How a play came to be written ... Samuel Pepys, Robert Hooke ...

Cast of characters:

Siobhán Nicholas – playwright, director, actress
Samuel Pepys, and his wife Elizabeth, - diarist
Robert Hooke - the genius polymath (aka the English Leonardo)
Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Christopher Wren – early scientists (natural philosophers)
Stephen Inwood – author, lecturer in English, social and economic history
Chris Barnes – actor, director, playwright, composer
A pilot, Shoreham Harbour, England

Settings:

A birthday party in Brighton, England (2006)
Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, England (2006)
Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge – founded 1660



Samuel Pepys? … His Diary! … His World!! … His Women!!! - Theatre poster for 'Sam and I'


Time frames (approximate):

21st century 2000 - 2011
17th century 1635 – early 1700s

Plays:

Sam and I ... Take the Space {Theatre Company} – their flagship production
Hanging Hooke ... Take the Space - a co-production with Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
Dolce Via ... their new co-production ... more in another post
(yes - similar name to La Dolce Vita and there are links – but very different)

... and the secret ghostly blog writer ... who plagiarises emails, snatches snippets from Wikipedia, and words from Amazon reviews to create her post ... !

Robert Hooke Memorial Portrait for the Open University,by Rita Greer

Setting the scene: Let us start in 2006, a birthday invitation is sent out, Siobhán and Chris attend the party in Brighton ... they were touring their play “Sam and I” about Pepys and his wife; as happens at parties this unsolicited excited chap dashes over ....

I now quote Siobhán:

“It was 2006 and I was at a birthday party here in Brighton. We were in the midst of touring Sam & I, my play about Elizabeth Pepys.

Anyway a complete stranger came up to me and seemed excited by the fact that I had been researching the C17th because he had just been reading about this interesting chap, who had lived at that time, and maybe had even known Samuel Pepys. Before I could stop him – he had run back to his flat in the rain and appeared 15 minutes later with this book under his arm – insisting that I read it!!

I groaned inwardly….I felt I had read enough books about the C17th to last me - well another century. But this man was determined and was so sweet that I couldn’t really refuse to take the book. So I was polite and thanked him.

Elisabeth Pepys in a stipple engraving by John Thomson, after a 1666 painting (now destroyed) by John Hayls

I got home and I decided to quickly glance through the book for a few minutes and then give it back the next day with polite thanks – so I settled down to skim read “The Man Who Knew Too Much” by Stephen Inwood ....

... literally – on the first page – the hairs proverbially stood up on the back of my neck!! I was “hooked” and I knew I had to know more and more and more……..most important I knew that I was going to write about this man and that my favourite actor in all the world, Chris Barnes, would have to play him. But it was going to be such a mammoth project – I’d reserve it for some time later in the long distant future.

A couple of months went by, we were performing Sam & I at Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre (see left) – when Brian, the artistic programmer, asked me what would be my next play …..and the words somehow tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them …..

.... ”a solo show about Robert Hooke, a genius who was written out of history”.

“ Okay” says Brian “ Write it and I’ll put money into it for a production” There was no escape now – I had to write it!!!

Postscript: The complete stranger at the party is now a good friend of Chris and I. He turned out to be the pilot at Shoreham Harbour - an interesting man – but he didn’t get his book back for three years!!

I have now also met Stephen Inwood who has seen the play and [thankfully] loved it. He then very kindly did a lovely preview for us in the Oxford Times when we played Oxford again last Summer”.

PS The Hooke Folio was only found in 2006 when it was put up for auction; The Royal Society managed to acquire it to verify his importance to their organisation and fill various holes in their records.

So today Mr Hooke, on the anniversary of your death in 1703, we celebrate you .. and are sorry you never got to be knighted like the rest of your pals ... but I hope you’re resting on your rainbow cloud, and are just drifting around soaking up the recognition that finally is now being accorded you ...

Siobhán .. I really want to thank you for your input and interest in my blog, and my own interest in having found your play and thus the English Leonardo.

Oxford University - Department of Engineering: Dr Allan Chapman made a fantastic speech which captured the art of storytelling and a beautiful painting by Rita Greer, both of which brought Robert Hooke's character and identity to life.

I am certain my readers will be enthralled by the telling of this tale, and will look forward to another story on why and how you go about the process of writing these plays.

Also, in due course, it will be wonderful to hear more about “Sam and I” and your new play “Dolce Via” – charting the music halls and giving credit to the great artists of variety, who came to the fore in the last century.

We really appreciate you – and are very grateful for sharing your time with us. Have a successful performance tonight at the staging of Hanging Hooke at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in honour of Robert Hooke's life. 'Break a Leg' is, I believe, the phrase I should use!

Take The Space {Theatre Company}

We will never truly know what happened ... but at least Robert Hooke, you have been restored to the living archives at The Royal Society, and are now ‘our English Leonardo’.

