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



Garden history ...

Renaissance Garden in Pieskowa Skała, Poland

Gardens ... now that Spring is springing, or Autumn autumning round the corner on the other side of the world ... and as my brain has been having a blip or two in its overwhelmed befuddled state ... I thought I’d write about some of Britain’s finest gardens that I pass on my trips to Cornwall ... but

... I will save those for another day .. because when I looked up Garden in Wikipedia .. I found an amazing array of garden pictures .. and thought these will be just fine and with a few short annotations will be a delight to look and wonder at.  (and yes I am doing the A - Z challenge .. so you will get short posts - surprisingly!)

Click here for more information on the A - Z Challenge



Plan of St Gall

 So saving my brain a little ... which is being stretched in other directions .. here goes, and for more information please just check back to Wikipedia. However I have to get the history bit in ... the etymology of the word refers to enclosure - from Middle English ‘gardin’, from Anglo-French jardin of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German 'gard', 'gart', an enclosure or compound, as in Stuttgart.

The words 'yard', 'court', and Latin 'hortus' (meaning garden, hence horticulture and orchard) are cognates – all referring to an open space. In Britain we refer to an enclosed area near a residential building as a ‘garden’, whereas in American English this would be referred to as a ‘yard’. Isn’t it interesting how the words travel?



Copy of the Plan

 So much for the short and saving my brain .. but well I enjoy it! This Plan of Saint Gall brings together the Latin ‘hortus conclusus’, with the word 'enclosure', 'garden' and 'yard' derivations we use today - as it is the only surviving major architectural drawing from the 700 year period since the fall of the Roman Empire to the 13th century (1200s).

The Plan depicts an entire Benedictine monastic compound including churches, houses, stables, kitchens, workshops, brewery, infirmary, and even a special house for bloodletting. However it appears never to have been built.

Despite those unknowns, much has been learned about medieval life from this architectural design. The absence of heating in the dining hall, for instance, may not have been an oversight but was meant to discourage excessive enjoyment of meals. In the quarters for the 120-150 monks, their guests, and visitors, the ratio of toilet seats was better than those which modern hygienic codes prescribe.


  

Cottage Garden

To me this Plan epitomises gardens as we know them today ... their history, their variety, their specialities and how all scholarly disciplines have drawn and will draw on them; having said that .... the ancient rulers of Egypt, Persia, Greece and Rome for over 4,000 years had their gardens ... then Byzantium and Moorish Spain kept garden traditions alive in Europe during this 700 year dearth of interest in gardens.

By this time a separate gardening eastern tradition had arisen in China, which was taken up in Japan, including miniature landscapes centred on ponds, and separately into the severe Zen gardens of temples.

 

 

A typical Italian garden at Villa Garzoni, Italy



The Italians rediscovered descriptions of antique Roman villas and gardens which led to the creation of a new form - the Italian Renaissance Garden; these designs were carried north into the rest of Europe, where they prevailed until the English style of landscape gardening took over.

 The predecessors of the landscape garden in England were the great parks such as those created by Sir John Vanbrugh (1664–1726) and Nicholas Hawksmoor at Castle Howard (1699–1712); Blenheim Palace (1705–1722), the Landscape Garden at Claremont House (1715–1727). These parks featured vast lawns, woods, and pieces of architecture, such as the classical mausoleum at Castle Howard.

The gardens of the great and the good continued to develop owing much to the Age of Exploration, while the spread of scientific knowledge gave us new species; specialist gardens came into being, such as botanical gardens .. along with new gardening specimens and wonders to behold.

Chatsworth - a grand English Garden

I’d like to give you a description of The Pleasure Gardens at Eglinton Castle, Scotland .... where you can really “see” the grounds as described in the 1840s:

“Its princely gates soon presented themselves and we thought we should easily find our way to Irvine through the park. It was a rich treat to wander in these extensive grounds. We soon made way through a handsome avenue to the gardens. The hot-houses for fruits and flowers are on a magnificent scale, and on reaching the parterre we were delighted with the elegance which pervaded it.



Movable stone blocks in the
old heated wall of the walled
garden, Eglinton

 A glassy river with a silvery cascade came gliding gently through these fairy regions, as though conscious of the luxuriant paradise which it was watering. Nor was the classic taste wanting, nor horticultural skill, to render this a region of enchantment. Two elegant cast-iron bridges, vases, statues, a sun-dial; these pretty combinations from the world of art could not fail to please the beholder.

Leaving these luxurious regions we again wandered among thick woods, and occasionally obtained glimpses of the proud castle, peering over the trees. At length we found our way to a seat beneath some noble weepers of the ash tribe, and here we had a fine view of the castle, towering majestically over the dense foliage.”

In the late 1700s and early 1800s some walled gardens would have one hollow side with openings into which a fire could be set, allowing the heat to spread along the wall protecting the fruit growing against it, while the additional heat would escape into the garden. Hot houses were being engineered.
 

Côté du dôme de la Roseraie du Val-de-Marne



Garden history moved with the population’s growth, the rise of the middle classes and then the factory workers as they had a little extra money to enjoy – we still get the magnificent gardens, that transformed themselves into commercial ventures, but cottage gardens came to the fore, the Arts and Craft Movement, at the end of the 1800s, brought further design and experimentation through wild gardens, colour plantings, cottage inspired borders ...

... all manner of gardens are to be found around the world .. which now include so many types: community, container, sustainable, sensory, raised, roof and living-wall gardens – where there’s a space plant in-fill can give us so much pleasure.



Farmers paint a picture of a water buffalo
using flowers at FuLi Town by the
Huatung Highway in Taiwan

 At the start of Spring and the wonders of the Summer to come .. enjoy your walks in the park, trips to country estates, strolls through the bluebell woods, tennis in between the herbaceous borders or rose gardens and your own little area of green wealth that bring our homes so much pleasure (and work!), through their abundance.



Here’s to all gardens ...





Checkered garden in Tours, France


Dear Mr Postman – my mother was an excellent gardener and still comes up with the Latin names for plants, loves having fresh flowers around, especially those with scent – but all flowers give of that freshness ... which cannot be captured through chemical essences. She will love the reference to the toilet spaces, and the bloodletting room ...



She always comments on Washington’s teeth, or lack of .. we’ve had some sad news which I’m working through with her –hence my hiatus in posting ... I’ll be back! Keep well ... here’s to Spring too!

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories



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

Cast of characters:

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

Settings:

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



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


Time frames (approximate):

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

Plays:

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

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

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

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

I now quote Siobhán:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Take The Space {Theatre Company}

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

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

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

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

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

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

Take the Space {Theatre Company} - website

Yvonne Arnaud Theatre - website

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

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

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

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

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

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

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

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

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



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



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


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

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

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

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


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


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


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

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

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

Let me know!!



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

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

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


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

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

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

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

For my other Okavango posts - Please use the search box


Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

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

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

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

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

English Wood Anemones

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

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

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

Ramsons' flowers

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

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

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

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

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

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

Animal Composite from Wikipedia

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

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

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

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

The Lesser Celandine

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

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

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

If this belief from heaven be sent,

If such be Nature's holy plan,

Have I not reason to lament

What man has made of man?


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

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

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

The Birds – my feathered friends ...

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

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

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

The Magpie by Monet, 1869

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

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

Leylandii foliage

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

Magpie in flight

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jackdaw

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

The Birds: Theatrical Release Poster 1963

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

Green Woodpecker (Yaffle!)

Jay

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2010 Post: Great British Garden BirdWatch

"JackDaw of Rheims" poem via Bartelby

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

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

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

February Creative ... that unusual month ...

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

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

February, from the Très riches heures du Duc de Berry

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

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

Bust of Caesar from the Naples National Archaeological Museum

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

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

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

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

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

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

Curly Kale

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

Viola odorata (type species)

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

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

Primrose

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pearls .. could be ice-drops

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

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

An oaked white wine from Stellenbosch produced from Chenin Blanc.

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

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


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

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories