Category Archives: personal

history, personal, quotes, science

Quotes of the Week

A rather temporal theme this week …

What is time? If no one asks me, I know. If I wish to explain it to one that asketh, I know not.
[St Augustine, Confessions]

Time is Nature’s way of keeping everything from happening at once.
[John Archibald Wheeler]

The universe is a simple place. True, it contains complicated things like galaxies and sea otters and federal governments, but if we average out the local idiosyncrasies, on very large scales the universe looks pretty much the same everywhere.
[Sean Carroll, From Eternity to Here: the Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time]

Apart from Earl Alan, the Lord of the Manor, there is no record of local names. As to the women, who one must assume formed the usual percentage of the community, not one word!
[Percy Charles Archer, Historic Cheshunt commenting on the Domesday Book entry for Cheshunt]

I just love the preambulatory greetings in old documents, which are maintained even to this day in royal letters patent.

To all Christ’s faithful people unto whom this present shall come, Peter, by the grace of God, Abbot of the Church of St Peter of Fulgeres and of the Convent in that same place, greeting in the Lord!
[Percy Charles Archer, Historic Cheshunt translating a 12th century document]

Conan, Duke of Brittany, Earl of Richmond, to all the sons of the Church of the Holy Mother, and its steward and chamberlain, and to all its servants, and to all its men, French and English, and to all Britons, and all its well-wishers, greeting!
[Percy Charles Archer, Historic Cheshunt translating a 12th century document]

The constant recurrence of old familiar names in the ancient Parish registers seems to show that some of them have long taken root in the place. “Lowin” and “Adams” and “Archer” and “Cock” and “Tarry” and “Dighton”, and a good many more household names, are plentiful as blackberries in the old Registers.
[Percy Charles Archer, Historic Cheshunt quoting comments on parish registers by Revd Arthur Brown]

books, medical, memes, personal, photography, pleasures, science, topographical

Listography: What I want to do this Summer

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Keith at Reluctant Housedad is running Listography again this week while Kate Takes 5 has a break and we’ve been asked to say five things I want to do this summer.

Hmmm … well .. I thought summer was over. Wimbledon has finished, the first blackberries have been picked and it’s raining. Sounds like the end of summer to me. 🙂

But in the spirit of beating my brans out (‘cos I actually found this hard!) here is my rather pathetic list …

Run a Successful Conference. For the Anthony Powell Society; at the beginning of September. Yep, I’m organising it (again — that only five of the last six!). It certainly promises to be good, but you never know until you get there if some joker or other is going to be put into play. So let’s hope all the speakers turn up; the venue works OK and the events all run smoothly.

Kill off my Depression. I’ve had depression for far far too long. It’s high time it b*ggered off for good. It’s certainly better than it was; I’ve halved my dose of anti-depressants this Spring and the hypnotherapy seems to be doing some good. Now for the remainder, please!

While we’re at it can I also Get Rid of my Hayfever once and for all. It had really p’ed me off more than usual this Summer as I’ve been having really itchy, watering eyes despite my usual anti-histamines. After 50-odd years enough is enough. Thank you!

Visit Kew Gardens at least once on a nice day. Kew is one of my favourite places, but despite living only a few miles away we get there all too seldom. At least one visit is a must this summer.


Prospect Cottage, Dungeness, home of the late Derek Jarman.
© Copyright Dr Keith C Marshall, 2010.
Finally we need a Holiday. But it ain’t going to happen until after the conference in September. Does that still count? We’re going off to wallow in decent B&B in New Romney, Kent. The Romney Marsh area is another of my favourite places: wide open spaces; Dungeness; seaside; medieval churches; RH&D Railway. And I have ancestors from New Romney and around the edges of the Romney Marsh, so we’ll be doing some family history while we’re there too. Mix and match depending on the weather, but get away and get some good sea air — and even better if it is warm and sunny.

Will that do?

personal, photography

Alphabet of Me

For some time I’ve been working on the idea I saw a long while back, “an alphabet of me”: something about me for each letter of the alphabet. Som people do this one letter at a time, often in random order. I’ve chosen to do it as a single entity, with an appropriate image from amongst my photos for each letter.

The first and last images are the dust-jacket; A-Z runs through images 2 to 27 inclusive. Below you’ll find a key and links to the original images on my Flickr Photostream. Here then is the finished product.

  1. Me
  2. Anthony Powell: Anthony Powell Society Members at Wysall during a trip to the Widmerpool area of Nottinghamshire
  3. Books: Work in Progress
  4. Cats: Tabby Tiger
  5. Dora: My Mother at 92, (she’ll be 96 this October!)
  6. Eccentric: Deckchair Love
  7. Family History: David Masey Grave at New Romney, Kent. (David Masey is one of my great-great-grandfathers
  8. Girls: “Now I think we go that way …”
  9. Heroes: Dinner Party Meme showing people who are my heroes
  10. IBM: Office Reflections; one of the places I used to work
  11. Jessie: My Aunt Jessie with Portrait of her Mother (my Grandmother)
  12. Kent: Bales by Brenzett; land of my grandfathers
  13. London: Westminster Night. I was born in London and have lived most of my life in London.
  14. Marriage: OMG! Wedding 1979. Yes, this is our wedding. Scary!
  15. Noreen: Noreen in Rochester. See marriage!
  16. Obesity: With & Without. Nasty; maybe I should have banned this!
  17. Photography: Rose: Maiden’s Blush; I’ve been taking photographs for 50 years. Eeeek!
  18. Quirky: Self-Portrait of a Foot. Yes, I’m mad.
  19. Romney Marsh: Prospect Cottage Panorama. More land of my grandfathers. This is Dungeness.
  20. Sexuality: Reading in the Sun in the Bishop’s Garden. Yes, let’s not deny this is part of all of us.
  21. Trains: Double Departure from Alexisbad.
  22. University: University of York Cricket Club Tour 1971; taken at the end of my second year as an undergraduate. I’m in back row, third from right, in the full sized image.
  23. Victoria & Albert Museum: Megalopoda vitreum. Important because Noreen made her career here, which kept us living in London.
  24. Wine: Anti-Depressant; or beer!
  25. XY: In the Hotel. Guess what?! I’m male!
  26. Yummy Food: My Meme: Thanksgiving 12-Course Banquet
  27. Zen Mischief: Rites of Passage Meme. My motto!
  28. Me
memes, personal

Ten Things – June

Number 6 in my monthly series of “Ten Things” for 2011. Each month I list one thing from each of ten categories which will remain the same for each month of 2011. So at the end of the year you have ten lists of twelve things about me.

  1. Something I Like: Roses
  2. Something I Won’t Do: Wear Jacket and Tie on Holiday
  3. Something I Want To Do: Have a Nudist Holiday
  4. A Blog I Like: Aetiology
  5. A Book I Like: John Guillim, A Display of Heraldrie
  6. Some Music I Like: Carl Orff, Carmina Burana
  7. A Food I Like: Avocado
  8. A Food or Drink I Dislike: Green Tea
  9. A Word I Like: Vespiary
  10. A Quote I Like: The covers of this book are too far apart. [Ambrose Bierce]
food+drink, memes, personal, photography

[23/52] Logs

[23/52] Logs by kcm76
[23/52] Logs, a photo by kcm76 on Flickr.

Week 23 entry for 52 weeks challenge.

At the King’s Head pub, Bawburgh, near Norwich.

The King’s Head has been known for many years for it’s good food. It’s well worth a visit for good gastro-pub food. Chips to die for! And for a good selection of local real ales – the Adnams is especially good.

Bawburgh is a pretty, small village just a handful of miles to the west of Norwich, just off A47 outer ring road.