A barrow by any other name …

A Barrow on the Downs in Sussex, and to Barrow at the tip of northern Alaska … this at least takes me in the direction of Canada!

Panoramic view looking down over Alfriston village,
Cuckmere River is in the valley

 The community of Barrow, Alaska named after Sir John Barrow (1764 – 1848) who was a promoter of Arctic voyages, though appears not to have visited this part of the world, except early in his life he had been to Greenland …

Utqiagvik
(Barrow splodge in blue - sorry!)

The phenomenon ‘polar night’  which occurs when the winter sun disappears for about two months started to reappear to give Barrow some natural light …

Inupiat child from
about 1960

The community of Barrow in December 2016 officially restored the Inupiat’s native name Utqiagvik … which referred to the indigenous Inuit’s derivation ‘a place for gathering wild roots’.

Utqiagvik has been home to the Inupiat for more than 1,500 years – about the same time that the Anglo-Saxons settled Alfriston, on the Downs in East Sussex, in the 5^th century AD …

… sometime around 4,500 BC Neolithic (Stone Age) man roamed southern England, cleared the woodland and started farming …

Some of the South Downs Park notice at the
site of Long Burgh

Their funerary mounds are the oldest field monuments surviving visibly in the present landscape … Long Burgh has only relatively recently been cleared to be declared a National Monument within the new National South Downs Park …

… it overlooks the Cuckmere Valley and is 56 metres (184 feet) long, with a width of 20 metres (65 feet) … so as you can see is quite substantial.

 

Long Burgh - looking south west over
the Cuckmere Valley

Unfortunately the barrow over the centuries has been ransacked, with the finds being considered of little value – now however with our technology so much more could be ascertained from the bones, grave contents, surrounding soils and pits … but too late …

English (Welcome to Barrow) and
Inupiaq (Paglagivsigin
Utqiavigmun)

… while in Barrow, Alaska archaeological digs are going on, and as things come to light in England more archaeology is being discovered …

That is the Polar Night at Barrow and Long Burgh Barrow the ‘Ancient Guardian of Alfriston’ … so now I can skip over to concentrate on finishing my Canadian posts … before coming back to other subjects …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

We are the World Blogfest # 21: Common Sense …

It’s time Common Sense prevailed … first … I need to get my act into gear and get back into the positive land of blogging …

… this month I’ll be following my own prognostications for a better future as I settle back in the UK.

I’ve never worked out why so many follow the crowd and do what everyone else is doing … it seems sometimes we act or do without thought as to what is best for us and our own family and friends …

I do my own thing … but don’t help myself and follow through … now I must …

Aristotle - the first person known to
have discussed "common sense"
(see more at Wiki)

Common Sense seems such an easy thing as we’re all born with it – yet others’ influence us and we follow their lead – why not our own?

We know what is good for us … eating healthily and eating what suits our body: early on I realised I didn’t like eating breakfast … or eating before playing a squash match … which meant I ate very little during the day … I survived and it suited me …

I’ve always eaten lots of vegetables and fruits and know that they are essential to my stay on earth – whereas bread I should (and usually do) avoid … as you can see above I enjoyed ball sports, so had lots of exercise …

It is mind over matter … Common Sense in all our dealings with the world and for goodness sake read between, and behind, the lines (don’t believe the one-liners) … so follow the Three Wise Monkeys …

See no evil

Speak no evil

Hear no evil

… that way people will never forget how you make them feel … you will be leaving positivity behind you …

The three wise monkeys in brass

Good luck to us all – let’s think, be prepared to compromise – we do it all the time in life … and cheerfully chat things through … remaining friends with smiling eyes …

 

… while for us fellow #WATWB writers we will visit other contributors, to read their thoughts and stories to spread peace and humanity around the world.

Remember Common Sense:  

We are the World … In Darkness, Be Light     

         

Let us go about our 2019 lives letting light and hope in …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Just So … life goes on …

Another year … and I feel the same as I did that January day seven decades and one ago … well perhaps not – I guess I was a squawking new born …

A few more candles needed this year!

… my uncle came to see his younger brother and the family’s first born … then constantly reminded me through the decades – whether we were in Johannesburg, Cape Town, or here in Surrey/ Sussex – how mighty cold it was that year … thankfully 2019, so far, is giving us an easy ride – not like the European blizzards …

Today starts the 11th year .... 

 Another celebration happens with this post – I’ve been blogging ten whole years … amazing … I cannot believe that I’ve kept it up, settled into a ‘way of life’ …

… teaching myself so much, opening doors to other disciplines … and before another year goes by or I get too much older I must broaden my horizons further …

So for now – the Just So exhibition at Bateman’s in the two weeks after Christmas inspired the title … ‘Just So …’ as Kipling’s daughter demanded he repeated his stories exactly … just so …

That's a clear glass in the centre - looks slightly odd in the
photo - luxurious colours ... 

The National Trust had decorated the house in rich Indian colours … set out the various story lines for the children, and let us adults peruse many of his creative achievements (words and art particularly) – as too his father’s and other connections …

How the rhinoceros got his skin -
Kipling woodcut - December 1901

We are lucky to have these great story tellers to tell us about life of the past, in different countries … and to set the scenes so well for us …

Batemans glowing in the winter light

I went out with some friends, as I now don’t have a car, and they are kindly taking me over to lunch at my brother’s house at Alfriston on the edge of the Sussex Downs … sadly other friends are away or ill … it’s that time of year … but …

Camel decoration ... 

I’m off now – another year wiser mainly about Canada: those posts I will continue – and who knows what happens next as we are living history as it happens (something I thought I’d never see) …

Alfriston Clergy House - the first National Trust property -
purchased in 1896 for ten pounds sterling

Thanks for all your support through the years … I’ve loved interacting with so many of you – and feel I’ve friends around the world … and I know from the few I’ve met – that is the case …

 

Here’s to a happy, healthy year to you all …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

New Beginnings ...

New Year and being able to be back in my homeland … bliss – I loved Canada and definitely would like to see more at some stage … as you’ll find out in my future posts …

New Beginnings ... the gateway
to Bateman's:
Rudyard Kipling's home

It’s a wonderful country and I was really lucky to be able to get out and meet lots of new friends round and about on Vancouver Island and briefly seeing Vancouver on the mainland – fascinating city …

I had a stopover in Calgary … not having to leave the hotel til mid-day helped – and would have been fine, but West Jet lost a computer somewhere and needed a new one before we flew on to Gatwick … 

Father bear ... totally magnificent to look at

... so an extra few hours ‘floating around’ the airport wasn’t desperately helpful … a young English engineer and I chatted for a couple of hours …

Family of bears on the concourse

Some bears were encountered on the concourse – beautiful sculptures by Stewart Steinhauer … which were hand-carved from granite, then polished, bush-hammered. Finally being placed on flamed granite bases … they were stunning to see and duly admire.

(A bush hammer is a masonry tool used to texturise stone and concrete … or in this case the igneous rock ‘granite’.)

 

Life has been a matter of adjusting to a situation I wasn’t expecting for another year … I am really grateful to my brother for finding a flat for me for the time being – it’s furnished – so that made it easy … my things are in store until November … which gives me time to make some decisions.

Sussex Downland ... Spring is on its way!

The first twelve days I spent with my brother and SIL … as there was a lot going on there … I’d come into Eastbourne when I could to acclimatise myself, get to a few University of the Third Age ‘classes’  and other meetings that were going on … and of course bump into ‘old friends’ as I was walking around.

Then settling in … life continued on – other group meetings, friends to see, parties to go to … and so on … it’s taking a while to work out where I’m at … but am getting there …

Location of Eastbourne for info ...
courtesy of Brighton University

We’re in the New Year of 2019 and this time of year two more anniversaries cross my horizons … so I’ll be up and running by the weekend … Sunday …

But thanks for all your well-wishing comments on my return to this little island … I’m glad I’m home – even turbulent times equals history in the making …

Take care and all the very best for us all as we move further into 2019 – Happy New Year …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories