Will we watch 101 Dalmatians when we’re 90 or when we’re 84 ... ?

This past week a milestone or two have been reached – my mother turned 90 and Pooh Bear turned 84, my god-daughter became 18 and passed her driving test this morning .. congratulations all round!

Pooh Corner, Hartfield, East Sussex

My mother’s emanuensis daughter did her stuff and wrote her positive letters and received back.. still counting 30+ cards and letters .. we take it slowly. It’s also been an interesting time .. as we’ve been taking part in Simon Hay’s Distant Healing – every day our time at 11.00am for an hour.

My mother and I are open to try things and having Janice as our therapist for three years now has also allowed me to explore and talk through aspects that are becoming more main-stream.

Theatrical release poster: 101 Dalmatians 1996 film

On Pooh’s 84th birthday .. Thursday 14th ... Mum and I shared a happy hour talking quietly, opening cards – it seemed a good time to do this and I felt sure Simon and his guides would understand. At the end .. my mother asked if we were going to do the healing and whether Simon would be around .. amazing that she remembers – isn’t it?!

She hasn’t been as awake since .. to talk and interact and enjoy the repartee of mother-daughter, while catching up on news from family and friends. If you’re like me .. Emanuensis rang no bells? .. and in fact, three years ago, I had to get my mother to spell it for me .. and then look it up! It means ‘a scribe’ .. Mum’s description .. “Hilary is my Emanuensis .. i.e. her Secretary, her dogsbody .. = the person who will do anything necessary!”. How true ...

Original Winnie the Pooh stuffed toys. Clockwise from bottom left: Tigger, Kanga, Edward Bear ("Winnie the Pooh"), Eeyore, and Piglet. Roo was lost long ago; the other characters were made up for the stories.

On Saturday afternoon when I went up .. she was not terribly awake – but I asked if she’d like to watch the 1996 Glenn Close version of 101 Dalamatians .. “Yes” ... so we did & what a success it was.

She was laughing before the ‘disaster’ took place, we had hoots of laughter and lots of smiles, staff beaming in happily .. all the way through the very visual film. She doesn’t listen to the words – but it was an excellent film .. so full of life, vibrancy of colour and with a happy ending – the baddies got their come uppance in so many ways and the couples their respective spouses .. with puppies by the score, and a baby or two.

Dalmatian noted for its white coat with either black or liver spots

Who couldn’t laugh at the black, white and red villainously dressed Cruella de Vil, the fashion maven with a long red cigarette holder permanently ensconced in her blood-red crimson lips clothed in ‘living’ fur; who ended up in an upturned haystack with a flatulating pig on top, then fell into a vat of molasses, only to be kicked into a pig pen by a horse. While the mischievous racoons caused other chaotic mayhems .. including pinching Cruella’s red hat and smirking with it before dashing off into the nether regions of the farm yard.

It’s a magical film .. that I watched with different eyes .. does blogging cause this – the creative spirit rising up ... the pups hiding under the herded sheep, the cows mooing echoingly through the night, the crow carrying messages across the dizzying distances, the woodpecker making sure the door gets opened ... knock, knock, knock ....

The frozen fields, snow covered England, paw marks in all directions, wonderful views of London as the pups get stolen .. the cries and barks of talking animals – keeping one step ahead of the maniacal Cruella as her car careers through the countryside to trace the puppies – for her next fur cape.

In Disney's 1996 live-action remake of the animated film, 101 Dalmatians, and its 2000 sequel, 102 Dalmatians, Cruella was played by Glenn Close.

It was wonderful sharing the film with my mother .. she did love it so – and it totally engaged her .. please don’t think we have racoons and skunks in this little island of ours .. there was a scripting error! But the coup d’etat was the skunk spraying heartily into Cruella’s muck strewn face in the police van ... stinky poo.

The box office success ($320 million) was given a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 40% ... perhaps they should blog and see things in a different light?!

So as we cannot celebrate with cake and champagne, nor any form of drink or food – we need to rely on ingenuity .. and letters .. 90 is a good age .. while a few changes have occurred in the intervening years ...

In 1920 Petrol cost 4.5p per litre; (4 shillings and half an old penny for a gallon) in the UK
In 2010 Petrol (unleaded) in the States costs $0.50 per litre; or $2.50 per Gallon; Here in the UK it is 81p = $1.54 per litre; £3.66 = $6.99 per gallon (count yourselves lucky, Statesiders?!)

In 1920 Digestive Biscuits per pack = 10 p (two shillings for a pound weight = 550gm)
In 2010 Digestive Biscuits per 500gm pack = 83p (just over $1.50)

One English (£) pound in 1920 .. would, in terms of purchasing power, be approximately £30 ($48) in today’s money!

London police started replacing horses with cars, and formed their first “Flying Squad”. Prohibition was introduced in the USA, but rejected in Scotland by pro-whisky supporters!

Pollyanna, starring Mary Pickford (right) and produced by her, was a top film in 1920, while Hercule Poirot made his debut in Agatha Christie’s “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”. Regular public radio broadcasts began in the UK and in the USA.

So all in all a busy time .. scented cyclamen purchased .. sitting in a galvanised rose ‘papered’ container, and an orange solanum full of tiny autumn coloured golden orbs .. lots more letter reading to do .. and to be re-read – providing many talking points in the future weeks.

Dear Mr Postman – another year .. a pretty good life .. still wishing to explore and see the world . which we do in the mind ... and have happy talks about .. (so she can still hear – thank goodness)

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Spaghetti anyone? Made in China .. or does it grow on trees?

Just one brief comment in The Earth’s Crust post by Jannie about the Chinese – “they invented spaghetti, I think”. well ... off I went and yes, to a point they did .. most of us I expect would have said ‘well - Italy’. But come on ... it grows on trees – as we all know ... doesn’t it?!

To add veracity to this statement the BBC in 1957 reported on its current affairs programme, Panorama, a tale of a family in Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from their trees. Well the BBC is renowned for its investigative journalism and it just simply had to be true. A picture appeared on the programme of a woman harvesting the sprouting spaghetti.

Spaghetti Harvest in Switzerland 1957 (above)

A Panorama cameraman had dreamt up the story after remembering how teachers at his school in Austria teased the class for being so stupid, telling them ... if they were told it ... they’d believe spaghetti grew on trees!

The BBC team agreed the spoof and a whole report was dreamt up around the bumper spaghetti harvest, the eradication of the spaghetti weevil, and an erudite discussion on the trees’ breeding programme to achieve spaghetti of perfect length!

Different types of pasta on display in a shop window

Hundreds of people contacted the switchboard and it completely dumbfounded the British public .. and many others .. as like a few of us .. we know it’s April Fool’s Day – but then we forget!

The Director-General of the BBC at the time is quoted as having said “When I saw that item, I said to my wife, ‘I don’t think spaghetti grows on trees’, so we’d looked it up in Encyclopaedia Britannica. Do you know – the Encyclopaedia didn’t even mention spaghetti!”

An amazing story .. but which well and truly hoaxed the world .. the CNN later calling it ‘the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment had ever pulled’. I can’t believe I took cognisance of it in 1957 .. but I do remember later on seeing the picture and thinking that can’t be true ....

So now was Spaghetti invented in China? Well not quite ... but as humans started exploring the huge continent of Asia from their Greek, Roman, Persian, Indian and European bases .. the explorers collected knowledge with which to enrich their masters back home.

It looks like Jannie, and no doubt many other North Americans, were taken in by the Macaroni Journal reprint of 1986, publishing an account of Marco Polo(1254 – 1324) importing pasta from China, with the goal of promoting pasta in the United Sates. Well it seems to have succeeded!

Marco Polo describes a food similar to the Latin word Laganum, which refers to a thin sheet of dough .. possibly heralding the use of the word lasagne, which we know so well today. While spaghetti is the plural form of the Italian word spaghetto, which is a diminutive of spago, meaning "thin string" or "twine".

Spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce

The truth .. as best it can be ascertained .. seems to be that many different cultures ate some sort of noodle-like food, composed mostly of grain, from as long ago as 4,000 years BC .. while today the cultures continue to adapt and adopt different ingredients to their spaghetti-noodle dishes.

When I found the Macaroni Journal and the Marco Polo legend, it referenced back to a wonderful article about pasta ...which is well worth a read for its evocativeness ... so I quote one passage – as I had no idea the Normans conquered as far south as Sicily – and this passage relays the fact that sightseeing and tourists were a part of life even then, with history being recorded in journals at the same time ...

Sicily at the toe of Italy ..

“In the twelfth century an Arab geographer, commissioned by the Norman king of Sicily to write a sort of travel book about the island, reported seeing pasta being made.

The geographer called it itriyah, from which seems to have come trii, which is still the word for spaghetti in some parts of Sicily and is also current in the name for a dish made all over Italy—ciceri e trii, pasta and chick-pea soup.

Making pasta; illustration from the 15th century edition of Tacuinum Sanitatis, a Latin translation of the Arabic work Taqwīm al-sihha by Ibn Butlan (the Tacuinum Sanitatis is a medieval handbook on wellness,("Maintenance of Health"), an eleventh-century Arab medical treatise.)

The soup reflects the original use for pasta, which was as an extender in soups and sometimes desserts. Serving pasta as a dish in itself with a bit of sauce does seem to be an Italian rather than a Greek, Persian, or Arab invention. (Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews, a wonderful book by Edda Servi Machlin, has delicious pasta recipes that show some of the many influences that the Arab world had on Italian food.)”

The article appears in the 1986 version of The Atlantic magazine (see below) (ex Macaroni Journal) .. and I’ve checked the book is still available – it looked so interesting.

So does spaghetti grow on trees? – no ... but it does provide a good story 50+ years on .... and was spaghetti made in China ... probably not ... but the peoples of this world seem to end up utilising their resources in much the same way ..

Boy with Spaghetti by Julius Moser, c. 1808

The ingredients vary .. but that wonderful mix of slurping spaghetti – be it with a fresh tomato olive oil rich sauce, a Genovese pine nut, basil and parmesan pesto, a Mediterranean herby based sauce, or the Bolognese loved by so many .. makes for a delicious meal at any time of the year.

Marinara sauce is an American-Italian term for a simple tomato sauce with herbs—mostly parsley and basil—but, contrary to its name (which is Italian for coastal, seafaring) without anchovies, fish or seafood. In other countries, marinara refers to a seafood and tomato sauce.

There’s sweet spaghetti too .. as evidenced in Mrs Beeton using a sweet custard, or the Arabic mixes of spices and fruits, SuZen of ErasingtheBored blog mentions serving Spaghetti squash to her kids, which I’ve only ever eaten as a vegetable, which as she describes it: They actually LIKED spaghetti squash once I added butter, raisins and a bit of cinnamon.

Liu Xiaobo - the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner

And one last small reference out of the Saturday Times yesterday – the journalist Jane Macartney in Beijing advises that she met Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese dissident, just awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, back in 1987 when he dined at her house.

She says he sat at the head of the table, battling with his stammer and a dish of Spaghetti Bolognese to ensure that every guest could hear his views on contemporary Chinese writing and the Cultural Revolution.

The piece in the Saturday Times 9 October 2010 is titled “China bloggers beat news ban as jailed dissident wins the Nobel Peace Prize” – unfortunately not free to read .. but here’s some more information on an interesting journalist, Jane Macartney.

Spaghetti Bolognese

So bloggers, people wishing to spread the word, and China’s youngest professor .. all of us eat spaghetti in some form or other .. with or without meatballs, with or without custard ... but we do like to get our stories, views and opinions over ...

Long may spaghetti grow on trees to amuse the future generations .. and long may food travel and evolve as much as it has ... as is evidenced from the original Macaroni Journal article in 1929.

The Atlantic Magazine - Pasta article

Dear Mr Postman .. my mother has been enjoying the Commonwealth Games so we’ve been spending quite a bit of time together, which is good. We’re having incredibly balmy weather at the moment .. it is really lovely being outside ..

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Guest Posting today over at Marketing Tips for Authors

Hi Everyone - I hope you'll join me over at Tony's site :

Marketing Tips for Authors

Tony Eldridge author of the action/adventure book, The Samson Effect, that Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." He also shares his book marketing tips with fellow authors through his blog and through his free weekly video marketing tips for authors.

Over there I tell my story of how and why I got started and how the blog has developed.

Come on over and meet Tony and join in the fun of sharing with us your starting experiences ..

Thanks in advance for your support – in my role as a Guest at Marketing Tips ..

The Palm House at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, an area in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in South West London. The institution has the world's largest collection of living plants (over 30,000) as well as the world's largest herbarium (over7 million specimens). Wikipedia picture of today.

Dear Mr Postman - my mother's hearing remains and all seems well - we've been watching a little of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India and watched one of the World Championship Cycling Races in Melbourne, Australia - she loved the views of the waterfront and the city!

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

This Earth’s Crust ... its waste, but yet its offerings ...

Humans have evolved, we have always been nosey, inventive creatures ... able to take advantage of our natural environment – the earth’s crust – perhaps to our cost now ... but the elements and ancient humans helped shaped this world of ours as it is today.
We found mineral rich ores from which we were able to fashion simple tools that became the foundation of civilisation; we had tapped into river systems and were controlling the water supplies to feed and create early cities; we explored and were able to track the winds and work out that they had a circular motion .. returning us whence we came – creating trade routes.

On the Yellow River, Xunhua Province (further west than Shanxi Province highlighted below)

Plants and animals in their wasted state became coal and oil, our technological exploitations go on ... our processing abilities continue – the brain amazes ... will co-operation bring the next huge leap forward?


The ancient civilisations of China had settled, expanded, acquired huge reserves of knowledge, and most importantly had the capabilities of feeding their large populations from the wind deposited loess rich soils of inland China (the site of the Terracotta Army) ...


Shanxi Province

.... but were far too early to take advantage of the engineering, scientific and industrial revolutions of the 18th century, while the huge continent did not and still does not lend itself to easy transportation routes – even the rivers are so vast, flowing through high gorges, full of enormous rapids, liable to flooding the lower reaches which makes security of shipping goods nigh impossible.

The elements – earth, wind, fire and water – continue to wreak havoc interrupting at times our progression, yet continue to provide new materials and resources that we learn to utilise.


Some thoughts on some minerals and how we have taken advantage of them over the centuries ... as symbols of power in carvings, the Chinese and Mayans with their jade figurines and masks, Byzantine use of Lapis Lazuli in their churches and palaces as cladding of all things!



A polished specimen of Lapis Lazuli

Muscovite, a silicate mineral, produces large transparent crystals which were once used as window panes in Moscow: hence its name! That supply came from Norway, while material from India is still used in furnace doors, where normal glass would melt – presumably as in wood burning stoves, that we so love here in England.

Silicon – we know makes chips ... zillions of them – not of potato, but from the second most abundant mineral in the earth’s crust – powering or controlling just about everything we do.



Integrated circuit of Atmel Diopsis 740System on Chip showing memory blocks, logic and input/output pads around the periphery

Silica, usually in the form of quartz is the most common constituent of sand; however quartz rocks have been known for millennia – the Roman naturalist, Pliny the Elder, believed quartz to be water ice – permanently frozen in time – hence the word crystal from the Greek word for ice.


Fatimid carved rock crystal (clear quartz) vase, c. 1000

Galena, the main ore of lead, was better known in Cleopatra’s day (3,500 BC) as eye kohl; two thousand years ago the Romans utilised the by-product of silver smelting – lead for their waterworks, and copper; now the by-products include zinc, antimony etc as well as bismuth, whose commercial importance is now being recognised as an alloy replacement for lead, eliminating its toxicity.



Lead pipes - set amongst well trodden Roman pavements

Copper – perhaps is the ‘all metal’ .. we know many of its uses over time – early tools, pots, conductive piping and money; it is 100% recyclable, probably 80% of all copper mined is still in use today. Now it is even used for door knobs in hospitals, because of its antibacterial/germicidal properties.. while copper tubing is used in air conditioning systems to deter the spread of Legionnaires’ disease.


Copper is essential for all plants and animals being distributed widely in the body – in liver, muscle and bone; rich sources of copper are to be found in oysters, beef or lamb liver, Brazil nuts, cocoa and black pepper (of all things!).


Steel too has been known for millennia, arising as a by-product of smelting iron (when carbon is produced) – the most common element in the earth and the fourth most common in the earth’s crust – ancient steel excavations date from 4,000 years ago in Asia Minor and East Africa; the Romans extensively used steel, as did the Chinese over 2,000 years ago.

These old world base metals are now being usurped in the race for supremacy by the search for free elements and rare-earth metals – essential to our modern life for their use in magnets, lasers, xrays, computer memories, telephony etc


The cycle goes round, China the cradle of ancient dynasties, finds itself once again with the wealth in its interior and despite being technologically advanced, its infrastructure simply cannot keep up with the breakneck growth that is going on.

Traffic jams, monstrous gridlocks, and snarl ups are commonplace – jams as long as 60 miles, lasting nine days ... the coal from Inner Mongolia is desperately needed, transported by trucks to fuel its energy needs ... entrepreneurial street vendors take advantage by setting up shop with the basic commodities of human consumption .. no change there then.



This photo of 'Björkskär', the main island, comprising a group of islands in Stockholm outer archipelago, where rare-earth metals were first found in Ytterby village quarry.

If it flies or you talk into it - it has rare-earth metals ... and China for now keeps a steely grip on the market ... by undercutting the competition in Africa, America and elsewhere; market forces however now play their part and have precipitated a rash of proposed mining and processing operations outside China, on the realisation of the enormous hike in market prices and that complacency cannot reign whatever the cost for these essential minerals.

However – is the earth moving in China? Will the closed society of today be more embracing to the rest of world in the future .. will the fact that the People’s Republic of China have embraced the Linux free and open source software ... prelude new beginnings?

What else has this wonderful earth and its crusty outside have to offer us ... more wonders to behold – more hidden secrets to find.



Dear Mr Postman - my mother has been completely awake – we’ve talked about conkers and playing conkers as children (we had a few conker trees in the garden) Warwick Castle, and Alfred the Great and his times .. with a little patience and clear diction .. she participates and asks questions – she continues to amaze us all! Long may it last – particularly her hearing – life is just so much easier and pleasurable.

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

B is for Barbara, A is for Apple, B is for Blogging without a Blog ...

How do you blog without one? This maid from Bend, for some of us the apple of our blogging eye – our aperture to the blogging fraternity .. gives us some pertinent information she has uncovered, then poses some questions and waits for her blogging community to respond, enhancing this Blog without a Blog!

I notice that Barbara started in 2007 and this blog began to evolve as is by the end of that year – that would make sense, Barbara is not one to rest on her laurels ... she’s an entrepreneur .. out there searching new paths forward in this technical journey that we’re all on.

I met Barbara 18 months ago and was, as most of us are, spell bound by her knowledge, humbleness in asking us questions, and her simple approach to giving us her lessons .. long may it continue.

Blossoms, fruits, and leaves of the apple tree (Malus domestica)

I’ve just been over to read her About page – where she is just as succinct and down to earth about her blog, describing it: “It’s my blog, but it’s all about YOU”. How true her words are .. bloggers, who comment and communicate here, are her community (YOU).

The apple of our blogging eye ... an apple a day keeps the doctor away, the patron saint of throats is Barbara! - while a visit to Barbara’s blog a day keeps us up to date via her posts and the interaction she’s engendered with her blogging friends.

Apples, as all plants, have many component parts that start small, grow and flourish. Barbara, is no different, she now has branches – the Blog Registry, where we can register our blogs; - the Blog Boutique - where we can get free headers; she’s true to her word and offers to help us;

... and now she’s starting a new project .. Writers’Blogk .. so she’s forward thinking too – trying and testing new ideas .. with us her community. We will nurture our apple tree – we need to be healthy .. Barbara will help us to be wiser and no doubt in due time wealthier too ... as the Blogging Without a Blog community will encourage everyone within – the support is incredible.

So this lady from Bend in Oregon .. you know me – I had to have a look see where Bend is and find out a little more .. it’s central Oregon’s largest city, being located on the eastern edge of the Cascade range along the Deschutes River. I love the description of its setting – can you smell the pine, the gin?!, the herbs?:

Here the Ponderosa Pine forest transitions into the Great Basin high desert plateau, characterized by arid land, junipers, sagebrush and bitter brush. Originally a crossing point on the river; settlement began in the early 1900s, with incorporation into a city in 1905 (no change in growth spurt here then!).

Above: Drake Park in Autumn - in the city

Left: Newberry National Volcanic Monument .. Newberry Caldera (just south of Bend)

Economically it started as a logging town, but is now identified as a gateway for many outdoor sports, including mountain biking, fishing, hiking, camping, rock climbing, white-water rafting, skiing and golf ... sounds like a great place to visit – hope you’ve got some spare rooms Barbara? – another opportunity Bed and Breakfast?!

And I know Barbara loves cooking – it helps her unwind as she cooks up treats for her family and friends .. and it’s the time of year for apples – those British immigrants brought across apple trees and their love of apple pie – a stalwart of many a family get together. Baked apples are a favourite of mine .. cored, filled with currants or dried fruit, a little honey and water, or brown sugar sprinkled down the hole and some butter .. baked til bursting with flavour and juice.

Or how about apple mash .. I thought this was rather a good idea and would go well with a pork dish, or a Breton ham and bean dish .. adding the flavour of the boiled apple to the buttery mash; I guess potato and fried onion cakes with apple in would make a distinctive change.

That magical of all fruits that has stood the test of time, travelled far and wide, spreading pips and creating new growth across the world .. as does Barbara with her community – America, Canada, Panama, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and many others I’m sure ..

So the ABCs for today’s lesson are A for apple to keep you healthy, B for Barbara from Bend and her Blog, and C for community .. for us, who benefit and support each other so much ... thank you from HMB!

Barbara, I particularly thank you – your teaching has been exemplary, your care of us, your friends, is wonderful to behold, you give real value and we all continue to learn from you .. while two members of the Community – Patricia and Davina .. I salute you for putting this idea forward .. Patricia from Patricia’s Wisdom instigating it, and Davina from Shades of Crimson for supporting her .. and then bringing this motley bunch of bloggers to share in the cake: enjoy the day!

A for Award ... B for the Blog .... C for the Classroom ....& ABC for brilliant and fun – it’ll be so interesting to read everyone’s posts ...

Blog Registry – the free blog registry: http://freeblogregistry.com/
Writers’Blogk – the post: http://bloggingwithoutablog.com/help-me-help-you/
The Blog Boutique: Website http://theblogboutique.com/

Dear Mr Postman - we go on here – all is much the same and the weather is being kind – an Indian Summer ..

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Spreading the idea, hearing the words, seeing the movement .. the power of video ...

Bloggers, Authors, Writers, Creators, Innovators, Entrepreneurs .. wherever you are this is your future .... thank goodness for thinkers and developers and researchers and Chris Anderson and Seth Godin .. I know – lots of “ands” ... but this you need to see ....

Seth Godin’s latest blog post is entitled “Beyond Crowdsourcing” where he advocates one of the latest global TED talks, given by Chris, who is the present curator of the TED talks ... which I know most of us will be aware of and have probably listened to at least one or two of the presentations.

Chris Anderson - TED curator

I thought I’d just have a brief sit, start watching the video Seth suggested and think I’ll come back sometime – but NO .. this riveted me to the screen .... so much so this is my post today – I encourage you to watch it – 18 minutes.

All of you are creators, designers of your life, dreamers, wanderers .... here is the future for us, wherever we are in the world, we can create an idea and get it to spread .. this video should change your thinking .... should it not?

I was first introduced the idea of micro-finance through a video in the early 1980s on the Grameen Bank, the concept of people helping themselves is spreading .. and we now have Kiva and many others - I'm sure you'll visualise the possibilities of these sorts of thinking ...

Here we see the power of video, the power of people, the power of crowds .. that little sprinkling from the clouds, that can spread and grow into a storm .. as Seth says “His video will be seen by more than a million people by the end of the week” .. not possible with the publication of a book – is it?!

We’ve had the printing press, we’ve had reference books, almanacs, encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases and many many others .... we were into audio ... but now video will be the 'king of the castle' .. if one video will be seen by one million people within a week .. what ideas can be spread through the power of openness and as Chris calls his talk “Crowd Accelerated Innovation" ....

Please watch the video – and come back and comment .. or vice versa! .. but let’s add to the numbers viewing of this amazing piece of history ... let me know what you think .....


TED Video: Chris Anderson - Crowd Accelerated Innovation

(the actual video link in case the one above is broken and you want to copy and paste: http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_anderson_how_web_video_powers_global_innovation.html )

Seth Godin Blog Post: Beyond Crowdsourcing

Chris Anderson was a former computer journalist and magazine publisher – see Wiki for his interesting brief bio.


Dear Mr Postman - my mother seems comfortable and continues to hear, though hasn’t been awake sufficiently to have a conversation. The weather is still reasonable – but we can feel it drawing in ..

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Misalliance ... to veer to the left, or to veer to the right?!

Fragrant Honeysuckle and the convolvulating Bindweed - an unlikely pair as you’ll ever meet have been immortalised in the Flanders and Swann song “Misalliance” – a fascinating societal tale of life .. so true, so sad. Did you know the honeysuckle spirals clockwise towards the sun, while the twisty bindweed climbs counter clockwise – no, nor did I.

Honeysuckle - photo c/o Peter Wuebker - gallery here (of Betsy and Peter - Passing Thru fame)

On reading the words who could not be touched by them?

Said the right-handed honeysuckle to the left-handed bindweed
“Oh, let us get married, if our parents don’t mind, we’d
Be loving and inseparable, inextricably entwined, we’d
Live happily ever after” said the honeysuckle to the bindweed.
It goes on:

To the honeysuckle’s parents it came as a shock.
“The bindweed,” they cried, “are inferior stock!
They’re uncultivated, of breeding bereft,
We twine to the right and they twine to the left”

You can imagine the misalliance in the tale .. but what powerful words describing the story .. I loved it when I heard it last weekend.

Field or Lesser bindweed

The word misalliance seemed a good word to describe some other plants and their unlikely destinations in life .. a seed planted by a three year old that can shoot to over 23 feet in a year and turn into a beautiful sunflower .. would the best way to view this - be with a spiral staircase – the tot would be overawed otherwise?

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) was the first to record in his botanical studies that heliotropic flowers track the sun’s motion across the sky – this picture shows the incredible detail of the sunflower’s inflorescence, with the florets in spirals of 34 and 55 around the outside - there’s a Fibonacci link here – but another day.

The sunflower's inflorescence
We know that the sunflower is an ancient plant from central America, probably spreading into the rest of the continent 4,500 years ago, but now is a global and valuable food resource .. but did you know that they can be used to extract toxic ingredients from the soil, such as lead, arsenic and uranium – after Chernobyl they were used to remove cesium-137 and strontium-90 from a nearby pond.

Another Mexican plant, imported for its ornamental value – the Agave .. also surprises us .. a Cornish couple went away for a few weeks and returned to find a towering flower spike .. the sad thing is .. the plant after many years puts all its energy into the flowering – then poof .. that’s it – it dies. No wonder it’s also known as the Century plant flowering only once after decades of dormancy.

Agave too has many uses .. it is an alternative to sugar, with the sap being known by the name ‘aguamiel’ (honey water) .. while didgeridoos can be made from the dried out stalks. In pre-Columbian Mexico, agave was used to make rope, matting, pens, nails and needles, as well as thread to sew or weave with.

Agave at Cape Sounion, Attica, Greece

Didgeridoos, that incredible wind instrument developed by the northern Indigenous Australians, apparently have another use – which I think is worth mentioning, while obviously needing to be investigated, is that by learning to play one - using the circular breathing technique, this may help people reduce their snoring and sleep apnea through the strengthening of their muscles in the upper airway.

Top: Traditionally crafted & decorated

Middle: Bamboo souvenir didgeridoo

Bottom: Traditionally crafted & undecorated

Now the Karvy .. which only takes a decade or so for the bloom cycle to happen – is to be found along the western coast of India – but when it blossoms .. oh! it blossoms .. covering many a forest area with a colourful veil. A veritable feast for the eyes as well as the ears ... just sitting quietly surrounded in a haze of purple .. with numerous species of butterflies, bees, and other insects buzzing around – what joy: to look at and listen to.

Even after the month of flowering .. the forest is still alive with the pop, pop, pop of the seed heads bursting forth and spreading their bounty over the forest floor. Here again the Karvy has its uses for us humans .. the juice from the flower is used for medicinal purposes while the stems can be used for thatched buildings.

The Monsoon brings the plant to life, turning it green, once the rainy season is over, all that is left is the dry and dead-looking stems – the pattern repeats for seven or so years, and then in the eighth, or when ready, it bursts into a mass flowering. Bees flock to the honey-soaked flowers, that’s when the honey hunters appear to track the bees down for their thick, dark bounty.

Karvy

Honeysuckle, bindweed, sunflowers, agave and karvy – what an odd collection of plants all with extraordinary characteristics .. who would have thought that humans would have spread across the world making use of every possible part of each plant or learning from the visiting fauna ...

... and now we keep finding new uses for these inspiring plants, which feed our pollinators of life – bees, butterflies, moths, wasps, flies, bats, birds, beetles and even midges, let alone thrips and ants .. all thrive ...

or as in “Misalliance” a political allegory concerning a love affair between a honeysuckle and a bindweed .. to amuse us, to teach us .. or as here gently to entertain us

Together, they found them, the very next day
They had pulled up their roots and just shrivelled away.
Deprived of that freedom for which we must fight,
To veer to the left or to veer to the right!
Flanders & Swann singing the song “Misalliance” via You Tube (4 mins)
The Flanders and Swann lyrics can be found here at "Just Some Lyrics"

Another post you might enjoy: Plants as Metal Gatherers

See Wiki for paragraph about circular breathing, sleep disorders and apnea, within the Didgeridoo page

Dear Mr Postman – the weather has turned autumnal ... and I’ve been busy – apart from my own move, my mother has had to move back upstairs .. so yet another upheaval – but surprise, surprise .. she can hear again! Wonderful news .. as I said to her – “well at least I can talk to you again and we can have a conversation .. that’s a good thing” – to which my Mama replied “Is it?” .. but with a big smile! It’s the luck of the drawer whether she’s awake or not – but the staff seem to be enjoying her chatty times!
Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories