environment, personal, ramblings

Leisure

Another of the short poems we read at my mother’s funeral was this. Again it captures my mother’s quiet delight in the natural world.

Leisure
By WH Davies

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

WH Davies (1871-1940) spent a significant part of his life as a tramp in both the UK and USA, but became one of the most popular poets of his time.

personal, ramblings

Nice Mice

For no obvious reason I was recalling, the other evening, one of the short poems we read at my mother’s funeral back in June 2015.

As some here will know she was a great nature lover, and unbeknown to anyone some while before she died she had been feeding a small mouse which lived under the bath in the en suite of her care home room. Everyone at the care home loved my mother; however Rosie, the care home’s lovely manager, when she found out about the mouse went fairly ballistic – quite understandably. So when we read this poem at the funeral, Rosie absolutely cracked up.

Here’s the poem …

Mice
By Rose Fyleman

I think mice are rather nice;
Their tails are long, their faces small;
They haven’t any chins at all.
Their ears are pink, their teeth are white,
They run about the house at night;
They nibble things they shouldn’t touch,
and no one seems to like them much,
but I think mice are nice!

Rose Fyleman (1877-1957) is most famous for her poem There are Fairies at the Bottom of Our Garden.

amusements

Counters

Each month this year we’re bringing you a post under the general title “Things that Count in [Number]” where [Number] will be the month. And naturally each month’s post will contain the [Number] of items (so just one for January, up to 12 for December).

For our purposes the definition of counting includes things which either come in groups of [Number] (eg. four suits in a pack of playing cards) or things which count in [Number] (eg. decimal coinage counting in tens).

Things which Count in Seven …

  1. Deadly sins
  2. Swans a-swimming
  3. Colours of the rainbow
  4. Wonders of the world
  5. Chakras
  6. Petals on a lotus flower
  7. Dwarfs
environment, food+drink, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

Another month comes to a close so it is time for links to items you may have missed, but which I didn’t and collected for you!

Science, Technology & Natural World

Some elements amongst the physics community are determined that an even bigger particle collider than the current LHC at CERN is an utter waste of money.

Oh dear! It seems that at the end of WW2 the Allies managed to lose a few cubes of uranium from Germany’s failed nuclear programme.

We know that plants’ growth shows a high degree of symmetry, but how many of use realised it was quite this complicated?

Scientists reckon that plants can hear bees buzzing – and they then make their nectar sweeter.

Talking of hearing … it turns out bats can tune their sonar very effectively by constantly wiggling their ears.

When is a cuttlefish like a human? When it has arms. Apparently all creatures’ arms/limbs are built from the same set of genes, regardless of how many there are.

Health & Medicine

This month’s medical column is all about girlie parts, but the boys will want to be educated too …

Women are now asking if it is possible to have a better period (depending on their value of “better”)

According to a couple of old articles in the sacred Cosmopolitan there are nine different types of boobs and seven different types of labia. The good news is that they are all perfectly normal and nothing to be ashamed of.

The story of one survivor who is campaigning against the brutality of FGM.

Environment

It is suggested that urban trees live fast and die young compared with those in rural forests

Social Sciences, Business, Law

The current incumbent seems to get embroiled on controversy, but what really is the role of the Speaker of the House of Commons?

Language

Not everyone agrees that language is a living, evolving entity, so here are 19 of the most contentious linguistic disagreements.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

I never knew that some of the Lewis Chessmen were missing, but it seems that one of the missing few has recently resurfaced.

High quality viniculture is turning out to be a lot older than expected.

Historians across the ages cannot agree, but it seems that Druids are fairly skilled at metamorphosis – either that or the historians are making it all up as they go along!

Lifestyle & Personal Development

Somewhere, high on the Tibetan plateau, is a matriarchal culture where men are never in charge and where the women don’t know who is the father of their children.

Back in the western world, people are asking what it means to be genetically Jewish, but maybe not culturally so.

There is more accumulating evidence that a long working week really is bad for your health, and that a shorter working week isn’t necessarily less productive.

When might a big earthquake hit Tokyo, and how is Japan preparing itself?

Taxidermy is often seen as a rather unsavoury hobby, but a growing number of women are making their mark as taxidermists.

Brad Warner, our favourite Zen Master, takes a somewhat sideways look at the way all things are connected.

Food & Drink

The public health lobby are worried that too many people are getting home hygiene wrong.

And finally … Master of Wine, Caroline Gilby, looks at how long to keep an opened bottle of wine, and what you can do with it. (No, I know. What is this commodity “spare wine”?)

More in a month. Enjoy the summer.

food+drink, ramblings

Disaster. Result.

Well that was a very unexpected result from a bit of a disaster!

Sunday evening, about midnight. Noreen discovers the freezer is not working. I am summoned. I confirm the veracity of Noreen’s suspicion. No lights on the front panel at all; not a glimmer; and none of the buttons does anything. Socket checked: OK. Plug checked: OK. Fuse checked: OK but changed as a precaution. Obviously the kitchen ring main is OK, and there have been no power interruptions. Cable checked as far as possible: OK. How long has it been off? We don’t know; it could even be a day!

Bugger! Especially as the freezer is only 6 months old; an AEG bought from John Lewis. Unfortunately we’ve voided the warranty as we had to remove the moulded-on plug to wire it in. Fortunately it is packed solid. So leave the door shut and see what transpires.

Decision. Do not waste time on trying to get a repair; whether or not the warranty is valid it’ll take too long. Better to spend money and buy another new one as we can get next day delivery. Worry about the warranty later.

Not many people make free-standing, under-the-counter freezers these days; first choice Bosch don’t make them any longer. So at 1AM we’re ordering a new freezer from John Lewis (own brand this time); they’re trusted to do next day delivery. But we’re now in Monday so delivery will be Tuesday. Hmmm. Best we can do. We have neither time nor transport to try sourcing one locally in the morning.

Go to bed, hatching various plans for using the thawing contents.

Monday morning. John Lewis customer service confirm we’ve voided the warranty. Insurance company confirm loss of freezer food is covered on our insurance, but we have a £200 excess. Decide not worth contemplating a claim as contents unlikely to top £200. Still considering how to handle the freezer contents.

Monday lunchtime. Noreen extracts fish fingers from freezer for lunch (may as well use what we can). Reports everything still well frozen. Decide to leave freezer shut and wait until new one arrives tomorrow. Then we’ll consider what to use and what to bin.

Tuesday. New freezer delivered at lunchtime. We install it (without removing the moulded-on plug this time!) and leave it to settle, as instructed. Turn it on at about 5PM. By 8PM (after eating) the freezer’s getting well cold. Decide to unpack the old freezer. We divide contents into 4 categories:

  1. Definitely going to be binned as not immediately useable: ice lollies; bags of stock; bags of fresh pasta; odd portions of curry; couple of small packs smoked salmon (damn we’d even fed the cats, so the fox can have the benefit!); half bag of peas; the same of cauliflower. We knew this was going to be a lot.
  2. Thawing fast, needs using now: couple of boring nut roasts; bag of crumble topping. Is that all? – Not bad. Nut roasts go in the oven and will be OK cold for lunch tomorrow; large dish of fruit crumble also in the oven.
  3. Thawing but useable tomorrow, put in fridge: 3 packs of bacon; pack of sausages; some pork slices; small bag lamb’s liver; some garlic butter. Make casserole? No, a better idea: terrine.
  4. Still well frozen; keep frozen but use ASAP: all the meat in the centre of the freezer (small lamb joints; some bacon; turkey joints; a pheasant; couple of steaks; 2 large boxes fish fingers); pack of pastry; even a bag of ice cubes! And yes this stuff really was rock solid.

Wow! That’s a result! Around 50% of the contents of the freezer (and most of the expensive stuff) is saved. Amazing! We know one is always told a switched off freezer will be OK for 12-24 hours. But we really hadn’t expected to salvage anything much after almost 48 hours.

Yes, it would have been better to have the freezer fixed. But doing so would have taken time and probably lost the whole of the contents and cost for the repair. When added up would that have been greener that buying a new freezer? Maybe. Maybe not. But buying a new one was probably the more economic decision.

Oh, and that (large) terrine has just come out of the oven; now cooling and being pressed. Basically it is a variant of our Ennismore Terrine. It smells gorgeous!

Moral(s): Know when to leave well alone. Do quick risk analysis to enable quick decisions. And above all don’t panic!

amusements, ramblings

Auction Amusement

Our local auction house haven’t recently turned up the usual outstaning collections of oddly composed lots or strange things being sold. However here are the highlights of the last three sales.

A quantity of Egyptian dried scarab beetles

Two person tent, a quantity of cricket bats, a Mandoline Pro in box, a toaster, a Daewoo deep fat fryer, and one by Russell & Hobbs, plus five sculpture puzzles including Darth Vader and an Egyptian

A pine tool-box, an African drum, a vintage three-legged milking stool

Metal milk crate containing 19 milk bottles Middle Edgarley Farm, Glastonbury and a vintage Burroughs adding machine

An Edison Bell Gem phonograph, London-made, No. 21090, a Piccolo zither, a small oak barometer of banjo form, and a combined timepiece and barometer of lancet form

A cut-glass claret jug with Continental silver-plated mount, and a pewter mug inscribed to H Churchill of the Madras Fire Service

Ten saddle stands

A vintage cast iron tram controller dead man’s lever stamped BTH Co Ltd, Rugby, England

A Bo Peep sheep stool with wool cover

An interesting 19th century pine cabin trunk the black front panel painted Pte W Bryers 7/9th Regt the inside lid pasted with a period paper ‘Presentation of Colors to the 9th Regimental of Foot’ 1848, also a paper cutting reporting the death of John Bryers by drowning in the Regents Canal following a contretemps in a local alehouse

A good quality artist’s easel with full adjustments by Winsor & Newton, and two antlers

Four shelves of mixed items including a Tiffany style ceiling light plus another, photo frames including silver-plated, a Victorian silk table screen, framed pictures, a chess set, a four-drawer jewellery box, a cased set of Apostle tea spoons, wicker baskets, a brass clock in the shape of an over-sized pocket watch, vintage advertising tins, display cases, a Cardiff City shield, Chinese scrolls, replica swords, work boots, a Thomas the Tank Engine toy etc.

A pair of silver-plated three-branch candelabra, a mantel clock, a doorstop alarm, a fold-away rucksack, a micro jet tool, cord strap, fly swats, a sensor night light, packs of card, a charger, putty, a briefcase, a hobby drill, a red bag, a portable brush holder etc.

A French bronze spelter figure of an Arab horseman, circa 1900, together with a copper and brass bugle, and four similar horns

An antique AEG Mignon typewriter, Model 4, with TCM London transfers

Three black vintage telephones, a pair of 19th century Lucas bicycle lights, two lanterns etc.

A vintage PerryBuoy lifebuoy, a Smith Maritime rev counter, two old metal pulleys, three pairs of binoculars

An American Todd Protectograph cheque writer, with label for Halsby & Co Ltd, list of patents to December 30th 1924

A Clarice Cliff Bizarre Gayday dwarf candlestick painted with flowers, and an Art Deco vase with runny decoration

A Lark tuba made in China model no. M4050

An to end with, good though this is …

A vintage taxidermy display of three ermine on simulated rocks, with paper label of W.C. Darbey, Naturalist, 12 Banbury Road, Oxford

… the pièce de résistance surely has to be …

Henry John Yeend King, an oils on panel triptych of a classical idyll typical of the Aesthetic Movement, signed, applied to a Victorian upright piano in figured walnut by Justin Browne of London, the lower panel by the pedals also painted with steps to a lily pool

More as and when the mood takes the auction house!

beliefs, nudism

More on Nudism

I happened on a blog post the other day under the title 10 Things Only Nudists Understand.

While I’m not convinced that only nudists understand these things, they are a quick introduction/FAQ to some of the common misconceptions about nudism.

The ten things are:

  1. Nude is not sexual
  2. Life is better without clothes
  3. Everybody has beautiful imperfections
  4. Nudism gives you a sense of freedom
  5. Nudism is great within the family
  6. Nudists don’t live in nudist colonies
  7. Nudists can be everybody
  8. There are many different kinds of nudism
  9. Nudism brings people together
  10. Nudism is just so much fun

Detailed discussion in the actual blog post.

quotes

Monthly Quotes

Another month goes by and we arrive at another edition of our quotes (amusing or enlightening) recently encountered. As usual in no particular order …

What is needed is something in which [we] can all believe irrespective of religion, which in most cases, dare I say it, is a façade. We need something else, and that something is ethics. Goodness, kindness, love, honesty.
[Nicholas Winton]

In this sentence, “-ough” is pronounced nine different ways:
A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed, houghed, and hiccoughed.

Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event.
[Oscar Wilde]

In 2019 Volgograd electrical engineer Pavel Konnov decided that … the [Voynich Manuscript] describes [a] … rite which protected women from sexual violence by vampires.

If you know the wave function of the universe, why aren’t you rich?
[Murray Gell-Mann]

I didn’t know what I was doing. I was like a man fighting bees.
[Charles Portis, True Grit]

Truth-tellers are not always palatable. There is a preference for candy bars.
[Gwendolyn Brooks, poet (1917-2000)]

Solitude is for me a fount of healing which makes my life worth living. Talking is often a torment for me, and I need many days of silence to recover from the futility of words.
[Carl Jung]

Conventionality is not morality. Self righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last.
[Charlotte Bronte’s preface to the 2nd edition of Jane Eyre]

The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me.
[Meister Eckhart]

… the acceptance of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution as a means of accounting for the development of species. This was linked to the spectacular industrial and technological developments of the period [Victorians] to produce a cult of progress in which the old and primitive were automatically devalued and despised.
[Ronald Hutton, “Under the Spell of the Druids”, History Today, 13 June 2019]

The British took democracy to other countries, but we can’t even abide by it or believe in it ourselves.
[Quoted in the Guardian, 15 June 2019]

beliefs, nudism, personal

Nudity (again)

I came across an interesting post on the Naked Wanderings blog. It is overtly about the influences nudism has on our (intimate) relationships, but I found it interesting because it also throws some light on why many people find nudity (and thus nudism/naturism) so scary and taboo. Here’s the cut down version:

[N]udism has a positive influence on both our physical and mental health.
. . .
But how does nudism effect relationships?
. . .
[Apparently] the divorce rate among nudist couples is a lot lower than among textiles . . . are nudist couples sharing different values than textiles which are more likely to keep them together?
. . .
The level of trust in our relationship is high enough that we wouldn’t be threatened knowing that our partner was spending time naked among other nudies.
. . .
[But] in many relationships, trust is often linked with an inevitable idea of not letting the fox into the hen house . . . We want our partner to be sexy as hell when we go out together but we wonder why they have to look so fancy when they will spend a night with friends. We know that a couple of her well placed hip movements in that dress can make a guy go crazy or that with his three day beard in combination with that certain shirt he’ll have girls hanging on his lips. Imagine what it would be like if everyone was naked.
. . .
If we allow our partner to be seen naked and to see others in their purest form, have we conquered jealousy? [Maybe.] It’s all about the intention.
. . .
For us, it seems unimaginable not to see our partner nude at least a couple of times a day, but we would probably be surprised if we knew for how many people it has been weeks, months, sometimes even years since they last saw their partner’s naked body.
. . .
According to [one] poll . . . 40% of the interviewees preferred to only have sex when the lights are out . . . because then you avoid getting caught up in thoughts about your physical appearance . . . If you have any intention to spend at least some part of your life with this person, you still feel that you have to hide your own body?
. . .
[T]here is no hiding, we see each other naked so often that . . . we became aware of our bodies and we accept how we and our partner looks . . . nudity still gets us excited, but it depends on the situation. 
. . .
We get the question about how to convince your partner into nudism . . . Propose that they give it a try. Only once, in a secure and not very crowded place.
. . .
[W]e are completely okay with others who prefer to wear clothes. We are not saying that our lifestyle is the only right one.

If even half of this is true, then I find it a very sad reflection on the state of our minds, and the prudish control which has been exerted on us for generations – this is nothing new. A lot of it can certainly be laid at the door of Western religions and the patriarchy; although there are doubtless other influences too.

Isn’t it time we accepted that we’re basically all the same. We all know what’s under your t-shirt and jeans; my t-shirt and jeans.

So where is the problem? Yes, like so many things the problem really is only in your mind, if you allow it to be.