This will be a long series of photographs so here is some music to go with it.
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Friday, January 16, 2009
Here are two entries from "As much as I can remember", an, as yet, hidden blog.
When I was about five, in the study, at Frognal, there was a bottle lamp, you know, a large bottle in a straw basket with a lamp on top. Hanging round the part of the bottle, where it spread out, was a piece of red cord, and ON that cord was a metal amulet encrusted in small polished turquoise stones. I was fascinated by it and was told not to touch it. Of course I did and I was told, above all, not to open it as this would produce bad luck. I opened it. It had a square box on the back, which came away much like a tin of marbles. Far better than marbles, inside was a piece of folded parchment. Carefully, so that I could replace it exactly as I had found it, I unfolded the old paper. On it was a block print, a black on white version of what you see below. Was I hooked then? Or was it years later when I saw the same sort of signs again? Rimpoche said the things he was telling his devotees were like candy in brightly coloured wrappers. The bright colours make you want to unwrap the candy, you eat the candy and you want more. For me the wrappers were mandalas.
My earliest memory is of holding on to my mother's leg. She was wearing a raincoat made of transparent blue plastic. We were on a beach, looking out to sea, in Ireland. She had left me and my brother there so that my father and she could take a much deserved holiday, having not had one for the six war years. I have an earlier memory of being shown the cream on top of farm milk, but that memory was established later by being reminded of it. It is not as clear, personal and emotional as the memory of clutching her leg. I was so glad to have her again. My older brother,Gareth, and I lifted the floor board at Hadley Highstone, we looked down on a neighbouring area, where, it seems to me, people were sitting at open air tea tables, I found myself in the rough earth of our cottage garden in the middle of the night and, of course, the time my brother got me to stand up on top of the garden wall, to walk along, as he was doing. I was nervous and fell into the neighbour's garden and a man carried me all around to our front door. Some of the time I may have been unconscious, but I remember feeling horribly sick. These are my earliest memories of a time when we lived in Barnet. After I was three, we moved to Hamstead and a much fuller group of memories begin. It was in Frognal that I discovered my friend and advisor, Jorgus.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
I realised the other day that I have spent most of my life looking forward to being old. Really enjoying it.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
If I lived on a desert island, and could only watch one film featuring each of the following stars, these are the films I would chose....
Cary Grant, Arsenic And Old Lace
James Stewart, The Man Who Knew Too Much
Humphrey Bogart, The Maltese Falcon (This meme was invented for that answer)
Audrey Hepburn, Sabrina
Bing Crosby, High Society
Katherine Hepburn, Bringing Up Baby
Marlene Dietrich, Witness for the Prosecution
Clarke Gable, It happened One Night
And, if I could add one more star and film of my own choice it would be:
Ingrid Bergman. Casablanca
Pass it on, choosing films for the stars listed , plus one of your own....
Remember hopscotch from 1950s & 1960s?
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Although I assumed my post-WW2 generation invented *hopscotch*, that seems
highly unlikely. The earliest confirmed mention of the game actually comes
from ...
The Lee, Buckinghamshire
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*Distinctiveness at the fingerpost*
In 1964, the Warboys Committee, led by Sir Walter Warboys, reported on
traffic signs on the roads of Britain. The ...
The Uses Of Zion
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Coming across this old photograph - which I must have taken forty or more
years ago - I was initially unsure of the exact location, as most northern
t...
STALLED and biting the bullet(s)
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Blogging has stalled for a while as I have been in the UK for one of our
routine visits this week and before that we were very busy with
entertaining, ga...
NAÏVETÉ (HAPPY BIRTHDAY ME)
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Sometimes it tires me, this being a poet. This being a scholar, a reader, a
thinker, a dreamer. Some of us get paid for it along the way, some of us
don’...
All Good Things Must Come to an End
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It is with great sadness we wish to inform all of the Catalyst's (AKA
Bruce, AKA Grandpa) passing.
This is Bruce's granddaughters. Bruce left this worl...
FOUND WORD OTD: ACEHOOT
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OOTHECA: an egg case of certain insects [n]
Seen on a local farmer’s Instagram page, apparently this is the egg sac of
a mantis? Wild. As for hooks, pl...
Inauguration Day
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*It's in the Wing Span, Stupid!*
Reason can take you only so far--
A stone, even a stone,
isn't certain to stay uncut.
Birds like us, with shallow br...
What do YOU do with anger?
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My father was prone to angry outbursts! By that I mean that whether he was
feeling humiliated, vulnerable, fearful, powerless, disappointed, anxious,
hurt...
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee
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Stacey Lee is one of my favorite authors because she imagines vibrant
characters to recreate the forgotten chapters of American history. Her
latest young...
Monday, September 10
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Monday morning bright and early: time to go On Vacation ! Would have gone
on the weekend, but the Card Player and I had card playing to do so we
stuck aro...
Love Remembered
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My mother left when I was only a girl. I wish I could say she got in a car
and drove away. That would be an easier story to tell. But that isn’t the
route...
Reflections, Regrets and Resolutions... Hello 2019!
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Here is to a BETTER year! It seems as one year ends and another begins,
that we, as humans in the western hemisphere, take stock of the outgoing
and assess...
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January.
Gorgeous glittering snow.
Citrus season.
Sharp bright air.
Sharp bright and just sweet enough
fresh oranges, grapefruit, limes.
The Cara Cara orange...
ELLE
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The reality of true sado-masochism is not a bit of BDSM fun and games in
the bedroom, it is the horrific brutality of violence and rape and the
complex psy...
Tips For Damaged Skin Care
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Sunlight direct exposure topics your skin to sunlight damages, yet on the
exact same note, staying clear of the outdoors entirely is both almost
difficu...
PR in 2017: buy a bunker
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In PR we talk about reaching out and cutting through. We craft messaging
that will engage that poised and docile mob we call ‘the public’. In 2016
–a year ...
The Joys of Aging
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Getting old is a royal pain in the nether regions. The systems start acting
up more and more. Bits and pieces of the machinery that were just getting
by be...
RIP, Wonderful Wilder
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I just read that Gene Wilder passed away today. He was 83, older than I
expected. For some reason I always supposed he wasn't much older than me,
probably...
The self, the others, and the next election.
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You are on a bike path, crossing a river, to get to another path, and
another crossing, to get to work after five miles of enchanted exercise and
good ai...
Uber Diaries: Uber For Rich People.
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Pickup: Portland International Airport.
The guy had airport ID and a "crew"tag on his bag, so I imagined he worked
for an airline, but I didn't recogniz...
Don't Mess With Tradtion
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My family goes for a very traditional Thanksgiving - turkey with all the
trimmings. However, they aren't picky about how the "trimmings" are
prepared. Th...
Cenotaph
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This place marks
a superb spot,
where everyone expects
me to reside,
to germinate undisturbed,
dispassionate, deep.
They do not know
it is an empty...
:: forever and ever ::
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hello dear friends, if anyone is out there still...thank you dearly for
reading...so much catching up to do, my poor blog. but this happened last
weeke...
Chop Chop
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I gave up performing my "folkish" music (accompanying myself on 12-string
guitar) in 1984 when I began studying classical composition. Except for at
part...
Weird
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Most students of English are familiar with the "i before e, except after
c" mnemonic rule of thumb. If one is unsure whether a word is spelled
with t...
Postscript One
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Except for the weather, and its aftermath, life seems to have slowed down
to a crawl for us, my husband and me, until last Thanksgiving. Thanks to
the In...
that blazing ball of fire in the sky
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*click photo for full-size image*
*photo by Donald Kinney*
*click photo for full-size image*
*photo by Donald Kinney*
*NEWEST EDITION - * *Donald Kin...
182) The Turtles – “Happy Together”
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By the time the demo of “Happy Together” made its way to The Turtles, the
acetate was worn out. Roughly a dozen bands, including The Tokens, The
Happenings...
Madiba sunshine. Amandla !
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Mandela est là « Je suis fondamentalement optimiste. Je ne saurais dire si
c’est dans ma nature ou si je l’ai cultivé. Une partie de ce qui fait un
optimis...
Are you tired of being lied to?
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I have been silent for some time now. I was very busy sorting out all the
contradictory and devious informations being fed to me by mass medias all
more o...
¿Inspiración?
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Lo primero que me ha venido a la mente al ver esta fotografía de Grace
Kelly de los 50’s ha sido la similitud con uno de los diseños de Raf Simons
para la ...
A Winter Wonderland
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A village scene in the snow
It is a bit of a shame, but snow around my area is a rarity nowadays. We
only get a splattering maybe once every couple of ye...
Neurotic mothers
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I doubt I am alone in being a neurotic mother, but I felt I had to confess,
because my babies are now grown-ups, so it's not like I can do something
simple...
In Loving Memory
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It is with deep sadness that we write today as a family to tell you of the
passing of Moannie on Monday 8th October 2012.
We would like you all to know th...
New Blog
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I'm leaving Blogger and Google and moving to a new site. I'll keep this
blog up for as an archive. But this is the last post I'm making here. You
can find ...
Move Over, Ronnie Burkett
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Mention shadow puppets and most people think of making rabbit or cock
shadows with their hands during an overhead presentation in primary school.
But sit...
TheSartorialist.com RSS Feed
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Hi guys,
Thanks so much for the feedback. It’s been great seeing the response and
really hearing about how people use the site.
One thing we’ve been getti...
Lancashire, where women die of love.
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I'm currently reading a book with this implausible title, by Charles Nevin.
It's a wryly entertaining love letter to the county where, like me, Charles
was...
Must the Winter Come So Soon?
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As I type this entry, I'm looking out my bedroom window at the Storm of
2011, that has swept across most of the middle of the country. My yard is
covered i...
Shaving Kit Supplies Vintage
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I'm dusting off Please Sir and slowly returning to the blogosphere with new
aspirations and inspiring ideas. I apologize for the long absence, but I
needed...
Happy New 2011
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Wishing everyone a peaceful and productive year ahead.
Speaking of productive times, I am writing. Actually writing. This is
thanks to many writing websit...
Ultima Lezione.
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*Ti ricordi? Eravamo turisti con poche parole?*
Do you remember?We were tourists with few words?
* L'abbraccio nel vicolo?* The hug in the alley?
*...
I really do mean to write but it ain't gonna happen
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I know there's been nothing public here for six months, but I'm here every
day and I often start posts. Most of them just get deleted and a few of
them are...
That Is All
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I've decided to suspend this blog. I'm going to make it private as it is a
good journal of photos, and sources for me.
Thanks to all who have joined in th...
The Victorian Bushfires - Remembering
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A peaceful space and supportive thoughts. It's an entire year since the
devastating bushfires in Victoria, Australia - when so many families lost
their li...
String Theory: The Final Quote
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On this final day (okay, night) of BBAW, here is one last bookish quote,
from the inimitable Virginia Woolf:“Books have a great deal in common; they
are al...
Hello
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I haven't been able to access blogger.com for two months now. Now it seems
we have limited access here. I still can't access others' blogs.
I'm doing good....
A Makeovah
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Yes, I did spend my entire summer in Los Angeles. Yes, it was incredible.
No, I didn't blog about it, and here's why: I BARELY HAD TIME TO EVEN EAT.
Serio...