Neither is D for Dolphin! Not that I have anything against dogs or dolphins; they’re just not creatures which interest me. But D is for Daffodils …
OK, so here’s one of the current interspace memes. A blogging friend issues you with a (random) letter. You then have to write a weblog post around ten things beginning with that letter which you like, or are at least meaningful to you. So thanks to Hails over at Coffee Helps for giving me the letter D. So my ten things are:
Donuts
No not those toroidal creations so often topped with sugar icing and ADHD-laden e-coloured sugar ants. Definitely, No. Donuts here have to be the roughly spheroidal, cricket ball-sized variety in the middle of which there is a large dollop of gooey red jam just waiting to squirt out all down the chin and shirt-front. It’s the special red sticky jam otherwise reserved only for the fingers of two-year-olds! Good donuts are wicked but heavenly. Bad donuts are evil.
Desprez, Josquin
Josquin is here as a representative of all composers of the early music era. Although perhaps not my all time favourite Josquin’s work is sublime. My real interest is more in the liturgical works fo the English Medieval and Renaissance composers, especially Nicholas Ludford and William Byrd. Byrd is in fact one of my heroes. How he survived as a recusant in Elizabethan England is something of a mystery. Although arrested and fined for recusancy on a number of occasions he not executed or imprisoned at length – something any other person at that time would have been. Moreover he kept his place at court. One can only think that he had special royal protection for some reason, perhaps as a valued spy? And his liturgical and keyboard music is for me unsurpassable.
Drinking
Let’s be open and frank. I enjoy a drink or three; beer or red wine for preference. It’s fashionable these days to knock anything to do with alcohol, and, yes, I admit it is a drug. But the anti-booze campaigns have in my view gone too far. Yes, it isn’t good for you to get smashed out of your skull regularly. But a few drinks? I seriously doubt a few drinks really hurt anyone (with perhaps the odd exception). Indeed there is good medical evidence that small quantities of alcohol (like a glass of red wine a day) are beneficial and help protect against things such as heart problems.
Diabetes
I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes about 3 years ago, and it can be a real pain in the posterior, although I will be the first to admit that I still haven’t fully engaged with it. You’re supposed to watch what you eat and need to rebalance your diet away from naked sugar to complex carbohydrates which release energy slowly. Diabetes is actually, in my view, two distinct diseases which result in the same long-term effects.
Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune disease where the body does not produce Insulin (the islet cells in the pancreas either don’t work or are destroyed), so the body cannot metabolise sugar (glucose/glycogen). It generally appears at a young age and often runs in families. Type 1s are the people who have to inject themselves with Insulin, often several times a day.
Type 2 Diabetes normally appears later in life and although there can be a genetic tendency it is also triggered by things like excessive weight. In Type 2 the body produces Insulin but the transport mechanism which allows the Insulin to diffuse from the blood though the cell membrane so it can work in the cells, fails. The effect is high blood sugar, as with Type 1. Type 2 is mostly managed by lifestyle changes and drugs, although through complex feedback mechanisms in the body it can destroy/disable the islet cells so that one progresses to needing Insulin injections.
Of course those descriptions are a generalisation and it isn’t as simple as I make out. Both types of Diabetes are serious but often don’t get taken seriously, even sometimes by those with the malady. They are largely invisible (unless someone passes out, which can happen with either very low blood glucose (hypoglycaemia) or too much blood sugar (hyperglycaemia); both are medical emergencies). But ignoring one’s Diabetes is a mistake as it can lead to many serious complications including major effects on the circulatory system, the nervous system, the kidneys and the eyes. If you even suspect you might have Diabetes then get it checked out by your doctor and take it seriously.
Dentist
Am I sad? Am I really the only person in the country who doesn’t dread going to the dentist – and even enjoys it? Judging by conversations I have I seem to be. But it is true; I genuinely do enjoy trips to the dentist, even when he’s doing nasty things in my mouth! Jonathan, my dentist man at White House Dental is a dream and a genius. Were I female I would swoon. He is just the best dentist – ever. OK so I have the privilege of paying him privately, but is it worth it! He is a superb technician, incredibly dexterous and his attitude is “the best will do”. And I have that on authority too. A couple of years ago he wanted a problem in my mouth checked by an oral specialist at the local BUPA hospital. While looking at my mouth the specialist’s (quite unprompted) comment was “I don’t know your dentist; I’ve never met him; he just refers people to me. But I see a lot of dentistry [well he would, wouldn’t he!] and your guy does the best dentistry I ever see”. Can one get better than that? Well yes, because not only is Jonathan a brilliant dentist, he’s an interesting guy to talk to and we almost always have chat about something medical or scientific between bouts of jovial banter.
Daffodils
Daffodils are one of my favourite flowers and for me the real harbinger of Spring. I’m not so fond of masses daffodils (as on the walls of York), and I detest that awful piece of Wordsworth poetry! I’m happier with a few bright golden trumpets in a vase; they are a real joy.
Driftwood and Dunes
Driftwood and dunes here stand duty for the seaside; not tourist infested beaches but the quieter shores of the less fashionable seaside towns. I’m a Londoner, born and bred, but like so many Londoners I would rather be in the country or, better, by the sea. Especially if it is warm, sunny and there’s an interesting beach with driftwood to find or dunes to explore and where one can laze out of the wind. Sun, sea, sand … what could be better?
Dungeness
Still on the seaside theme one of the places I love is the Dungeness headland in SE England. It is a relatively modern wilderness, created naturally by the sea in the last few hundred years, and is one of the largest expanses of shingle in the world. It is a wilderness of shingle; with scattered shanty housing, a lighthouse, a nuclear power station and one end of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway (see also here for more on RH&DR). It is genuinely wild, a haven for birds, especially as a stopover for migrants, and for salt-loving flora.
Devon and Dorset
Dorset and South Devon are another area of England which I love, both for their countryside and for their coast. With a few large-ish towns (Exeter, Weymouth, Torquay, for example) large areas of the counties are open rolling countryside with patchworks of fields, woods and villages, fringed along the southern edge by the sea with some glorious relatively quiet beaches, beautiful sandstone cliffs and fossils – it isn’t called the Jurassic Coast for nothing.
Drupe
Isn’t that a wonderful word: drupe. And it is pronounced, as one would expect, just like “droop”, which means something totally different. Drupe is a word which is not much used and hence known by few. Drupe is the correct botanical name for what are sometimes called the “stone fruits”: the fruit of all the genus Prunus (cherry, plum, almond, peach, etc.) as well as oddities like olives and most palms including coconuts and dates. They are characterised by having a hard kernel (hence the “stone”) which contains the seed and a soft, often fleshy and edible, outer. Apparently the word drupe derives from the Greek druppa olive, via Latin druppa, overripe olive. These are fruits which I love.
So there you have it. Ten things which are meaningful to me and begin with the letter D. Feel free to add your own ideas in the comments. And if you’d like your own letter why not visit Hails over at Coffee Helps and ask nicely (would you do otherwise?) for a letter.
Last night we had a little celebration. Only a little celebration over a bottle of wine followed by an early-ish night. For why? Because Noreen had hunted back through her old diaries (who has the time and discipline for these things? I never did) and discovered that we first properly went out together on 24 November 1978. I said I thought it was earlier, like late October, but she insists on the veracity of her pretty comprehensive journal from those days. So I figured I’d say “thank you” and not argue. 