ3_UpAhbRfmwE5p5qm3VHxJabMNuDWXsOEgh4s8v524VAr7xzYbzyVMJ0pJlaymh_8DSlmTP99WUxFMpIpH5LRGnikuUe2e4ItzZgc0OfOpkBGh7F0NZOZDFCVJ7EjgKh_8dlKQy8Zv4y/w355-h400/Coligny-closeup.jpg" width="355" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coligny Calendar</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Suzanne covered all that I had remembered hearing about such as Arthur Pendragon and his fight to have Stonehenge as a temple for his interpretation of his pagan beliefs. Also of course Emma Restall-Orr for her campaign of <i>Honouring the Ancient Dead.</i></div></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Thinking of ancestors, there is a furore (well only a little one) about a church in Todmorden, or to be more specific the graveyard to this redundant church. Volunteers have been tidying the gravestones but some are very upset about the neighbouring primary school which has had an extension over part of the hallowed ground, presumably moving some of the gravestones. Of course reinstatement is called for.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">But I only learnt last week when I asked my daughter had she been to the graves of her grandparents in Switzerland. She had said no they were probably no longer there. In Switzerland you are only allowed 25/30 years in your grave and after that it can be reused.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /><span style="text-align: start;"><br /></span></span></span></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-20603694794786326852024-03-15T08:52:00.007+00:002024-03-15T09:00:58.478+00:0015th March 2024<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">It was a fish and chip night last night. Andrew collected them on the way down from the station. Matilda also turned up, Lillie was of course at scouts. My daughter stricken with a migraine once more. So a slightly full house. Everyone having their own itinerary. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Also a delivery at 7 o clock from Morrisons and the dustbin to be put out and then the recycling also. We have a new regime as far as recycling goes. Black box -glass and brown cardboard. White sack - tins and plastic. Brown plastic lidded box - food waste. You need three 'A' levels at least to sort out your 'brown' from your 'tetra'!</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">My solution just stop wrapping everything up and less of everything to tempt our palates with. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">As everyone discussed their options for the weekend, Matilda off to Liverpool to see her boyfriend - a drummer, and more seriously a maths teacher. I piped up, well actually I shall be going to a talk at the Folklore Centre - Suzanne Owen, <i>Is Druidry an Indigenous Religion. </i>Just found her website about religious discussion so a few podcasts to listen to today.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I also have a promise of being taken to Shibden Hall on Easter Monday. The hall is partly Elizabethan and was the home of Anne Lister in early 19th century - The first modern lesbian it is recorded, there was a television programme (Gentleman George) about her but I never watched it. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO5o0LrdI6lIpQEeNZ4dnPkG35h-arNyFtPsozR-SUm8jo1KrOuE4hsn-1Pg4XcbJmenBWHq-lYHgh5ySDcBrsSYJkXdL_lii48x5UMgt2wakVy-xYuQvV93GiAtt-cI-pA5ctk2FZdOKgBqm1gjClAp7pb0fvUyrvdaAqG7S_yElirn1PQ9xZpeXxgyZb/s640/Shibden_Hall,_Halifax_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1804046.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO5o0LrdI6lIpQEeNZ4dnPkG35h-arNyFtPsozR-SUm8jo1KrOuE4hsn-1Pg4XcbJmenBWHq-lYHgh5ySDcBrsSYJkXdL_lii48x5UMgt2wakVy-xYuQvV93GiAtt-cI-pA5ctk2FZdOKgBqm1gjClAp7pb0fvUyrvdaAqG7S_yElirn1PQ9xZpeXxgyZb/w400-h300/Shibden_Hall,_Halifax_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1804046.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shibden Hall from Geograph<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">There are various attractions at the hall but it seems rather countrified and we haven't got a car ;) though the address reads it is Halifax. That tower is a later addition. I heard yesterday that there is a Barbara Hepworth museum at Wakefield with plenty of modern sculptures, the website show a bright clean space for the various exhibitions, which looks interesting. It's not all funny language - <i>Well I'll go t'foot or our stairs - </i>Up North is quite cultured, since a lot of the great writers and artists came from here.........</span><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Yesterday I got Wordle in two tries, not boasting but Andrew asked how I had got from 'swear' to 'since' in two tries. And I couldn't remember but then it came this morning. The letter S at the beginning was green, so I thought to put in a vowel which was I, since, of course was the first word that came to mind. Will I ever get it in one try? 😎</span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://hepworthwakefield.org/our-art-artists/collections/" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; text-align: justify;">Hepworth Galleries</a></div>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-76190611599490835962024-03-14T08:32:00.004+00:002024-03-14T10:25:59.529+00:00Nostalgic searching on daffodils<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> Old <i>scruffbum</i>, or Lucy as she liked to be known. Still miss her.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Uix5WkINRxmdF_iat8m2j9ohsSE4gQ0EgXJ9nyOvArIjb_kE7NAAO_RYEC9_K-ism48hRq8CqiAbhMpRRbakO39NKhZWM9qtgv42JoWnFZT34Jaf7DHDwb35hr1aKs8wUJoU2hYxXZvFwsLF03rjVJIjzwWnrD-Lzgpwq1opIpYQSqzaTm9i0mnhyphenhyphenc9Q/s640/lucy%20at%20her%20cutest.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="636" data-original-width="640" height="636" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Uix5WkINRxmdF_iat8m2j9ohsSE4gQ0EgXJ9nyOvArIjb_kE7NAAO_RYEC9_K-ism48hRq8CqiAbhMpRRbakO39NKhZWM9qtgv42JoWnFZT34Jaf7DHDwb35hr1aKs8wUJoU2hYxXZvFwsLF03rjVJIjzwWnrD-Lzgpwq1opIpYQSqzaTm9i0mnhyphenhyphenc9Q/w640-h636/lucy%20at%20her%20cutest.JPG" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /><span style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"><i>Photo; Lucy 'helping', LS was looking for Japanese papers for some visitors tomorrow, she enjoyed the experience turning out the dark under stairs cupboard. She can be so funny, that even when she is scolded she produces a lopsided grin. Tea towels and dishcloth can often be presented after tea, followed by my knitting, Lucy actually knows what you want. In the garden it is hand tools she will bring from the garage.</i></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"></span></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYhtz0Zm4sUdOF7KJn-TxR3iKNeExDdbeEHJ7lDb26cxLR-IleL5H6Kp0LlbCMg2tkUBCte-6-oAzOl9T9aQCGVjrbU2bbaPhYwUsWfQ4aqgctwZcSZwkxMCHWVzRiEmgM8SKmr5hdX24M7-fS03sNDeKLYzYed9rzhwk_iS8qqPoSH9gl2AckNRtm0DJt/s640/IMG_5731.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="640" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYhtz0Zm4sUdOF7KJn-TxR3iKNeExDdbeEHJ7lDb26cxLR-IleL5H6Kp0LlbCMg2tkUBCte-6-oAzOl9T9aQCGVjrbU2bbaPhYwUsWfQ4aqgctwZcSZwkxMCHWVzRiEmgM8SKmr5hdX24M7-fS03sNDeKLYzYed9rzhwk_iS8qqPoSH9gl2AckNRtm0DJt/w640-h426/IMG_5731.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Daffodils at Normanby Church</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"><br /><i><br /></i></span></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;">When I was looking for old blogs on daffodils there was quite a few. I remember going to a place called Farndale, which had daffodils planted all along the path. Now whether they were wild or domesticated I cannot say because the flowers were still in bud but it was a good walk.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://northstoke.blogspot.com/2020/03/peace-on-monday.html">Peace on Monday</a> March 10th</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01qbQZ9yzXo">MVI 4817 (youtube.com)</a></span></span></span></p><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /><span style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /><i><br /></i></span><p></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-62740773731910964782024-03-12T07:50:00.002+00:002024-03-12T08:00:41.329+00:0012th March 2024<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Well I should write something. My daughter is back home eager to get back to work. They had been to Cadiz for a few days and loved it, it looked all blue sky and blue sea but it was rather hot. They stay at airbnbs and do their own cooking. My Mother's Day present wasn't a meal for me to cook them but was in fact a box of bits and pieces for me to snack on. She bought me back some local honey with a picture of the Virgin Mary on it. Blessed honey ;)</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">She has a weird taste for prints of Mary and Jesus, he is even in the bathroom, she is not religious but just likes them around, also my least favourite artist Frida Kahlo. I think I must be biased against eyebrows that join in the middle.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Sunday my son phoned he was walking back from the park, so described his walk as he came up Weston Park, through the village and then up the hill. He is becoming quite a gardener and has already ordered plants this year. Never in a million years did I think that my son would enjoy gardening or that my daughter would go on long walks with Andrew.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Though she refused to go up the final stretch of Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh with Andrew's family. I watched "The Push" yesterday, a Scottish trial of an Asian man who had pushed his wife over the sharp vertical cliff of Arthur's Seat to her death. Or had he? For there was no factual evidence of 'The Push' only that as she lay dying she had said it. So in the end the prosecution said that it was extremely probable the husband had done it given the evidence of the wife, who was a solicitor, and seemed to have kept all evidence of the husband's bad behaviour recorded. The jury found the husband guilty and he was given a life sentence.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">But returning to religious depictions she hasn't got this one, perhaps my favourite - Light of the World' by William Holman Hunt. Years ago I was in love with the Pre-Raphaelites. Not so now, though I still admire William Morris.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1X2u5MHcTpxBiZ6OPxauze4lXqLBrBme2IfYyvJcx11RLyiqTgreoAkPCnbqTuczN2Nt4BFvn7H-ChZOMS0xKPXbojFRY-yxaH0t6_IObQu-DbZ_wkFE_as65gwFVPZL1W8AYC7AwvYdqNWW39bfPekr8SLxqZpjSetgX9lk90qlWWB4farP9YJZVU_Y5/s337/Hunt-light-of-the-world.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="170" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1X2u5MHcTpxBiZ6OPxauze4lXqLBrBme2IfYyvJcx11RLyiqTgreoAkPCnbqTuczN2Nt4BFvn7H-ChZOMS0xKPXbojFRY-yxaH0t6_IObQu-DbZ_wkFE_as65gwFVPZL1W8AYC7AwvYdqNWW39bfPekr8SLxqZpjSetgX9lk90qlWWB4farP9YJZVU_Y5/w322-h640/Hunt-light-of-the-world.jpeg" width="322" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-7119816221490196382024-03-09T13:06:00.005+00:002024-03-09T13:10:27.558+00:00Spring<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjYsERDr9rmqwnZZTa-xgRkNQcrPFl9ihgAQez5A9NdvuS6_YJVqlNhrLthgOkui0KxW_HiV_AEfJYRuLvM7XtsgagoER9Cr6mifL19I_HQmTUZYrrzItmKnvE0Z8PMgn3h4sVjXKUhfFXzBCSohIwsAlfshekJVwx66LaZqO3nIailQQWGafJgS8rhGOQ/s1600/cherry%20blossom.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjYsERDr9rmqwnZZTa-xgRkNQcrPFl9ihgAQez5A9NdvuS6_YJVqlNhrLthgOkui0KxW_HiV_AEfJYRuLvM7XtsgagoER9Cr6mifL19I_HQmTUZYrrzItmKnvE0Z8PMgn3h4sVjXKUhfFXzBCSohIwsAlfshekJVwx66LaZqO3nIailQQWGafJgS8rhGOQ/w640-h426/cherry%20blossom.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">It is coming to that time of year again, Spring blossom, and the cherry tree is amongst the first. There was a stand of wild cherry trees in the village of Normanby, which should blossom soon, small bitter fruit that the birds gobbled up in quick time.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">But in our Chelmsford garden, Paul had planted two Japanese cherry trees and each year we would have a little ceremony of drinking hot Saki wine from little cups. You must first pour your companion's cup and then your own, a shared experience. And as of course he was a conservator of Japanese scrolls he knew what scroll to display in each season. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The following he must have said, though I think his beverage would be a beer but somehow Japanese tea houses is not something the English psyche is capable of. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: verdana;">"Therefore you would never hang up a chrysanthemum scroll in spring, it would always be cherry blossom. So in a typical teahouse or room, the scroll would hang maybe just for the afternoon tea ceremony and then rolled and put away for years, so different to our Western culture of hanging pictures on the wall for years and years. I wouldn't mind a teahouse in the garden, utter simplicity, no furniture, a mat on the floor and peace and quiet bliss."</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD6pBoat5YQUovQfWo9T7wLDw9UwFYZyvYzxLjs05WFnZ8geQPf2MaWo7xRrT3y1vFktSr9FBtOGj2Kb8X5-40g248tI65b76KFMFFNi3nvr33AROjU8RT3cRWnao8m-3kOqufqBqS8-qmTrgNSu1BSAYwuThJPY0ETsfx83kyyp_TDV70-A8d5pwvoDiZ/s320/005.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD6pBoat5YQUovQfWo9T7wLDw9UwFYZyvYzxLjs05WFnZ8geQPf2MaWo7xRrT3y1vFktSr9FBtOGj2Kb8X5-40g248tI65b76KFMFFNi3nvr33AROjU8RT3cRWnao8m-3kOqufqBqS8-qmTrgNSu1BSAYwuThJPY0ETsfx83kyyp_TDV70-A8d5pwvoDiZ/w640-h480/005.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-46318265780414414972024-03-06T10:16:00.003+00:002024-03-06T16:45:11.307+00:006th March 2024<div align="justify" style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Meandering through old memories. What is nagging at my mind at the moment is the wind/wood anemone. Walking on a cold March day either at Blakes Wood in Essex or up near Langridge on the Lansdown. So it will be photo time, alongside the following blog I wrote a few years back. The older I get I can almost feel the pull of the flowers as they emerge in their allotted season. As I wandered through the photos, I am struck by the doggedness of plants, the primrose rising once more in a desert of brown earth, where trees had been logged. The old coppiced trees, not something we do nowadays. The jumble of greenery at your feet, bend down, see the heart shaped leaf of the violet or the delicate cut leaf of the wood anemone, and remember seeing these leaves on Japanese anemones or the jewelled coloured flowers you buy at certain times of the year.</span></div><div align="justify" style="color: #666666;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div align="justify" style="color: #666666;"><span style="background-color: white;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgzzwNSbndux31j3Jl8Dh0ULrEntJA75xSzEBMQwE08yX0mnaa4E5n8d642sPEwmsTgbtkEhUcq-8i1vmB3bp9KXBBKbIGq1WcO9nnxx9DhROKc6FZ3b0IaCERSfBR5AaJv0Bv71guCfzwz1QIs0z-ZAXJSfyM8LDaqikfXbsomcrs3QyqPLeCarq5Tbyrx" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgzzwNSbndux31j3Jl8Dh0ULrEntJA75xSzEBMQwE08yX0mnaa4E5n8d642sPEwmsTgbtkEhUcq-8i1vmB3bp9KXBBKbIGq1WcO9nnxx9DhROKc6FZ3b0IaCERSfBR5AaJv0Bv71guCfzwz1QIs0z-ZAXJSfyM8LDaqikfXbsomcrs3QyqPLeCarq5Tbyrx=w640-h480" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div align="justify" style="color: #666666;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;">"This photo shows the delicate wood (or wind) anemone with its finely dissected leaves, it nestles amongst dog mercury, a woodland plant which is supposedly an indicator of old woods. But it is the white starry anemone that is the subject. Apparently, according to </span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;">Marjorie Blamey (The Illustrated Flora) there is a yellow one as well. It belongs to the somewhat larger family of pasque flowers, monkshoods and that dainty elegant flower of the garden - larkspur.</span></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Grigson has many local names for the anemone, <em>bread and cheese and cider, candlemas cap, chimney smocks, drops of snow, Moll o' the woods, moon-flower </em>and so it goes on..<br /><br /></span></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Its actual name of anemone is borrowed from the Greek legend <em>of Anemone Coronia,</em> because the flowers nod and shake in the wind, and the Greeks called it Daughter of the Wind.</span></span></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">And to pasque flowers, they have become garden flowers because of their beauty, pasque of course since it blooms at Easter, William Turner gives an apt description...<br /><br /></span></span></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><em style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The firste of these Passe flowers hath many small leaves finely cut or jagged, like those of carrots; among which rise up naked stalkes, rough and hairie; whereupon do grow beautiful flowers bell fashion, of a bright delaid purple; in the bottom whereof groweth a tuft of yellow thrums (stamens) and in the middle of the thrums thrusteth foorth a small purple pointell; when the whole flower is past there succeedeth an head or knoppe, compact of many graie hairie lockes, and in the solid parts of the knops lieth the seede flat and hoarie, every seede having his own small haire hanging from it'</span></em></div><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><em></em><br />A concise description of a flower that I have never been able to grow, though it has acquired the name of Dane's Blood or Dane's Flower, (unusual beauty deserves unusal origins says Grigson)<br />But it did grow on the Devil's Dyke and Fleam Dyke which were associated with the Danes."</span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhlSv0Z6bqtKUOdtPFxOCN5Ok9os0DEYfe7u2f63uq8kXdDX2AOPbWYGlpF0wtwOZX7rbunKTegvfJjShOYjwxAZm9xvi67IJlqlTdTtqdcmYjfM2QVjtEgJ2MjJJQVAE65U4z5rYAui0nRTHKRkOjJ435NmX5XesBXPdNiG89iMb_zUnxOk30Q78Io1ils" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1000" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhlSv0Z6bqtKUOdtPFxOCN5Ok9os0DEYfe7u2f63uq8kXdDX2AOPbWYGlpF0wtwOZX7rbunKTegvfJjShOYjwxAZm9xvi67IJlqlTdTtqdcmYjfM2QVjtEgJ2MjJJQVAE65U4z5rYAui0nRTHKRkOjJ435NmX5XesBXPdNiG89iMb_zUnxOk30Q78Io1ils=w640-h480" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Primroses growing on cleared woodland ground</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhfPsTPBLIdno4t7ae4DZMGdPi0yHJEovA-KkMjyYxU9Anhcl3xWCGLgMzL8g1i584FwQHJ9sktSyDvOO4BCooQaQMlR8DlzfFLr0CIvYez0zVu2mKhAwjxtmyQw1u7-P7RyQJja_no3TqwTKC4xW7b2CmnRm-iEyjN6OV_P45DpgP0NiwLeK17Zbk_Yo1D" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhfPsTPBLIdno4t7ae4DZMGdPi0yHJEovA-KkMjyYxU9Anhcl3xWCGLgMzL8g1i584FwQHJ9sktSyDvOO4BCooQaQMlR8DlzfFLr0CIvYez0zVu2mKhAwjxtmyQw1u7-P7RyQJja_no3TqwTKC4xW7b2CmnRm-iEyjN6OV_P45DpgP0NiwLeK17Zbk_Yo1D=w640-h480" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Celandine, wind anemone and violets<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjnHVwiRK39ymSnGnyHBn5ayzixQsEpoJhcIy2HtudupbN5pLl__lj_tlB3D7sVsWLeqeU9yjbK8OWGU8bR78IReh13e0lgo9zQx-890-kmQ7kHv5rif-PhTCyVvkjhjo-En1at0dxBOsHRdPVa1mwUfLq4fiDjEd4YOxLQY-inMNg_MYPFLGrBsZl9gnN-" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjnHVwiRK39ymSnGnyHBn5ayzixQsEpoJhcIy2HtudupbN5pLl__lj_tlB3D7sVsWLeqeU9yjbK8OWGU8bR78IReh13e0lgo9zQx-890-kmQ7kHv5rif-PhTCyVvkjhjo-En1at0dxBOsHRdPVa1mwUfLq4fiDjEd4YOxLQY-inMNg_MYPFLGrBsZl9gnN-=w640-h480" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /><br />------------------------------------------------------------------</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><p style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">January 9th was my birthday and Debby kindly sent me a birthday card which never turned up. Well yesterday it did, two months late but with this funny saying inside "May you never find frogs in your underpants".</span></p><p style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Debby of course will not leave something that is not quite right and she had marched down to the post office to ask what had happened, she had had two letters not delivered to England. Relationships between the two countries broken down?;)</span></p><p style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Anyway I remembered we had a similar phrase "mad as a box of frogs' which alludes to the erratic behaviour of frogs as they hop around. Apparently to the wise old god called Google it has been around for centuries but only emerged into common usage in the 19th century.</span></p><p style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">So in a pure childish mood and a dash of nostalgia I offer you Paul McCartney and 'The Frog Chorus - We All Stand Together' and who does not remember Rupert!</span></p><p style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gVfaf43W9cM" width="320" youtube-src-id="gVfaf43W9cM"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p></span></span><p></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-54007061921832437442024-03-04T14:25:00.005+00:002024-03-04T14:40:03.629+00:00Playing trains<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimWGgNx6xywHLyVpW676uKXQX13Eqy35fMV_k_qKsUHSJuRZQbl1Th6vPYHR-mqm8dNbmIdukNe54dfH0_ifucFC3NsoysZXRIwgBCRAVHfj_nZI3GOt3Y1gXnD8b-Fk_GgXFQ-b91r138J8hTc4jNIl72i1qWPI7FDXlcMQE_RQaPHlhCAiL1OQXYNw3y/s1024/Drax-126-1024x682.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="1024" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimWGgNx6xywHLyVpW676uKXQX13Eqy35fMV_k_qKsUHSJuRZQbl1Th6vPYHR-mqm8dNbmIdukNe54dfH0_ifucFC3NsoysZXRIwgBCRAVHfj_nZI3GOt3Y1gXnD8b-Fk_GgXFQ-b91r138J8hTc4jNIl72i1qWPI7FDXlcMQE_RQaPHlhCAiL1OQXYNw3y/w640-h426/Drax-126-1024x682.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Powering tomorrow' ?</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; text-align: justify;">Well I wasn't going to write anything today but I caught some news that Drax Power Station was using primary forest trees from Canada. So our greener than green biomass power station was actually destroying the environment maybe? Than as if to underline what I was listening to, I looked out the window and there was the Drax train just above the trees. Our station is up high. The trains cross the viaduct on this side of town and on the other side the 'great wall of Todmorden' which reaches down to the canal has the station above. I have often heard the train in the night, I think it does 14 trips a day, but this time it was day time. It is immensely long, the trucks pass by interminably carrying the wood pellets to the Drax station or coming back with fly ash.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Reading<a href="https://policy.friendsoftheearth.uk/insight/future-drax-old-inefficient-damaging-and-expensive"> Friends of the Earth, </a> they say it is old, inefficient, damaging and expensive, and there are better ways of delivering renewable energy.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">It is interesting to listen to this CEO </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">the way he lies then wriggles out of his lies with the ease of a snake shedding his skin. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63089348">Article here.</a> (October 2022)</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgftN2jFQRAd7PHpe8GMOIwzXmH-fN0OFGfbSw7mVnMow5jSpXVXZStoFDKpZW9dav008LJLJmZ1NXZod1-kRE9wgIJHFQH41rM4ng_xwtGmJZ97z9YtzITamhpAeMrBunYcMq14-ZYSzqyFN07-1nsORrOhRVhRFvlJNNBf8iBMPkY8N5HzKyffuN6Qj4i/s640/great%20wall%20of%20todmorden%20geograph.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgftN2jFQRAd7PHpe8GMOIwzXmH-fN0OFGfbSw7mVnMow5jSpXVXZStoFDKpZW9dav008LJLJmZ1NXZod1-kRE9wgIJHFQH41rM4ng_xwtGmJZ97z9YtzITamhpAeMrBunYcMq14-ZYSzqyFN07-1nsORrOhRVhRFvlJNNBf8iBMPkY8N5HzKyffuN6Qj4i/w640-h480/great%20wall%20of%20todmorden%20geograph.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Great Wall of Todmorden. Geograph photo<br /><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">This wall has a history which I have not looked into but it must have taken some clever thinking to build it. <a href="https://penninehorizons.org/items/show/24830">There is a photo here under</a> construction, four million bricks were used.</span><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-24258981656757539392024-03-01T07:33:00.004+00:002024-03-01T07:43:47.593+00:00From the depths of the Guardian News<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/29/risotto-crisis-the-fight-to-save-italys-beloved-dish-from-extinction-aoe">Risotto crisis: the fight to save Italy’s beloved dish from extinction | Rice | The Guardian</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; text-align: justify;">Also mine. The ultimate in comfort food. Also love cooking it, the slow ladleful of the stock water into the pan, the wine to flavour it, and then the final touch of butter and parmigiana. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">That is what Climate Change is all about, the warming of the Earth, glaciers become smaller and there is less water to fill the rivers, and our crops wither away in the heat. It will happen to others first, in places like Africa, drought will strike, inevitable starvation. And someone, somewhere will argue that it is not true and we will go on in our gas guzzling way.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Well that was a miserable start to the day. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/01/george-galloway-wins-rochdale-byelection?ref=mc.news"> But on hearing that George Galloway</a> has won the Rochdale seat wasn't helpful. Like a wild card he pops up unexpectedly. He reminds me of 'Screaming Lord Sutch', who died in 1999, so cannot stand for parliament anyway.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">There are faces I dislike intensely, Farage is one and Galloway comes in a close second. The bandwagon he has climbed on is the Gaza crisis, which goes from bad to worse but definitely does not need Galloway stirring up the country giving the Conservatives the wherewithal to promise restriction on movement by mostly peaceful protests.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">This country, my country is not the Jerusalem of William Blake, it just seems that as we fall from one disaster to another with our idiotic government, there is no hand to stop us falling. A weak Labour side with a leader who doesn't seem quite clear where he stands. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Our town is quiet, there is a meeting at the Town Hall on Saturday to discuss where to put the temporary school buildings, while the proper school is refurbished. The temporary buildings would go in our park, which is an enormous space but a long walk for most mothers with their primary school children. We, as a town, have entered a 'Flowers in Bloom' competition, all that hard work by the many volunteers to garden the empty spaces and fill them with vegetables and flowers growing is slowly becoming permanent.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">I am going to a talk on 'Packhorse Way Tales' at the Folklore Centre' on Saturday, but the best philosophical essay I read this week is by Paul Knight - <a href="https://landscapestory.co.uk/">Philosophy of Landscape: Narrative, Ethics, Welfare</a>. Knight writes about the Calderdale landscape round Hebden Bridge. He also wrote an impassioned letter to the council about proposed wind turbines up on the moors. There are quite a few wind turbines around but this will be quite a few built in the same area</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/29/rishi-sunak-cowers-lawless-london"><br /></a></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/29/rishi-sunak-cowers-lawless-london">And if you have a strong stomach John Crace in his most ironic mood.</a></span></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-75966928034869309182024-02-28T10:03:00.004+00:002024-02-28T10:18:36.753+00:0028th February 2024<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> Mollie has just wandered round the house looking for people but two of them have disappeared in the night by taxi to Manchester airport. K and A are off to Spain and the mountains for ten days. Lillie off to college, so we will be the only people around. Mollie retires to bed.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Yesterday I managed to change my contract on Vodafone, chuffed at my ability to do so, will save myself hundred pounds by doing so. All done with a very amiable person called Joe, by of course typing in the chat box. He agreed I was paying way over too much and arranged a much cheaper option.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">To say that I am scared of not only my phone but actually confronting people is an understatement, quite happy to type words to them but give me someone on the phone and I become worried that I may not recognise their accent, and is it my imagination, or perhaps I am slowing down, people talk so fast nowadays, they never give you time to think.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">So I am now drinking my coffee in peace. The silly email from the doctor's surgery filled in, tell me why at my age they need to know what sex I belong to or what religious belief I bow to. I did have some fun thinking about 'other' in what gender I am, but decided to be serious (and truthful).</span></p><div class="xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">“I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers</span></i></div><div dir="auto"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">flow in the right direction, will the earth turn</span></i></div><div dir="auto"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">as it was taught, and if not how shall</span></i></div><div dir="auto"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">I correct it?</span></i></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">Was <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,</span></i></div><div dir="auto"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">can I do better?</span></i></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows</span></i></div><div dir="auto"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">can do it and I am, well,</span></i></div><div dir="auto"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">hopeless.</span></i></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,</span></i></div><div dir="auto"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">am I going to get rheumatism,</span></i></div><div dir="auto"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">lockjaw, dementia?</span></i></div></div><p style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;"></span></i></p><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">Finally, I saw that worrying had come to nothing.</span></i></div><div dir="auto"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">And gave it up. And took my old body</span></i></div><div dir="auto"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">and went out into the morning,</span></i></div><div dir="auto"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">and sang.”</span></i></div><div dir="auto"><i><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">Mary Oliver - I Worried.</span></i></div></div>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-49301118541595364092024-02-27T08:39:00.003+00:002024-02-27T08:50:10.213+00:00Lady's Smock, Cuckoo Flower - Cardamine Pratensis<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> <i>Cardamine Pratensis. </i></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>the most part in Aprill and May, when the cuckoo begins to sing her pleasant note without stammering. Gerard. </i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOwFwFbvvu802Cy2rlxm7EvMxOkpfCtvh-3r5D58cN0qTJd1rFNOCMHI4rgOVSmz3ZfYYdbvgmts2WYQfGyVyAu0y8M6B2ceML32Z87c40WahfBdhhULNq_Nbu2A7GMa-NCgURjNHWKqO33R3jUPOrcqAAJy_BVQmNExyQX6nHASBL7khyF5oEuMl3K31t/s640/ladies%20smock.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOwFwFbvvu802Cy2rlxm7EvMxOkpfCtvh-3r5D58cN0qTJd1rFNOCMHI4rgOVSmz3ZfYYdbvgmts2WYQfGyVyAu0y8M6B2ceML32Z87c40WahfBdhhULNq_Nbu2A7GMa-NCgURjNHWKqO33R3jUPOrcqAAJy_BVQmNExyQX6nHASBL7khyF5oEuMl3K31t/w640-h480/ladies%20smock.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lady's Smock at Langridge<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2GbGPd0eMRbCMMcr2NyJvs6lbwWMkoyliR3Qz9X22ZQUvnaHfnT7-MaVVB1KMoJ8Q_ze0WN1jSjWc4Fqzr_8FJJp2nM7NpZZt2U9NUGIr9gyv_VVpFuDoqLioxezyRjEH7l5A3ZUrTYa-djxX9gg6fPkbnxVAeJLOQg9w_WE-bHXvX0D_dE6Axz-l_ago/s1280/cardamin%20pratensis.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="917" data-original-width="1280" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2GbGPd0eMRbCMMcr2NyJvs6lbwWMkoyliR3Qz9X22ZQUvnaHfnT7-MaVVB1KMoJ8Q_ze0WN1jSjWc4Fqzr_8FJJp2nM7NpZZt2U9NUGIr9gyv_VVpFuDoqLioxezyRjEH7l5A3ZUrTYa-djxX9gg6fPkbnxVAeJLOQg9w_WE-bHXvX0D_dE6Axz-l_ago/w640-h458/cardamin%20pratensis.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>The flower can either be white or pinkish</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Such an innocent wild flower but with many, many names. Consult Geoffrey Grigson and you will find it named from one end of Britain to the other. It is blessed by the name of the Virgin Mary but that naughty word smock gives you a clue to its more amorous connotations. A flower of the meadow as<i> pratensis </i>will tell you.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">When the written word was gifted to only a few, flowers took on symbolic ideas and of course their herbal remedies were used as medicines. This little flower is rather short of any healing skills, its prettiness though cannot be denied.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">According to Grigson, smock came from 'smicker', so though it could be interpreted as the milkmaids mode of wear, smicker could also be seen as looks of desire.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Now it blooms in a very few places and like its namesake the cuckoo may be becoming extinct. But I shall remember it as I walked along the Cotswold Way, with its bank of wild flowers through the seasons topped by a great shaggy bank of white flowered hawthorns.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Yesterday a painting came through on F/B, here it is....</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1NupwB75maOYdlWanBCfG5ijEyu2yzTXHZ1aFRvINN3sUtPNCDu27oMkIrGVKma75TDXGrCgnFwVqW5XUQJfcILY_2siZeGdjkgI542T1MTOp-hy14_zbjXGoamQUA0JHCTDrD15hKS7Edn5kUgbIU7fd5N7KxCbHGS8rCHlz2UTNGnGvjh1wXFbrdOi2/s720/crows.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="518" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1NupwB75maOYdlWanBCfG5ijEyu2yzTXHZ1aFRvINN3sUtPNCDu27oMkIrGVKma75TDXGrCgnFwVqW5XUQJfcILY_2siZeGdjkgI542T1MTOp-hy14_zbjXGoamQUA0JHCTDrD15hKS7Edn5kUgbIU7fd5N7KxCbHGS8rCHlz2UTNGnGvjh1wXFbrdOi2/w460-h640/crows.jpg" width="460" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: start; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Mildred Anne Butler (Irish, 1858-1941)</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: start; white-space-collapse: preserve;">"The Delegates" (1923) </div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Immediately a name came to mind 'a Parliament of Crows'. We name a gathering of birds such as starlings under murmurations. Well the intelligent crow family can gather together to consult and that is why it is called a 'parliament'. Not factually true more a folklore tale:) the use of different terms to describe a group of creatures can be random, and in actual fact crows are described as a 'murder'.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">But just sticking to my story for awhile. Once when walking over the Lansdown one early morning, Moss and I saw a gaggle (geese) of crows lined up on the railings of the racecourse, a good hundred and whatever they were doing it looked like they were there having a consultation! We did not disturb.</span></div>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-72895661806332760322024-02-25T10:26:00.002+00:002024-02-25T10:28:54.371+00:0025th February 2024<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">So what to title this next thought, it was Pat (Weaver) who triggered a memory. "Badger droppings are fascinating". As someone who has walked a fair mile over the same land for many years. I knew where the badgers lived.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">In fact many years ago when I lived in Bath I belonged to a badger group to protect these animals. The white van with its men and dogs probably came from Bristol would be sighted, and though the police told us not to tackle them, a friend did and her dog was killed. Nasty brutes these men who set their dogs on badgers. </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">It was a huge old badger sett alongside a rabbit burrow, a large enclave. Badgers love a bit of tender rabbit and hens of course. I remember getting up in the middle of the night to find a badger chasing a hen in our garden. Moss and I went out, the badger had pushed up the top of the nesting box of the chicken hutch and was chasing one very noisy chicken around. I set out immediately to rescue, Moss, being a sensible sheepdog, was so overcome by this strange creature he just looked on in wide eyed astonishment. Badger eventually stopped and half an hour later I found my terrified chicken cowering behind a plant. Badgers are carnivorous! First lesson.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIvEAz1XApHmQIWsTix1_STl1CZrvIYnoPs4qYdwzlPwiN7Zmm1QZB4jmr8ZEfpAt0MZ70qVF3pYCOE04lSykcG5BL9YeoRj9aEoSv_HslE-DAwzTrfwXc1kT4L02Bgd7fIGviILIHUwwRPznyO0CBRwpPDd7m3cQ_bijjP442oFqAN8tqFiYzInen009Q/s894/catherine%20valley%201.jpg" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="894" height="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIvEAz1XApHmQIWsTix1_STl1CZrvIYnoPs4qYdwzlPwiN7Zmm1QZB4jmr8ZEfpAt0MZ70qVF3pYCOE04lSykcG5BL9YeoRj9aEoSv_HslE-DAwzTrfwXc1kT4L02Bgd7fIGviILIHUwwRPznyO0CBRwpPDd7m3cQ_bijjP442oFqAN8tqFiYzInen009Q/w640-h550/catherine%20valley%201.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">There was another large badger set up on the Langridge, it was in a small protected meadow with orchids, cowslips and Ladies Smock in the spring.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLxL2iYbDRQNKfBC7EkvOEs8vW8GbQsrOwynbWovWXNWxxEHerNtr8FIj5QCeS6U7DrBhyphenhyphenj7mw-CCUe4cEmFaKm8kLxxqQbEsiDHwf66a75ypUjJ4LqkU283xcZYxx18qjOdEzLcbd58Xnzpw5MYzVl5h0A4n4cgIw-1sNsvYV5w80Z2BkTwdINwMLwVLr/s400/catherine%20valley.jpg" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="238" data-original-width="400" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLxL2iYbDRQNKfBC7EkvOEs8vW8GbQsrOwynbWovWXNWxxEHerNtr8FIj5QCeS6U7DrBhyphenhyphenj7mw-CCUe4cEmFaKm8kLxxqQbEsiDHwf66a75ypUjJ4LqkU283xcZYxx18qjOdEzLcbd58Xnzpw5MYzVl5h0A4n4cgIw-1sNsvYV5w80Z2BkTwdINwMLwVLr/w640-h380/catherine%20valley.jpg" width="640" /></a><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>It looked over the peaceful Saint Catherine's valley that had Freezing Hill in the distance. The sett of the badgers was again fairly large perhaps a kind hearted land owner had left this field for them, it was off the Cotswold trackway. Of course there were also the two Langridge barrows in the field as well - a boundary marking between Gloucester and Somerset. <p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj83A-IoYIBEHSyXz7J6OYe7WmC02D5wb6i0GI9a9R3ePw5kup2tM5r8UcR8dwzNyF2Mjzo897JTbJt4017yWMcrG-jR9EUamAi0yrZxV7zlXP8pXBaOLC3Y9ZH00-4kSEdeABe0mJja7c2MmlIRXOTbIVagzRq1w6LFuT3rDlAuO4HSBhtJxVmWAyie6Z2/s400/east%20kennet%2012.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj83A-IoYIBEHSyXz7J6OYe7WmC02D5wb6i0GI9a9R3ePw5kup2tM5r8UcR8dwzNyF2Mjzo897JTbJt4017yWMcrG-jR9EUamAi0yrZxV7zlXP8pXBaOLC3Y9ZH00-4kSEdeABe0mJja7c2MmlIRXOTbIVagzRq1w6LFuT3rDlAuO4HSBhtJxVmWAyie6Z2/w640-h480/east%20kennet%2012.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">East Kennett the long barrow hidden by trees</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">There is also a badger sett in a long barrow, this is the East Kennett long barrow on private land though when I went I did not know. At the badgers entrance there is the white of stone, the barrow itself is enormous measuring itself against the West Kennett Long barrow, a mile away or so. East Kennett has never been excavated (except by badgers of course) probably keeping it for future excavation.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo4X4U3bUU8C-WGeJuoJTJZ7MP7vZf7_l2jUMaOnw0U8mCmEbKQT0nLZAk-kDeQoTMEoIDdsvgG7MZbtVlehsmjiWBjYclhQZdhDaSvNgl6gscC2qAqqV6rD9jeZd5vMfcx26nEJGvm_iHEtj3cq2CqX-l5C6rCDCLNTVmxhCO4e0R-OFTS2hi9aYEuhUm/s400/east%20kennet%206.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo4X4U3bUU8C-WGeJuoJTJZ7MP7vZf7_l2jUMaOnw0U8mCmEbKQT0nLZAk-kDeQoTMEoIDdsvgG7MZbtVlehsmjiWBjYclhQZdhDaSvNgl6gscC2qAqqV6rD9jeZd5vMfcx26nEJGvm_iHEtj3cq2CqX-l5C6rCDCLNTVmxhCO4e0R-OFTS2hi9aYEuhUm/w640-h480/east%20kennet%206.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Badger entrance</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">There is one more badger sett I recall. This was in Normanby, not sure it was occupied but dear old Lucy, my spaniel, was always eager to get down the hole. And pulling her plump bum out was quite a struggle but luckily I always managed. One thing to notice though, it sat at the end of a very long bank to a field, and in this bank lived lots of rabbits, the larder was attached to the sett!</span><p></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-75275478762029554302024-02-23T08:11:00.002+00:002024-02-23T08:24:29.713+00:0023rd February 2024<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i> <span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;">“How much better to sit by myself like the solitary sea-bird that opens its wings on the stake. Let me sit here for ever with bare things, this coffee cup, this knife, this fork, things in themselves, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;">myself being myself"</span></i></span><span face="-apple-system, Roboto, SegoeUI, "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Microsoft YaHei", "Meiryo UI", Meiryo, "Arial Unicode MS", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;">think I might have picked that Virginia Woolf quote up from Rebecca Solnit on Facebook, Rebecca was waffling on about how men condescended to us women when we are unable to carry out things like mending the car. But don't worry this isn't a feminist rant - I am past that!</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;">It has been a weird two days and mostly to do with F/B. Yesterday I put an old friends name into the search engine, and there she was. From four years ago, there is no current news there, only like many others has she put her name out there for identification. It made me sad, for I had lost touch around the time of my divorce. She could not believe that my ex and I were to break up and that I had been so unhappy for years - so be it. I cannot imagine what her life is like now, I know her husband suffered from dementia but she was such a long way away.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;">Then from out of the blue another 'real' friend posted an old friend had died and in the photograph next to him was my beloved Paul. They had fallen out over a website and became ex-friends and it brought back such a rush of memories that it stopped me in my tracks. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;">I had asked Paul at the time, will you ever forgive? and he had said there is no such thing as forgiveness, and I had thought some Buddhist way of thinking and left it at that. But delved a little deeper yesterday.....</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">So, from a Buddhist point of </span><abbr class="definition" data-definition="view" data-tippy-content="view: In the description of a Buddhist system in terms of the view of reality, a way of meditating, and way of behaving that it espouses, the main way for regarding and understanding reality, especially concerning "me" and "mine."" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted; color: #444444; cursor: help; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">view</abbr><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">, we wish for others or ourselves to be free of any suffering as the result of our harmful actions. </span><span style="color: red; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">But no one has</span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"> </span><span style="color: red; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">the power to pardon someone from the karmic consequences of their misdeeds,</span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"> so there is no danger of an inflated sense of a holier-than-thou self, like a priest or a court judge might have, pardoning criminals.</span></i></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">P</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: verdana; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">erhaps that explains it, part the deed from the person but do not judge.</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: verdana; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: verdana; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">To return to more current thing things. Lillie has sorted her collection of books and went off yesterday to scouts carrying a very heavy bag of some of them. She is getting ready for university, she got her offer of the college she wanted in London, so all four grandchildren will have gone to universities in London. I would add that I think there are probably much better universities outside London but the lure of the city proved too much for them. She is to study drama, Matilda went for journalism. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: verdana; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: verdana; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://studybuddhism.com/en/essentials/meditations/forgiving-others">Quote taken from 'Forgiving Others'</a></span></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-80030056386439626912024-02-21T08:50:00.003+00:002024-02-21T08:50:44.780+00:0021st February 2024<p style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Well my little cat, Mollie, age 19 years old went sick last week. Two days of being sick, two days of sleeping and not eating. Than all of a sudden she found her voice (very loud) and her appetite again, so we seem to have passed that moment of whether she could make it or not. She sleeps on top of me, which is comfortable for her but not me. So she once more rules the roost.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Like everyone now I hardly listen to the news, I see we might have a temporary 'Cease Fire' in Gaza. I also notice, that the destruction is so great, that culturally, the towns have been blasted into nothing. Will there be anything redeemable? Keir Starmer has now changed his tune, but can it be because in the cynical world of politics, winning is the only goal for his party. Is it time to get rid of party politics? I wish......</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Well a lot of Tory politicians want out, do they read the writing on the wall and we are in for Labour rule. Thinking about politicians who are shunted through the various offices of government, with no or little experience, one wonders what would be an ideal form of government.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">All I see is both sides castigating each other for the many failures that have </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">occurred. Poverty is real on the streets, rents are high through greed and nothing much happens except the daily moan of despair.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">On F/B someone puts through the varieties of roses that have been developed over time. They are beautiful, it gives one hope that someone somewhere is slowly year after year is cultivating roses with love and care, completely oblivious to world matters, long may it continue. It reminds me of Gregor Mendel and his experiment with peas and bees in the 19th century, and we now have the science of genetics. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">There is a story I remember from childhood. In Holland a couple of centuries ago, not being exact here. There grew great interest in tulips, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania">it was called <i> Tulip mania</i></a>. The tulip bulbs sold at a great price and the flowers were developed to be striped. There was this one nursery man who grew the most perfect, beautiful tulip but he grew poor in striving to achieve this. Then one day he was so hungry, he ate the prize bulb. He died soon after, and the next year a most beautiful tulip appeared on his grave ;)</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl5R2KZ2Vp9PKBcc-SfEy6LcvUvVCSuzKvRkZlcMmtFJ5JpVg84W8b6mliNj_5Lz0JCJ6IH8VG2ifsgvh08KxUtluQnA9JhWncBCOCXD-kR-amcFGKM63zq9sWu0CSVd463SLaCYekApjPlbpBowf8g7vtLAwnCMcyH5UQHKq71Mn8QAipqLsfbljxTaZg/s796/Ghislaine%20De%20Feligonde,%20a%20Hybrid%20Musk%20introduced%20by%20Turbat%20in%201916..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="733" data-original-width="796" height="590" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl5R2KZ2Vp9PKBcc-SfEy6LcvUvVCSuzKvRkZlcMmtFJ5JpVg84W8b6mliNj_5Lz0JCJ6IH8VG2ifsgvh08KxUtluQnA9JhWncBCOCXD-kR-amcFGKM63zq9sWu0CSVd463SLaCYekApjPlbpBowf8g7vtLAwnCMcyH5UQHKq71Mn8QAipqLsfbljxTaZg/w640-h590/Ghislaine%20De%20Feligonde,%20a%20Hybrid%20Musk%20introduced%20by%20Turbat%20in%201916..jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: start; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Here is Ghislaine De Feligonde, a Hybrid Musk introduced by Turbat in 1916
</span></td></tr></tbody></table></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-46559941756837262722024-02-19T10:35:00.005+00:002024-02-19T10:45:43.859+00:0019th February 2024<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> Just a short note on my book which has appeared rather mysteriously on Yorkshire Pudding's blog. Well for a start the Fort Knox security behind his Google is so strong I cannot even comment anymore but some criticism of the front cover is called for.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOblb7N-p_7psW2rO0_k3_1R8QE4CXSpaBqfswbgc-H7c8_h8ErWB9PuDtK2Bqkro_VRrHkXa6JKQ_XfpnzKE8vS8sleaiSP4gPWVOh_rU016WZeHizBbn-aZcYzlTajQXMYCE87OiEZ08HvAIbMHQOvURXeFCiwv94YuUfFXyPoZQrxvpz4SeYaGtKoR9/s1024/North%20Stoke.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOblb7N-p_7psW2rO0_k3_1R8QE4CXSpaBqfswbgc-H7c8_h8ErWB9PuDtK2Bqkro_VRrHkXa6JKQ_XfpnzKE8vS8sleaiSP4gPWVOh_rU016WZeHizBbn-aZcYzlTajQXMYCE87OiEZ08HvAIbMHQOvURXeFCiwv94YuUfFXyPoZQrxvpz4SeYaGtKoR9/w400-h400/North%20Stoke.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">The stars zoom round in a circular manner, and there was never such a B/A barrow with such elaborately curlicued stonework. IA has got it completely wrong!</span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Not quite of course contemplating Newgrange in Ireland, there are tell tale signs there, but the modernised stucco outer white wall leaves some archaeologists writhing on the ground in despair at this restoration. There are stones of course with the great maze pattern exquisitely carved into them. See below,<span style="color: red;"> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange"><span style="color: red;">both from Wikipedia.</span> </a> </span>The Wiki gives you some idea of the width and breadth of folklore and stories that lies behind this great barrow.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcUfL0VPgIRNvIibHtNHUbF4ImaDQcRGnav1DCPBLkDBjUxWg-Y_2RtWExlMme_xquVJuZC33aQyEVF1Lv5ujSGeRLrRfjrDPln9EXqEkF6ZC1SAAxTWx3tihUGfPjPJts0iGk8ulzlysFjLsjgqm6-L50fYXewTc8kR9P0dz7fLeQ6H4DRDzj3BGMGFOJ/s1280/barrow%201.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcUfL0VPgIRNvIibHtNHUbF4ImaDQcRGnav1DCPBLkDBjUxWg-Y_2RtWExlMme_xquVJuZC33aQyEVF1Lv5ujSGeRLrRfjrDPln9EXqEkF6ZC1SAAxTWx3tihUGfPjPJts0iGk8ulzlysFjLsjgqm6-L50fYXewTc8kR9P0dz7fLeQ6H4DRDzj3BGMGFOJ/w640-h480/barrow%201.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Newgrange in Ireland - restored</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwm34uOnRRLTcNtJa1Kc9MKdMB0GgW7v98ERzYZFN57i02zNnj58Io7K8yNpcvUHTIK1QwrEYkW5b30OdWKZFe52_nqZERdwgVYeykWSROIibPftTkrfeBg7jhGaLKcx336-R51nJ4AD1SLITL-dQT98tIzjg2kI36dsrBl8yMmtTNlx5d-MdPDZ5_dWxP/s937/barrow%202.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="937" data-original-width="800" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwm34uOnRRLTcNtJa1Kc9MKdMB0GgW7v98ERzYZFN57i02zNnj58Io7K8yNpcvUHTIK1QwrEYkW5b30OdWKZFe52_nqZERdwgVYeykWSROIibPftTkrfeBg7jhGaLKcx336-R51nJ4AD1SLITL-dQT98tIzjg2kI36dsrBl8yMmtTNlx5d-MdPDZ5_dWxP/w546-h640/barrow%202.jpg" width="546" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Circular motif in front of doorway</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">AI worries me because it cannot really truly fake anything if the information fed to it is wrong but it can also give an extraordinary false impression. It becomes like those 'love' paperback covers, completely over the top, with heaving bosoms and manly chests.</span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5gUtkzICeK0qAVCq18sCsx0KFxrVqt2ZNs7KZcgSBUonwfX2pU4hrKexvKpOIOLPVo-J20LDr2Mb3SY5rNZwSCkAcrztFpKnFKzclPUSFgKBpc_9FcwXGJ-hgTAu-iv1397Ci__EQfCGEQOR2x8elVZALqX-ib31abvL4qm7cI_6K-wLMG3-mJ5WOrU9U/s640/mendips%20015.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5gUtkzICeK0qAVCq18sCsx0KFxrVqt2ZNs7KZcgSBUonwfX2pU4hrKexvKpOIOLPVo-J20LDr2Mb3SY5rNZwSCkAcrztFpKnFKzclPUSFgKBpc_9FcwXGJ-hgTAu-iv1397Ci__EQfCGEQOR2x8elVZALqX-ib31abvL4qm7cI_6K-wLMG3-mJ5WOrU9U/w640-h480/mendips%20015.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Above my long gone collie are Priddy Nine barrows. Simple earth Bronze Age barrows thrown up over a period of time. <br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">So thank you Neil for publishing my book I really am thrilled, though editing has been somewhat frustrated. It also made me remember this area of the Mendips, a rather beautiful place in the West Country and old Moss who accompanied me and always managed to find the right path through gorse or heather and steer well clear of bullocks and sheep.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://northstoke.blogspot.com/2009/04/impressive-bronze-age-barrows.html">Earlier blog</a></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-73979755277372707332024-02-16T16:26:00.003+00:002024-02-16T16:29:15.711+00:0016th February 2024<div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; text-align: center; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">Our first love was nature</span></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; text-align: center; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: medium;">Lets not forget our first love.</span></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I have just watched a very moving film on Norway-<i>Songs of the Earth</i> and its inspiring landscape. It was on Storyville on the BBC Iplayer. A loving tribute by Margrethe Olin to her parents and their home. It is a meditation of course; the mountains rear up, the glaciers melt, all the way through the film there is the sound of running water - it is perhaps a homage to Nature. Her father is 84 years old, still walking the mountainside up to the great spruce his grandfather planted, high up on the slopes of the mountain. People in this beautiful valley have felt the forces of nature, the mountain breaking up killing whole families but there is true marriage to the land here. Something we have all forgotten as we move around. You can find it on the BBC of course and it is a long hour. But you come out of watching feeling refreshed and being happy that there is a corner of the world that is peaceful.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/InpVP3fn7a8" width="320" youtube-src-id="InpVP3fn7a8"></iframe></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">What else my anti-surge socket is on the way, only ordered it this morning, but I suspect Amazon got the whips out. I was just saying last night to the window cleaner as he collected his money, that I feel so sorry for the drivers rushing around delivering stuff like slave labour, sometimes wrongly. As </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">an aside you should hear the people of Tod get really upset if their parcel doesn't turn up. Photos of doorsteps show up and boy are some doorsteps scruffy! But I am just as bad ordering stuff as well.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Also caught our post lady trying to push a flimsy parcel through the letterbox this morning. She is new and I told her just to pop the parcel inside the door. It was my patchwork stuff, dark colourful materials, Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably materials that need a bit of planning. I shall make some lengths of things to put on the settee because Mollie occasionally has a throwing up fit.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Then lastly I am beginning to see more of Mary Oliver's poems going through, the following has a little twist at the end about Keats which took my fancy.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><p></p><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>I know, you never intended to be in this world.</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>But you’re in it all the same.</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>So why not get started immediately.</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>I mean, belonging to it.</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>There is so much to admire, to weep over.</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>And <span><a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a></span>to write music or poems about.</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>Bless the feet that take you to and fro.</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>Bless the eyes and the listening ears.</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>Bless the tongue, the marvel of taste.</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>Bless touching.</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>You could live a hundred years, it’s happened.</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>Or not.</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>I am speaking from the fortunate platform</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>of many years,</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>none of which, I think, I ever wasted.</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>Do you need a prod?</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>Do you need a little darkness to get you going?</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>Let me be as urgent as a knife, then,</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>and remind you of Keats,</i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>so single of purpose and thinking, for a while,</i></span></div><p style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></i></p><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>he had a lifetime. ~Mary Oliver</i></span></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-36125131982733832302024-02-15T08:14:00.007+00:002024-02-15T10:55:06.290+00:0015th February 2024<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> Well here I am again demoted to anonymous. I think apart from the Google warning it is<i> browser configurations,</i> I suspect it was more to do with me fiddling around with Microsoft. Well I managed before and so will probably find the magic formula soon.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">A bit of a panic the other day, the plug beside my computer blew, a strange deafening silence hit the room as the radio cut off along with a black screen. I did panic for a second, mostly for my expensive newish computer but then went down into the basement, flicked the fuse and things worked. I am going to get a 'surge' multi-plug soon, though I think the little black box on the lead is one. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">But such triviality is nothing compared to the now successful (well it hasn't landed yet) rocket sent to the moon, privately funded (Musk sadly you will have got too old before you colonise the moon), with, wait for it, 125 small, sculptures of the phases of the moon by Jeff Koons. Think about that one, why send representations of the moon to the moon. Is there a </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">philosophical meaning behind the gesture? Well when the human race has finally settled on the South Pole of the moon perhaps they will build a museum to house these wondrous art objects. Actually I would have sent the Mona Lisa, and should any stray alien be passing the moon, would wonder why we spent so much money worshipping a faintly smiling female.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The old clock I bought for Paul's birthday has a very pretty face and a little moon that slowly moves through the phases, though of course it has got it probably all wrong because it has stopped so many times. But I think Victorian enterprise is something we should admire, the workings of a clock is just as difficult in its time as the genius of a rocket is today.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68292286"><span style="color: red;"><span>BBC News</span> and that heart stopping moment</span></a> when the rocket leaves the Earth.</span></span></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-2143461149670687142024-02-14T07:56:00.006+00:002024-02-14T10:52:43.935+00:0014th February 2024 - Happy Valentine's Day<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Raking up old music memories: Putting the photograph of the three young</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">sters the other day on my blog, bought back a memory, of when these three, Sarah, Ephraim and Mark went off to Ghana for a year or so. On an old external drive I have many, many photos of this expedition to Ghana. Ephraim and Sarah have had three children since then and split up - but that's life isn't it?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">I think they were off to make their fortune but it didn't quite workout that way. Can I forget waiting for them to drive down from Bristol to me waiting outside the chemist shop in Weston clutching Mark's essential diabetic insulin to hand on as they sped onto the airport.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Or, a few years later when the boys confessed that on arriving in Accra Mark had to be hospitalised - news they kept from me for all that time.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">They went clutching their new expensive computers to conquer Ghana but it did not turn out as planned. In the first few days Ephraim managed to run over his computer with a car. Mark had offers of jobs but he could not stand the heat.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Yesterday's shock announcement of Steve Wright's sudden death at 69 years old, his radio DJ spot on Radio 2 on Sunday having been so much part of my life, the realisation that the Grim Reaper has taken another figure from the past. Remember listening to a crackly Radio Caroline in one's bedroom as a teenager? </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">So I remembered the music of Peter Gabriel and Youssou n'Dour singing together in that rather naive way of youth - 'Shaking the Tree' an affirmation of female power so beautifully depicted in the graceful girls on the video. Then 'Birima,' not sure what the story is that lies behind, the probable chief strolling through his village handing out money but I love Youssou's voice. Gabriel looks so young at this time, time has flown but his song at a more mature age, should be played at my end because it is just full of the nonsense and happiness we sometimes feel when listening to music. What is it?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">'Solsbury Hill' An Iron Age Fort just outside Bath, many the time I have climbed that hill, people have asked me are there really eagles flying up there. The answer is sadly no, but Gabriel who lives a couple of miles further on at Box must also have walked that way as well.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">So you may skip the first two videos, but the third should set you dancing. Though I may add here it is a compilation, I could not find the original.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JduG0nT1Q3s" width="320" youtube-src-id="JduG0nT1Q3s"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6eAoQIXVi6c" width="320" youtube-src-id="6eAoQIXVi6c"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WeYqJxlSv-Y" width="320" youtube-src-id="WeYqJxlSv-Y"></iframe></div><br /><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Saint Valentine is also patron saint of the bees. One bee will just collect one teaspoon in its lifetime, so be frugal with real honey.</span></div>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-12525982153120163572024-02-12T08:11:00.001+00:002024-02-12T08:11:13.350+00:0012th February 2024<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">There is a bright arrow in my heart speeding its way towards spring. Straight it goes for the moment only. Otherwise I have had a cluster of migraines that drain me of energy. I had thought to see the back of migraines several years ago but then like a bad penny they show up and render one useless. I think it is to do with the weather, mysterious forces and all that, well either low or high pressure!</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">What is the use of pulling the heart strings over the terrible tragedy of that six year old shot in the car whilst she waited for an ambulance to arrive in Gaza. It has haunted me all weekend, I haven't spoken out because of fear of upsetting others. But as I listened to an American Palestinian cardiologist recite the name of 90 of his relatives killed, and photos of young children flashed on the screen, I had to write something. Andrew said write but don't publish and that is what I have done. I weep for every Jewish, Yemen, Palestinian and so many other children in the world who have had their their lives cut short by war or cruelty.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">By the same token I watched a rally of thousands upon thousands of Houthi men in Yemen - it was scary.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">---------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Well I have spent a fortune on patchwork material, and found my first handicap, I cannot cut straight, seem to veer off to the cutting line, this is due to one eye losing a certain amount of sight. Talked to myself about patience and am getting there. I love the colours of the materials, and watching Kate from The Last Homely Home, realise you can create a shading coloured quilt of many hues. But of course you need loads of material..... I will put her website on down below. She was very soothing when I could not do anything because of my head.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I cannot believe how dark it is this morning, but it says down below rain and snow at 3 degrees. My daughter has a free day come Monday, and a load of washing is being done. (It was after all wash day on a Monday).</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Yesterday I made the favourite meal of everyone but not me. Pick the roast chicken of every edible piece you can find, add tarragon, mustard, cheese and cream and then bake in the Aga. My vegetarianism is not as good as it could be but I stick mostly to a vegetable diet and with one of those 'plant' burgers to be found in the supermarket.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/thelasthomelyhouse/videos">Last Homely House</a></span></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-58110560124765846222024-02-10T07:21:00.006+00:002024-02-10T10:07:22.990+00:00Kelston<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKQXpMmWtMG7B6X9BQI_hCViw9WQoy_-hR8beMt-o38gc28yJcRaWv84qvYhHyzUyPq4Y8EXItcJrDytnOZautLDa23GFvuCcY_oAE8jJaBPFrsaXuvzcutpesLVpHVXPsoXwFTrG_jQjxaA0HOUjo_-kPW_Ab8RLHjaZ27536pnyU80kpi_FWhnf36pRx/s400/kelston%20round%20hill.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKQXpMmWtMG7B6X9BQI_hCViw9WQoy_-hR8beMt-o38gc28yJcRaWv84qvYhHyzUyPq4Y8EXItcJrDytnOZautLDa23GFvuCcY_oAE8jJaBPFrsaXuvzcutpesLVpHVXPsoXwFTrG_jQjxaA0HOUjo_-kPW_Ab8RLHjaZ27536pnyU80kpi_FWhnf36pRx/w640-h480/kelston%20round%20hill.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kelston Round Hill</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">As I came down this morning for my cup of tea, I caught a programme on the radio about<span style="color: red;"> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy"><span style="color: red;">Banksy, our homegrown graffiti lad</span></a>.</span> Though he must be getting older by now. Graffiti artist, political activist and even film director, he has made his fortune with the direct messages he puts on the wall. He is collected (yeah how do you collect a wall?). The person on the radio was relating the story about how people bought his prints and then sold them on Ebay for a bigger price.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Why is the world so greedy, and why do we spend horrendous amounts on art, or what is thought of as art? Heaven knows. I applaud Banksy for his ability through the medium of art to be able to show us our foolishness as humans but also his paintings of the terrible violent wars that go on round the world. The sheer stupidity of them. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">He has always kept his identity secret, and there is much speculation as to who he is. If they have the right person (see the Wiki above) he was brought up in Yate just outside Bristol. He keeps himself secret because it is illegal to despoil walls but I fancy the image he has created helped towards his work.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">It reminded me of<a href="https://northstoke.blogspot.com/2007/07/walk-to-kelston-round-hill.html"><span style="color: red;"> Kelston Round Hill</span></a>, my favourite walking area, I could spend a couple of hours walking just a mile from my home. Then of course I remembered this video, a gentle picture of this magic place, the walker and the farmer working together to make it a place where walkers were welcome. I can remember the slope of the hill being covered in, I think it would have been cowslips not primroses for it must have been a south facing slope.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Now my son walks up the hill to Beckford Tower, another place wherein the old gravestones slip precariously down into the soil, and primroses and violets still cluster in profusion. It was up to the tower that William Beckford would ride, somewhere from St.Edwards school to his tower - to do learned things! Perhaps I remember him most for Fonthill Abbey, which fell down not long after being built. A couple of photos below of Beckford Tower<span style="color: red;"> <span><a href="https://northstoke.blogspot.com/2011/04/beckford-tower.html"><span style="color: red;">and a blog.</span>.</a></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhulS7WpC9mwUOYtc98l_tR9HgHuXxhSGvRED-RMbUeF3W_Py7tTfkLTvSrwzQ4ARnY_NasQrIAGKhd_fbFtb-NtAxIwfeAMWRah2QRwsTr7Pj6MSdkzOlTDptqoPxODWA2SI1eXk31rFUpSWUA7jDrrO0AtN2qlKXHPO4cPLT-C94_b2teOkztOA7eKEgV/s1000/beckford%20tower%20004.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1000" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhulS7WpC9mwUOYtc98l_tR9HgHuXxhSGvRED-RMbUeF3W_Py7tTfkLTvSrwzQ4ARnY_NasQrIAGKhd_fbFtb-NtAxIwfeAMWRah2QRwsTr7Pj6MSdkzOlTDptqoPxODWA2SI1eXk31rFUpSWUA7jDrrO0AtN2qlKXHPO4cPLT-C94_b2teOkztOA7eKEgV/w640-h480/beckford%20tower%20004.