Happy New Year – Ma'at came into my orbit recently …

 

Ma'at is the goddess, who personified the ancient Egyptian concepts of:

                  truth,             balance, 

                           order,             harmony, 

                                             law,                morality, 

                   and justice … 

as well as bringing order to the world from chaos …

Goddess Ma'at

Her roles in reminding us of the necessities of being decent, helping and co-operating with others in 2023 … 

... seem to me to be well worth remembering … if only we could pass these ideals across to the many despicable rulers, who seem to want to cause harm to other human beings …

I know we all do what we can to help others … and wish you all a very Happy New Year as 2022 turns into 2023 …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Christmas Greetings …

 

I've given up – toddling on – but a post is needed to be sent out to our blogosphere … way too late … 

... and I'm not writing books – so really no excuses … busy/lazy – you takes your pick!

The Lamb - December 2022

... but we had some snow to make us miserable and give the country more headaches (thankfully not here) …

The Lamb Inn 14^th century (1300s … I get muddled!) - without its white coating …

The internet's web presence

I hope you can see the baubles ... the sun
wasn't shining ... it's a wooden spiral ... 

I spotted this 'interesting' Christmas tree on my way into town … at some stage .. I must stop and look more closely to see how it's made … the owners must be artistically clever!

So here's to a happy festive time however you celebrate – I'll be with one of my brother's who lives locally … a smallish gathering this year …

There's lots of berries around this year

Here's to you all … I'll see you on New Year's Eve …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Icelandic Christmas Book Flood – Jolabokaflod ...

 

I came across this delightful tradition … from an article in CountryLiving – no idea how I got there! …

Christmas books

… something I hadn't heard about … during World War II paper was not rationed in Iceland – it was in England … as J R Tolkien found out when his works were published during the War.

So this is where the post came from … the Icelanders gave each other books at Christmas time … turning them into a country of bookaholics … there's some stats in the links …

Hot chocolate

I'm keeping this shortish … as people are causing me headaches – which takes time out of life … and leaving me somewhat frustrated and irritated, but that's life when one volunteers.

Then for some 'brilliant' reason – my computer needs something and I can't find it – or how to fix it … such is life … and now it wants to snow!!

Our Cocoa - in this little
country of ours - England!

Anyway enough of me … what I'd love is nothing to do … plenty of cocoa on the stove, marshmallows, a box or two of chocolates – then of course some veggies with a dip or two, and fruit to finish off (I'm trying to be good and leave off the wine) … and be left alone … to read the books on my TBR shelves …

So I really endorse Jolabokaflod (which roughly translates to Christmas Book Flood – in English, we might have guessed that!?) …

Presumably Jolabokaflod in Icelandic

Looks good ... 

So … enjoy your books and your cocoa … or more likely now-a-days … a large mug of hot chocolate with frothy cream on top … sprinkled with drinking chocolate powder …

A few links below …

Country Living – Jolabokaflod … the Icelandic tradition of giving books … way to go!

Wikipedia has more information on the Christmas Book Flood …

Founding Story of Jolabokaflog.org …

I know you've all family things to sort out … as do I, but in limited form – mostly done, thankfully … but I have a dinner to ensure runs smoothly by and for Wednesday …

Christmas Books at Waterstones

I'll probably get another post in before the end of the year – but in case not … have a peaceful and happy festive time … computer time being kind I'll be around … just straggling at the back of the queue for now …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Write … Edit … Publish … Bloghop / ISWG hop:The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

 

I was a bit surprised that she came up to me offering a special plant … ah well – I could (and must be nice – though we've never really got on) – a woman with always a contrary thought about life in general.

But what could I do … so together we go to her cottage with its overflowing plants et al … she shows me the enormous pot with a tall spadix already quite tall … saying it'll be great for your Christmas party … this flower spike will open into the most beautiful flower … you've enough room for it.

We get the pot home and I think no more … doing what I'm told – put the pot in a warm and light position … our ground floor extends down a few steps into a comfortable conservatory …

Two of these plants

I did thank her most profusely for her apparently generous gift … during the next few days this inflorescence keeps growing … as party time approaches.

The day of the get-together … the house is warm, welcoming and cosy … family have arrived and are staying over, the Aga bakes away … the scented Christmassy smells perfume the rooms …

Spadix

I noticed that flower spike is getting very tall … I'd been warned, but also that old lady had mentioned its height … but said the beautiful ruby red flower will astonish us … it looked like she'd be right …

We were ready … the food was out, tables overflowing, decorations brightened the rooms, we were dressed to the nines … and were looking forward to a wonderful day with the weekend ahead …

I just had a lingering thought … there was something amiss … but the wonderful classical selection of Christmas music, that my husband had put together, resonated through the house … just gorgeous … I could happily lie down, doze and listen … but I must get to it – to welcome our guests to the party.

Pouffy whiffy ... 

I loved seeing family and friends … but that fishy niff was getting stronger … meatier, positively foul … now a pong, a stench even … oh dear – where on earth was it coming from …

Old wrinkly hag

That plant had come courtesy of that wretched old hag – she was malevolent ... people always said she had a vengeful side to her ... how right they were ...

The flower was in full bloom ... a rich deep ruby purply red ... beautiful ... but? -

oh oh … the boys are shouting at me … “we're taking that pot outside … that flower whiffs beyond belief ...”

Most definitely The First Time I Saw Your Face, is the last time I want to be near one of your sort – pouff, pouffy …

Tag line:  Glory Be … a Cruel Unmasking … What a Stink for Christmas Joy …

For information: 

Chicago Botanic Garden - details (pdf) of Titan arum ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Phosphatodraco … Happy Thanksgiving …

 

It was blustery here, overcast and rather dismal while I thought about Thanksgiving times … and that poor turkey – mind you - here they'd only have a few more weeks before Christmas turkeys get into the shops …

Featured yesterday in Wikipedia

I was wondering if this magnificent creature could have been an early progenitor of the turkey -  you are or will be eating?

Apologies – I just was bemused by the image … let alone its name Phosphatodraco … and don't usually get down about 'life' beyond these shores … but it has got to me – I count my blessings, but am inwardly weeping …

Clade of Pterosauria

The vandalism, barbarous demeanour, rude, crude uneducated, uncivilised people of this world – who raid, maim, kill, herd into isolation – has been and is  awful …

… yet what has really triggered my mental distress has been the pillaging of all things cultural from Kherson and its Art Museum … I cannot get my head round this dismembering of a country's art collection …

A room in the Kherson Art Museum
prior to the looting

… having recently given three 'talks' on Russian art pre 1917 … and following the artistic story on into the early Stalin years to 1932 … I couldn't believe the repeat horrors I heard were happening in Ukraine.

War is not a subject I've been interested in – I intensely dislike it … but this has struck at my heart strings … I so admire the Ukrainians in this instance, and all, particularly refugees, who do not have freedom, yet who strive, hope and expect their worlds to improve …

I know it's Thanksgiving when we count our blessings, while to cheer myself up and get back to simpler things …

These scented narcissi from the Scilly Isles are available for sending out in time for those early parties – just sent some to the family …

The islands about 25 miles from the mainland

The Scilly Isles always remind me of my mother and times in Cornwall … happy memories of earlier times … when our parents had been through World War Two to give us our freedom … that so many of us live today …

Apologies – I'm not usually this morbid, and especially here on the blog – but this once … here's one that's different to my usual posts.

I know this is a wild one - but I'd rather
have this for my Christmas dinner!

I just hope a Phosphatodraco has not landed on your dinner table? I am looking forward to my Christmas turkey a month today!

With thoughts to one and all …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Positive Stories

PechaKucha presentation ...

 

PechaKucha – ever heard of it … nor had I, until a speaker at a local group I belong to came along to give his talk …

Screen shot from their site

It was eye-opening … such a clever way of presenting an idea to a group … a few slides, pertinent comment on each slide, an easy connection to the next slide …

20 slides ...

auto advance after 20 seconds …

by a presenter who spoke succinctly and clearly …

Then 0ur speaker answered questions on the various subjects he'd presented … what more could our audience want …? None - my next post will cover that aspect …

Klein and Kythm

But back to PechaKucha – which means chit-chat – or as we would perhaps understand it:

Talk Less: Show More

This story-telling format was created in 2003 by the two founders of Tokyo's Klein-Dythm Architectural Practice: Astrid Klein and Mark Dythm, as a way of succinctly promoting their designs, ideas and concepts.

Rappongo at night with Tokyo Tower

The architectural practice had an experimental event space in Roppongi – an affluent Roppongi Hills development area and popular night club scene in Tokyo – also there are also a few foreign embassies located near-by.

Having heard the presentation … I wanted to know more – which the online architecture, interiors and design magazine, Dezeen, based in London introduced me to and to the founders … but

Fear of Public Speaking - love the image,
but the video is 8+ minutes

here the PechaKucha website lets us see various presentations … on a number of subjects: including the 'how to … Get Creating ...'

The part I can't get my head round, but that's my age – I suspect, and hope! - are the evenings of PechaKucha presentations … I'm afraid I'm thinking of a Karaoke type-evening where 'a singer' is selected for some award … however the presentation we were given has excited me, not to say I do that many presentations.

Paper Birds

The website shows some of these … longer than I'd expected … but cover these and other subjects: paper birds, paper models, fear of public speaking, world record painting in support of rhinoceroses … showing the opportunities …

A speaker at a PechaKucha
event in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

This image shows a speaker at a PechaKucha night in Cluj-Napoca, Romania … in the heart of the Transylvania region – it is home to universities, a vibrant night life and landmarks dating back to Saxon and Hungarian eras.

Another piece of modern life's puzzle for me to get my elderly brain wrapped around … interesting world we live in – I feel very behind the times, yet know I'm probably more aware than many. Funny old world!

Life's Lessons puzzle

Thanks for reading … I do have a presentation to give on Monday on the Foundling Museum – but it will not be one of these … perhaps I'll be brave enough to give the idea a try next year.

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Jacqui Murray's final part of her trilogy on Natural Selection ...

 

Navigating the Landscape by Lucy and her kind

The last in the trilogy, Dawn of Humanity,
'Natural Selection by Jacqui Murray' 

The very early bipedals would have had their senses being evolved over time ... first walking on two legs, which would have let them see further across the landscape ...

... they would have started to become more aware of their surroundings and what they needed to remember ... apart from their natural instincts ...

A possible early landscape

... they would have been aware of their local  topography before venturing further away ... the scope of the hills or mountains, the streams, rivers, wooded areas, forested heights ...

Clade of modern day ungulates

But they also would know about the different animal and bird calls, track marks and their meanings ... a wounded walking ungulate, a smooth swirl in the earth of a reptile, a burrow hiding various rodents ...

The children would from birth have been absorbing the basic needs to be able to survive ... watching and learning ...

This is a typical Gauteng landscape
found near the Sterkfontein cave system
where remnants of early man were found

The tribe would know which herbs were good to eat, to use for healing ... they would know exactly where their nearest water source would be ... and as they scanned the landscape, these senses would over time become more enhanced ...

It is thought that early man, Lucy and her tribe,

would by now have 'the capacity to be aware of

their own existence as an entity of time' ...

The human hippocampus - our memory bank
and its comparison in looks to a Seahorse

... they could imagine on seeing tracks left by a prey animal of what might happen ... the human can almost foretell a happening, if all its senses are fully developed and utilised.

Memory has become an essential to our human life – and these traits would be apparent to Lucy and her tribe – though she would not understand why ...

These two articles will give you further reading ... 

The Landscape Inside Us - Robert MacFarlane: to be found in article written for New York Books ... 

Early humans used their imagination to 'foretell' what was ahead ... allowing us today to be aware of what we might come across - Autonoetic Consciousness ... this article gives an idea about this concept ... 

I cannot applaud Jacqui more highly on bringing Lucy and her tribe to life through these three books - and I encourage everyone to read this very enjoyable series ... 

My first two posts on Jacqui's Natural Selection series -

Part One: Survival of the Fittest

Part Two: Laws of Nature 

Here's another interviewee's post on the subject of early man running to hunt down prey - a very interesting post ... I congratulate Anneli on this thought provoking idea ... as too Jacqui ... Anneli has given all the details re this blog tour ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Nothing's Changed: Remembrance

 

Anthem for Doomed Youth

written by

Wilfred Owen – September 1917

       What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

              - Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;

Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Draft of the poem

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC – he died a week before the war's end at the age of 25

(18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918)

Scabious

He had written home including water colour sketches of places, churches and castles; then also the joys he was able to behold … Poppies, Larkspur, Scabious, Ragged Robin and more – despite the absolute trench horror.

Ragged Robin

There's a very good film – Benediction: which brings to life the poetry of Siegfried Sassoon, who was a mentor to Wilfred Owen who also features in the film.

Some links: The History Girls reminding me about Owen's Anthem …

Sight Lines Magazine – film review of Benediction

While the Military Cross – reminds me of my father's award from WWII

Wilfred Owen is buried with his men in Ors Communal Cemetery, Northern France

Where Owen rests in
Ors Cemetery - with his men

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories