Things that surprise me.

 

Salvador Dali - Flowers 1948

I would never have associated Dali with painting flowers. A painter I am not much inclined to, Surrealism is surely there for an effect.

Gustave Klimt - Forest of Firs

No gold, no sparkly lady in a golden dress.  Just a straight forest of upright trunks.  But there are traces of my favourite colour in there -turquoise.   But then that could just be the way it is portrayed by the image on the web.

Today I saw an A1 photo of a bird, think it was a razorbill and someone had cleverly on top of its beak superimposed a whale into the photo - scary.

A1 is of course the new and up and coming money making turn of the century, that is until the next new invention comes along.

Which reminds me, and going completely off topic.  I used to go to school on a petrol engine double decker bus which was called 'New Invention'.  I have just read the story of the New Invention in Walsall and it goes back to the very first person who built a house there.  He claimed he had made a new invention to tackle a smoky chimney, which turned out to be - a Hazel branch which you pushed up the chimney to clear it. Slightly simpler than altering things in A1 in fits of fancy, and as we know causing terrible trouble when you alter the faces of the people around you.

Funny thing is I always thought the bus was the new invention replacing the old hissing and spitting electric trolley buses.

I can't find that photo of a the whale so snugly fitted into the pattern of the bird's beak, but it did raise the thought, so if people go round creating digitally false pictures, does helping ourselves to them really mean we are stealing illegal photos?

14th June 2024

 

It is all about Lillie this week.  She turned 18 years old on Thursday, had a party with her friends on Wednesday evening and today is going to the Taylor Swift concert (with 60,000 others) in Liverpool.  The  problem of transport has been solved, she will go with her friend on the train, and coming back Andrew has rented a car and they will meet up somewhere in a car park. How does a transport system cope with 60 thousand young people wanting to go home I wonder.

Being adult she now has access to one of the governments saving accounts, which she went off to Halifax to claim.  She was convinced she could do it online but had to produce correspondence.  Her face was a picture when she opened a card with a cheque in it, how quickly they have fallen out of fashion.  What do I do with it she asks?  Apparently you can take a photo of it  and your bank will accept the photo as proof.

How quickly the banks have 'disappeared' from our streets, causing confusion and worry.  Money is still used of course, in fact it is a good idea to keep some as a backup just in case the internet system is hacked. 

Now I am terrified of losing my debit card, the one thing between me and the world and buying essentials.  On the surface life is simple but beneath the surface we are riding a very bumpy sea.

Still Lillie is an adult now, she is all set up to go to London to study, she has her first year accommodation and her two siblings to keep an eye on her.  Life will bring its own confusions and complications but as we all do she will probably sail through them.

Unfinished

Another Place - Antony Gormley

The other day I went a bit off track.  I trailed after Gormley and then hit the scandal at Ampleforth College.  Well this latest diversion was well worth it.  I traced a path through Gormley's work, questioning why did his statues have to be of his own bodily form.  I understood his motive about the relationship of the space we occupy in regards to our bodies.  But all I could think about was those statues, quite a few of them on the Crosby Beach, staring out to sea.  It was on the whole a tranquil scene, the mind could fall into that state of peace.  His four horses and men down in the muddy waters of the Thames again had that feeling of eeriness and maybe loneliness but I began to see in his art work repetition of a singular idea.

The Angel of the North is a large undertaking, apparently when it was moved to the spot it now lives in, the convey was huge, the pavements lined with people.  It has of course an industrial message.  The death of industry, the great shipyards of the North-East became bankrupt and business moved to other countries.

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Space as a concept, and as something that we fill, is seen by Christopher Alexander  an American architect as something that is alive, his death seems to have cut short his latest book on latent centers but he has written several other books exploring ideas.

I was first introduced to him by my son who had on his reading list for university (computer course) Alexander's books 'A Pattern Language and the four volumes of 'The Nature of Order'.  

These four books were filled with photographs of many things, to do with the house, household and the very fabric of creating everything, I suppose.  And indeed I looked at the books  more for the photographs than the words.  But of course there are many patterns in life from physics and the make-up of all those quarks and things from outer space.  And who hasn't been surprised at the mathematical Fibonacci numbers, a sunflower will explain it to you because I can't.

But the reason I turned to Alexander was because of his thinking on space which developed from his career as an architect.  How do you fill space in your life? what makes you happy? 

Those cast iron statues looking out to sea from eyes that cannot see.  Our minds are whisked to eternity as we contemplate them, the endless movement of the tides, the life that flows through the water - the world is a living breathing being.  Our ability to destroy it is obvious but then simple logic tells us, humans in their greedy grasping way will destroy it anyway and in so doing will eventually destroy themselves and the Earth will recover albeit in a different form maybe but then for now it has shucked off those annoying ant like creatures that have been tickling its surface.

Will technology save us, or a quick lift up to the moon? I doubt it.  So I will leave it there, and see if Alexander has anything to offer.

"For Alexander, feeling alive is tied to being in spaces or environment that have an inherent quality of life. Space that resonates with humans, that are harmonious and evoke a sense of well being, make the occupants feel more alive.  The feeling of aliveness is the core benchmark with which Alexander measured the quality of human made artifacts."

To be continued:

Notes

 In the middle of the night.  When Mollie wakes me and I listen to a podcast.  This time it was Antony Gormley talking,  I have only ever seen his 'Angel of the North' from a great distance.  I think from a McDonald's window if I remember rightly but he has style.  So my ears cropped up when they mentioned he had been at Ampleforth College, the Benedictine Catholic school of North Yorkshire.  I wondered if he had been taught by Madeline Bunting's father John Bunting at the school but no it was someone called  James Tower a brilliant ceramicist, you can find him on the link. James Tower (1919 - 1988)

I had never made it to the college on its open days, though a neighbour would often go and visit some ponies who kept the vegetation down at some sort of heritage site.  Also I had read of the sexual misconduct that had gone on in the college over a long period of time and how an Ofsted Report had (hopefully) nipped it in the bud, you will find relevant newspaper article links below.

There is a photo in the Telegraph article of the boys gathering in the hall in 1952, and I think the picture says it all, single sex schools and religion is not a good mix.  All that is now water under the bridge.

Gormley came from a rich middle class family, his name, Sir Antony Mark David Gormley makes up the initials AMDG - Ad maiorem Dei gloriam = To the greater glory of God, his parent's choice.

As you will note if you read my blog, religion intrigues me, especially the strong Catholic faith which takes such a hold on people.  I often wonder if it is a sign of weakness when someone cannot become a free spirit in the world and needs an anchor to lean on.

But I turned up a couple of blogs written a few years back, about this part of the world in North Yorkshire, so I shall record them here.

John Bunting an interesting man. North Stoke: John Bunting

North Stoke: Sutton Bank - the area itself, which is rather beautiful and where once William and Dorothy Wordsworth on a walking holiday came through Sutton Bank.

And the two newspaper articles

The man who saved ‘Catholic Eton’ after its devastating sex abuse scandal (telegraph.co.uk)

New pupils barred from top UK Catholic school after abuse scandal | Private schools | The Guardian

Positivity

 Today, up to now. Well I had to adjust my spinning wheel, it started jamming up, it seems I have now cleared it.  Then there was the vacuum cleaner.  I cleaned the brush head and emptied the cylinder, and have got rid of the funny noise it developed.  Answered my emails, and my phone, I have decided to call Andrew my 'guardian angel' as he has dealt with a very thorny issue for me.  Lillie is having a takeaway tonight in celebration, the end of 'A' level exams, and another phase of her life opening up.  

There is a thing called Positive News perhaps I should consult each day and give a flavour of the day, or perhaps hitch my large, rather unwieldy external hard drive to this computer for the photographs on it.  But I am scared of messing this computer up, which provides music, knowledge, friends and drama.  I am watching 'New Tricks' at the moment as I spin, my daughter calls it pension porn. It has struck me that we always compartmentalise everyone into their little cubbyholes, labelling them down till we only have to speak a word and a picture arises in the mind.

Well here is some news, how about making a mountain presidential, it would have a council of experts to rule for it.

"Its origins lie in the global Rights of Nature movement, which aims to give rivers, oceans and mountains the same legal rights as humans."

The mountain is in Iceland and the mountain is called Snaefellsjokull. You will just have to imagine the two dots over the 'o'.

There was a lovely set of photos on F/B this morning, it was of the Marlborough Downs.  A hare sits, long ears alert, and then there were a set of birds this photographer had managed to capture.  Also recorded were three types of wagtails spied up there.   The grey wagtail favourite bird of mine, often to be found on the pavement, little tail wagging up and down. 

Now here is a positive photo of my daughter with  our old neighbour from Calne, many  years ago and we are at Rievaulax Abbey..........................................................

One other thing I have on F/B is historic roses.  Nothing is more beautiful than a rose, and this one must have been in the Bath garden.

Then there are flower gardens - Hyland House, Chelmsford

And then there are weird old trees, again at Hyland House.

6th June 2024

 I started to write yesterday, a rather chaotic day, the cat was sick on my bed, messages about parcels coming through that day.  One to care for because it was 'living' = sour dough, but it doesn't have to be fed till the 10th June.  I showed the new Parcel Force lady the back door and that she could just pop things in, I took full responsibility on that.

Cursed various members of the family for relying on the post to bring them things that were frivolous.  Also as I was talking to the PF lady left the front door open and Mollie (cat) luckily did not venture into the big outside world but miaowed furiously at me when I got back in.

Matilda went back to London yesterday, she is free of university now and must look for a job, but yesterday was more concerned with finding a decent wine bar to entertain her friends.  She will look for a job of course but she looked a little lost. I do not envy the young in this day of high rents, over-priced housing market and a government that really needs a good shakeout.

And what about the weather?  7 C at the moment, not quite down to freezing, but cold and windy, and of course those of us who live in the lower reaches (and not on top of a Scottish mountain where there is snow to be found) will experience cold rain.

But one good parcel yesterday (promise I don't have many) was some spinning tops from John Arbon, four pretty colourways to spin and calm my mind and not get vexed about everything.

1st June 2024

Just for my record:

Well I have actually had an email from my present conservative MP.  Struck dumb for a second, normally you get a very different reply.  Like many people I have signed for a ceasefire in Gaza.  Each day I see the terrible consequences of war and such organisations such as Amnesty, War on Want, Oxfam all pleading for the lives of others.

"Unfortunately, now the General Election has been called, Parliament is now prorogued and there are no longer any MP’s until after the General Election.

 I can tell you however that despite this, the Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron, has (and continues to) been working tirelessly with colleagues from the Foreign Office to achieve the majority of the goals and aims you request. As a Country, we have absolutely no power to demand anything from either Hamas nor Israel but we continue to negotiate along with the USA and other major players to bring about a sustainable ceasefire and release of the hostages – two of which are British. This is often done through third party countries in region to bring pressure on both sides."

I know there are others who would put the blame squarely on one side or the other but it isn't that anymore, it is about hunger and death, and this has to stop. Quoting Nicholas Kristof on this in the New York Times. 

2. All lives have equal value, and all children must be presumed innocent. So while there is no moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel, there is a moral equivalence between Israeli civilians and Palestinian civilians. If you champion the human rights of only Israelis or only Palestinians, you don’t actually care about human rights. 

How to Think through the Moral tangle in Gaza

-------------------------------------

I suspect that many conservatives will be glad to leave the present government, and that the above email reflects the handwashing relief of a difficult  problem not faced. 

Someone said, that the one thing that hasn't come up now in the jockeying for position in a new government is the word 'Brexit', the catastrophe that hit us and which is now beginning to take shape.  Neither Starmer or Sunak have even approached the subject and they play us off with National Service, or the lessening of promises made earlier. Nothing unusual there of course.

So I shall go back to listening to my two favourite men at the moment - Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart  in The Rest is Politics.  Either side of the argument does not have to mean nastiness and they as friends argue beautifully and discuss politics with humour.

The other thing that made me cross this morning was what I deem as the lazy use of the word troll, to wrong side someone who had put up an fairly innocuous defense.  It is wretched to think that should we disagree with someone we are knocked back by being called a troll, it is a lazy habit of not actually working out what is being said. 

First morning thoughts

 

I love the quiet world of Snoopy, and though the above hardly tells the truth of a man charged on 34 counts of wrongdoing, let us rejoice on the rope of justice pulled lightly under his feet.  Whatever happens, those were 12 brave jury people.

As for the other news, can it be really true that Starmer and by implication the Labour Party are throwing away a good lead in the coming election by throwing out the so-called 'lefties'  and having a skirmish on the subject.  Starmer as always keeps his actions close to his chest but what a dirty business politics is.

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We are a household of four females, five if you count Mollie, who is complaining at the moment about the fact that the bed is not made to her liking, she likes the duvet turned over twice to make a thick bed for her old bones.....

Yesterday another cookery book dropped through the letterbox, I am now the person who experiments with different recipes.  We have taken to our hearts the one roasting tin full of vegetables method of cooking, carbohydrates included also of course. I did have a bit of a moan about yesterday's recipe which was salmon on peas, asparagus and broccoli (it should have been tender stem, but the season has passed us by).  Two packets of ready made rice, everyone had a different way of approaching it.  Let us say that the 5 minutes preparation of the food was way out, more like a good hour but hey-ho.

It made me think of the cook books I have used over time.  Elizabeth David with her exotic French cooking, Jane Grigson, approaching English vegetable with such enthusiasm and then Rose Elliot and Sarah Brown for vegetarian recipes.  We have come a long way since, now veganism stands by the side of vegetarianism.

I have a book called 'Food in England' by Dorothy Hartley, a historian of her time, collecting together all those fascinating tales of our country in different times.  The food reflected the nature of our countryside, exotics were just exotic, the pick and mix of all the cultures of the world was but a dream on the future horizon.

The music I would pick today would be John Dowland - Lachrimae or seven tears ;)

The jurors marched past Donald Trump without looking at him, soldiers for justice.

Nonsense

 I can hear the plaintive meow of Mollie coming down from her attic retreat, she will have to share a bedroom with Matilda tonight. I see there is a discussion about the terrors (is that the right word?) of getting old.  But we should not forget from the moment we opened our mouths for the first yell in our lifetime, that death was always on the cards. 

Perhaps we should prod it to see what he has to offer.  Oblivion of course, but just imagine, just dream, maybe you will meet all those people you have lost through life.  The old achy bones will at last have rest and you will become once more star dust in the Universe.  To meld and mix with the rest of the wonderful expanse of 'nothingness' maybe?

I have been listening to Chris Van Tulleken - Ultra Processed People about all the junk food manufacturers fill our daily ration with but he points out millions of years ago when life began on this planet, the organisms were quite happily eating metals and minerals and living in boiling hot conditions - that rather pleases me, we can always adapt ;)

The other book I am reading at the moment is Horatio Clare's 'Truant'.  Sent, like all good middle class children to a public school (i.e. America private school) he was learning about cigarettes, alcohol, drugs and sex from an early age.  I suppose it compensated for the miserable existence within the school.  Apparently when you were found out and hauled up before the headmaster, all that happened was that you were exchanged with similar boys from another school.  See for reference the Conservative Party!

But salvation came along he was sent eventually to an international school somewhere round Cardiff, and found that 'foreign' people had a much better outlook than the British lot.  So that is why you will see at the end of this is a video of a 'flash mob' in Spain playing Beethoven's Ode to Joy', surely one of the most inspiring pieces of music.  Schiller's word appertain to God, and though I don't believe in any god, the thought that something must dwell beyond the stars. Is an idea to grasp and think about.

All the world's creatures draw

Draughts of joy from nature;

Both the just and the unjust

Follow in her gentle footsteps.

She gave us kisses and wine

And a friend loyal unto death;

She gave the joy of life to the lowliest,

And to the angels who dwell with God

28th May 2024 - Lass

 Tom Stephenson wasn't the only one who made their way to London over the weekend, my daughter did as well.  To see the following pair, her children Matilda and Ben and my grandchildren. So a proud granny moment.  Matilda has published her magazine, called 'Lass', though there are many contributions in it from her friends in university with her.

Obviously taking their mum on some sort of cultural outing.  Ben of course making a career as a stylist with a world famous racing car driver as his prize.  Matilda did an internship on a magazine called 'Notion' and has written many articles for them.

Perhaps not my choice, the high? or low life of London, the would be persons, the has been persons but both children are striking out.  But it is good to read what the young write and think.

Lass is about 'The North' and is about fashion, being young and the people you meet up here. It is very well put together and must have taken a lot of work.

Photos

 

Foxgloves at Pentre Ifan

American friends at Pentre Ifan

St.Davids Cathedral

Fetching the sheep down

And here they come

This week I have been rather down, I know the reason and that I should shake it but this Sunday, the day of rest I shall find photos and rejoice in their memories.

One of my 'retirement' plans was to move to Wales and especially to Pembrokshire and Solva.  All that went by the wayside in other things happening in my life and I am happy in that life.  But I loved the emptiness and remoteness of Wales, though now, along with every other holiday destination in the world, the small town of Solva has been overwhelmed with holiday homes and tourists.  It is probably a seaside playground now.

I am not sure what I feel about this, more people mean more  movement the great stretch of the Prescili Hills will probably be the next on the list.  You may not know this but at one stage during the last war there was talk of turning this area into another Salisbury Plain, where the army could practice with their armoury.  Luckily someone fought against this idea and now it remains free.

Carlton Bank

 

Carlton Bank

Carlton Bank where a young life met a tragic end.  Today there will be adults who face the experience of being culpable for taking a group  of  young children  on a forest walk.  I do not envy them, feel sad for the parents who have lost their young daughter and we all will wait to see what the outcome will be.

You can see from the terrain, how easily it would have happened, the straight sides with hardly any vegetation cover.  The persistent rain we have been having loosening the soil.

My grand daughter is a scout's leader.  She has been on many a walk with the Beavers, and when on a trip supervising them, alongside other adults.  She comforts them through homesickness, throwing up, the coaches always breaking down (they do) but on the whole keeping the children safe on an adventure.

I remember my daughter going on one such trip, she managed to fall out of a top bunk and cracked her jaw,  So she was brought home to our local hospital.  It is scary.

One moment our children are there, the next going on a school trip to France or somewhere under the guidance of teachers and helpers.  Perhaps it was a foolish decision by the leader of the group to take children on this walk, all will be revealed in an enquiry but children need adventures in the end, even if it means getting lost on Dartmoor and as a child who roamed freely and had adventures I would ask for compassion in the judgement of the people who look after our children.

BBC news

23rd May 2024

 Just now: Crow babies are finding their wings.  A crow hullabaloo started outside,  Looking out of the window and there was a baby crow caught between railings.  Several crows were in front of it and then success the little one flew free. And did they really pull him free?  It sort of balances the world for me today.

Well here comes change in 6 weeks, the Election, of another party? of the same party? heaven knows but there should be a news ban is all I can say.  Gosh you can almost feel the excitement vibrating on the Today programme and the News at One.  Heaven forbid.  All I know is that our MP (Tory) Craig Whitaker is standing down, as many are in the Conservative party so that means a frantic effort to find suitable candidates.

What was Ricki thinking of when he stood out in the rain by the famous lectern.  The sound of music down the street - It will only get Better, a tad offensive.  As he spooned the promises, yet again, everyone knows this country is slowly sliding down into a pit, we will leave the snakes out here but to be brutal it is going to take a helluva lot of house building, better health services and tackling the poverty that now exists in this country. Also intrigued by the date 4th July - American Independence Day - will we become another state of America ;) No I don't think so...

After the terrible news about the Singapore Airlines plane dropping 6000 feet and injuring the people in the cabin, some quite badly and of course one British man dead, we are brought face to face with some of the rigours of climate change as the weather becomes unpredictable.  Here in Yorkshire, a 10 year old child was killed by a mud slide yesterday, as the rain once more started to fall, I think we are on 'orange alert' here but the rain has fallen quietly all yesterday and no talk of flooding so far.

Instead of moping about it perhaps we should be taking sensible measures of meeting the problems halfway.  We shall see.

Cooking: I tried the Orzo recipe with asparagus and leeks yesterday it was good, though helped with plenty of lemon.  Today I refused to do the pearl barley, the recipe had a whole roasted cauliflower on top, we are leaving Andrew to try that one out.   Still enjoy my cauliflower in a cheese sauce.  So today it will be sour dough torn into strips amongst roasted tomatoes, peppers and a jar of artichokes. 

It is also wise to get most of your ingredients from Ocado, they seem to have the spices.

It makes me giggle somewhat nervously, there is dire warnings of having a stock of water, food and other stuff, enough for three days, just in case something happens. Again, the news yesterday, is this called the 'distraction game' I wonder.  Or is the REAL world coming to our door and presenting itself!

 

22nd May 2024 - Pewsey Valley

 Well taking note of other blogs, I am going to have photo days.  The following is of the church in Alton Barnes in the Pewsey valley in Wiltshire.  I always thought there was something magical about this valley.  Somewhere I would like to live.  It just wasn't the pub which drew in the crowds over crop circles.  It was the Saxon road and the Iron Age fort on top of Martinsell hill, the area sort of oozed sanctity for some unexplained reason.  Two churches near to each other, one church having probably been built on a stone circle.  You went into the church, lifted the wooden lids and there were the two stones, which did not actually add up to a stone circle but then you would have to take down the church for confirmation.

We occasionally went to Pewsey church in the town because Paul's parents were buried there and we would take flowers and potter around.  The valley itself would probably been the way from Avebury to Stonehenge.

Viewing from the church you could see an 18th century white horse and up on the downs a prehistoric long barrow called Adam's Grave.  In Anglo-Saxon times it was called 'Woden's Barrow'.  Mentioned as Wodnesbeorh in an A/S charter of 825 AD. If I remember rightly there was apparently a Saxon hanging place along the top of the hill.  The naming of barrows of course is part of folklore, Adam was said to be a giant.  Information about the grave can be found on The Modern Antiquarian.

Martinsell Hill, I am walking along the old Saxon road here.

 

The church

The UFO pub in 2012?

Over parked

Modern cup marks dated 1990.  Could that be the date when crop circles were imagined into reality.  The UFO theories? Nope, 1960s

The canal that runs alongside the pub

21st May 2024

 

A new cook book.  I like roasted vegetables and the idea of one-stop dishes.  These dishes can be served with a salad on the side because they are very rich.  I have already tried two of the recipes and another two this week.  We have a selection of Creuset dishes for putting in the Aga oven but soon the Aga will be closed down because it is too hot in summer.

The goat's cheese recipe did not go down to well, though I liked it, but sweet potato toppings with feta cheese crumbled through is good.  We had the classic whole camembert on top of the sliced potatoes, mushrooms and onions, it melts down into the dish.  Thin sliced potatoes require cutting on a mandoline, so you have to be careful of the tops of fingers!  

I have decided to go to another meeting at the Folklore centre in June.  It is about Nick Drake, Syd Barrett and Pantheism.  I am not sure how you can turn the lyrics of 'Pink Moon' into the neopaganism of today but it will be interesting to find out.

Also been watching 'The Killing' on Channel 4.  Excessively long and the plot twists and turns through a variety of would be suspects.  I am sure I have never come across a plot quite like it.  But today I am giving it up and going to the last episode, then it will be finished with.

Came across something last night, due to Mollie being very wide awake for about three hours.  This is  Word Clouds - "visual representation of text that give greater rank of words that appear more frequently than others".  It had been set up by Rory Stewart and Alistair Campbell in their podcast, you can guess what words Johnson and Truss accumulated.

It seems that as a country we all think much alike on the state of our politics.  Also the game of worst and best event in life was played during the podcast.  Campbell worst experience was the death of Doctor David Kelly in 2003. Campbell was Blair's right hand man.  The suspicious suicide death of this person who worked for the government on military matters and the examination of weapons in Iraq, shocked many of us, and we have never forgiven Tony Blair for this unexpected death.  The BBC report can be found here.  The details of the inquest into his death were not fully released and went under the  70 years rule before the final release of the report becomes public. 

20th May 2024 - London 2014

Well photographs: this time of a trip to London in 2014 to see an exhibition about Stonehenge in a strange place, the narrow gate triumphal arch leading up to Buckingham Palace.  I wish I knew the name, I suppose someone will tell me but all the photographs are of London.( no need, it is the Wellington Arch)  The small exhibition was set up by Mike Pitts, editor of British Archaeology.  An acquaintance of Paul, Pitts used to work at Avebury in his younger days at the museum and is author of books on the subject of archaeology.

I was particularly take with the statue of four horses of the Apocalypse, galloping over one's head they looked dramatic.  But on trying to find the right place of course led by the 'stupidity' of my search effort, came across the last event when four cavalry horses unsaddled their riders and went galloping through London in a bloody condition, I think they all survived and were caught and hospitalised but in the photo below you can see them at a more calm ride through the streets.

 

The four horses of the Apocalypse

Vertical gardening, think it must have been a hotel.

19th May 2024 - time flies

Stanton Drew Stone taken by LS

This morning is gorgeous, the honeysuckle outside the backdoor has broken into flower, there is something intrinsically beautiful about the shape of its cream and pink colouring.  I saw a bumble bee in its cup yesterday.  Nature is always producing the most vivid of pictures. A few days ago I spent ages looking for one of my terrible videos, I found two both with bees on it.  One is the ceanothus, its blue so cleverly crafted and the bee nest above in the old lock up building in the graveyard of Normanby church.  So as I am crap at editing, it will feature at the bottom with all its faults.

Yesterday I went to a meeting at the Folklore place about Pennystones, our local history person John Billingsley gave a talk on the game of throwing pennies. He also talked of the custom of stones, often set at the edge of a village which were called 'plague stones' Simply put, before you entered the village in the time of the Black death which ran rampant the hollowed out stone would have vinegar in which you dipped your hands.

But then he produced at the end a pretty crap bit of video, done with his phone of the sunset against a barrow up on Midgeley moor.  The sun seemed to climb the barrow, reach the summit, and then slowly disappear as it rolled down the  other side.

There are many things I miss from my old life and  the stones are one of them.  Sometimes I feel it is a desert here with hardly anything of note. Wiltshire spoiled me with its Avebury and Stonehenge.  Then of course Somerset with Stanton Drew Stone circle.

I miss Stoney Littleton Long barrow, West Kennett long barrow, even Silbury Hill and the great soft chalk downs of Wiltshire, and can quite understand why the landscape round West Yorkshire was so miserable to the prehistoric people ;)

The Cove stones outside the pub in Stanton Drew, though later identification says it may be the remains of a long barrow

Stanton Drew and its stones

17th May 2024

 Many years ago I hosted language students from countries all round the world.  I became a mother duck with some of the young ones worrying about them being out late at night.  But it was Andrew (from the High Rise blog) that invoked a sharp memory when he was talking about transport in his city.

This tale is about the Brazilians, who, and I can never understand this, came in the cold months of January from the hot temperature of their own country.  

I had just picked up my next person, a Brazilian policeman, with his unexpected luggage - his girlfriend, from the rail station in the evening.  They had wanted to find a guest house for her but I said no, not driving round Bath all night they could use the attic bedroom which had a futon.  This room much prized by my children, housed anyone spare at the time.

We had stopped at a red traffic light, my policemen said rather incredulously, do people stop for the red light here.  I assured him we did and that if we did not and caused an accident we would end up in prison.

We got home, panic set in, he could not unlock his suitcase, daft idiot had  thrown his keys into the suitcase and then locked it.  With all his money and documentation in it. We had a basement with plenty of tools so he ended up down there furiously sawing at the padlock.  He emerged triumphantly later. But this was not the end of it, the next day the school were taking some of the students to a pub.  Off they went, but he came back later full of woe, someone had nicked his belt bag off the table where he had so carelessly thrown it, again with all his important stuff.  This is a policeman we are talking about.

But this is England and next morning a call from the school, said that a small girl with her mum, walking along a country lane had found the bag and could we go and collect.  So girlfriend and  not forgetting in his push chair Tom walked down to town and collected it from the insurance offices where the mum worked.  Life was peaceful after that.  They were a sweet couple ;)

The other Brazilian drama was a pretty blonde Brazilian girl, her father was a 'chief' of the Fifa lot. She arrived through the front door supported by her friend.  Immediately burst into tears as she stepped over the threshold, and comforting her I said I would make some tea, at which point the phone rang.  It was her mother who obviously knew what was going to happen and she quieted down.  Next weekend she was out partying up in London - and her mother had other things to worry about!

This reminds me that there was no mobile phones at the time, and our house phone was forever ringing with relatives for the students.  Many of the students wanted to stay on over their allotted time, and we let them, giggly Japanese girls, Swiss engineer, and one poor chap who had been sent to boarding school in England for most of his life and was obviously not wanted back  home.

Other things

Enough:  When things become overwhelming I play Nick Drake - Pink Moon.  A sad young man who killed himself but left behind his music legacy.

 

May the month of merriment ;)

Cooking:  Tartiflette, a delicious word but we haven't tried the recipe yet, probably because we haven't found the Reblochon cheese.  It is pinned to the fridge with a magnet, the other recipe I tried on Sunday, chicken thighs on Ouzo pasta with tomatoes.  As a vegetarian not eating the chicken but found the added fat of those creatures not to my liking.  Yesterday was macoroni cheese a favourite of my granddaughter.  Today I have been instructed to try out a new recipe, which seems to have a lot of ingredients but basically is another type of puff pastry tart decorated with asparagus.

We have returned to rain, dripping outside but at least it is warm. The leaves grow at an amazing pace, one minute I am looking at thinly veiled branches the next their skeleton shapes have been covered.  Summer is so eager to make a showing.

Combing through my memory bank on the internet are bluebells, washing the ground blue amongst  old coppiced trees.  What makes bluebells beautiful is the wash of colour that floats through the shaded area of woods but in bright sunlight becomes much paler.  In this blog in Blake's Wood is the sound of a cuckoo as well.

So to photos.........

Coppicing

The solemnity of eating out at a pub on Sunday livened up by a pagan show, Morris dancing....the English at play.  The black and white person is a badger.

"Morris dancing is an ancient seasonal pagan ritual male custom associated with the bringing of luck, the fertility and regeneration of the soil and the promotion of the cycle of the seasons...... In the dances there'll be much jingling of bells."

Okay I have found a Youtube video, taken by me some time ago from Gnat Bottomed Towers blog.  The title is 'Billy Had a ten foot willy' but then the month of May is all about fertility.  Note also, that it is not just men who do Morris dancing.