Ghostly reappearance from under the dustsheets, or perhaps via the Ghostly Escalator ...

... just in time to celebrate moving into my sixth year of blogging – which seems somewhat amazing to me ... I had no idea of the journey I was embarking on ...

to me!

... and a birthday today ... c’est la vie ...  another anno domini has passed me by!

The landlady has had some work done on my flat (apartment) and I’ve needed to live here while it’s going on – 

- now to remember what’s underneath those spreading splattered, dusty sheets ... the week ahead will be the big reveal – can I remember being a year older?! 

Ghostly tube sign

Ghostly escalators crept into the equation ... as my week was curtailed to expeditions ... ie escaping the noise and dust ...

... a visit to London was on the cards ... to see these disappearing escalators, whose innards were exposed for public viewing ... well I couldn’t find them!

Notice around the tube ... letting us
know that the Northern and
Bakerloo line services will rush by -
ghostly escalators will be replaced!

I collared a station line supervisor ... he looked at me in blank amazement ... he had no idea, and we wandered up and down a little, then he sent me off to the ‘super’s office’ ...

... stunned silence there ... they get strange requests, but not like this ... she walked me around too – but no joy ... so hence the title of the post “Ghostly escalators” ... 

Looking through the window to the ghostly
escalators that I could not find!
c/o Ian Visits Blog

... now they are blanked off, so I will never see them ... however there are workings within the Lloyds Building nearby ... but I didn’t have that much time ... another day I shall return: as I have to see those innards now!

Grey takes over ... the grey cells aren’t working so well, the hairs that are generously (not so in my case!) growing are now definitely pale silver ... ghostly escalators aren’t there ... then there’s a melting tube train – but that’s in its frozen state in Sweden ...

I now know where the Northern line tube went - a blog
hop across to Sweden and the IceHotel
c/o Ian Visits Blog

The IceHotel – the coolest place to stay in Sweden – yelping huskies haul you to the IceHotel ... it is 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle ... the musher’s voice calling low, guttural commands to his scampering dogs ...

... 90 minutes later they arrive at the IceHotel created each winter from ice and snow at a cost of more than £1 million, it simply melts each spring, a million pounds down the plughole ...

The River Torne - where the IceHotel
is to be found near the Norwegian border ..
which flows into the Gulf of Bothnia,
an arm of the Baltic Sea

... guests come to spend a night at sub-zero temperatures (I know you Americans won’t want to join in!) ... but this year there’s a Northern Line tube room ... when they’ve had their fill of a frozen Tube, they can move across, gratefully, into warmer rooms ...

... so the Ghosts of Escalators, Icy Tube Trains, the grey ghostly scenery around the coast line here – no sunshine as I write my ghostly post, sitting in my ghostly dust-sheeted  flat ... thinking about my even greyer birthday tomorrow ... oh the joys of aging!

Julie's cover art

However a few pinks ... the Ghosts of Aquinnah, Julie Flanders’ book, has an eerie salmon pink glow on her cover ... of what I’m sure is a very good read ...

... while my strange brain sent me off to a white goods store to check out a washing machine’s pink innards ... so I did get my innards photo for you ... pink is better than grey ... much more cheerful and in tune with positive letters and writings ...

Ghostly pink lit innards of a washing machine

Happy Birthday to me though– it is going to be a very dull day for me in the aftermath of the builders’ dust ... everything on hold ‘til I’m back to a degree of normality, later this week I hope!  I am going to a talk on a couple of local villages that I’m looking forward to ... a Monday schedule.

God-daughters and I are having a weekend in London at the end of the month when we can and will be belatedly celebrating our birthdays in plural – theirs are on the same day in October ...

I shall be back to normal blogging shortly ... in the meantime ... have wonderful 2014s ...

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Curiosity Killed the Cat - Overcoming Adversity Bloghop

Today, I’m happy to participate in the “OvercomingAdversity” Bloghop, hosted by writer and blogging friend, Nick Wilford.

Nick has asked us to write a piece that revolves around the theme, overcoming adversity.  The entries will be compiled into an anthology with all proceeds going to his stepson’s college fund.

Nick’s stepson, Andrew, has cerebral palsy and hopes to attend a specialist college in Scotland, but reaching this dream has been difficult. 

It is through actions like this that Nick and his family hope to generate awareness and get Andrew the education he needs.

We truly hope that they achieve their goal.

Curiosity Killed the Cat – did it?  I don’t think so – it stimulates, keeps us interested at all levels of life ... a brief tale of hope, during a time of challenge:

You’re in London to celebrate your brothers' birthdays, your mother has travelled up from Penzance ... she is obviously not well – and the next thing we know she is in hospital with a stroke.

It’s not severe, there is hope ... she can talk.  Life takes on train journeys from Sussex – you’re exhausted ... what now?  Relocation to Cornwall to look after your mother ... life is on hold.

After 4 weeks and a dose of noro-virus she is ready for recuperation ... a short trip to the new hospital ... more strokes and our next visit is to the Acute Brain Injury Unit (ABIU): we’re lucky it has exceptional care, diagnosis and treatment.

Yet the uncertainty abounds ... will she live, how incapacitated will she be ... questions that of course we don’t have the answer to; it is serious that’s all we know.

How to adapt?  When she was able to my mother was happy to interact ... so during her time in the ABIU we go with the flow and there were days that were good and days that were bad – and all days were exhausting.

For six months the world went around before we were able to get my mother down to a Nursing Centre in Eastbourne, where I live and could be around more to support and care for her.

At the time of the first stroke she enjoyed shortish articles, or snippets of information, that would stimulate her brain with ideas or things we could laugh about together – when the incapacity strokes happened ... the progress was extremely slow and not hopeful.

By the time we reached Eastbourne she was able to communicate, I’m extremely grateful to say, though essentially was bedridden for the rest of her life (another 4.5 years).  We had to overcome the fact that she could not eat or drink ... challenging at times: but my mother having owned a care home realised and was able to work out what was what.

I wrote to friends and relatives which generated cards back – and more interaction ... the blog had started but now evolved as time went on – my mother could comprehend and always remembered ... Washington’s teeth was one of her favourites.

George Washington (1797) painted by
Gilbert Stuart

We had fun and I learnt to put her needs first - my life could go on hold for a while – because I could see a future ... I was blogging, teaching myself history, learning how others coped through their adversity.

Curiosity didn’t kill the cat – it gave me hope and an education ... while I have the happy memories of those curious snippets.

Washington’sTeeth and other tales

Perhaps appropriately the dashboard tells me this is my 500th post - don't count, curiosity killed the cats ... only 496 show up!!


Nick's Anthology can be bought at Amazon:  Overcoming Adversity - either as a book, or in Kindle version ... please support the family .... thank you!

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Oxford University, Emily Hobhouse and the Boer War, schooldays and family links ... Part 1

Oxford City Centre - City of Dreaming Spires

I had a reason to visit Oxford University that bastion of education – where town meets gown – and where I finally got to peer inside the brain of a University.  I was at school in Oxford for nine years and we sallied forth occasionally down the hill – perhaps for Evensong at the Cathedral, or to the ballet or a theatre ... in those days there was not much other  interaction.

Some years later! the school joins in so many activities and educational opportunities that are on offer by a university town, from which the students can benefit before they go out into the world of further learning or earning a living – I’d quite like to go back to school now!  Our visit gave me flashbacks to those days.

Headington School, on hill above Oxford

Jenny, a cousin of my mother’s had come over from Vancouver Island, to give two talks at Oxford – to the Friends of the Swaziland Society, and to the Friends of the International Gender Studies.  Jenny’s great aunt, Emily Hobhouse (1860 – 1926) had been an advocate for improvement of the Boer war camps (mainly) for women and children.

Emily Hobhouse

Emily had campaigned in London and South Africa that these camps be improved and was the first civilian to visit them and report back.  I found the whole thing fascinating – but my brain was stretched to the limit – and I learnt to look at historical life in a new light. 

We just don’t think ... and find it so difficult to relate to times gone by – as our reference point seems to be the way we would do things ourselves: no wonder so many of us don’t understand or appreciate history!

Emily Hobhouse had looked after her parents until she was 35, when her father finally died.  They had lived in Cornwall and Emily had been endowed with a ‘big knowledge seeking brain’ (not a Pooh Bear brain: “I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words bother me”) ... and faced many discouragements at home to foster her incredible intelligence and intellect.

Jenny inherited a trunk full of Emily’s papers which she painstakingly published into a book in 1994 – she self-published ... and I hope will have the book re-printed in due course.  My uncle commenting in a letter to me ... “Jenny is far too self-effacing when she describes herself as ‘the compiler’.  Without intruding her own personality and thoughts she has preserved so much that is meaningful about Emily, while providing some marvellous linking passages in her own beautifully written prose”.

This same uncle on the other side of the family, who was high up in Government and knew about these matters having worked in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office – when he read Jenny’s book remarked that she had done an incredible job – describing the book ‘as several Christmas dinners in one – and beautifully done’.  Lovely description I think.

Bloemfontein circa 1900

It appears that many people have not appreciated the work that Emily did – where she went, how large her sphere of influence had become ... and how during her years with her parents ... she had had to master the art of organisation, knowing who would help her and why ...

... as well as helping her to expand her knowledge of history, politics and empire at home.  Her elderly aunts, on behalf of their brother, ‘decided’ that a woman did not need an education: Emily’s ability to find her way through the morass of administrative and bureaucratic society served her in great stead.

Jenny has been anxious to correct the ‘political and media portrayal’ of Emily, which had been distorted over the years in Britain and Europe, while the complete opposite was acknowledged in South Africa.

Emily became a thorn in the flesh of the British Government at a time when women were asserting their rights at home anyway ... I won’t go into much more detail except to let you know one or two of the things that stood out for me.

A used £1    1903 Orange

River Colony revenue stamp

The British declared war on the Boer republics in order to convert them into British colonies, which would eventually become part of the Union of South Africa.  This became known as the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899 – 1901).

The accepted practice for defeating a guerrilla campaign was to take away their supply mechanism ... ie their farmsteads, stock and importantly their women and children.  Unfortunately the policies of “scorched earth” and civilian internment in concentration camps were the order of the day: the camps were originally called "burgher" or "refugee" camps (burgher = farmer/citizen).

To my mind there are in extremely simple terms two types of concentration camps – those where the civilians were held theoretically for their own good, while a war was fought ... or later on when the term became barbaric as under Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini.

One of the internment camps

The military manual where the ‘rules and regulations’ were set out – did not take cognisance of the fact that South Africa is in the southern hemisphere ... so placement suggestions were always the wrong way round ... facing south, not north.

The conditions were terrible but life for anyone in war is not easy ... the supplies and rations had to be ordered two weeks in advance – how many people would be in camp at that time?  The distribution was via a single track railway with the military demands being first in line ...

Emily invested a great deal of time and energy lobbying, writing letters, detailing reports, visiting camps and travelling back and forth in South Africa, and to London and Europe – she worked tirelessly for the disadvantaged women and children in these camps.

She was loved by the people of South Africa and admired by those like Mahatma Gandhi who asked for her help.  She was a bit of a painter, a writer and an entertainer, and in spite of ill-health travelled easily between countries – even as World War One took its grip. 

National Women's Monument
Bloemfontein

The South Africans so admired her that they clubbed together to buy her a house in St Ives, the picturesque fishing village in Cornwall beloved of many artists.  After she died her ashes were buried at the foot of the 1913 memorial in Bloemfontein for the women and children, who died in the Anglo-Boer War for whom she had worked so hard.

Jenny when she wrote the book from Emily’s papers presented it ‘as being offered to the public in the interests of truth – Emily having been portrayed unfairly and unkindly in the intervening years.

Jenny continues to research Emily’s work during her lifetime, but particularly the period leading up to, and during the First World War – and has recently been across to Germany and Switzerland to further this research.

Dr Birgit Seibold has been collating and publishing Emily’s German and European correspondence, with its attendant papers – so there now is an even fuller picture.  These are published in German, but Birgit has translated a short (166 pages) book entitled “Emily Hobhouse and the Reports on the Concentration Camps during the Boer War 1899 – 1902: Two Different perspectives.”

The walled Botanic Garden on a
lovely October weekend

I had a glorious brain-filled weekend and really need this to spill over into a second lighter post .. so Part 2 to follow!

Dear Mr Postman – my mother is still enjoying her cards, letters, flowers and bulbs ... we are lucky to have such wonderful family and friends.  Today I gather ... she has looked at Perla’s 6oth birthday pictures and had my post read to her!  Wonderful she can still take an interest ...

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

The Bible, Jane Austen, Stanford University, Voltaire, Project Gutenberg and Social Media – what do they have in common?

Throughout time we have been writing, collating our thoughts onto material as a record for the future ... these were not very easy to transport nor made to last with the rampages of climatic conditions, wear and tear etc.

Medieval University class (1350s) by

Laurentius de Voltolina, on parchment

People still gathered to exchange ideas and it is surprising that so many written thoughts have remained in existence for each successive generation to read and study.

Clay tablets were replaced by papyrus scrolls, parchment was then used before the printing press (+/- 1450) with paper (pulped rags were used for 2,000 years, until the process of pulping wood fibres was developed (1844), which we mainly use today)  lowered the cost, enabling the mass exchange of information and contributing to significant cultural shifts.

Hemp Wrapping Paper, China:

circa 100 BC

All progress, George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) remarked, “depends on the unreasonable man” ... and by his own admission Michael Stern Hart (1947 – 2011) pioneer of e-books and founder of Project Gutenberg, was such a man.

Who would have thought a visit to the local shop in 1971, where he was given a free parchment copy of The Declaration of Independence, would lead to that Eureka moment, as he described it ... with Project Gutenberg being born ...

.... he had access to one of the first computers at Urbana University (a small university specialising in the liberal arts) , where his parents worked as professors of Mathematics and Shakespeare respectively; it was here that he decided to type up the Declaration of Independence to be stored online at one of the first computer nodes.

Michael Hart (L) and Gregory Newby

of Project Gutenberg, 2006

For years many people thought he was mad, as he laboriously typed up the Bible, works by Jane Austen, Plato, Shakespeare, Tolstoy ... he never finished his degree.  He sacrificed everything for his passion – he lived simply (used a bicycle with a cart), worked hard, and when he fell ill he treated himself with home remedies, rather than expensive medicines.

By 1987 he had typed out 313 “great books” – and then that shift occurred ... technology, in the shape of scanning, software, computer memory and the internet caught up with the scale of his ambition.  By June this year there were some 36,000 free electronic editions of public-domain literary works ... which as some of us can attest are a popular and convenient source of reference.

With thanks to The Week (17 September 2011) – for the Obituary on Michael Hart from which I sourced some of this information and ideas ... and then along comes another site I enjoy reading: Brain Pickings ...

... which has a fascinating post entitled: Vintage Versions of Modern Startups ... Twitter, Facebook, Quora, YouTube and Tumblr ... I so far have only checked out the Facebook one – by Stanford University ...

Twitter – 1906 Felix Fineon – Three Line Novels

c/o Brain Pickings 

Here the University is researching and pulling together a snapshot of written data using new computer technology with geographical imaging to show the various intermingling and evolvement of philosophical ideas through their epistles.

Mapping this “Republic of Letters” – the self-defined community of  writers, scholars, philosophers and other thinkers included greats like Voltaire, Leibniz, Rousseau, Linnaeus, Franklin, Newton, Diderot and many other we’ve come to see as linchpins of cultural history.

The letter writers in the era that has become known as the Age of Enlightenment (1700s) come from a vast and intricate network of intellectuals, linking their finest “philosophies” across national borders and language barriers.

Republic of Letters map

 – Stanford University

Brain Pickings has various links to the subject and a short video (2.15) entitled “Tracking 18^th Century “social network” through the Electronic Enlightenment Project” ... which shows some fascinating mapping images ... 

... while surprising the researchers that, three hundred and fifty years ago, so much information was circulating around the world ... for instance: how astronomical observations that had been written down in America or Asia could be seen to back link into Newton’s Principia ...

... another surprise shown in the video is that Voltaire communicated mainly with the southern half of Europe – whereas we might have thought that a main centre would be England and Scotland ...  but the mapping shows Voltaire’s disconnect.

Coming back to the developments of today ... the ‘anxiety’ of the loss of people being able to jot down or record ideas, compose our thoughts for our stories because we are becoming so technically oriented – which is becoming a handicap to the thought logic ...  that loss of process in working our thoughts out on paper ... the idea we wouldn’t have had if we weren’t writing.

The peace of mind in finding a pencil and paper – a napkin ... the back of an envelope – and then being able to note those thoughts down, which arose from the adolescent acceptance that we should write letters for social as well as business reasons.

Modern Book Printing –

sculpture .... commemorating

its inventor Gutenberg on

the occasion of the 2006

Football World Cup

in Germany

Stanford University highlights what we have known for years as we research the letters of the literary greats ... when we research people – we find they were writing letters everyday ... and that is calisthenics for the brain.

Thank goodness for the likes of Project Gutenberg and Wikipedia which seem to embody the mission of the early web: to serve as a kind of super-library distributing knowledge widely and freely for its own sake.

The times they are a-changing ... but it’s good to know that there are people who are still looking through the glass clearly at the value to be obtained from researching into the past as well as recording this information for us to wonder at and learn from.

What does the future hold and how will we be using technology in the years ahead – I am sure we won’t be losing our grip on all this knowledge ... but it will be the researchers, readers and writers who benefit most ... while we as bloggers and authors will be doing our bit at collating information and ideas ... now I know what my exercise is .. calisthenics!  I just need to stretch a little further ....

5 Vintage Versions of Social Media from Centuries Ago - Brain Pickings.org

The Week - UK version

Project Gutenberg ... www.gutenberg.org 

Stanford University - Republic of Letters Map and Research

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

The Alpha and the Omega – 300 posts, stroke, bowel cancer, alzheimers ..



Carbis Bay Hotel



Sounds a little dramatic doesn’t it – Alpha and Omega – the words just tie a few things up, open the doors to new beginnings ... this is my 300^th post – my Omega; the A – Z Challenge will be my Alpha ... an infinite number of posts ahead .. starting with a mere 26 in April.

The alphabet of stories, poems, ideas, creative thought – all 600+ of us participating in the A – Z Challenge .. I shall be posting the ABCs of the British Countryside – highlighting areas of our landscape we take for granted.



Whoever thought just over two years ago I’d still be here writing and being involved in this enormous creative blogging world – such an eye opener to many a mere mortal.  The story of life played out by and to each of us as we blog, read, comment and connect along our journey’s paths.  Thank you to you all ...



Elizabeth was a great gardener



It’s a real all sorts mix of a melting pot – we glean, we learn, we travel, we photograph, we cook and we write and importantly, I think, we become aware of things that perhaps might not hit us if we were not internet connected.  So this post is a celebration by me of my 300^th  article... a few things I’ve learned and would like you to be aware of too, and some happy times ...

The acronym F A S T – saved a young girl’s life .. her class mates recognised the symptoms and reacted .... the brain does heal ... (to an extent) but never forget this aspect .. certainly this has happened with my mother, though she will never ‘recover’ – as this youngster had the chance to because of her friends’ immediate reaction to dial 999.



Fast Stroke Test:  ... F A S T - react to these symptoms:

• FACE - Has their face fallen on one side? Can they smile?
• ARMS - Can they raise both arms and keep them there?
• SPEECH - Is their speech slurred?
• TIME - call the ambulance .. if you see any single one of these signs

Alzheimers – the Nursing centre, where my mother lives, have opened the ground floor to Alzheimer patients; at the opening the Director for Dementia came down and left some copies of his book: “And Still the Music Plays” – stories of people with Dementia – by Graham Stokes.

Doris, who blogs with us – I love that phrase!, at her blog ““Hold My Hand” A Social Worker’s blog” where she tells stories of her experiences, much as Dr Stokes does above ... they are just great ways to learn.



Alzheimer’s can strike early in life too ... Dr Stokes’ first story is about a 41 year old woman ... she coped, however her husband and sons were not aware of her struggles ...

Autism – perhaps you’ve seen the TED talk by Temple Grandin .. an amazing woman, who despite Autism .. in fact because of it .. has this amazing (out of this world) capacity for visual thinking ...  a fascinating way to understand someone who thinks in a series of photo-realistic images = picture perfect .. and who can only do this because she is autistic.

Googling – brings up the Wikipedia entry:  the 2010 film is a biopic on Temple Grandin, as a woman with autism, who revolutionised the practices for the humane handling of livestock.

Lastly and sadly Bowel Cancer ... can strike very quickly and is one of the most painful cancers, so I understand.  My mother’s best friend and ex manager of her Care Home had not been feeling well .. she was cheerful and looking forward, despite the probable prognosis.  Sadly she was in such pain, she went into hospital and never came out .. it was only a few hours .. and she was relatively young – 73.

I have been drip feeding my mother with the information that Elizabeth is ill – as I thought the shock of her death needed to be tempered by the knowledge that she was seriously ill first – as my mother cannot easily express emotion after her strokes .. because of the shock & when you are confined to bed with no other resources than your own brain ... these sorts of notifications need to be carefully handled – if there’s a possibility to do so.

Gorse flowers

The funeral was wonderful and this week I will tell my mother about it – and speak-paint her the pictures of Cornwall in Spring, the new Crematorium – Cornish granite, wonderful wood – including a beautiful polished cross, set in the gorse covered, tree cowed countryside that is Cornwall.

It was so good to meet Elizabeth’s family and old friends from the Care Home days ... the day was glorious with blue sunny skies; the Reception was held in the Carbis Bay Hotel, who were kind enough to allow me to use their photos here.  The weather was very kind giving us magnificent views across St Ives Bay.



In tempering the news re Elizabeth and her funeral I can include the sunny day, being able to meet the family and share our appreciation of her, as has also been expressed by our relatives too – as my great uncle and his wife were cared for by Elizabeth and my mother in their last days.



We used to stay in Carbis Bay at a Bed and Breakfast, while my grandmother owned a house on the hill down to the hotel – where we had often played as kids ... so it brought back many memories of those days ... my first swim/paddle .. the chugging local line train, stopping at the beachfront – but high on a viaduct, which linked St Ives to the main line.  It was strange driving down to the hotel – but what a view ... a day of mixed emotions.



I then had the great privilege of having another visit to my 94 year old ‘aunt’ near St Austell .. with glorious food – courtesy this time of Marks and Spencer:  just to whet your appetite –

+ King Prawn and Avocado salad, with pasta and a creamy lemon dressing

+ Herb crusted Scottish Trout fillets stuffed with a Crab and Red Pepper mousse

+ Raspberry jelly with fresh raspberries, and Cornish clotted cream

... washed down with grape and berry juice

You cannot really go wrong with this meal .. it was delicious and met with total approval!!



This is a sad time .. however my mother is as pragmatic as always – saying that bowel cancer is horrible, and thinking back to other people she had cared for, who had died of this disease.  So I think I did the right thing in ‘delaying’ the telling ...



Alpha and Omega .. 300 posts an end, a new beginning; life begins and ends .. beware it can happen suddenly and be aware it can drift in .... keep and remember the positives ...

Thank you so much for your continued support – new times ahead ...



Alpha ‘Arlee Bird’ Challenge .. the ABCs of the A – Z Challenge start Friday – April Fool’s day .. now that’s a thought ... but 700+ participants is not ... amazing .. congratulations to you all and especially to the organisers:



Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out (who created the challenge)
Jeffrey Beesler at World of the Scribe
Alex J. Cavanaugh
Jen Daiker at Unedited
Candace Gangers at The Misadventures In Candyland
Karen J Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain
Talli Roland
Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs

The Carbis Bay Hotel were kind enough to allow me to use their photos - there are some incredible panoramic views on their website: Carbis Bay Hotel ... please have a visit ...


Dear Mr Postman .. we go on – when my mother is awake .. she is just so with it .. other times she dozes, or sleeps and seems reasonably content – the main thing in my life.

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories