All posts by Keith

I’m a controversialist and catalyst, quietly enabling others to develop by providing different ideas and views of the world. Born in London in the early 1950s and initially trained as a research chemist I retired as a senior project manager after 35 years in the IT industry. Retirement is about community give-back and finding some equilibrium. Founder and Honorary Secretary of the Anthony Powell Society. Chairman of my GP's patient group.
arts, photography

Weekly Photograph

Yes, this week’s photograph is late. That’s because I have been trying to recover, and tidy up from, the Anthony Powell Conference at Eton College over the weekend — just cashing up the takings and getting everything to reconcile took near a full day.
Anyway the conference swan song was to take a group of the delegates (about a quarter of them) to Dorney Court, near Eton. The house dates from the mid-16th-century and is about as unspoilt as it is possible for it to be and still be a family home. The first image is the obligatory group photo prior to our tour of the house.

Dorney Court

And here is the whole of the front of the house.
Dorney Court

And finally a panorama of the church, St James the Less, Dorney which is in the grounds of the house. This is a delightful little church with a stupendous Tudor period tomb (pictures later).
Dorney Church

amusements

Something for the Weekend

I’m sorry! I know I’m being dilatory about posting at the moment. It isn’t for a lack of material but a lack of time as I’ve been drowning in trying to organise the Anthony Powell Society conference which is this weekend. With luck, although next week is still busy, I’ll get some time for some better posts.
Meanwhile here is this week’s cartoon. And as I’m off to a literary conference I thought we’d have something slightly relevant. It’s certainly a bit what it’s like in this house!

amusements, topographical

World Stone Skimming Championships

The World Stone Skimming Championships are held every year on the last Sunday in September, this year 29 September, at Easdale Island, near Oban in Argyll, Scotland.
Easdale Island is the smallest permanently inhabited island of the Inner Hebrides. It was once the centre of a thriving Scottish slate mining industry, and one of the disused quarries forms a perfect arena for the World Stone Skimming Championships.
Anyone of any age and any level of skill can enter. Each competitor is allowed 3 skims using specially selected Easdale slate skimming stones. For a skim to qualify the stone must bounce at least three times — it is then judged on the distance achieved before it sinks.


For logistical reasons to do with ferries to the island etc. the maximum number of entrants to 350. Registration for the championships takes place at Easdale Island Community Hall from 11.00am until 1.00pm on the day (or when 350 competitors are registered if sooner). If you would like to compete just turn up as there are no qualifying rounds. The competition starts at 12 noon.
More information, rules and associated events are all on the World Stone Skimming Championships website at www.stoneskimming.com.

amusements

More Auction Amusements

Another of our occasional round-ups of the odd nd amusing from amongst the lots at our local auction house. As usual it is both the strange things people sell (and presumably buy) as well as the juxtapositions which amuse.
A large portrait of a Hippie girl with long auburn hair by Hubert Pattison (?), signed and dated 1973, wearing a large hat trimmed with feathers and a patterned waistcoat, watercolour, gilt frame
Why was Hubert Pattison weraing a large hat trimmed with feathers and a paterned waistcoat, and how do we know?
A carton containing boxes of old nick-nacks, Ogden’s snuff, an Ideal typewriter rubber, silver plated cutlery including knife rests, a roulette wheel, manicure items, a mending mushroom, etc.
A Lapis Lazuli miniature trinket box, two porcelain boxes in the form of a sombrero, a Dresden miniature dish and other box in the form of a hayrick.
Every home really should have a collection such as this!
A taxidermy display of a mallard duck and a kingfisher, in a glazed cabinet.
batThree Guinness shoe brushes, two decorative duck brushes, five oriental figures, porcelain clock, Wade narrow boat, four TG Green soup bowls, crested ware submarine, five Carltonware dishes and two spoons, a large plastic magazine rack, etc.
Twenty-three stoneware bottles, some advertising ginger beer, Strand Brewery, etc., two old soda siphons and three old glass bottles.
A sex of six glass rummers and six smaller, a quantity of further drinking glasses, two decanters and other glassware.
Emphasis mine.
A colourful tribal carved mask, two small silver picture frames, Sheffield plated small hip flask, a Russian monocular … a four-draw brass telescope, a pair of Trinoyix 8×30 binoculars in leather case, an Orange Brinovega fold-away radio, a fez, etc.
A small early 20th century Continental mantel garniture, of portico timepiece and pair of urns, in wood with gilt metal mounts.
Who ever talks about garniture?
A Victorian cricket bat, stamped Scarlett Windsor, and inscribed “Brocas Eton Augst 30th 1861″, in glazed display case.
Emphasis mine.
A 19th century Russian icon depicting St George with part-sheathed sword against a tooled gold ground.
Now that could be misinterpreted!

girl

A large pottery figure of a surprised naked girl seated on a stripy fish, signed Icnel, 15-25ins H. and a fish shaped vase with putto, signed G GIRARDI 127 Italy.
Seven antelope skins and a box of assorted purses, key rings, etc. made from similar hide.

photography

Weekly Photograph

This week’s photo is another from the archives. It is a superb piece of medieval stone carving of a woven pattern at Rochester Cathedral. The stone is not only carved but painted as well. I took this so long ago that I now cannot remember where it is in the cathedral or even if it is in a wall or floor.

Click the image for larger views on Flickr
Rochester Cathedral Woven Stone
Woven Stone
September 2008, Rochester Cathedral

quotes

More Quotes

Our occasional round-up of interesting, inspoiring and amusing quotes (in no special order) …
Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.
[Leo Tolstoy]
Insanity in individuals is something rare — but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule.
[Friedrich Nietzsche]
The big blue wobbly thing with mermaids living in it.
[Actual description of the sea, overheard in Brighton by my friend Laura Jane Stamps]
The West behaves towards the Islamic world like a monkey with a grenade.
[Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia]
and when the world around you is in a moment of panic and chaos
and parents are hanging onto their kids
and people are falling to their knees and praying
and people are gathered around screens in bars and saying OH MY GOD
and the noises overhead are either threateningly loud or deafeningly silent
and the fingers start pointing in every direction
and some are shaking in fear
and some are stabbing in anger
and you
may find yourself …
doing what you did as a child
saying hey
have you ever noticed
that
THIS
looks like
THIS?
[Amanda Palmer; http://amandapalmer.net/blog/20130529/]
we can only write about what we can see.
we can only connect the dots we collect.
which makes everything you write about you.
what you write is you. what i write is me.
my neighbors, my thoughts, my paranoia, the frightened conversations i overhear, what i read in the news, my childhood drama, my understanding of shakespeare, and odysseus and the wine dark sea, and of the brady bunch, and bukowski. MY connections all go into the stew. that’s all you ever have. you can disguise it in any style, but it’s still you.
[Amanda Palmer; http://amandapalmer.net/blog/20130529/]
Anthony Powell said much the same thing but in somewhat different words!
Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
[Dalai Lama]
The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
[WB Yeats]
Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right.
[Laurens Van der Post]
This is a world of compensation; and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.
[Abraham Lincoln]
Clothes make the man, but nakedness makes the human being.
[Scott Adams]
To the dull mind nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.
[Ralph Waldo Emerson]
If not for sex, much of what is flamboyant and beautiful in nature would not exist. Plants would not bloom. Birds would not sing. Deer would not sprout antlers. Hearts would not beat so fast.
[Olivia Judson, Dr Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation]
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
[Jimi Hendrix]
Childhood is an extended apprenticeship in thinking. We learn both what to think and how to think.
[Tim Bayne, “Thought”, New Scientist, 21/09/2013]
If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a nonworking cat.
[Douglas Adams]

food+drink

Tangy Lamb in a Pot

I declare another culinary triumph!
Yesterday we procured a boned and rolled large leg of lamb at the supermarket. English lamb and reduced as it was approaching its “end by” date. Thinking quickly what we could do with it, when we didn’t want to eat it that evening, I said “marinade it overnight and we’ll cook it tomorrow”. And so we did.
So I give you …


Tangy Lamb in a Pot
We used a 1.5kg boned and rolled leg of lamb.
For the Marinade (adjust this to taste):
tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp of Worc. Sauce
wine glass white wine vinegar
wine glass olive oil
1-2 tbsp garlic paste
1-2 tbsp tomato paste
wine glass tomato ketchup
end of a bottle of HP sauce washed out with white wine
1 tsp very hot chilli sauce
tiny amount of salt
good grind of fresh black pepper
For cooking the lamb you also want:
large onion roughly chopped
several cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
12 olives
good handful chopped fresh herbs (whatever you have; I used parsley and basil)
salt & pepper
olive oil
The day before you want to eat this:
Mix all the marinade ingredients together well.
Put the lamb in a box or other container and stab it well.
Pour the marinade over the lamb and work it around a bit, cover and put the lamb in the fridge for 24 hours.
On the day:
Pre-heat the oven to about 160C (with fan).
Sweat the onion and garlic in a large pan (preferably the cast iron casserole you’ll cook this in) until the onion is going translucent.
Take the lamb out of the marinade and hold it to drain for a moment, remove the string holding it together if you wish, then add it to the pot and brown it on all sides.
Add the marinade, herbs, olives, and some salt & pepper.
Stir well and bring up to cooking heat.
(If necessary now transfer to a casserole.)
Put the lid on the casserole and cook in the oven for about 30 mins per 500gm plus 30 minutes (less if you like your lamb pink).
Take the lamb from the sauce and carve at the table.
Serve with vegetables of your choice, potatoes and some of the sauce — we had roast cabbage (I’ve not perfected this yet; recipe when I have) and small, new season, jacket potatoes.
It was tangy and tomato-y and really melted in the mouth. It shall be done again!

food+drink

British Food Fortnight

British Food Fortnight runs from Saturday 21 September to Sunday 6 October, timing which is deliberately chosen to coincide with Harvest Festival.
What do apples, venison, blackberries, oysters, crab, parsnips and runner beans have in common? Yes, they’re all in season during British Food Fortnight.


This celebration was conceived because although there are numerous food initiatives, projects and events across Britain, there was no overall flagship event bringing the whole of British food together. So the fortnight promotes all that is good about our home-grown food: more types of cheese than France, 350 types of potato providing a range of tastes and textures, and seasonal vegetables that provide just what we need at that time of year.
As always there is a lot more information and a list of events over on the British Food Fortnight website at www.lovebritishfood.co.uk.