Blog posts: the historical background of the 17th century - England's Leonardo
Hanging Hooke – the play

Stephen Inwood’s book: 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' – Amazon

Wikipedia – Robert Hooke; and new memorials recently erected to Robert Hooke

Wikipedia Media Commons – category – Paintings by Rita Greer – her Robert Hooke Project

Note: The Hooke Folio .... Lot 189: The Royal Society cancelled Bonham’s auction of a 17th-century manuscript that charts the beginning of modern science. Britain's premier scientific academy believes the 520-page document, by the scientist Robert Hooke, may have been stolen from its archives 300 years ago.

Take the Space {Theatre Company} - website

Yvonne Arnaud Theatre - website

Susanne Drazic from Putting Words Down on Paper – her blog .. honoured me with the Stylish Blogger Award for which I am very grateful – Susanne many thanks!

Dear Mr Postman .. my mother stays much the same; we had a quick planned visit to the hospital and she stayed awake and was cheerful during the whole episode – 7 hours .. up and down, waiting for the ambulance etc. She was pleased to be back and with Hardwick, her special companion. So for now .. from a chilly England .... we await Spring ...

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Content is King – is it not? How about Passion ...

Presentation too is important .. let us add in Big Cats, Elephant, an inland Delta ... and those of you who know me a little – will realise I’m talking Africa and the Okavango Delta.

Now you say – Content, Passion, Presentation ... I’d add here Humans, Spirituality, Planet Earth – how do they connect ... come on Hilary explain ... and so I will ...

Film Poster: Directed by Dereck Joubert; Narrated by Jeremy Irons; Released Palm Springs Film Festival – showing in the USA (NYC, LA & Washington DC) – I hope they bring it across to England and the rest of the world. I’ll ask the Eastbourne Film Society to have a showing.

Who has not been to Southern Africa, who has been and who is alive – these posts and the videos are for you .... for any number of reasons ...

Ever heard of Brain Pickings? It has some staggeringly interesting information .. and I love it. This particular post surpassed that ... because it’s about a part of Africa that I’ve been fortunate to visit five times ... and would dearly go again tomorrow - the Okavango Delta in Botswana.



Map of Botswana - the Delta in the north west; the Zambezi in the north east; while the Limpopo forms the Botswana border with Zimbabwe and South Africa.



Brain Pickings is about curating interestingness — picking culture’s collective brain for tidbits of stuff that inspires, revolutionizes, or simply makes us think. It’s about innovation and authenticity and all those other things that have become fluff phrases but don’t have to be – and is Maria Popova’s brain child.


In this post Maria has highlighted something that’s essential knowledge to us as humans in the life of planet earth. The photos she shares from the Jouberts’ life and the short YouTube video gives you a taster of the critical elements that the Jouberts cover in their TED video.

The TED introduction: National Geographical photographers Beverly and Dereck Joubert live in the bush, filming and photographing lions and leopards in their natural habitat. With stunning footage (some never before seen), they discuss their personal relationships with these majestic animals — and their quest to save the big cats from human threats.

I couldn’t describe the video better than to share Maria Popova’s words from Brain Pickings:

“Bittersweet and poignant, The Last Lions is a stride-stopping story of urgency and hope, reminding us of our duty to honour and protect these powerful yet surprisingly fragile beings of poetic pride and mythic magnificence.”


Okavango Delta: Has thorny acacia savannah, the terrain also includes winding waterways with banks of reeds, palm-covered islands, thick forest and lush, lily-covered lagoons where hippos bathe and sport.


So how can I justify the words in my title and opening paragraphs .. easy really – read the post, watch the two videos – you’ll be hooked as I was ... these ancient dramas of nature play themselves out to the eternal dance of Africa ...


... will they continue to do so – only if man realises compassion to the earth, respect and celebration of nature ... if we can’t protect them ... we’re going to have a job protecting ourselves ... we are all entwined together – nature, animals, plants and life as whole – we need to nurture everything before it is too late and the sands of time run away from humanity ...

You will see content, Kings, presentation, sparkle, emotive language describing our spirituality and the passion of the Jouberts.

Enjoy ... it is riveting .. and if you’re better than me at spreading the word of the film – please, please do so ... if it is to be – it is up to us.

Let me know!!



Credits: (1) Maria Popova of Brain Pickings for the inspiration for this post;

And (2) the Jouberts for their incredible dedication to the African bush, one of our last wildernesses on earth.

BrainPickings.org - the post:
www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/02/22/the-last-lions/


TED Video: Life Lessons from the Big Cats by Beverly and Dereck Joubert
blog.ted.com/2010/12/20/life-lessons-from-big-cats-by-beverly-dereck-oubert-on-ted-com

This is the Amazon non-affiliate link for the book The Last Lions

Dear Mr Postman – life is interesting isn’t it! My mother had a good day and we talked about an interesting funeral I’d been too – a man who described himself as a ‘controversialist’; then I mentioned Kestrel is opening a Dementia Unit on the lower floor and I had a book with some case studies.

Immediately she said – that’s important - and would I read some of it to her! I duly did .. she does amaze me – still interested in learning ... so many elderly give up .. as you’ll see shown so clearly in nature in the film (with a twist).

For my other Okavango posts - Please use the search box


Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Spring – the season of new growth, abundant change ..

