Wednesday 13 March 2024

Indeterminate life ...

 

I came across this quote via the recent blog entry 'The Strange Science of Zombie Fungi' – courtesy of Maria Popova's 'The Marginalian':


'A mind not be chang'd by Place or Time' – John Milton from Paradise Lost (Book I, line 234 … if I've counted right!).

"The mind is its own place”


Mother's Day lunch - we'd have had roast
potatoes ... and now my mind is on lunch!

This has been my head space … while I've pottered around chattering away to myself! - happy in my own little way - as I pretend to gear my own self up to being sensible and progressing with things needing to be done. Also sorting a few things out that took forever … patience, at times, is not my virtue ...


No excuse – I've been lazy – which of course now means I'm dithering around trying to catch one of those tails to put some salt on it … perhaps I can actually come back into this world and put muddling through behind me … there's mental hope – but that headspace is another thing!

Blue Tit - enjoying Spring

Anyway after a gloomy International Women's Day and Mothering Sunday (our Mother's Day here in the UK – tied into the Church's calendar – dating back to the 8th century) … we are still enjoying mists or rain – no doubt the plants are appreciative … certainly the blue tits are filling out, as they chunter around in the lime tree outside.



I remember back twenty five years ago … we had Mother's Day with my my mother, and my brother's MIL, over in Alfriston (where the floods have recently been) … when the Canadian family were over …

John Tenniel's 1890 illustration
for Alice's Adventures
in Wonderland


there were lots of us … 15 or so … it was so warm we moved outside and had our Mothering Sunday roast lunch in the garden …


I did find some interesting women I wanted to mention and thus rabbit holes I fell into … but I think I'll leave them for another day …


Dante Gabriel Rossetti's portrait
of Swinburne (1862)


I did come across an article on Algernon Charles Swinburne's early work (1857 – 1871): 'The Female Archetypes' … which might make interesting reading for one or two of you …




It's drier and brighter today … thanks for your kind thoughts … and care – I'm just about up and running – by next week definitely …


From a friend's garden - the
hyacinths I gave her a few years ago

The Marginalian - The Strange Science of Zombie Fungi 

Paradise Lost - c/o Poets.org  

Disstheses on Swinburne's 'The Female Archetypes' c/o Louisiana State University  (NB a pdf)


Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Friday 1 March 2024

WEP Get Togethers # 2 … winter blues …

 

February was not the most brilliant – not helped with lots of that wet stuff, excess wind … too many things that could have been done quickly took forever … which frustrates me to say the least, apart from being so time wasting …

It says it all .... 
March has come in favouring its name … after the Roman god of War … but that was this morning – this afternoon we have blue skies, big whitish cumulus clouds and some sun – bliss … till more tears drop forth from those towering clouds …

Statue of Mars from the
Forum of Nerva, 2nd C 



There's a wormy moon around the 25th March … a way off yet – and who knows what the weather holds or life for that matter … if only … if only … kindness and peace could prevail …




but the days are getting longer and then the northern hemisphere will have its 2024 heyday for that wonderful period of longer days than nights.


I let the worm rest in its blue-cheese delight
I'm feeling the blues … but also feel the shackles are coming off – and easier days loom ahead … I do intend to sort and clear out the flat – last year with the high blood pressure I felt maggoty and didn't feel inspired to do much – also to get posts ready for the blog …


Daffodil - the flower for March
Denise says let us know what's burning in your heart … my desire to leave the claggish congelation behind … and to enjoy March and the year ahead in an easier more settled state of mind …




This is where my brother lives – it's often flooded around there … and they've been without water, not for long thankfully …


Alfriston - where my brother lives,
and where he gave his niece away, when
she married in the summer
That's it for now – I have lots of other posts to write up – more sparkly than this one … but I'm here and posting # 2 for the WEP Get Togethers … happy days to you all …


PS Could someone let me know what 'the C box' is ... Denise asks that we put the link into the C box ... I'm out of it!!! .... thanks!


Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Friday 23 February 2024

Five hundred years of blogging …

 

Sadly when Write Edit Publish came to its end … understandable in many ways – the administrators have done a wonderful job over the years and I was only around for about half the time – Denise, Renee, Nila, Laura, Olga, Jemi suggested that we write something at the end of each month … as WEP: Get Togethers … which I will do next week. So to continue my thoughts on the start of blogging … posted 1st February.

Get Together team 
In the 1500s a Frenchman popularised the essay as a literary genre – otherwise known today as blogging in a short form …

Jorn Barger

But a question arose from Karen – where did the term 'blog' come from? I'd always heard it came from the web and a ship's logbook (hence blog) … which made 'common sense' to me …



So see the article on Jorn Barger – perhaps the first proper blogger as a blogger – he coined the term weblog ...



I found a book on Michel Montaigne (1533 - 1592) that will make interesting reading, who appears today to have popularised the essay as a literary genre.




Optical Fibres
I've been absent from the net for most of this week – the angst of not being on line was somewhat sad – I was lost - I thought I was only going to be off for a few minutes – the telecoms company informed me … well a few days later I'm back … so I was very unprepared …



I needed a weblog to record 'the doings' but I will not waste your time … I'm now on fibre broadband – which gives me comfort (I think!) ...


Hurricane seas

but the Beaufort Scale  kicked in down here … yesterday it was bucketing and wind buffeting … I will not go down to the seas, it will be very lonely down there … Poem by John Cooper Clarke


Well it's now Friday … and things are still being sorted out – I seem to have done something silly re my desktop … life for the 'brainless' goes on … just had a long phone call from a friend who's not been that well … so now I'm rushed even more!!

The story of how the web
really got started ... 


At least I'll have got a post up – even more muddled than usual … I hope to sort things out and attempt to catch up in the coming week … life is flexing me a little!


I bought this book back at the turn of the century ... ie 2000AD ...


Happy weekend from a chilly, blustery, heavy showery day …


Hilary Melton-Butcher

Postive Letters Inspirational Stories

Tuesday 13 February 2024

Pancakes ...

Today is pancake day … originally called Shrove Tuesday … I was thinking back to my childhood when our mother would cook us pancakes … guzzling children were happy kids!


Pancakes with sugar and lemon


those were the days when for us … it was sprinkling sugar over the pancake, then a few drops of lemon juice … simple, but plain …



I've learnt that I enjoy simple food … as we used to have it when I was growing up – yet I'm the one with cookbooks for Africa and who always used to enjoy experimenting with new recipes … from said books – along with some of my mother's …


I still enjoy reading foodie books … and have a few here that I will post about …


The heart of our childhood home was the Aga – the cast iron, two door, creamy primrose coloured Aga … we cooked with it, we hugged around it, we warmed our hands on it, we dried our clothes around it, we kept the winter chills away …



Olney town sign

I have never tossed, nor raced, with a frying pan in hand to the local church, pancake still frying … dressed in a kitchen apron and headscarf (particularly that bit!) - but the Pancake Race is an annual happening – since 1445 – in Olney, Buckinghamshire.  (nearly 600 years)




Bet it makes a wonderful day in Olney for the kids … especially this year – as it's half-term …




Sign for the 2009 race in Olney

... perhaps not so wonderful for the grown-ups ...'shrove' comes from 'shrive': meaning to confess your sins and being absolved by a priest … thankfully today we can, I hope, just sort out our own misdemeanours?!



Happy pancake day wherever you might be …


Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Thursday 1 February 2024

WEP Get Togethers … Reunions …

 

I'm just very happy to be joining WEPpers with many reunions and to hear everyone's stories … as you all develop your story-telling …


You are welcome to join us ... I hope you will!

As I'm not writing for a reason per se – I thought I'd add snippets that come to mind … either from life itself, or reminders of aspects I might have missed out in earlier blog posts … all 1,200 of them I note …


The Thinker - by Auguste Rodin
outside the British Library


Wikipedia's main page today features 'The Thinker' by Auguste Rodin … appropriate for this post and probably me – though I most definitely cannot admit to being in that category … however hard you or I think I might be!



I certainly have learnt from the blog and WEPpers - so much that has changed my thought processes … I do now question in my mind … because others tend not to see the world as I do …


 … but my mind as always is open to new ideas … or topics like existence, reason, knowledge, value, mind, and language … about which I have smidgeons of knowledge …



I may include #WATWB type posts too … we shall see … won't we!!


Michel de Montaigne (1570s)


When did blogging start … well it has been suggested in the 1500s … I bet you didn't expect that era … when Michel de Montaigne (1533 – 1592) became known for popularising the essay as a literary genre.




As per the (School of Oriental and African Studies) SOAS article by David Pearson in 2013 … see link … containing lots of interesting thoughts.



Montaigne's Tower - the only 
original part of the Montaigne
estate that still stands - it is
where Michel de Montaigne's
library was located.

I particularly like the thought (last paragraph) that technology has turbo-charged things that have been done for millennia. Like Writing and Thinking. And Conversation.






I'll enjoy reading everyone's posts over at this the first WEP: Get Together post

PS - as I have Cornish origins where herrings had been a vital source of food for millennia ... so I was interested to read that the de Montaigne's fortune had been found on herring fishing in the Bay of Biscay ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Sunday 28 January 2024

Crumbs Crumbling Chalk Cliffs

 

The tiny hamlet at Birling Gap has had many ups and downs in its short existence … eight cottages were built for the Coastguard in 1878 before passing into private ownership after WW2 …


Birling Gap hamlet pos 1930s
Birling Gap is iconically situated atop those crumbling chalk cliffs between Eastbourne and Brighton ...from where historically it has been possible to realise how much the chalk is a-crumbling into the English Channel below …



Using step ladder pos 1980s

I hadn't been out there for twelve years or so … and though it perhaps wasn't the most inspiring day for the driving friend … but suited the muffled overloaded new birthday girl, who had the winter blues and was wanting to recover her wits …





Demolishing cafe ... 2024

We pottered around – it was a grey day … but we checked out the National Trust shop, cafe, bookshop and 'museum' … last time I was there – the 'museum' was much more informative – showing chalked timelines along the walls and on the floor … that sadly had disappeared – showing how much erosion had been going on.



Coastal side of demolition in process (2024)
Sue is another African – English born, but brought up in Zimbabwe – so we're on the same wave-length – and had come with me to my brother's for Christmas … gave her a break – she was free to join us.



Looking west ... 2024
She remarked this is living history – as we peered from the scaffolding over the edge … we didn't go down the 'staircase' to the beach – though as you can see some have.



Showing the scaffolding stepway
(uncertain as to date)
We went off to a pub – only to find it closed for maintenance – fortunately nearby the Hiker's Rest was open … so to save energy driving around wondering where to go – not something I felt inspired to do: I was still not feeling up to much …

In recent years the buildings around
The Tiger Inn, inland a couple of miles, have
been done up and are now in use - as here: a cafe
for wilting elders! or as B&Bs etc


I know I had a spiced parsnip soup – which was warming and cheering, Sue had a baguette – the other half she ate for supper later on.




It was an ideal day out for a wilted elder! I do feel slightly better now – but still not out of the woods – I hope to be by mid February … another interesting dinner is in the offing – all grist to this girl's organising mill!


This shows the area with the scaffolding
steps, the cafe with its picnic seating,
a view from Beachy Head on the way 
down towards Birling Gap with its
few cottages still in use ... 

So this post tells the tale of Birling Gap and its eroding cliffs … via the odd images I've posted …




Thanks for visiting – while I've just been reminded about another post-WEP type post that's due on Thursday – the first of the month … so another coming up then …



Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Saturday 13 January 2024

16th year and counting …

This yearly count strikes me as extraordinary - not something I thought would last 15 full years and now about to go beyond …


Happy Birthday to me!
I was really lucky at Christmas a great friend, from South African days who now lives north of London, brought her daughter - my goddaughter - down for a couple of days ... which really enlivened my life, as I was nursing a cold, and things go quietish at that time of year.  


I'm afraid we had too much champagne with lots of chats - and picnicked here ... ie a real mix of sort of antipasto goodies - gave us a chance to be just us.  Nothing like a great friend to appear with a backpack full (perhaps not quite full!) of champers ...


1915 ad ... definitely
not me!!


I've had a funny year … and can't say I feel brilliant now – so hope to find out what's going on – I don't feel ill – just 'off' …




Not much change – still organising the European Movement dinners – just had one this past week … and another important one we're already planning for February ...

New play about the Blue
Stockings society 




and I've a history talk to give on the Blue Stockings Society (1750s – 1790s) … 




but my energy is sapped – and I'm just posting this to at least start blogging in 2024 – it/I might be slow for a few weeks yet …


Map of Rainforest at Victoria Falls -
'my Africa' ... 

Thank you for visiting and cheering me on … another year, another year … without much change – I'd love the world's life to be more positive … so here's to us all being kind to one another, and thoughtful about others …


Antipasto platter - we had lots
of goodies (various!)


PS - I will get around to your blogs soon as I can ... but ... 


Blogging friends I give up … lots going on!! Cheers …





Blue Stockings - play by Jessica Swale - details can be found here ... 


Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories