Quotation of the Week (39/09)

Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.

Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

On the hill, in a glade...

"… and on the hill, in a glade, stands the tomb of the old king…"

This is another perspective of the same Neolithic cist as in yesterday's post For everything there is a season.

There is an old legend or folk tale connected to this place:

Once upon a time, there was a king who died in battle, after most of his men had deserted him and fled. The old king bled to death; and on the spot where he died, he was laid to rest in a cist of stone. But one day, in a time of need, the king will rise again, with his twelve warriors, and come back to help his people…

The tale bears a certain resemblance to the New Testament Gospel, doesn't it? And to the Celtic stories of King Arthur... about whom it has also been said that he will one day be back...

Wee look Back - and in spite of all, we also look Forward...

For everything there is a season

We've had a week of sunny early autumn here. The summer colours are fading out and autumn slowly creeping in. Flowers are withering and the trees have started dropping a few leaves, but the green is still dominating the picture. We've had chilly mornings, but sunny and warm afternoons - with lots of butterflies still fluttering about in the town parks! (see yesterday's post)

The sunny weather is probably coming to an end - it started to rain this afternoon. But just a couple of hours earlier, while the sun was still shining, my brother and I (and my brother's dog!) managed to 'squeeze in' a walk in the countryside and woods near where our dad lives. (And I had my camera with me!)

Between sunny walks, it has been a busy week with some "heavy" things to do. I finally got myself together to order the headstone for my mother's grave - one of those things I've kept putting off. I did that on Friday, still without having visited her grave since the funeral, which was over three months ago now. I can't get there by myself; and those short weekends that my brother has been here (at my dad's) in between, there have been a thousand things to do. (P has been to the grave but without me.) Today, however, we finally managed to fit that in as well.

Since mum's funeral in June, only one more grave has been added to that row, quite recently... There were lots of flowers, candles and a photograph at the temporary cross on that grave. It was a bit of a shock when we realized this must be the grave of a teenage girl whose tragic death was in the papers recently - she was murdered by a boy her own age (which really makes it a double tragedy).

Mum got to be 79. She is missed, and her death was kind of sudden, but not a tragedy: She had come to the end of her life. But that young girl's life was brutally taken from her, and much too soon... How her friends and family are dealing with that, I can't even begin to imagine!

 
On our walk later in the day, we passed a Neolithic cist tomb from c. 1800-1500 b.C. That again gives some perspective... It's been a strange day, with a lot of mixed feelings!
 
 

 

For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Butterfly Collection

Today I came across this butterfly.
At first glance from a distance, I thought it was...



... a Painted Lady - Cynthia cardui? But no...



... or a Small Tortoiseshell - Aglais urticae? But no...



... or a Peacock - Inachis io? But no...



... It was a Red Admiral - Vanessa atalanta!

I have learnt a lot this summer! :)
(All pictures my own and from 2009.)

Raven's Wordzzle Challenge #81

The Slumber Party Mystery
Chapter 29 – At the Grocery Store

Raven's Wordzzle Challenge #81:
dangerous, engine, sullenly, bespoke, evergreen, bauble, medicine, freight, destined, tinsel, carbon, feelers, outright, ballet, fizzing

The words this week were provided by Argent, and made me want to shout AAAAAAAAHRG...ENT… How am I supposed to fit baubles and tinsel into a story that is taking place in the heat of summer?! (LOL) This is what came into my head, and it's not moving my story forward AT ALL, but I do not have time to rethink, so here it is anyway:

At the store, Saturday morning, William was unloading a lot of goods that had arrived the previous afternoon and had been left outside over night. As expected, his boss, Mr Engine, generally known as just Mr E, was very angry about his late arrival back at the store last night, and did not even want to listen to William's explanation.

"You had better start unloading those fizzing sodas immediately," he said. "They're full of carbon something you know and might explode any moment if they're left out in the sun! It's outright dangerous, so just get on with it! And when you're done with that, you will have to clear a space at the back of the storage room for those boxes over there."

William had his inner feelers out; he knew that in this mood Mr E was not to be reasoned with, so he shut up, obeyed orders and "got on with it". Mr E, meanwhile, went into his office to make a phone call. William could hear him throught he glass door, yelling something about freight and a ship destined for Hell. Or at least that was what it sounded like.

The soda bottles safely inside, William went over to look at the rest of the goods. He was somewhat surprised to find three boxes marked "baubles", "tinsel" and "evergreen festoons". He looked through the window into the office again. Mr E had put the phone down, and was now taking a drink from a bottle of brown stuff. William recognized the bottle, Mr E kept it in a special cabinet and it was labelled "Universal Medicine". Mr E used it frequently. Sometimes it seemed to calm him down. Sometimes not.

William knocked very lightly on the door, got a grunting reply and stepped inside.

"Excuse me, sir," he said. "Those boxes with Christmas ornaments…?"

"Yes, yes, I know it's still summer!" said Mr E sullenly. "They are bespoke. By Mrs E, for the Christmas ballet. Last year we didn't get the stupid things until New Year, so this year she wanted to make sure! As I said – just clear some space and put them at the back!"

Photo Art Experiment

A photo art experiment in Jasc Paint Shop Pro 9.

Below is the original photo from which the picture
above was cropped and edited.




Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera),
a runaway garden plant, now growing wild,
by some regarded as weed.

Together Through Life (Bob Dylan)

For my birthday a while ago, my friends G&B sent me a gift certificate. I used it to buy Dylan's latest CD Together Through Life. I don't regret it! (Thank you, friends!)

I've liked Dylan since my mid teens, but only own a limited collection of his many albums. The first one I got was New Morning (1970); that one was among my first LPs so it got played a lot . The next one I got was Slow Train Coming (1979), and after that Saved (1980) and Shot of Love (1981). In the late 80's, there was quite a long time during which I only had a tape recorder. When I finally got a CD player, at some point in building up my CD collection I bought a Dylan Best of... (I also had my old LPs transferred to CD.) Then in 2006, I bought Modern Times, and it has been a favourite on my MP3 player since, especially when I'm out walking, because it has a great walking rhytm. My first impression of Together Through Life is that it has a lot in common with Modern Times - it is relaxed and playful and has the same kind of blues rhythm. An interesting addition to the instrumentation is the accordion. You can listen to snippets from the songs at http://bobdylan.com/. The lyrics are there, too. (I was a little disappointed that they were not included with the CD.)

The CD box I bought also included a bonus DVD included which I haven't watched yet, and the bonus CD Theme Time Radio Hour: Friends & Neighbours, with Dylan as host, playing other people's music. I had never heard of this radio show... I googled it just now (you who have got to know me a bit, will be adding "of course she did!"), and found there are lots more episodes available on the net...