Tuesday 30 June 2020

Betty

Betty the Pug mixing with the locals on our walk today



D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover

“A woman has to live her life, or live to repent not having lived it.”
D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover
Artwork by James Lawrence Isherwood

Sunday 28 June 2020

M. Scott Peck


“Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.”
M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Travelled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth


Saturday 27 June 2020

Dogs

If only people could be more like dogs!


Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“History is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books - books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, 'What is history, but a fable agreed upon?”
Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code


Thursday 25 June 2020

Hiraeth

The Welsh have a word for the unattainable yearning you feel for a place that no longer exists, or to which you can never return. *Hiraeth* is a homesickness you feel when home is years ago and far away, if it ever existed at all.
Author Val Bethell beautifully expressed this 'longing of the soul to come home to be safe':
"Hiraeth is in the mountains where the wind speaks in many tongues and the buzzards fly on silent wings. It's the call of my spiritual home, it's where ancient peoples made their home. We're high on a hill, where saints bathed sore feet in a healing spring and had a cure. ... the link with the long-forgotten past, the language of the soul, the call from the inner self. Half forgotten - fraction remembered. It speaks from the rocks, from the earth, from the trees and in the waves. It's always there."
St Marys, Tal-y-Llyn, Anglesey


Wednesday 24 June 2020

Wales' Seven Modern Wonders


On 24th June 2006 the Western Mail revealed its list of Wales' Seven Modern Wonders as voted for by its readers.
1 The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales.
2 Snowdon.
3 Wales Millennium Centre.
4 Eisteddfodau.
5 Portmeirion.
6 Pontcysyllte aqueduct.
7 The Pembrokeshire islands.
The original Seven Wonders of Wales is a list of seven landmarks of North Wales contained in an 18th century rhyme.
Pistyll Rhaeadr and Wrexham steeple.
Snowdon's mountain without its people.
Overton yew trees, St Winefride's well.
Llangollen bridge and Gresford bells.



Tuesday 23 June 2020

Johnny Morris

Born this day 1916 in Newport, Gwent,
Johnny Morris, Television presenter, best remembered for the BBC children's programme Animal Magic.
Johnny was the son of a postmaster, who learned to play the violin as a child, touring the valleys of South Wales, with his cello playing father. Morris then worked as a solicitor's clerk, on a building site, as a salesman and managing a 2,000-acre farm in Wiltshire, before his broadcasting career took off when he was discovered telling stories in a pub.




Monday 22 June 2020

Grilled chicken with za’atar and tahini - Nigel Slater


Grilled chicken with za’atar and tahini.
Pinterest
 Grilled chicken with za’atar and tahini. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin/The Observer
Some wonderful flavours going on here with the smoky chicken and its slightly charred skin; deep nutty notes of the tahini and the underlying hit of sourness from the lemons and yogurt. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve eaten this over the past few weeks. It isn’t difficult to tease the bones from the meat with the point of a sharp knife, but you could always ask the butcher to do it for you if you prefer. 
Serves 4
chicken thighs 4 large
lemons 2, for griddling
For the marinade
olive oil 50ml
lemon juice of 1 medium
garlic 2 large cloves
za’atar 1 tbsp
For the tahini dressing
thick yogurt 200ml
tahini 4 tbsp
Remove the two bones from the chicken thighs and flatten the meat out. Place on a piece of clingfilm or even in a plastic freezer bag, then bat the meat a little with a rolling pin or cutlet bat. There is no need to go the full escalope, just flatten out the thicker parts of the thigh. It is not essential, so don’t worry if you don’t have anything suitable, it just helps to cook the meat more evenly. 
For the marinade, mix together the olive oil and the lemon juice. Crush the garlic cloves then stir into the liquid with the za’atar. Place the chicken thighs in the marinade and leave for at least 40 minutes. They will come to no harm if left overnight.
When you are ready to eat, get a cast-iron griddle hot, then place the chicken pieces, shaken of excess marinade, onto the bars of the griddle and let them cook till the skin is golden. Turn and cook the other side. They are ready when the juices run clear when pierced at their thickest place with a metal skewer. 
While the chicken is cooking, put the yogurt in a bowl and stir in the tahini. I prefer to do this lightly, leaving ribbons of the sesame paste marbling the snow-white yogurt. 
Slice the 2 lemons in half and place them cut side down on the griddle for a few minutes till they are warm. You will get more juice from them that way. Let the chicken rest for five minutes, then serve with the tahini dressing and the griddled lemons. 


Auguries of Innocence




To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower 
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 
And Eternity in an hour
A Robin Red breast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage 
A Dove house filld with Doves & Pigeons
Shudders Hell thr' all its regions 
A dog starvd at his Masters Gate
Predicts the ruin of the State 
A Horse misusd upon the Road
Calls to Heaven for Human blood 
Each outcry of the hunted Hare
A fibre from the Brain does tear 
A Skylark wounded in the wing 
A Cherubim does cease to sing 
The Game Cock clipd & armd for fight
Does the Rising Sun affright 
Every Wolfs & Lions howl
Raises from Hell a Human Soul 
The wild deer, wandring here & there 
Keeps the Human Soul from Care 
The Lamb misusd breeds Public Strife
And yet forgives the Butchers knife 
The Bat that flits at close of Eve
Has left the Brain that wont Believe
The Owl that calls upon the Night
Speaks the Unbelievers fright
He who shall hurt the little Wren
Shall never be belovd by Men 
He who the Ox to wrath has movd
Shall never be by Woman lovd
The wanton Boy that kills the Fly
Shall feel the Spiders enmity 
He who torments the Chafers Sprite
Weaves a Bower in endless Night 
The Catterpiller on the Leaf
Repeats to thee thy Mothers grief 
Kill not the Moth nor Butterfly 
For the Last Judgment draweth nigh 
He who shall train the Horse to War
Shall never pass the Polar Bar 
The Beggars Dog & Widows Cat 
Feed them & thou wilt grow fat 
The Gnat that sings his Summers Song
Poison gets from Slanders tongue 
The poison of the Snake & Newt
Is the sweat of Envys Foot 
The poison of the Honey Bee
Is the Artists Jealousy
The Princes Robes & Beggars Rags
Are Toadstools on the Misers Bags 
A Truth thats told with bad intent
Beats all the Lies you can invent 
It is right it should be so 
Man was made for Joy & Woe 
And when this we rightly know 
Thro the World we safely go 
Joy & Woe are woven fine 
A Clothing for the soul divine 
Under every grief & pine
Runs a joy with silken twine 
The Babe is more than swadling Bands
Throughout all these Human Lands
Tools were made & Born were hands 
Every Farmer Understands
Every Tear from Every Eye
Becomes a Babe in Eternity 
This is caught by Females bright
And returnd to its own delight 
The Bleat the Bark Bellow & Roar 
Are Waves that Beat on Heavens Shore 
The Babe that weeps the Rod beneath
Writes Revenge in realms of Death 
The Beggars Rags fluttering in Air
Does to Rags the Heavens tear 
The Soldier armd with Sword & Gun 
Palsied strikes the Summers Sun
The poor Mans Farthing is worth more
Than all the Gold on Africs Shore
One Mite wrung from the Labrers hands
Shall buy & sell the Misers Lands 
Or if protected from on high 
Does that whole Nation sell & buy 
He who mocks the Infants Faith
Shall be mockd in Age & Death 
He who shall teach the Child to Doubt
The rotting Grave shall neer get out 
He who respects the Infants faith
Triumphs over Hell & Death 
The Childs Toys & the Old Mans Reasons
Are the Fruits of the Two seasons 
The Questioner who sits so sly 
Shall never know how to Reply 
He who replies to words of Doubt
Doth put the Light of Knowledge out 
The Strongest Poison ever known
Came from Caesars Laurel Crown 
Nought can Deform the Human Race
Like to the Armours iron brace 
When Gold & Gems adorn the Plow
To peaceful Arts shall Envy Bow 
A Riddle or the Crickets Cry
Is to Doubt a fit Reply 
The Emmets Inch & Eagles Mile
Make Lame Philosophy to smile 
He who Doubts from what he sees
Will neer Believe do what you Please 
If the Sun & Moon should Doubt 
Theyd immediately Go out 
To be in a Passion you Good may Do 
But no Good if a Passion is in you 
The Whore & Gambler by the State
Licencd build that Nations Fate 
The Harlots cry from Street to Street 
Shall weave Old Englands winding Sheet 
The Winners Shout the Losers Curse 
Dance before dead Englands Hearse 
Every Night & every Morn
Some to Misery are Born 
Every Morn and every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight 
Some are Born to sweet delight 
Some are Born to Endless Night 
We are led to Believe a Lie
When we see not Thro the Eye
Which was Born in a Night to perish in a Night 
When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light 
God Appears & God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in Night 
But does a Human Form Display
To those who Dwell in Realms of day

Source: Poets of the English Language (Viking Press, 1950)