Inky Pages

The King's Speech

2011-05-30T23:42:00.004+01:00

I've just watched 'The King's Speech', the recent Oscar winning film starring Colin Firth as King George VI, and a whole host of other famous actors and actresses. Now I've heard off a number of people that it's a good film, but I never realised how good. This is one of those rare films that really makes me think 'wow, this is good', keeping me gripped to the TV screen and making me think and ponder long after the film has finished. I love most historical films, but this one really felt like it touched the pulse of history.

The story is about Bertie, younger son of George V, who reluctantly seeks help from a speech therapist because of his severe stammer that makes it all but impossible to speak in public. The film covers the death of George V, and the abdication of his brother Edward. What makes it all the more compelling and relevant, is that George VI's wife, one of the main characters, is the future Queen Mother, who only died a few years ago aged 101 and someone I remember well from her many public appearances broadcast on TV. The current Queen is also in the film as a young girl, 13 at the end of the film at the outbreak of the Second World War.

There's no real action in the film, it is mostly characterisation, dialogue and great atmosphere, but what it does it does really, really well. The host of famous people in it - Guy Pearce, Derek Jacobi, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Timothy Spall, Michael Gambon etc - make it all the more fun to watch.

Hubpages

2011-01-24T22:13:00.002Z

I am on a new website now, http://www.hubpages.com. It is a great website, and just up my street because you can write articles on whatever you like, and you have the opportunity to make money from them via Google Adsense.

I intend from time to time to post links to my latest articles on here. Firstly, here is my profile:

http://hubpages.com/profile/nakmeister

Hubs of note I've written so far include:

Google Chrome - Why You Should Try it

Oh no not flowers - Alternative Valentines Day Gift ideas

Budget cuts

2010-06-09T21:13:00.001+01:00

Just been reading about budget cuts in the Times. Free school meals are going to be cut for 500,000 of the lowest paid. Ok so they haven't had free school meals yet but now are not going to. This will cost families earning less than £307 per week about £600 a year. What is galling is that families on benefits still get them. Even more of an incentive , for the low paid not to work and live on benefits instead. When will someone sort that out?

That said, I agree with government plans to question all government spending to determine whether it is needed, whether it is cost effective and whether the service would be better provided by the private sector. I always go back to America where private companies sponsor stretches of interstate, presumably paying for cleaning, maintenance etc. Why can't we do that here for starters?

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Postcrossing

2010-06-09T19:12:00.000+01:00

Have discovered a great new website, http://www.postcrossing.com where you send postcards to strangers round the world, and in return get postcards sent to you from other strangers round the world. Sound barmy? When you log on to the site and choose to send a postcard, the site randomly allocates you a name and address of another postcrossing member to send a postcard to. You are given a unique postcrossing Id number to put on the postcard for the recipient to input at the other end. Once they have received and logged your postcard, the site gives your details to another random member from somewhere in the world for them to send a postcard to you. The fun is not knowing when a postcard is going to drop through your letterbox and where it will be from.

I have sent 4 so far which means once they are received I should have 4 postcards from across the world heading for my doorstep. I can't wait!

Busy times

2010-06-03T23:11:00.000+01:00

It has been several weeks since I blogged - I would apologise but it would only really be to myself so what is the point?

Work has been busy and a bit stressful, though still enjoying... Rachel only seems to sleep all evening every other night and has been struggling with her teeth the last few days. We have also had Kate's parents up over the bank holiday weekend so not much time all round.

One thing I do think is that less is more at the moment. I enjoy the weekends most where we are not rushing round places but are mostly at home and can potter round, do a bit of gardening, cooking and relaxing.

This week, Rachel hasn't slept a lot but evenings have been quite nice. What have I done? Cooked tea, with nice fresh Greek salad. Made sandwiches for us each day. Watered plants. Not a lot else but that was nice. I wasn't trying to do lots which was important. I think in future I should have 5 minutes in garden before going to bed if warm. It is so nice and refreshing late in the evening.

I am thinking of doing some drawing or painting again, not sure what yet though.

Next time: garden update, holiday plans and some old fashioned blogs unearthed!

Post-election thoughts

2010-05-16T12:41:00.003+01:00

I didn't end up posting about the election anywhere near as much as I had wanted to, too many other things on. Now it's all over, finally. So what is there to say?

In the election I started off being quite enthused by Nick Clegg and his refreshing message about doing something different. Then later, I veered back towards Labour, as the only alternative that could keep the Conservatives out, realistically. In reality though I was hoping for a hung parliament to really shake things up.

In the end I voted for Labour. It was quite a marginal Labour / Conservative seat in my area, I wanted to keep the Conservatives out and I thought far too many people were picking on Gordon Brown, or voting for the opposition because they didn't like Gordon Brown personally (he doesn't come across very well). I think Brown has consistently been a hard working politician, doing what he thinks is right for the country and just getting on with his job. In the last couple of years, the people that have really got on my wick have been those who say something like 'I agree Labour has really made a positive difference in the NHS, they've got class sizes down, made the country and safe place etc but I just don't like Gordon Brown so am voting Tory...'

There's something quite empowering about turning up to vote at your local polling station, a feeling that you are doing your bit, making a difference, standing up for what you believe in. That's the reason I wouldn't want to vote by post, it just wouldn't be the same. Election night, despite not having been well the previous couple of days I was determined to stay up and watch at least some of it. The exit polls came in, predicted a hung parliament but almost a Conservative majority. I prayed it wasn't so.

At this point I should probably try and elucidate why I don't like the Conservatives so much. I think it's my upbringing, in a very pro-Labour household. I grew up believing the Conservatives weren't much interested in helping the little guy, the man on the street. They were pro big business, for the rich. A lot of this was Margaret Thatcher, stamping on the miners, telling everyone to look out for themselves and no-one else. I don't know how true this is anymore, and I certainly agree with certain aspects of the Conservatives, like trying to get lazy people off benefits etc.

It was obvious as election night progressed that there was going to be no quick resolution, and how very true that turned out to be. The next day it turned out that the exit poll had been virtually spot on. The Conservatives were the largest party, but 20 short of an overall majority. The Lib Dems did badly, and actually lost several seats, rather than the large gains they had been predicted. They suddenly held the balance of power however and there was three way negotiations as both Labour and Conservatives tried to form an alliance with them. In the end, they went with the Conservatives, forming a coalition government. I think this was the right thing to happen, as the Conservatives got over a million more votes that Labour. It seems the Lib Dems negotiated themselves a good deal, including a referendum on voting reform, and working towards increasing personal allowance towards £10,000. I think the Lib Dems will end up softening a lot of the Conservatives harsher policies, so the combination may be the best one for the country right now, in a time of economic difficulty when we need to get the deficit down. Plus Labour are now the only real opposition. The government are going to have to make unpopular decisions, and when the next election happens, Labour will (with a new leader) be in a strong position to defeat Conservatives and Lib Dems.

It is worth briefly mentioning the new governments plans for fixed 5 year parliaments (a good thing probably), and needing 55% in a vote of no confidence to force a general election before then (funny, that means Conservatives don't need anyone else to support them to stay in power, hmmm) which I don't think is very good. If 51% disagree with you, you will never get any laws passed, so why stick around like a lame duck? As Andrew Marr pointed out today. 51% could vote to repeal the new legislation, then call a vote of no confidence and pass it with 51% so what is the point?

The next thing to look forward to is the emergency budget within 50 days. As a tax advisor this should keep me busy, and it will be interesting to see what they do. We are teetering on a knife edge trying to escape recession, so I just hope the Conservatives don't wreck it with all their cuts. Only time will tell.

Election 2010

2010-04-30T21:11:00.001+01:00

I watched the third and final election debate last night. David Cameron and Gordon Brown were back to arguing with each other, Nick Clegg in the middle shaking his head and trying to look above it all. Basically Cameron's message was big society, small government, start cutting spending and waste now, it is time for change. Labour is don't rock the boat and risk the recovery, we can't cut spending this year. The Conservatives claim backing from big business, Labour the backing of nearly all countries round the world for their recovery plan. The Lib Dems are all about fairness and working together with the other parties to solve the countries problems.

My problem is I think they all have some good ideas, if you pool them all together we might get somewhere. So really I want a hung parliament, I want voting reform pushed through and I want the parties to talk to each other and work together.

Unfortunately none of this has particularly helped me decide who to vote for. I like the Lib Dems fresh, co-operative approach and I like many of their policies. Alas I live in a Labour / Conservative marginal so is a vote for Lib Dems a wasted vote? Still some thinking to do methinks.

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Tim Rice's American Pie

2010-04-28T22:23:00.004+01:00

Have been listening to the radio 2 series 'Tim Rice's American Pie'. It's a 50 episode series, each episode telling the music history of one state. The series started in Washington State in the far north west, and is working its way down. It has the full tracks of at least 10 songs, with bits of history and biographical information sprinkled in between. A very enjoyable series. The songs I like for each state are:

Washington State - 'Honeycomb' by Jimmy Rogers & 'Alone' by Heart. Also Columbia River Ballads.

Oregon - 'Arizona' by Mark Lindsay (re-done by Kings of Leon?) and 'The Lady Came From Baltimore' by Tim Hardin. Mark Lindsay was the lead singer with Paul Revere and the Raiders.

California - Walking in Memphis by Cher & 'Don't Speak' by No Doubt (fronted by Gwen Stefani)

General election

2010-04-24T23:24:00.001+01:00

We are about halfway through the election campaign now, and my opinion of it changes every few days. I started off being really excited by it, watching a lot of news and tv, Reading the papers and so on. Then I think I got electioned out and sick of it. The Conservatives were alas going to win, and that was that. I was ready to volunteer to hand out leaflets for labour to do my bit, even if I thought it was lost cause. Then came the first tv debate. Nick Clegg the Lib Dem leader whose party was in a distant third place, won convincingly and suddenly it all started getting a bit interesting. Of course given the biased, unproportional voting system we have, it is near impossible for Lib Dems to win, but it is very possible that they will greatly increase their seats in parliament and have the balance of power if no side has a working majority. A hung parliament could be very interesting. The second tv debate was a draw really, and the ten point bounce in the polls remains. One final debate on the economy this week. 12 days to election day. More soon.

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Gardening & nature update

2010-04-18T21:35:00.003+01:00

There has been lots of things I've wanted to blog about in the last week, but haven't had any time at all unfortunately. So all I can manage for now is my weekly garden update, and hope I have more time this week for blogging.

In the front garden there is not much change, flowers I planted several weeks ago look exactly the same as when I put them in, no flower buds or new leaves. Garlic doing fairly well, and a blue flowering plant from last year has flower buds now but they are this time...purple!

In the back garden, 3 of my 5 potato bags have sprouted. In the garden itself there is some signs of poppies or cornflowers starting up (or weeds).

Inside, the mini sweetcorn is still doing really well, all six plants. I have about 5 bean plants now and, some quite big, and quite a few sunflowers. The chilli peppers are just starting to come up too, and the tomatoes are doing ok, though still just look like little seedlings. The beans desparately need repotting into individual pots, and the corn could do with it too.

On the herb front, re-potted the sage into different pots and some in the front or back garden. Most are surviving so far, though some looking rather the worse for wear. Flat leaf parsley desparately needs re-potting, and the basil needs repotting too. Lots of re-potting to do therefore.

In other gardening news, I went to a discussion in Lancaster about creating 'edible streets'. Quite interesting discussion, but most interesting was learning that there is a community orchard in Lancaster, only a few minutes walk from my house. There are volunteer days and evenings when you can help with maintaining the orchard, and it's free access for anyone to pick the fruit when ripe. There are apparently lots of different types of Apple trees (20 varieties) plus pears, plums, cherries, damsons and nuts (hazel, walnuts, chestnuts). Will have to go look this week. It's the Fairfield Orchard, just off Westbourne Rd in Lancaster. There are also apparently 3 'fruity corners' in Lancaster, where soft fruit bushes have been planted, including grapes in at least one. They are just off Dorrington Rd, just off Derwent Rd and also one in Williamson Park. Again, free for anyone to pick. If they get funding, there could be more being grown too.

On the wildlife and nature front, not a lot. There are nice clumps of forget-me-nots in Winckley Square in Preston, and I found my way to Avenham Park, a large park in Preston. On Friday I sat on a rock in Avenham Park and ate my lunch (there were benches, but too obvious!). It was lovely. That was on the edge of the park, it's very big and extends down to the river and beyond. Am looking forward to having some walks in the park, trying to spot wildlife including flowers (and trees when they get some leaves on to make identification easier), and also finding some nice spots to sit and eat lunch. Work is a bit mad (busy), so am going to need my lunchtime escapes more than I have in years.

Also today, saw a Blackbird with nesting material in her beak, and two Robins flying at each other and pecking each other. Quite a sight. They were either mating or fighting, I suspect too male Robins fighting over territory (they are quite territorial I believe).

Anyway, that's ll for now. Hope to blog more in the coming week than I did last week.

Walk along the River Lune - Part 2

2010-04-11T19:26:00.006+01:00

Today I went with my dad on the second part of our walk along the River Lune. This time it was Lancaster to Caton, about 5 miles. The problem with doing a one way walk is how to get back, and so I looked up the bus times back from Caton. They were once an hour on a Sunday, 9.49am and every hour after that. So I arranged to meet my dad at my house in Lancaster, to start walking by 10am. I thought this would give us plenty of time to walk and catch the 11.49am bus.

The weather was nice, hazy sunshine and clouds but very warm. For the first 40 minutes or so I was in familiar territory, all the way up to Skerton Weir, and after that it was all new. Also after Skerton Weir, the river mud and silt disappeared, and the water became clear. We saw a couple of chaffinches, as well as an oystercatcher and a couple of female grouse or pheasant. My dad spotted some Coltsfoot (yellow dandelion-like flowers) which he hasn't seem since his days in Bolton, more than 35 years ago, where they were the first sign of Spring. We also saw Lesser Celandines (fanned out buttercups) and some wood anemones (European), lovely white early Spring flowers. It was nice, spotting the flowers especially as my dad could identify them all (though he claimed it was just luck, and did call the wood anemones acanites which my mum later laughed at him for). Flowers are something I used to know something about, but tend to overlook these days. Didn't think about what trees there were, there were a lot along the path, but were not in leaf yet. It will be easy to identify them next time we walk when the leaves will be out.

We didn't see many boats, but did see a small sail boat in Lancaster with a St George's cross flag, and a couple of speedboat/jet-ski boats. Also saw a longboat being rowed upstream (like the ones in the Oxford/Cambridge boat race).

There was some lovely river scenes past Skerton Weir, and some lovely houses on the other side of the river, including a farm by the river with what looked like a cave carved out of the rock. We missed the Lancaster Aqueduct, but crossed another aqueduct later on. We passed by Halton railway station, disused for several decades at least.

We also passed by Crook O'Lune picnic site, though we didn't stop. By this point we realised that I'd been a bit optimistic about how long it would take. We stopped a couple of times to ask other walkers how long it would take to get to Caton and realised we were going to be cutting it close, though when we saw people pushing babies in prams along the cycle path we knew it must be close. Just after we turned off the path, we saw the strangest and most humble looking Catholic Church I've ever seen, a small squat stone building which was an old storehouse. I think of Catholic churches as grand, purpose built buildings with magnificent stained glass etc etc.

We didn't have time to stop in Caton, but it looks a pretty village. It's been around since Saxon times and was called 'Catun' in the domesday book. Following the introduction of water power, Caton became quite industrial with 8 working mills at one time. According to my 'Walking Down the Lune' book (useful, but going in the opposite direction to us, which is confusing), orphaned children used to be sent from Liverpool to work in the mills in Caton, accounting for upto half the workforce at one time (that's 75 children). They were indentured servants, which reminds me of immigrants to America, and makes me wonder what happened to them after their terms of service were up. Did they go back to Liverpool, travel elsewhere or stay and make a home for themselves in Caton or nearby Lancaster?

Apparently the Romans are known to have passed through Caton too, and a Hadrianic milestone has been found, now in the Lancaster City Museum. Will have to go look sometime.

We got to the bus stop with about 3 or 4 minutes to spare, and my dad immediately struck up conversation with an old lady at the bus stop, asking her questions she didn't know the answers to (How much is the bus fare to Lancaster? A: I don't know I have a pass. Oh I really should get one at some point, my wife keeps telling me to, never got around to it. And: Where is the Methodist church? [he had been many years before]. The lady then revealed she was a visitor and although she came her often, she didn't know for sure!).

The bus driver drove like a maniac and shouted at other people in cars that passed ('What do you think you are playing at mate?'). There was spilt water and coffee on the journey back, and sore teeth from where my water bottle had jammed into my mouth after a particularly sudden application of the breaks. It was a rare experience for both of us, having neither been on a bus for a long time. We passed through Halton on the way back, which was a nice looking suburb of Lancaster, a couple of miles out.

Overall, a lovely walk, much nicer than the first one, partly because it was warmer and sunnier, with more spring growth, but also because the river is prettier and more rural than the first leg of the journey between Glasson Dock and Lancaster. It was lovely walking with my dad, as always, and we agreed that it was much nicer doing a long walk in spaced out stages rather than all on consecutive days, as it allows more for reflection and enjoyment.

The next leg is probably Caton to Hornby, hopefully in the next few weeks.

More gardening...

2010-04-10T22:50:00.002+01:00

It's been a lovely weekend so far, and seeds have responded to the weather and started growing. Tomato plants have sprouted, as have all the minipop sweetcorn. Sunflowers are growing too. No sign of chilli pepper plants, passion flower or beans. On the kitchen windowsill, the herbs are going to need re-potting soon. The flat leaf parsley desperately needs a bigger pot, the basil could do with being transplanted into the terracotta pot I've got for it, and the sage now needs separate pots for each of the plants, as they have grown to 5cm tall now.

Outside, all of the garlic has definitely sprouted, but nothing much else happening yet in the front garden. In the back there's quite a few unknown veg plants growing in one of the L-shaped raised beds from the veg box I planted at the end of January - Kate thinks they are beans.

Today I weeded nearly all of the garden, between all of the rose bushes and other shrubs, and sowed poppy and cornflower seeds all around the garden. I also planted beetroot in the L-shaped veg bed. So in there now is some garlic, mystery veg and beetroot. Depending on what comes up, may also plant some chanteney carrots in there too (though have already plantedsome in a trough). The other L-shaped bed doesn't get much sun and is just for herbs. There was just some mint starting to re-grow at one end, and a rosemary bush at the other. I planted the marjoram plant I bought last week in the middle, and also sowed some chive seeds in the bed. In the front garden I planted the coriander and oregano plants.

No action yet from potatoes and chanteney carrots, but it is early days.

There is a day of events in Lancaster next Saturday about environment issues and global warming - a lady handed me a leaflet while I was stood by the organic veg stall waiting for Kate to finish. I'm not that interested in most of it, but there is a session about creating edible streets in Lancaster. Presumably this is about growing food using spare land, grass verges etc. a bit like they do in Todmorden (see previous blog article here). Could be interesting.

Weather this week has been fairly good, with some rain but not a lot. Last couple of days have been sunny, warm and dry.

General Election campaign begins...

2010-04-07T20:51:00.002+01:00

It's general election time in the UK again, and this, along with the World Cup, is one of the big events of the year. I've always had some interest in politics, but there are long periods of boredom with only the occasional interesting happenings. This election is shaping up to be very interesting, it is a full 5 years since the last one (the legal maximum gap) and it's been 13 years since we had a realistic prospect of a change in government. It's been even longer since there was any real doubt as to the outcome - you have to go back to 1992 for that, and since the first general election I could vote in was 2001, it's the first really interesting election I've been able to participate in. I just missed out on being able to vote in the 1997 election, though my parents allowed me to stay up all night to watch, and it really was exciting stuff as the Labour party won by the biggest landslide in modern times.

For any non-British readers, or British readers who don't know anything about our UK politics, a brief summary. The UK is a parliamentary democracy, so you vote for a party, not a prime minister. The country is divided into 650 constituencies (4 more than last time), and voters in each constituency vote for an MP for that constituency. There will be candidates from all the major parties in each constituency, and the candidate with the most votes becomes the MP for that constituency. To form a government, you generally need more than 50% of the MPs in parliament, so at least 326. Labour currently has a majority of 48, and to get a majority the Conservatives need about 130 more seats this time.

The major political parties are:

Labour - currently in government, leader is Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Historically party for working classes but 'New Labour' in the mid-1990s changed all that and blurred the dividing lines between parties.

Conservatives - the second biggest party, with around 200 seats in the current parliament. Leader is David Cameron. They are ahead in the polls, so have a good chance of getting elected. Traditionally the party of the middle classes, they believe in smaller government, greater partnership with private sector etc.

Liberal Democrats - the third party, with 62 seats in parliament this time. Leader Nick Clegg, but Vince Cable, their equivalent of Chancellor of the Exchequer is very popular. Realistically cannot win a majority, but could hold the balance of power if there is a hung parliament.

Green Party - green/environmental party. Currently no seats in parliament.

UK Independance Party - believes Britain should leave the EU. Has some following, but has no seats in Parliament.

British National Party - ultra right wing party, generally considered to be racist. Believe in 'repatriating' foreigners, encouraging people not native British born to leave. Some following in run-down areas, but no MPs in parliament.

Realistically, the chances of Green Party, BNP or UKIP getting m(any) seats very slim, due to first past the post system (they may receive a reasonable share of the popular vote, but spread to thin to win seats in constituencies).

So there is a good chance of a change in government, a good chance of a hung parliament (where no party has an overall majority), but no one knows. If a hung parliament, no one knows what will happen but it will be a mess - hasn't happened since the early 1970s.

I live in Lancaster, which is the 81st most marginal seat, and one the Conservatives must win if they are to be elected. So a battleground state!

New job...green shoots

2010-04-06T23:09:00.003+01:00

Today I started a new job, working for the same firm but in a different office - Preston in Lancashire for those who know the area. This means rather than walk I have to get the train from Lancaster to Preston. It's a longer day, but I don't mind, as it's only a 20 minute train journey, and gives me time to read, blog or listen to my ipod on the train. I haven't commuted by train in quite a few years (nearly 8 years) so it makes a change. The job itself looks like it could be good - I am going to be very busy, but a lot of the work is much more interesting and bigger jobs than I am used to. Am looking forward to the challenge.

It could be said that after years in the doldrums workwise, there are green shoots for my career all of a sudden, but the green shoots I'm referring to are the shoots coming up from the garlic I planted in the front garden the weekend before last - I just noticed them as I got home this evening. Hopefully by weekend there will be more new growth to report.

Front garden plan

2010-04-05T23:42:00.005+01:00

With a spare few minutes, I drew a plan of my front garden patch. Neither the garden nor the drawing are very good, but at least with the drawing I have the excuse that I did it on a computer, with only a laptop touchpad, not even a mouse. I used a free package called paint.net and it is the first time I've used it, hence why it looks like a five year old drew it. Hopefully will update plan as I plant more things, and as things start to grow. If I get time, will do plan for back garden, pots etc.

Bank holiday gardening

2010-04-05T19:46:00.003+01:00

Well it has been the bank holiday weekend, 4 days off work, and the weather hasn't been as atrocious as the BBC weather forecast would have had me believe, so I got some gardening done. It was even quite warm and sunny at times. Firstly, I tidied out the shed, which was in a terrible state with stuff quite literally just chucked in. It's a small shed, with a lot of things in, but I can actually walk in, turn around, do some seed planting in pots if I want (was going to but then it stopped raining so did outside), and even find things!

Next job was planting potatoes. Last year I had one 'potato bag' which was a big success. The bags are strong, sturdy plasic bags, with a flat bottom, tall and will stand on their own. I bought two official 'potato bags' and used 3 other bags I had lying around. Fill the bag a quarter full of compost, then plant three potatoes in, ready chitted and with the tubers as far as possible pointing upwards. Half bury the potatoes, but then cover with more soil. The bags are still now only a third full of compost. Oh, should have said that there are four drainage holes in the bottom. Anyway, water well and leave in a spot that gets a good amount of sun. Once the potato plants start to grow, I will keep earthing them up until the bag is filled with compost. This should give strong plants and maximise number of potatoes. This year I planted one bag with Charlotte salad potatoes, and the rest with Arran Pilot maincrop potatoes. I am hoping this will save the need to buy potatoes for many months after harvesting.

Also planted some cherry tomato seeds, habenero chilli peppers, sunflowers, sweetcorn minipop (those little ones you eat whole and put in stir fries etc) and beans. The beans I planted actually looked like magic beans. They are open pollinated which means that the next generation of seeds will be usable, and in fact if I keep the seeds from the plants that do best in my garden it should produce better plants/produce the following year, and so on. I don't know much about seed-saving, but it is supposed to help preserve old varieties that are becoming extinct these days, as commercial seed sellers use homogenous, close-pollinated seeds which don't produce good plants from the second generation (I guess they want you to keep buying from them!). I bought these seeds in Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts, so they have come a long way! They are similar to the beans grown by the first settlers in New England, nearly 400 years ago, so it will be especially interesting to see how they do. I may have to invest in some copper slug rings to keep the infernal beasts at bay.

I also planted some flowers, and have bought some herb plants - oregano, marjoram and coriander. They are all foods I want to use in cooking later in the year. The marjoram will go in the back garden in a bed with rosemary and mint already growing, the coriander and sage will probably go in the herb patch of the front garden.

Weather during the last week (27th March to 4th April) has been mixed. The first weekend was nice and mostly sunny, then during the week mostly rainy with odd bits of sunshine. Easter weekend has been very mixed, half day of rain or overcast, half day of sun. No frost for ages however.

Must go, back to work tomorrow, starting a new job for a new boss (though same firm). More soon.

About the weather

2010-03-31T07:52:00.002+01:00

The last couple of days, rain has been lashing down, heavy and wintery, and the forecast for the next few days doesn't look good either which may scupper my plans for lots of Easter weekend gardening. At least it's not snowing though, unlike in Scotland and Ireland last night. The weather is totally beyond our control, but has such a big effect on what we can do in our gardens, allotments and farmsteads. The last couple of summers here in the North West of England have been pretty atrocious with weeks and weeks of rain throughout summer. The slugs loved it, the plants didn't, the slugs ate the plants!

It's interesting whenever I read blogs from other people around the world to see what the weather is like for them. I can't help sometimes feeling a bit envious, especially when I hear this week that the pecan trees are in flower. How wonderful. I remember visiting Greece too, and seeing the orange and lemon groves, and olive bushes. Not possible here, but we must make do with what we are given!

At least those of us with poor weather can start off crops indoors in our warm, centrally heated houses to give them a good start. It makes me wonder what people did hundreds of years ago. Did those gardeners and smallholders start off their vegetables and herbs inside in pots? Did these have to be in the main room with the fire? It would be interesting to read a historic gardening/farming journal someday. Maybe the monks from some of Britain's monasteries kept a diary. Will have to have a look.

This year, I am going to try and keep a log of the weather, along with my record of garden developments and visiting birds.

A good weekend of gardening, crafts and cooking...

2010-03-28T22:06:00.003+01:00

Some weekends you feel like the time has passed you by and you got nothing done, other weekends feel like you got loads done. This was the latter. We visited my parents yesterday (Saturday) which took most of the day, and it was good to see them as always, plus my older sister dropped by as an added bonus. Yesterday evening however, all the essential chores were done and Rachel, our daughter was asleep in her cot. So I took the opportunity to make some notebooks. I make handmade notebooks out of old books, board games, maps, and anything else of interest I can get my hands on. The term is 'upcycling' - reusing old materials that might otherwise be thrown away, and put them to a new use. I'm currently binding them with a metal wire binding, but am intending to hand stitch some soon, and at some point do proper, leather bound notebooks in the tradtional way they've been making them for many hundreds of years. For now though, I'm doing the relatively easy wire binding. I sell them online through a website called folksy.com, a sort of ebay but for hand-crafted products (a UK version of etsy). Some of my early notebooks can be found on our shop, which I share with my wife. Am intending to launch my own separate shop soon though, and am trying to make enough to sell at a craft fair in a couple of months. Anyway, Saturday evening I made seven notebooks, which I thought was quite a good effort.

We've been busy cooking today to put food in the freezer so on the days when we come back from work too tired to be bothered cooking, we can get lovely home cooked meals out of the freezer rather than paying lots of money for frankly not very nice takeaway. My contribution to this was a large pan full of chilli, a bit spicier than I'd intended but nice all the same. Kate did a beef casserole and two different types of sausage casserole. All told it should do a good six or seven meals for us both at least.

Next was gardening. Sunday seems to be my gardening day of late, and today was no exeption, although hopefully will be able to do some in the weekday evenings now, as the clocks have gone forward an hour this weekend and it's light until 8pm now. Anyway this morning Rachel had a sleep late morning for more than 2 hours, a rare treat. So I tackled the front garden again, finishing digging over and clearing up all of the stringy roots and bits of twigs from digging out the bushes last week. What's left is now a nice dug over bed of about 120cm by 140cm. I added some soil from our compost bin (a new experiment last year, putting all our left over food in a compost bin at the end of the garden. It's amazing but we have compost now - not perfect as there's some bits of eggshells and onion in the bottom in the compost, but still pretty good). In one corner by the front door there are some daffodils and crocuses in flower, and there's a perennial flower plant growing on the next corner. When the spring flowers have finished flowering, I will dig them up, leaving the bulbs in the soil for next year, and plant something else in their place. For today, I've planted the curly parsley plant in the ground, and planted a couple of rows of flower plants (Aubretia), and sown a row of garlic bulbs. Next weekend is Easter weekend, 4 days off work, so plan on planting more then. I may draw a plan of the front bed to put on here, and update as I plant more things.

I haven't done anything in the back garden as of yet, though did an inspection today, The blueberry and blackcurrent bushes have loads of buds, and some of the raspberry canes have buds too (As recently as last week I thought we weren't going to see any raspberry action this year). The strawberry planter needs some attention, but there are a few strawberry plants with new growth in it. In one of our 'L-shaped' (raised) beds I found to my delight that there are a few garlic plants growing. I planted these last year and they didn't do much, but have only now realised that garlic is a perennial so has come back stronger this year (there's almost as much growth already as there was all year last year). Also, for Christmas my wife bought me a 'veg box' with soil and loads of seeds in different compartments. The idea is you plant the box in the ground and things grow. I planted around 31st Jan, and nothing was growing, but now there is a couple of shoots. Accidentally threw away the paper that says what everything is, so will have to wait and see what comes up. Anyway, lots of work to do in the garden over Easter next weekend. May plant some things in pots mid-week too.

Incredible Edible Todmorden

2010-03-21T23:02:00.003Z

Watched an episode of Michael Portillo's 'Great British Railway Journeys' today. Lots of good stuff in there, but was particularly interested in his visit to Todmorden in East Lancashire. The town and surrounding area have a big project going on to become more self-sufficient, and produce as much food as possible locally.

There's an egg list on their website where you can find a map with all the people selling eggs on from the chickens they are keeping in their garden, along with phone numbers. There's herb gardens at the station and carrots growing in the car park and you can help yourself. Looking at the website http://www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk/ - I can see there is also lots of orchards planted, a lot on public land, which people can help themselves to. The project has involved asking schools, public bodies, businesses, local council etc to allow use of some land to grow things. I think this is a brilliant idea, and would love it if we could do something like it in Lancashire.

Gardening plan

2010-03-21T22:43:00.000Z

Have done some more gardening this weekend, mainly digging out all the bushes in the front garden. There is now quite a decent size bed there to work with. Also went to garden centre, Barton Grange near Preston. Great coffee and cake! Picked up a few seed packets but is a bit early to buy plants. We did see an apricot bush which was tempting however.

Decided to come up with a plan for what to grow. Don't want to have lots of useless plants in pots this year. So I am definitely going to grow:

1) Potatoes - essential. Easy to grow and we eat a lot of them. Got some maincrop (Arran pilot) and new potatoes (Charlotte) chitting on windowsill. Purple sprouts growing out of them! Going to grow in potato bags, probably at back of the garden.

2) Salads - lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber. Kate's mum is starting some off for me, but we may start some off ourselves. Maybe have some lettuce and rocket in the front garden.

3) Garlic - will grow a row in the front garden I think.

4) Herbs - some Basil on windowsill. Parsley, sage, coriander, thyme, mint, rosemary and oregano. Maybe some marjoram and tarragon too. Oh and chives. Some in front, some in back garden. Sounds a lot, but already have some established plants growing already, and some more just planted.

5) Flowers- in front garden and hanging baskets. A mix of bright, colourful flowers.

6) Runner beans and possibly peas. Against fences in back garden.

7) Sweetcorn - fancy giving it a go. Will start off planting in a pot indoors and see how it goes.

8) Carrots - chanteney. Have had success in the past but not in the last couple of years. Slugs and birds keep eating seedlings.

We may grow other stuff, onions being one possibility, but don't want to take on too much. Oh forgot to mention fruit - we have a strawberry planter, blueberry bush and blackcurrent bush. Also raspberry canes but they don't look like they are sprouting this year.

The challenge is maintaining the plants, and in particular seeing off the threat of slugs and birds. For the former I am investing in some copper 'slug rings'. For the latter, may try some nets though. First need to finish clearing and tidying the garden, then get planting. I think Easter weekend, in 2 weeks will be a big planting weekend.

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Wonders of the Garden...and Solar System

2010-03-15T20:17:00.003Z

Have now seen goldfinches and bullfinches in the back garden. Also yesterday did some more gardening - we re-potted the blueberry bush, and I chopped down the bush in the front garden, ready for digging it out. Planted some heather and a thyme plant in the front garden, and am going to plant flowers and herbs in the rest of the front garden. I've been given the task of looking after the front garden by Kate (my wife) and although mostly doing flowers (because that makes more sense for the front garden), like the idea of doing herbs too. I like growing useful things, things you can eat, or at a stretch herbs that are useful in other ways like medicinal herbs.

Will also be helping sort out the back, may get onto that at the weekend.

Watched first episode of 'Wonders of the Solar System' yesterday with Professor Brian Cox, the rockstar physicist (he was the keyboard player for D:Ream in the early 90s...Things Can Only Get Better etc.). Very good, the footage of sunrise/sunset on other planets was amazing. I think if a programme like that gives you one good, interesting piece of information for you to remember then it has done its job. In this episode it was the fact that there are 142 moons in the solar system in total, but only one of the moons can produce a total solar eclipse and that is our moon. On no other planet can you see a total solar eclipse. This is because the diameter of the moon is 400 times smaller than that of the sun, but it is 400 times further away than the moon is from the Earth. It really gets you thinking, and makes me at any rate wonder about whether there is an intelligent design behind creation... Have got a book by physicist Paul Davies which I think is about this which I should read soon.

Early morning, birds in the garden

2010-03-14T07:49:00.003Z

Up at 6.30am this morning with my daughter who, despite being up till 9 last night and waking up and wanting milk at 4am, decided it was time to get up.

When I came down this morning there were two long tailed tits feeding on the fat and since then we've had a blue tit and a great tit. Just the usual visitors really.

Today will probably pop into town for a bit and hope to get some plants for the front garden. If Rachel sleeps this evening, I might even get some notebooks made.

Edit: Two goldfinches in the trees just over the fence from the back of the garden.

Gardening

2010-03-13T17:15:00.005Z

I did a little bit of gardening today, as it's getting warmer and more like planting weather. Just tidying up, weeding and a bit of digging at the moment, although have left potatoes on the windowsill in a shallow cardboard box lid to chit (sprout). Haven't done this before, but am told it is the way to go to get the best out of them. This year am growing Arran Pilot maincrop potatoes and Charlotte salad potatoes. Haven't grown Arran Pilot before (recommendation from my mother-in-law), but we've grown Charlottes a couple of times in the past - they are very resistant to slugs which works well in our garden, and taste very nice although the skins do tend to flake off when you boil them. Am going to be growing them in large potato bags this year - tried one last year with good results.

Also today have planted herb seeds on the kitchen windowsill - basil, thyme and sage.

I'd love to have a big garden and grow lots of things - vegetables, herbs, fruit mainly. Unfortunately, working full time with lots of hobbies and a 10 month old baby doesn't lend itself to spending lots of time to do gardening. It's probably a good thing therefore that we have the smallest garden going - well almost I'm sure. One day I hope to have lots more time and a bigger garden. I'd love to grow most of my own vegetables, I love to make my own fences and raised beds out of fallen trees, all the old fashioned, natural things that they did hundreds of years ago.

I will aim to post on here anything of significance happening in the garden. Maybe I'll even put on some photos at some point.

Civilisation - Episode 2

2010-03-11T22:09:00.003Z

This episode centred around the 10-12th centuries and the rise of the church. Clark started off in England, showing some of the great English cathedrals and telling us that the abbeys and priories were repositories of art and learning, with many of the most intelligent becoming monks.

The rest of the episode was then spent in France. First at Cluny Abbey in the Loire region. The land and money to build the cathedral was given by William I of Aquitaine, who unlike other reigious donors, gave the abbey and abbot free reign over all the lands and income, requesting only that prayers were said for him and his family.

Cluny Abbey became very rich and powerful and had dependant priories in France, Spain, England, Scotland and Italy which were ruled over by its Abbot. It focused more on prayer, learning and looking after the poor. It could afford workers for the Abbey and lands, giving the monks more time for prayer. Three successful abbey buildings were constructed, and Cluny was a major influence on Western European architecture. It's most enduring legacy however was probably the major role in causing Christianity to permeate and solidify in the core of Central Western Europe.

The episode went on to talk about St Denis and Chartres (the latter originally built in the Romanesque style and rebuilt after fire in the Gothic style after change in tastes, brought about by the former). St Denis was the trendsetter for Gothic style and its architect kept a detailed diary about the building of the cathedral.

Civilisation by Kenneth Clark

2010-03-11T11:33:00.004Z

Just watched the first episode of 'Civilisation' by Kenneth Clark, a 13 part documentary series made by the BBC in 1966/67, a landmark first for its scope and magnificent scenes from all round the world, it set the tone for many documentaries to come. The DVD sound and picture are surprisingly good on my widescreen HD TV! My wife wouldn't like it, she called 'America' by Alistair Cooke 'man talking' as she said it was just a man talking with some pictures/video backdrop. This is similar, but the scenes are breathtaking, and the talking very interesting, so I love it.

The first episode is called 'The Skin of Our Teeth' and the basic premise is we got through the dark ages through the skin of our teeth, and it could easily have been different and western civilisation not reasserted itself.

The episode starts by examining why the Roman Empire, and thus the whole Greco-Roman world, fell. Clark's view was that it was fear and boredom. Fear of invading barbarians which stopped people planning and building for the future or planting the next year's crops. And boredom as people grow bored of the stagnant culture, some almost wishing the barbarians would invade, as a change would be better than the same old, same old.

Once the Roman Empire fell, there was an island of civilisation in Constantinople but this shut itself off and wanted nothing to do with Western Europe. Early Christians sought the far reaches of the world to escape the barbarians and keep the tiny flame of Christianity alive. These early missionaries found various remote rocky outcrops, including Iona and one literal rock in the Atlantic which they clung to for 400 years and built huts out of the rock, and crude crosses with stone and white crystal found on the outcrop (too small to be called an island). They also carved a stone causeway up to the top of the island. The thought of these early Christians stubbornly clinging to this outpost for so long is quite awe inspiring. Christians later found their way to Iona and this was a safe haven where they could settle as a base from which to spread Christianity. They wrote and decorated fabulous gospels, some of which survive today. I've been to Iona when quite young with my mum and dad and recognised the place, especially the stone Ionian Cross. At the time I wasn't really interested though. Shame.

For civilisation to reassert itself, someone needed to create stability (through fighting to assert peace). This first occured in France, the Kingdom of the Franks, and Charlemagne was the most important of these early rulers. As well as establising and controlling a large empire, he believed in art and books, and had many classic books copied. As nearly all the originals of Greek & Roman books no longer survive, it is thanks to Charlemagne that we know them at all. The other important thing that Charlemagne did was reconnect with what remained of Roman civilisation in Rome, and the pope made him Holy Roman Emperor. He also visited Constantinople, and was so impressed with the stone built mosaic decorated Hagia Sophia that he built a replica himself at home (the first significant building made of stone in centuries). As an aside, the Hagia Sophia was first built in 360 AD on the orders of the Emperor Justinian, served as cathedral of Constantinople until 1453, and then became a mosque until 1934, opening as a museum in 1935.

The Vikings also made an appearance - for they had culture, if not civilisation, with their magnificently carved boats, and poems, runic alphabet and Islandic sagas.

The reason the Dark Ages were called the Dark Ages was because there was no art, writing, great buildings or other culture, except for the remains of the Roman Empire. By the skin of our teeth though, we made it through.

A Young Theodore Roosevelt

2010-03-09T22:50:00.006Z

This is based mainly on 'Mornings on Horseback' by David McCullough, which I am currently listening to the audiobook of. It covers Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt's young life and formative years. Will edit as I get through more of the book.

Teddy (pronounced tea-dee in the audiobook) was the son of Theodore Roosevelt Snr and Mittie Bullock. Theodore Senior was from a long line of Roosevelts in New York, dating back to the 1600's when it was New Amsterdam. He worked in the family firm (glass manufacture/importing) but was more interested in family and his various charitable works. The Roosevelts were very wealthy and had considerable standing in New York society. Mittie Bullock was from Savannah, Georgia, and later Roswell, Georgia (at first a summer home, later permanent), from a family of wealthy southern (slave owning) planters. Theodore Snr heard of Mittie and her sister from friends in New York who were from Georgia, and having heard of their beauty resolved to pay them a visit. They fell in love, but only got together and were betrothed some three years later. Mittie Bullock was the sister of James D Bullock and Irvine Bullock, both Confederate Civil War heroes in the south (this was later, when Teddy was a few years old).

Teddy was born in 1858. He had an older sister Anna 'Bamie' (b. 1855), a younger brother Elliott (b. 1860) and a younger sister Corinne 'Conie' (b. 1861)

Teddy suffered from asthma from a young age, and was often held by his father in the night, or taken to the country for the weekend for some fresh country air. He liked animals, and loved his mother's stories about his southern ancestors/relatives and their heroic exploits.

The American Civil War was a difficult time for the family, as Mittie was a southerner, and most of the male members of her family were fighting in the war. In contrast the Roosevelts, although northern patriots, did not fight. Like many of their wealth and class, they escaped the draft by paying the several hundred dollars each for a substitute to fight in their place. Theodore Snr did play his part though, and set up a scheme for soldiers to send some of their pay home to the wives and families struggling to survive without their income and labour. Mittie's brothers James D Bullock and Irvine Bullock were southern heroes in the Confederate Navy, Irvine as a sailor, and James for planning and arranging the secret building of the commercial raider 'Alabama' which some think lengthened the war by a matter of years. After the war they lived in exile in Liverpool, England.

After the war, the Roosevelts went on a year long grand tour of Europe, starting with England (Liverpool, and stayed with James and Irvine Bullock) and moving on to the continent. 10 year old Teddy kept a diary every day, and the trip was to have a huge influence on him.

His health was not great throughout the trip abroad and afterwards, so his father placed him with a renowned fitness expert to toughen him up, fill him out and generally improve his health and fitness. Teddy worked hard at it, but how much help it was it debatable. Later his mother arranged for a fully equipped gym to be set up at home! His eyesight was also quite poor.

One of the things that had a big effect on his health and well-being was when his father bought him a shotgun and a pair of spectacles. Suddenly he could see so much he couldn't before, and was especially impressed with all of the birds in the sky. He took to shooting them, and he would then stuff them for his collection (he had a museum in the attic at home). Not long after the Natural History Museum opened in New York, the records show a number of animals donated by a 14 year old 'Theodore Roosevelt Jnr'.

As well as fitness training, Teddy and his brother Elliot were trained by a young tutor, a Harvard Graduate. At first they were on a par academically, but after a while Teddy started pulling ahead. It was decided that Teddy, and not his brother, would go to college, and his tutor started preparing him for the Harvard entrance exam, which in time he passed and left for university. It was decided that he wouldn't live in dorms with the other students, but would have his own house in town. Bami was sent up earlier that summer to prepare things. He lived alone, but had a manservant and a maid. While academically very bright it took him a while to adjust to academic discipline and getting on with fellow students (heretofore he hadn't even been to a proper school, being educated at home). Socially he wasn't very good, but did find one or two close friends, one in particular he used to go hunting with. His exam grades were good and he even published his first pamphlet about birds in the local Massachusetts area. He generally really enjoyed his early years at Harvard, and his health was the best it ever had been. He never entirely got rid of his asthma, but attacks became much milder and more infrequent from Harvard days onwards. It is considered that being away from home and the associated pressures, and having his own place probably contributed to this improvement in health.

Meanwhile back in New York his father was becoming active in Republican politics, in particular part of a reform group that was opposed to career politics and those who served as politicians to line their own pockets and build up their own power. He played a part in getting Rutherford B Hayes elected President. The Custom House governor (correct title?)in New York was one of the most lucrative jobs in politics, as in it you could choose your staff and take a cut of all customs fees and penalties collected, and distribute that how you saw that. It was also a magnet for corruption, and there was a lot of corruption at the time. It was decided to oust Chester A Arthur from the position, and install Theodore Roosevelt Snr. He said he would take the job without pay, and his experience in business and importing would have made him an excellent choice. However political opponents hated Roosevelt and were able to stop him getting confirmed by the Senate. He was personally relieved but 'sad for the country' as the corrution could carry on. Soon after this episode he became ill and died within a few months. Young Teddy was not told of how serious it was until the day before Theodore's death. He caught the night boat from Boston to New York, but when he arrived the next day, his father was already dead.

His father's death had a profound effect on Teddy, and he couldn't help but link his failure in politics with his death soon afterwards, and came to the decision that he wouldn't fail.

River Lune walk - part 1

2010-03-06T23:34:00.001Z

Just done part one of walk along the River Lune from source to mouth, with my dad. For anyone that is reading this, the River Lune is a river in the North West of England which passes through Lancaster, Kirkby Lonsdale, Sedbergh and a few smaller places. Total length is 44 miles, but did about 4 miles today, from Glasson Dock (Condor Green) to Lancaster. I got to the starting point by bus, which took less than 15 minutes, and met my dad there. The walk took about an hour and a half, plus 10 minute break midway. Weather was quite nice, cloudy with the odd bit of sun poking through the clouds, and warmer than it has been recently. The scenery wasn't up to much, mostly muddy sand dunes, but from the next leg of our journey onwards the scenery should be a lot better, with clear waters, trees and fields, birds and so on. Just read that further up the river the path passes an old Roman Fort which should be good. Anyway next leg is Lancaster to Caton, which is about 5 miles, and we are hoping to do that over Easter if we get chance.

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History of the World in 100 Objects (Part 3)

2010-03-06T20:59:00.000Z

Flood Tablet – One of the tablets that makes up the surviving fragments of The Epic of Gilgamesh. Translated in the 19th century, it tells the story of a great flood, pre-dating the biblical flood by 500 years. The similarities are remarkable. Did the writers of the biblical story copy from the Mesopotamian stone tablets, or are they both based on an earlier mythic or historic event?

Rhind Mathematical Papyrus – large papyrus with over 100 everyday mathematical puzzles, such as how to calculate the amount of grain needed to feed 500 workers for a month. The narrator called it ‘an entrance exam for the Egyptian Civil service’. It was certainly the revision handbook at least. This is also one of the few examples of Egyptian mathematics that survives, and not by mathematicians, so the question of whether the Egyptians made many of the important mathematical discoveries rather than the Greeks (i.e. did the Greeks get what they know from the Egyptians) is still unknown.

Mold Gold Cape – This was a gold cape made from a single ingot of gold (about the size of a ping pong ball) about 1900-1600 B.C., and beaten incredibly thin. This was found in a grave by a group of workmen in the early 1800’s. The gold was divided up amongst the workers and the farmer whose land it was found on. It probably would have been forgotten to history but for a local vicar who wrote about the find, attracting the attention of the British museum, which over the following 150 years sought out the different pieces and found most, but not all, of them. The cape was unique in all of Europe, and was of immense value, obviously worn by someone very important, though the size of it indicates it was for a small woman or a child. It is likely the owners of the cape were connected with the Great Orme Copper mine nearby, the largest bronze age copper mine in north west Europe.

Indus Seal – Series of small stone seals with pictures and symbols/writing on, dating back 4,500 years old. These were probably used in trade. The Indus Valley civilisations were only rediscovered in the early 20th century, despite being one of the world’s first civilisations, and one without evidence of violence in their culture. They built over 150 cities, one of the largest of which was Harappa, where these seals were found. Some cities had advanced sanitation systems, large scale architecture and even a modern grid layout of their cities. What is amazing is that it was so recently discovered, there’s so much still to be learned, including the language of the Indus civilisation, which has yet to be deciphered. It’s just waiting for someone to crack the code.

Gold Coin of Croesus – (550 B.C). One of the first gold coins, made in the city state of Lydia, in modern day Turkey. Lydia was a trading centre, renowned for its wealth. Its last King, Croesus, invented money. This was probably because before then people used gold and other precious metals but when trading, the gold had to be tested for weight and purity which was time consuming and difficult. So Croesus had the idea of minting coins that had a standard weight and purity, thus taking the responsibility for ensuring weight and purity away from merchants and to the hands of the government. This was a very successful move and made Croesus and Lydia incredibly rich. Even today there exists the phrase, ‘as rich as Croesus’.

Eventually Lydia was invaded and conquered by the Persians, and Croesus was taken by the Persian king as his advisor, and he helped develop money throughout the Persian empire.

Sphinx of Taharqo – Sphinx showing a black pharaoh. This is because for a period around 680 B.C.. the neighbouring Kingdom of Kush, in modern day Sudan, successfully invaded Egypt and took over, but maintained Egyptian customs and government etc. They created a hybrid identity combining Kushite and Egyptian customs. The Kushite reign ended after less than 100 years, when they were invaded by the Assyrians.

History of the World in 100 Objects (Part 2)

2010-02-24T20:59:00.003Z

1) Bird shaped pestle - from Papua New Guinea. Artistic not just functional, and shows the beginnings of humans growing and eating new foods. By growing and cooking food that is harder for other animals to digest (they can't grind with pestle and mortar!) helps us move up the food chain and do better than our animal neighbours.

2) Ain Sakri Lovers figurine - found near Bethlehem, showing a couple having sex. Indicates new importance of relationships etc. Can't remember a lot else.

3) Egyptian Clay Model of Cattle - made from Egyptian mud 5,500 years ago, long before the Pharoahs. Cattle then were not initially used for beef as they were too tough and inedible, and human stomachs at the time could not tolerate cow's milk (we had to evolve our stomachs over hundreds of years to tolerate it). Cows were used for carrying things, and people drank their blood for nutrients and protein. This model was buried with its owner, probably an Egyptian of modest means.

4) Maya Maize God Statue - The Mayans believed that everyone was descended from Maize. Maize is the main staple crop in much of South America. It's notoriously difficult to refine for human consumption, and was worshipped as a god for providing food for people.

5) Jomon Pot - The Jomon culture in Japan was a fishing community. This is a 7,000 year old pot, quite decorated, but the Japanese have been making pots for 17,000 years. It's not hard to imagine one day a lump of clay accidentally falling into a fire, becoming set and suddenly people discovered how useful they were. The invention of pots also revolutionised cookery, as people could now cook stews and many other dishes with a mix of ingredients. The Jomon culture obviously weren't very good at washing their dishes because scientists have been able to analyze the remains in the dish from 7,000 years ago and identify some of the ingredients in this early stew!

History of the World in 100 Objects

2010-02-24T13:44:00.002Z

This is a BBC Radio 4 series I've been listening to (well the podcasts of the episodes to be technically correct). Collaboration between the BBC and the British Museum, it's presented by the Director of the British Museum, who has chosen 100 objects from the museum to tell a history of the world. Each episode covers 1 object and is 15 minutes long. You learn about the object itself, its history, sometimes how it was discovered, and what it has to tell us about history, development of human society etc. The objects are roughly chronolgical but each week has different themes, so it jumps about a bit. I'm a couple of weeks behind, so seen about 3 or 4 weeks worth so far, but it is really fascinating stuff. Here's a summary of the first few:

1) Mummy of Hornejitef - this is out of place chronologically, and seems a strange place to start, but is used to highlight some of the scientific techniques that continute to shed light on objects in the series. It's also the first object the presenter became interested in as a child.

2) Olduvai Stone Chopping Tool - 2 million years old or so, one of the first tools fashioned by humans, used to cut meat off dead animals for food and so on. Found in the Rift Valley in Tanzania, around where mankind first came from.

3) Olduvai Hand Axe - A stone axe roughly hewn, but roughly in the shape of what you would think of as an axe-head. Used for killing animals, cutting meat for food etc. It allowed humans to travel and take the axe with them to be able to start to hunt food. These handaxes were made for a million years or so and have been found all over Africa, Europe, Asia etc.

4) Swimming Reindeer - found in France and dating back 13,000 years, one of the earlist artistic objects. Carved out of bone/antler it shows that humans began to think more than about hunting and survival and started taking an interest in the world around them and wanting to express that through art.

5) Clovis Spear Point - stone spearhead dating to around 11,000 BC, thousands like it found all over the Americas. This is supposedly from around the time people first crossed the land bridge from Asia (Russia to Alaska) and began populating the Americas. The spear allowed them to hunt and spread out all across two continents. I said supposedly before, because I read a book (well half of - it was long and very in depth) called 1491 by Charles Mann (?) which challenged the hypothesis that humans originated in Africa, by positing that they evolved independantly on different continents, giving evidence in this case for the evolution of humans in the Americas. A fascinating book, but presumably Neil MacGregor (museum director/series presenter) either hasn't heard of this (unlikely) or doesn't agree with it.

More soon.

After a long absence...

2010-02-23T13:45:00.002Z

After nearly two years of quiet I've decided to start blogging again. This is partly because I need an outlet for my verbal chuntering, but it's more because I forget so much that I read or learn. I'm interested in so many different areas that remembering and keeping track is difficult. I often read (or listen to an audiobook of) a really good non-fiction book or article, and a few months later I could summarise in a couple of sentences what I remember. The act of writing about what I've read, seen, listened to etc. helps me remember, and then I've always got the blog to go back to if I want to look at again. I was reading some of my old blog entries yesterday and it surprised me what I'd forgotten and even found it interesting re-reading!

I'm writing this blog mainly for my own benefit, but if anyone is reading this, I hope you find some of this stuff as interesting as I do, and please leave a comment or send me an email. When looking over my old blog posts the other day, I found that someone had actually commented on one of them. Someone was reading! I didn't really understand the comment, but that doesn't matter so much.

This time around I may also do a bit of tweeting, as I've got a twitter account now. You can't say much in a tweet, but if nothing else I can link to blog articles I write and post random links to pages on the internet that interests me.

If my previous blogging efforts are anything to go by, when I say 'will write more shortly' or 'tomorrow I'm going to post about X' as a lot of the time it doesn't happen. Maybe I'll be better this time, I don't know. I do intend to blog a bit about the bbc radio 4 series 'A History of the World in 100 Objects' which I've been listening to recently. Watch this space (hopefully!)

A list of podcast sites

2008-04-08T13:40:00.004+01:00

List of podcast sites:

http://www.podcast.com - index of podcasts
http://www.podcast.net - another index
Some biography podcasts
List of History podcasts
Talking History - no longer running, but big archive
LSE Lectures and Podcasts
Colonial Williamsburg podcasts
US Presidents podcast
LearnOutLoud

More soon.

The Week's News

2008-04-04T20:39:00.003+01:00

Despite (or perhaps because) my head's either in a book or tramping around somewhere in the vastness that is history, it's good to keep up to date with what's happening in the news. To do this I read 'The Week' a weekly digest of British and International news. It's not all serious though, there's a fair few amusing articles too.

The main stories this week are the elections in Zimbabwe and the mess that is the new terminal 5 at Heathrow. Firstly Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe, a rather nasty piece of work, is facing stiff competition this week as he tries to cling on to power. He's been President since 1981 and is now 84 years old. It's supposedly a democracy, but the elections are always rigged, tribal leaders are bribed to deliver loads of votes, there's intimidation, fraud, gerrymandering etc. This time though, it seems the vote against him has been so overwhelming that even his impressive election rigging skills might not be enough. The opposition party has seemingly won the parlimentary election (though possibly not yet the senate?) and is claiming victory in the Presidential election, though this is being disputed. One party needs at least 50% of the vote to avoid a 'run off' which seems to be a sort of re-match. The opposition claim they have 50.3%, others say 49% etc. I hope they sort it out and can boot Mugabe out of power, as the country has been in serious decline for the last 10 years - mostly due to him and his attempts to keep and extend his power.

The other major story is Heathrow terminal 5. I've never been to Heathrow, and fortunately when I go on holiday to America at the end of the month I'm flying from Manchester, however it sounds a 'real shambles' as Alan Sugar might say (if you've seen The Apprentice at least a couple of times, you'll know what I'm talking about). I read about this a while ago and it's really hi-tech and sophisticated, but the lack of organisation, management structures and training are being blamed for the hundreds of cancelled flights and the thousands of people still trying to locate their baggage. It will probably be great in a year or two, but for now I'd stay away.

Other stories:

The bigger a moose's antlers, the better the sex they have.
Hillary Clinton refuses to give up in the election primary race in the US. Big surprise!
Lidl are mean. In Germany they have been using hidden cameras to spy on employees, including in the toilets, and in some stores they don't let female employees use the toilet unless they are on their period (when they have to wear headbands to identify themselves). Can this be real?
John McCain (republican candidate), doesn't seem to be quite the foreign policy expert he portrays himself as, and if the democrats weren't bickering so much people might notice more (particularly silly gaffe this week about Iran, Al-Qaedi etc I wouldn't have known either but then I'm not running for President!)

Monarchy - Ethelred, Canute, Edward, Harold, William

2008-04-02T13:24:00.004+01:00

Watched the second episode of Monarchy last night. It featured five kings:

Ethelred - called the unready, pun on his name, because he was poorly advised. Vikings invaded England during his reign and he had to pay them money 'Danegeld' to keep them from staying. Eventually married Emma, daughter of the Duke of Normandy, to gain alliances and avoid the Normans coming in on the side of the Vikings (as they were in some way related).

Canute - Ethelred died, and his son only lasted a few months before being ousted by an invading army from Denmark under Canute. Canute became king of England, and became 'more English than the English', going native. Emma then married Canute. Ethelred fled to France with his sons.

Edward the Confessor - Edward, son of Ethelred (or grandson?) became King after Canute died. To reinforce an alliance with the Normans, he agreed to make Duke William of Normandy (Emma's grand-nephew) heir to the English throne. This was partly to see off the threat of Godric, the powerful Earl of Wessex, who wanted the throne (there was enmity between them, coming nearly to civil war after the English nobles on both sides refused to fight). He obviously later relented and on his deathbed, made Harold, Godric's son, his heir.

Harold - Harold, before being named heir, apparently was shipwrecked off the coast of Normandy and rescued by Duke William of Normandy (though probably not personally) and William later contended that Harold swore an oath to do everything he could to get William on the throne after King Edward died. Whether this actually happened (probably) or whether it was under duress (probably) is by no means certain. Harold became King, then had to put down a Viking invasion in the north, before marching straight after to meet Duke William who had landed an army on the south coast to contest the crown.

William - William invated and met Harold at the Battle of Hastings where Harold died (either shot in the head with an arrow or trampled by a horse) after a brave fight that lasted all day. The victory was William's, who then became King. He was known as 'The Conqueror' but to me he seemed to have at least as strong a claim to the throne as Harold!

I'm missing a lot out here, much of it quite interesting. I may re-watch that episode sometime to pick up more, or do some reading in this area, but for now that's the bare bones of what happened.

Word count

2008-04-01T13:58:00.003+01:00

The word count on my novel is upto 20,000 words and I'm on to chapter six now. Things may slow down for a bit though as I'm going back to do a bit of work on chapter one, developing characters more etc. after a very useful review of chapter one by Kate. It's going well though I think and I am really enjoying writing it which is the main thing.

Early English Monarchs (Dark Ages)

2008-04-01T13:40:00.002+01:00

I have recently discovered Channel 4's 'On Demand' service, available online. As well as catching up on the last 30 days of tv, there's hundreds of classic shows available to watch for free. I watched Season One, Episode One of 'Monarchy' by David Starkey. I thought it was really good, and will be watching the next one tonight.

Episode One was about the dark ages, and the history of 'kingship'. Before the coming of the Romans to Britain, there were many different kingdoms and each leader or warlord ruled with the consent of his people - otherwise they'd depose him. Then came the Romans and they brought with them the concept of absolute rulership, reinforced by strict laws and Christian faith. When the Roman Empire was failing, Britain was invaded by hordes of Anglo-Saxons from Germany. About 200,000 in all came over, when the native population was around 2 million. According to Bede, one of Britain's earliest historians, a large proportion of the native population was displaced or killed. The Anglo-Saxons effectively took over, bringing with them a new language, customs and a new national identity. For the next few hundred years there were many Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Wessex and Mercia being two of the most important. Somewhere around 800AD, Britain was again invaded, this time by Vikings. All the Anglo Saxon kingdoms fell, except Wessex, ruled by Alfred (the Great). He fought back and eventually expanded his kingdom over much of Southern England including London. He named his son as his heir, and his grandson, Edgar became the first to rule over all of Britain (celebrated by an elaborate coronation at Bath where he was the first king to be 'crowned'.

That was the bare bones of the first episode, which was a joy to watch and awakened my interest in this early period of English history.

Dear Me

2008-02-17T11:59:00.002Z

Dear Me,

Another year is starting so lets make it a great year for writing. Do you remember a few months ago talking with your friend at work? You happened to mention that you’ve wanted to write since you learnt to read aged five, and he mentioned that it was such a shame that in the twenty three years since you’d never got anywhere with it. You’ve only got yourself to blame – you’re great at talking the talk but when it comes to walking the walk it doesn’t always happen. Time to do something about it this year, and whether you succeed or not, you’ll have something to show for the effort and can be proud of what you’ve done.

Most important of all your goals this year must be your as yet untitled historical novel. You’ve started numerous novels over the years, some embarrassingly bad, some with slightly more potential. All have had one thing in common – yes don’t hang your head in shame, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You’ve grown bored of them or come up with a better idea that you moved onto. This time it’s going to be different; this time it must be different. You’re so much more enthusiastic, you’ve found what you really want to write about, you’ve planned it out, done lots of research and so on. So get writing it.

I know what you’re like, you’ve got the best of intentions, but without some hard and fast targets you’re going to disappoint yourself. So how about this: write regularly and try to average at least 3,000 words a week. That way you should have finished it by the end of the year. You’ll have a first draft to work with, and won’t that be an achievement?

Writing your novel is your main objective for the year, but don’t let that be all you are about. You’ve got so many interests and topics you’d like to write about, far too many and too diverse to get into a single novel. Get more involved on writing.com, both writing and reviewing other people’s work. You really enjoy it, and the more you put in, the more you get out of it. Here are some tangible objectives to work with:

Enter at least one competition per month.
Write at least two short stories in the year.
Write at least three articles in the year.
Write at least four poems in the year.
Review at least five new pieces of writing each month.
Try and earn some new merit badges this year, because they’re adorable and you know you love them!
Join in or start a campfire creative during the year, and participate regularly.

Entering competitions on writing.com and earning merit badges is great, but it doesn’t buy the baby a new bonnet. You must submit at least three pieces of writing to magazines, journals or some other publication in the year. Lets see if you can get your name in print!

Remember that lovely leather-bound notebook that your wife gave you, with those thick, crisp pages that are perfect to write on? Why not use it to write memories and recollections in. You’ve been wanting to do something like that for a while, they’re a rich source of creativity and will help you in coming up with ideas for stories. It will also be enjoyable for you to reminisce. The notebook has got about a hundred pages in, so aim to fill it before the end of the year and see how you get on.

Finally there is reading. You either read for pleasure, or for research purposes, but you don’t do enough of either. Try to read at least three books every month, and remember that curling up in your favourite chair to read in the evening isn't a waste of your time, it is a really good and productive activity.

It’s no use coming up with goals and objectives for the year if you then forget about them, so make sure you review these goals each month to see if you are meeting them. If you are, great, and if not you’ll know to try harder next month.

It’s so easy to come home from work each evening and do nothing but sit in front of the television. For you to have any hope of achieving your goals you need to spend more time at the computer writing, or quietly reading, and less time in front of that infernal box in the corner of the living room. It’s going to be a challenge, but one I’m sure you will relish.

Happy writing,

Yourself

Word count, Resolutions & Team GB

2008-02-17T11:53:00.002Z

I'm upto approx 14,200 words of my novel so far, mid-way through chapter four, and am hoping to do some more today.

In January, I wrote a 'Dear Me' letter for the official writing.com competition. It's basically a letter to myself setting out my writing (and reading) goals for 2008. I'll post it on here and I will also try and post monthly updates on this blog as to how I am doing.

Finally, I have joined Team GB on Project Write World. There's lots of countries/regions with their own teams and each month every team has to enter a poem, short story and essay/article on a particular prompt. I think it's a great idea and am looking forward to getting involved :)

Word count

2008-01-05T23:23:00.000Z

I've not done any more of my novel today, instead I've written an assigment for my history course - it was supposed to be 800 words, but ended up being about 1,500! That done, I can concentrate on my writing - I won't have any more assigments for a while, not until I sign up to more courses at any rate.

Anyway I thought it would be a good idea to keep a running tally of how many words I've done on my novel. It's perhaps not the best measure of how I'm doing, but it's an easily measurable measure. When I reach certain milestones I can give myself a pat on the back and have a party!

My current word count is 10,667 words. Not a massive amount, but it's probably close to the most I've ever written on one story. I hope to be able to report an increased word count soon... Unfortunately, the need to do a lot of research at each stage of the story slows me down considerably but never mind!

So what is wrong with the world?

2008-01-04T21:50:00.000Z

I've been reading a lot of history non-fiction, and I can't help but feel that a part of me would prefer to be in an earlier time, a different place. Somewhere more exciting, a time when life was simpler. Two or three hundred years ago anyone could apply themselves and make new scientific discoveries, or travel and discover new places, new species of animals, birds, plants etc. Nowadays, most people just struggle to get by, in meaningless jobs, everything costs more, everything is harder.

Now why do I feel like this? There's so much about the present day that is better than it ever has been. The 20th century has seen so many changes, so many advances for the better. Medical advances mean people (in the western world anyway) live a lot longer, they have huge choice of consumer goods, they have accomodation, food, clean water, tv's, the internet and free time too. So what's wrong with this? Well the cracks are starting to show. So many things are going wrong, so many things could be better. The problems with Britain, and the world, as well as things that can and are being done to try and solve the problems of today are a big source of potential articles and stories. You never know, some people may actually read it and take note. So I'm going to think and come up with a few of todays problems, and their possible solutions. More soon.

Long time....2007 and goals for 2008

2008-01-03T21:12:00.000Z

Long time no post. Long, long time. I spent some time on a different blog - Knolij. While I'm as keen as ever on acquiring new knowledge, learning the great stories of history and keeping up to date with current affairs, I don't have the time to write about all of it and what I've learned. So I'm abandoning that blog and just using this blog for everything to do with reading, writing, learning stuff and anything else I feel like blogging about.

So what did I get upto in 2007? Well I failed spectacularly in reading my A-Z of authors. In contrast my wife is on her last letter right now. Did I do any better in my attempt to read different genres? Below is a list of the genres I was attempting to read books in, and whether I succeeded!

Crime - Yes, Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais
Thriller - Several thrillers by David Baldacci
SF - Yes, Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton
Fantasy - No, for first time in many years, no new Raymond E. Feist this year.
Horror - No
pre 20th century classic - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Historical fiction - Yes, Redcoat by Bernard Cornwell, Ireland by Frank Delaney
Biography - Benjamin Franklin's autobiography & biography
New book (HB or PB first published in 2007): Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child (HB 2007)
Non-fiction: Historical - Yes, quite a few.
Non-fiction: Science - Longitude by Dava Sobel

So not bad on the genres, purely by accident. This year I'm going to read whatever I feel like, books I enjoy and interest me, whatever the genre. And I'm going to try and read a lot more than I did last year.

Writing

Last year I started writing a historical novel, about two young men from the town of Lancaster in England who travel to America in 1700 to start a new life. The novel will follow the two young men throughout their lives as they establish successful lives in America. I'm on chapter three, about 10,000 words in and it is going well. I've planned out most of in loosely, but not in detail yet, and done some of the neccesary research. My aim for the year is to complete this novel, edit and re-write it as neccesary, and try and submit it to a publisher before the end of the year. It may be no good, but at least I will have written a novel, and if it doesn't succeed I will try again. Published novelists have often been on their 4th or 5th novel before they get published so the moral of the story is if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Hopefully I will succeed at the first attempt of course, but I won't succeed at anything if I don't actually make a real attempt. So that's my challenge for the year.

I may also have a go at writing some articles, poems or short stories, but the novel is my main writing goal this year. I will keep posting updates of how I am doing, and will be posting some chapters on my writing.com portfolio - chapter one is already up there.

New blog

2007-04-04T22:11:00.000+01:00

As I may have mentioned in a previous blog, I find myself with a thirst for knowledge, and I've started reading a lot more non-fiction - books, magazine articles, wikipedia etc. The problem is, a few weeks later I find I've forgotten most of what I've read. There's an old adage that if you write something down to remember it, not only will you have a permanent record of it but the very act of writing it down will make you remember it better. So I've set up a new blog, Knolij, where I'll jot down information that I've read and learned. It should be useful for me, and perhaps interesting for anybody reading it. I'll try and give links to other internet resources on the topics too, such as wikipedia. The new blog can be found at:

Knolij Blog

Update

2007-03-20T13:18:00.000Z

So what have I been upto? Not blogging that is evident. I have had problems moving house, changing car etc. but mostly all done now. What about my writing and reading?

I have been attempting to read authors with surnames beginning with different letters of the alphabet, as part of the 2007 A-Z challenge. I am up to 2 now - pitiful really since my wife is up to 5 or 6. I've read so far:

B - 'The Winner' by David Baldacci
F - 'Pandora's Star' by Peter F. Hamilton and 'The Island' by Victoria Hislop

Am currently reading a biography of Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson, and have 'Ireland' by Frank Delaney to read next.

As for writing, I've written a couple of poems (see my writing.com portfolio), and am working on an 'interview' of Benjamin Franklin. I didn't realise how much research would be required for the latter, so it is taking a while.

I've also been thinking about writing a grand historical novel, linking British and American history. A lot of research and planning to do before I even think about putting pen to paper however!

New Year's Resolutions: Reading

2007-01-04T13:36:00.000Z

Every year, I write down a list of New Year Resolutions, in the hope that I will improve myself and my writing, and achieve some goals. This year is no different, and I've set out some of them below.

Books & Reading

This year I'm looking forward to reading lots of good books. I don't want to set myself goals that would spoil the enjoyment of reading. Often in the past I've had lots of books that I feel I 'should' read from 19th century classics to contemporary critically acclaimed literary masterpieces. I've come to realise however that I am a lazy reader. I like a good story, usually with a fast pace, good characters, good writing and in some cases a fascinating or wondrous subject. Recently I've read mostly crime thrillers, but always used to love SF and fantasy novels and sagas. SF (science fiction) in particular can have a sense of wonder and awe which is lacking in most other books. SF also has a limitless scope to explore different ideas and possibilities. I may therefore have a go at reading some SF & Fantasy again this year.

While not wanting to decide what I should read yet this year, I thought I'd set myself a couple of challenges. The first is to try and read authors begining with each letter of the alphabet in 2007 (though doesn't need to be in order). This is harder than you might think - I tried it a couple of years ago and the authors I wanted to read all seemed to have surnames that began with either 'B' or 'H'! I may not achieve it but it could be fun trying.

The other challenge is to read at least one book from each of the following genres:

Crime
Thriller
SF
Fantasy
Horror
pre 20th century classic
Historical fiction
Biography
New book (HB or PB first published in 2007)
Non-fiction: Historical
Non-fiction: Science

That's it for now, I've run out of time. More later.

December update

2006-12-16T17:01:00.000Z

Well apologies, I haven't posted anything in a few months. To say I've been busy is a bit of an understatement. Overtime at work, going away for a few days earlier in the month, Christmas shopping and getting ready for moving house (completion date on Monday all being well) have all contributed to my lack of writing activity.

Earlier in the month I went on a coach trip to Valkenburg in Holland, with trips to Aachen and Monschau in Germany as well as Bruges in Belgium. I kept a journal throughout the holiday and with some extra research there's at least a couple of small articles in there which I intend to write. If I get time, I may write a Christmas story/article or two while I'm off work. Then come the new year (after 6th January expected move date anyway) I intend to get down to doing lots of writing, and regular posting on here. Things I'm looking at writing are:

First Time Buyer - Guide to Housebuying (Article)
Further Lancaster articles - travel & local history
Article on Fair Trade
Article on early history of America, possibly a couple of poems too.

I'm also thinking of having a go at a science fiction short story, after a long absence from the genre (both reading and writing).

Anyway, I'd like to wish a Happy Christmas to everyone, and hope you have a good new year too. I may squeeze another post in before then, but wouldn't like to guarantee it.

Steve

A poem about a word....

2006-11-23T14:04:00.000Z

Well I had a go at a poem, my first proper poem in a long time. It's hardly very serious or literary, but it was fun to write and, I hope, fun to read too. It's about the word 'comestible':

I would like to introduce you to a word,
It’s quite likely you have never heard.
You’ll know many words, silly and sensible,
But how about the word comestible?

It is sometimes an adjective, other times a noun
But it is hardly a word of great renown.
As an adjective it describes something edible
But as a noun, it is something that is eatable.

As a small child it fooled my teacher,
Ha ha I thought, that’ll teach her
When my creative story she had heard
And said “comestible, that is not a word!”

So if you are ever deserted by your muse,
In search of a delicious culinary word to use,
Why not try comestible if you’re in the mood
For tasty, nourishing, yummy food.

I put the story on writing.com yesterday and so so far I've had several comments, all positive. One person however said it was 'extremely cute'. Not sure how to take that, but will take it as a compliment!

A mini course on starting a poem...

2006-11-20T21:34:00.000Z

BBC Get Writing Mini Course: How to Start a Poem

This course starts off very arty sounding, the type of poems it is talking about the ones that I don't want to write. It got better though and has given me some useful pointers:

Write what you are interested in - commen sense really.
Relax before writing a poem, don't obsess over the language but make it flow.

The writer of this course suggested that poetry was about three 'breaths' and the way they interact:

Logical breath - the breath you take at the end of each sentence
Emotional breath - The breath you take where you finish a verse. Each verse should leave you thinking, feeling some emotion. Each verse usually changes the focus.
Musical breath - when you finish a line. Either it ends on a good, musical rhythm or it doesn't. Good poems always do.

Often these co-incide, so you might have a musical breath, a logical breath and an emotional breath all at once. The simplest poems do this - ballads in particular often do.

A couple of suggested exercises include trying to come up with a poem based on a word and writing a poem based on the 'visual residue' left by a scene in a film or tv programme. Presumably this is not just the visual residue but emotional residue too. The final suggestion is write a poem based on a memory, strong impressions, feelings and fragments of memory from the past.

To sum up, the 'tutor' quoted Sylvia Plath who wrote that in contrast to a novelist, a poet must be "an expert packer of suitcases", i.e. they've got to fit a lot into a small space and make every word count.

I think I'll have a go...

WEBSITE: BBC Get Writing

2006-11-20T20:41:00.000Z

While browsing the internet looking for an online beginners guide to poetry I found this website:

BBC Get Writing

Now I have come across this website before, a few years ago when it was a fully fledged online writing community with people posting their writing regularly, with hundreds of discussion threads at any one time. I wasn't really much more than a passing visitor, and always intended to come back one day and devote some regular time to it - as with so many other things however, it passed entirely out of mind. These days it's like a ghost town, maybe one of those trading outposts which sprung up in California during the gold rush but later abandoned when the gold ran dry. The analogy probably quite an apt one - a few years ago the BBC had a big online budget and were getting involved in many areas of online life, but these days the online budget has been cut and Get Writing was left mostly abandoned.

Having said all that, while the online community has moved elsewhere, there are still some good resources on the site. There's a good selection of articles and mini courses, divided into 'beginners', 'intermediate' and 'advanced'. Taking a look around, I'm tempted by 'How to Start a Poem', 'Rhythm, Rhyme and other Techniques', 'How to Start a Short Story' and 'The Art of Reviewing'. OK, so they all sound interesting. With my shortage of time in the run up to Christmas (Christmas shopping, house buying, going to Christmas markets in Holland and various other matters demanding my attention) I'm at the moment going to just dabble with a bit of poetry, being as I am under the possibly false impresson that it's quicker and not as time demanding as other writing forms. We'll see.

BOOK REVIEW: Split Second - David Baldacci

2006-11-18T00:24:00.000Z

Essential Details
Genre: Crime/thriller
Setting: Present day USA, East Coast.
No. of pages: 600
Standalone (subsequent books with same main characters)

Synopsis
Secret Service agent Sean King is momentarily distracted, and a Presidential candidate dies. Years later, a different Secret Service agent, Michelle Maxwell, makes a mistake and another Presidential Candidate is kidnapped. On the edge of losing her job and career, Michelle seeks out Sean King, drawn by the similarities in their downfall. Together they investigate both cases and are drawn into a complex and dangerous situation…

What I Liked
Baldacci’s writing is good quality, and I like his style. He pays a lot of attention to detail, draws a good plot and has likeable characters. The opening third of the book is particularly good.

What I Didn’t Like
The final third of the book really went downhill in my opinion. There were four separate characters all working together like a committee, and when is a committee ever a good thing? After a masterfully plotted storyline the final third, and in particular the ending, was poor.

Plot
The build up of the plot was good. You really didn’t have much of a clue what was going on for a long time, there were two main plot strands and various sub-plots that I knew must all tie together, but couldn’t fathom out how.

Characters
The main character, Sean King, was quite well drawn. I was interested in what happened to him, and by the end of the book felt I knew quite a lot about him. I’d be happy to read another book with him as the main character. I didn’t feel any especially strong emotion or attachment towards the character however. The secondary character Michelle was also moderately well drawn, however the other characters were fairly two dimensional.

Language/Structure
The language was good, well written but easy and quick to read, with no swearing or bad language. Lots of short chapters quickened the pace of the book and made it easy to read.

Overall Impression
A fairly standard, run of the mill crime thriller. It started well, and had the potential to be really good, but the author let it slip in the latter stages. Of the three books of his I’ve read, this is certainly the worst.

Rating – 6/10

Poetry? Surely not!

2006-11-15T13:49:00.000Z

I've never been one for poetry, I rarely find poems I really like but then I hardly ever read many. In high school I struggled through poetry lessons and didn't see the point in them. When I had to write a sonnet for an English assignment, my dad offered to help and ended up writing it. It ended up being published in a poetry anthology and performed at the annual school drama evening. I got book tokens for my poem being published, but didn't pass them on to my dad!

Anyway, my aversion to poetry largely continued after I left school. I occasionally came across poems I liked, but never wrote any. However reading and reviewing a few poems on writing.com has got me thinking about writing some myself. Two in particular set me on this line of thinking. One was a long poem and the history and legend of Saint George. It was an acrostic poem, using 'SAINT GEORGE PATRON SAINT OF ENGLAND' as its basis. For those of you that don't know, an acrostic poem is one where the first letter of each line of the poem spells out a word or phrase. So in this poem, the first line begins with the letter 'S', the second line with the letter 'A' etc. It wasn't so much the fact it was an acrostic poem which made me like it so much, but the fact that it told the story of a historical or mythological figure. I liked the fact that poems didn't need to be abstract, arty things but could tell a tale and teach the reader something.

The second poem I liked, was very different in style. It was short, with shorter lines and less verses. Also easier to read. It was about a word: its definition, usage, pronunciation and history. The word was ' Floccinaucinihilipilification' and the poem's title was 'Ode to a Word'. I loved the fact that the poem taught you something in such a simple but interesting and amusing way. So now I'm going to try my hand at a poem or two. Watch this space!

Article written and general update

2006-11-09T13:32:00.000Z

Well I have now written an Article about my home town of Lancaster, a historic city in the north west of England. I've put it on writing.com (see link to my portfolio on the side if you want to read it) and had a few reviews and ratings. One person in particular gave a really good, detailed review. He rated it 3.5 out of 5, which I thought was fair, and suggested a number of areas for improvement. One of the main criticisms of it was that there was no unique twist, or even a clearly defined focus for my article. On the review's recommendation, I am going to re-write it and focus just on the Castle and the Priory, with a quick stop in the pub at the end! I am also going to try and write it for publication. I've got a couple of magazines in mind, so I will read them and try and fit my article in with their style. I need to do a fair bit of research in the local library on the history of the Castle and Priory too, so it may be a few weeks before it gets done.

In the meantime I'm working on a 100 word short story for a writing.com contest, the twist being you can't use the same word twice in the story, not even 'a' or 'the'. My wife's already had a go at this successfully, but it is really hard!

There are a few other contests that look interesting which I may enter, time permitting. However my next piece is going to be a short story I think. Now I haven't written one for a year or more, and there haven't been many I've been particularly happy with so I will have to see how it goes. I've got two Christmas stories to have a go at, but think I will have a go at a non-Christmas one first. It might end up being not much more than a warm up exercise, but it might turn into something yet.

My writing.com portfolio

2006-10-27T14:03:00.000+01:00

I've split the links on the right hand side of this blog into the main links section and a section for 'My Pages'. It's got my Librarything bookshelf on there so you can read reviews of books I've read, and I've just added my writing.com portfolio so anyone can read my work if they wish to. There's currently just one short story on there, but I'll be adding more soon!

Writing.com update

2006-10-27T13:42:00.000+01:00

Well I've been on writing.com for about a week now. I started off reviewing other people's work, short stories, articles and even a couple of poems. Most of the people whose writing I have reviewed have responded to me and been really pleased with the review. More importantly, I have really enjoyed reading them all. I reviewed a couple of articles by one writer about her home town in Massachusets, USA, and exchanged a couple of emails. She's challenged me to write an article about my home town, which I am currently working on. It also transpires her ancestors originally emigrated to the US from Buxton, England. I know the area as my wife's parents live not that far away from Buxton and the Peak District, so I'm going to go there when I can to write an article on Buxton, and maybe take a couple of photos. It's really good to think I'll have at least one reader who is really interested in the article, it'll hopefully spur me on to write it.

I've added one of my short stories, Crime Pays, onto Writing.com, and so far received three reviews, and an average rating of 4 out of 5 which I'm rather pleased with. I may put some more of my stories up, but really I want to write some new pieces to put up. I'm keen to write both short stories and articles, and I may even try a poem at some point. Since starting on writing.com a few days ago, I've had lots of ideas for articles and stories. The fact that now I've got a potential audience to read what I write is going to be a big motivator for me.

A couple of days ago, some kind person (or group of people) paid to upgrade my account to an 'Upgraded account' which has loads of extra features that the free account doesn't have. Instead of being limited to 5 items in my portfolio, I can now have upto 250 items. I can also enter contests on writing.com, of which there are many. There is one in particular which I've decided to enter, and that's a contest to write an original new take on the Christmas story. I've got an idea for that, so now I've just to get down and write it.

For any budding writers out there, I'd really recommend writing.com. It looks a complicated site at first, but you'll soon get the hang of it and I'm sure it will be well worth it. I'm only wishing there was more time in which to write.

Writing.com

2006-10-20T22:58:00.000+01:00

Today I've joined Writing.com (link on the right hand side). The site was recommended to me by friends and is probably the biggest writing site on the internet. Thousands of people publish their own work on the site and/or read and review other people's work every week. It looks quite a big sprawling site which is going to take a bit of getting used to, but looks like it has a lot of potential. The plan is to read a few people's works, post some reviews, and then submit something of my own. Give something to the site first before you expect anything back in other words!

More soon.

A long absence

2006-10-18T21:56:00.000+01:00

Nearly a month since my last post. Hopefully this will not be the norm. There are a number of reasons I could attribute my long gap to: being ill with cold/sore throat for two weeks (but not off work, otherwise would probably have been on here a few times), busy at work due to lack of staff, busy working on my gifts website in the run up to Christmas. None of them really good excuses.

The lack of writing on this blog is also an indication of the lack of writing in general I've been doing. I'm working on a ghost story for a Writing Magazine competition but it's still all in my head. Also had an idea for a Christmas story: ditto.

Reading is a different matter however. Since the last post I've finished the Stephen Booth novel, 'Blood on the Tongue', and also read 'I'm Not Scared' by Niccolo Ammanti and 'Good News, Bad News' by David Wolstencroft (creator of Spooks). All fairly good, the best one being the Stephen Booth novel. Reviews of all of them in my LibraryThing library (link on the right of this page).

I tell a lie - I've done one bit of writing. I've done an entry for the History Matters: One Day in History project. The project involves getting as many people as possible to write a blog/journal/diary entry for 17 October 2006. It will be a kind of electronic time capsule stored by the British Library for future generations to look at. I liked the idea of the project, so wrote about my day yesterday. I also spent a bit of time reading different people's entries. It was rather interesting to get snapshots of different people's lives. Potentially a mine of story ideas there!

An eccentric whiskey collector...

2006-09-19T13:24:00.000+01:00

I'm looking to buy a house in the near future (first time buyer) and yesterday after work we went to look round what looked like a promising house. We were greated at the door by a fairly short man, mid-fifties with wild straw coloured hair and a slightly disheveled appearance. His hair in fact was not dis-similar in colour and style from Dr Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future films. This man didn't have the same wild look in his eyes, but he did have a manically energetic air about him which was obvious from the wild gesticulating he did with his arms all the time. The faint smell of cigarette smoke emanated from him. The house was untidy to say the least, with piles of junk everywhere, a lifetime of belongings scattered all around. On the walls were cabinets filled with miniature whiskey bottles, some many years old and others from distilleries long since closed down. The man, lets call him Mr Bell, explained that he "wasn't a drinker" but just liked collecting them. It started accidentally when someone bought him some miniature whiskey bottles for his birthday, and on subsequent birthdays others followed suit. His job, installing and repairing cash machines, used to take him all round the country and he often would have several hours to kill in a strange town. He'd wander round the shops, and gradually started buying miniatures wherever he went. One day, so he told us, he'd like to travel round Scotland visiting all the distilleries.

In the course of showing us round the house, we found out he was just in the process of getting a divorce - I'm not sure what number wife this was, but it clearly wasn't his first. The kitchen, with its rows of bottles on top of the cupboard, many of them alcoholic, cast some doubt on his assertion that he was "not a drinker" but then maybe they belonged to his soon to be ex-wife. Mr Bell was obviously a DIY man, as the signs of his handiwork were everywhere, much of it unfinished. The only rooms which were fully decorated were a computer room (with a desktop, a laptop and various other computer equipment), and the attic room. The attic was reachable only by a rickety and unsecured ladder, but the room itself was nicely carpeted and decorated, with what looked like a serious collection of music kit. There were speakers, amplifiers, mixing stations and a lot of kit I simply didn't recognise. A man of many hobbies, that much was obvious.

So that was the story of Mr Bell (obviously not his real name). An interesting person, potentially the basis for a fictional character. Lets hope I meet someone else interesting soon.

What am I currently reading?

2006-09-18T21:20:00.000+01:00

Currently reading 'Blood on the Tongue' by Stephen Booth. It's a crime novel, which follows two junior detectives in a rural police force in the fictional village of Edendale in the Peak District. I was once at a book event with Stephen Booth and he told us that he writes about junior officers as it's more realistic - the Inspectors and Superindtendants in the police world do a lot more paperwork than anything else. Contrary to what you'd believe from watching or reading Frost, Morse etc. 'Blood on the Tongue' is his third novel (the first is 'Black Dog').

Also reading 'America' by Alistair Cooke. It's a very well written and enjoyable history of America. About half way through and finding it really interesting, but put it down for a bit to read a novel.

Avid Reader, Aspiring Writer

2006-09-18T20:37:00.000+01:00

Hi, I'm Steve, and if anyone is reading this then welcome! Inky Pages is my blog all about books and writing, by an avid reader and aspiring writer. I'm a little fickle at times so what will appear on here I'm not exactly sure but mostly I'll be talking about books, writing and anything else that happens to occur to me.

Also, if any of the books on writing which I've read or idly flicked through are to be believed, an excellent way to hone your writing skills and come up with lots of great ideas is to keep a writer's journal. This blog will hopefully also be that journal. This doesn't mean I'm going to write all about my day (that would be very boring and tedious most of the time), but the idea is I'll write about anything interesting I've seen or done, any interesting characters I've met.

Anyway, more soon...