Both pictures are from yesterday's WOW (Walk on Wednesday by the way) at Dovedale and I couldn't not include the famous stepping-stones.Again, as lads with fertile imaginations, we used to re-enact the scene when Little John and Robin Hood do battle with their long staves and try to knock each other into the water. Going along with Jill's thoughts, if anyone was seen doing that nowadays they would probably be served with ASBOs and 'elf & safety' would install cast-iron security rails. As I hinted yesterday though, we were all pleasantly surprised at how little interference there has been and also the lack of litter. Interestingly, I didn't see a single litter bin or dog-poo box anywhere between the car-park and the stepping stones, and there was no evidence of either cause of offence. Congratulations to the appropriate authorities for the welcome common-sense of trusting people in a beauty spot !!
I suppose the Grand Teton range and Ansel Adams' 'Snake River' picture just has the edge for drama and quality but Dovedale is nearer and I hope that Picture 2 captures the 'feel' of the place.It occurs to me that I could 'photoshop' transform it to a very dark black & white and drop the moon from the other day into that welcoming blue passage of the picture ! I could then entitle it 'Moon River' for our forthcoming EPS, 'Song Title' competition.
Comment on 'comments' :- Certainly no need to apologise Jill for using blog space. I love the comments. They are so valuable. And in any case we like medical bulletins on this blog. It adds a dramatic quality I think. I hope Bungus had a good howl at the full moon and in my view his creative 'gin & gripe-water' remedy would have done Jill the world of good.
Y has gone 'grannying' to Burton Joyce and all being well we, and they, are going over to Carsington Water to meet up with David. I shall decline a boat-trip on the big boat but I bet Y will be game.
Now 8pm and had tea. Routine jacket potato and salad. 'Phone calls have been exchanged and tomorrow we all meet near the Visitors' Centre at Carsington at 10/10.30am -ish to decde what to do. Everyone is taking a picnic and chairs and I intend to take a flask of coffee because the centre's is so awful. In Morrisons they now stock Costa Espresso Beans/Ground and OK, it's only a brand, but I like it.
At the moment I'm reading an Architecture A-Z Book by Louis Hellman who, as well as being an architect is a nimble illustrator and cartoonist. I'm enjoying it so much I shall probably find at the end that it is written for 12-14yr olds ! In my ignorance I've always thought that Mies van de Rohe coined the 'less is more' concept. I've dropped it into enough conversations. But I now find that it was thought of a little earlier, i.e in the 6th Century BC by Lao Tsu. You learn something every day.
Don't really need a quote after all that, but:-
"What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure"
Samuel Johnson
n.b. to blog readers. Click a picture for an enlargement.
Words in orange are live-links. For those with monochrome monitors, try hovering over the word and if it twitches it's probably live.
Catch you tomorrow. Sleep tight.
Words in orange are live-links. For those with monochrome monitors, try hovering over the word and if it twitches it's probably live.
Catch you tomorrow. Sleep tight.
2 comments:
Two smashing pictures today.
The first certainly has human interest in spades. Although, to be ‘of the moment’, I suppose all the people should be starkers?
“…and drop the moon from the other day into that welcoming blue passage of the picture [and] then entitle it 'Moon River'…” Well, yes, you could do that.
Alternatively, you could superimpose Zulus massing on the brow of the hill and a picture of the African Queen, or the Titanic sinking, or an elephant squirting water over its back?
Could surrealism perhaps win plaudits or prizes? If so, the elephant could have stilt-like legs and be doing a tap dance.
I too appreciate Jill’s comments, however lengthy. It makes me feel less guilty (what rubbish the man talks, he doesn’t feel guilty at all, says Jiminy Cricket). Medical bulletins or whatever, so long as it is interesting to SOMEBODY.
Daily diet:
I had a banana for breakfast about half past nine and followed it, after the ceremonial fitting of the replacement patio door, with a mid-morning snack, from about eleven, consisting of a fresh cob of corn (picked yesterday and delicious raw but even better just heated through and with butter) followed by a perfect bacon sandwich; the bacon cooked just right (by the old rule of ‘if it’s brown it’s done; if it’s black it’s boggered’, it was on the delicious cusp of being boggered) and one slice of the white bread fried in the (no added) fat and dolloped with brown sauce. (The excellent bacon was, rather surprisingly, Tesco’s Wiltshire Cure and completely free from water).
I was cooking it when Graham first phoned and had eaten it by the time he called again, after having booked an extra night (at Holbeach to break the journey) for our September Norfolk odyssey.
No lunch.
For tea, having been unable to obtain any ‘mussels in creamy garlic sauce’ from Netto, I just had a Muller Strawberry Fruit Corner, a juicy ripe fresh peach, and sliced home-grown Red Alert tomatoes on toast with salt, pepper and vinegar.
After a couple of glasses of Tesco's cheapest Cabernet Sauvignon, supper comprised Marmite (what the Aussies were trying to make when they came up with Vegemite) on rye toast.
Unless I am thinking of someone else, I only know Hellman as a cartoonist (‘Farside’?) and manufacturer of mayonnaise.
I like the sound of the book though. It certainly sounds better than the one we have this month from the U3A Reading Group, viz, Red Herrings and White Elephants (the Origins of the Phrases we Use Every Day) by Albert Jack, which sounds all right but which bored me so much before the end of the first chapter that I just gave up.
And, whatever the origin, I am sure that Mies is generally accepted as the ‘Less is More’ man. No doubt he forgot to say, “As Lao Tsu once said in 524”.
I know of a Lilian Hellman, writer/dramatist, wrote 'The Little Foxes' - American, perhaps she helped him with the creation of the mayonnaise......
We had a return trip to Waitrose (usually go just once a week) with 4 cartons of milk dated 3rd September which were all off, solid, like cream cheese. They gave us our money back, plus free replacements, I reckon it had been left outside somewhere in the sun and not refrigerated. I am a great fan of their Lambrusco, especially the rose, which at the moment is £1.99 a bottle - you can tell, I think, that I am no wine buff!
We don't have Netti, Aldi, Lidl or Morrisons in our vcinity - we did have a Safeway that became Morrisons, but only lasted a few months, it did not go down well in the south, it's now Sainsburys.
I wondered if you had done the stepping stones bit when I looked it up yesterday. Couldn't quite imagine you hopping from stone to stone now, but what marvellous fun for children.
Hope the sun shines on you tomorrow.
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