Joy

After that previous post, something to celebrate today is that it was one year ago today that I left Brighton to move to Essex to live with Chris. Despite such a whirlwind romance my gut feeling (and his too if I may be so bold to speak on his behalf) is that we are both really happy together and that the decision was absolutely the right one. I miss my friends in Brighton but can pop back as and when as it's only a few hours away but sadly that's not possible with the choir and I've still not found another that I feel "fits" as the Rainbow Chorus did. I'm still looking though.

Things are (much!) quieter, the pub is closer, the night is blacker, the stars are brighter, the feel is calmer, the buses are fewer, natural beauty is much closer and life is very different.

I'm looking forward to the unfolding years of my new life with my wonderful, loving and provocative man. Yey!

Some things seem to never change

There was an interview on the BBC web site today with Tom Hooper who has just directed a new film of Les Miserables and I got to this part and thought "Oh no. We are over a decade into the 21st Century and this is still seen as shocking / remarkable territory:

A lot of people have said they cried watching that scene.

We could it put on the poster: "You will cry ugly tears".
I've seen it fell really tough people. There's an executive at Universal, and he's an ex-marine, and he was weeping when he saw the film. I love that it has that effect.

Was that your goal?Yeah, that was the intention. Make grown men cry.

Here's to the day that such sentiments would sound as absurd as "Yeah, that was the intention. Make grown women cry." It can't come too soon ...


And some men who couldn't possible be marines (ex or otherwise):

And I think it's safe to say that at this stage of the game, as a species we've inflicted enough pain, destruction and death on ourselves, other species and our home planet that any emotionally aware human would weep.

Uganda's proposed Anti-Human Rights Bill

An unspeakably vile piece of legislation proposed in 2009 is now back on the table again for President Museveni to pass .. or not.

This was originally put together back in 2009 and makes horrific reading - to see what's entailed if it passes into law just download this short 4 page PDF written by Uganda's Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law.

If you think it's as barbaric as I do, then please sign All Out's petition to be part of something that will hopefully stop this hideous bill again.

'Modern' life

I read "Sons and Lovers" by D H Lawrence at school as a teenager and loved it. It seemed profound and beautifully written even though, given the nature of its themes rather outside the realm of my experience, I didn't understand some of its deeper currents.

Recently I decided to take "Lady Chatterly's Lover" down off my bookshelf and read it for the first time. It's not much of a secret that Lawrence was not overly keen on the increasing mechanisation of society but I found a segment that I read today that, though written in 1928, seemed prescient for our way of life today, so here it is:

Forty years had made a difference in the neighbourhood. The iron and coal had eaten deep into the bodies and souls of the men.

Incarnate ugliness, and yet alive! What would become of them all? Perhaps with the passing of the coal they would disappear again, off the face of the earth. They had appeared out of nowhere in their thousands, when the coal had called for them. Perhaps they were only weird fauna of the coal-seams. Creatures of another reality, they were elementals, serving the elements of coal, as the metal-workers were elementals, serving the element of iron. Men not men, but animas of coal and iron and clay. Fauna of the elements, carbon, iron, silicon: elementals. They had perhaps some of the weird, inhuman beauty of minerals, the lustre of coal, the weight and blueness and resistance of iron, the transparency of glass. Elemental creatures, weird and distorted, of the mineral world! They belonged the coal, the iron, the clay, as fish belong to the sea and worms to dead wood. The anima of material disintegration!

What will become of miners, and oil and gas workers when we can no longer burn fossil fuels because the idiocy of us destroying our own liveable environment for comfort will be seen for what it is? They will be no more necessary to life for most of us than a farrier would be today. Our fossil fuel burning extravaganza is so woven into our lives that it seems impossible that it will not always be there, but it must have seemed too that horses would always fill our streets, that most people would work on the land and that blacksmiths would have plenty of work to do, yet they have been cast aside by the reshaping power of black gold. But its time too is passing and I believe that the wheel will turn again to activities more human-scale and what seemed history may well become our future.

'Normal' postings may be resumed soon. Or not.

Got any unattractive natural resources?

This is just great and from the same people that brought you the crazed weather woman video.

