http://www.memoriesanddreams.co.uk/Images/Landscapes/Fountains-Abbey.jpg
Today, I is mostly looking at …
Cloisters
Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire.
Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire
St Peter’s Abbey, Gloucester
Reply
Gruts for Tea
by Ivor Cutler (January 15, 1923 – March 3, 2006)
“Hello, Billy, teatime! Gruts for tea! – Billy! Billy! Come on, son. Gruts for tea! Fresh gruts!”
“Oh, I don’t want gruts for tea, Daddy.”
“What? I went out specially and got them for you.”
“Aw, but Daddy, we had gruts yesterday.”
“Look, son, I walked seven miles to the High Wood to get you gruts. That’s fourteen miles in all, counting the journey back, and you don’t want gruts? I fried them for you. Fried gruts – mm – I fried them in butter.”
“I don’t want them, Daddy. Daddy, we’ve had gruts for three years now. I’m fed up with gruts. I don’t want them any more. Daddy, can’t we have something else for tea?”
“Oh, son! Gruts! They’re lovely.”
“Daddy, I don’t want gruts any more. I hate gruts. I detest them. I have them every day and they’re always fried in butter. Can’t you think of another way of cooking gruts? There’s hundreds of ways of cooking gruts: boil them or bake them or stew them or braise them – but every day – fried gruts. ‘Billy, come in for tea. Fried gruts. I’ve walked fourteen miles. Seven miles to the High Wood and back.’ Three years of gruts. Look what it’s done to me, Daddy! Come here! Come here into the bedroom and look at ourselves in the mirror, you and me. Now look at that!”
“Yes. I see what you mean. Son, let’s not waste these gruts. Tomorrow, I’ll go to the High Wood and get something else.”
“Look, Daddy, you’ve been saying this for three years now. Every day we have this same thing. I take you to the mirror and you say we’ll have something else for tea. What else is there in the High Wood besides gruts?”
“Well, there’s leaves, bark, grass, and leaves. Gruts are really the best. You must admit it.”
“Yes, Daddy, I admit it. Gruts are really the best, but I don’t want them. I hate them. I detest them. In fact I’m going to take this panful of gruts and throw them out.”
“Oh, don’t do that! Don’t throw them out for goodness’ sake! You’ll poison the dog!”
Ken Shades Quote of the Day
http://www.faulkingtruth.com/KensQuote/
From the page: “Nothing in this world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”
New quotations added regularly.
YourGenome.org
/center>
Nice site but…
The advanced section is ‘in production’ however, the site hasn’t been updated for four years.
Update: site has been updated recently (July 2007)
Star Gazer 1998 Mar 02-08
http://www.bisque.com/thesky/brian/19980302.htm
As March begins, Leo the lion is rising in the East…
…and as March ends, Aries the ram–or lamb–is setting in the West.
UK awarded net villain gong • The Register
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/24/ispa_villain/
“Internet Villain Award” goes to…
Her Majesty’s Government
“The UK presidency of the European Union received this award for seeking EU wide data retention laws which will force ISPs and telcos to retain more data for longer without proper impact assessment,” a spokesman for UK internet trade group ISPA said.
82%
Republican.
Can this be true?
And what is this thing called “AM talk radio”?
GAMES WE PLAY SPLASH
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/games/index.html
A positive plethora of pastimes past and present from pernicious pastimes to pragmatics and patterns of pedagogy, pieces and parodies and paradigms of prosperity.
PageOnes favorite websites – StumbleUpon
http://pageone.stumbleupon.com/
Powerful imagery.
BBC – Cult – Captain Scarlet – Homepage
Error 404: This page cannot be found
http://www.greenhowards.org.uk/kenneth-taylor/index.htm
From the page: “In 1944, Lieutenant Kenneth Taylor of the Green Howards recorded his experiences in an “illegal” wartime diary.
Mr Taylor presented a transcript of his diary to the Green Howards Regimental Museum. Serving soldiers were forbidden from keeping diaries, so he wrote his entries secretly every evening in a liberated German exercise book. In it he details his experiences in 1944 from D-Day in June through to the end of the year.
With the 6th Battalion The Green Howards he moved through France and Belgium into Holland, arriving at the Nijmegen Bridge across the River Waal just a few days after its capture by the Allied troops. The bridge was a vital objective on the advance of Allies into Germany.”
rembaileys favorite websites – StumbleUpon
http://rembailey.stumbleupon.com/
Please give a warm welcome to http://rembailey.stumbleupon.com/ a “retired economist, keen sailor, philosophical sceptic, and general ‘pain in the bum’.”
His retirement looks pretty good judging by this picture.
zaneucbs favorite websites – StumbleUpon
http://www.astronautix.com/craftfam/lunbases.htm
Visions of proposed Lunar bases past and present.
Yin Yang Fish Portrait – Asian Koi Fish Paintings &Wall Scrolls – Asian Artwork
http://whitedog.typepad.com/test_bed/images/president_ronald_reagan.jpg
You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or a right. There is only an up or down: up to man’s age-old dream — the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order — or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
Ronald Reagan, Republican National Convention, 1964
http://www.samuelsdesign.com/comics/pages/callingboys14.htm
From the page: “Of course at the time J. Edgar Hoover was known only as the ramrod straight and morally unquestionable head of the F.B.I. – but with the perspective of history we can now enjoy the sublime irony of this odd cover!!”
FAKE TERROR – THE ROAD TO WAR AND DICTATORSHIP | WHAT REALLY HAPPENED
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/ARTICLE5/
Historically inaccurate – consume a pinch of salt before reading.
I agree with http://andyfox.stumbleupon.com/ “anyone who has read Cicero knows that he would not appreciate his words being twisted this way.”
ChinaSite.com: The Complete Reference to China/Chinese Related Web Sites
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/5108/chinesestamps6rx.jpg
Postage stamps from the Republic of China (1911 – 1949)
Top row President Yuan Shikai who declared himself emperor in 1915 and then died mysteriously.
Bottom row Sun Yat-sen the ‘Father of Modern China’ who was a principled nationalist who said that his “three Principles of the People” was inspired by Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysberg Address.
Also Chiang Kai-shek who infamously lost China and fled into exile in Taiwan in 1949.
Western Union Telegrams | Send a Telegram | Birthday Telegrams | Sympathy Telegrams | Get Well Telegrams
Queenies Cunning Page of Blackadder [+ Blackadder (The Character) Fanlisting]
http://www.lunaestas.com/blackadder/
Edmund, a poem by Queenie.
When the clouds are dark, and the dogs go bark,
When the sky is black, and the ducks go quack,
When the sky is blue, and the cows go moooooooo,
Think of lovely Queenie, She’ll be thinking of you.
(Title suggested by William Shakespeare)
http://www.gcarlson.com/microbial_spikedbacilli.htm
From the site ”
Dermatophytes
Varieties of fungal dermatophytes that infect human skin and hair.”
http://www.sloansfineart.com/art_gallery/Images/Valley%20of%20Death.JPG
Into The Valley
Into the Valley
Betrothed and divine
Realisations no virtue
But who can define
Why soldiers go marching
Those masses a line
This disease is catching
From victory to stone
Ahoy! Ahoy! Land, sea and sky
Ahoy! Ahoy! Boy, man and soldier
Ahoy! Ahoy! Deceived and then punctured
Ahoy! Ahoy! Long may they die
Out of concealment
Blank and stark eyed
Why so uncertain
This culture deceives
Prophesised, brainwashed
Tomorrow’s demise
All systems failing
The placards unroll
Ahoy! Ahoy! Land, sea and sky
Ahoy! Ahoy! Boy, man and soldier
Ahoy! Ahoy! Deceived and then punctured
Ahoy! Ahoy! Long may they die
Time for the audit
The gathering trial
A collectors dilemma
Repositioned and filed
Liverpool museums – large version of And when did you last see your father? 1878
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/collections/
” The people in the painting are composed like characters on a stage. This adds to the sense of drama in an already tense setting. The viewer is left guessing what the boy will answer. The painting deals cleverly with the themes of innocence and childhood. We wonder whether the boy, who will have been told that honesty is a virtue, will realise in time the gravity of the situation. The small size of the boy, his blonde hair and blue suit highlight his innocence. In order to save his father, he may have to lose some of his innocence and lie to the men questioning him.
Yeames does not appear to favour one side over the other, letting the drama of the situation speak for itself. Although we are aware of the purpose of the soldiers’ visit to the house, he invests the scene with a sense of their ‘moral duty’. The Victorians believed that men in the Civil War fought out of a sense of conviction and loyalty. This is shown by Yeames as, despite the situation, he depicts the men’s human qualities. The soldier in the left of the scene is seen comforting the little girl, who appears aware of the significance of the question. “
http://worldroots.com/brigitte/royal/pitt3.jpg
“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”
William Pitt
春节快乐！Chun jie kuai le
春节好！Chun jie hao
Eclectic Thinkers: Intervowen
Office interior design for Soyuzniсk Bank
Simpsons Channel&|&Your Source For Simpsons News
http://www.simpsonschannel.com/
From the page: “Billy West, voice of Phillip J. Fry, Professor Farnsworth, and others, today confirmed via his website forum that new episodes of Futurama have been greenlit by FOX.”
In 1949 the Nationalist Government of Chiang Kai-shek (Jiǎng Ji
The Trumptonshire Web
http://www.t-web.co.uk/trumpgo.htm
“Here is the clock, the Trumpton clock.
Telling the time steadily, sensibly,
never too quickly, never too slowly.
Telling the time for Trumpton.”
Update: The site looks rather dated now but it’s still up which is great. For aficionados of 1960s/70s Children’s TV there is a lot to read though. My update includes a complete Trumpton episode for to watch on YouTube.
An old North Oxfordshire saying about our local churches…
Adderbury for strength,
Bloxham for length,
Kings Sutton for beauty.
Parachute | Sky Diving | Paragliding | Parashute | Skydive | Jumpsuits at Fresh99.com
CGTalk – The War Machine, Ted Terranova (3D)
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=301692
From the page: “Title: The War Machine
Name: Ted Terranova
Country: USA
Software: 3ds max
Here is the story which describes the image…
While searching through the archives of the Royal British Navy I made a Spectacular discovery. I had uncovered the long forgotten field reports for a prototype war machine developed by the Yorkshire Iron Works.
Apparently the British navy was concerned with the widespread use of railways and motorcars to transport goods and military material. The admiralty feared that with a lessening importance in naval commerce the British navy’s role in future conflicts would be reduced so they decided to develop a land ship! I found no plans for this war ship but there was a single rendition of the great machine quelling a rebellion in one of Britain’s Far East colonies. One can see its massive arms smashing through the walls of the local stronghold; the rebelling forces cringing before it%u2019s might. Designed in the tradition of great British warships, the captain and officers rode high atop the vehicle, directing the combat from ornately decorated balconies befitting their status. Lower down the machine was built of simple riveted iron armor. Huge pipes twisted together to harness the massive steam pressures generated by the monstrous boilers that moved the great machine. The crew in these lower levels was not as lucky as the officers above. Here they either shoveled coal into the great furnaces or manned the gigantic long-range cannons. It must have been a fearsome sight on the battlefield.”
All a little bit fanciful but the Union Jack caught my eye.
Germans give chimney sweeps the brush-off
From the Daily Telegraph…
Germans give chimney sweeps the brush-off
By Kate Connolly in Berlin
(Filed: 26/12/2005)
In his top hat, white tie and brass-buttoned uniform, and dangling a brush on a chain over his shoulder, Erhard Feller might have walked off the set of a film about Victorian England.
But the 51-year-old chimney sweep is a vibrant part of working life in modern Berlin and the uniform is standard for him and his 8,000 colleagues across Germany.
Even though most German chimneys are too thin for Santa Claus to squeeze into, Christmas is still the busiest time of year for Mr Feller, who travels on a motorbike between the 310 properties he is responsible for.
The few remaining households with fireplaces and wood ovens are keen to ensure they are in working order during the winter break.
The chimney sweep has a reputation as a bringer of luck. But an increasing number of Germans are angry that the sweeps have a monopoly and they are forced to pay for their services, whether they have a chimney or not.