Owner: anno domini URL:annodomini21.blogspot.com Join Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 16:19:07 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: I live in a small northern town on the fringes of the English Lake District. This is a miscellany of thoughts, observations, memoirs etc. and anything else that occurs to me Site statistics:Click here
A Dog's Life 2007-03-07 09:25:00 A Cottage by the Sea - 2. 'A dog's life'We are cycling hell-for-leather down a country road. Energetically. Not the usual slow meander. But as though our lives depended on it. My mother, my sister, a couple of our friends and me. We don’t speak. Our heads are down. We grip the handlebars tightly with grim determination.We do not notice the scenery. But we are aware we are riding along strange roads which we have never seen before. Alien villages are passed through without us even noting their names. The buildings look different, almost sinister; the road cold and hostile. The sky is overcast, although it is quite warm. Subdued. To match our mood. Bru and meBruno (also known as Bru or Bruey) was our only pet dog. Afterwards we had a string of border collies, but they were working dogs. (although they inevitably came to be treated as members of the household) But Bru was our childhood pet - our very own. Bru was a little character. My mother would open the door for him in the mornin
Change of Address 2007-03-05 23:40:00 I have changed my address to one more in keeping with the name of my blog.Hope you have found me!Regards,anno domini Read more:Change
, Address
Borough Market, Southwark 2007-03-04 12:37:00 Visited BoroughMarket
in Southwark, London last weekend. The medieval market was originally a wholesale fruit and vegetable outlet, and moved to its present site beneath the railway tracks in 1756. Now it sells gourmet foods from all over Britian and Europe.Let them eat cakeCheeses piled high.I read recently that the more brightly coloured fruit and vegetables were full of antioxidents. This seems a good place to start shopping for your healthy diet.
Famous for fifteen minutes 2007-02-26 17:08:00 Ah, the fleeting nature of fame!Spotted this in Tower Bridge Road, London at the weekend. (I could have done without the American spelling of 'cancelled' - but perhaps I'm too fussy!) Read more:Famous
, minutes
Help - I've been tagged! 2007-02-20 21:43:00 I’ve been tagged by Jonathan to choose my favourite French films. Help! I can’t really remember any, as I’m not really a film buff; I’m happy to watch a film once, and that’s that. As for French films - well I remember the usual stuff, ‘Jean de Florette’, 'The Red Balloon ' etc.However, one I particularly remember is ‘Blanche’ : this was directed by a Pole, Walerian Borowczyk, (1971) but I suppose it counts as it was filmed in French, in France. It was an atmospheric tale set in a 13th century court, where the King’s young wife was seduced by the wrong man. The outcome was pretty savage; her lover being drawn behind horses until he was a ‘bleeding piece of earth’ and Blanche herself suffering the dreadful fate of being bricked up. So not what you’d call a jolly film! But it was filmed beautifully; slowly, the camera allowed to linger. The period setting was meticulously realized, and the music, played on original instruments was authentic and moving. I like
Spot the Dog 2007-02-20 14:43:00 As though to prove its rural credentials, where other publications might run a ‘Spot the Ball’ competition (which for those unfamiliar with the idea is a photograph of a football game where the ball has been removed; the competitors have to gauge from the position and the demeanour of the players, where the ball is likely to be) our local newspaper, the Westmorland Gazette runs a weekly ‘Spot the Dog’ competition.Here we have a rural scene of a sheepdog herding a flock of sheep - and yes, the dog has been removed from the photo.the competitors mark with a cross the place where they estimate the dog should be. It is actually quite good fun. A knowledge of the behaviour of sheep is an advantage.This week's competition photo is at the top of this page; go on, have a go - spot the dog!Here is the newspaper’s cartoonist Colin Shelbourn’s spin on the topic:8 August 2003Major national news: Britain has a hot summer.Even the Lake District gets a bit hot. Due to the weather,this w
A Cottage by the Sea 2007-02-06 17:53:00 A Cottage by the Sea. 1. '3 The Hill'Some time in the late 1940s my Grandfather bought a small cottage at the seaside. It was in a long, straggling, faded village called Allonby on the Solway coast. The village had been a popular bathing resort in the Victorian era and still had some elegant building, one known as The Baths, and a Reading Room donated by the local Quakers. Charles Dickens and his friend Wilkie Collins visited the village in the1850s when they were touring, ostensibly researching for their joint story ‘The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices’ (which eventually appeared in 5 parts in Household Words in 1857)Their characters arrive at the village:' 'A watering-place,' retorted Thomas Idle, with the pardonable sharpness of an invalid, 'can't be five gentlemen in straw hats, on a form on one side of a door, and four ladies in hats and falls, on a form on another side of a door, and three geese in a dirty little brook before them, and a boy's legs hanging over a br
A Winter's Day 2007-01-28 23:05:00 Withering and keen the winter comesWhile comfort flyes to close shut roomsAnd sees the snow in feathers pass Winnowing by the window glass...from 'The Shepherd's Calendar' John ClareBut Winter hasn't really come, or at least it paid a fleeting visit last Monday but declined to stay.I took these pictures of snow over Ambleside, just to prove to myself that we have managed a couple of wintry days, so far.
Off by heart 2007-01-17 23:11:00 Scenes from Boarding School Life - 4Is this a dagger which I see before me,The handle toward my hand? Come let me clutch thee:I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.Art thou not, fatal vision, sensibleTo feeling as to sight? or art thou butA dagger of the mind, a false creation,Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?I see thee yet in form as palpableAs this which now I drawAt school we had a system of black-marks (called ‘untidies’) which were meted out by senior girls who inspected common-rooms and cloakrooms daily just before tea. At the end of tea a senior would read out the list of miscreants - and their misdemeanours: a scarf left on the cloakroom floor, a writing-case left on the common-room table, a hockey-boot - not put away in a cloakroom locker.These were to be reported to Group-leaders next lunchtime. (we had Groups rather than Houses - they had the embarrassingly twee names, Balmoral, Buckingham, Sandringham and Windsor.)I usually managed two or three Untidies each
Post-Christmas Slump, or 'The cure for this ill' 2007-01-12 17:37:00 This is the time of year when I unaccountably slide downwards into a mildly negative mood. Perhaps it is because the (excessive) purposefulness of Christmas
preparations has gone, and there is nothing yet to replace it. This morning was overcast, dull, windy, drizzly and utterly gloomy weather-wise. Could I stand going into town - again? During this nothing-will-please-me-today-no-matter-what mood, the several usually pleasant routes into town all seemed uninviting.What was needed was Action!‘The cure for this illis not to sit stillOr frowst with a book by the fire;But to take a large hoeAnd a shovel alsoAnd dig till you gently perspire’(not Kipling’s best - but nevertheless wise advice)In this weather, digging was not an option, so we decided on a vigorous walk. We drove the 9 miles to Windermere, and parked in the village of Bowness. This is perhaps more a small town than a village and in the Summer it can be as crowded as Blackpool. Nevertheless, its situation reminds me faint Read more:Slump
Hallowe'en 2006-10-31 10:10:00 Scenes from Boarding School Life - 3One day in the Autumn term, some of us rebelled during a hockey practice at the freezing cold Bottom Pitch. . For some reason, after shivering for half an hour doing dull little exercises, practising bullying off in pairs, etc. someone suggested we should protest by marching around the edge of the pitch . We were generally fairly well-behaved, but somehow I was seduced by the excitement of it, and egged on by others, I joined the protest. We held our hockey-sticks over our shoulders like rifles, and marched round singing ‘When the saints go marching in’. Eventually, the teacher shouted to us loudly enough, and we stopped. I felt rather sheepish at the time.Later that afternoon we were summoned to the head mistresses’ study (in Victorian fashion we had two headmistresses, known by us as B. & G - the initials of their surnames)‘Because of your disgraceful behaviour, when the others go up to the Hall tonight, you will remain in your Common-room.
Rabbit Pie? 2006-10-22 21:19:00 I’ve just come across this postcard, which I bought some years ago in the market at La BauleThe caption says she is a ‘Jeune Fille de Quimperle’But it is the rear of the PC which fascinates me. It was posted in Pont-Croix, Finisterre in Brittany on 25th February 1906As you can probably make out, it is addressed to Madame Vailhen at 3 place de la Republique, Nantes, and a rough translation is:Saturday evening.I’m putting a rabbit on the train to gare d’Orleans. I think you’ll have it by Monday. Ant. [Antoine, Antoinette?] will be able to collect it. It is wrapped length-ways in 2 cloths.Kind regards to Rue St. Jacques. Kisses [?] to the place de la Republique. L.I love reading old letters and postcards - trying to get a feel for the past and to envisage the writers and recipients. What were these people’s lives like, and what became of them.Who was L., I wonder, and was Madame Vailhen pleased with the gift? (and was it fresh when she took delivery of it!) Did she enjoy her Read more:Rabbit
Spot the Boffin 2006-10-20 20:32:00 Scenes from Boarding School Life - 2I was reminded by the News that 17th October was the 50th anniversary of the opening of Britain’s first Nuclear Power Station at Calder Hall in Cumbria (or Cumberland as it was then)I was there! (Ooops, what a giveaway!) Sorry, can’t find the photo (anyway, it shows just a sea of school hats and a tiny Queen in the background - all in glorious black and white) The whole school attended the event; I believe we actually went in coaches - a rare novelty (is that tautology?) as we would often traipse along the Cinder Track on Sunday walks, from the village almost to the boundary wire of the power station (known to us just as 'Sellafield')We didn't have as good a view as this! Opening of Calder Hall 1956It was the school's misfortune that the power station was built virtually on its doorstep - well, about a mile away further up the coast. This was to have a detrimental effect on school numbers, and a nuclear accident in 1957 hastened the school
One Day in History? 2006-10-17 16:29:00 The National Trust (together with 'History
Matters') has invited us each to write a 'One Day
in History' Blog - the idea being to build a picture of an 'ordinary day' for the national record. Have a go here: www.historymatters.org.uk/output/page96.aspWhy does this happen on the most boring day for months? I don't imagine they would want entries that are this ordinary: Went to town. Had Coffee. Tried to buy some Christmas gifts (must get them early to catch the ‘last posting date’ for surface mail to the USA). Failed .Tried to persuade myself to start clearing up the garden ready for winter. Failed .Intended to screw up my courage to plan menus for impending visit of step-son, wife & 3 children. Failed .Cleaned our bedroom. Succeeded at that, anywayAttempted to write a contribution to the ‘One Day in History Blog’. Failed .Do these people really want to know the embarrassing truth about my day? Now, if The Day were to be tomorrow, well that could be a different matter all
Not Walking in the Lake District - a heretic's tale 2006-10-14 16:01:00 I was brought to believe that Walking
in the Lake District
was the thing to do, it was almost a tenet of faith in and around Carlisle. Most of the people in our small social circle Walked. The capital letter is deliberate - this was not just a casual stroll to the local post-office, this was a fully kitted out walk involving rucksacks, heavy boots (or stout shoes at least) , waterproofs, animal-wool (to prevent blistered heels) Kendal Mint Cake - to keep the children’s spirits up - sandwiches wrapped in greaseproof paper and a thermos flask of something or other, and either a Baddeley guidebook or a Bartholomew’s Half Inch Map of the area.As young women, my mother and her friends (clad in the tweed skirts that were thought appropriate then) had regularly taken the Fellwalkers’ Bus which operated from Carlisle each Saturday (one week to Seatoller, the next week to Keswick) which would drop off the walkers and pick them up again at say, 6pm.A few years on and my parents would go of
Sods' Lawn 2006-10-10 10:25:00 Because of rain you are unable to mow the lawn . You go away for several days. It rains heavily while you are away, and the grass shoots up.You get back. The lawn already resembles a young hay field , but you can’t cut it because of course you have several more days of rain The grass ripples like a field of corn.At last a dry day dawns. You clatter through the garage, down the steps and into the back garden carrying the mower awkwardly and trying not to trip over yourself. You unwind the lead taking several minutes to untangle the mischievous knots which have appeared, even though you wound the thing so carefully last time you put it away.Same thing with the extension lead. Then you plug the mower lead into the extension lead, and clamber up the steps to thread it through the utility-room window to plug it in, (so that you can close the door on it to keep out next-doors’ cat.) You fiddle around plugging in and testing the circuit-breaker. Right - ready to go.Nothing. Only a small b
Nostalgia 2006-10-06 20:23:00 There was a time when meadow, grove and stream,The earth, and every common sight,To me did seemApparell’d in celestial light,The glory and the freshness of a dream.It is not now as it hath been of yore: -Turn wheresoe’er I may,By night or day,The things which I have seen I now can see no more(Wordsworth)nostalgia - noun from the Greek : nostos return [home] + algos pain so: a longing to return to a place or timePrompted by a visit from a former boyfriend, (together with his wife and family) I began to consider the nature of nostalgia. (The ‘boyfriend’ of course was no more a boy than I am a girl, it being 30 years since we last saw each other, and I’m afraid I find him as irritating now as I did at the end of our relationship!) But it brought back many nostalgic feelings from my life in London, where I worked at that time as a Housekeeper at a District Nurses’ Home round the corner from the British Museum. I still look on the Bloomsbury area as ‘my London’.Surrounded a
A Visit to Bath 2006-10-03 23:11:00 Shopfront in Bath, Somerset I've been away for 5 days to Somerset, so haven't had time to post my blog, so here are some photos:ITV crew filming Jane Austen's 'Persuasion' at the Pump Room:.Two views of the Roman BathsThe Royal Crescent
'The Best Days of your Life?' 2006-09-28 20:22:00 ‘And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel,And shining morning face, creeping like snailUnwillingly to school.’Shakespeare - ‘Seven ages of man’Scenes from Boarding School Life -1I didn’t have far to ‘creep’ as I was at a girls’ boarding school on a fairly bleak stretch of the Cumberland coast. I hurried down the stairs on my first morning in this strange new place, to find my trunk and start my unpacking. (For our first night we brought just an overnight case). I was accosted by girl with a pinched eager face, and a sleek dark Richard the Third haircut. ‘Ah,’ she said, giving me a searching look, ‘a new girl, eh? What’s your name’. I told her.. ‘Mmmmm’, she considered, her head on one side.Then she nodded decisively. ‘We’ll call you ‘Pug’’. I shrank . ‘Because you look like one’.She turned and joined her group of fellow dog-spotters.I had never really thought about my looks, and it had certainly never occurred to me that I might look
Unto the hills 2006-09-27 19:02:00 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, whence cometh my help.(Psalm 121)Langdale Pikes by Henry Jutsum An imaginative designWe have a new ‘Piazza’ outside our supermarket. As a tribute to Alfred Wainwright (former Treasurer at the town hall, and writer of the famous guidebooks) seats with slate backs of an imaginative design have been placed there. Each one bears a copy of a page from the guidebooks, together with one of Wainwright’s distinctive line-drawings:Some yards away are the imprints of Wainwright’s ‘walking boots’:When you stand in the ‘footprints’ and look up at the slate seats, you can see that the the top edges merge to present an outline view of the Langdale Pikes (one of Wainwright’s favourite scenes) (sorry that the outline is a bit fuzzy - amateur photographer at work!) William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy were fond of the Langdales, too. In Dorothy’s diary, written when they were living at Dove Cottage, Grasmere she mentions them several tim
The Glory of the Garden 2006-09-24 20:39:00 Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not madeBy singing:--"Oh, how beautiful!" and sitting in the shade,While better men than we go out and start their working livesAt grubbing weeds from gravel-paths with broken dinner-knives.Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees That half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees, So when your work is finished, you can wash your hand and pray For the Glory of the Garden
, that it may not pass away!And the Glory of the Garden it shall never pass away!(Kipling)We are having an Indian Summer at the moment up here in Cumbria. The warmth is keeping the flowers blooming and the bees busy, and the lawn is demanding to be cut - again. The nursery is still selling the remnants of colourful annuals as well as perenniels for autumn planting.This must be one of the most scenic garden-centres in the north: A pleasant word:fescue FES'kew noun fine-leaved grass, valuable for pasture & fodder.from the Latin: fescuta - a stalk, straw.
The Village Blacksmith 2006-09-21 17:20:00 Under a spreading chestnut-treeThe village smithy stands;The smith, a mighty man is he,With large and sinewy hands;And the muscles of his brawny armsAre strong as iron bands. (Longfellow) Tales from a Cumbrian Farmhouse - 2'Support the Private Trader'By the 60s horse-shoeing was no longer the most significant part of the smith’s trade.Ernie, our local blacksmith, whose forge was in the next village a mile away, spent a large part of his time making and mending farm equipment. Dad believed in supporting the private traders (being one himself) and this included local tradesmen, too; any carpentry or building work was carried out by people from the village. Ernie persuaded Dad that what he needed was ‘yen o’ thae thistle-cutters’ which duly appeared; it was a small trailer with a flat metal plate, under which were 4 rotating blades Then came a compact muck-spreader, both machines small enough to be towed by the Land-Rover.Next Dad fancied an iron railing to replace the old fence Read more:Village
, Blacksmith
The Border City 2006-09-20 19:34:00 Old Town Hall with Guildhall on left and Carlisle Cross in foreground (a pillar with a lion bearing the city motto 'Be Just & Fear Not')Visited my hometown today - Carlisle, 'The Border
City', aka 'Canny auld Carlisle'. It has changed hands between the English and the Scots countless times, and at one time was part of the ancient kingdom of Strathclyde. There are not too many ancient houses in the town, as it was the centre of border strife for centuries and the earlier wooden houses were repeatedly burnt down by marauding Scots. It certainly wasn't too quiet on the Northern front in those days! However, the fine Cathedral and sturdy castle remain.According to Prof. M. Creighton, writing in 1889:'It is the only town on English soil which bears a purely British name [from Caer Lywelydd via Caerluel and Carliel to Carlisle]; and the only town which has been added to England since the Norman Conquest' Richard III (as Duke of Gloucester) was Captain of the Castle, and some of his
Season of Mists 2006-09-18 15:59:00 Season of mists and mellow fruitfulnessClose bosom-friend of the maturing sunConspiring with him how to load and blessWith fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,And fill all f ruit with ripeness to the core;To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shellsWith a sweet kernel; to set budding more,And still more, later flowers for the bees,Until they think warm days will never ceaseFor Summer has o’erbrimm’d their clammy cells…(Keats) For 27 years my family lived in a Georgian farmhouse in Cumbria (which was then called Cumberland ) a few miles from the border with ScotlandTales from a Cumbrian Farmhouse (1) My mother decides that this is the day to harvest the plums from the fan-trained trees growing against the byre wall. This afternoon she will pick the plums and make them into jam. Steamed jam pudding cooked with home-made plum jam is Dad’s favourite. But first she must go into town (seven miles away) to meet ‘the girls Read more:Season
, Mists
Saturday, Sunday, Sconeday... 2006-09-12 17:22:00 Supermarket shopping day today. (Monday)I find myself feeling relieved that the school-holidays are over and that there probably won’t be a queue at the checkout this morning. As an ex-primary-school teacher I can’t believe that I’ve become one of those miserable people who moan about the school holidays! I’m not really - only when it comes to supermarket queues!And after the shopping, our usual visit to the garden-centre for coffee and one of their perfect freshly-baked fluffy-on-the-inside-crispy-on-the-outside fruit scones. My weekly high-carb-high-fat treat. Ahh, Saturday
, Sunday
, Sconeday…. * * * * * * * * * * * * An elderly man dithers before the ‘savoury biscuits’ shelf. He takes a packet of Rice Cakes down. He hesitates, peering at the label, holding it close to his nose. An assistant, in her checked uniform jacket hovers a few feet away, watching and waiting. She takes a replacement packet of Rice Cakes from her stacked trolley, anxious for her turn.Reconsidering
Dog About Town 2007-03-13 10:04:00 Spotted this young Dog About Town outside our local supermarket.
Daffodils 2007-03-19 21:54:00 Dora's field, Rydal. photo: Tony Richards'....all at once I saw a crowdA host of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze 'From a Georgian Farmhouse- 3‘I fancy a drift of daffodils at the near end of the orchard’, said Mum. Her friend Margaret, who ran the Bellgarth Nurseries in Carlise gave her a large selection of daffodil and narcissus bulbs. ‘I’ll get Old Ernie to plant them on Saturday,’ said Mum (There were two Ernies - Ernie the Blacksmith, and Old Ernie who came to do the garden.)Old Ernie was a gardener of the ‘Municipal’ type; he liked things ‘just so’. Mum’s front borders were planted with neat and even rows of alternating allysum and lobelia, with scarlet salvias lined up behind them. Patriotic and oh so formal.‘Mmm…something a bit less...well... regimented would be nice,’ murmured Mum. But Old Ernie was in charge.Mum explained what she wanted for the daffs, and Old Ernie planted them. Read more:Daffodils
Late Winter or Early Spring? 2007-03-20 18:07:00 Some photos taken yesterday: Snow-capped Langdale Pikes above WindermereTodd Crag from Ambleside Daffodils and (left) corkscrew hazel (corylus avellana 'contorta') Read more:Early
, Spring
'Time-honoured Lancaster' 2007-03-30 17:49:00 I visited Lancaster
today, and came across this horseshoe set into the pavement. It represents the place where John of Gaunt’s horse was said to have shed a shoe.‘Old John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster’ (opening line of Shakespeare’s ‘Richard II’) John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (called after his birthplace, Ghent) was born in 1340, and was the third surviving son of King Edward III (He died in 1399) Although Shakespeare has one of the witches in ‘Macbeth’ telling Banquo, ‘Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none’ - this could just as easily apply to John of Gaunt. His son was Henry 1V, his grandson Henry V and his great-grandson Henry VI. His illegitimate descendants (who became legitimate after his marriage to his former mistress Katherine Swynford) were known as the Beauforts, and one of them, Margaret, married Edmund Tudor; their son became Henry VII - and so the descent carried on, to Henry VIII and beyond! John of Gaunt's Gateway at Lancaster Castle(p
An Easter Story 2007-04-04 23:40:00 The Arrest of Christ. Fra AngelicoWhen they were small, my two sons attended a Church of England primary school, so were familiar with stories from the Bible. One day near Easter
, I found them acting out a story they had heard at school. I gathered that it was a scene from the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, as it involved a lot of jumping on and off the sofa shouting, and waving ‘swords’ (plastic rulers)I feel the message had been lost somewhere along the line, as after a while I heard the youngest wail, ‘That's it. I'm not going to be Jesus any more’ (He threw down his 'sword')‘I want to be a goody’Happy Easter!
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