If you go down to the woods today you’re in for a great surprise .. the darkened carpet of winter is spring cleaning itself giving us drifts of white snowdrops, green patches with yellow nodules of lesser celandine, crocus escapees – yellow-yolked, Han purple, cream or white ones ...

... blends of pinkish-purple green of the spreading white, pink or yellow wood anemones, green spikes of wild daffodils providing golden yellow trumpets, and the smell of ramsons – wild garlic – the green pointed basal leaves with the white frothy flowers, while the bluebell is waiting to raise its glorious head.

Ancient woodland at Brading, Isle of Wight showing bluebells (blue flowers, Hyacinthoides non-scripta), ramsons (white flowers, Allium ursinum) and hazel trees, (Corylus avellana).

English Wood Anemones

Han purple so named .. is a type of artificial barium copper silicate pigment found in China during the golden age of the Han Dynasty between 500BC and AD220, when it was used in the decoration of the Terracotta Army; before this discovery azurite had been the only natural blue pigment.

Ramsons – Allium Ursinum – the Latin name is due to the brown bear’s taste for the bulbs, which it delights in digging up. Boars and humans also enjoy Ramsons – remnants have been found in Mesolithic Danish and Neolithic Swiss settlements ... where they were probably used as fodder. Cows that have fed on Ramsons give milk that tastes slightly of garlic, and butter made from this milk used to be very popular in 19th century Switzerland.

Crocus – Han Purple The graduated colours of crocus cultivars can appear as Han purple in direct sunlight.

Ramsons' flowers

Ramsons’ leaves are edible – being used in salads, as a vegetable, in soups or as an ingredient for pesto in lieu of basil. The stems are preserved by salting and eaten as a salad in Russia, while apparently the bulbs and flowers are also very tasty – logical as the plant is a wild relative of the chive.

These woodland flowers bloom early to benefit from the early sunshine, as during April to May the tree canopy closes, letting little or no sunlight through the burgeoning leaf growth to the earth below.

All life responds to the changing rhythm of the seasons. As the earth’s orbit brings the Northern Hemisphere closer to the sun again plant growth conditions of warmer and longer days become more favourable.

Some plants as those above steal a march by flowering before winter is full spent. By adapting to the colder conditions of early spring they avoid the fierce competition for space, light and insect pollinators that increases as the year progresses.

Early spring plants must exploit their winter store of food to produce fresh growth. It has been established that plants detect changes in day length, and this triggers various phases of their life cycle – budding, flowering, fruiting and leaf-fall. Temperature changes also can modify the cycle in different plants.

Animals too, are profoundly influenced by the changing seasons – protective structures or behaviour may be needed to survive the cold, but winter adaptations such as a thicker coat will soon need to be shed or adjusting to their symbiotic situations within the plant kingdom. Animals, including insects, also detect changes in day length, and their bodies adjust to the yearly cycle.

Animal Composite from Wikipedia

This seasonal rhythmic change brings about a state of reproductive readiness – some earlier than others; many species ‘take two’ ... producing two broods during the warmer days – Nature’s gamble .. ensuring almost always some success.

The Lesser Celandine – sometimes called 'Spring’s Messenger' – was a favourite of William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) inspiring him to write three poems including the following from his "Ode to the Celandine":

I have seen thee, high and low,
Thirty years or more, and yet
T’was a face I did not know.

Upon his death it was proposed that a celandine be carved on his memorial plaque, but unfortunately the Greater Celandine was mistakenly used!

The Lesser Celandine

Nature is maintenance free ... natural life adapts to seasonal change, as it has done throughout earth’s history ... nature has created the most efficient natural mechanism for carbon sequestration – let the plants grow!

Over eons of history life has altered, changed and adapted and continues to do so, perhaps with one exception, ... as Wordsworth notes in the last verse of his "Lines Written in Early Spring" .. a philosophical quote of a man before his time?

Portrait of William Wordsworth by Benjamin Robert Haydon oil on canvas, 1842

If this belief from heaven be sent,

If such be Nature's holy plan,

Have I not reason to lament

What man has made of man?


Dear Mr Postman – we watched some ‘Ski Sunday’, which used to be a favourite of my mother’s, then I left her watching “Shanghai Knights” with Jackie Chan ... just something different to do – but having had walls and ceiling covered with posters and postcards, she prefers plain walls for now.

On Monday she was wide awake and really cheerful – sending me off to enjoy myself at a funeral and come back and tell her all about it and the people I met – she hasn’t been awake sufficiently since?! It was an extremely informative service at a beautiful little church with a lot of history, Oliver had been a man ahead of the times – and so I did enjoy myself ... with lots to tell you too!

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

The Birds – my feathered friends ...

Birds of a feather flock together as Shakespeare put it, in Timon of Athens:

“I am not of that feather to shake it off
My friend, when he most need me.”

Certainly since the heaviest and most widespread snows starting in November, so early for us here in England (last time it was 1993, and before that the deepest snow was in 1965) – I decided I had to get out and feed the birds, thaw the bird baths ... since then .. they quickly adapted to an ‘easy way of life’ for any creature residing in the big freeze.

The Magpie by Monet, 1869

I hear lovely song birds – the blackbirds and the robins – but I also have my flocks of ‘thugs’ .. the pigeons, the jackdaws, a pair of magpies (on occasions two pairs) and recently two enormous rooks – compared to the other birds .. they are huge!

The Rooks Have Returned (1871) by the Russian painter Alexei Savrasov, near Ipatieve Monastery in Kostroma: the arrival of the rooks is an early portent of the coming spring.

Leylandii foliage

It doesn’t take them long to learn ... and they wait for me to spread my largesse on the lawns and into the borders ... then they all swoop. The squirrels are funny ... they totter around, but hop, skip and jump too ... let alone jumping into the Leylandii foliage ... which spring-releases its treasures of hidden seeds, that from my flailing arm have been caught in the green tresses.


The blackbird when it is recalled in culture reminds us of the times when small birds were an easily available addition to the diet, as in the familiar nursery rhyme:

“Sing a Song of Sixpence
A Pocket full of Rye;
Four and Twenty Blackbirds Baked in a Pie!
When the Pie was opened the Birds began to Sing
Oh wasn’t that a Dainty Dish to set before the King?”

While being remembered too today in the Beatles track ‘Blackbird’, with its haunting melody and lyrics:

“Blackbird Singing in the Dead of Night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise!"

Illustration from Sing a Song for Sixpence (1880) by Randolph Caldecott (d. 1886) [Price: one shilling]

Another pie song is for the magpie – when I was growing up there weren’t so many, as they were considered a pest and were shot, but now they’re around in profusion ... acting as the jack of all trades – scavenger, predator and pest-dstroyer.

Magpie in flight

Believe it or not magpie is a shortened form of Margaret’s pie, maggot pie and similar ... as Shakespeare, in Macbeth III, iv, informs us:

“Augurs and understood relations have
(By maggot pies, and choughs, and rooks) brought forth
The secret’st man of blood.”

Colloquially in the Middle Ages Bishops were formerly called ‘magpies’ in humour or derision because of their black and white vestments; per Howell’s Letters: Lines to the Knowing Reader, 1645:

“Lawyers as Vultures, had soared up and down;
Prelates, like Magpies, in the Air had flown.”

‘To rook a pigeon’ – used to be a common phrase, meaning to fleece a greenhorn ...

... but here the Woodpigeons (eleven or more), Jackdaws (nine of them) and two Rooks now swarm in to have a guzzle – they do appear to leave some tempting morsels for the Blackbirds, Chaffinches, Thrushes, Sparrows, BlueTits, Greenfinch, Robins et al .. who, when the going is clear, wander in and out to search for the seed that was scattered by this fair hand.

Jackdaw

Being so near the sea (English Channel) we have both the Common Gull and the Herring Gull – the Herring Gull being the plague, in the summer, to the snacking ‘board walker’ and lunchtime relaxer ... wishing for some peace and quiet by the lapping waves ... as his sandwich or chip is a tempter to be snatched away.

The Birds: Theatrical Release Poster 1963

At the Nursing Centre I had my first sighting of a Green Woodpecker – so I was excited early in the New Year on a warm day to see him pecking away for insects, ants are his speciality, in the lawn (sometimes called a ‘Yaffle’ relating to its laughing call); while last year I spotted two Jays - a flash of blue and white as they flew amongst a glade of trees.

Green Woodpecker (Yaffle!)

Jay

Well ... certainly down here the birds have survived and are already breeding, which perhaps shows we may have an early spring ... the mosquitoes and flies are out, and I’ve seen a wasp .. just one!!

The daffodils are spiking, the snowdrops are well and truly drifting, the celandines are out ... but watch for your open windows with magpies and jackdaws about ....

John Gay in his Beggar’s Opera (1728) notes that “A covetous fellow, like a jackdaw, steals what he was never made to enjoy, for the sake of hiding it” ... which Richard Harris Barham (1788 – 1845), the English cleric, novelist and humorous poet, made into lore in the Ingoldsby Legends, one of which is the “Jackdaw of Rheims”.

The forerunner of the Royal Opera House was able to build a new theatre (The Theatre Royal, Covent Garden) based on the success of the Beggar’s Opera – running originally for 62 consecutive performances in those winterless months of 1728 ... the longest run in theatre history up to that time.

Painting based on The Beggar's Opera, Scene V, William Hogarth, c. 1728, in the Tate Britain

So many legends, stories, tales, nursery rhymes, poems have sprung up around our feathered friends and I haven’t even mentioned Cock Robin ... which continue on today – all to be watched over by the crafty fox, who also frequents these territories under the cover of a darkening night.

My intention had been to partake in the Great British Garden Birdwatch .. but I never noticed the adverts for it & so the weekend has passed .. this is my post from last year with some more bird photos and some extra information. Now I have a garden ... to keep an eye on – I will do a follow up later on in the year .. to see who visits once the winter feeding frenzy is over. Enjoy Spring as it does seem to be a-coming ... roll on, roll on!

2010 Post: Great British Garden BirdWatch

"JackDaw of Rheims" poem via Bartelby

You Tube: Beatles – Blackbird ... Lyrics and Song

Dear Mr Postman ... all is peaceful and I read to Mum or offer to chat – often declined ... but I’m there and then sit and read a book to keep her company. We still laugh and interact, and she loves her flowers .... daffodils, agapanthus, crocuses, grape hyacinths, hyacinths, more daffodils and primrose .. some in pots, some jugs full of flowers ...

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

February Creative ... that unusual month ...

Today is Candlemas, Groundhog Day or Jannie the First day – see my post last year ... this time I thought I’d concentrate on February – who would have thought we could be creative with the month of February .. but it has some fun facts ...

There wasn’t a month of February, nor January, the Romans originally considered winter a “monthless period” .... I think a great many of us would agree with that thought in this year of topsy-turvy weather ... they only named ten months.

February, from the Très riches heures du Duc de Berry

Some ancient Roman obviously realised there was a moon, and decided that they could count to twelve – so they added two months with February becoming the end of the year – this was before 700 BC. They named February after the Latin term ‘februum’, which means purification.

Due to the seasonal variations, February was truncated to 23 or 24 days, with an additional 27 day month (intercalary) and at some stage in the next 300 years January was dedicated as the first month of the year, with February becoming the second.

Bust of Caesar from the Naples National Archaeological Museum

Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar in 46 BC offering regularity, so that Roman citizens living outside Rome would know the current date – helpful: I thought! The intercalary month was abolished, leap years occurred regularly every fourth year and in leap years February gained its 29th day.

The Gregorian calendar eventually superseded the Julian one, so that the solar year, which determines the cycle of the seasons was realigned, as the leap year drops three leap year days across four centuries and mathematics had improved so these calculations could be made.

The Gregorian calendar, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, via a papal bull, on 24 February 1582, is now universally accepted – the last two countries to formally adopt it were Russia and Greece ... both in the last century.

This year being a common year – and as February 1st was on a Tuesday, the months of March and November will commence on a Tuesday, and should it have been a leap year .. this would apply to August too. February ends on the same day of the week as October every year, and January in Common years.

It is the only month that can pass without a single full moon – known as a “Black Moon” month.

The Anglo Saxons called February the “Sprout Kale” (cabbage) month or Solmonath ‘Mud Month,’ while in Finland it is known as the “month of the pearl”, when the snow melts on the tree branches, it forms droplets, and as these freeze again – they are like pearls of ice.

Curly Kale

February’s symbols consist of its birth-flower the Violet in Britain (while it’s the Primrose in the States) – the symbolism dates back to Roman times when the Gods were honoured by decorating their altars with flowers.

Viola odorata (type species)

There is an old verse which gives the flowers connected with the Christian year, and starts:

“The snowdrop, in purest white arraie,
First rears her head on Candlemas daie;
While the Crocus hastens to the shrine
Of Primrose love on St Valentine ..”

Primrose

To comment on the weather is more than I care to do at the moment, the whole world seems to be in the grip of some strange winds, rains, snowstorms ... I seem to remember that the months were fairly predictable ... ie November – mists and trees losing their leaves, December – gloomy .. lightened by the fact Christmas was a-coming, January and February – positively freezing: this year it’s now relatively mild, but last November and December we were ‘frozen out’. Yet – Australia is getting is more than its fair share of weather-wrath; while there’s still snow-storms in the States.

Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap, 1565, Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Linnaeus in his Flower Calendar in the year 1755 in Uppsala, Sweden differs from other calendars as he divides and describes the growing year ... calling winter time the ‘Reviving winter month from December 22 to March 19” (from the Winter Solstice to the Vernal Equinox) – he made a few jottings:

“- Butter shrinks and separates from the sides of the tub.
- Ice on the Lake begins to crack.
- Wooden walls snap in the night. Cold frequently extreme at this time, the greatest observed was 1755-1757 (now known as during the period of the Little Ice Age)
- Horse dung spirts.”

The last sentence is followed by a note which says” that horse dung, in very severe frosts, throws out particles near a foot high, and that no other dung does the like, and we are full of joy that spring is round the corner and the horse dung is spirting.”

And finally Mark Twain (1835 – 1910) advises that “February is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and October”!

Pearls .. could be ice-drops

So the month of February, which rhymes with ‘bleary’, ‘topiary’, various berries, statuary ... and more – has lots to offer in the way of creative information .. including the few pictures I’ve posted by artists I’ve never heard of .. another way of learning new things. Also reminding us of the Little Ice Age.... two – four hundred years ago ..., that Australia had only just been discovered in 1606, and that horse dung spirts!

Roll on Spring I say – real Spring ... longer daylight hours, warmer weather, some settled days ... then we must take each and every minute and enjoy that time .. before the extra long ‘Reviving Winter Month’ comes around again – go away first, please!

An oaked white wine from Stellenbosch produced from Chenin Blanc.

One very last thing .. I’m very grateful to Mynheer Jan van Riebeeck, the founder of Cape Town, who on this day in 1659 produced the first bottle of South African wine.

Last year’s post: Ground Hog Day, Candlemas and Jannie


Dear Mr Postman – my mother seems really quite well at the moment, talking at times quite happily, other times enjoying my company in quiet peace ... she enjoyed a little of the Australian Open tennis ... a change!

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Food – To More Good times and Fond Memories, with some history thrown in for good measure – Part 2

Continuing on along the path of gastronomic memories .. going back a few years too (I regret to say!) .. but perhaps starting with Oatmeal, Haggis and Robert Burns .. last year I wrote a celebratory post. So today I shall remember another celebration in his honour – recalling our boiling hot Burn’s Night Dinner at a friend’s house .. way too much wine, I suspect I had the odd touch of whisky – though I don’t like it!

Oatmeal herrings, Haggis and an oatmeal Crowdy .. a creamy- honey- oatmeal Scottish dessert .. all I remember really was sweltering – but the menu has filed itself away in the mind I see!

Oat grains in their husks

Interesting to note that .. that day 20 or so years ago .. was incredibly hot – Johannesburg can have a few days at 33+ degree C (over 90 degrees F) – but this 2010/2011 year La Nina has struck the southern hemisphere with the opposite force ... huge rains.

Here in the UK we’ve heard little about the African floods .. however the Zambezi and Okavango river systems take five to six months to disgorge their waters ... we used to visit Botswana in May at the height of the flood. This year they’re reporting that these two rivers are at about twice their normal levels, early in the rainy season.

It appears that five countries are on alert for flooding -- Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia, -- while South Africa will now declare the region (most of the countries shown in green here) a disaster as they do not have the economic, nor administrative, infrastructure to cope.

Connecting my Cornish visit and Haggis from Scotland was a bit of a surprise .. but Cornish Hog’s Pudding is a type of large spicy sausage, including oatmeal, as well as black pepper, cumin, basil and garlic .. and I’d been determined to take some back with me. So I was grateful for a very quick shop around Penzance to find some of these Cornish goodies .. calendars, notelets, hog’s pudding, Cornish Fairings, Saffron buns ...

Cornish Fairings with a hint of ginger

Historically Groats’ Pudding and West Country Haggis are alternative names for Hog’s Pudding – the groats are the hulled grains of various cereals, in this case oats. (Wheat groats, or bulgur, are, as I’m sure many of you know, an essential ingredient of the Middle Eastern kitchen.)

Saffron Buns from Warrens Bakery

Fresh from Cornwall - Hog’s Pudding

Ancient literature noted the anti-inflammatory and anti-pruritic (anti-itch) properties of oatmeal ... which are now being researched to establish their efficacy.

As I mentioned my ‘aunt’ is still totally with it .. so much so – that I wonder if she celebrated Burns’ Night with the dinner she cooked for herself the other night – on my first visit a neighbour had popped in with two pheasant breasts (lucky her I thought!);

... on my second stop over – she regaled me that she’d stuffed the breasts with a herby cream cheese (Boursin), wrapped them in bacon, oven baked them, had some fresh veggie and potatoes, then she made a whisky cream sauce to accompany the dish – pretty good at 92 methinks?!

From Bramley and Gage - these pheasant breasts have a sloe sauce, a parsley stuffing and are decorated with sloes

She also reminded me that I had always been a good cook and someone who was innovative with her menus and cooking ... the Cordon Bleu magazines, 72 of them, had just started to be published - I bought and devoured everyone, retaining them to this day – packed away for now – and loved using the ideas and recipes in them .. still do.

My aunt remembered the 50th surprise birthday party I’d put on for my father at some friends’ house about 20 miles away ... and how amazed he’d been – he had no idea .. despite the fact I’d done the cooking at our house and all the crockery and cutlery had been transported over .. it was a buffet style; our house was an Old Rectory which had an extension that used to include the old toilet, coal house, and cold store – so the latter two rooms I could and did hide things in.

I had previously cooked for my father’s housewarming, after my parents separated, just a mere 80 for brandy-champagne cocktails and nibbles to start off .. those were the days! and we were harking back to posh dinner-type cooking .. then a full menu for 24 after that .. I was only 21 or so. (Two days later I got turned down as a chalet girl in Switzerland .. because they didn’t think I was a good enough cook. Life would be different – if I’d passed that test, I suspect.)

Thinking about it – I’d baulk now & make it easy (if I did it) .. but then .. the starter (a la Cordon Bleu!)was a melon, tomato and cucumber salad, with hot herby bread – followed by fillet of beef, veggie salads, a tomato jelly from the Robert Carrier magazines, potatoes of some description no doubt, and various puds – I remember one – a hazelnut torte - had chocolate caraque on it .. I’d never done that before & hardly since!

Chocolate caraque decorating the dessert

Just have to tell you about the fillets .. there were three of them – well I didn’t have a lot of time .. and they had to cook quickly – so all three got shoved in the oven for theoretically 20 minutes – an hour later after much huffing and puffing on my part, with the mind full of the word ‘help’ ... surprisingly three perfectly cooked fillets came out – to cool before they were glazed. Yes the works happened in those days.

My father’s sister, and her husband (the one I looked after recently) came up to attend, help .. and I was floored somewhat by being asked what did she want me to do with the fresh fruit for the salad .. did I want the grapes peeled and pipped .. I’m not quite sure what happened – I really wasn’t up for niceties .. I just needed the fruit salad finished!

We’d had a herd of cows through the property and I was pretty miffed .. I’d spent hours making the garden as tidy as I could ... but the weight of ‘dem cows on the turf and banks/terraces was the pits!! So my main concern was getting the show on the road, not organising loads of helpers! Still I was no doubt extremely grateful for their support and calmness ...

I see Julia Child is listed as a Notable Alumni and attendee of the Cordon Bleu School .. but not Prue Leith, who certainly inspired me ... as I walked past her restaurant near Notting Hill each day on my way to the bus and work in the West End.

Another tale here .. one day in the 1970s when the Irish bombings were going on in London ..as I walked up to Notting Hill, I heard a low “whoomph” reverberate through the air, and thought no buses, no noise .. then the sirens started – I realised a bomb had gone off in the main part of Notting Hill.

So I walked to work past, the top end of Portobello Road, along the north side of Hyde Park, to Marble Arch and on to St James’ .. when I got there – within the hour the Evening Standard Newspaper had its morning edition out – with a picture of the bomb blast and giving the details.

We live through history .. the Evening Standard is now free .. competing with the other freebies – which I hate to say it rubbish the streets, the tubes, the trains with paper ... full of mainly inconsequential items, and a lot of (desperate) adverts ... times they are a-changin’ ...

Iced vodka

Before I left for South Africa I took my family to The Caviar Bar in Knightsbridge – that too has closed – but the meal was extraordinary .. everything with caviar and vodka, or champagne ... the different vodkas were served from bottles frozen into pails of ice filled with flowers – they looked very pretty.

South Africa is reminiscent of rather too much champagne, oysters, good friends and parties by the squash club pool, or with another near-relative and her Portuguese husband .. with excellent barbeques .. grilled sardines – I loved!, marinated meats of all sorts and the South African sausage – Boerwors.

Coming back home ... we’ve become more sensible .. though the family did give me a memorable 21st (50th actually .. but I’m not admitting!) .. a winter one – with delicious food .. a whole salmon .. with friends and family from far and wide ... and really good wholesome food .. my ‘oldest’ friend came – sadly she’s died since ...

... and then I went off to South Africa and repeated the birthday with the near-relatives above – who put on another party for me .. so I was a very lucky girl that year.


This is long and rambly .. and not complete but definitely enough for you all to have had an elegant sufficiency! But my other sister-in-law who reads this blog .. said you must remember that what you’re writing is history put dates etc .. I think when mentioned I was going over on Freddie Laker’s Airline to a friend’s wedding at the Cathedral of the Pines (beautiful October day) .. and I had to get up – buy the air ticket – go back to bed (no internet in those days) – get up again and catch the plane .. in 1978. Post here.

Cathedral of the Pines, in New Hampshire, USA

I love entertaining and surprising people with parties ... my uncle whom I’d been looking after and giving him, as he said, something to live for – his birthday was near Christmas and each year I’d arrange a party for him at his house .. again picnic style, open house ... call in when you can – the first one was a complete surprise – he said he’d never had a party thrown for him before ... my honorary god-daughter aged 13 helped me .. good to have help!

What was rather nice this Christmas – the neighbours had been asked to a house warming by the new owners .. which happened to be on his actual birthday – as Melanie said .. they were heartened with the invitation – it was a good rounding off of my aunt’s and uncle’s lives – a final goodbye.

Inside the Burns Cottage Museum in Alloway.

Haggis, Whisky, Poetry only means one thing - Robbie Burns.

Dear Mr Postman .. my mother never ceases to amaze me – she asked me to tell her what I’d been doing in the day, and then asked if there were any more Christmas cards ... well yes, but I had them at home ... always things in the wrong place! She seems well and looks extremely well, which is good news.

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Food, Food, Glorious food .. and memories .. and, and .. Part 1 !

Last week on my birthday I had to go down to Cornwall to collect the remains of the things that I wanted from my mother’s flat – the day of reckoning had come .. that departure knowing the connection will no longer be there: sad times.

As travelling by car can do, we have time to think and mull and I got to think about not what I was missing, but the occasions of wonderful fun times over the years for birthdays and some of the fine dishes we’d experienced.



Beotys restaurant as it was .. and as I remember

Having a winter birthday is not really a good thing – but we don’t have a choice do we? ... I scarpered for a few years to South Africa ensuring that I had warm sunny birthdays by the pool, or at the sea with the sand between my incy wincy toes.

However last week I took with me a picnic for a very long-term family friend (92), who is very special to me .. so that we could enjoy a good chat without the worry of preparing or washing up afterwards. We had extra special Waitrose food on paper plates, with plastic cups, knives and forks .... it just fitted the bill: no hassle and no worries: we split the left-overs and the rubbish went in a black bag to be taken away ... nothing for her to do.

Eastwood as Rowdy Yates in Rawhide (1959–65)




Going back to way back when ... and first memories ... my parents must have gone to enormous trouble creating an Indian theme for one of our parties ... we were hooked into Cowboys and Indians .. Clint Eastwood and Michael Langdon to name two .. (was Clint a cowboy ever? – well memories merge! of course he was in Rawhide fame) ... we had a tepee with all the trimmings, must have had bows and arrows, and I’m sure guns .. I don’t remember much more – but it was a wonderful surprise opening the door of the dining room and seeing the magic.




Sioux tipi, watercolor by Karl Bodmer, ca. 1833

I know cowboys and Indians are definitely not ‘de rigeur’ now .. but back then we just accepted the norm ... the same with golliwogs on the Chivers Marmalade pot ... they were always so wonderfully cheerful and brought a smile to our faces; Little Black Sambo one of the small-format books ... he had such wonderful adventures in the sea, sun, palm trees and blue skies – where tigers came out of the bush, everything melted into a yellow sea .. as the tiger chased Little Black Sambo – I did love them .. evoking such brightly coloured memories.

Chivers Marmalade advert from 1952, via Grace’s Guide

I probably wouldn’t have mentioned them – but they’re part of history – and with the Mark Twain “N” thing going on ... I feel I can. Times change – but those times won’t .. that’s life. I’ve had a ‘Letter to the Saturday Times” hanging around because I wanted to mention it ... where do you mention slavery though? If we think about it ... slavery has existed since time immemorial ... no-one was really free .. armies were raised, pyramids and other buildings built, the Roman armies were conscripted ... this letter, I think sets it out clearly though:

Letter to the Saturday Times 27 November 2010 by Mrs Cyrstal Rushbrooke Dickinson, Bedford

Slavery Economics: Sir, At the heart of the New Testament is the ‘book’ of Philemon; the cover-note St Paul wrote, for the voluntary return of a former runaway slave, Onesimus. Paul tells Philelmon’s master, in no uncertain terms to receive him, “not as a slave, but .. as a brother, beloved”. That was the most subversive idea conceivable, in a world in which the institution of slavery was universally taken for granted ({previous} letters Nov 24 and 25).

Enfranchisement of individuals was always possible, and indeed common at the time, the freed individual normally remaining dependent on his former master, as “his freedman”. Very few slaves are known to have been fully liberated , in our sense of the word, let alone given the status of a “brother”, not even in households where common paternity was not infrequently a known biological fact.

But to overthrow the institution of slavery would have ruined the economic foundations of every major civilisation before the Industrial Revolution. No responsible thinker, however humanitarian, could dare to think in terms of abolishing the economic basis of his civilisation until there was a viable alternative. It took centuries, but the Christian Church got there, more or less, as soon as it could.”

What she says makes so much sense, if we think about it .... and as I posted over at Stephen Tremp’s Breakthrough Blogs .. but now ....

Little Black Sambo, from the 1899 edition, written and illustrated by Helen Bannerman

Can I go back to food, glorious food after those first paragraphs – perhaps yes, considering my next mention is the musical Oliver! which premiered in 1960 ... my parents went to see it a few times ... I seem to remember feeling left out, and never went! Anyway that was our introduction to Greek food ... Oliver! was on at the New Theatre in St Martin’s Lane, and Beotys became our favourite restaurant for a few years. The Greek restaurant opened up my palate to other world's of tastes .. sadly I see it is now closed, must have done so relatively recently.

Oliver! Original theatre programme and poster - 1960

To go back to our picnic last week ... which my ‘aunt’ described as absolutely fantabulous – "she of very high standards", was extremely happy to sit by the fire with a paper plate full of goodies .. and let me tell you they were goodies ... I had to go to Waitrose and make notes, because I’d forgotten what I’d bought – well the ingredients contained therein!

We had a selection from the following for my two visits ... six hour fireside chats! ... the first time we had her homemade mulled wine before I switched to apple juice (champagne was on the cards – but as I was driving to Penzance thought better of it!) ... we started with quails’ eggs and celery salt – a special request from the week before ...

... then lunched on smoked salmon crescents, mini scallop shellfish selection (a creamy prawn mousse, topped with king prawns and smoked salmon) a smoked haddock, smoked salmon, egg and asparagus layered tian – with a champagne vinaigrette, crawfish tails with lime mango mayonnaise, mini blinis, salad slithers for me, half-frozen sweet cherries and Cornish cream to round off ... so a wonderful experience and the fact my aunt had no work to do at all made her day almost perfect!

Waitrose’s - Salmon Tian

I left her with her first Taiko Sushi titbits of a taster! with an explanation of pickled ginger, wasabi - hope she remembered not to have too much?, and soya sauce ... something new at 92 – can’t be bad! More memories and good food coming up ...

Here's a story on this amazing lady that I posted almost two years ago ... Huggins Cottage

Dear Mr Postman .. who would have thought I could cover all those topics in one post ... but that’s “this mind” being let loose ... I’m sure my mother would be amused; though because she cannot eat or drink ... I don’t discuss the food and drink elements – she was an excellent cook .. and loved entertaining.

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories