Days Off, Snow and Tears

To celebrate finishing my tax return I had a day off and went to Macc.  I went to Macc and I didn't shout at anybody, so I think we can say I have turned a corner. 

It was snowing as I caught the bus to go over England's most dangerous road.  "Should I be doing this?"  I thought. 

That reminds me of a little tip I wanted to give you: don't go to the Dali Museum with a banging hangover.  Those Spanish attendants can really shout if you spew up.  Unless you can say "visceral response to the art" in Spanish and think you can bluff it out.

I didn't stay long as it was cold and I was thinking about the snow and the dangerous road thing.  I bought a DVD:

A New DVD

went home, lit a fire and had a good cry over the film.  Could Hardy get any more miserable? 

Probably.

Rusty Water

When I walked down to the studio, I saw the brook was really full.  I cross it twice on my way; once by a footbridge, once a road bridge.  There was so much water rushing down from the hills that there was white water.  Well, they would have been if the water wasn't brown.  The water in the brook is so brown even the white bits are brown.  That is because the water is - today's word - chalybeate.  That is full of iron.  It doesn't make for a very attractive brook, as it is always a kind of rusty colour.

Half a Marble and a Stone Axe

Last night I re-watched one of my Christmas pressies:

Play For Today

It is an old television Play For Today from 1970.  There is a mysterious element in it of an object found in the garden of a modernised cottage.  The new owner of the cottage finds half a marble on the outside windowsill one morning.  "You've brought it in the house, then" states the creepy housekeeper from the village.  We never know quite what the half-marble has to do with the ensuing events, but somehow it is a link, or a piece of contagious magic.

It is an idea I find fascinating: how a physical object can link a modern person to centuries of history that have played out in ordinary people's lives on the same spot of English earth.  It is the theme in my favourite book:

My Favourite Book

Aimo read it recently, at my insistence, as I had eventually (after 26 years) read his favourite book.  "It's alright, but there isn't much fighting in it" was his opinion.  Whereas my opinion of his favourite book was "It's alright, apart from there was too much fighting."  So be warned, Ferney contains some nightmares, some torture, a bit of strong bloody violence, a murder; but no actual battle scenes.

Although I love Ferney, I would have to admit that the central idea had probably been used first in:

A Good Book

which has as it's central theme an object (a stone axe-head) which is the link between centuries of history, some battles included.  If you are looking for a film or book with this theme, these are available, and you pays your money and takes your choice.  I love them all.

Art, Roller Discos and Gardens

We went to a family party in North Wales on Saturday night.  To bribe myself to do this, I promised myself a visit to the Ruthin Craft Centre on Sunday morning.  I always remember the centre as the place where we went on spec and saw Reggie's Roller Disco.  I still carry my ticket to Reggie's Roller Palace in my wallet, next to the photo of my kids:

My Favourite Exhibition

This time there wasn't anything that grabbed me like that, but I suppose you can't see your favourite artwork ever every time.  The main exhibition was ceramics, and I felt a bit dangerous around it, with a hangover and still wearing high-heeled boots as I hadn't brought sensible boots to change into with me.  You don't want to be wobbly and slightly dizzy near expensive ceramics.

One of the small exhibitions was this:

A Good Exhibition

It featured the work of an artist couple who were interested in myths and mythology and gardens.  I love the commitment of old style art where people completely went for it.  These two artists married, bought a place in Herefordshire and lived their art, making their home and garden part of it.  Fifty years later they have not just their art, but also a garden which they have made.  It's the opposite of short-attention span art, really concentrating on your own thing.  I loved it so much, I bought the book:

A Good Book

as a little vote of thanks for letting me know about Ronald and Betty Pennell and their work.

Hippy Witch, Fairy Witch

Talking of hippy witches here is Miss Aimson the hippy witch on holiday:

The second fairy witch looks a little bit grumpy, that can't be right.

Bluebells and Fish and Chips

With the arrival of snow last night, I have been further encouraged to think about holidays.  I checked the almanac in the kitchen at Aimo's House, and found that Easter is really late this year.  On the one hand, this means we have ages to wait, on the other it means, if we go South, there is a good chance of bluebells and the countryside being really pretty. 

Here is a photograph we took one Easter in Cornwall:

Hippy Photo

with the bluebells just starting to come out.

This was taken on the road between Boscastle and Tintagel.  Hey hey, could you get any more hippy witch than that for a location!  On the subject of Boscastle, my latest

A Great Magazine

Merry Meet magazine just told me that the Director of the Museum of Witchcraft (in Boscastle) has retired and gifted the Museum to The Museum of British Folklore.  I understand why he has done it, to protect the collection and keep it together, and that he thought long and hard about the best way forward, but it feels sad.  It feels like the middle class holiday resort Cornwall of the South of the county is creeping up to the North of the county.  It feels like

"Hey Hey Hippy Witch, you're not welcome any more"

So where are hippy witches to go on holiday?  Now the hippy witch community is on-line and at specialist conventions only, where are we to go if we want to be a hippy witch in the not-virtual world?  Where are we to go if we want fish and chips from the King Arthur's Chip Shop, or a magazine from Merlin's Newsagent?  I'm going to miss it if those places don't exist any more.

p.s Aimo said I wasn't doing enough swearing in my blog lately so: fucking bastards I want my hippy shit back!

Snow! Shock! Horror!

Well we have the first covering of white of the winter.  I don't know if it's going to turn into anything much, I don't think so.  Here is a reminder of winters past:

The Guizer

Look what I found in a charity shop yesterday:

An Interesting Book

an Alan Garner book I didn't know about.  Apart from some interesting stories in it, there is a difference between this and other books, for example The Book of British Folk Tales, in that at the back of the book there is a list of acknowledgements. The sources of all the tales are listed in detail, along with some notes.

I think this is a good idea, and dare I say, honourable.

Unthanks, various

Today Miss Aimson is getting a tenancy agreement for a student house in Norwich.  It is on Unthank Road, which apparently is famous in Norwich, a bit like Alan Partridge.

Unthank is a Northumbrian surname, deriving from a placename.  There have been Unthanks in Northumberland since at least the 12th century, the name deriving from a dialect word for squatters or travellers who appropriated common land. The Unthanks were subsequently a "border reiver" family, outlaws who recognised no jurisdiction but their own. That singular lineage seems ingrained in the music of Rachel Unthank and her younger sister, Becky, who grew up west of Newcastle, not too far from the village that bears their surname.

I would like to quote from the Unthank section from the Bawburgh website:

"Many of us will know the well-known Norwich road name, and even the Unthank Arms public house, but some of us will know that there is more of a connection to Bawburgh with the family name of Unthank. Brought up in Norwich, the name runs off the tongue, but visitors always think it rather strange. There is however a village in Northumberland called Unthank, and this is where the family hails from.
Bawburgh’s connection with the family goes back two hundred years, although it was not until 1870 that the family, as lessees, could buy Church Farmhouse, previously owned by the Church. It is not thought to have housed the Vicar at that time — this, the role of Church Cottage, then a larger property — although certainly it did house Chantry Priests prior to the Reformation. By this time (1870), Mr. Clement William Unthank and his wife, Mary-Anne had inherited Church Farmhouse, Bawburgh, and Intwood Hall, from her father Mr. Joseph Salusbury Muskett, who had acquired the lease of Church Farmhouse in 1799.
As the Unthank name came into the equation, this would not be the last time, the properties would be inherited by the female line. Clement and Mary-Anne’s son, Clement William Joseph inherited the estate in 1884. He became a Lieutenant Colonel, married Judith Sarah Savill-Onley and had 2 sons and 6 daughters, including another Clement William Joseph!! He commanded the 4th Voluntary Battalion Norfolk Regiment 1888-1896 and by this time the Unthank Estate stretched to 3,000 acres in Norfolk with farms amounting to 525 acres. The last Miss Margaret Beatrice Unthank, who was the Great Great Great Grand-daughter of the original Joseph Salusbury Muskett, inherited Intwood from her father John Salusbury Unthank in 1960. In a letter dated 1993, Miss Unthank told Bawburgh News that John Muskett had been “a man of property”, rebuilding Intwood Hall (in the family since 1797) and Caistor Hall for his children, whilst working as Land Agent at Easton Lodge. Margaret Unthank died in 1995 whilst her cousin, Mrs. Jan Darling lived at Intwood Hall.
The Unthank family never did live in Church Farmhouse during the 200 years of its ownership, but there have been many recorded tenants, starting with Thomas Robertson in 1875, through to Ted Reynolds, who left the property in 1979 and in between many farming tenants who played a major part in village affairs (especially James Sparrow during the first two decades of the 20th Century). It was conveyed to the Intwood Estate in 1982, and Church Farmhouse sold, bringing to a close their long association with the village, although much surrounding farming land remained in their hands.
The village, however, will be historically linked with the Unthank family, due to their generous gesture, when, as the re-named Intwood Estates, they gifted the land for Bawburgh’s new Village Hall, which enabled the village to use the proceeds from the sale of its existing land to build our now fine Village Hall. Without this boost, the project would not have been possible, and it is thanks in part to the arrival 202 years before its opening, of the entrepreneurial Joseph Muskett."

Unthanks, Musketts, and Darlings, I think  there is a policy in Norwich that all names, of families or roads, must be cool.  It is the name of stuff capital of England.  Although Northumberland is pretty good for names.  I bought this CD for the name Unthank,

A Fairish CD

but I enjoyed and bought another. 

Another Fairish CD

Now I'm not so sure, I'm a bit off and on with The Unthanks' music.

Borders and Blocks

Just returned from the studio, where something is taking shape.  I can see the potential visual style of The Lost Book of Fleams books.  It will be something like this, today's print:

New Fleamsy Print

That reminds me, I used to really like Borders, but now we just have T'interweb instead, which is also good.

Great Speeches

Last night I watched this film:

A Great film

It's a great film, especially if you like strong bloody violence, which if you are Fleams fans, I will assume you do.  Apparently it is a much more violent version of a foreign language film.  I haven't seen that one.  This version has Russell Means as the old pathfinder.

Russell Means was famous as a defender of the rights of native and indigenous peoples worldwide as well as an actor and author.  He was one of the founders of the American Indian Movement (AIM), and it was obviously great for him to be able to act in films as if he was in a time of his ancestors, before they had been dispossessed of their land.

He also got a chance to do it in this film, probably the bestest film ever made:

A Very Good Film

A couple of extracts of speeches he made are in this book:

An Interesting Book

including part of one he gave at the time of the occupation of Wounded Knee.  In it he talks about the history of how American Indians have been treated in the US:

"World War I came along, and the United States asked the American Indians if they would fight their war for them.  So we went out and saw around the world what was happening, and we came back.  Then another war happened.  this time they not only took Indians into the army, but into the defense plants all across America, and into the big cities.  And we learned the ways of the white man, right here in this country, found out about the white man to bring that knowledge back for the use of our people."

Means was talking about American Indians in white society, but the story is the same here with the government and ordinary working people, especially rural working people.  It was the World Wars that gave people the ability to stand up for their rights and achieve social justice.  We're all Indians to governments, that's why we have to fight them.

Sun, Frost and Lichen

Here is a picture I took today from the window at Aimo's House of sun and frost:

Sun on the fields

Here is a picture of lichen (we like lichen here at Aimo's House)

Lichen on the tree

Sorrel, Butter and Otters

This talk of otters reminded me of a holiday we had in Scotland.  We were staying near Achiltibuie in a rented holiday cottage.  I read the Visitor's Book and someone had written in it about how they picked some wild sorrel and sautéed it in unsalted butter...  What kind of Independent-reading person seriously needs to tell the possible future readers of a visitor's book in a holiday cottage that they foraged some wild sorrel, sautéed it in unsalted butter and ate it.  Delicious!  To take a leaf from the previous post, a knob, I suppose.

I was sorely tempted to write: we went for a walk by the shore, and spotted some sea-otters... we sautéed them in some unsalted butter.  Delicious!; but I thought some animal-lovers might hunt me down and kill me, so I didn't.  I won't try and impress you with how clever we were on holiday, I'll just show you some nice pics:

A Sea-otter?

A Sunset

Not a sunset

A Mountain

The Moon

Near Achiltibuie

A Ruin

Near Achiltibuie

I think I've started to think about holidays.  Have you?







Hobbits, Otters and Knobs

The Book not the Film

Last night me and Aimo went to see The Hobbit 2 - The Desolation of Benedict Cumberbatch.  (I don't see why he's so desolate - Sherlock was good and he does look like an otter.  Maybe he needs to spend more time as an otter: swimming, fishing, giggling.)  Anyway, back to the Hobbit 2 - because it's a bit old now, we were in a tiny screen with not many people.  As the credits started someone piped up: "Peter Jackson's a knob" and it wasn't even Aimo.

So I was wondering, when used in this context is it knob or nob?  Nob is an old word for a posh person, I suppose short for noble or nobility.  It kind of means the same as a knob which is a dick.  So is the spelling of knob (dick) knob with a K?  Like in Bedknobs and Broomsticks - rub your knob and go to another world. I love Bedknobs and Broomsticks.  We used to have it on video, but never got it on DVD.  Who wrote Bedknobs and Broomsticks?  Was it P L Travers?

Anyway, back to The Hobbit 2.  I enjoyed it sort of, and Aimo didn't fall asleep.  Maybe it was his outrage keeping him awake.  It's a funny thing about gendered outrage.  When I'm outraged at the Bank, I'm a crazy pyscho bitch; when Aimo's outraged on the phone to British Gas, he's a customer with a serious problem that really needs to be fixed.  So the boiler's finally fixed now, because they sent the serious engineer for serious customers with serious problems.  It's an ill wind I suppose...

Chocolate Coins and Frank Sidebottom

Got the local paper (Buxton Advertiser) yesterday and spotted this headline:

Shock Story

I know it is actually serious when shop staff get attacked, and there was an assault, but it is a funny headline.  Come to Buxton! Get attacked with chocolate coins!  Buxton - where violence has a Christmassy flavour! 

Best wishes to the staff, hope everyone is okay.  Sorry we laughed at your ordeal.

Then I was in a bit of a papers mood and I checked out this article in The Guardian about Frank Sidebottom, the hero of Timperley, just down the road from Aimo's Flat of the old days.

I was a bit puzzled by this picture, in which Frank Sidebottom had a weird head on:

Weird Head?

"What a weird head",  I thought, "That doesn't look like Frank Sidebottom", who looks like this:

Proper Head

Then I read the story.  The top picture is from the Hollywood film, with Maggie Gyllenhaal.  Bloody Americans (Kate makes shaking fist gesture here)!  As if they could get Frank Sidebottom!  Every time you try to avoid clichés, and try not to say "Americans just don't get silly humour", then they go and do something like that.  How could they not reproduce Frank's head?  Don't they get that his Betty Boop head is really quite important to the joke and you have to get it right?  A large Lego head doesn't work.

Now I'm going to be cross all day.  Let's hope going for a walk with my dog friend (and his people) will cheer me up.  Toodles!

Camel Poo

OMGA!*  Just watched an amazing film:

OMGA!

I don't watch torture, but I do like strong bloody violence.  And swearing.  This film is great, what has really worked in it's favour is that they didn't have much money for special effects and CGI, so they just went to the mountains in Wales and filmed men hitting each other.  Brilliant!  I wish The Lord of The Rings had been filmed like this, as close to real life as we can imagine the Dark Ages to be.

Apparently now it is not PC to say The Dark Ages, you have to say "Early Mediaeval", as Dark Ages implies that some civilisations aren't as good as other civilisations.  It's a fair point, but I still prefer "Dark Ages".  Me and Aimo used to be in a Dark Age re-enactment society (with Allan and Foz as previously mentioned).  No-one was PC in our Dark Age group, we just liked fighting in fields and drinking.  And probably swearing too.  Like that time I left somebody's axe at Clifford's Tower in York.  Sorry about that.  And the time I put my rucksack in a trunk at a banquet because it didn't look authentic, then didn't remember 'til we got home, and then we had to ride back to the University of Lancaster to find it.  Sorry about that Aimo.

Those were the days, heh?  Like the one when we went onto the battle-field after the camel race and no-one wanted to die, because they didn't want to die in camel poo.  Who does?

Actually, that reminds me of the famous camel suit I made master Aimson at Infant's School.  It was the star of many a Nativity play.  And the time Daniel said "No camel poo here" instead of "No room at the inn".  It was quite an adlib, and only added to the famous camel-suit's fame.  If Master Aimson is ever a famous actor, we will have to hope someone videoed the famous "camel poo" scene at the Nativity.

p.s. Hugh - I took your advice and now switch off wireless to conserve battery powere - thanks for the tip.


* For those of you who do not speak the language of the kids like what I do, this stands for OH, MY GIDDY AUNT!

New Technology and Old

I just posted off my first etsy purchase today!  Then Claire gave me some tips for linking etsy to the blog, so I'll see about that tomorrow when I re-stock the shop!  New technology and me, we're like that (I'm holding two fingers together).

Back to some old tech - some more prints from my press:

A Moon-lit Hare

A Lady with a Piggin on Her Head

A Toast to You, Sir!

Fresh Green Shoots

Well there are strange times here.  Life carries on in it's difficult way, but I think fresh shoots of some positive things can be glimpsed.

I set up my new press at the studio and I am pleased with the results

New Print

Do you like it?  It was just an image to try out the new set-up, but I am encouraged that I am heading in the right direction.  I think it has the look of old book illustrations, so will work for the Fleams chapbooks I am designing.

Also I am hopeful about the new Etsy shop, but it is a bit of a steep learning curve for old, no-technology me.  I have got for hang of the basics of my Kobo, though.  I have purchased several classic books now.  The battery seems to go down really easily, which I am surprised about, I thought it was supposed to last for ages so you could read out and about?

Undaunted, I shall carry on trying to work all this new-fangled stuff out. Toodles!

Alan Garner and the Friendly Re-write

I found something incredible last night whilst reading British Goblins by Wirt Sikes.  I have previously said how impressed with Alan Garner's writing I am, how much I would like to be able to write like him. I used the example of a story in this book:

A good Book

This is the story I was so impressed with in Alan Garner's Folk Tales:

'Edward Frank and the Friendly Cow

As Edward Frank was coming home one night, he heard something walking towards him, but at first could see nothing.  Suddenly his way was barred by a tall, dismal object which stood in the path before him.
It was a marvellous-thin man, whose head was so high that Edward nearly fell over backwards in his efforts to gaze at it.  His knees knocked together, and his heart sank.  With great difficulty he gasped forth: "In the name of God, what is here?  Turn out of my way, or I will strike thee!"
The giant then disappeared, and the frightened Edward, seeing a cow not far off, went towards her to lean on her, which the cow stood still and permitted him to do.'

This is the version I read last night in Wirt Sikes:

'Such was the apparition which met Edward Frank.  As he was coming home one night he heard something walking towards him, but at first could see nothing.  Suddenly his way was barred by a tall dismal object which stood in the path before him.  It was the ghost of a marvellous thin man, whose head was so high above the observer's line of vision that he nearly fell over backward in his efforts to gaze at it.  His knees knocked together and his heart sank.  With great difficulty he gasped forth, "In the name of God, what is here?  Turn out of my way or I will strike thee!"
The giant ghost then disappeared, and the frightened Edward, seeing a cow not far off, went towards her to lean on her, which the cow stood still and permitted him to do.'

The differences are quite minimal.  Do they count as re-writing?  In re-telling this as a folk-tale Alan Garner has removed the word "ghost", which is debatable, and removed the wording "above the observer's line of vision", which does sound very intrusive.  Mainly he has re-written the story to be a straight narrative about Edward Frank, rather than the reporting of a folk tale told about Edward Frank.

Do these changes account for the effect I was so previously impressed with, of Alan Garner telling one thing, whilst telling you another.  Was this his achievement, or the achievement of the original native Welsh person who told the tale to the folk-lore collector Wirt Sikes?

Was Alan Garner's achievement the selection of this tale, and the placing of it in a frame, with space around it, and calling it Art, which allowed me to think so highly of it?  If I had first read this whilst reading Wirt Sikes, would I have been as impressed?  I don't think I would have, although I would have enjoyed it.  I think it was the separating of the tale from it's wordy anthology home, and placing it in it's own frame which allowed me to appreciate it.  I am not knocking Alan Garner's re-telling of this tale at all, I was just shocked to find how little of it he wrote.  I thought only he could have written that brilliant bit about the cow!  But we have an anonymous interviewee of Wirt Sikes to thank for it. 

Thank you!  I love the story whoever wrote it!

The Lost Book of Fleams Etsy Shop

Here's a wish, perhaps slightly out-of-date, but a true sentiment:

This is For Sale

It is the back of a postcard printed with a photograph:



Girl with Dog

This photograph is for sale now in my Etsy shop!  Yes, Miss Aimson has successfully guided me through setting up an Etsy shop.  At present I have listed some of my vintage and antique photographs which are now up for sale.

The Etsy shop is called The Lost Book of Fleams Gift Emporium.  Or it might be called LostBookofFleamsShop.  It sort of depends on what exactly I filled in where.  I smile because I have no idea what is going on.

Fairies and Wendioges

Today I have been reading about fairies , ghosts and other supernatural creatures.  For Christmas I received:

A Christmas Present

William Henderson's Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders.  Quite often this is one of the books which is quoted in books about fairies and spirits.  Why not get it straight from the horse's mouth when reading about fairies?  I have been reading all about red-caps, brags, barguests, punkies and the like, from a time when they were real inhabitants of the Northern Counties.

Then I bought "British Goblins" on my Kobo.  For 74p!  That works for me.  I am currently reading it.  the title is a bit misleading, it is about any kind of fairy or spirit, from undines to Gwyn ap Nudd.  The "British" of the title mainly means Welsh, the logic being the Welsh are the original inhabitants of the British Isles.

There is no where near enough of this kind of down-to-earth fairy and spirit stuff around.  In The Lord of The Rings I really enjoyed the descriptions of Tom Bombadil and Goldberry.  They have the feel of original denizens of fairyland, homely and nature-based.  The Ents are a fantastic example of something really old, nature-based, and home-grown.  Even the elves aren't too twee, and are still homely, whilst being very beautiful.  Their recent depiction on film does nothing for me.  I am still searching for some down-to-earth fairies somewhere on film.

In the mean time, my favourite film spirit is the Wendigo.  This is my favourite film featuring the wendigo:

A Wendigo Film

If you haven't watched this film, why not?  It's brilliant.




A Twelfth Night Present

Last night being the last night of Christmas, we were looking at old photographs and reminiscing.  Well when I say reminiscing, what I mean is embarrassing the children. 

Here is a photo of Aimo with a knitting pirate:

A Knitting Pirate

Aimo looks totally stunned by the pirate.  Incidentally, we still have the chair that the pirate is sitting in.

Here is a little late Christmas present for you, a sort of Twelfth Night present:

What's inside?

and open it up:

A Portrait of Aimo

What a Christmas present, I think you'll agree.  The hairstyle is a bit strange because Aimo had just cut his own hair.  Maybe sending the photo round everyone was the punishment for chopping his hair.

I have decided to sell the majority of my collection of antique and vintage photographs.  I will set up an Etsy shop when I have worked out how to do it.  I'm lying, I'm going to ask Miss Aimson to set it up for me.