I love the sultry voice and the general weirdness of the whole thing

You're never too old

I saw this image at the weekend thanks to the Guardian's Eyewitness app for Apple's iOS and I loved it and the story so I had to pop it up here:

Former farmer Liu Xianping, 72, has become an internet sensation after modelling his granddaughter's teenage fashion designs for her online boutique Yuekou. What began as a joke went viral after Lyu Ting posted the photographs online, and saw her sales increase fivefold. Comments have been very favourable about Mr Liu's slender pins.

How much????!!!!!!!

There has recently been a bit of a debate about the cost of tickets to see the Rolling Stones saying that the average cost of tickets is about £406.

Well, maybe but when I was curious enough to look online about two weeks ago(ish) this is what I found. To say my jaw hit the floor was an understatement.

After the hurricane

Two photographs I've seen online, the first from the 30th and the 2nd from today made me want to give them some captions:

"What happens when we keep burning our way through all that petrol"

Given the above, it seems appropriate to link to a rather amazing animated sequence about what's going up above New York.

I caught a headline from on the BBC that I couldn't stop thinking of when I then saw this image.

"East Coast residents were overjoyed to hear that the NYSE had re-opened!"

And then to wrap up, two entries from the Climate Progress blog:

The most recent one is a post about Governor Cuomo of New York City who would obviously disagree with the BBC reporter I heard yesterday say that "[Sandy] ... is a once in a generation storm". But then the BBC seem under the strictest orders never to mention Climate Change as even possibly playing a part in any extreme weather event that they report.

The other is the omission of the mention of Climate Change by the mainstream media when discussing Sandy's appearance, approach, arrival and aftermath. I particularly liked this tidbit from the USA - "During this July’s extreme heat wave, only 8.7 percent of television news coverage mentioned climate change; over the summer, television news outlets covered Paul Ryan’s P90-X workouts three times more than the record loss of Arctic sea ice;". I have to add that I've no idea who Paul Ryan is ...

How many guns do they need?

Mitt Rommney, current US presidential hopeful, said last night:

And our military — we’ve got to strengthen our military long- term. We don’t know what the world is going to throw at us down the road. We — we make decisions today in a military that — that will confront challenges we can’t imagine. 

In the 2000 debates there was no mention of terrorism, for instance. And a year later, 9/11 happened. So we have to make decisions based upon uncertainty. And that means a strong military.

It's sobering to be reminded of the USA's military expenditure in 2010:

And Iran isn't even listed! But then, you can never have too much stuff ... 

Cake competition

This post is stupidly overdue, but that seems to be the way with me. I'll try to improve ...

Anyway, it was my first Goldhanger Gala Weekend at over the 8/9th of September weekend and there were a number of competitions one of which was "cake to a given recipe". I love cooking so I thought I'd enter into the spirit.

It was "Crunchy topped lemon cake", though on the recipe printed in the parish magazine 'Crunchy' had lost its 'n' ...

So, I made the cake which was only the 3rd I've ever made. Number 1 was a disaster and put me off for many, many years. The 2nd was earlier this year and was a Delia recipe which was a definite success so I thought this one might turn out OK.

I made it on the Friday because I knew there would be no time on the Saturday (can't remember why) even though I had to enter it on the Sunday. Anyway, on a beautifully sunny Sunday morning I took my cake on its slate base to the tent in the churchyard and placed it beside the other entries. I have to say, I thought mine looked very nice.

I went back at 4:30pm or so after the judging and was greeted with a "Ta Ra" by about four or five women in the tent and walking over to the cake ... well, what did I see?

On the reverse of the left paper it said something like "Excellent texture and flavour. Well done". The original paper is somewhere in the bottom of a full box of papers that I'm too lazy to search.

I burst out laughing I think and then grinned stupidly. Another woman who had entered every cake competition (this was one of three) had won the other two ... but not this one. I had! So far I'm still alive but I keep an eye over my shoulder.

One of the women in the tent warned me that next year the WI would be visiting when they needed 500 scones ...

Here is a photo of it as the judge first saw it before we tucked in:

I must admit, it was lovely to look at and very tasty indeed. I made a second one for my Mum as she wasn't there to try the 'original' but that didn't look as nice (it had a slightly raised centre) but, paradoxically, hadn't risen as well so it was a bit heavily textured.

Anyway, I was dead chuffed as was Chris and everyone else it seems and intend to be back next year.

Now here's a TV weather slot!

I feel bad about posting yet another video rather than relating my own beautifully worded record of life here on the lovely Essex coast, but when I saw this today I knew I had to pop it on here. I love the way that the news anchor continues to keep the programme sailing on in its usual fashion. :)

I don't Tweet and I'm not on Facebook so this is really my only place to post items that pique my interest. Anyway, I'll also include the intro text from the blog entry at Climate Progress and then the video.

I don't think I need to add anything else, perhaps apart from registering my continuing disbelief that the politicians in almost all countries appear to be sleepwalking right into the biggest crisis our species will ever face. As Caroline Lucas memorably said several years ago "We could be the first species to monitor its own extinction".

Here you are:

While the increase extreme weather has boosted Americans’ attention to climate issues, it still hasn’t spurred much alarm or concrete political action. Last week, after the underwhelming reaction to record melting of Arctic sea ice, George Monbiot of theGuardian labeled it as “the day the world went mad.”

Well, what if your local weatherwoman went
mad sane and told it like it is? The mock video below shows how that might play out:

We've been making boxes for a long time, but ...

A bit of a frivolous post, but then, it's my party!

One of the things that often amuses / astounds / irritates / depresses me, is how a manufacturer can take something that humans have been doing for years, decades even, and makes something which you would think is the first time it's ever been done.

So, a cardboard box containing a product. It can't be that difficult can it?

Freedom of the press

The BBC recently reported the Sun's take on its decision to print the photo of Prince Harry naked:

In Friday's Sun, under the headline "Heir it is", the paper says: "Pic of naked Harry you've already seen on the internet".

David Dinsmore, managing editor of the Sun, said the paper had thought "long and hard" about publication and added: "For us this is about the freedom of the press.

"This is about the ludicrous situation where a picture can be seen by hundreds of millions of people around the world on the internet but can't be seen in the nation's favourite paper read by eight million people every day.

"This is about our readers getting involved in the discussion with the man who is third in line to the throne - it's as simple as that."

In an editorial, the newspaper said the pictures represented a crucial test of Britain's free press.

A number of questions sprung to my mind:

• Why did the paper think "long and hard" about going to the trouble of printing a picture available to "hundreds of millions of people ... on the internet"? Surely that is a number even greater than the circulation of the Sun so presumably the Sun's buyers have already seen the photos?
• Why did the paper not simply supply a link to the internet photo or suggest a few search terms instead thus avoiding the "long and hard" thinking?
• What kind of 'discussion' does Mr Dinsmore expect to result from the publication of the photos? How would this discussion have differed if they had not printed the photos?
• His comment seems to imply that this 'discussion' will be "with the man who is third in line to the throne" - are we to understand that Prince Harry will be personally involved in this 'discussion' with the readers of the Sun?
• Why is this a crucial test of Britain's 'free press', rather than, say, a discussion about why the mainstream news media are in the hands of a very few, very rich companies who have a very particular view of what's important and what's not in the world and why, for example, we in the West are the good guys no matter what violence we do to the lives of people in other (usually Middle Eastern) countries where they are of course wicked terrorists waiting to destroy the fragile world peace we are so determined to spread around the globe?

For anyone interested in analysing the performance of our 'free press' they may like to have a look at Medialens and make up your own mind.

Reports of Peak Oil's death are greatly exaggerated

I gave about 6 or 7 talks about Peak Oil when I lived in Brighton to alert people to something I felt, and still feel, is critically important for us to address. Oil powers a huge proportion of what makes our current minority world lifestyle possible and so examining how much we have, may have and how much it will cost seem worthwhile areas of investigation to me. Sadly, discussion of it in the mainstream media is almost zero (unless faces with a price spike or embargo) and so we lumber on towards a crisis. As usual.

If Peak Oil means absolutely nothing to you (which is very likely) then you can read a good overview here - his site's not been updated since 2009 but nothing of material significance has changed since then to alter its essential message. There are many other sites where you can find up to date information. A recent column in the Daily Telegraph this July put it well:

While there's lots of hype about tar sands and shale fuels, these new technologies often expend more energy than they create, while causing horrendous environmental and water-supply problems. Conventionally-produced crude will remain absolutely critical, and demand for it will spiral, until mankind bans the internal combustion engine, outlaws ammonium-based fertilisers, dismantles the global pharmaceutical industry and learns to live without plastic. I can't see that happening anytime soon.

Me neither!

Here's a short video by Richard Heinberg from the Post Carbon Institute about why Peak Oil has not gone away, even if George Monbiot seem to think so.

It's worth a watch.

And I thought that snails in our garden were a problem ...

I found this amazing photo of rows of cabbages online from Secrett's farm near Guildford and it illustrates why Climate Change could present some obstacles to the "We'll adapt" approach of Exxon's boss Rex Tillerson which he promoted at a recent press conference.

And how do you feel about being a member of the "illiterate public"? that clearly doesn't understand the situation at all ...

The industry's biggest challenge, [Tillerson] said, is "taking an illiterate public and try to help them understand why we can manage these risks."

The Drugs Don't Work ...

We recently had some nonsensical and contradictory comments from Justice Secretary Alan Clarke on the UK Government's Drug Strategy:

We've engaged in a war against drugs for 30 years. We're plainly losing it. We have not achieved very much progress.

and

We are disappointed by the fact that, apart from making progress, it can be argued we are going backwards at times.

This of course is no surprise to anyone who thinks about it for a while and is not blinkered by the idea that, no matter what, drugs must remain illegal. When something is illegal it cannot be regulated and so quality of the drugs people are using can't be checked (for spiked or deadly mixtures) and there can be no offer of any useful education or treatment until things are pretty bad for the individual, to name just some of the problems.

Clarke opined:

We keep trying every method we can to get on top of one of the worst social problems in the country and the single biggest cause of crime. (my bold)

Well, not every method, clearly, because he also states:

The government has no intention whatever of changing the criminal law on drugs.

So, there you have it. Basically, the government's policy is ... to continue with the approach that by Clarke's own admission has failed for 30 years. Mind you, drugs policy would not be alone in that.

Last year on the Cannabis Law Reform web site a statement from the Labour Party was reprinted:

On drugs, our message is clear: we will not tolerate illegal drug use.

Yet another area where Labour and Tory are in agreement then, given that Labour have no plans to change their illegality. The Lib Dems, to their credit, have a sensible approach and naturally, the Green Party takes a mature and realistic approach to drug use.

This is the whole BBC item.

A better world ...

I know, I will post something soon about a wonderful recent tour around the Tiptree marmalade fountains soon but for now here's a rather pithy cartoon:

Christmas is coming ...

Well, 2012 sets a new marker in forward planning!

On the 26th of June, Chris and I visited my Mum and took her out to Silvermere for lunch. There in the bar were the invitation brochures encouraging us to book for Christmas and New Year meals and entertainment. As Mum observed, "But the children haven't even broken up for summer holidays yet".

Further comment is superfluous.

Sorry I've not posted for a while but I will get back on the case soon, honest!

In the meantime here is a little shameless promotion of two things:

The Maldon Art Trail which is happening at the end of September around Maldon and showcases the work of local artists in various shops, cafes and other venues in the area.

Secondly, my lovely man Chris now has his own web site to showcase his beautiful creations in calligraphy, drawing and even wood burning (or pyrography for the cognoscenti!). Have a browse and then maybe commission some beautiful piece for yourself or a friend. :)

Blocking the road

On the 12th of February (I know, it's a while back!) the main B road at the top of Goldhanger was closed to traffic for road works. This meant that all the traffic normally going along that road had to come past our house, through the village and rejoin the main road.

It was quite a shock.

After living in Brighton where traffic is a constant aural backdrop to almost every road in the city, the delicious quietness here has been a joy. This invasion of diverted traffic was a real shock with cars speeding down our small road at crazy speeds, traffic jams of 5 or 6 vehicles trying to get around parked cars and large lorries squeezing past brushing the trees.

It's a reminder of what those who live in cities have to accommodate every day.

Plenty of light ...

On the 3rd of March Chris and I visited the "Genius of Illumination" exhibition at the British Library. Neither of us had ever been to the BL before so that was a treat too. Not too much though as we spent the entire visit in a dark underground room so we didn't really see the library at all! Ah well, next time ...

The exhibition was quite extraordinary, containing as it did illuminated books some of which were over 1300 (I think) years old. In the foyer before the exhibition proper, there was an explanation of how it was done for a newbie like me. Chris was in his element and very excited as he is a talented calligrapher himself and has his own web site devoted to the subject. The books ranged in size from pocket size to those where a small trolley might have been quite handy. Apart from their beauty - the richness of the colours, the detail of the text and the sparkle of leaf gold - there was the history of these items. The psalter of King Henry VIII, the edges of the pages grubbed by his fingers and the same, though smaller in size, of that of Queen Elizabeth I. Here are documents which physically connect us with world famous figures from our nation's history (and our ink-smudged school exercise books) who handled them over 400 years ago. Amazing. A shame we couldn't get to smell them too but they were out of nose reach in carefully lit glass prisons.

Other documents I loved too for their quirkiness were some maps. They were nothing like maps today but almost like printed sat-nav directions (if I may say that) in that they were very long but only a few inches wide and only showed your starting point (perhaps London) and then, via a succession of illustrated towns and landmarks, your destination, say Padua. They did not show what was around London or Padua or your route, only what you would need to find to continue to the next stage of your journey. They made me smile.

We had planned to complete our exhibition visit with tea and cake but suddenly a voice over loudspeakers announced "Ladies and gentlemen - the exhibition will be closing in 15 minutes.". Which meant that the cafe had either closed or was about to and we realised that apart from a 5 minute rest we had been on our feet for four and a half hours in this set of linked, darkened subterranean rooms and not noticed the time. Obviously, we had enjoyed it.

~~~~~~~~~~~

As a complete contrast, we arrived in Devon on the 22nd of the month to spend five days camping but we exchanged darkened underground rooms in our capital city for the wildness, open air and brilliant sunlit illumination of the Dartmoor National Park at the start of what proved to be the warmest March weather for years. (Not a patch on the scary weather in the USA though I have to say!)

It was our first 'proper' holiday together since we met, so to be camping in such a stunning landscape was a real thrill for both of us. Here's a smiling Chris bringing tent-brewed morning tea on our first morning there and yes, that is an electric kettle ... but we did have a portable gas stove too.

Over our five days we walked across the moors to stone circles, visited Castle Drogo (joining the National Trust in the process), attended a commitment ceremony for friends at Haldon Belvedere (quite a place as you can see below):

We also consumed great beer and food (including the best mashed potato in my life and wicked home-made chilli chip sauce!) in the amazing Drewe Arms where the previous landlady Mabel Mudge had run it for 75 years when she retired aged 99!! We visited the chocolate box pretty village of Lustleigh to enjoy refreshment at the Primrose Tea Rooms. It is run by a mother and daughter and the mother loved my nice fountain pen, calligraphy and proper writing and so she and Chris had a good chat and she brought down a book for him on a stone carver with a fab garden who lived in Scotland. Such a lovely couple and a lovely place with gorgeous coffee and cakes into the bargain.

Not only all this, but somehow, despite never having gone near a sip or sniff of gin since I got horrendously drunk on Gordon's Gin with my best mate Ralph around the age of 15 or so (so utterly embarrassing when my Dad had to come and rescue me and put me to bed) I reacquainted myself with it. Chris wanted to get some Gin and we went into a great wine shop in lovely Chagford and the proprietor recommended The Botanist, which is, very improbably, from the Isle of Islay in Scotland! He also suggested that we skip tonic water from Schhh ... you know who, and get something appropriate to the quality of the gin, namely Fever Tree tonic. So, armed with these Chris mixed a gin and tonic back at the tent. Well, I was shocked. The gin itself had scents vaguely similar to gin I knew but the taste, aroma and even texture in my mouth were from another planet (or perhaps, just Scotland!). Stunning. We agreed that we could probably drink it neat! The tonic was wonderful - all natural and no Aspartame (which even if there's nothing in the bad press still tastes synthetic and disgusting) or other junk. The purity of the tonic matched the purity and scent of the gin. We were both amazed and I just kept going wow! wow! I couldn't, and still can't, believe that I've now seriously got into gin after a gap of 38 years since it last passed my lips... [As they say, I have no connection with either company but I like to mention something that's unusual, brilliant and enhances the sensual pleasures of life and if that is gin and tonic then so be it!]

Chris and I both love the outdoors and especially wild, rugged and unspoilt places and Dartmoor is a fine example. We had an exhilarating time and there's still so much more to explore and so many times of the year to visit. I'm looking forward to showing Chris the delights of the Highlands of Scotland. I can't wait!