On the road again

Probably quieter than usual here for a week or so as I hit the road tomorrow for a week or so. twittering will continue here.

I used to work out how many miles I'd be doing on these trips, but I've given up. Trying a time-free non-linear view of travelling over the past year or so. It seems to lead to less stress.

Poem 4 - Limerick

Limerick

A limerick's cleverly versed-
The second line rhymes with the first;
The third one is short,
The fourth's the same sort,
And the last line is often the best.

John Irvin

Poetry book 3

Leisure

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.

William Henry Davies

French Farmhouse Doors

Our old, lovely, twisted french farmhouse doors have been squeeking for a while, so I thought I'd give them a drop of oil. Worked a treat; no more noise. Only problem is that they are so twisted that it was only a sticky mechanism that allowed us to shut them. Now they're smooth and oiled, they pop open all the time. Ever heard the expression, if it ain't broke don't fix it?

Forming, Norming etc. ...

I don't know if this model is still popular, but it occured to me yesterday during a few issues raised before and at our samba rehearsal. It's a nice idea if it now means we can get on with the music. Not guaranteed it seems from the explanation, but I'm optimistic, as ever.

Poem for a deat poet - Roger McGough

Not that it's about him, but he's one of my favourites. For obvious reasons.

Poem for a dead poet

He was a poet he was.
A proper poet.
He said things
that made you think
and said them nicely.
He saw things
that you or I
could never see
and saw them clearly.
He had a way with language.
Images flocked around
him like birds,
St Francis he was,
of the words. Words?
Why he could almost make 'em talk.

Roger McGough

Another book

To add to the complete list of books here is The Mammoth Book of Celtic Myths and Legends by Peter Beresford Ellis, in excellent condition. Only postage cost or call by and collect.

Could be fun if anyone wanted to call by with a swap. It's a way to go from anywhere.

Poetry book 1

Me an Li'l lamb are compiling a poetry book one at a time, and I thought I'd share the first few here. Turn about. Down to you to guess which are my choices, and which are hers...

Warning - Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me,
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandles, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children
We must have friends for dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Books are friends

Parting with books is always a little sad. Rather like parting with friends. But as one friend once said, quoting I assume, friends come into your life for a reason, a season, or for life. Unless it's for life, then let them go when the time comes. Same with books. I've been hanging on to some of these for decades without even being aware of their existence. I still have many, but most are as yet unread. When I've read them, they'll join the list until I can give them away. If there are no takers, it might be to charity shops sometime before the end of January.

Free Books

Surname	Date	Title
Hopkins	1976	Poems and Prose
McFadden	1992	Ancient Voices Current Affairs
Hands	2004	The Handbook of Digital Photography
Black	1979	The Elements of Palaeontology
Collins	1990	A Roomfull of Birds - Scottish Short Stories
Lawson	1992	Unnatural Selections
Ballard	1984	Empire of the Sun
May	1982	The Many-Coloured Land
Wodehouse	1987	Life at Blandings
Peake	1978	Gormenghast
May	1982	The Golden Torc
May	1983	The Non Born King
Peake	1987	Tutus Groan
Peake	1983	Tutus Alone
Lewis	1989	The Volcanoes Above Us
Trueman	1972	Geology and Scenery in England and Wales
Coelho	1992	The Pilgrimage
Richards	2003	Xenophobe's guide to the Welsh
Yapp	2004	Xenophobe's guide to the French
Rowe	1991	Collins Gem Wine
Kennedy	2001	The Rough Guide to the Internet
Twain	1972	The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Van der Post	1967	The Hunter and the Whale
Fitzpatrick	1999	Tanzania Zanzibar & Pemba
Kay	1998	Trumpet
Chatwin	1989	What am I doing here
Vonnegut	1994	Palm Sunday : Welcome to the Monkey House
Suskind	1986	Perfume
Dickens	1974	Bleak House
Austen	1972	Pride and Prejudice
Lewis	1979	My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen … Reverend Sirs
Willmot	1987	Pemulwuy: The Rainbow Warrior
Baker	1972	Christmas Customs and Folklore
Okri	1998	Infinite Riches
Crossley-Holland	1985	Axe-Age, Wolf-Age: A Selection of Norse Myths
Yeates	1962	Selected Poetry
Gatt	1976	Turner: The life and work of the artist (illustrated)
Eichenbaum & Orbach	1983	What do women want?
Sassoon	1940	The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston
Buchanan	1978	The Portable Plato
Neidjie	1989	Story About Feeling
Lawrence	1975	Sons and Lovers
Thelwell	1978	Belt Up
Dickens	1977	Great Expectations
Dickens	1985	Oliver Twist
Swift	1967	Gulliver's Travels
Dickens	1969	Hard Times
Dickens	1970	A tale of Two Cities
Brewer	1895	The Student's Hume: A History of England
Thelwell	1976	Top Dog
Thelwell	1978	This Desirable Plot
Thelwell	1978	Up The Garden Path
Thelwell	1977	A Leg at Each Corner
Thelwell	1977	Riding Academy
Thelwell	1978	The Effluent Society
Thelwell	1975	Angels on Horseback and Elsewhere
Hamilton	1982	Plato: Gorgias
Magorian	1998	Goodnight Mister Tom
Cantlie	1927	First Aid to the Injured
Guareschi	1964	Comrade Don Camillo and Don Camillo and the Devil
Livingstone	1944	Plato and Modern Education
Gwynn	1975	The Gower yarns of Cyril Gwynn
Proulx	1999	Wyoming Stories from Close range
Froude	1886	Oceana or England and her Colonies
Bronte	1986	Jane Eyre
Sayers	1983	Peig: the autobography of Peig Sayers of the Great Blasket Island
Thouless	1968	Straight and Crooked Thinking
Barber	?	Innsegall: The Western Isles
Morton	1945	In Search of Scotland
Hoog	1979	Monet
Allott	1986	English Poetry 1918-60
Godin	2005	Purple Cow
Hays	2004	Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
Banks	2002	Dead Air
Treffert	1990	Extraordinary people
Maclellan	1986	Gaelic Dictionary
Rhys Jones	1986	Living Welsh
Lorayne	1986	Page-a-Minute Memory Book
Liyi	1984	100 Chinese Idions and Their Stories
Charton	1989	Seas and Oceans - Collins Reference Dictionary
Pearce, Markandya, Barbier	1991	Blueprint for a Green Economy
Allen	1943	Guerrilla War in Abyssinia
Dossey	1985	Space, Time & Medicine
Emerson	1990	The Oxford Authors Ralph Waldo Emerson
Packham & Harding	1982	Ecology of Woodland Processes
Robbins	1997	Unlimited Power
Aman	1982	Folk Tales from Indonesia
Marshall & Gabriel	1994	The Great Pub Crawl : A Story of Swansea Pubs
Mackechnie	1974	Gaelic Without Groans
Tredennick	1957	Plato : The Last days of Socrates
Robbins	1992	Awaken the Giant Within
MacNeill	1991	Everyday Gaelic
Blacklaw	1989	Bun-Chursa Gaidhlig
Williams	1999	The Work We Were Born To Do
Knight	2000	NLP at Work
Handly	1979	The Way of the World: Congreave
Robinson et al.	1978	Elements of Cartography
Morris	1986	Intimate behaviour
Acland	1990	A Sudden Outbreak of Common Sense
Hays	1987	You Can heal Your Life
Dobson (Ed)	1991	The Green Reader
Edmunds	1979	The Gower Coast
Maclean & Carrrell (Eds)	1986	As an Fhearann from the land
Clarke	1994	Oz Clarke's Essential Wine Book
Koski & Symons	1991	YOU Magazine Journolists
Swindells & Mason	1989	The Complete Book of the Water Garden
Mitford	1968	Madame de Pompadour

Here's the whole list of books I want to pass on to whoever wants them and is prepared to collect or pay postage & packing.

Happy New Year again and again

One big turn of the year event!

There's little chance of that happening I reckon, but it's a nice thought. Roll the solstice, Christmas and New year into one event, have three or four days of celebration/holiday, and then carry on with life. I'd prefer solstice; since living in the middle of nowhere, I really do notice the change in daylight hours, and I am sooo pleased when the days start to get longer. I'm up for all those new year energies straight away. Only everyone around me is focused on Christmas. OK, let's have a shindig, great. Then let's get into the new year! But no, we all have to wait a week and have some kind of party again! No wonder there are some forced smiles around at most of the new year's bashes I've been to. This year was cool, I enjoyed it. Really. Ok Ok it is a bit baah humbug, but only a bit. Let's get up and at 'em sooner, that's all.

Books for free

Here's the first 30-odd books that are sitting here free for anyone for the cost of postage. Unless of course you happen to be passing, in which case call in, have a browse and take what you want. I'll get the rest of them up here soon, and put a link on the sidebar to the final full list. I'd be happy to hear some suggested swaps, but the point of this distribution is to have less stuff! The formatting hasn't gone too pear-shaped.)

Surname	First name	Date	Title
Hopkins	Gerard Manley	1976	Poems and Prose
McFadden	Steve	1992	Ancient Voices Current Affairs
Hands	Geoffrey	2004	The Handbook of Digital Photography
Black	Rhona M.	1979	The Elements of Palaeontology
Collins	Publisher	1990	A Roomfull of Birds - Scottish Short Stories
Lawson	Gary	1992	Unnatural Selections
Ballard	J.G.	1984	Empire of the Sun
May	Julian	1982	The Many-Coloured Land
Wodehouse	P.G.	1987	Life at Blandings
Peake	Mervyn	1978	Gormenghast
May	Julian	1982	The Golden Torc
May	Julian	1983	The Non Born King
Peake	Mervyn	1987	Tutus Groan
Peake	Mervyn	1983	Tutus Alone
Lewis	Norman	1989	The Volcanoes Above Us
Trueman	A.E.	1972	Geology and Scenery in England and Wales
Coelho	paulo	1992	The Pilgrimage
Richards	John Winterson	2003	Xenophobe's guide to the Welsh
Yapp	Nick	2004	Xenophobe's guide to the French
Rowe	David	1991	Collins Gem Wine
Kennedy	Angus J.	2001	The Rough Guide to the Internet
Twain	Mark	1972	The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Van der Post	Laurence	1967	The Hunter and the Whale
Fitzpatrick	Mary	1999	Tanzania Zanzibar & Pemba
Kay	Jackie	1998	Trumpet
Chatwin	Bruce	1989	What am I doing here
Vonnegut	Kurt	1994	Palm Sunday : Welcome to the Monkey House
Suskind	Patrick	1986	Perfume
Dickens	Charles	1974	Bleak House
Austen	Jane	1972	Pride and Prejudice
Lewis	Don	1979	My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen … Reverend Sirs
Willmot	Eric	1987	Pemulwuy: The Rainbow Warrior
Baker	Margaret	1972	Christmas Customs and Folklore
Okri	Ben	1998	Infinite Riches

Have I been idle over Christmas? NO!

Here's one of my recent efforts with an old window frame. This time for my brother in law. It's a great way to make a living. (That was irony or sarcasm or something, I was never very good at explaining grammar.)

Merry Noel and all that

I'm two minds more than usual at Christmas. French and British. Usually I automatically choose one mind for each activity. But Christmas is different, since it's almost always shared French and British participants. So it takes longer to recover. While in self-imposed therapy for this recent dose, I've been reflecting on the things that are the opposite way round on either side of La Manche/The Channel. Here's a few examples:

Obviously, which side of the road we drive on;
Which way round the spine of a book reads;
Which way round the brakes on a bicycle are;
Whether your light switch goes up or down for on;
Does your adjective go before or after the noun?
etc.

Let me know the things you've noticed ...

Window frames

Imagine one of these windows in a completely ruined state; no longer in a building, lying on the ground, glass cracked etcetera etcetera etcetera. Now imaging sanding, cleaning and polishing said frame, choosing a photographic subject, and bringing the two together and you have ...

Hardly a cheery note for Christmas

It's harder and harder to look forward to Christmas while having stomach-churning moments in the face of consumption consumption consumption. We do what we can. It's not much.

On 21st we will have a modest camp fire. More CO2 - true. But also a genuine celebration of the winter solstice and the start of the sun's return. A recognition of the importance of the most basic elements of life. Our increasing self-sufficiency for at least our vegetables relies on following and understanding seasons and growth. Our heat comes from burning wood grown locally and replanted in biodiverse patchworks.

We have continuously reduced our electricity consumption over the past four years.

It's a journey.

Photo project

This project takes a bit of getting into - it's not a bite-sized experience. But it's well worth making the time for, being aware of what you feel as you watch it.

The whale hunt.

Eating the harvest

After a swings and roundabout year in the garden, we're digging into "la cave" and the garden for meals. My better half is about to embark on a day of quiche-making and freezing, which will no doubt include the above in some form. No fresh tomatoes of course, but sauces made and bottled during the summer are coming in handy. The leeks are still in the garden and falling to temptation from time time. The carrots, spuds (Manon and Rats), onions, garlic and shallots are all taking part. Add to that lot a few frozen beans and mushrooms and an indian or caribbean recipe or two and the possibilities are endless and mouthwatering.

More cafepress stuff

Following some great feedback from folks about birdinabox, I've also opened oiseauxmignons - a kind of french birdinabox, and sunflowergems with a smaller number of cracking images. Links are also under my profile photo on the right. Some sheep stuff to come soon.

Birdinabox

I've been producing little (mostly) square cartoons that I've referred to as birdinabox for a while now. Al started by having some redundant business cards that I'd cut the address off after I moved, combined with an idle afternoon making finger blobs with my daughter. A set of them is on my flickr pages. Now I've just started to make them available through a cafepress shop too. Have a look. Let me know what you think. There are more images and more formats for other products to come.