Category: General

Des Res, iron age style.

It’s raining again!  I’ve had it with spinning and knitting and the greenhouse is up to date so I am reduced to looking at old photos.  I came across these from spring of ’08 that looked apt for the residences blog. NOT that I hasten to add are they part of the competition, that would never do!!!  Just thought you might like to see them.

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No!  Not monster mushrooms, just your genuine brand new iron age des res.  This is a tourist trap built in N Pembrokeshire on the site of an iron age fort.  The buildings are supposedly actually built on the original sites using the original post holes etc to get the size and clustering of the community.

Continue reading “Des Res, iron age style.”

Riders of the Purple Sage

I have just read this book, having often come across the title  and the name of the author.  A record number of “westerns” have been based on his work, however loosely.  It took a sale offer from Amazon to persuade me to download it on to my Kindle. ( Yes, you can take the girl out of Scotland, but you can’t take Scotland … )

The story is set in Utah around a Mormon community in the 1870s and does not paint a very flattering picture of the followers of Joseph Smith.  Their attitude to women closely resembles that of Muslims, which is not a compliment to anyone.  In fact Grey’s publishers originally edited it very considerably in order not to offend. (Sounds familiar.)  The brutal Mormon elder is ready to stoop to any crime to force the heroine to become wife number X and his band of god-fearing Mormon thugs terrorises the local community into helping him.  As the story unfolds, we discover just how appalling these self-appointed “bishops” and “elders” can be when they set eyes on a woman who attracts them.  Mormonism seems to be or at least have been a licence to rape.  What is pleasant in the book is the description of the countryside and the animals, with some passages of “purple prose” –  no pun intended.

The author was christened Pearl Zane Grey, so it’s understandable that he dropped his first name.  (What is it with the inhabitants of Ohio?  John Wayne was originally christened Michael Marion.)  Grey trained as a dentist, married a graduate in English who was able to help him with his work, and had his first book published in 1910.  Having always associated him with cowboy films,  though one gets some good storylines there, I was impressed with this book and I may even go back to Amazon and splash out another 99p. But if anyone comes round to the door to proselytise for Mormons, they will get an earful.  It seems they have not changed.  Our niece in Colorado is married to a former Mormon, who refused to obey orders and no longer has contact with his family.  Still, the lucky girl doesn’t have to deal with a mother-in-law.

Light It Up Blue – (a repost)

I’m reposting this from last year, a couple of comments caught my attention (today 04/04/2013)  and I thought it pertinent.

Table Mountain

As part of the World Autism Awareness Day campaign owners of buildings, monuments etc have been encouraged to light them up blue, here’s a sample from last year; Continue reading “Light It Up Blue – (a repost)”

April

Let’s see what Nicholas Breton has to say for April.

He, if you are new round here, was the author of Fantasticks, a weird collection of strangely spelled observation published in 1626.

 APRILL

It is now April, and the Nightingale begins to tune her throat against May: the Sunny showers perfume the aire, and the Bees begin to goe abroad for honey: the Dewe, as in Pearles, hangs upon the tops of the grasse, while the Turtles sit billing upon the little greene boughes: the Trowt begins to play in the Brookes, and the Sammon leaves the Sea, to play in the fresh waters: The Garden bankes are full of gay flowers, and the Thorne and the Plumme send forth their faire Blossomes: the March Colt begins to play, and the Cosset Lamb is learned to butt.

The Poets now make their studies in the woods, & the Youth of the Country make ready for the Morris-dance; the little Fishes lye nibling at a bait, and the Porpas playes in the pride of the tide: the Shepheardes pipe entertaines the Princesse of Arcadia, and the healthfull Souldier hath a pleasant march. The Larke and the Lambe looke up at the Sun, and the labourer is abroad by the dawning of the day: Sheepes eyes in Lambs heads, tell kind hearts strange tales, while faith and troth make the true Lovers knot: the aged haires find a fresh life, and the youthfull cheeks are as red as a cherry: It were a world to set downe the worth of this moneth: But in summe, I thus conclude, I hold it the Heavens blessing, and the Earths comfort.

Farewell.

Turtles are Turtle Doves I would imagine.

Not much Heaven’s blessing or Earth’s comfort around this neck of the woods yet (perhaps in Washington State?) but it’s a goodly way to go ’til May.

Spring has nearly sprung!

The recent sunny, but cold, weather has persuaded the grass on the front and back lawns to make a tentative effort at starting to grow. As the weather forecast says it will be getting warmer and wetter, I thought I had better make sure the mower would start.

After half an hour struggling with the pull cord, dirty plug, and gunged up fuel filter, it finally staggered into life. Just at that moment, another load of global warming started falling from the sky. Doh!