Elastic Bandages

Q: How do you know when you're old?
A: When the special offer at the chemists: elastic bandages buy one, get one half price, looks interesting.

(Not) Standing Stones

Not everything in Fleams is a laugh; some things are wistful, quite a few are darksome, and others are just plain sad.
 

I have always wondered about the stone circle at Arbor Low (near Fleams), where the stones lie flat in their places.

Why would people flatten but not remove an ancient monument?

This poem is an imagining of one possible motive.  Maybe at one time, when the folk community had been weakened by an intrusion, for example, Christianity, the folk were ashamed of their current lives.  They felt confused, and weak, and knew that they were but shadows of the former race of giants which preceded them.

It was not that, converted to a new life, they wished to destroy all traces of the old; more that those remains reminded them of their despair.

I have only a tiny piece of life

It is slipping through my fingers
Do not watch me now
Old stones of my people

I no longer live in land

Held under your gaze

I was not strong enough to stand

I was not strong enough
I was not strong
Do not watch me now

I lay you down carefully

Last act of sharing
My little life
That slips through my fingers

My tiny flake of life

Arbor Low

Gardening and The Earl of Hell's Breeches

What fun gardening in the sun with my cat friend "helping".  Although it's a bit off-putting wielding the secateurs when a pouncing cat's about.

The garden at Aimo's House is both Buxton Slug Sanctuary and a daddy-long-legs factory.  We must be responsible for a high percentage of the Peak District's output of them.  In late summer when they invade the house it gets a bit like The Birds; except with daddy-long-legses instead of birds.

Not that I want to make you jealous, but I am just in the sun doing a bit of gardening and also reading this book Aimo brought back from The Falklands:

A Glossary

My favourite thing: a glossary of obscure vocabulary.  Some of the words are just old-fashioned, some Scottish, as there have been a lot of Scottish settlers in The Falklands, and some are completely unfamiliar to me, being Spanish.  A have one little treat for you today, a wonderful expression, which I will be glad to use in Fleams:

Black as the Earl of Hell's Breeches
A description of the weather, meaning a foggy, dark, winter night without moon or stars.

Now that's a quality glossary.

Sheep, Celebrity Wedding Dresses and Axes

You know one of my great successes of recent years was winning the "Identify the Breed of Sheep" competition at the PTA quiz?  You must remember because I do go on about it quite a bit.  (Too much, according to Master Aimson).  Well, at Helen's hen do I won the "Identify the Celebrity Wedding Dress" quiz.  I am very proud, I got a cup and everything.  With the sheep competition, I just got two switched (Scottish Blackface and Leicester Blueface; actually I still think the competition had them switched, but enough of that, I have gone on about it enough); well in the celebrity wedding dress quiz I just got Ellie Jackson and Salma Hayek switched.  I hadn't even heard of Ellie Jackson and who knew Salma Hayek would have such a traditional dress?

But I don't bear grudges, as you can see from the fact that I hardly ever mention the fact that I think the Scottish and Leicester sheep were switched.  The following Christmas, Aimo bought me this book:

A Present from Aimo

so I could check.  I'm not saying we live in the country, but that's the sort of thing you get for a Christmas present around here.

The weather being gorgeous again, we went out for a walk again.  This time, the bird we heard AND saw was:

A Woodpecker.

Here is a picture of our walk yesterday:

Mostyn looking for Axe Edge

which Cheryl sent me from her phone, because we are up on that technology thing, we is practically the kids (and I'm cool according to Miss Miller-Lewis).  It's quite cool living in the country actually.  It does look rather good in this photo, don't you think?

Birds, butterflies and hairy things

A list of birds I have seen today:

blue tit
young blackbird
pied wagtail
grouse


A bird I heard:

curlew


Not a bird:

painted lady (?) butterfly
tortoiseshell butterfly
big hairy caterpillar (possibly dead)


Random stuff I've seen:

Some lichen with red bits
primroses
daffodils
my cat friend
my dog friend
my human friend
lots and lots of blue sky


Nice!

Gummi Penguins

Gummi penguins must mean Aimo is back from the Falklands, and it does!

The Unbearable Smugness of Kate

I have been reading (or maybe browsing) my new book:

A New Book at Aimo's House

It's not that I want to be smug, but when I was reading it I couldn't help it when there was no mention of The Dark Angel (1989) (see post: Dark Angels, Black Bustles and White Cats), despite several mentions of Uncle Silas (1947).  Do I know something that Guillermo del Toro doesn't?  It's quite nice to think it's a possibility, in a smug sort of a way.  Also there is no mention of Wakewood in the "Children of the Night" section.

I have no choice but to think: those whippersnappers can't tell me about Gothic, I was around when Goth was born.  I was a student in Manchester 1984-87.  It was the Nineties before I could wear anything other than black, and then only purple (with black).  I remember this from when Goth started:

Some Magazine from the Olden Days

and wore only black denim for years.  Happily I can now wear indigo denim again, but it's been a long journey.

Also:
There is no mention of Kate Bush's videos, although the front cover shows Isabelle Adjani pioneering the look that Kate Bush made popular (with Goths).
Also:
There is no mention of The Craft (1996) or Practical Magic (1998).  Practical Magic might be more of a wholesome kitchen witch herbalist kinda thing; but they do murder a murderer, then resurrect him, then murder him again, and finally exorcise him.  I think that counts as Gothic.

How can you not mention The Craft, especially when discussing teen films?  It deserves a mention for one scene at least - a crazed teen witch laughing maniacally  on a beach full of stranded dolphins.  How can that not count as having a dark heart?  Of course, in Fleams we prefer our Goths on a beach to be more benign, pretty goths making sand art on deserted Scottish strands (see post: Goth on a Beach).

I haven't read the whole book yet, maybe when I do I'll find all these films, and then I'll just look daft.  Smug and daft, not a nice combination, but it happens more often than you think.