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPlZg-nL2VQWYf2hqGjZsKVY7tTOsaTBXa_bYUeMxr-1paRRSFX2xEXVWd8MDNHI_8mvFrcFGoly12pZcef01eHfkqy1997WcGBLMiB6bChBAjpdn0JCtsiUGCSFPYbwgAxonMvLXBkqeCSkbS9q_8tThO8_MhssgiaGGatJl4-h5HVHdhwSAaHAqKBVmW/s1333/beckford%20tower%20006.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="1000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPlZg-nL2VQWYf2hqGjZsKVY7tTOsaTBXa_bYUeMxr-1paRRSFX2xEXVWd8MDNHI_8mvFrcFGoly12pZcef01eHfkqy1997WcGBLMiB6bChBAjpdn0JCtsiUGCSFPYbwgAxonMvLXBkqeCSkbS9q_8tThO8_MhssgiaGGatJl4-h5HVHdhwSAaHAqKBVmW/w480-h640/beckford%20tower%20006.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Enjoy the video below, a few scattered air balloons in the sky. Bristol is where these balloons are made, and every Sunday, if the weather was right, balloons would take off from Victoria Park in Bath and fly over the Lansdown.</span><p></p><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IXe-3G0ohhE" width="320" youtube-src-id="IXe-3G0ohhE"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-52772020007087539152024-02-07T08:09:00.007+00:002024-02-07T08:35:44.855+00:007th February 2024<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I can hear the chatter of the older children going to school outside. The day is gray and we are all waiting in expectancy of snow. Three o-clock Thursday afternoon. can the weather people really be that accurate?</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Matilda is here for the week, seems she has to do some work in her journalism course on Yorkshire, she talks of going up to Haworth to do something on the Brontes, but it is a tiresome two bus trek. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Luckily she did not know of me acquiring a sewing machine last week so didn't bring her mending down from London. She is talking about the latest fashion trend, which really to my mind, seems to be going out in your knickers;). We have a discussion on safety when out at night but both my granddaughters think they are safe.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">My patchwork comes on apiece, two cushion covers and something else for Mollie. I really enjoy watching Kate on 'The Last Homely Home' doing her patchwork, it is almost like being at the kitchen table with her.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The nurse phoned yesterday to give me my annual review. I seem to have passed, my blood readings are alright, blood pressure a little high, but it has always been so. Cholesterol 5 something not sure if that is good or bad, but am not giving butter or cheese up yet. She said something about statins but I refuse to take more tablets then I need, so stick with my BP pills and the little machine that tells me where I am at.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I found some music this morning which I love, had it played at Paul's funeral, though I am sure he would have liked something from Jefferson Airplane but it was my choice to choose it and I wept as I listened to the music. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The recording is taken from the 'Top of the Pops' and it reminds me of Thursday evenings when my daughter taught her little brother to dance. For a moment in time my then husband was away teaching at the college and we just had a happy time.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rKqLAVyRaXw" width="320" youtube-src-id="rKqLAVyRaXw"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">And not to forget it is Tom's birthday today, we have all contributed money to their Japanese trip. Happy Birthday Tom!!!xxx</span><p></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Edit: <a href="https://northstoke.blogspot.com/2022/03/7th-march-2022.html"><span style="color: red;">Earlier Haworth Post</span></a></span></div>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-22249325149880401162024-02-05T10:30:00.005+00:002024-02-05T10:30:49.000+00:005th February 2024<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUndRlIl3OVvOiUN-NHjnAbfgLtQpLM672EcIwCFIn6KEElRVhbOl0ashnOMkpLqXjSYohVXg-PKHXctshEIyxDE0NhXVamIVRd8Hh_r6zDalusYJXwnvNZjF8wIoG0BJdrcarbqouxDlymFd19wf2TXhN9xdWQ2nIA4r3zXG8hdWmIGWPvNpctp3uF1H1/s300/monkey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="186" data-original-width="300" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUndRlIl3OVvOiUN-NHjnAbfgLtQpLM672EcIwCFIn6KEElRVhbOl0ashnOMkpLqXjSYohVXg-PKHXctshEIyxDE0NhXVamIVRd8Hh_r6zDalusYJXwnvNZjF8wIoG0BJdrcarbqouxDlymFd19wf2TXhN9xdWQ2nIA4r3zXG8hdWmIGWPvNpctp3uF1H1/w640-h397/monkey.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Funny memes, things that are not true. Will AI be like this? Silly little monkey found a way out, so the media picked up the story, and eventually the Japanese monkey was caught, tranquillised and taken back to its enclosure. End of story.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Looking to the future, and the first aliens landing on our denuded world. Then my mind begins to crack with giggles as I imagine them looking through our voluminous media. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">So who runs this place they will ask? Those yellow ants or that funny furry thing sitting in water. We are leaving false and </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">fraudulent evidence </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">for the </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">archaeologists. Those aliens will look on our beautiful landscapes and ask the question: why? did those humans manage to destroy all this. </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">And I don't know the answer. Greed, self complacency. Perhaps in the knowledge we only have short lives, we don't give a damn to what comes after.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">I shall get back to my sewing machine, sew a few more patches and shorten the kitchen curtains and be sensible. And once more think of the owl that woke me this morning hooting away, is it romance time for owls?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The photo comes courtesy of Yahoo News.</span></div><p></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-66919470453541376642024-02-03T10:15:00.006+00:002024-02-03T13:31:05.239+00:003rd February 2024 - What's in a photograph?<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I wasn't going to write anything today but then looking at what the Guardian had to offer on its new <i>Saturday Edition</i> compiled by its political editor-in-chief, Katherine Viner, I just had to plug this marvellous <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/feb/03/33-pictures-that-defined-british-politicians"><span style="color: red;">compilation of photographs</span></a> taken over time. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The journalist Jonathon Freedland in his article - <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/feb/03/33-pictures-that-defined-british-politicians">People Say it did in his Career </a> talks about how photography and specific photographs of some poor, unsuspecting politicians (shush at the back there) have been depicted by the photos taken. So enjoy the first link as you look through the photos, of mostly old or middle-aged males sadly, but my choice would be the following.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Rishi Sunak's wife Akshata looking wonderful in a blue dress celebrating Diwali in front of No.10 Downing Street door. It shows how much integration has taken place in this country. How much further we have moved forward. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The other photo is of Barbara Castle with compatriots - Equal Pay for Women. How long was that battle fought, and is still being fought?</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">It reminded me of something that I had seen this week. The celebration of 80 years of peace, for us, since the last World War. As I have reached that age, it was extraordinary to see the amount of change that has taken place over those years and how people of my time have adjusted and should not be overlooked and seen as elderly!</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-68094004354719984982024-02-01T08:33:00.002+00:002024-02-01T08:37:03.835+00:001st February 2024 - St. Brigid's Day<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7j4aLJwxd93oQ0HpNo0XtM0d3s5HZt_hmWUYoHrqMobJ3ePCiOvKYkeUmWD5bCI8H3b__QtcdPSZ-P-k0OmYG8jzVfGM6_770HrA91j9yZrin8bqj_cYKNfY80dEVKrfx_fXG3_qAJVEyPlOPkwerUBGAUNSwHxJJFMAkngVz9DiIy5YW5l5dnZEi3o9U/s1200/1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="793" data-original-width="1200" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7j4aLJwxd93oQ0HpNo0XtM0d3s5HZt_hmWUYoHrqMobJ3ePCiOvKYkeUmWD5bCI8H3b__QtcdPSZ-P-k0OmYG8jzVfGM6_770HrA91j9yZrin8bqj_cYKNfY80dEVKrfx_fXG3_qAJVEyPlOPkwerUBGAUNSwHxJJFMAkngVz9DiIy5YW5l5dnZEi3o9U/w400-h264/1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rochdale Town Council</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Interesting news on the</span><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-68060447" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> Today programme</a><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">, was the rather beautiful Rochdale Town Hall which has been restored unveiling the architecture of a remarkable building designed by William Crossland in the second half of the nineteenth century. It could rival the Houses of Parliament though on a smaller scale, so is this to be the new parliament of the North? Only kidding of course. The restoration is said to have cost £20 million but is part of a new wave of money Up North.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Though elegantly done and enough stone extravagance to please even the hardiest stone lover, I don't actually like it very much but do admire the workmanship that went into it. This is what is called 'levelling Up' by our government, eg; spending some money up North, the fiasco of the HS2 rail having been ditched.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Also yesterday I noticed this on <a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?hl=en-GB#inbox/FMfcgzGwJvgbPFVmnZdqVBRQgJVPKklf">'The Smell of Water' </a> The Doomstone to be found in York Minster. It is an intricately carved depiction of lost souls descending into the mouth of hell. Very gory, even more so if you actually believed it to be true. When the written language was not easily understood, carvings told their tales to the innocent minds. A small video into the horrors of hell!</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Um8KiGQ5QS4" width="320" youtube-src-id="Um8KiGQ5QS4"></iframe></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">There is something more I keep thinking about, but coffee calls...<br /><br /><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-41984669917276855802024-01-31T10:53:00.001+00:002024-01-31T10:53:23.845+00:0031st January 2024<p style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I have been getting to know my Silver Crest sewing machine the last couple of days. We set out just after ten on Sunday morning for Lidl, and perused the middle aisles for sewing machines but none were to be found. But as walked out of the shop, there on the last till was a sewing machine being bought! Talked to the very nice </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Australian till person and apparently you had to ask as the machines were stored at the back. So success.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Slightly different from what I was expecting - foreign goods pah ;). I followed the concise instructions in the booklet and eventually after a few blind corners got it moving and so I am on the road to patchwork.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Over the weekend my daughter sorted out the cupboards in the kitchen, a new set of steel shelves had arrived, that stood against one wall, it is now custodian of a whole heap of stuff, even one shelf being dedicated to kilner jars of dried stuff (not labelled) but I am sure she knows what is in them!</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">All the cupboards in the kitchen are now sorted, some looking rather empty, the big school cupboard especially. Next is Lillie's room, I won't go further then say it is always untidy but she has decided to be minimalist just clothes and college books. We shall see.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Enough of domestic news, what else happens in the world. It is all dire, did we ever imagine when the WWW was invented for altruistic motives that it would bring such despair and sadness right up to our doorstep I wonder.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Will the talk this morning of being able to go to pharmacists for small ailments and get checked by qualified staff be part of the downward motion towards private healthcare. My daughter has just been to a clinic of professional help to see what can be done about her migraines. It is physically just two minutes from us, opposite the great white elephant that was built to house doctors and </span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">nurses' for the health of Tod. Sadly there is not enough doctors to fulfil this role and now telephone appointments (and diagnosis over the phone?) is the norm. But then the NHS is slowly falling behind as it has to contend with more and more ill people.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I see this film down below is on Prime Amazon, which I do not subscribe to, I know Andrew has it, so perhaps I will try to see it on his tv one day. It looks a gentle film with problems that were much simpler.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wCBww5YPfO0" width="320" youtube-src-id="wCBww5YPfO0"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613585301584630832.post-70550013809296712272024-01-28T09:33:00.001+00:002024-01-28T09:33:24.380+00:0028th January 2024<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> In my younger days, don't giggle! I became obsessed with abbeys. I even did a course on them and had a 'viva' with a famous archaeologist of the time. I write that not to boast but to show what extremes I went through to do a study on a way of life I found fascinating. I was most interested in the Cistercian order, and my notes were on the Abbeys of Wiltshire. Stanley Abbey was just down the road as was Lacock and not too far away Malmesbury and Bradenstoke. Then further afield was Glastonbury, set in a magical myth history with an attendant hippy culture - life was interesting. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">So when I eventually came to North Yorkshire I wanted to see the great Cistercian Abbeys up here. I never saw many but the two that stood out were Rievaulx and Byland Abbeys.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">There is something about these shattered buildings that makes one gasp with awe at the fine detail of the stonework. The years of working in stone that went into building them. Then the greedy 16th century entrepreneurs and king who just wanted to change wives and who brought these magnificent buildings down to scrap value. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I visualised 'Utopia' in the dreams of the abbots and monks, as they crafted away at an independent life under the name of religious belief. Our churches still hold the memories of such craftmanship. Carved wood, stone faces and grotesque animals writhe around fonts and pillars. Aliens from </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">another age, ones which we will never understand through the stories they told.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOf6yq5U0DHc-8iSq0qFpZv8Pz-_R05GMGloM258SSwGf7KRvUK_m1yZ4nqbfiq3wBYdvOKpDREf8kpdsVIfVxlNuLdwJzjSKtmTt5YKE8Wcv0GTsJS3kL6rlquSe_QTR_z4jXdrjvUxCcH74TSO-YeZkxNm-VK_K4mA43vYW7WOLl8dKW8Le22pv7bNgE/s2592/rievaulx%205.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="2592" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOf6yq5U0DHc-8iSq0qFpZv8Pz-_R05GMGloM258SSwGf7KRvUK_m1yZ4nqbfiq3wBYdvOKpDREf8kpdsVIfVxlNuLdwJzjSKtmTt5YKE8Wcv0GTsJS3kL6rlquSe_QTR_z4jXdrjvUxCcH74TSO-YeZkxNm-VK_K4mA43vYW7WOLl8dKW8Le22pv7bNgE/w640-h426/rievaulx%205.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rievaulx is deep in a wooded valley, a perfect 'escape' from the outer world<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7t5CMsyPbFLL77C1G21iGSurSHTt9Ix06OCZ3FSIBQUkKH9DPE0VnQjNDuM38oG7f8AESZzYNBJs1em7oPektzEQ6UgH1mHFqcKnaFN0So3LElCOUwA2v4prS3x9yvwVh1e8txbrWBntox4u4OtFoxY4gdZcVElTMz53-785gc8xvpH_t1amIuWovnOWp/s640/riveaulux%2013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="640" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7t5CMsyPbFLL77C1G21iGSurSHTt9Ix06OCZ3FSIBQUkKH9DPE0VnQjNDuM38oG7f8AESZzYNBJs1em7oPektzEQ6UgH1mHFqcKnaFN0So3LElCOUwA2v4prS3x9yvwVh1e8txbrWBntox4u4OtFoxY4gdZcVElTMz53-785gc8xvpH_t1amIuWovnOWp/w640-h426/riveaulux%2013.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Abbey</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsMyu0QJgOiBL_dcdfo0x4WHxOoMceaPP2UlqnTn3rSk1L3Ptf4ib0HD4gcaIUGu9g6aM0O_KPr2z_TgprRag4RczgtU7LWIcbP_mOvBcwVZCF_qCLUoa3uswxND_C9RN5MM9b6S7c33sg_yuKTLfLswDBeuUwSIM1kaDvyPaaBsnDEo-FRwkBFskVoQUm/s2592/rievaulx%206.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="2592" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsMyu0QJgOiBL_dcdfo0x4WHxOoMceaPP2UlqnTn3rSk1L3Ptf4ib0HD4gcaIUGu9g6aM0O_KPr2z_TgprRag4RczgtU7LWIcbP_mOvBcwVZCF_qCLUoa3uswxND_C9RN5MM9b6S7c33sg_yuKTLfLswDBeuUwSIM1kaDvyPaaBsnDEo-FRwkBFskVoQUm/w640-h426/rievaulx%206.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These tiles are very much like patchwork shapes but no 'flying geese'</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNZ9G5aBZPrxzK3-gw2xDt3ma4QNjaf3vWC7YpIypHvCqG07-hthUTrBvFl8xFp-x6xkZBQXRUnYFyS-nO8M3DmHmVGzVS3zEfRRsGKnSFD8EA0SAvX_hMM1wcuJsSVt5k3F2nmo6yJx7NgWI7q9uUlLQq1QFU9sMCW_TiO5XILZRyXwIF61vkRWROjSWi/s2592/rievaulx%2008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="2592" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNZ9G5aBZPrxzK3-gw2xDt3ma4QNjaf3vWC7YpIypHvCqG07-hthUTrBvFl8xFp-x6xkZBQXRUnYFyS-nO8M3DmHmVGzVS3zEfRRsGKnSFD8EA0SAvX_hMM1wcuJsSVt5k3F2nmo6yJx7NgWI7q9uUlLQq1QFU9sMCW_TiO5XILZRyXwIF61vkRWROjSWi/w640-h426/rievaulx%2008.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sun and peace</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4si6SsA5ZMxdMAm5p98tXEqchravBcWn0xPDL_tQZqkZCVreD8ZictN_FOMQcVo2rLDwZF7CqyDlp9il4Yomxoi2RvUQiln5xajgaUx3Tz5QPOGpQ_9i3ZtOfmb1oeVM6q40nGXMNesaiOPE_6DqEIRw39JTsRgyfFBAM3o_cOfAo_lOG4mNDpKwAurDp/s2592/rievaulx%209.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="2592" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4si6SsA5ZMxdMAm5p98tXEqchravBcWn0xPDL_tQZqkZCVreD8ZictN_FOMQcVo2rLDwZF7CqyDlp9il4Yomxoi2RvUQiln5xajgaUx3Tz5QPOGpQ_9i3ZtOfmb1oeVM6q40nGXMNesaiOPE_6DqEIRw39JTsRgyfFBAM3o_cOfAo_lOG4mNDpKwAurDp/w640-h426/rievaulx%209.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An entrance, fine detail on the columns</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB_N1Z9wxaGgNnIBR7aGc9TneXt3enHUsoAVYFTaWQ9rg-rD-UJmfjmbvDVc6lbAPnjXfTWQN-sunSupZlHSYF0ej-69l2bmwrP-BnpAI_LeJerzQscskNcvRO6vPlC4QNdxmrs-Uq_otBF-7zUoEarwXuHc3oNMAl4sq0Ao5FxgGVFZPpCZvkDvK16Oyw/s2592/rievaulx%2010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="2592" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB_N1Z9wxaGgNnIBR7aGc9TneXt3enHUsoAVYFTaWQ9rg-rD-UJmfjmbvDVc6lbAPnjXfTWQN-sunSupZlHSYF0ej-69l2bmwrP-BnpAI_LeJerzQscskNcvRO6vPlC4QNdxmrs-Uq_otBF-7zUoEarwXuHc3oNMAl4sq0Ao5FxgGVFZPpCZvkDvK16Oyw/w640-h426/rievaulx%2010.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Think this was the warming room</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3MLtqzBLZ0Df8bMCrr5RyEW3VI5QyKLh51E2uyHGoe_Xvf-t52Qp99S6MvkHlYVQhIBK9SfAIAax757JZRsJlNmKataONo9Xu3b0-jzetB62icoA-2QshrBLFUTzXhp3YWqgt-zbKIqsqfovyBA6zQgNTCwkQncFdKE4VX6gs7jlPIvXEzuZUlDfFDpDE/s2592/rievaulx%2011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="2592" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3MLtqzBLZ0Df8bMCrr5RyEW3VI5QyKLh51E2uyHGoe_Xvf-t52Qp99S6MvkHlYVQhIBK9SfAIAax757JZRsJlNmKataONo9Xu3b0-jzetB62icoA-2QshrBLFUTzXhp3YWqgt-zbKIqsqfovyBA6zQgNTCwkQncFdKE4VX6gs7jlPIvXEzuZUlDfFDpDE/w640-h426/rievaulx%2011.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An 'industrial area'. Water tanks maybe</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8_YaIpFqFSJ9YjxVK1rLQqXbwRF9wstnQ0t2kbuXJfdf4DmYxRzeFuvWbwrZRFSBU9E3fetUbIMmGQZKY_fqRGMCuqItYCMPVXP7iAXqFmParZcjYVK5Abz1jLqsOz8oMWMNKiC0V4Dmsk5fOxrSChkoG4XRrcUlb4E6pucJHpXi1fELA8QJeinh9FUIR/s2592/rivealux%209.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="2592" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8_YaIpFqFSJ9YjxVK1rLQqXbwRF9wstnQ0t2kbuXJfdf4DmYxRzeFuvWbwrZRFSBU9E3fetUbIMmGQZKY_fqRGMCuqItYCMPVXP7iAXqFmParZcjYVK5Abz1jLqsOz8oMWMNKiC0V4Dmsk5fOxrSChkoG4XRrcUlb4E6pucJHpXi1fELA8QJeinh9FUIR/w640-h426/rivealux%209.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here lies Abbot William</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMSqtUyp6kV8CQvBYQGoY0D0EYj4_KwtL6EVTvuMgLAs-66Ze-KDb7Bs01qYRHGG4mF6mmFxFcq7Wn7W0eY5AEs_TaSXLpbMvT8KMJlQTElXCBIgRBWTvxGe78LYdwH2GlcsH51f0od7HDM72Y5xDoOeaylbCeosQ6EFacKqk3H5ErCS3Gp3-KJYTFRxm9/s2592/rivealux%201.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="2592" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMSqtUyp6kV8CQvBYQGoY0D0EYj4_KwtL6EVTvuMgLAs-66Ze-KDb7Bs01qYRHGG4mF6mmFxFcq7Wn7W0eY5AEs_TaSXLpbMvT8KMJlQTElXCBIgRBWTvxGe78LYdwH2GlcsH51f0od7HDM72Y5xDoOeaylbCeosQ6EFacKqk3H5ErCS3Gp3-KJYTFRxm9/w640-h426/rivealux%201.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ancillary buildings - dormitories?</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8AXxiQkdUUIv8ZhhYIjfwjlsSxL88CvDOIJf1zRbd8xMibHHEy0FNGBmHo2PaiFBFn8brzWte9rB5JKv-QQ7LnJ8jP4-6y4LK7-AgUb64NXHqBa8dSJb8ya4qp-msoj70beq2oLiOx-6bdfifVZBL_M-xtlyJtMCanwHXBtdRgk-QqNAoaKvzcswkRSl3/s2592/riveaulx%203.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="2592" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8AXxiQkdUUIv8ZhhYIjfwjlsSxL88CvDOIJf1zRbd8xMibHHEy0FNGBmHo2PaiFBFn8brzWte9rB5JKv-QQ7LnJ8jP4-6y4LK7-AgUb64NXHqBa8dSJb8ya4qp-msoj70beq2oLiOx-6bdfifVZBL_M-xtlyJtMCanwHXBtdRgk-QqNAoaKvzcswkRSl3/w640-h426/riveaulx%203.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Weird animals and cartoon figures</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2O0QCx9R9KE2eY1eDLjgfxfuDdp4xaviH2kC8c1TJLLly6KApK9Xxcfiuu2eTPt9TSRPOXd86v8_yE_pI0OoNq8E_i1tAryFyJyZnHdqrVyVP4t8TFYP44pr-6nzMO0hwPzSde8GJd3q4mVT7LTCrI7Qbyv2Z5xR13p0kpjbpFmP5EADcd_isLQZVtUSD/s2592/riveaulx.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="2592" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2O0QCx9R9KE2eY1eDLjgfxfuDdp4xaviH2kC8c1TJLLly6KApK9Xxcfiuu2eTPt9TSRPOXd86v8_yE_pI0OoNq8E_i1tAryFyJyZnHdqrVyVP4t8TFYP44pr-6nzMO0hwPzSde8GJd3q4mVT7LTCrI7Qbyv2Z5xR13p0kpjbpFmP5EADcd_isLQZVtUSD/w640-h426/riveaulx.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So much stone was used</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeC_1YS2yKSuUuZyrErMuZUcxloLfVnc9MTTjVgo4A_L9KasmuYcnK5XpsMZEgLOJI1BYXLZ7TcYegRrAPFMJSaXmXvwzMehWdqhdYiieCyz_RTKMXYiW82w_eXU5udmTAlVGupIis4BPMlq_6gXrW8ihSDktfhrqPqs6nIv9nnRs4OQPZ3BM1m68BzVdk/s644/paul.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="484" data-original-width="644" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeC_1YS2yKSuUuZyrErMuZUcxloLfVnc9MTTjVgo4A_L9KasmuYcnK5XpsMZEgLOJI1BYXLZ7TcYegRrAPFMJSaXmXvwzMehWdqhdYiieCyz_RTKMXYiW82w_eXU5udmTAlVGupIis4BPMlq_6gXrW8ihSDktfhrqPqs6nIv9nnRs4OQPZ3BM1m68BzVdk/w640-h480/paul.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Last of all, a happy Paul. His old friend Chris from Hawaii is taking the photo.<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">I threw away the dissertation on Wiltshire Abbeys, sad really but life moves on, And this last photo sparked the thought of the North Yorkshire ones</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>thelmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.com16