Full Moon Rising

 

 

The full moon rising in Hornsea, East Yorkshire (Saturday 29th)

A glorious sunny day in East Yorkshire on Saturday allowed the grass to dry and it got its first cut for three weeks. The leaves are already starting to come down and there are subtle changes in colours in the trees as the richness of the green gives way to more muted colours.

It's been a busy old time with my in-laws Diamond Wedding celebration and a card from Her Majesty the Queen with her congratulations too!. Well done Ken and Iris. Their family got together to arrange a super evening celebratory meal and they were picked up by a 1952 Humber classic car - made in the year of their marriage.

I haven't been too bright recently with a sore throat and a mild cold so I took my car in for it's MOT on Saturday morning and decided to walk back home from the garage. It's about half an hours walk and although it was crystal clear wall to wall sun, the wind was cold. Walking along footpaths I noticed that the Hawthorn bushes and trees were absolutely full with berries, more so that ever I can remember. 

Hawthorn in full berry, a winter food store for the birds

Yet my colleagues at work who make their home made booze are bemoaning the fact that there are no damsons or sloes to make gin with this year, the damsons being virtually non-existent and the sloes, what few there are, being mushy and unusable.

A little bit further along is Hessle Haven, a small tributary which feeds water off the land into the mighty River Humber. I haven't seen a ship tie up there for a couple of years now, once a landing place for timber, it became a pick up point for scrap metal to go abroad, now the Haven is a storage place for containers and lorry parking. The ships have long gone. There used to be a few leisure craft in the haven, occasionally being worked on by dedicated men on a weekend, now most of them have rotted and their skeletal remains are sinking deeper into the silt.

A boat no longer loved or cared for in the silt of Hessle Haven

Hope you have enjoyed your weekend.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Pick me a Winkle

Prompted by a weird text from my friend Linda who admitted to having eaten a frog and squid in her life (yeuk!), I just wondered what was the strangest thing or combination of foods you've ever eaten? Despite having eaten frog and squid, Linda baulks at the idea of eating snail. Well I haven't eaten frog which she says tastes not unlike chicken and I had squid once and thought it extremely tough and rubbery and have never touched it since.

As a kid however, I have had winkles. 

Winkles? Now I don't know if this is an English delicacy or a Yorkshire delicacy in particular, but winkles are a little mollusc which lives on seashore rocks and they graze on algae so they do do us a favour. They are quite small and look like a tiny snail - here's a picture:

They are generally boiled, sold in small paper bags and then we prized the meat out of the shell with a pin. There are all sorts of unkind things said about them - that they look like huge bogies (out of your nose) but although small, they were quite tasty.

Now, I'm not a faddy eater but I don't experiment with food too much although I don't mind trying new things that come along now and then.

Again, as a kid, I used to eat strawberry jam and Cheddar cheese sandwiches. Now I loved them, but some people think that's odd. I've heard of pregnant women being addicted to all sorts of strange foods including coal!

And my final confession is when I was a teenager, I used to smoke (shame on me - something I really regret although I did give up over  30 years ago) cinnamon sticks that we bought from the chemist. Bloody disgusting now I look back, but a lot of people who were not well off used to smoke all sorts of rubbish including my dear departed friend Jack who even smoked dried privet leaves and other concoctions from his garden clippings and was heartily sick as a consequence.

So here's the question - what's the strangest thing or combination of things you've ever eaten?

Chat soon

Ta-ra!

Can you Show me the Milky Way?

I don't have a bucket list, (things to do before you 'kick the bucket') but there are some things I would love to do and one of those is to see the Milky Way. From this country, it's impossible because of the light pollution, but from some remote places in the world, it is possible to get magnificent and unobstructed views. I am placing a couple of links here, one to some time-lapse photography which shows it beautifully and a photograph taken in Australia above taken by Mike Salway and to view his site from where the picture was taken, click here.



Excerpts from Temporal Distortion Extended Cut from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoy this short movie and to see it in its full magnificence, please use your full screen to view it.

As autumn and winter approaches, it's time for me to get my camera out of hibernation and start snapping night shots of the sky. I know nothing of the science of the Universe save for what a layman knows, but it doesn't stop me being fascinated by the beauty and sheer scale of its magnificence and mystery. I've followed the adventures of the Mars Exploration Rovers and aside from the arguements about cost and benefits, it's been nothing short of compelling viewing. We have a small telescope which will also come out shortly, I just wish it wasn't so damned cold on a night!

I am in the process of planning with my three good friends Linda, Helly and Phil, a new and exciting venture, a Mind, Body, Spirit and Craft fair. This is a monumental task but its starting to come together with some gusto with stall holder responding to our invitations. The administrative burdens behind this should not be underestimated, but it should be a great event which can be enjoyed by all the family. 

It's at the Atrium at the Prospect Shopping Centre in Hull on Saturday 24 November 2012. The Atrium is the first floor of the shopping centre which used to be a magnificent food hall. This closed down about three years ago and was tidied up and mothballed when the owner of the food outlets went out of business. Now it hires out for events and we have it for a day. So more news on the planning of this as it rolls along. So far, we have therapists, craft stalls, an astrologer, psychic readers, healers and others too. Watch this space.

This weekend has seen quite a contrast for me. On Saturday, my business partner and great friend Linda Lee and I did psychic readings and psychic drawings at a garden party held in the village of Cottingham in East Yorkshire where two neighbours open their gardens for stalls and events in aid of Dove House Hospice, a charitable organisation in Hull which provides help and assistance for those suffering with life limiting illness as well as supporting their families.  The weather was magnificent with wall to wall autumnal sunshine, sadly with not enough people coming and enjoying what was available, but at least our little service of the psychic and spirit provided a tidy donation for an excellent cause. The contrast was today, Sunday, a day of rest and reading.

Our work at home to convert the garage to a bedroom and utility rooms is going on apace and the garage is now just a distant memory. The 'garage bedroom' is now plastered and the back room behind the garage which is also being converted into a bedroom is starting to take shape too. There is more plumbing and electrical work to do and plastering, but the main construction is completed. The dust and dirt is driving me potty, but I guess it'll be over soon and we can start decorating and cleaning through.

I hope you've had a great weekend wherever you are, the weather here has been quite kind to us and the working week beckons.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Put That Light Out!

Barbed wire and the shadow of the imposing guard tower discouraging escape

What a fabulous late summer weather we are having here in most of the UK with temperatures this afternoon in my garden a comfortable and very sunny 23 degrees Celsius. It's not quite an Indian Summer as by definition, that occurs after the end of summer proper which in the UK I believe finishes at the end of September - who cares - a lovely day!

Recently, a very good friend and I visited Eden Camp in North Yorkshire. I know some of you enjoy reading about the various places around where we are here in the UK and this is another tourist attraction, a museum, built upon the real life of it's former past, a prison of war camp. Located just north of the town of Malton, Eden camp nestles uncomfortably close to an electricity sub station, in beautiful rolling countryside. 

Built in 1942, Eden Camp was a prison of war camp for German and Italian prisoners of war. The museum is built out of the original 'huts' that housed the prisoners, brick built edifices that survive today. The tour starts at hut one and takes you through a journey in time from pre-war (1939-45), throughout the war and shows some subsequent conflicts too up to the modern day. But more than just a time line, there are many many aspects of life depicted of the ordinary person left at home as well as the soldier, aircrew and sailor and other services who supported the country such as the Land Army, Civil Defence and Local Volunteer Defence Force.

Just a tiny number of the 'huts' which comprise the Eden Camp Museum

 There's lot of reading to do and thousands of photographs to see on display boards as well as displays of life in war time which is in itself fascinating and replicas of shops and homes and a bomb damaged site. This is an award winning site and it's not difficult to see why. There is ample parking, a very good canteen/cafe which is quite large, the only advice I would give you is this, if you catch a coach trip as we did, you could be queueing for meals for ages, so if you took packing up or a picnic, there are plenty of places to eat outdoors.

Just a small part of a display about what was available as medicines at the time of war.
I remember Sloan's Liniment (it stank!)

The site really does contextualise what an horrific time war is for any nation and the hardship that it goes through must have been experienced to be believed, but it's important that we do understand what conflict is and that the lesson is that we should try every conceivable means to avoid it.

A memorial to Bomb Disposal Units

The six acres of living history that is Eden Camp is suitable for disabled people (including braille sheets and an audio guide) and there is free parking. There are excellent first class roads to the site. Dogs are welcome too and at £6.00 per adult and less for concessions, this is good value for money and is thoroughly recommended. Their website can be viewed here.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Once in a Blue Moon

An unusual solar event tonight - a blue moon. Now in my ignorance I imagined I would be going out to see a blue moon - literally, a blue colour. That is not the case I've learned.

You are never too old to learn and my view is we'll all keep learning until our days run out. The blue moon is in fact the second full moon within a calendar month. This is indeed a rarish event and the next time this happens is in 2015. Hence the phrase, "once in a blue moon". However, what is the mystery around it being 'blue' if it's not actually blue?

We find then that this second full moon within the month is a false moon - we've already had one full moon! The old English word for false or to betray is 'belewe' (as well as meaning blue). As the church calendar was constructed in part on the moons cycles, the populous needed to know which was the real moon and which the false (second in the month) moon, hence - the blue moon.

Well we have to go back as you would expect many centuries - in fact to the sixteen century and a piece of literature which took a pop at the clergy at the time. In essence it said that if the clergy told you the moon was blue (belewe), then you are expected to believe them.

Good story and even if it's not true, it's still a good one.

Just to confuse things however, moons can be seen as blue which is caused by atmospheric pollution such as smoke from fires or volcanic dust. The Smurfs thought a blue moon was actually blue and the detective agency in Moonlighting starring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd from the 1980s was the Blue Moon Detective Agency!

Finally on this lunar subject, the song Blue Moon which was played on the radio this morning on the way to work. Written by Rodgers and Hart in 1934, the song was recorded among others by Billie Holiday, Elvis, Mel Torme and Cliff Richard. I heard the Marcels doo-wop version.

The opening lines of Blue Moon, a romanticised reworked film title tune, and sung by the male lead goes like this:

Blue Moon
You saw me standing alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own

'She' responds: 

Blue Moon
You know just what I was there for
You heard me saying a prayer for
Someone I really could care for

And by the end, you know they've got together when they both sing:

Blue Moon
Now I'm no longer alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own

I hope you have a great weekend, take care.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

What's in a Number?

This is my 473rd post. Nothing particularly significant in that as such, however this was the year in which Leo the First granted his six year old son Leo the Second the title of Caesar in the Roman Empire. Today, the 473 bus in London will take you between North Woolwich  and Stratford and takes in the London City Airport. A few years ago, the journey would have taken you between  Dormansland (Plough) and Crawley via East Grinstead, Kingscote, and Three Bridges. The old hand painted aluminium bus sign above is from this site.

473 is the country telephone code for Grenada and United Nations resolution 473  adopted in June 1980 expressed concern and condemned South Africa for the killing of protesters, including schoolchildren opposed to apartheid. At the time of writing, Flight United 473 is travelling from LaGuardia to Chicago Hare International airport in the United States of America.

So there are some useless facts about 473; but some would look at the number and determine that indeed, the number may not be random and that it might actually mean something.

This is what numerologists do. In his excellent book, Complete Guide to Developing your Psychic Skills, David Wells outlines the basics and explains what numbers mean and how they can be used and I'll give you an example of how it works as I understand it, using the random number that I started with - 473.

Take the number 473 and add all the individual digits together: 4 + 7 + 3. This equals 14. Now, add 1 + 4 and this equals 5. And so 5 is the 'magic' number.

You can do this with your birthday. Say you were born on the 27 August 1960. This works out like this:  27 (the day) + 8 (the month) + (1 + 9 + 6 + 0).

Reduce this down to 9 + 8 + 17. This equals 34. Finally add these numbers together and your number is 7.

So what do your final numbers mean? Well that is a matter of interpretation and a good book like David's can explain it, so for example, in the above birthday example, 7 in terms of your life path, it means science, solitude, spiritual and mystical. My birthday is worked out as number 3: truth, optimism, playful, expressive. It is possible to work out your personality number, your life path number, your soul number  and your destiny number using your name (by assigning numbers to the letters), significant dates etc.

Now of course this is only for fun. If you think it's bunkum, well thank you for reading so far. The jury is out for me, but if asked what was your favourite number, what would you say? We are often asked that, like 'what is your favourite colour'. I have favourite numbers, for example, house numbers where I've lived, my personal number 3 is another and so on. Ask yourself why you have a lucky or favourite number or a colour - if you have one, are you superstitious do you believe in luck or is there another reason. 

Enjoy the ponder.

The work on the house continues apace and is on schedule. The work has already transformed the house, how it looks and how it feels. Another couple of weeks and we should have it finished ready to decorate out.

On Saturday  a couple of days ago, we had the most torrential summer storm including hailstones the size of marbles. Leaves were ripped from the trees and my poor flower heads on the geraniums were felled in a five minute deluge. Fascinating how the weather is showing signs of extreme weather which, in the mainland UK were fairly rare events up until the last few years, now they are regular occurrences.

Chat soon 

Ta ra.

Ladybird on my Shoe

Hello fellow bloggers and blog readers.

It's been nearly a fortnight since I blogged; I seem to be only blogging at weekends because weekdays are blessedly busy! Anyhow, last weekend was spent in the beautiful countryside of North Yorkshire just on the edge of the wonderful Dalby Forest just outside a village called Thornton-le-Dale at Pexton Moor Farm. I was with a few friends enjoying the fresh air and it was our intent to do some spiritual exercises and meditations, but the weekend was just one long much needed relaxing break, we just chilled out. 

The weather was fine although I have to say the Friday night was somewhat chilly, but we saw the International Space Station pass by on the Friday night - bright, stately and magnificent and we saw a few meteorites from the Perseid showers - often known as 'St Lawrence's tears' as they occur on the 10th August, the anniversary of the man's martyrdom ( c. 225–258, a deacon of ancient Rome and the keeper of the Holy Chalice).

Work on our garage conversion goes on apace and the garage door is long gone and a hole awaits a window fitting tomorrow. Internal rooms in what once was the garage are now created, the walls lined and some of the plumbing done. The house is in a mess with 'stuff' awaiting the completion of the conversion when we can get it safely stored back in a specifically built store room.

Here is before:

And here is a... wall with a hole!

Now then, here's a question. I was walking to a friends house for a meditation last week one evening and happened to come across a couple of magnificent chestnut trees on the side of the footpath in the grounds of a nursing home. Both the trees and indeed other chestnut trees I subsequently spied during the walk also had leaves that were like this:

Has anyone any idea what this may be? I know the Chestnuts are one of the earliest trees to turn when autumn arrives, but surely, it's too early for leaves to turn yet?

Finally, the title of the blog? I had just cut the grass this afternoon and was having a reflective moment on a garden chair with a cup of fruit tea before the rain came and a ladybird landed on my foot. Here is a picture of a black ladybird with red spots I took a couple of weeks ago.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Square Eyes

A delicate beautiful begonia from my hanging basket outside the front door

I'm not a big TV viewer to be honest, but I've been glues to a bits of the Olympic coverage this last week and was privileged to see Super Saturday (4th August) when TeamGB won a sack load of medals. Today is becoming Super Sunday with more golds so we now have a super weekend.

The BBC have done famously with their coverage which has been very professional with great anchor-people and passionate commentators particularly those on their exceptional radio coverage. The news bulletins have been a bit repetitive with summaries of the Olympics which we don't need but no complaints really.

The real stars are the competitors, win or lose, they have trained hard for four years, sometimes every day in some disciplines for one event. For some, a once in their lifetime event, so well done to them, they all deserve a medal.

In between a bit of sport (and England are playing South Africa in the cricket too) I've been a domestic help this last week. My t'other half has done her back in - quite serious this time with complete bed rest ordered for a few days so it's been all pumps to the hand. I write this as I've finished ironing shirts for next week! I'm not very good at it to be honest, but the result is passable.

Our garage is empty now awaiting the builder who arrives at 8 am tomorrow so we have a few weeks of mess to content with because our 'back room' is being converted after that so no respite. I didn't realise how much stuff you accumulate and store because you think you might need it or keep it for sentimental reasons.  Needless to say, the recycling tip has been busy this week with a lot of junk. With reduced space once the conversion is done, there is less room to store anything, so it gives us an excuse for keeping the place tidy and getting rid of stuff we don't need - or perhaps better still - the lesson is: don't get it in the first place!

My grandfather was a hoarder - his shed was full of useless junk which he said 'might come in useful one day,' but it never did.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Olympic Fun

It's been a pleasant week weather wise culminating in a very good opening presentation of the 30th Olympiad, the London 2012 Olympic games. Hate is an awful word and I rarely if ever use it. However, I hate all the detractors, the whingers, moaners, spiteful media and people who are just so negative, their ulcers must be on overtime.

Instead of being negative over sport, why don't they sit back and enjoy the spectacle and learn a few things. It is interesting that the cost of the opening ceremony was £27M which is a lot of money albeit it had a global audience of over 100 million. One footballer, sold to Liverpool FC last season cost £35M. For goodness sake put it into context and go and find something else to moan at - or preferably, try and see some good in something.

There were several highlights for me and Mr Boyles vision was very well portrayed. I think one Los Angeles newspaper called it 'very British.' Certainly, and why not.

I got  a little damp today as I cut the grass surrounded by black clouds and eventually a short but heavy shower put paid to the gardening today although this weekend has seen lots of work emptying and tidying our garage ready for the conversion into a bedroom. 15 years of accumulated spider skeletons are hidden in various corners.

I hope you have a great week, and wherever in the world you are reading this from, I hope your Olympic team do well.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Beauty and the Beast

A bee on my dahlia flower this morning

Pyracantha will be familiar to some gardeners; it's a shrub which has beautiful cream or white flowers in spring and lovely berries for the birds in winter. The berries come in a number of colours, but predominantly cream, orange and red. Blackbirds and pigeons love the berries, especially in late winter when there's nothing much left.  This year's tiny young berries are here already. 

Pyracantha - before pruning

However as with much that is beautiful in the garden, there is a dark side to this hardy bush. 

Pyracantha - after pruning

This evergreen shrub, its common name 'firethorn' as the name suggests has thorns. If you want an effective barrier or to deter potential trespassers, then pyracantha is for you. The young thorns on new green growth are fairly soft, but wait a few months and those thorns on hard wood can grow up to about two inches in length and are like needles. They are truly awful. I cut mine back today because it was getting out of hand and it is advisable on this scale of job to use electric shears or large hand shears rather than small secateurs and without doubt gardening gloves. But beware, gloves are probably still not thick enough to prevent your hand being skewered so pick up cut branches gently and dispose of rather than compost.

'Akantha' - thorn

Although bitter, apparently pyracantha berries can be made into a very nice jelly, but I don't think the birds would be too happy. A member of the apple family, the name pyracantha apparently is first seen in the 1660s and is a mix of Greek pyr - fire and akantha - thorn.

My first water lily of the season

You may recall that I've talked about nothing much else but the weather this year, i.e., the rain, but the summer has finally arrived with some fine weather, blue skies and sun. It's hot. I read Donna's blog who comes from central Illinois and they are in a very bad drought, so I hope some of the rain we've had can find its way over there for her. The power of thought probably brought us rain so lets wish rain for Donna and her community.

We're having some building work done soon to convert a garage to a bedroom and a morning room to another bedroom which will give our children who are still at home larger bedrooms rather than the cramped ones they have at the moment so the house will be in a bit of a state in the next few weeks. The trick is to empty the garage which tends to be a junk room (it's never seen a car in the fifteen years we've been here.) Wish me luck!

Chat soon

Ta-ra