Quick Update …

 

Just over three weeks' ago I had to call our NHS 111 helpline … and got taken into A & E … I wasn't seriously ill – no broken bones, the old insides of the engine weren't playing happily …

Zebra in the Kruger Park, north of Durban

I was lucky … the paramedics were youngsters … one of whom had just been to Durban for their honeymoon, along with six friends … oh yes with the husband! … he's a paramedic too, but not on the same shift … so we had a natter about the country and safaris on the way over to our local hospital – she was happy …

Nature Reserve in distance from
Rye town

I was admitted straight away, it was 8.00 am or so, and after some trial runs I was eventually dealt with, and then after lunch sent home – at least not admitted into a ward … which at one stage was on the cards.

Discovery Centre in Nature Reserve

I've been in limbo – I'm seeing the GP this week .. and so will know more. Life ticks along … it's just the wheels need to turn … and I'll find out what's been bugging me since Covid …

Discovery Centre near end of build -
showing stilts

Some friends and I went over to Rye – to the nature reserve there – I took it slowly, but they've got a brilliant new Discovery Centre … which has been built on stilts … to take into account the fluctuating tides …

Shingle Beach at Tide Mills, Newhaven

... the Reserve floods twice a day … while the history of the area is fascinating ...I'll come back to give you a better update on this area of shingle coastline – rare plants, booming Bitterns, tiny microcosms of life at the edge … needing the salt-water and spray.

Bittern in full flight

I've got a few things I want to post about … but it's A – Z month and that's pretty time-consuming … either for contributors and/or for commenters … so I'll go quiet and come alive after Easter …

A Bittern - standing tall

Thank goodness the weather's warming up – but we have a cold east wind, that being by the coast is pretty chilly … our newsagent said to me yesterday – that it was freezing this morning … I agreed!

All is well – in fact I'm feeling better … just need to get the 'old bod sorted out' … I'm fairly certain there's nothing serious ... just needed the 'shake- out' (so to speak) ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Surfing … Big v Small (film) – Nazaré, Portugal ...

 

I'd often wondered about the draw of the Portuguese coast's Nazaré monster surfing waves – but had never been inquisitive enough to look further …

Monster breaking wave at the end
of the underwater Nazaré canyon

What was it … and why were the waves so big …? well now I know – and so will you in a few hundred words!

A recent Film Society Film 'Big v Small' explained a great deal, as well as opening my eyes to how we can tame the fears inside us … under the ice in Finland.

Holding our breath for any length of time for most of us is nigh impossible … and we all have fears of some sort … perhaps mostly hidden from our friends and the outside world.

Joana Andrade

Joana Andrade, the Portuguese surfer featured, is of tiny proportions – not obviously hugely tenuous … yet this film shows us what can be achieved – by an intrepid character … her comment from Surfer Today just explains her attitude to life:

"I am a small woman - 1.56 meters tall - and not very muscular. My strength comes from the head through a lot of meditation and breathing exercises. I train at home to relax, connect with my inside and find the way to trust myself."

The 'Oeste' Administrative
area on the coast of Portugal

Growing up on the Oeste coastline – about half-way up Portugal's coast – Joana, as many a normal kid would do, rebelled against her mother … no surfing … not in those waves … but Joana had other thoughts. Typical rebellious kid!

She looked and looked at those huge breakers, while improving her paddle-board surfing skill along the coast … at that stage: self-propelled with her surfboard.

Tow-in Surfers shown on the waves

The technique of tow-in surfing came about in the 1990s … when a surfer is towed by a partner into a breaking wave – using a Jet Ski or helicopter. It was pioneered in Hawaii …

Monster surfing waves are found in Hawaii, off California and Nazaré, Portugal … there are other notable big wave surfing spots. These waves could only be caught using the tow-in method …

Joana Andrade surfing a giant wave

This was when waves over 30 feet (9 metres) were beyond the bounds of a surfer … after the tow-in method evolved waves over 50 feet (15 metres) could be surfed …

The ups and downs of 'tow- in surfing fashion' has in the last five decades or so – opened up other areas … one of which is Nazaré – where the waves break really close to the shore … the area known as Praia do Norte (Nazaré).

Geomorphology of
Nazare's underwater canyon

The Nazaré underwater Canyon … is the largest submarine canyon in Europe … reaching depths of about 5,000 metres (16,00 feet) along a length of about 230 kilometres (140 miles). 

There are three distinct sections … one of which I must remember to mention when I get back to my English Language post/s.

Another problem was holding one's breath should one fall out of a wave, as another huge wave would be waiting to break, with perhaps a third soon behind …

Johanna Nordblad - under the ice

So on searching for help … Joana came across another … in this case … Johanna Nordblad from Finland – who is an ice diver, and freediver – who also holds the static breath record of 6 minutes 35 seconds.

They went to Finland to help Joana Andrade hold her breath for longer, as well as overcoming her fear of being submerged … in this case under the ice for a period of time …

Fort of Sao Miguel Arcanjo (1577)

Mind over matter … something at that level beyond my desire to attain … but the film was very intriguing and very absorbing.

The links fill in or add to the informational spaces …

Big v Small IMDb documentary film ...

Portuguese Joana Andrade - article in Surfer Today ... 

Free Diver, Ice Diver from Finnish Johanna Nordblad ...

Adding another link I'd forgotten about: From Cambridge University about 'cold shock' being tested for its value with various diseases". I can't seem to provide a link - but if you're interested ... please type in the sentence below and you'll be sent to the link.

Scientists in Cambridge and Berlin have used a form of gene therapy to increase levels of the so-called ‘cold shock protein’ in the brains of mice, protecting them against the potentially devastating impact of prion disease.

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Write … Edit … Publish … Bloghop / ISWG hop: The Great Wave …

 

As a kid, geography was a lesson that could cover various sciences … her early ones were a blazing volcano seen exploding from the page, the ensuing great waves travelling the oceans, an outline of the continents, the darkness in the skies, an art lesson …

 

The Great Wave of Kanagawa
by Katsushika Hokusai
(1831)

Well they learnt about Krakatoa’s eruption in 1883 … it impinged – enough for her to remember to this day …

 

Stormy seas off Newlyn, Cornwall

… the stormy seas when visiting her grandparents in Cornwall … huge waves of water crashing into the harbour walls or coastline …

 

Hayle estuary at low tide

Grandpa would regularly take to the sea … swimming in St Ives Bay and on occasions taking the plunge to cross Hayle estuary – a treacherous channel of water … this she remembered …

 

 

An artist's depiction

… the pictures in the school book gave her imagination time to wander … art was never her thing … but the images were added to the memory bank as the years went by …

 

 

Krakatao's eruption

… at some stage the form of a nightmare occurred disturbing her sleep … but her imagination had common sense … so all was well …

 

 

Hokusai's Great Wave - as a backdrop
to the 'beach' as part of an art
installation for the Paris catacombs 

As she aged - more was learnt … but those minor nightmare reminiscences continued on … the Great Wave arising from the volcanic explosion, the colours master artists crafted into magnificent depictions of events … released into her mind, never to be forgotten …

 

 

Racing great wave across an ocean

The things as a child one can start to learn and appreciate over time … volcanoes, ocean swells with rushing waves, how to explain things, creative vision through art, with the added recurring nightmare thrown in … that this ‘Great Wave’ reminded her about …

 

 

Cargo Boat passing through the waves -
print by Hokusai (c 1805)

She is grateful for those early geography lessons, before the discipline separated the sciences out … the ‘Great Wave’ lingers on into her eternity …

 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

We are the World Blogfest # 26: Artist’s Sculptures being Sunk to Protect the Sea …

A local fisherman’s dream to bring his stretch of Tuscan waters back to life, where commercial trawlers have been ravaging the seabed …

c/o Bowman Sculpture
see link at end - this is
'Stillness Born of History'

Bottom trawling involves dragging a large net (which cannot discriminate its catch),  across the sea floor snatching large amounts of bycatch … destroying the habitat (sea meadows), killing the unwanted fish and other marine creatures - all trapped in this method, used by commercial fishermen …

We’ve seen other structures being used in the seas to give shelter and thus life to species in decline … yet here are amazing works of art being placed along this stretch of coastline to reinvigorate the sea floor – they are already succeeding …

Grand Duchy of Tuscany (1569 - 1859)

Emily Young, the sculptress, has an interesting pedigree and thus links to artists, writers, conservationists, polar explorers … while her sculptures are completely inspiring …

She lives in London and Tuscany … but has travelled and continues to journey widely … her website highlights her work … I’d recommend you pop over and have a look at her sculptures – they are truly beautiful …

… the titles outside Tate Modern, London inspire:

                           Face of Stillness

                                   Stillness Born of History

… there is one exhibited in Siena until 20^th July 2019:

                                            Solar Disk III … just delightful …

Talamone - an important sea port in Etruscan
times, a central Italian Monarchy during the
Medici and Holy Roman Emperor times;
Nelson and Garibaldi both used the little
harbour as a re-victualing stop over.

There’s a very short video of one of her sculptures being lowered onto the sea floor, and then with the regrowth, as well as fish re-population with cuttlefish, sea bream, sea bass, squid, lobsters etc … the restaurants can again offer local seafood, rather than Asian frozen fish …

Paolo Fianciulli, a local fisherman, who started using concrete blocks to thwart the trawlermen, has been targeted by unscrupulous thugs …

Carrara Marble Quarry

… but now a team of sculptors, including Emily, are sinking their works of art to continue protecting this coastline …

Marble from the renowned Carrara (Tuscan) Quarry  has been donated to the sculptors … it is not of the finest white that Michelangelo once worked, yet exhibits the stone’s geological history …

… her other sculptures ask that the viewer broods across deep time, geography and cultures … in other words to think deeply about our world and its life – how it came into being, and how we are a microscopic part in Gaia’s existence …

Maremma Nature Reserve

So here we have artworks that have a higher purpose than being worth thousands of pounds (not dollars!) … 300 donated chunks of Carrara marble ready to be sculpted, lowered overboard, they need barges to take the ten-tonne statues out to their watery resting places …

A blogfest highlighting positive news
where people are helping the world

She maybe dumbfounding her agent, leaving her colleagues aghast, as the artist, who has been called Britain’s greatest living stone sculptor, lets her magnificent works of art disappear into the murky depths to protect a part of the Tuscan seas and coastline against unprincipled humans with no sense of responsibility …

We are the World … In Darkness, Be Light

By-catch ... fish left to die ...

This is my #WATWB – an artist who uses her talents knowing that they will mostly be sight unseen … a rock muse of the 1960s London – possibly ‘See Emily Play’ … to world renown sculptress looking to remind us … that all parts of our planet need our protection …

Her website is so well worth reading, while her sculptures are just staggeringly amazing … please, pretty please look!

About the sculptress Emily Young

Emily Young - see some of her recent sculptures, and about this project ... (as I've described above) please look to see why I was hooked!

Emily Young Wikipedia

Bowman Sculpture - who represent Emily ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher 

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Stormhoek … Catch the Moment …

Riders on the Storm – by the Doors, Dark and Stormy a brew when relaxing:  the drink rarely would be mine … more likely a glass of vino would be my tipple …

The album cover

But appropriate choices of Ben Keitch, who hails from Eastbourne apparently, and is one of the skippers selected for the 2019/20 Clipper Round the World Yacht Race …

Clippers at rest in Liverpool
c/o The Guide Liverpool 
where a huge wine box was unveiled at the end
of the 2017/18 race

I’ll get to where this post came from and is going to shortly!  The Clipper race reminds me of Cornwall, my mother and her sailing interests when the Tall Ships came into Penzance harbour … 

... but Ben reminds me of my Oxford days … though no degree for me – just school, friends, and the fact my father, uncle and cousin all had degrees from Worcester College …

Eastbourne seafront along the various promenades - the
lovely turquoise tiled bandstand with the 'denuded' pier
in the background (after the fire a few years ago)

Where was I?!  Memories, apart from today’s life here in Eastbourne … Ben has had some incredible experiences … 18 months with the Antarctic Survey, running a festival in the Spanish desert, working in a travelling circus as an aerialist … 

... he has a PhD in Physics from Oxford, with interests in electronics, environmental impact, and acrobatics … I guess most of those you’d need skippering a Clipper round the world. 

Now to why this post is being written … some friends came round for supper and having seen this wine box in Waitrose bought me one … memories of South Africa …

… I love the quote on the box:

Be Passionate

LOVE

DREAM   BIG

Be Spontaneous

CELEBRATE

Change the World or Go Home

We only ever had a few pieces of
plain blue and white Cornishware ..
Viota is a cake mix from the early
20th century

The colours reminded me of my Ma and our Cornish days … the blue and white of Cornwall’s china … the blue skies and crested waves of Kernow: branded Cornishware … which I wrote about in my A-Z 2015.

I know, I know … here’s a right tangle of tentacles creating a post … but inspiration struck … and then in trying to tie things together … here’s another appropriate quote for this paragraph … found under the Stormhoek name … “Catch the Moment” … I get distracted!

c/o Clipper Round the World

It is something I’ve have absolutely no wish to do … race the Atlantic or actually sail anywhere else … love looking at that wet stuff, but am very happy on land.

So to a glass from a box that will bring back many memories from times in Cornwall, Oxford, South Africa and now Eastbourne … with a few other places in between …

 

c/o The Liverpool Guide ...

This huge box supplied by the 2017/18 sponsor, Stormhoek, was on tap at the end of the Clipper Race in Liverpool last year after they had completed a circumnavigation of the planet … what a way to serve 24,000 litres of its wine – that could be 144,000 glasses!

Some facts: 

The race is held every two years … and in March the eleven selected skippers were revealed … they have over a million miles of experience between them …

… and must be outstanding instructors, exceptional motivators, and strong role models … keep calm and patient under pressure, and - understand all types of personalities …

… just like us bloggers?! or authors, or journalists …

The Race is one of the biggest challenges of the natural world and an endurance test like no other, the race is taken by ordinary, everyday people (about 700 of them) – with no previous sailing experience necessary, it’s a 40,000 nautical mile race around the world on board 70-foot ocean racing yachts.

There is nowhere to hide – anyone can take part … where bankers work alongside students, and waiters rub shoulders with chief executives … as the waves or words mix and match …

Some white crested waves
reminding me of the Cornish seas

So the nod to ‘Riders on the storm’ is just right today … life has led me on a roller coaster – thankfully the sun is out, this post is done … memories have abounded … the sun is not over the yard-arm – but I shall enjoy a tipple with friends tonight!  I’ve caught my moment and need to get out into the fresh Spring air …

A photo I took of an art work on display in a local
memorabilia exhibition - it is dated  July 1968

Have peaceful, thoughtful Memorial Day weekends, or for us our Spring Bank Holiday weekend … the weather looks mixed – such is the British weather world … at least it won’t be Stormy … but we can Celebrate and Change the World with hope and love …

… my head is buzzing with storylines …’Catch the Story’ should be my motto for today!

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Letters

Whale Trip out into the Salish Sea …

I took the opportunity of a clear, calm day to jump a trip to see some sea life out in the San Juan Islands and Straits to the east of Vancouver Island …

 

Leaving Cowichan Bay going south-east

… and while out thinking how difficult it must have been for those early navigators plying the seas to find a route through the intricate network of coastal waterways …

Showing Victoria, capital of Vancouver Island -
and then the border line interspersing the islands up
to 49th parallel south of Vancouver

… yet I also remembered that for centuries the indigenous peoples knew their lands, the flora and fauna all essential to their slower full way of life …

Looking east to the snow-covered Mount Baker

Just looking at that daunting land, full of mountain ridges interspersed with volcanic valleys, or the many ‘dead ended’ inlets … 

Java rock chain with Sealions, seals and plenty of birds

... then the multitude of islands and islets – some just called ‘chains’ (reefs) … ie rocky formations just at or below sea level – boggled my mind.

Enhanced iphone photo

We did see in the distance – but c’est la vie: it was lovely to be out and to have the opportunity – a Biggs Killer Whale pod, a harbour porpoise being eaten I believe … as it was being tossed around … Steller Sea Lions, seals numerous, lots of birds, including common murres …

Spieden Island

… on Spieden Island fallow deer from Europe, Moufflon sheep from Corsica, Sika deer from Asia (Japan) remain after it was set up for sport hunting … now it is unoccupied, but the animals thrive and remain … until (I guess) inbreeding occurs.

All on board - rarin' to go ... 

As an after-thought – you may know James Jannard who owns Spieden … he started and owned Red Digital Camera – forty of which were used to film The Hobbit.

We cruised down at 55 kmph (28 – 30 knots) … I sat hunkered down letting my eyes drift across the gentle calm waters … over to the USA mainland, or westwards towards our British Columbian coast …  

I had lots of layers on ... 

It was a lovely excursion run by Ocean Ecoventures, who are passionate and dedicated, responsible for ethical whale watching and wildlife viewing. 

Spieden Island is marked

They are a small owner operated tour company, members of the Whale Watch Association while supporting local researchers and conservation efforts. 

It was delightful … and I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon out with them … so friendly – I did feel a bit like a teletubby – the only downside to the whole trip – but I was warm!

Ocean Ecoventures website and blog ... with some amazing photos

Here’s the Hobbit link to James Jannard and Red Digital …

Marine Mammal Research website 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories