Five hundred years of blogging …

 

Sadly when Write Edit Publish came to its end … understandable in many ways – the administrators have done a wonderful job over the years and I was only around for about half the time – Denise, Renee, Nila, Laura, Olga, Jemi suggested that we write something at the end of each month … as WEP: Get Togethers … which I will do next week. So to continue my thoughts on the start of blogging … posted 1^st February.

Get Together team 

In the 1500s a Frenchman popularised the essay as a literary genre – otherwise known today as blogging in a short form …

Jorn Barger

But a question arose from Karen – where did the term 'blog' come from? I'd always heard it came from the web and a ship's logbook (hence blog) … which made 'common sense' to me …

So see the article on Jorn Barger – perhaps the first proper blogger as a blogger – he coined the term weblog ...

I found a book on Michel Montaigne (1533 - 1592) that will make interesting reading, who appears today to have popularised the essay as a literary genre.

Optical Fibres

I've been absent from the net for most of this week – the angst of not being on line was somewhat sad – I was lost - I thought I was only going to be off for a few minutes – the telecoms company informed me … well a few days later I'm back … so I was very unprepared …

I needed a weblog to record 'the doings' but I will not waste your time … I'm now on fibre broadband – which gives me comfort (I think!) ...

Hurricane seas

… but the Beaufort Scale  kicked in down here … yesterday it was bucketing and wind buffeting … I will not go down to the seas, it will be very lonely down there … Poem by John Cooper Clarke

Well it's now Friday … and things are still being sorted out – I seem to have done something silly re my desktop … life for the 'brainless' goes on … just had a long phone call from a friend who's not been that well … so now I'm rushed even more!!

The story of how the web
really got started ... 

At least I'll have got a post up – even more muddled than usual … I hope to sort things out and attempt to catch up in the coming week … life is flexing me a little!

I bought this book back at the turn of the century ... ie 2000AD ...

Happy weekend from a chilly, blustery, heavy showery day …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Postive Letters Inspirational Stories

Pancakes ...

Today is pancake day … originally called Shrove Tuesday … I was thinking back to my childhood when our mother would cook us pancakes … guzzling children were happy kids!

Pancakes with sugar and lemon

… those were the days when for us … it was sprinkling sugar over the pancake, then a few drops of lemon juice … simple, but plain …

I've learnt that I enjoy simple food … as we used to have it when I was growing up – yet I'm the one with cookbooks for Africa and who always used to enjoy experimenting with new recipes … from said books – along with some of my mother's …

I still enjoy reading foodie books … and have a few here that I will post about …

The heart of our childhood home was the Aga – the cast iron, two door, creamy primrose coloured Aga … we cooked with it, we hugged around it, we warmed our hands on it, we dried our clothes around it, we kept the winter chills away …

Olney town sign

I have never tossed, nor raced, with a frying pan in hand to the local church, pancake still frying … dressed in a kitchen apron and headscarf (particularly that bit!) - but the Pancake Race is an annual happening – since 1445 – in Olney, Buckinghamshire.  (nearly 600 years)

Bet it makes a wonderful day in Olney for the kids … especially this year – as it's half-term …

Sign for the 2009 race in Olney

... perhaps not so wonderful for the grown-ups ...'shrove' comes from 'shrive': meaning to confess your sins and being absolved by a priest … thankfully today we can, I hope, just sort out our own misdemeanours?!

Happy pancake day wherever you might be …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

WEP Get Togethers … Reunions …

 

I'm just very happy to be joining WEPpers with many reunions and to hear everyone's stories … as you all develop your story-telling …

You are welcome to join us ... I hope you will!

As I'm not writing for a reason per se – I thought I'd add snippets that come to mind … either from life itself, or reminders of aspects I might have missed out in earlier blog posts … all 1,200 of them I note …

The Thinker - by Auguste Rodin
outside the British Library

Wikipedia's main page today features 'The Thinker' by Auguste Rodin … appropriate for this post and probably me – though I most definitely cannot admit to being in that category … however hard you or I think I might be!

I certainly have learnt from the blog and WEPpers - so much that has changed my thought processes … I do now question in my mind … because others tend not to see the world as I do …

 … but my mind as always is open to new ideas … or topics like existence, reason, knowledge, value, mind, and language … about which I have smidgeons of knowledge …

I may include #WATWB type posts too … we shall see … won't we!!

Michel de Montaigne (1570s)

When did blogging start … well it has been suggested in the 1500s … I bet you didn't expect that era … when Michel de Montaigne (1533 – 1592) became known for popularising the essay as a literary genre.

As per the (School of Oriental and African Studies) SOAS article by David Pearson in 2013 … see link … containing lots of interesting thoughts.

Montaigne's Tower - the only 
original part of the Montaigne
estate that still stands - it is
where Michel de Montaigne's
library was located.

I particularly like the thought (last paragraph) that technology has turbo-charged things that have been done for millennia. Like Writing and Thinking. And Conversation.

I'll enjoy reading everyone's posts over at this the first WEP: Get Together post …

PS - as I have Cornish origins where herrings had been a vital source of food for millennia ... so I was interested to read that the de Montaigne's fortune had been found on herring fishing in the Bay of Biscay ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories