Mutterings - Dec 29

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Romantic :: Dinner (?!)
2. Parents :: Memories
3. Glass :: Ceiling
4. Excuse :: Weak
5. Beading :: Jacket
6. Reservation :: Seat
7. Present :: Ghost of Christmas..
8. Deadly :: Nightshade
9. List :: Ordered
10. Personal :: Affairs

Mutterings - Dec 24

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Transaction :: Unit
2. Green :: Environment
3. Let’s roll :: Pastry!
4. Corporation :: Mayor
5. View :: User Interface
6. Help :: Rescue
7. Massive :: Attack
8. Format :: Disc
9. Wife :: Companion
10. Screen :: Green

(just in time this week...)

Mutterings - Dec 13

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Patients :: Wards
2. Intentional :: Malice
3. Envelope :: Pushing (the)
4. Fear :: Dark (cloud)
5. Confidential :: Message
6. Mixed up :: Soda
7. Years :: Retirement
8. Branded :: Blacksmith
9. Biography :: Authorized
10. Provoked :: Rage

Teaser Tuesday -Dec 12

(yes I know this is late - rather than being a day early!)

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The only other people who came close to us were on other boats, some of them simple log-boats, some bigger boats with floors, and they were just shadows as well, dark and shadowy shapes with shadowy voices speaking softly in the dimness, as if each boat was a different world.
"The reason I rushed you Starlight," I said after a while, " and the reason I didn't take the time to find traders from New Earth is that another boat came in more or less at the same time as you started out.

from Chris Beckett's Mother of Eden. Starlight the main character (I think!) has come a long way to get to this point in the second part of Beckett's parables on society, theology and ecology. I was going to stick at the first book Dark Eden but I'm glad I didn't!

Mutterings - Dec 5

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Major :: Minor
2. Excited :: Pant
3. Phone :: Cord
4. Accident :: Sign (with the Catholic substance vs accidents lurking there too!)
5. Texture :: Gimp (an open source graphics editor)
6. Competition :: Open
7. Allow :: Permit
8. Tears :: (for) Fears
9. Playing :: Piano (along?)
10. Effortless :: Skill

Mutterings - Nov 28

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Frustrated :: Emotions
2. Plaid :: Dead men(consistently - I see we had this recently - just checking...)
3. Chips :: Bag (could be electronic or American)
4. Wonder :: Horse
5. Coat :: Colours
6. Trust :: Certificate
7. Shelves :: IKEA
8. Sharp :: Double
9. Lotion :: Camomile
10. Anxious :: Parent

Teaser Tuesday - Nov 22

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The office moved out of London. Adelaide became a shop assistant in a very superior shop and hoped to become a buyer.

From Iris Murdoch's Bruno's Dream, I've head this on my to be re-read pile for a number of years and have just got around to it. A deeply frustrated Adelaide. A creepy but fascinating read!

Mutterings - Nov 22

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Diva :: de l'Empire (a line from a song by Erik Satie)
2. Flipping :: Pancake
3. Canon :: Law
4. Bread pudding :: Sultanas
5. Shocking :: Insulation
6. Deep fry :: Burger (eugh!)
7. Masterful :: Navigation
8. Disgusting :: Beaviour
9. Elastic :: Knicker
10. Trowel :: Lay in on (with a )

Lisbon

We extended the holiday with a night's stay in Lisbon. These are some of the tiles in the Cervejaria Trindade a converted refectory of a monastery, you'd never know it was there from the street.

We spent much of the day walking in the centre, lots to see, we never made a tram ride - they always seemed to be packed to the doors even at 9am on Sunday morning!
Evening meal at Santo Antonio de Alfama down in the Moorish quarter - we'd had lots of soggy vegetables during our stay they were well cooked here - we just got in, I'd recommend booking! We stayed by the castle, busy - lots of street vendors selling selfie sticks(!) but the hotel was quiet and restful.

Mutterings - Nov 15

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Judges :: Ruth (old testament books)
2. Notification :: Email
3. Proof :: Pudding
4. Charming :: Prince
5. Candle :: Wind
6. Salad :: Editor (when they highlight keywords, strings etc)
7. Savings :: Life
8. Ten minutes :: Countdown
9. Concern :: Social
10. Service :: Voluntary

Three Palaces and a castle

At least that's what the Inn Travel writeup said as the itinerary for the day! This is the Pena Palace:

We only managed 2 palaces and the castle but we wandered outside the Regaliera. The Moorish castle (where we started) breathtaking views over the countryside (and vertiginous!) lots of helpful displays talking about the history. Then onto Pena, the composer Richard Strauss on a visit said

this is the true Garden of Klingsor and there, up above, is the Castle of the Holy Grail

I saw what he meant with this castle in the clouds. More photos in the album.
That night we ate at O Regional in Sintra, the guide claimed recommended by locals - I wasn't sure, it felt rather more touristy than many we'd been in, there were certainly large portions though!

The final walk to Sintra - faster than a snail!

The next day was the walk from Colina Flora to Sintra

Through woods and gentle pathways, with views of what was to come! A stop to view the palace on Monserrate - spectacular, yes there wasn't much furniture in the palace but the architecture was wonderful, and the gardens too - look at the album for some pictures. We then took a bus to Sintra where we stayed at the Lawrence's Hotel, very comfortable and we ate out at Tulhas small and very busy, they were queuing outside at one point, we were close to the kitchen with good views, strongly recommended!

Convento dos Capuchos

The next day we took the easy route along the road and walked to the convento dos capuchos. A 16thC monastery for Franciscans and then Capuchins, this is the door of the dead - above an entrance that the new novices had to take to begin their lives under vows.

Very small cells for the monks, cork lined for warmth, just about walkable into - you had to crouch though. The door of the novice's cell looked onto the exit - a reminder that they could yet leave! Very austere simple location.
We walked back to Colina Flora - we ate that evening at A Toca de Julio - more conventional restaurant than yesterday's Sisudo, and a lift back with one of the waiters - exciting speeds along narrow roads. We much enjoyed Colina Flora - Aasta and James are American who love Portugal very simple but comfortable and wonderful breakfasts. The photo in the album of us was taken by James - as part of their guest book.

From the Westernmost .. inland

The next day we were given a lift to the Cabo da Roca, the most westerly point of mainland Europe. Lots of tourists but walk a little along the coast and you come very close to these dramatic rock formations of Ursa Cove.

A lunchtime stop at Adraga beach and an easy day wandering through sand dunes. At one point there was a crashed car that had clearly been dumped and some locals attempted to buttonhole us - seeing our interest, hoping that we'd dumped it and would take it away!. We walked to the guest house of Colina Flora (of which more when I write the next entry) and in the evening we were taken to Sisudo restaurant in Almoçageme - very much a local place, a wide veggie choice and lots more too. There's a photo of the place mat and the wine in the album. I'd have gladly gone there another evening but there was so much choice between eating places!

Mutterings - Nov 9

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Reheat :: Casserole
2. Electrified :: Wire
3. Velvet :: Casserole - I sometimes cook a red-velvet casserole recipe, beef, beetroot and orange
4. Half :: Cock
5. Cheesiest :: Fondue
6. Stale :: Odour
7. Color :: Grey
8. Printing :: Ink
9. Strange :: Particle (Strangeness
10. Shrimp :: Portuguese - who were very fond of translating what the English think of as prawns as shrimps

Peninha

The next day was a circular walk to the chapel of Peninha

As the book said there are stunning views over the area and as far as Lisbon, we had uncertain weather but it was still clear. Unfortunately the chapel isn't open for visitors so we had to look through the windows. We copped out of the walk around the top and instead walked back down (though a different route). Dinner was at the hotel, we weren't wildly keen but it was very atmospheric!

The picture is from a sheltered part of the Penhina chapel looking towards Lisbon.

Cascais to Azoia

We're back from a walking holiday in Portugal arranged (again!) by Inn Travel the walking was in the Sintra with a final day in Lisbon.
We flew to Lisbon got in rather late (around 11pm after the plane was delayed due to a medical problem on the incoming service)so our stop in Cascais was rather brief, we were taxied next morning to the Cabo Raso lighthouse where the host of our next 2 nights left us.
We had a pleasant morning walking along Guicho beach and after lunch at a beach cafe (very nice) the only Sangria of the week, we headed inland throughcountryside and hamlets to São Saturnino. This is allegedly a former monastery but had a distinctly spooky atmosphere due to the furnishings. We were driven to a local restaurant in Azoia for evening meal - meeting a couple who were a day ahead of us on the walk. I enjoyed an octopus dish the rest of the party were a little more conservative! A fairly restful first day of the walk.

Most of the photos are uploaded to flickr, a few more to do and I hope to sequence them in a better order. The sequence wasn't helped by my forgetting the camera sd card....

Mutterings - Nov 1

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Referral :: Doctor's
2. Stressed :: Syllable
3. Apply :: Advertisment
4. Inched :: Forward
5. Zipper :: Stuck
6. Plaid :: Dead men (don't wear..)
7. Issues :: Conflict
8. Orange :: Men (Northern Ireland)
9. Cream :: Double
10. Finish :: Line

Mutterings - Oct 30

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Unflattering :: Posture
2. Challenge :: University
3. Passion :: Narrative
4. Founder :: Glug (Didn't know you'd lost 'er - I'll get my coat!)
5. Home :: Page
6. Puppet :: Virtual Machine (puppet is a system for creating virtual machines of computers)
7. Lotion :: Suntan
8. Flavor :: Icecream
9. Respectful :: Silence
10. Runway :: Landing

Just squeaking in in time and as you may gather from some of these we've been away!

Mutterings - Oct 18

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Submit :: Update
2. Recollection :: lieu cher, I thought it must be a peom but I see it's a Tchaikovsky work
3. Humble :: Uriah Heep
4. Wire :: Magazine
5. Braces :: Belt
6. Tunnel :: Vision
7. Strategic :: Objective (military or project?)
8. Padding :: Space (was PAD a COBOL keyword?)
9. Sophisticated :: Taste
10. Wrist :: Action (piano...)

Teaser Tuesday Oct 11

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Yes I know it's nothing like Tuesday but busyness currently reigns!

He says that this correction of distortion enables people to see each other in a completely different light. They are able to gain the dignity of mutuality.

From Una Kroll's Forgive and Live I found this a helpful book, I was reading it partially for a talk preparation but also because issues of forgiveness have loomed large for me in recent years - maybe that's true for all of us as we age! She takes us through anonymized case studues, Biblical reflection and the connections. Recommended!

Mutterings - Oct 15

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Luke :: Gospel
2. Towel :: Arthur (Hitchhiker's guide..)
3. Arrest :: Under
4. Curls :: Tongs
5. Dust :: Space
6. Flipped :: Burger
7. Remote :: Buttons
8. Swipe :: Card
9. Magazine :: Gun
10. Cotton :: Picker (and probably Deputy Dawg! - though that was pickin'!)

Mutterings - Oct 4

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Forgetfulness :: Lethe
2. Diagram :: xfig (that's going back a bit, but the software is still downloadable and as quirky as ever!)
3. Inconsiderate :: Child
4. Relapse :: Mental
5. Jingling :: Coins (tries to remember the indulgence collector beginning with C with the jingle and fails - ah Tetzel, after a websearch "As soon as a coin in the coffer rings / the soul from purgatory springs" - I think I was trying to remember - and spell - Cajetan)
6. Counter :: Snakes & Ladders
7. Backspace :: Key
8. Flush :: Royal
9. Awkward :: Move (climbing?)
10. Thumb :: Under (piano)

Walking away

Walking Away

For Sean

By C. Day Lewis


It is eighteen years ago, almost to the day-
A sunny day with the leaves just turning,
The touch-lines new-ruled - since I watched you play
Your first game of football, then, like a satellite
Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away

Behind a scatter of boys. I can see
You walking away from me towards the school
with the pathos of a half-fledged thing set free
Into a wilderness, the gait of one
Who finds no path where the path should be.

That hesitant figure, eddying away
Like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem,
Has something I never quite grasp to convey
About nature's give-and-take - the small, the scorching
Ordeals which fire one's irresolute clay.

I had worse partings, but none that so
Gnaws at my mind still. Perhaps it is roughly
Saying what God alone could perfectly show-
How selfhood begins with a walking away,
And love proved in the letting go.

This was today's reading in a book of daily readings I have, it seemed good to share.

Reunion

A few weeks ago now I returned to Trinity hall Cambridge for a reunion and

I spent a little time wandering around the colleges - you'll find the photos here and there's an additional album on google

Mutterings - Sept 27

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Brace :: Girdle (I had to look it up to realise the connection - Lord of the Rings!)
2. Upgrade :: System
3. Run :: Test
4. Construction :: Under (remember those logos on websites a few years ago now!)
5. Lazy :: Evaluation
6. Email :: SMTP
7. Hide :: Bird (finally I get my mind away from computers!!)
8. Hornet :: Stripe
9. Wonder :: Wall
10. Hesitate :: Lost

Teaser Tuesday - Sep 22

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

To make matters worse, the last youth chosen to play Apollo had died shortly after the ceremony, the one before had left and gone to the shrine at Delos, the birthplace of the god. Only Menoetheus, a man with a face racked in a permanent frown - hard to envisage as a beautiful youth - remained of those who had played Apollo before me.

from Salley Vickers Where three roads meet a re-telling of the Oedipus story to a dying Sigmund Freud. Trivium (for those that know Stravinsky) hovered over the spectral retelling.

Mutterings - Sep 20

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Flat :: Tyre
2. Machine :: State (an IT reference!)
3. Arthritis :: Osteo
4. Forks :: Tuning
5. Task force :: Invasion
6. Beads :: Rosary
7. Striped :: Pajamas (or convicts!)
8. Dumpster :: Truck
9. Piggy :: Bank
10. Badge :: Pride

Teaser Tuesday - Sep 6

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The next stage of advance, lasting a mere 200,000 years or so, reveals a growing use of intelligence in the more careful selection of stones, and more sophisticated methods of knocking them into shape. It was only with the arrival some 100,000 years ago, of homo sapiens, and still more brainpower, that the real acceleration began, visible nowadays in the increasingly numerous and complex artefacts which eventually became the main evidences of civilized life.

from The Concept of Nature by John Habgood. Habgood was the archbishop of York back in the 1980-90s and this book is the text of his Gifford lectures of 2000. I've had this book for a number of years and struggled to start it a few times, this time I've completed and found that once I'd got past the first chapter it was much more interesting as it deals with the environment and medical ethics (amongst other things).

Mutterings - Sep 6

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Holiday :: Memories
2. Rotted :: Palm (maybe I read that as Potted!)
3. Pain :: Emotional
4. Confused :: Dazed
5. Surprised :: Joy (the CS Lewis autobiography)
6. Joint :: Rolled
7. Desert :: Music (Steve Reich)
8. Solicit :: Vaz (current political scandal/debate)
9. Affection :: Tender
10. Memories :: Holiday (no I didn't see this when I did no 1!)

Mutterings - Sep 3

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Electrical :: Circuit
2. Glasses :: Musical
3. Comics :: Satire
4. Satellite :: Telstar (what a throwback!)
5. Tonight :: Michelmore
6. Sweater :: Chunky
7. Clipboard :: Paste
8. Unglued :: Hanging off (Unglued goes nicely with my above association!)
9. Plaid :: Martin (Dead men don't wear...)
10. Upsetting :: Emotion

Teaser Tuesday - Aug 24

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Nombeko answered him in English and told the truth: that the Israeli Mossad had just barged into the house with the aim of commandeering the atomic bomb in the potato truck. And maybe, while he was at it, killing one or two of the people in the room.

I don't think this is really a spoiler, nothing would surprise me with this plot of The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden (Jonas Jonasson). But I found it hard to be involved - or amused.

Mutterings - Aug 22

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Passive :: Voice
2. Crumbs :: Bread
3. Grave :: Slow (as in the Italian musical speed indication)
4. Believe :: Make
5. Stifle :: Sneeze
6. Fish :: out of water
7. Crunch :: Point
8. Bonus :: Point
9. Flat :: Fish
10. Bubbled :: Champagne

Mutterings - Aug 16

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Hiding :: in plain sight
2. Grip :: Bag
3. Sticky :: Wicket
4. Games :: Monitor
5. Tunnel :: Channel
6. Japan :: Haiku
7. Super :: Mario
8. Map :: Scale
9. Costume :: Drama
10. Secret :: Garden
I was going to go with Compton Burnett as an author but I see it's Frances Burnett (but I've not read it for 10s of years!)

Teaser Tuesday - Aug 9

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

But perhaps this arrangement was the solution to Nombeko's dilemma. She could move in with the engineer, let her wounds heal and run away on the day she felt that the National Library in Pretoria could no longer wait.

The Girl who saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson. Our book group book of the month - I think this was a book set in a foreign country. Fast paced but maybe a little too fast for its own good? Early days yet! Here's the goodreads comments - looks like a book to either love or hate!

Mutterings - Aug 9

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Cackle :: Witch's
2. $5 :: $10
3. Olympics :: Rings
4. Stink :: Bomb
5. Announcement :: Railway
6. Polish :: French
7. Frizzy :: Hair
8. Name :: Given
9. Endings :: Happy
10. Misty :: Glen

Teaser Tuesday - Aug 4

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

He was a great worker, something unsuspected by those who knew him only in his public role, dressed in his festive robes to conduct the great Games, or receiving delegations from abroad. He was said to be a cool, even icy rationalist, whose relationship to the arts was one of mere distant civility

Hermann Hesse The Glass Bead Game I've been meaning to re-read this for a number of years - I'd lost the copy I used to have - so eventually picked up a copy in a charity shop. I read it last - I think -at University - and I seemed to have moved from one elite to another! I find it a fascinating tale of the tussle between elegant systems and the 'real' world. Not to everyone's taste! Here's an enthousiastic review. Hesse writing pre internet (and before television was popular) of isolated elites and the long slow death of culture.

Mutterings - Aug 3

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Substandard :: Connection
2. Rude :: Mechanicals (Shakespeare!)
3. Equality :: LGBT
4. Smile! :: God loves you
5. Presidential? :: Pardon? (especially if it's Trump!)
6. Fish :: Bicycle (needs a !)
7. Cloudy :: Liquor
8. Wondering :: Mind (or is that wandering?)
9. Thought :: Quick (as)
10. Calculator :: Pocket

Teaser Tuesday - July 28

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

He knew he had not thought sufficiently of this, that he had been carried away by enthusiasm, and had hitherto not brought home to himself the full reality of his position.
He thought most about his daughter, naturally.

From Anthony Trollope's The Warden - our BATS book of the month - a classic read category - which I've quite enjoyed his dissection of the foibles of the Victorian Church. (getting to this post in the end!)

Mutterings - July 27

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Ridiculous :: Charade
2. Fearful :: Cave
3. Data :: Card
4. Beyond :: Wide blue
5. Gossip :: Huddle
6. Guessing game :: I-Spy
7. Portal :: Internet
8. Bracket :: Hinge (and Brackett)
9. Party :: Pooper
10. Transparent :: Stratagem

Teaser Tuesday - July 20

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

"Then where has she gone?"
He began to cry and I let him act out his desperation, sobs that began fake and became real.

The beginning of Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend - having read the second in this series within our book group I thought I'd try the first novel. Here's my teaser of the second novel.

Mutterings - July 19

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Breach :: Once more (unto..)
2. Cloudy :: Cumulus
3. Fish :: Flat
4. Heather :: Moor
5. Lips :: Purse
6. Click :: Mouse
7. Cap :: School
8. Suggested :: Completion
9. Infatuation :: Hopeless
10. Move :: Chess

Teaser Tuesday - July 12

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

She hears the tap, tap, tap of the women's tobacco pipes.
During the night, fleas or lice feasted on her neck, breast and midriff.

This is a re-read of David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumn's of Jacob de Zoet. I originally read it back in 2010 and had been hoping our book group would get around to it, but it is a bit long for a month and there's some bits that are tough to read! But as a historical novel of the interaction between East and West it is fascinating. Set at the end of the 18th century in Nagasaki, I am much enjoying the re-read - here's my (few) thoughts from first time (with the other entry tagged so that it can be found!).

Mutterings - July 12

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Devastated :: Area
2. Hello :: Sailor!
3. Agency :: Job
4. Guide :: Alpine
5. Air :: Londonderry
6. Expectation :: Great (a singular Dicken!)
7. Click :: Bait
8. Result :: Return
9. Member :: Honourable
10. Infertile :: Leadsom (sorry - but not very!)

Mutterings - July 5

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Argument :: No (or maybe No!)
2. Firing :: Cylinders
3. Gesture :: Rude
4. Conventional :: Staid
5. Calories :: Desserts
6. Glasses :: Wine
7. Clients :: Servers (an IT reference!)
8. Reception :: Office
9. Shaving :: Cream
10. Catastrophe :: Earthquake

Teaser Tuesday - June 29

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

It was soundly defeated while it was besieging the Danubian city of Nicopolis (Nikopol in the modern Bulgaria); thousands were massacred by the Turks. The disaster prompted the Emperor Manuel II Palaeologos to travel as far west as England appealing for renewed help; he got much sympathy and won much esteem for his dignity and courtliness; but no practical assistance.

The 1396 crusade in Diarmaid MacCulloch's A History of Christianity England opting out again... I'm nearly through this mammoth tome and I've really rather enjoyed it, I teased a few months back from this book when I was starting this epic.

Mutterings - June 28

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Reputation :: Good
2. Annoyance :: Frequent
3. Gossip :: Huddle
4. Cleaning :: Fluid
5. Bottled :: Water
6. Pet :: Tortoise (one of these was I think) my first pet
7. Irritation :: Scab
8. Hearts :: Love
9. Sighing :: Dolor (Italian and Madrigals!)
10. I am :: Yahweh (Hebrew name for God)

Teaser Tuesday - June 22

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

'We have missed you,' I said. 'We have rejoiced at your victory.'
Henry risked a kiss to my icy cheek.

from Anne O'Brien's The Queen's Choice Our book group (BATS) book of the month - historical category - Here's a review and an interview with the author. With some reservations I'm quite enjoying this tale of a piece of English history I didn't know much about.

Mutterings - June 14

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Height :: Depth
2. Cramped :: (my) Style
3. Style :: Free (I don't think I'd seen the 'Style' when I entered the word above!)
4. Butcher :: Do you think so? (shares of Jules and Sand)
5. Vague :: Nouvelle
6. Windows :: Gates
7. Scheme :: Plot
8. Tradition :: Dead hand of..
9. Stripped :: Whipped (Lord of the Dance..)
10. Gentle :: Giant

Teaser Tuesday - Jun 14

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Dozens of small lengths of what looked like miniature wainscoting were lined up on top of it.
A little strange, Fenerman thought, but it doesn't make the man a murderer.

from Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones. I book I'd encourage you to read - if you haven't already - but it's a book you'll either love or hate! Here's part of the Guardian review

The Lovely Bones is a determined reiteration of innocence, a teeth-gritted celebration of something not dismembered or shattered at all, but continuous: the notion of the American family unit, dysfunctional, yes, but pure and good nonetheless. It's a celebration that is hard-won, often vivid, sometimes moving, comic and sweet,

- though contrary to other parts of that review I thought the book increased its grip on you as you read it.

Mutterings - June 14

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Manufacture :: PLant
2. Gum :: Boil
3. Vest :: Hi-Viz (I've just come back from a Barnaby volunteers briefing!)
4. Bearded :: Lady
5. Modeled :: Fashion
6. Stanley :: Knife
7. Arch :: Foot
8. Program :: begin (pascal programming...)
9. Sneakers :: Stealth
10. Dentures :: Tablets

Are any other users of blogger finding that the post they're writing suddenly disappears with the draft replaced with the contents of a previous (recent) post? This happened to me while I was writing this and you wonder when you try to recover if you're going to obliterate the old post too - fortunately not! This isn't the first time it has happened but I can't re-create the bug to order!

Teaser Tuesday - June 7

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

I have great respect for Brian Cox. He has a brain so big that it crosses whole time zones. and he is normally impeccable with the language, so why on earth would he say 'the bombardier beetle and me' when it is surely more natural, and clearly more respectable, to say 'the bombardier beetle and I'?

Bill Bryson - The Road to Little Dribbling. This was our book group book for last month, I seem not to have teased it yet. I wanted to like this and did enjoy bits of it but there was far too much irony in it for my taste. I caricatured it, at our meeting last night as hunks of irony separated by disasters at sea!
(Finally notices that Teaser tuesday has moved!)

Mutterings - June 7

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Daughter :: Clare
2. Intercom :: Button
3. Employee :: Paid(!)
4. Alter ego :: Dr Jekyll
5. Differences :: Integration (differences leads to differentiation)
6. Android :: Tablet
7. Leather :: Sofa
8. Angry :: Friend ('I was angry with my friend' Blake)
9. Remote :: Spot
10. Strange :: Meeting (Wilfred Owen)

A few poetic and literary connections here!

Teaser Tuesday - May 31

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Gregorius hesitated. The Liceu, as Agostinha had found out, had not been a religious school.

Very gnomic! Pascal Mercier's Night Train to Lisbon I've just finished this and am still thinking it over - I think it's a fascinating story - or is it just confusing. The story of Portugal in the 20th century and a book within a novel. The pianist Maria João Pires hovers around the text, sometimes mentioned and then in the name of another. I might give it a slower and more connected re-read. Here's a review:

It is a last chance for Gregorius to round-off his own heretofore inert life by scouring the landscape of a man who, in spite of his own unfulfilled ambitions, lived inside the bone-marrow of life at its most intense levels. If Gregorius wasn’t able to have it in own life, he is willing to live off the scraps of recounted memories and letters of someone else.

And Gregorius is even more willing to take a last-minute risk of spontaneity by walking out of the school where he teaches, packing his clothes, and taking a train to Lisbon.

I've just noticed that my second hand copy of this book has a mysterious phone number written on the first page! (you'll need to read at least the first chapter to understand this!)

Mutterings - May 31

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Trailor :: Tinker (!)
2. Marvel :: Comic
3. Socks :: Cat (the Clintons?)
4. Clump :: Nettles
5. Pick :: Bunch
6. Yellow :: Fever
7. Punished :: Beaten
8. Brass :: Monkey
9. Splatter :: Water pistol
10. Parts :: Naming (of)

Mutterings- May 22

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Disdain :: Scorn
2. Ridiculous :: Posture
3. Staple :: Diet
4. Junk :: Food
5. Sally :: Aunt
6. Satire :: TW3 (That Was The Week That Was - satire from the 60s)
7. Calculate :: Log
8. Remove :: List
9. Swollen :: Glands
10. Helpful :: Message

List

Mutterings- May 17

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Relevant :: Contemporary
2. Fester :: Wound
3. Moving :: Pictures
4. Bubble :: Westminster
5. Skyline :: Silhouette (spelt correctly I hope, well firefox agrees with me!)
6. Purchase :: Card
7. Strange :: Scary
8. Sticky :: Bob (a plant with lots of hooks and stickyness on its seed pods, I think that's what we called it)
9. Haircut :: Bob (inevitable given the line above!)
10. Package :: Postal

Teaser Tuesday - May 10

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

While a dowry was an accepted part of a young woman's admission to holy orders, advance payment may have bordered on irregular practice. Gradually as the women started to show their worth, local support grew and the carping decreased.

from Fiona Maddocks Hildegard of Bingen The Woman of her Age lots of interesting historical detail but I'm not sure it quite gets to the person of the woman, though as a lot of the documentation is rather sketchy maybe that's not surprising? From the Observer review:

The 12th century anchorite Hildegard of Bingen possessed a clutch of talents which would make even the most eclectic of media-donnas curdle with envy. Writer, visionary, prophet, composer, artist, herbalist, politician, preacher, property owner, upbraider of emperors and favourite of Popes, she could even exorcise demons and heal the sick. She invented her own language, wrote one of the earliest surviving morality plays, established her own convent, terrorised her detractors, and, when she died, was mourned by nuns and reverently biographised by monks.

Maddocks reluctant view - in so far as she passes it on - is that Hildegard is more likely to have encouraged the music rather than written it herself.

Mutterings - May 10

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Training :: Physical
2. Welcome! :: Mat
3. Mold :: Penicillin
4. Transcript :: Verbatim
5. Inbox :: Folder
6. Spoils :: War (or to the victor?)
7. Presentation :: Laptop
8. Week :: 18 (at least it was on Friday!)
9. Keeper :: Finder
10. Mandatory :: Field

Teaser Tuesday - May 5

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

In the meadow where the trail had been trodden into a narrow trench several inches deep she told me about the time the campers complained that there was a crazy guy in their campground who stayed up all night wandering in circles muttering to himself, a guy who turned out to be an eminent but deranged mathematician. Somewhere in the course of these stories - maybe during the one about the babysitter and the amanita mushrooms - Michael commented that the consequence of the theory that nature is supposed to make you happy is that those most desperately in search of happiness tend to show up there.

From Rebecca Solnit's wanderlust - A History of Walking' - I carefully chose these 2 sentences as they were far too much fun - 'there' is the Sierra Nevada. This book had - I thought a slow start I nearly abandoned it but I am now really enjoying the book. Here's the author's website and a review. I enjoyed the wide breadth of topics she covered - I'd read much of the climbing histories and rights of way issues in the Peak District in the 1930's but her writing about walking in Paris was interesting and often provocative. There did seem to be a lot of coverage of the same places though!

Mutterings - May 2

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Destroy :: Create
2. Recipe :: Method
3. Condemn :: Rule
4. Hallucinate :: Flashing
5. Blurry :: Vision
6. Notification :: Emailed
7. Version 2.0 :: 0 1
8. Moist :: Moss
9. Stagnate :: Stink (I don't think I'd spotted stagnate to get the above answer - sphagnum moss?)
10. Disaster :: Titanic

Mutterings - Apr 26

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Delay :: Without
2. Knock knock :: Who's There?
3. Pointless :: Celebrities
4. Crook :: Hook
5. Rating :: Parental (guidance..)
6. Orange :: Phone (company)
7. Update :: Computer
8. PG-13 :: Film
9. Routine :: Scan
10. Werewolf :: Grey hair!

Teaser Tuesday - Apr 19

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

"Those who are on the bottom always want to be on top, those who are on top want to stay on top, and one way or another they always reach the point where they're kicking and spitting at each other."
"That's exactly why problems should be resolved before violence breaks out."

From The Story of a New Name Elena Ferrante. Our book group book for the month I'm currently enjoying this - I've not read the first book in the series but I didn't find that an obstacle. We've gone from one pseudonymous novel (The Cuckoo's Calling) to another. It's not a short novel but easy to read and carries you with it, the way she (the writer) inhabits each moment makes the growing up that the characters undergo fascinating. Here'a Guardian article about her.

Mutterings - Apr 19

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Professional :: Gambler
2. Liquid :: Motion
3. Thrusting :: Achiever
4. Button :: Belly
5. Late :: Dead
6. Binge :: Ronald (composer)
7. Trail off :: Lost (if you're off the path..)
8. Comic book :: Cartoon
9. Large quantity :: Pile
10. Fabulous :: Fairy

Mutterings - 12 Apr

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Ridiculous :: Position
2. Privilege :: White
3. Consider :: Lilies (of the field...)
4. Legally :: High
5. Account :: Credit
6. Coping :: Strategy
7. Disclaimer :: Insurance
8. Dreaming :: White Christmas
9. Logo :: Graphic
10. Frustration :: Bent

Adult Learners - North West

Last year I went to a day spent playing and listening to other piano and other instrumentalists. It was much enjoyed and I'm hoping to attend the one this July. They have a new website booking opens in a few weeks. As I'm playing at least one work with others, I need to get my booking in. Friends can also come to listen! This was my route into the Manchester Piano Meetup which is monthly but there also good things with this annual event.
Hoping this entry makes the website a little more visible to search engines!

Teaser Tuesday - Apr 5

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

While all the others stood in slings in the steep groove a full rope length above, Konrad and Dad excavated a pitiful lwdge on which they could sit as long as their heels dug into the snow below. They found no place for safety pitons.

from John Harlin's The Eiger Obsession telling of his Dad's ascent of the Eiger's North face. John Harlin senior was to die a few years later on the first climb of the North Face direct. My love of mountains came through Heinrich Harrer's The White Spider and a summer holiday in Grindlewald - so I am enjoying this - if that's the right word! The book goes on to tell of the son's ascent of the classic (rather than the direct) route.

Mutterings - 5 Apr

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Inappropriate :: Behaviour
2. Spam :: Assassin
3. Detaile :: Typo
4. Breakfast :: Muesli
5. Emoticon :: Graphic
6. Grammar :: Nerd
7. Jointly :: Liable
8. Spontaneous :: Explosion
9. Auto :: Wreck
10. Burnt :: Sugar

Teaser Tuesday - Mar 29

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The film jumped. Here again was the blurred view of the same intersection, apparently deserted, the same heavy flakes of snow obscuring the view, but now the clock in the lower corner read 02:12.

The private investigator trawls through CCTV footage in Robert Galbraith's 'The Cuckoo's Calling'. (maybe not next week!). We've - as a book group - recently started another sequence of novels for each month on themes and are starting off with crime.

Mutterings - Mar 28

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Hope :: Centre
2. Notification :: Email
3. Destiny :: 's Child
4. Soda :: Syphon
5. Interfere :: Abuse
6. Wedding :: Blood (the Lorca play)
7. Bald :: (as a ) Coot
8. Guided :: Missile
9. Galaxy :: Car
10. Difficult :: Crack (ah, it's the Eiger - I thought it might be somewhere in the Peak District!)

Mutterings - Mar 22

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Slept in! :: Pillow
2. Brother :: Big
3. Highrise :: Leeds
4. Pizza :: Box (food or Sun computer?)
5. Trivial :: Pursuit
6. Humming :: Bird
7. Screams :: Munch
8. Marker :: Magic
9. Idealist :: Hope
10. Fat :: Trim (probably using the knife to remove it rather than any implications for the figure!)

Aberdeenshire Rowies

I'd not made these for many years and eventually remembered what they were called, found the recipe and made them for post-church breakfast this morning. Some people asked for the recipe...
this is my version of the one in Elizabeth David's English(!) Bread and Yeast Cookery:
Ingredients:

• 500g white bread flour
• 250g butter
• 20g yeast
• c300ml warm water
• 3tsp salt
• flour/cornflour for dusting

Cream the yeast and make dough with the flour, yeast, salt and water to make a soft dough.
Let rise for 30-45 minutes.
Cut the butter into cubes of around 6mm
Roll out dough thinly c 36x24cm
Place half the butter cubes evenly over the dough, fold up in thirds and turn.
Rest it in the fridge for c 15 mins.
Roll out again as before, scatter the remaining butter over it and again fold the dough.
Let rest for 15-30 mins in the fridge.
Roll out again and cut into around 50 pieces around 3cm square
Put on floured cooking trays - they won't expand much so don't need to be very widely spaced.
Let rise for 30mins.
Cook in 220C oven for 15-20 mins - the rowies will leak butter so the cooking trays will need a lip at the edge!
Cool on rack, I cooked them the day before and they re-warmed pretty well.

Recipes on the web suggest the authentic version is to have c 120g lard in addition to the butter and cream them together! This version is definitely tamer!

Teaser Tuesday -

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Why did you die when the lambs were cropping?
You should have died at the apples’ dropping,
When the grasshopper comes to trouble,
And the wheat-fields are sodden stubble,
And all winds go sighing
For sweet things dying.

Bit of an atypical teaser as it's the poem by Christina Rossetti which introduces Robert Galbraith (aka J K Rowling's) the Cuckoo's Calling - the book title occurs earlier in the quote! Our bookgroup book of the month, and this is a easy (and good) read - at least so far! I intend to tease something from the actual text next week!

Mutterings - Mar 14

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Puzzle :: Monkey (aka Auracaria and a Guardian crossword puzzle setter of blessed memory)
2. Bolt :: from the blue
3. v.2 :: .1
4. Cottage :: thatched (or via Kenneth Williams - upright!)
5. Command :: Performance
6. 99 cents :: Discount
7. Attic :: Column (I hope there were that sort as well as Doric - yes here)
8. Crash :: Bump
9. Damp :: Patch
10. Area :: Cover

Mutterings - Mar 8

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Meteor :: Bolide - my astronomy background - though I had to look it up for spelling and meaning!
2. Piggy bank :: Rattle
3. Star Trek :: Scotty
4. Nail polish :: Chip
5. Theme song :: Credits
6. Bubble :: Squeak
7. Peeled :: Eyes (and maybe trousers)
8. Teal :: Duck
9. Container :: std:deque (c++ language reference!)
10. Survival :: Fittest

Teaser Tuesday - Mar 2

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

She came and got it for me, and after she put the bottle back I could gloat over there being more gone out of it then out of the crme de menthe bottle. "Now everyone will think the cherry brandy's the popular one," I thought.

Cassandra sample's the pub's spirit section in a final teaser from Dodie Smith's 'I capture the castle' which I finished last night. Here's my previous teaser, I think it rather overdoes the quirky and I wondered if Harper Lee had seen it before writing To Kill a Mockingbird, totally different environments and one narrator far more frivolous than the other but...

Mutterings - Mar 1

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Hold :: Fast
2. Stubble :: Plough
3. Checking account :: Balance
4. Dove :: Soap
5. Hollow :: Palm
6. Shape :: Kexagon
7. Full :: Glass
8. Nails :: Painting
9. Masking :: Tape
10. Host :: Communion

Lake scene

I thought I'd already posted some of this terragen work, but apparently not, so here's the latest state.


I'm not sure about some of those greens...

Mutterings - Feb 22

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Deep dive :: Submarine
2. Puppies :: Cute
3. Bow :: Homage (also Clara - I don't quite date back to that, but I read lots of Wooster books when I was younger!)
4. Clown :: Mask
5. Fresh! :: Mushrooms!
6. Munch :: Scream (the artist...)
7. Jack :: Built
8. Boiled :: Sweet
9. Elected :: Dictatorship (cynical? Me?)
10. Book club :: BATS (that's the one I belong to)

Teaser Tuesday - Feb 17

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

As it turned out, the potato-cakes were spoilt; because while we were eating them, we had one of those family rows which are so funny in books and on the pictures. They aren't funny in real life, particularly when they happen at meals, as they so often do.

From Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle our book group book of the month. Here's the goodread reviews and another review:

the novel’s plot wavers between the predictable and the absurd, with a superfluous dash of theatricality.

Mutterings - Feb 15

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Buff :: In the
2. Spiderwebs :: Smeagol - the end of the Two Towers!
3. Hostile :: Intruder
4. Viewed :: Youtube
5. Cross :: Nought
6. Load :: Friction - casting back to additional maths O level and seemingly interminable exercises with objects on slopes and friction coefficients!
7. Reboot :: GRUB (a certain amount of Linux knowledge required here..)
8. Smell :: Cooking
9. Sniffle :: Cold
10. Company :: Two's

Denise Duval

Somehow I'd missed the notices of Denise Duval's death - Francis Poulenc's muse during the last 10+ years of his life. Here they are - Poulenc introducing an extract from Les Mamelles de Teresias



no subtitles I'm afraid but very much worth it for those two performing together! I don't think (despite the youtube comments) that Poulenc does too badly with some singing(!) especially as he's coping with some exciting piano writing. If you want for the end you'll get as the next video the two performing extracts from the "Dialogues des Carmélites" and "Voix Humaine." Two great artists! Here's the Guardian obituary:

“For me, Duval was the Garbo of opera with a wild touch of vaudeville,” Rorem wrote. “She had clarity, intelligence, diction, beauty – with those eyes the size of eagle eggs.” For his part, Poulenc said of his muse: “This girl is pure sunlight.”

Mutterings - Feb 9

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Pleasure :: Machine ( was that Woody Allen or I'm sorry I'll read that again?)
2. Emoticon :: Ascii
3. Race :: Human
4. Highlight :: Marker
5. 56 :: 7*8
6. Error :: 404
7. Taken :: Chess
8. Street food :: Pizza
9. Common sense :: Grounded (someone with common sense is clearly well grounded)
10. Grace :: before meals

Teaser Tuesday - Feb 2

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Better late...

The face is blank and stiff, almost expressionless. One realises with a start how unchanging and conventionalized is the face of the living man and woman of these parts, handsome, but motionless as pure form.

From D H Lawrence's Twilight in Italy, I loved this book when I first found it at school and have returned to it regularly though not for quite a few years. This section is about crucifixes in the alpine meadows.

Mutterings - Feb 1

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Temper :: Steel (as in the manufacturing process)
2. Late! :: Breakfast
3. Status :: Site (as in website status)
4. Breakfast :: Croissant (I don't think I saw this before entering the second word in the list)
5. Hopeless :: Case
6. 365 :: 366
7. Lottery :: National
8. Cancer :: Lump
9. Facebook :: Upload
10. Date :: ISO

Changing Attitude Chester

I've forgotten to log here that the Changing Attitude Group in the Chester diocese have a new web pages location. Some local and UK events are listed. If you know of local events let me know and I'll add them to the news pages!

More alps

Here's the latest render from the current project.

A bit bare but with the colours layers I've set up I don't think there's likely to be a lot growing? I think the snow could do with being a bit chunkier? Looks like talcum power?

Mutterings - Jan 25

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Woke :: Pillow (I usually wake in the night due to sleeping on my arm trapped under the pillow!)
2. Postcard :: Poetic (I used to write these in my weirder days)
3. Blizzard :: Whiteout
4. Pooch :: Collar
5. Constipated :: Discomfort
6. Pastel :: Blue
7. Edge :: Postcards (.. from the .. again!)
8. Mother :: Oedipus
9. Linger :: Longer
10. Header :: Byte

Teaser Tuesday - Jan 20

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

A little late again!

I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.

Anne Bradstreet 'To My Dear and Loving Husband' from Poems to Learn by Heart - Ana Sampson. Here's a piece on the Bradstreet poem. The Sampson anthology is our book group book of the month, it contains a lot that's very familiar but also some rarer items. Here's an interview with Sampson.

Mutterings - Jan 19

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Holiday :: Period
2. Timeframe :: Business
3. Initiative :: Risk
4. Grinding :: Teeth
5. Shouting :: Help!
6. Liver :: Disease
7. Extension :: File
8. Taxes :: Death
9. Obnoxious :: Meddling
10. Ten minutes :: Appointment (I have one tomorrow!)

Mutterings - Jan 11

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Harbor :: Cold (no idea why - I had to lookup the connection!)
2. Mattress :: Spring
3. Experience :: Life
4. Seminar :: Education
5. 2 million :: Dollars
6. Scarf :: College
7. Stacked :: Theatre (something about boxes?)
8. Flowers :: Vase
9. Bowling :: Alley
10. Husband :: House

Teaser Tuesday - Jan 5

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The leadership of the Western Church went on to build on that memory or claimed memory over a thousand years, to create one of Christianity's most noble and dangerous visions, the Roman papacy. Their building was literal, in the massive shape of the Basilica of St Peter above Peter's supposed grave site, a building which we will repeatedly encounter in Christian history.

I had to choose that teaser rather selectively the author indulges in some rather long sentences! The author is Diarmaid MacCulloch and this is 'A History of Christianity' - a substantial tome I got for Christmas and am currently enjoying even before we get to some of the lesser known and maybe more informative parts of the book. Here's Rowan WIlliams review laying out its strengths and shortcomings, I wouldn't want to meet Rowan in a supervision on the topic! (and an interesting typo in the author's name in the linked URL - blame the Guardian!

Mutterings - Jan 4

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Spending :: Money (or 'Hey big')
2. Question :: Open to
3. Drip :: Allegations
4. Episodes :: Lucid
5. Faking :: It
6. Draining :: Energy (must be the new year or Christmas)
7. Bangs :: Fuse
8. Fifty :: Middle age
9. Magazine :: Explosion (from the gun part)
10. Fabulous :: Absolutely!

Raisin Spice Cookies

I did these for after church coffee this morning, as I commented at the foot of this post my recipe book has for method - ' rub in marg' and that's it! I've attempted to add a few more hints..

Ingredients

1. 8 oz self raising flour
2. 1 tsp cinnamon
3. 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
4. 8 oz fine semoline
5. 8 oz marg
6. 8 oz caster sugar
7. 2 eggs
8. milk (!)
9. 3 oz raisins

Method

Mix dry ingredients, add (beaten) eggs and rub in marg, add milk if it's too dry - I hardly needed any when I made it yesterday.
Place in small balls (c. 1 raisin per ball) widely spaced on a baking tray and cook in 170deg C oven for c 15 minutes, let cool slightly before on a cooling rack otherwise the biscuits will sag! (Makes around 60)