quotes

More Quotes

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Another round-up of quotes I’ve met which were amusing, interesting or thought-provoking.

The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.
[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]

Any event in this world — any human being for that matter — that seems to wear even the faintest cast or warp of strangeness, is apt to leave a disproportionately sharp impression on one’s senses … Life’s mere ordinary day-to-day — its thoughts, talk, doings — wither and die out of the mind like leaves from a tree. Year after year a similar crop recurs, and that goes too. It is mere debris, it perishes. But these other anomalies survive, even through the cold of age.
[Walter de la Mare, quoted at www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22380449]

The belief that the world is composed only of physical things operating according to universal laws is metaphysical speculation, not a falsifiable theory.
[John Gray, quoted at www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22380449]

The distinction between what’s natural and what’s not isn’t as straightforward as it seems. The very idea of a law-governed cosmos may be a relic of monotheism, with natural laws serving the role that divine commands once did. Many religions don’t distinguish between nature and the supernatural. For animists and polytheists, the natural world is full of spirits.
[John Gray (again), quoted at www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22380449]

Today’s scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality.
[Nikola Tesla]

The strongest leaders lead not from their anger and frustration and fear, but from their vision of the world as it could be … See a world you want to move toward, and take just one step forward today. Take one more step tomorrow. And one more after that …
[Emily Nagoski at www.thedirtynormal.com/2013/05/08/be-the-sex-educator/]

Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.
[Mae West]

O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
My tables, — meet it is I set it down,
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;
[Hamlet, I,v]

When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
[Goodhart’s Law]

Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.
[George Orwell]

Though Evelyn [Waugh] described his own grasp of Latin and Greek as ‘superficial’, he did not think the hours devoted to learning them were wasted because one learnt ‘that words have basic inalienable meanings, departure from which is either conscious metaphor or inexcusable vulgarity … The old fashioned test of an English sentence — will it translate? — still stands after we have lost the trick of translation’. Anyone denied this apprenticeship — ‘most Americans and most women’ — would always be at a disadvantage.
[Michael Barber; Brief Lives: Evelyn Waugh]

You can never plan the future by the past.
[Edmund Burke]

Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible.
[MC Escher, 1898-1972]

history, photography

Weekly Photograph

Actually this week we’re actually going to have more than one photo. One morning last week we went for a little tour round some of our local old churches, mainly because I had promised to take a few record shots of them for the local family history society. It was a blustery, intermittently sunny, morning which kept threatening rain — and I think we all felt more like a duvet day than going out taking photographs. But we gritted out teeth and carried on.

One of the churches on the list was St Mary the Virgin, Perivale. I quite see why it was championed by Sir John Betjeman. It is a tiny gem, right on my doorstep, and I’ve never been to it before.

The church itself has long been decommissioned, although I think not de-consecrated. It is now leased and tended by its Friends organisation and used for small concerts etc.

Most of this I knew, so we didn’t really expect to get access beyond being able to walk down the cycleway that runs alongside.

St Mary's, Perivale from South
As we arrived, the sun came out; there were several people tending the churchyard and the church itself was open. Not wishing to impose too much on everyone’s good will we had only a brief look inside and a longer stroll round the graveyard.

St Mary's, Perivale Interior
Except for those horrible red chairs the church interior reminded me very much of the small churches of the Romney Marsh, especially Fairfield; and also of Greenstead-juxta-Ongar in Essex. Although not really that similar to either architecturally it was the intimacy which was the key. Apart from the tiny chancel the inside is not especially ornate; it would be too much if it were.

St Mary's, Perivale Churchyard
But as you see from the photos the setting is a delight. It is surrounded by trees and Ealing Golf Course. And again, although small, the churchyard is a lovely peaceful oasis, just a couple of hundred yards off the busy A40.

Everything was fresh and green, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. You could easily have been in the middle of nowhere. What more could one ask?!

arts, books, people

Book Review

Michael Barber
Brief Lives: Evelyn Waugh
(Hesperus; 2013)

When Michael Barber first told me he had a biography of Evelyn Waugh being published, my first reaction was “Why?”. Why do we need another biography of Waugh?

But then when I got a copy I realised this isn’t really a biography but more a dozen or so quick sketches of the man, for what Hesperus are doing is creating a series of “short, authoritative biographies of the greatest figures in literary history; written by experts in their fields to appeal to general readers and academics alike”.

Given that this is the aim, then Barber and Hesperus have largely succeeded. This is a short work which is well and amusingly written, while remaining interesting, light, accessible and, I found, quite hard to put down.

Yes, the book lacks detail — but what does one really expect in 120 pages? However, although I am no expert on Waugh, it did seem to encapsulate the essence of the man and his life: idiosyncratic, snob, arriviste, poseur, spendthrift, drunk, intransigent bore and grumpy old man (even when quite young); but also both an excellent novelist (I’ll except Brideshead Revisited which never worked for me) and often highly amusing.

As a bonus, at least for me, Anthony Powell gets quite a few mentions. Powell and Waugh, although in some ways rival writers, were friends and admired each others’ work — both publicly and privately — often writing to say how much they had enjoyed the other’s latest volume. Waugh always wanted to live to see Powell complete Dance, but sadly he died halfway through. Wouldn’t it have been interesting to have heard his views on the second half of Dance? How the war trilogy compared with his Sword of Honour? And what would he have made of the denouements of Temporary Kings and Hearing Secret Harmonies?

As Anthony Powell so often did I shall conclude this review with two gripes. While understanding that publishers need to keep costs down, such awful cheap paper is horrid to handle and isn’t going to stand the rigours of time; I would happy to pay an extra 50p to £1 on the price of a book if it meant more aesthetically pleasing paper.

Finally I deplore the lack of an index. I know this is a short work, but any non-fiction book without an index becomes unusable as a reference source. And that, to my mind, is inexcusable in an environment where we must do everything we can to encourage the use of books as a resource. Again I have to lay the blame on cost-cutting publishers, rather than the authors, most of whom I suspect would (privately, at least) agree.

An excellent introduction to the man and a highly enjoyable and interesting read.

Overall rating: ★★★★☆

natural history

Be Nice To Nettles Week

15 to 26 May is Be Nice To Nettles Week, which looks nearer two weeks to me, but who’s counting?!

What?! Shouldn’t those nasty stinging nettles be destroyed? Well no, and in fact this is a relatively modern conception. In fact the humble nettle has played, and continues to play, an important role in the natural world: they are favourite place for ladybirds (which eat aphids) to lay their eggs, they are a favourite food plant for some of our more brightly-coloured butterflies and the young shoots can even be used in our kitchen much as you would use spinach — so our forebears actually cherished the nettle as an early Spring green vegetable.


So yes, we should continue to cherish the nettle as a valuable part of our ecology by leaving a patch of rough ground for them to grow in.

AS always there is more on Be Nice To Nettles Week oin their website at www.nettles.org.uk/.

medical

Walk to Work Week

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This year’s Walk to Work Week runs from 13 to 17 May.

It is generally agreed that in modern society we don’t walk enough (guilty as charged!) because walking is a great way to maintain fitness and helps keep the heart healthy. For those who work outside the home, walking to work also saves on petrol and bus fares, and is better for our planet. OK, walking to work isn’t feasible for everyone so as an alternative why not have a lunchtime stroll in the park or along the river?


You can always use walking to work as a way to raise money for your favourite charity, or just to be like Charles Dickens and Wordsworth who went on walks to get inspiration!

Find more information at www.walkingworks.org.uk.

personal

Mislaid Pussy

I’ve lost my pussy! Yep, somehow we seem to have mislaid a cat! Sally, our small striped tabby cat has been AWOL now for over 24 hours. She was last seen about 11pm on Thursday night on the upstairs landing, but didn’t appear for breakfast yesterday, nor since.

Tabby Tiger
We’ve checked all the known/vaguely possible, apparently (in)accessible, hidey-holes in the house and garden and there’s been no obvious RTA. Noreen has talked to the immediate 15-20 neighbours. Sheds and garages have been checked where possible. There are no obviously empty properties, nor any building work, within at least a couple of hundred metres. However there are lots of inaccessible, overgrown and impassable alleyways.

What is odd is that Sal is a homebody. At 15 neither cat goes out a lot (especially given the tarty girl cats next door and their boyfriends), and Sal has never strayed very far from our garden even when young. And she’s not allowed out the front door, although has been know to sneak out when we don’t have an eagle eye open.

Sunday Morning Lay-in
There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot more one can do. We could put up posters around the street, but I’m never convinced how useful they are. And we ought to talk to the 6 or 8 houses in the next street that back onto us.

Obviously if she turns up we’ll be delighted. But if not, then so be it. Sal was 15 and appeared in good health — even the vet when she was last there a few months ago said he would have thought she was more like 7 or 8 than 15! But we know that cats are often aware when their time is up and wander away to die peacefully somewhere on their own terms — and who should blame them!

food+drink

British Sandwich Week

Also timed to coincide with National Mills Weekend and National Real Bread Maker Week is British Sandwich Week which runs from 12 to 19 May.

We have become a nation of sandwich eaters, and why not because they can be a wholesome, filling and nutritious fast food. Since (allegedly) invented by 4th Earl of Sandwich the eponymous snack has blossomed from the original beef between two pieces of bread into an endless range of varieties.

As part of this year’s fun there will be an attempt on the World Record for the largest number of people simultaneously making a sandwich in the same place.

So why not celebrate the great British sandwich as well as raising a toast to the 4th Earl.

There is more information about sandwiches and British Sandwich Week over at www.lovesarnies.com.

words

Word: Petrichor

Petrichor

The sweet smell of rain on earth.

The pleasant, distinctive smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather in certain regions. Also applied to an oily substance obtained from the ground in which this smell was concentrated.

The term was coined in 1964 by two Australian researchers, Bear and Thomas, for an article in the journal Nature. In the article, the authors describe how the smell derives from an oil exuded by certain plants during dry periods, whereupon it is absorbed by clay-based soils and rocks. During rain, the oil is released into the air along with another compound, geosmin, producing the distinctive scent. In a follow-up paper, Bear and Thomas showed that the oil retards seed germination and early plant growth.

Petrichor was concocted from the Greek petros (stone) plus ichor (the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology).

food+drink

National Real Bread Maker Week

11 to 17 May is Real Bread Maker Week which is Britain’s biggest annual celebration of Real Bread and its makers and is timed to coincide with National Mills Weekend.

The aim of Real Bread Maker Week is to encourage people to get baking Real Bread or buying it from independent bakeries to support their local communities.


In addition this year they are raising money to provide opportunities to help people who, for one reason or another, have a tougher time than most of us enjoy the social, therapeutic and employment opportunities Real Bread making offers.

More information can be found at www.sustainweb.org/realbread/national_real_breadmaker_week/.

There is nothing better than the smell of freshly baked bread to get your taste buds tingling!