The Great Rememberer.

It is Friday 13^th, but I’m not bothered about all that superstitious nonsense. It has been a good day so far and promises to get even better. The post lady handed me some nice goodies earlier. Firstly, a hardback copy of Burmese Days by George Orwell. A friend who read my piece about Orwell a week ago said that it was one of their favourite books by him. I haven’t read that one, so I ordered a copy. I’ll tell you all about it in due course when I have read it. Also, a copy of Lunch Poems by Frank O’Hara arrived. He is someone who I have heard a lot about, but never read, so I’ll write a review of that soon as well. Finally, I got a letter from a dear friend in Ireland who it is always nice to hear from. That was a great start to the day. 

There hasn’t been much interest in the books I have put up for sale so far, but undaunted I just put another on sale. It is the first UK edition of Visions Of Cody by Jack Kerouac 1973. I think that one will sell. As you probably know, Jack is one of my favourite writers. I don’t really need this copy though. I have it in paperback if I ever want to read it again, so I hope it goes to a good home. There is an introduction in it by Allen Ginsberg called The Great Rememberer. He is referring to Jack of course, but I used to like to think it also applied to me. I used to have a memory like a supergrass. It was so good I could even remember things that never happened!. I have noticed in recent years that my memory isn’t what it was. I meet people in the street and can’t even remember their names. I usually get away with it by saying, “Hello mate”. I can’t remember jokes anymore either. If I hear a good joke these days, I have to write it down or I forget it. Hopefully, reading and writing is good for keeping the brain active. 

Anyway, I can’t sit around here all day. I have places to go and people to see. I have been invited to a small gathering tonight to celebrate a friend’s birthday. That will be good because I haven’t seen a soul for ages. I haven’t had an alcoholic beverage for a week either, so that is something else to look forward to. See you later.

 

  

From A Distance.

It was quite a nice afternoon yesterday, so I went for a bit of a walk. I headed up this lane known locally as Snappersnipes. I have tried to find out where that name came from but haven’t found a good explanation. That led to a road called The Butts. I know some people might find that name amusing as well, but I know where the name comes from. In the olden medieval days, it was compulsory for all men in a town to practice archery. That was why the English won such battles as the battle of Crecy in 1346 when the English army were firing 6.000 arrows a minute. The area of a town set aside for archery was called The Butts. Anyway, I walked along there to Newtown and headed towards the White Horse. By the time I got to the top of Newtown I was knackered and hot. I sat on a bench and surveyed the view of the White Horse from a distance. 

This man with a friendly greyhound came along and we had a bit of a chat. After he had walked on, I realised that he was the first person I had spoken to since last Saturday. I walked on a bit further as far as the Equestrian Centre and took a photo of some horses and then turned back. My original plan was to walk through the woods and come out at Chalford, but I knew the path would be boggy after all the recent rain. That is my excuse for not walking further anyway. I’ll try and have a longer walk next time. This morning I put another book for sale on eBay. The House Without Windows by Barbara Newhall Follett signed by the illustrator Jackie Morris. 

I only bought it about a year ago. It is a children’s book, not really my thing, but I was fascinated by the authors life, and her mysterious disappearance. That is my news for today. I have to go to the post office in a minute and I might go for another walk later if the sky brightens up a bit. 

Qui sait où passe le temps?,

Wednesday already. When I went down to feed my fishes earlier it was cloudy, but quite warm. I don’t think it will rain today, so I will try and go for a walk this afternoon. I’ll take my camera and see if I can get a few photos to show you tomorrow, maybe. I was mooching through my books to find one to put on eBay and came across one called The Young British poets published in 1971. Notice how there is only one female poet on the cover picture!. The poetry scene was very sexist in those days. Before I put it on sale, I started reading the poems, as you do.  My favourites were by Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon and Michael Longley. That is quite ironic because those three are all Irish. I wonder what they thought at the time about being described as British. Maybe they were just grateful to get published. They all went on to achieve great things. I bet the compiler of the book didn’t think one of them would one day be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. There is a connection with yesterday’s post when I mentioned seeing Ian Rankin at Van Morrison’s Lit Up Inside concert at the Lyric Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, because Michael Longley was also there. He read some of Van’s lyrics that memorable night. 

There are some great photos in the book as well, when they were all young and just starting out. Apart from that, I haven’t got any more news to tell you today. I haven’t been in the pub since Saturday. I never even put the telly on last night. I was listening to BBC 6 Music all evening. It was great, they even played part of a Joni Mitchell BBC concert from 1970 that I remember watching when it was first broadcast 51 years ago. That is over half a century. Qui sait où passe le temps?, as they might say in France. Anyway, the sun is trying to come out, hand me down my big boots, I do believe I’ll go walking in the woods. See you tomorrow.

Tuesday Morning Beat.

It has been a nice sunny Tuesday morning. I was up good and early today because I didn’t go to the pub yesterday. I always seem to be up and about early when I avoid the pub. I put another book for sale on eBay called Even Dogs In The Wild by Ian Rankin. It is a signed copy as well. Crime fiction isn’t really my thing, but I like Ian Rankin as a person though because he is a big Van Morrison fan. I saw him once in London when he chaired a discussion with Van at a concert to launch Van’s Lit Up Inside book of lyrics. That was a great night, I can’t believe seven years have almost gone by since then. While I was busy doing that, there was a knock on the door, and it was the nice post lady who handed me a package which contained a magazine called Beat Scene. I haven’t bought this magazine before although it has been going since the 1980s. I used to buy books a long time ago from the guy who has published the magazine as a labour of love since it started. His name is Kevin Ring. I think I met Kevin once at a Beat event in Plymouth in 87. I have just spent the last hour reading it and I am very impressed with the quality of the intelligent well written articles, the photographs, and the layout of the magazine. The magazine concentrates on the American Beat writers and others associated with them. If you like the Beat Generation or Charles Bukowski or John Fante and similar writers, then I think you would enjoy this magazine. I think you will find it quite easily if you google Beat Scene. I must say I much prefer a real book in my hand or a magazine to reading everything on the internet or Kindle. I was given a Kindle once as a present and I only used it once. Give me a proper book any day. 

What else have I done since yesterday? Hmm, the rain was torrential yesterday afternoon, so I passed the time listening to a talk by Eckhart Tolle called Awakening The Essence Identity. It lasted two hours, but I found it fascinating. To me, Eckhart is giving much the same message as Krishnamurti, but in a much more understandable way. I find it much easier to grasp what he is talking about. Anyway, I can’t sit here all afternoon, there is more to life than the internet. I’m going to get dressed and go for a walk. I need to go to the shops anyway, because my fridge appears to have eaten all my food and then wet itself. See you later.

I found this humorous drawing of Eckhart Tolle on the internet somewhere. I hope whoever drew it doesn't mind me sharing it. 

The Full Monty.

Monday afternoon and it is another dark and rainy day. I won’t be venturing out anywhere. Not to worry, the forecast is quite good for the rest of the week and there is plenty to do indoors. I have decided to restart my second-hand book dealing now that we are getting back to something approaching normal. I closed down my little eBay book shop at the beginning of lockdown because I didn’t like going in the post office, also, the outlets where I used to find my books were all closed. I am going to put one book a day on eBay in the auctions and see how I get on. I don’t think there is any need to re-open my shop. I could do with getting a few books shifted because I have heaps of them all over the place. The book I put on eBay today is called Growing Out Of Trouble by the popular gardening guru Monty Don. It is a signed copy, so hopefully it will sell.

Another thing I am going to try and get back into is getting some exercise. I haven’t been out on my bike or gone for a long walk for ages. A year ago, I was getting out and about all over the surrounding countryside on my bike, or going for walks. I just lost interest and I don’t know why. I won’t be going out in this rain, but that is no excuse for not getting some exercise. When I have posted this blather and done the heap of washing up that is in the kitchen sink, I am going to do some indoor Tai Chi. That is something else I used to enjoy, but lost interest in. Anyway, onward, and upward! Carpe Diem as they say. See you tomorrow.

A Quiet Sunday.

This morning I was supposed to go and see Westbury’s best kept secret which is The Chinese Garden at Beggars Knoll. It is a private garden on the way to the White Horse, but they open it to the public about one day a year in aid of charity. However, when I got up this morning it was raining and windy, so I sent them an email and said I wouldn’t be going. That was disappointing, but hopefully there will be other opportunities to visit it. Instead, I watched the overnight events at the Olympics and the Closing Ceremony. I was really pleased to see that Kellie Harrington of Ireland won a gold medal in the women’s boxing. I had never heard of Kellie before the Olympics but followed her progress all the way to the final. The whole of Ireland got up early to cheer Kellie on. There will be some mighty celebrations when she gets home to Dublin. I think that was one of my highlights from Tokyo. It was also great to see Sky Brown aged 13 get a medal in the skateboarding. When I heard that they had added sports like skateboarding, surfing, BMX , and climbing to the Olympics I was a bit dubious, but I can see the thinking now. It is to encourage youngsters to take up sport. This is what they are interested in. I bet sales of skateboards have increased tenfold in the last week after Sky’s success.

Caterpillar on nasturtium.

This afternoon the weather improved, the sun came out and I had a potter about in the garden. I found another very lethargic bumble bee which was a bit upsetting. I gave it some sugar water to try and revive it. I had to go indoors to answer the phone and when I came out again there was no sign of it. I googled ‘Lifespan of a bumble bee’ and it said that they only live for an average of 28 days. I always worry that there is some disease of bees going around. I found lots of caterpillars eating the leaves on my nasturtiums. A few years ago, I would have been annoyed about that, but now I am pleased because I read a lot about butterflies being in decline. 

Happy Single Party?

I was also pleased to see my dahlias are beginning to flower. I saw a yellow one which I looked up and it might be a variety called Happy Single Party. After that I sat in the kitchen listening to a CD that I found in a charity shop last week. It is called The Wide World Over by The Chieftains. What an enjoyable album it is. The Chieftains are joined by lots of guests such as Sinead O’Connor, Sting, Ricky Scaggs, Joni Mitchell, Diane Krall, Art Garfunkel, The Rolling Stones and Elvis Costello. My favourite tracks are Shenandoah with Van Morrison, Guadalupe with Linda Ronstadt & Los Lobos, and Redemption Songs with Ziggy Marley. I don’t know what I will do this evening, but I have two cans of cider in the fridge which I’m going to drink in a minute. See you later.