Sum Doood's Slow Blog

Bringing Home my Harvest of Firewood.

2012-01-03T01:01:00.012+03:30

On Friday the cloud was low enough to hide Farleton Fell as I drove through the Yealands then as far as I could get down the track without making a muddy fool of myself. I parked the van and in heavy drizzle walked along the edge of a wood where oak takes forever to grow, birch lean uprooted like long silver skittles, and ash, hazel and hawthorn consistently fail to thrive in the greasy, black, bog bottom soil. A drift of breeze brought a steady shish of traffic from the A6 three fields ahead of me. A firm believer in Sod’s Law, I refused to look for any deer - if you look, you won’t see them, but if you don’t, you might.

A minute later I’d forgotten about them, which surely explains why then I noticed those grey shapes moving to and fro below a leaning holly tree, the only evergreen in sight. I walked on until I could make out the spotted coats of three, four, counting......, five indecisive fallow deer tottering to and fro. I walked. They stopped. They stared. I walked again. They stared, broke away, trotted, stopped and stared again. As well they might. I was pushing a stripped down, steel-framed three-wheeler pushchair – exchanged several years ago through our local swap shop for a bottle of vegan, organic, French rosé wine - and I must’ve looked more like a bag lady than any rambler, pheasant feeder, or hunter within these deer’s experience. I worry a little that these deer aren’t as scared as they should be.

Beneath their holly tree the ground was as dry as any deer could want it. Further on I glimpsed the first of several stacks of firewood I’d made fourteen months ago when clearing overhanging trees back from a long neglected ditch. To keep my crop off the ground and in the breeze I pile it between forked trunks of birch, but this is a tulgey wood, particularly there on the leeward side, and seasoning can too easily become rotting unless I can get my hard won lengths back home to our wind-tunnel woodshed.

A length of bout five feet will make me six logs the larger of which will burn better for having been split to somewhere near threebeetoo, as they say. I find that in locations nearer to public roads any cut lengths of wood tend to “walk”. I don’t enjoy wasted effort, so logging and splitting is done at home.

I carefully loaded the pushchair keeping it close to its backward tipping point so that I can lift the front wheel and swerve it around mud holes, tussocks, rocks and stumps. With three screamingly tight stretch hooks I secured what is inevitably a top heavy load and shoved off. As I rejoined the track there was another fallow deer, so indignant to see me that it tossed its head and stamped a forefoot before making an abrupt turn and disappearing as only deer can.

I’d thought to bring home three loads that day, but soon two seemed enough. Now the wood’s in our shed and drying well. Perhaps in 2012 I’ll finally get around to bringing home enough to get us through the whole winter without these extra trips. But I doubt it. By the way, should anyone be wondering where to find the rest of my woody stash, it is (sire), “a good league hence Underneath the mountain Right against the forest fence By Saint Agnes' fountain.”

This morning I heard again what is surely one of the most evocative natural sounds. I ran out of the shed and shaded my eyes to scan the bright blue sky...... There they are! Across a moderate westerly gale three jagged skeins of Canada geese, probably sixty birds in all, were making gust-battered progress northwest towards Morecambe Bay. For all our species' cleverness and adaptability, sights like this are reminders that there will always be things at which we are no good at all.

My Favourite Xmas Album

2011-12-19T01:58:00.001+03:30

My Favourite Xmas Album isn’t a xmas album, but it has bells in it (both tubular and cow), and because I was listening to it most intently up to and around a long ago xmas I cannot untangle it from that time of year. Although it was released in the summer of 1968, it was probably 1971 before a fifteen year old me had my own copy. By then I knew it included some top class writing and play...ing, but I didn’t realise it had reached no. 3 in the UK’s charts, no. 1 in the US’s and become the world's first platinum-selling double album. I played my copy on what was nominally the family’s Bush record player which, without consultation I had moved from the sitting room to the top of my bedroom wardrobe. With a cunning born of desperation I’d connected two skinny wires to the back of the stylus arm and run them into a recently acquired bass guitar amp and a big fat speaker. This double album was Cream’s “Wheels of Fire” and on the slow and darkening run up to xmas it still seems to me appropriate that the first song was tied to a night when “Silver horses ran down moonbeams in your dark eyes” and “Dawn light smiles on you leaving my contentment.”

Hungry for information I read and re-read the sleeve notes and label. Back then I didn’t know that C. Burnett was Howlin’ Wolf, but I was impressed that he’d “Had to take Christmas in [his] overalls.” Passing the Time is entirely a wintertime song; in As You Said “the sun is out of reach” and in Deserted Cities of the Heart “… the sun is black, The winter life is coming back.” Nothing in the other tracks lessens the feeling I had, and still have, that this is an album centred on winter.

Rumour had it that Ginger Baker was the greatest drummer, that Eric Clapton was still “God” and even at that age I could tell that Jack Bruce was a real musician whose singing, song writing and playing were intelligent, powerful and enormously varied. What I didn’t realise then was that no other musicians would ever again compel Clapton to perform beyond what it seems he considered to be the limits of his ability. For that reason this third album by a successful and confident trio stretching out and better matched in musicianship than was even Jimi Hendrix’ Experience, is going to be memorable for at least as long as I will be able to remember anything.

This Land Is Not Your Land

2011-12-01T15:42:00.001+03:30

Based on the song by Woody Guthrie, this is a song for People.

This Land Is Not Your Land

As I was walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway,
I saw below me that golden valley,
This land was made for nobody.

This land’s not your land, this land’s not my land
From California to the New York Island,
From the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for nobody.

I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for nobody.

This land’s not your land, this land’s not my land
From California to the New York Island,
From the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for nobody.

The sun comes shining as I was strolling,
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
The fog was lifting, a voice come chanting,
This land was made for nobody.

This land’s not your land, this land’s not my land
From California to the New York Island,
From the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for nobody.

As I was walkin' I saw a sign there
And that sign said, "No Tresspassin'"
But on the other side it didn't say nothin'
Now that side was made for you and me!

This land’s not your land, this land’s not my land
From California to the New York Island,
From the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for nobody.

In the squares of the city, in the shadow of the steeple,
Near the relief office I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land was made for nobody.

This land’s not your land, this land’s not my land
From California to the New York Island,
From the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for nobody.

Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking that freedom highway,
Nobody living can make me turn back,
This land was made for nobody.

This land’s not your land, this land’s not my land
From California to the New York Island,
From the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters
No land was made for anybody.

For No Reason

2011-11-16T01:16:00.001+03:30

Heifer whines could be human cries
Closer comes the screaming knife
This beautiful creature must die
This beautiful creature must die
A death for no reason
And death for no reason is MURDER
And the flesh you so fancifully fry
Is not succulent, tasty or kind
It's death for no reason
And death for no reason is MURDER
And the calf that you carve with a smile
Is MURDER
And the turkey you festively slice
Is MURDER
Do you know how animals die ?
Kitchen aromas aren't very homely
It's not "comforting", cheery or kind
It's sizzling blood and the unholy stench
Of MURDER
It's not "natural", "normal" or kind
The flesh you so fancifully fry
The meat in your mouth
As you savour the flavour
Of MURDER
NO, NO, NO, IT'S MURDER
NO, NO, NO, IT'S MURDER
Oh ... and who hears when animals cry?

Global Improvement Works

2011-11-02T02:32:00.000+03:30

From Occupy London Stock Exchange

FREE - The Hoax Live in Germany c. 1998

2011-10-23T23:52:00.001+03:30

LIVE IN GERMANY Circa 1998 by The Hoax

Rikki Don't Lose That Number - Steely Dan live in 1974

2011-10-09T02:09:00.001+03:30

Listen to more Steely Dan at Wolfgang's Vault.

My Latest Best Ever Campsite

2011-09-05T23:39:00.001+04:30

My latest best ever campsite: http://bit.ly/ndQ884

Molde, Romsdal, Norway.

Jean-Bosco Mwenda

2011-08-31T02:24:00.002+04:30

Listen to more Jean-Bosco Mwenda at Wolfgang's Vault.

Norway: Forde > Geiranger > Molde

2011-08-30T14:27:00.005+04:30

Part of our thirty three days travel to and in Scandinavia in summer 2011:

http://bit.ly/pi5YuS

If you select the Slideshow option,

Key “F11” (for a full screen view), then quickly

Click the Pause symbol (bottom left), then

Click “Show info” (top right) then

Move forward using the “Next” button (top centre).

I hope you enjoy it.

Oslo - Røldal – Bergen in July 2011

2011-08-19T02:08:00.002+04:30

Key “F11” (for a full screen view), then click this:

http://bit.ly/q7x0Qy and quickly

Click the Pause symbol (bottom left), then

Click “Show info” (top right) then

Move forward using the “Next” button (top centre).

Alternatively take this route and look at the images however you wish: http://bit.ly/ojmKo7

Ystad & Tanum (Sweden).

2011-08-13T03:32:00.003+04:30

http://bit.ly/qZYmeK but first.........

Key “F11” (for a full screen view), then

Click the Pause symbol (bottom left), then

Click “Show info” (top right) then

Move forward using the “Next” button (top centre).

Or take this route and look at the images however you wish: http://bit.ly/oYujU5

Svendborg & Copenhagen

2011-08-03T23:57:00.002+04:30

Here's the Slideshow: http://bit.ly/pe55Ot but when you get there

Key “F11” (for a full screen view), then

Click the Pause symbol (bottom left), then

Click “Show info” (top right) then

Move forward using the “Next” button (top centre).

Or take this route and look at the images however you wish: http://bit.ly/qIm1Ap

Calais - Münster - Hedeby - Faaborg

2011-08-03T23:52:00.002+04:30

Here's the Slideshow: http://bit.ly/oVgtvK but when you get there

Key “F11” (for a full screen view), then
Click the Pause symbol (bottom left), then
Click “Show info” (top right) then
Move forward using the “Next” button (top centre).

Or take this route and look at the images however you wish: http://bit.ly/oEefPr

Around the West side of England

2011-06-13T23:52:00.001+04:30

Around the West side of England, a set on Flickr.

Around the West side of England

2011-06-12T23:36:00.005+04:30

Here's a recent trip including Shropshire, Herefordshire, Somerset and Devon:

http://bit.ly/ldg8L4

The Spin Doctors - live recording.

2011-05-27T03:31:00.013+04:30

On 14 May 2011 I saw The Spin Doctors at The Brewery, Kendal, (Cumbria, UK). It was a wonderful gig and sounded very, very much like this one recorded four nights later in Leamington Spa:

Jimmy Olsen's Blues
What Time Is It?
Little Miss Can't Be Wrong
Forty Or Fifty
Refrigerator Car
More Than She Knows
Two Princes
Off My Line
How Could You Want Him (When You Know You Could Have Me)?
Shinbone Alley >
Hard To Exist

Encore

Yo Mama's A Pajama
Sweet Widow
Stepped On A Crack
So Bad
Happy Birthday Cheryl
Scotch and Water Blues

You can stream the recording here too at the Archive. And even download it! It's legit.

Nearly home.............

2011-04-12T04:41:00.002+04:30

Vendee 179, a photo by Sum Doood on Flickr.

Calais before the morning ferry.

The Vendée Pool

2011-04-09T23:14:00.001+04:30

Two long days of driving | Ten long days of labouring on a swimming pool construction | Two long days of driving.

This was definitely the daftest campervan trip I've ever done. I'd imagined that after 2-3 days work I would clear off and visit friends at http://www.lapointesuperbecamping.com, take a look at prehistoric sites in Britanny and spend some time parked up near lonely Atlantic beaches (with one of the many good books in our "wardrobe"), BUT I soon realised that if any of us worker bees went absent from the pool site for more than half a day, the job couldn't possibly be completed in the very short amount of time available.

Here's the trip: http://bit.ly/hdCARG

A Short While in Argyll

2011-03-05T02:59:00.001+03:30

F11 first then

Pause then

Click forward on the arrows.

Sometimes the captions get sleepy and don't bother to appear. A wiggle of the cursor will bring them back (but not all images have captions!)

I'll still be editing and adding, so if I've missed something, do let me know.

I hope you enjoy it.

Marrakesh & Essaouira

2011-02-22T15:03:00.000+03:30

"F11" first then | Pause then | Click forward on the arrows.

Sometimes the captions get sleepy and don't bother to appear. A wiggle of the cursor will bring them back (but not all images have captions!)

Click on the title.

Morocco: More Dunes and the Atlas

2011-02-14T02:18:00.004+03:30

"F11" first then / Pause then / Click forward on the arrows.

Sometimes the captions get sleepy and don't bother to appear. A wiggle of the cursor will bring them back (but not all images have captions!)

Click on the title.

Halfway around Morocco

2011-02-10T04:12:00.001+03:30

"F11" for a full screen view,

Pause then

Click forward on the arrows.

Sometimes the captions get sleepy and don't bother to appear. A wiggle of the cursor will bring them back (but not all images have captions!)

Living Colour - Love Rears Up its Ugly Head

2010-12-22T00:01:00.002+03:30

Living Colour - Love Rears It's Ugly Head 07-11-2010 from Bill Bryant on Vimeo.

12 September Days in B, F, CH, D, A & I.

2010-12-04T02:15:00.005+03:30

Here it is: 12 September Days, etc:
http://picasaweb.google.com/SumDoood
I recommend the "Slideshow" option,
then Pause and click forward.
Captions are optional, of course.

Video: Jimi Hendrix' Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)

2010-11-20T02:50:00.004+03:30

The Experience Clip (Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child) from Pirates Peperes on Vimeo.

Welsh Bordering

2010-11-15T03:37:00.002+03:30

Here it is: Welsh Bordering.

http://picasaweb.google.com/SumDoood

I recommend the "Slideshow" option,

then Pause and click forward.

Captions are optional, of course.

An Afternoon in Octumbria

2010-10-26T02:36:00.008+03:30

Here it is, An Afternoon in Octumbria.

http://picasaweb.google.com/SumDoood

I recommend the "Slideshow" option,
then Pause and click forward.

Captions are optional, of course.

Romans & Anglo-Saxons in NE England

2010-10-15T14:04:00.006+03:30

A 2-night campervan journey.

http://picasaweb.google.com/SumDoood

I recommend the "Slideshow" option,
then Pause and click forward.

Captions are optional, of course.

FREE download: The Twilight Singers w Ani DiFranco

2010-10-14T22:48:00.002+03:30

Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall)

2010-09-27T01:05:00.003+03:30

David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries. 1st chapter free.

2010-09-13T22:53:00.004+04:30

Piggin' 'Ell

2010-09-12T23:52:00.003+04:30

Joni Mitchell - Woodstock - Big Sur 1969

2010-08-30T03:57:00.001+04:30

Jeff Beck - Emotion and Commotion

2010-08-29T02:45:00.002+04:30

He'll be playing Preston Guild Hall on 19 October.

Almost Cut My Hair - CSN&Y in 1974 at Wembley

2010-08-27T00:38:00.002+04:30

It's very good, but I'll bet some nights it was even better!

Wichy de Vedado

2010-08-23T15:23:00.008+04:30

WICHY DE VEDADO / 23 y L

Arlo Guthrie

2010-08-22T14:24:00.004+04:30

Went to watch Arlo Guthrie's gig in Holmfirth (W. Yorks., UK), last night. I'm still so into it I won't tell you any more until the euphoria has gentled down a bit. But, no, he didn't sing Alice's Restaurant (the soundtrack to a film that enormously influenced the way I've thought about so many things since 1970), saying with a grandfatherly grumpiness,

"There's a good reason some songs are on a record".

In storyteller mode.

Vietnam / Afghanistan

2010-08-18T02:13:00.001+04:30

Yeah, come on all of you, big strong men,

Uncle Sam needs your help again.

He's got himself in a terrible jam

Way down yonder in Afghanistan

So put down your books and pick up a gun,

We're gonna have a whole lotta fun.

And it's one, two, three,

What are we fighting for ?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,

Next stop Afghanistan;

And it's five, six, seven,

Open up the pearly gates,

Well there ain't no time to wonder why,

Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Well, come on generals, let's move fast;

Your big chance has come at last.

Gotta go out and get those freaks —

How else will the world inherit the meek?

And you know that peace can only be won

When we've blown 'em all to kingdom come.

And it's one, two, three,

What are we fighting for ?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,

Next stop Afghanistan;

And it's five, six, seven,

Open up the pearly gates,

Well there ain't no time to wonder why

Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Huh!

Well, come on Wall Street, don't move slow,

Why man, this is war au-go-go.

There's plenty good money to be made

By supplying the Army with the tools of the trade,

Just hope and pray like Christians can

And stick it to the Taliban.

And it's one, two, three,

What are we fighting for?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,

Next stop Afghanistan.

And it's five, six, seven,

Open up the pearly gates,

Well there ain't no time to wonder why…

Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Well, come on mothers throughout the land,

Pack your boys off to Afghanistan.

Come on fathers, don't hesitate,

Send 'em off before it's too late.

Be the first one on your block

To have your boy come home in a box.

And it's one, two, three

What are we fighting for ?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,

Next stop Afghanistan.

And it's five, six, seven,

Open up the pearly gates,

Well there ain't no time to wonder why,

Whoopee! we're all gonna die

Adapted from the original "I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag" (aka Vietnam Rag), Words and Music by Joe McDonald

A Sunny Sunday in Lancaster, UK

2010-08-16T00:18:00.014+04:30

    The breakfast time sky formed a ceiling of childish blue before sliding to the ground like a spread sheet of gold as rich as one might see on the finest morning on a French campsite.

    Passing midday and smothered in laziness, we drove into that little North of England city, parked free on a central cobbled square, walked down a cobbled street passing a range of genuinely historic buildings and into a restaurant where, being half of all the customers, we chose a table next to the big front window. The (optional cheeseless) pizza tasted as good as any pizza anywhere.

    Much of the afternoon passed hammock-bound in our back garden, hiding from the sun in the summerhouse (it doubles as our only dining room), other-worlded in headphones, mp3 player shuffling for summery playlists.

    Evening slid into a rusty sunset with a limey green afterglow, a hint of dew, the dance of bats, a drift of honeysuckle and a near-golden half moon.

    Tomorrow's forecast is fine, so fine that, based on the experience of recent years, these two days will probably be our whole summer.

Efficiency is (the) Key?

2010-08-11T23:39:00.003+04:30

Yesterday I cycled into town to get a spare mortice key cut and to buy a new watchstrap. My watch is not trendy or even good looking, but it's twelve years old and astonishingly reliable. And Chinese. Anyway, I didn't go to any well known firm (rhymes with Timpsons), because I'd read that our local Green Party (of which I'm a not spectacularly active member), had successfully proposed an effective plan to keep open the market hall in Lancaster. Besides, I'm generally quite determined to avoid big firms and to give my small amount of business to a local person.

The friendly chap in the market had only one strap which matched my conditions: not metal, not leather. It seems to be OK, but rather smaller than I'd've liked.

I rode home. The new key was completely useless. Well, as a key it was, although it might've made a good something else. I rode back and the woman at the stall had a go at improving my key. I rode home. The newly modified key was completely useless. I rode back and the bloke started all over again. I rode home. The new key worked.

Now, I wasn't particularly busy and I do need the exercise, but three journeys to get one key cut? That's a long way from being efficient, isn't it. What if I'd been some poor old biddy with bad legs and no reliable neighbours to run errands for me? Not so long back I made several trips to a local bike shop after a brand new tyre had exploded at 110 psi when its limit was 120. The firm replaced the tyre free of charge, and fitted it, but refused to replace the exploded inner tube.

Is there anywhere in the world where people can get proper compensation for the inconvenience entailed in exchanging shoddy goods, or services?

Wingless Angels

2010-08-11T23:10:00.004+04:30

In reply to those who want to "Keep Jesus Christ in our Schools".

2010-08-09T18:21:00.003+04:30

Why, when this world is already so very wonderful, might there be any good reason to imagine anything which does not exist? STOP IT!

All so-called gods are imaginary. There are no gods. There is no evidence of any god(s) anywhere. GET REAL.

Base your values on things that are. Be kind, be fair and keep on trying to ensure that your existence causes minimal harm to anyone and to anything.

Neil Young in 1970

2010-08-04T00:26:00.003+04:30

Five Nights in East Anglia.

2010-07-21T13:31:00.004+04:30

Just as it says, and a very good trip:

Frazey Ford (of the Be Good Tanyas) - Free Download.

2010-07-16T00:26:00.001+04:30

Grantchester Meadows, my mini Floyd-fest.

2010-07-07T03:54:00.007+04:30

"And a river of green is sliding Unseen beneath the trees Laughing as it passes Through the endless summer Making for the sea..."

In April this year I visited Grantchester Meadows (Cambridge, UK). 200m away the Cam looking very green was sliding by..........

Not caring that I might look a little odd, cocooned in my headphones with my mp3 player in my back pocket, I walked along the Cam and through the meadows as events flashed in and out of focus across four decades.

15 July 2010: Only yesterday I went back with Jo. She enjoyed the mp3 experience too.

Le Tour de France 2010 en direct sur Radio Caravane

2010-07-04T02:07:00.000+04:30

Le Tour de France 2010 en direct sur Radio Caravane

RESPECT. Or not.

2010-06-30T02:46:00.005+04:30

Respect is over-rated, don't you think, assuming thinking might still have some limited value?

Respect is, and always was, very close to fear, and fear still impels us to behave with (or as if with), respect towards groups and individuals who often do, or support the doing of, really very, very bad things.

So-called political correctness is much entangled with issues of respect. What use is misplaced "correctness"? Or misplaced "respect"?

"Respect where it's due" is a concept with which we'd surely do well to become familiar. Again.

God save me from the porkers.

2010-06-29T15:26:00.003+04:30

COUNTY by John Betjeman

God save me from the Porkers,
God save me from their sons,
Their noisy tweedy sisters
Who follow with their guns,

The old and scheming mother,
Their futures that she plann'd,
The ghastly younger brother
Who married into land.

Their shots along the valley
Draw blood out of the sky,
The wounded pheasants rally
As hobailed boots go by.

Where once rabbit scampered
The waiting copse is still
As porker fat and pampered
Comes puffing up the hill.

"A left, a right! Well done, sir!"
They're falling in the road;
"And here's your other gun, sir".
"Don't talk, you're here to load."

God save me from the porkers,
The pathos of their lives,
The strange example that they set
To new rich farmers' wives.

Apart from any god's ability to save anything, he got it right.

No Smoke without......

2010-06-29T03:45:00.002+04:30

In 1965 Herb Alpert released Spanish Flea and in an end of term concert everyone in my primary school (at Highnam, Glos., UK), played along on an assortment of percussion instruments (castanets being by a long way the most popular), encouraged by a new and enlightened(?) headmaster.

The headmaster owned a Mini, was a magistrate and felt unable to explain adequately to precocious(?) me why a good and kind workfriend of my dad had been repatriated to Jamaica for possession of one "jazz cigarette" (as they were probably called in those relatively far off days).

FREE Download from Toots and the Maytals

2010-06-11T03:04:00.002+04:30

Around Applecross

2010-06-05T04:55:00.007+04:30

Three days campervanning. About 150 images from the Highlands of Scotland. Click the image then choose "Slideshow".
Then "F11" for a full screen view.

John Cleese on Proportional Representation (1987).

2010-05-08T22:57:00.001+04:30

Match your Vote to Policies.

2010-05-06T02:52:00.003+04:30

You are reading this because your browser doesn't support Iframes.

Try this link instead.

Four dead in Ohio, four dead in Ohio, four dead in Ohio...........

2010-05-06T00:05:00.003+04:30

Is this why, in a not so roundabout way, we allowed our country in 2003 to join the US in a war against Iraq?

Neil Young's "Ohio" performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Mont Valier, Ariege, Pyrenees, France, October 2009

2010-05-04T04:17:00.000+04:30

IMG_8627 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Austin Lucas - Somebody Loves You.

2010-04-24T02:52:00.004+04:30

Sort-of "Oh, Dan Tyminski, Where Art Thou?" ???

VOTE Green in Lancaster & Fleetwood

2010-03-30T16:49:00.005+04:30

The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll

2010-03-28T23:50:00.002+04:30

An Argyllshire Evening - March 2009

2010-03-28T00:44:00.000+04:30

Spending £97bn on new nuclear weapons?

2010-03-25T22:52:00.007+04:30

We are in the deepest recession since World War II and facing some tough choices. Our essential public services are all being lined up for cuts, along with crucial programmes to secure clean, safe energy to power our homes and businesses.

But the easiest cut of all - cutting out plans to build new nuclear weapons - is being ignored by our politicians.

With an election imminent, it's time to remind our politicians they work for us - and polls consistently show that most of us don't see the need to waste vast sums on a doomsday machine.

Tell all your parliamentary candidates that you don't want to waste £97 bn on new nuclear weapons at: http://cut-trident.greenpeace.org.uk/

Parliament's Achievements. Or not.

2010-03-25T15:20:00.003+04:30

The Last Parliament from Green Alliance on Vimeo.

David Cameron votes Vegan

2010-01-20T23:34:00.002+03:30

The Water Table

2010-01-19T01:12:00.003+03:30

Filmed at home in Penarth, South Wales in July 2009 Philip Gross reads two poems about the Severn estuary from his T.S. Eliot Prize-winning collection The Water Table, 'Sluice Angel' and 'Atlantis World'.

Other books by Philip Gross: Changes of Address; Mappa Mundi; The Egg of Zero; The Wasting Game

Urge to Go - Joni Mitchell.

2010-01-17T19:14:00.003+03:30

I awoke today and found the frost perched on the town,

It hovered in a frozen sky then it gobbled summer down.

When the sun turns traitor cold

And all the trees are shivering in a naked row

I get the urge for going, but I never seem to go.

I get the urge for going

When the meadow grass is turning brown,

Summertime is falling down and winter is closing in.

I had me a man in summertime,

He had summer-colored skin

And not another girl in town

My darling's heart could win,

But when the leaves fell on the ground

And bully winds came around, pushed them face down in the snow

He got the urge for going and I had to let him go.

He got the urge for going

When the meadow grass was turning brown,

Summertime was falling down and winter was closing in.

Now the warriors of winter they gave a cold triumphant shout

And all that stays is dying, all that lives is getting out

See the geese in chevron flight flapping and a-racing on before the snow,

They've got the urge for going and they've got the wings, so they can go.

They get the urge for going

When the meadow grass is turning brown

Summertime is falling down and winter is closing in.

I'll ply the fire with kindling now, I'll pull the blankets up to my chin,

I'll lock the vagrant winter out and bolt my wandering in,

I'd like to call back summertime, have her stay for just another month or so,

But she's got the urge for going and I guess she'll have to go.

She gets the urge for going when the meadow grass is turning brown

And all her empire's falling down.

(Read it next autumn too).

This Land is My Land? An Old Fashioned Not-Given Right Not Rightly Assumed.

2010-01-17T03:51:00.002+03:30

This land’s not your land, this land’s not my land
From California to the New York Island,
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land wasn’t made for you and me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway,
I saw below me that golden valley,
But this land wasn’t made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding,
But this land wasn’t made for you and me.

When the sun came shining and I was strolling
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
A voice was chanting and the fog was lifting,
But this land wasn’t made for you and me.

This land’s not your land, this land’s not my land
From California to the New York Island,
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land wasn’t made for you and me.

When the sun came shining and I was strolling
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
A voice was chanting and the fog was lifting,
But this land wasn’t made for you and me.

Bicycle cargo trailer. And driftwood.

2010-01-14T03:18:00.003+03:30

Last autumn, having had no replies to a couple of over-optimistic wanted ads, I bought a new cargo trailer via eBay. It cost £65 (w p&p from Germany), is well built and has an enormous load capacity of 220lbs = 100kgs = 15st (ish).

On the flat and empty, but with its lidded canvas "bag" fitted, it makes me drop 2 or 3 gears. Very fully loaded with driftwood it makes me drop 4 -5 gears. On steeper hills I drop to my crawler gear and sweat like a waterfall. The tyres are rated at 35psi. I immediately took them to 40. It's important esp. with a heavy load to make the trailer nose-heavy. This might occasionally cause the bike's front wheel to want to lift off the road, but that's much better than contending with the annoying and difficult rocking motion which can develop if the load is evenly balanced or heavier at the back.

A cycle path runs along the estuary shoreline where there's a lot of driftwood. It's not so far from home and I can get out and back with a lot of wood in little more than an hour. I take with me a small bow saw and, because I'm only 2 - 3 miles from the city centre, 3 cable bike locks so I can lock the bike to the trailer and both to something else, and then wander away.

Once I'm home any seaweed which comes along with the wood gets put into the compost bin. I use the chainsaw to get the wood down to stove length and because it's nearly all dry I bring some of it straight into the house where for several days it gives off a pleasant, fresh and salty smell.

I imagine the trailer will double as a garden wheelbarrow occasionally.

A bicycle trailer, post manufacture and delivery, and heating with (free) biomass together amounts to some useful carbon footprint shrinkage, I think.

Jimi Hendrix at Winterland, San Francisco 11 October 1968

2010-01-11T04:13:00.002+03:30

Look at the track lengths - very much in jamming mode.

Wolfgang's Vault, My, oh, my......

2010-01-10T01:02:00.006+03:30

Five weeks earlier with two schoolfriends I'd stood about 8ft back from the stage and watched The Rolling Stones play in The King's Hall at Bellevue, Manchester. Mick Taylor was on top form, Billy Preston was amazing (and his band which included Mick Taylor), and Keith looked in many respects frighteningly close to very nearly dead. I have this gig on a semi-officially released CD, but you can listen to it here:

Winter '62 - '63 (the coolest since 1740)

2010-01-06T01:15:00.007+03:30

I'm sure we had some days off school in rural Gloucestershire, but when we went back we made ice slides as long as the whole sloping playground, as BIG as commerical runways along which we took turns to be towed by friends either side in the grippier snow. The bruises were enormous. And what about the firey cold pain under your skin which became so much worse once we got back into the warm?

Drifts outside our isolated house were 7 (seven) feet high and extended 20 yards or more from the wheatfield, through the laid hedge and across the wide verge and the road too.

Two coal fires, no radiators even in a modern house, no double glazing, of course, thick ice inside the windows, (cold lino floors), handknitted mittens and balaclavas........ But those weather conditions amounted to one of the most sustained periods of excitement ever!

That xmas I'd been given a sledge made by my dad in clumsy secrecy in the outhouse. The runners were recycled staves from a 5ft high barrel. Although strongly made, I don't think it was a very good sledge but good fun, all the same and I still quite often wonder how I slid below the lowest strand of that barbed wire fence and only lost my hat.

Here's a website dedicated to the winter weather of 1962 - 63.

Music and Life

2009-12-13T21:53:00.007+03:30

The principles of Music and Living aren't all that different, we think,
"Wouldn't you say, Pooh?"
"Say what?", asked Pooh, opening his eyes.
"Music and Living - "
"The same thing", said Pooh.

From The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff.

Far as I can see, there is only one good thing about The Rolling Stones and that's their music. But since the mid-70s it's been almost entriely dull.

A Good Doffer?

2009-12-12T04:08:00.001+03:30

Milking it for All it's Worth.

2009-12-09T20:08:00.033+03:30

I was very disappointed to find that the Belgian firm, Alpro had recently been bought out by Deans Foods, a North American multinational up to its grubby neck in the exploitative unkindnesses of the dairy industry. So when buying soya milk I transferred our modest patronage to the reputedly excellent Plamil. Plamil make their soya milk using beans grown in Europe organically. At Single Step, a shop I like very much, 1 litre of Plamil costs £1.50. (Deans Foods are behind certain brands of soya milk which are very much less costly).

So we've bought a soy milk maker, found it on Amazon and it came directly all the very long way from China. It cost £45 + £22 p&p, a more than trifling expense, yet cheaper than most if not all of its competitors. And how quickly can one spend £67 on milk produced by very soon worn-out, antibiotic-overdosed, land misusing, arable crop-scoffing, dirty cows pumping shedloads of methane into our overheated planet?

Our new machine, a Joyoung (a good model, so says a Chinese student staying nearby and whose parents have one), makes 1 litre of soy milk from 40g (less than 2oz), of dry organic soy beans, water and nothing else. But I am embarrassed to find that our beans from Suma which previously were grown in the USA, are now grown in China, but at least that's not the South American rainforest.

The machine takes about 10mins to do its job and costs (a short blast of GoodEnergy's electricity plus), £0.10 for the beans. You wouldn't be far wrong if you said that making our own organic soya milk is 93% cheaper than buying it. A litre of soya milk generally lasts the two of us 3 days. It would take a stronger man than I am not to smirk. Inwardly, of course.

I don't have room to grow my own (although it's quite possible in the UK), so all I want to do now is to find a closer, European source of organic soya beans.

We took this course of action because we could afford it. Too often, especially in the opulent West, it is folks on relatively lower incomes who find it more difficult to live inexpensively. Green-ness is almost always relatively "unfair" in application and I suspect that this unfairness, i.e. inequality, is used by many well-off folks as another overworked excuse not to take (m)any green actions at all.

Well, soon I'll be making our own tofu. Really.

Bread, Milk and Oil, and Who's Ruling the World?

2009-12-09T00:28:00.005+03:30

The smell of tomorrow's bread reminds me we've bought only two loaves since we left Le Guerrat six weeks ago.

And today our very smart machine made our first soya milk. (We'd had the machine for several days and had entered into a dispute with the Chinese seller, but now he's given us £20 to compensate for the operating instructions being in Chinese only, and the mains plug being utterly useless in Britain. A Chinese student in digs next door to Jo's mum translated the booklet for us, and I'm using the "kettle lead" from our old pc to connect to the mains).

I've been using ready mixed bio-degradable chain oil for the saw and, as at Le Guerrat, the smell of the hot oil makes me hungry. But the smell is much reduced when I find myself cutting below water level! I'm clearing a line of trees overhanging, and many long ago fallen into, a field ditch and am frequently surprised at how deep into the water the saw can go and keep running, making froth with the chain and bubbles from the exhaust!

My full attention has been just drawn to Jarvis Cocker's Quantum Theory and the excellent song which comes in at 29.35mins:

Well, did you hear, there's a natural order?
Those most deserving will end up with the most,
That the cream cannot help but always rise up to the top,
Well, I say: Shit floats.
If you thought things had changed,
Friend, you'd better think again,
Bluntly put in the fewest of words,
Cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world.

Now the working classes are obsolete,
They are surplus to society's needs,
So let 'em all kill each other
And get it made overseas.
That's the word, don't you know,
From the guys that's running the show,
Let's be perfectly clear' boys and girls,
Cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world.

Oh, feed your children on crayfish and lobster tails,
Find a school near the top of the league,
In theory I respect your right to exist,
I will kill ya if you move in next to me,
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust,
But the takings are up by a third, oh, so
Cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world.

Your free market is perfectly natural,
Or do you think that I'm some kind of dummy?
It's the ideal way to order the world,
Fuck the morals, does it make any money?
And if you don't like it, then leave,
Or use your right to protest on the street,
Yeah, use your rights, but don't imagine that it's heard, oh, no, no,
Cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world......

Meat.org. Do you think this is OK?

2009-12-07T21:07:00.002+03:30

Find out more at Meat.org.

Wind Turbines for Lancaster University.

2009-12-02T02:03:00.004+03:30

Lancaster University is set to significantly reduce its carbon footprint following a £5m funding award from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

The University is one of only three out of the 37 applicants to win the funding from HEFCE's £10m Transformational Fund. The fund has been made available specifically for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across England to radically transform their approaches to energy consumption and reducing emissions.

The proposed project is to develop two 2.3MW wind turbines on the university's Hazelrigg site to the east of the M6 motorway. Click here to view a map of the proposed location: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/windturbines/Location.htm

Lancaster University would be the first in England to install two 2.3mw wind turbines which would reduce its electricity consumption by approximately one-third, equivalent to the residential requirements of all students who live on campus.

A series of public exhibitions will be held at the University and in the local community for anybody interested in finding out more about the Wind Turbine project to attend.

* Monday 14 December 2009, 12:00-15:00 Lancaster University, University House reception

* Monday 14 December 2009, 17:30-20:00 Ellel War Memorial Institute, Stoney Lane, Galgate

* Tuesday 15 December 2009, 14:00-19:30 St Pauls Parish Hall, Scotforth Road, Lancaster

* Wednesday 16 December 2009, 16:00-20:00 Quernmore Methodist Church Hall, Quernmore

* Thursday 17 December 2009 10:30-16:00 Lancaster Central Library, Market Street, Lancaster

A scoping request has been submitted to Lancaster City Council, which set out the technical and environmental assessments that would be undertaken as part of a planning application.

To view the Scoping Opinion PDF document please click here: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/windturbines/Documents/Scoping%20Opinion%20011009.pdf

Please give your feedback on the Scoping Opinions document by emailing the uni using the Your Opinions form: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/windturbines/Youropinions.htm or writing to the uni or calling – see contacts: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/windturbines/Contact%20details.htm

A planning application will only be submitted following agreement on the scoping request by Lancaster City Council and the completion and assessment of the community consultation process. If the application is successful, construction would start in early 2010.

Video - Free Electricity for Welsh Hill Farmers to Sell !!!

2009-12-02T01:21:00.001+03:30

Click on the title. Very hopeful story and related article here.

Now all they need to do is plant (native) trees for biomass where at present there are methane stinky | stoopid | no-use | harmful sheep.

A Tour of France - July '09

2009-11-29T16:26:00.000+03:30

A three-week trip down the right hand side of France, into the Alps, (we popped into Italy), down to Carcassonne, on into the Pyrenees to watch the Tour de France, and back through the Cevennes.

Probably best to “F11” for really full screen.

You can start, pause and remove captions as you wish.

And here's a sometimes factually inaccurate route map linking all the campsites (town) locations in the right order. (You might find it slow to load).

John Mayall's Jazz Blues Fusion

2009-11-27T04:35:00.001+03:30

I bought this album when it was new, played it long and hard, and in the '90s bought it on CD too, and still enjoy it.

(If you weren't already), relax.

And enjoy.

N.B: No pictures, so perhaps not suitable for folks with ADHD.

Tim Minchin - Storm

2009-11-20T04:44:00.001+03:30

"Trapped in the blinding headlights of vacuous crap..."

A work of utter genius.

Lancaster Co-housing

2009-11-14T06:58:00.001+03:30

Big Baby Ernie

2009-11-05T18:38:00.006+03:30

Big Baby Ernie were so damn good that I nearly drove an hour down the road to see them play for what would've been a third time in four days.

Their first album's on Spotify and, like many a very good one, is less immediate in its impact than one might expect. The second is v good too. You can find them at Myspace and on Youtube, but be patient because several of the clips there are of live performances poorly recorded.

BBE sound variously and sometimes altogether Motowny, Gil Scott-Herony, MGs-y, Allmans-y, Stonesy, Ike and Tina-y, Stevie Wondery, and look to be in their late mid to late 20s.
If you've time, see what you think. They'll be "back in the summer".

Pastry.

2009-11-03T22:25:00.003+03:30

It's a doddle.

Big Baby Ernie

2009-11-03T05:23:00.003+03:30

I'm not long back from seeing the amazing, really, Big Baby Ernie at The Pub and they'll be back on Wednesday at The Penny Bank (Penny Street, Lancaster, UK).

PS. In November 2009 they no longer have beards, have v short hair and a tendency to wear hats.

Vynil

2009-10-31T03:15:00.003+03:30

Today my wife, Jo came home with a 1979 Bang and Olufsen record deck, cassette and tuner combination with 2 fatly solid speakers. The weight of the unit is similar to that of a small car. She'd found it all in a junk-type shop at £80 and paid £70. With it came an identical unit which is for spares and doesn't work, we're told.

It seems styluses (styli?) cost £50-60, but so far when I put on my less scratchy LPs (I guess we have about 100 LPs in all), the result is by a very long way the best recorded sounds I've ever heard in any place in which I've been living. Ever.

Fortunate, aren't we.

Using headphones I listened to, amongst a few other things, Buddy Guy's "The Blues Giant" recorded in 1979 on my son's real birthday (Halloween) in Toulouse (around which city we were driving last weekend).

Here's Buddy Guy last year:

Sleep now in the Fire - RATM

2009-10-28T01:42:00.000+03:30

Rage Against the Machine - Sleep now in the Fire. (Dir. Michael Moore).

The Black Crowes in '96

2009-10-26T12:55:00.002+03:30

The Black Crowes
10/5/96 BC Roadshow, Chicago, IL

Click below to preview tracks from this show

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The Butcher's Cat

2009-10-12T22:40:00.002+03:30

Grand Designs Great British Refurb Campaign

2009-10-09T22:04:00.002+03:30

Bees? Where are the Bees?

2009-10-09T20:11:00.002+03:30

Why test medicines on non-human animals?

2009-09-30T15:50:00.000+03:30

Ee-eye, ee-eye..... Oh.

2009-09-26T01:28:00.002+03:30

Jiminy Glick Interviews 'Ronald McDonald'

Tantrum - All I Wanna Do.

2009-09-25T12:39:00.002+03:30

How damn good is this music video!!!

Inverness - a few hours on a fine September day.

2009-09-21T01:10:00.001+04:30

"Poetry Please" and John Betjeman

2009-09-20T03:19:00.001+04:30

How difficult I found it not to place a comma between Poetry and Please.

More here.

Bulb-us US

2009-09-20T02:25:00.001+04:30

I'm fairly sure that North American scientists will quite soon do wonderfully clever and effective things to reduce climate change's consequences, but for now it seems to me it would be hard to find a better example of dumbing down?

Read it? I haven't. Yet.

2009-09-19T12:46:00.000+04:30

Jewish Girl's Anti-Catholic Parents

2009-09-02T00:57:00.000+04:30

Jimi Hendrix Busking Hound Dog (acoustic)

2009-08-31T03:17:00.000+04:30

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