February 2012
11 posts
“Little did I realise that the only reason why anyone listens to Front Row is...”
– The Archers, my story of ridicule and belonging - Blottr
WatchZürich, looking east from the Lindenhof
WatchJosh Ritter — Why
Featured on the forthcoming six-track EP Bringing in the Darlings (via Paste)
It’s always great to hear the grand piano in...
“Around this time, I was summoned to London to meet C. P. Snow, the author of the...”
– My grandfather on meeting C. P. Snow
“Most of the rest, when one had tried to probe for what books they had read,...”
– C. P. Snow in The Two Cultures on interviewing 40,000 or so scientists and engineers in the years during and after WWII. Particulaty noteworthy, as my maternal grandfather was one of that group.
“For constantly I felt I was moving among two groups—comparable in intelligence,...”
– C. P. Snow in his opening to The Two Cultures. Apt, having spent the evening at Burlington House
Candlemas
With certitude
Simeon opened
ancient arms
to infant light.
Decades
before the cross, the tomb
and the new life,
he knew
new life.
What depth
of faith he drew on,
turning illumined
towards deep night.
— Denise Levertov
January 2012
7 posts
Lady, when I behold the roses sprouting,
Which clad in damask mantles deck the arbours,
And then behold your lips, where sweet love harbours,
My eyes present me with a double doubting.
For, viewing both alike, hardly my mind supposes
Whether the roses be your lips, or your lips the roses.
— John Wilbye (1575-1638)
“Great love affairs start with Champagne.”
– Honore de Balzac (via caryrandolph)
WatchEscape to Attenborough Nature Reserve this afternoon.
English Pronunciation →
A quite fiendish poem by G. Nolst Trenité on the vagaries of English pronunciation.
After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud.
December 2011
8 posts
The bells of St James’, Audlem, ringing in...
Josh Ritter — Empty Hearts
Singing...
WatchOur friendly bovine1 neighbours.
or is that cowine, Tim. ↩
WatchSidmouth, east of the Town Beach. Christmas Day, 2011.
Ship of Fools: 756 km to Santiago →
On completion in Santiago, we bemusedly, quietly, attached small scallop shells (the symbol of St James) or yellow arrows (the directional sign of the Camino) to our jackets and packs, and returned to our lives, such as they are. Not many recognize these symbols, but when they do, it surprises. One winter day, I entered a coffee house in Ottawa and this haiku records the incident:
Elgin...
November 2011
10 posts
“I was twenty one, at midnight, running down a dark street on my own, with ten...”
– Sienna Miller, speaking at the Levenson Inquiry
On avoiding melencholy
Dear Lady Georgiana,
Nobody has suffered more from low spirits than I have done, so I feel for you.
1st: Live as well as you dare.
2nd: Go into the showerbath with a small quantity of water at a temperature low enough to give you a slight sensation of cold.
3rd: Amusing books.
4th: Short views of human life — not further than dinner or tea.
5th: Be as busy as you can.
6th: See as much as...
WatchNovember
WatchShropshire Union
“When I drive across this country, with autumn falling and rustling to pieces, I...”
– DH Lawrence, November 1915. On driving to Garsington Manor. (from last year)
October 2011
8 posts
“The trick for me has always been to say ‘You should put on your nicest clothes...”
– Kasper Holten, Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House talking to the FT Weekend Magazine. (via operaandme)
“Broadly speaking, the problem is that the religious mainstream establishment...”
– Heathen’s progress, part one: stalemate | Julian Baggini | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
2 tags
“I remember it as October days are always remembered, cloudless, maple-flavored,...”
– Peace Like A River (via maygunbeth)
September 2011
14 posts
“In 1910 a group of English friends, including Virginia Woolf and her brother...”
– Wikipedia, on the root of the phrase Bunga bunga.
1 tag
“The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us...”
– C.S. Lewis (via congratulationstomeetyou)
Journey away from the center of the Earth →
The Endeavour:
What point on Earth is farthest from its centre?
Hint: It’s not Mt Everest.?
“To feel you in my veins like God in the rivers
and adore you in the sorrowful...”
– Pablo Neruda (via Kashif Nadim Chaudry)
The 9/11 Letters, Naomi Alderman →
Naomi Alderman’s break up letter to God following the events of September 11th, 2001, commissioned for the BBC’s Book of the Week, is a truly poignant, painful reflection.
“But you don’t leave me alone. Of course you don’t. When did you leave anyone alone who just asked you nicely. I’ve had a whole life around you to unpick: My family still love you, my dear...