Cars – harumpf!

Angela PorterLeave a comment

Well, last night saw Smartiepants, my lil black SmartCar, die as it returned home, up a hill, from a very short trip to my meditation class.  3 mins walk away from home it happened.  Horrible sound.  No power at all from the engine even though it was running.  It took the RAC just over an hour to get to me.  It took another hour or so after the RAC man had left for the lorry to arrive to load her up and take her the short distance home.

What’s wrong with her?  Well neither of the mechanic type men were able to say definitively, but when the second one said ‘timing chain tensioners’ it reminded me of  when the timing belt went on my old Astra, same kind of thing happened … it happened to me twice, the second time it was terminal for the engine and car.

This year I’ve spent over £1000 on a 9 year old car.  Last year it was £300.  The year before was around £1000 and the first year it was nearly £3000, and that doesn’t include the £3500 I paid for her!  She’s had a ‘new’ (reconditioned) engine.  Loads of bits replaced.  And I now think it’s just time for me to let her gracefully go to the SmartCar heaven to rest in piece.

I’ve never had a lot of luck with cars, not even brand new ones.  So, I’m very nervous about looking for and getting a replacement car.  I have a very tight budget as I have to buy the car outright for reasons I’m not going to go into here.  None of my friends are car-savvy.  None of my family are available to help, not that they would if they were.

So, a stressful time ahead, maybe.

I know I didn’t sleep much last night, worriting about the latest car disaster to befall me.

Mind you, I think I’ve made the decision to not have the car looked at.  To let her go, gracefully and with thanks.  I don’t want a huge bill only to find it wasn’t fixable and then not have any money to buy a replacement.

Of course the lack of sleep isn’t helping me sort out what I want to do.  And in some ways doing without a car has it’s appeal, such as the benefit to the environment, the lack of stress when it breaks down, fewer bills … but it would clip my wings as far as travelling around to draw, give talks, go to meetings and so on is concerned.  And, as much as I like travelling back and forth with a friend, I still find it hard not to take some time at the end of the school day to mark and prepare and sort out things, and knowing that isn’t happening or rushing to get it done during the busy work day, is adding to my stress/worry about my ability to cope.

Still, it’s not the first time I’ve been here … and it won’t be the last given my experience with cars!  And it’s not as if I don’t look after them – I do!

And I now have a full teaching day, a twilight training session, and some decisions to make … as well as some enquiries to make about some cars I’ve seen for sale locally…

Fingers crossed!  And fingers crossed for a pal of mine who has a job interview today and another tomorrow …

Comets

Angela Porter2 Comments

“Comets are long-haired stars with flames, appearing suddenly, and presaging a change in sovereignty, or plague, or war, or winds or floods.”
Northumberland Bede, De Natura Rerum c. 725AD

Ancient Beliefs

The word comet comes from the Greek word kometes which means ‘long hair’.  Our ancestors thought comets were stars with hair trailing behind them.

In ancient times, people thought comets were ‘power rays’ of supernatural beings.  They also thought that comets contained fire because they were so bright in the sky.

Some people believed comets brought curses with them.  They believed that comets caused cattle to give birth to dead calves, princes to die,  natural disasters to occur, and disease and pestilence to spread across the land.  Emperor Nero of Rome had all possible successors to his throne executed in order to save him from the ‘curse of the comet’.

Not all people believed comets were bad omens; some believed they brought good fortune.  Others believed that they carried angels through the heavens.

Not so ancient beliefs …

In 1909 and 1910, the appearance of Halley’s Comet in the skies caused panic in cities around the world. Pedlars did a lot of  business selling ‘anti-comet sickness pills’ and umbrellas to protect people from the effects of the comet.

In March 1997, the members of a cult called ‘Heaven’s Gate’ committed suicide by drinking a cocktail of poisons.  They believed that the coming of comet Hale-Bopp was a sign that it was time for them to shed their Earthly bodies so that their spirits would take flight behind the comet and so be taken to a higher plane of existence.

More about Comet Hysteria can be found here.

Halley’s Comet

The Chinese recorded sightings of Halley’s Comet as far back as 240BC.

The famous Bayeux Tapestry shows Halley’s comet shining brightly in the sky before the Battle of Hastings in 1066.  Some people believed that the comet meant that King Harold of England would lose his throne to Duke William of Normandy in this battle, and he did!

Edmund Halley studied comets and developed a theory that the comets sighted in 1531, 1607 and 1682 were actually the same comet.  He successfully predicted the return of this comet in 1758, but sadly died 16 years before his prediction was proved correct.  Halley’s Comet is next due to return in 2061.

Other Cometary Scientists

In 1577, Tycho Brahe showed that comets travelled far beyond the Moon; prior to this, people believed comets travelled in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Sir Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727) discovered that comets travel in elliptical orbits around the Sun.  He also believed comets were members of the Solar System, like the planets, and that comets could return again and again – he was right!  Comets that are seen quite often, every 100 years or so, come from the Kuiper Belt.  Comets that we only see every few thousand years come from the Oort Cloud.

Meteor Showers

Comets leave a trail of debris behind them as they orbit the Sun.  If this trail crosses the Earth’s orbit, then at that point every year for a long time there will be a meteor shower.

The Perseid meteor shower occurs every year between the 9th and 13th of August as the Earth passes through the debris of the Swift-Tuttle comet.  The Orionid meteor shower occurs in October when the Earth passes through debris left by Halley’s Comet.  The Leonids, around 18th November, result from debris from comet Tempel-Tuttle which visits the inner Solar System every 33 years.

Hale-Bopp

On July 23, 1995, an unusually large and bright comet was seen outside of Jupiter’s orbit by Alan Hale of New Mexico and Thomas Bopp of Arizona. Careful analysis of Hubble Space Telescope images suggested that its intense brightness was due to its exceptionally large size. While the nuclei of most comets are about 1.6 to 3.2 km (1 to 2 miles) across, Hale-Bopp’s was estimated to be 40 km (25 miles) across. It was visible even through bright city skies, and may have been the most viewed comet in recorded history. Comet Hale-Bopp holds the record for the longest period of naked-eye visibility: an astonishing 19 months. It will not appear again for another 2,400 years.

Swift-Tuttle

This comet was first seen in July 1862 by American astronomers Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle. As Comet Swift-Tuttle moves closer to the Sun every 120 years, it leaves behind a trail of dust debris that provides the ingredients for a spectacular fireworks display seen in July and August. As Earth passes through the remnants of this dust tail, we can see on a clear night the Perseid meteor shower. Comet Swift-Tuttle is noted as the comet some scientists predicted could one day collide with Earth because the two orbits closely intercept each other. The latest calculations show that it will pass a comfortable 24 million km (15 million miles) from Earth on its next trip to the inner Solar System.

Hyakutake

On January 30, 1996, Yuji Hyakutake (pronounced “hyah-koo-tah-kay”), an amateur astronomer from southern Japan, discovered a new comet using a pair of binoculars. In the spring of that year, this small, bright comet with a nucleus of 1.6 to 3.2 km (1 to 2 miles) made a close flyby of Earth — sporting one of the longest tails ever observed. The Hubble Space Telescope studied the nucleus of this comet in great detail. This is not Comet Hyakutake’s first visit to the inner Solar System. Astronomers have calculated its orbit and believe it was here about 8,000 years ago. Its orbit will not bring it near the Sun again for about 14,000 years.

Some interesting websites about comets and myth.

Comet Mythology from Astrononmy-Education.com

Comets, Meteors & Myth: New Evidence for Toppled Civilizations and Biblical Tales – This is an interesting article from space.com.

Wittering

Angela PorterLeave a comment

Faff

Well, it’s the very last day of September, another month of the year all but gone.  Time seems to be flying by.  Grey, gloomy starts to the mornings of late, and not just weather wise either.  It’s been a fraught week at work.  I’ve been left feeling exhausted by the constant treadmill of behaviour management, which I don’t think I’m managing at all well, yet others think I’m doing fine.  I’m still putting too much pressure on myself to be perfect…

I went to buy some new skirts yesterday.  I do like the current fashion of long lengths – that’s always been my kind of style!  Drifty, floaty, off with the fairies.  And I do wish they wouldn’t put huge mirrors in changing rooms … but I did stop myself descending into a dark gloom about my size, and I did avoid comfort eating too.  Which is a little success for me.  But if I think about it … I’m in danger of seriously beating myself up about it.  It will sort itself out as counselling untangles the old learned attitudes towards myself and replaces them with better ones, bit by bit.

Knitting

I’ve been crocheting over the past couple of days.  I have one teeny wrap for a premature baby done, and am working on a blanket.  Crochet is a challenge for me, more than knitting, as I’ve rarely made anything by crochet!

I’m also enjoying the relatively fast gratification of completing a project.  It’s also nice to see the project grow so quickly.  It’s not that I’m sort on patience, its that I can be short on time, as well as having a lot of other interests.  But crafts such as crochet and knitting I can take on my travels with me, though I did chicken out of crocheting on a train last night as I travelled to and from a talk I was giving.  I’ll get over that as I got over my extreme shyness at drawing/painting in public.

The current wraps and blankets will be going to Cuddles and are based on their patterns.  I’ll just get a few more done before I pack ’em up and send ’em off.

Michaelmas

Angela PorterLeave a comment

Hiring, firing and pack rag days

Today is the feast of St Michael the Archangel.  It is one of the four Quarter Days, important times in legal and economic matters from at least medieval times to the late C19th.  Today was a day for the payment of rents and the beginning or ending of hiring engagements.  As these contracts came to an end, many local families were busy packing their belongings and moving home on this day, and it became known as ‘Pack Rag Day’.  Also, local courts were often held on this day.

Michaelmas Roast Goose

It was also a day for feasting, traditionally on goose.  The goose had been fattened on the stubble fields.  Sometimes, these geese were presented by the tenant farmers to their landlords.  It was said that ‘if you eat goose on Michaelmas Day you will never lack money all year.

Blackberries

Blackberries were bad, or even poisonous, after this date.  The exact date varies from Michaelmas to the 10th or 11th October, depending on the area.  The latter dates equate to the 29th September before the change in calendar in 1752.

The reason for the blackberries’ sudden decline was that the Devil interfered with them in some way on this date – putting his foot on them, wiping his tail or club on them, spitting on them, urinating or defecating upon them.

Election of the Lord Mayor of London

The Lord Mayor of London is the head of the Corporation of London, the authority that governs the City of London.  This is not to be confused with the Mayor of London, a post created in 2000 for the head of the Greater London Authority.  The Lord Mayor of London is a position that dates from around the year 1192.

The Lord Mayor is elected on 29 September, presents himself to the Lord Chancellor at the House of Lords in October for royal approval, and finally takes office on the second Friday in November.

The Lord Mayor is still an extremely important person in the nation, and in many situations is second only in precedence to the monarch.  As well as all the ceremonial duties, the Lord Mayor chairs the Court of Aldermen and the Court of Common Council and serves as Admiral of the Port of London, Chief Magistrate of the City and Chancellor of the City University.

  1. Steve Roud – The English Year
  2. Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud – A Dictionary of English Folklore

Knitting for charity

Angela Porter2 Comments

A quick google found this site – Knit a Square.  I think I’ll have to see about getting something like this into school …

And another one Loving Hands Charity Knitters even seems to knit coats for chickens!

Cuddles provides clothes and blankets for premature, stillborn and miscarried babies.

Bonnie Babies, again for little ones and keepsakes for parents who lose a baby.

Handmade gifts for vulnerable children – does what it says on the label.

And these are just a few in the UK …. where to start?

Folklore, a Fall and Storytelling

Angela Porter1 Comment

Yesterday evening, I travelled by train to Merthyr Tydfil where I was giving a talk.  My lil Smartiepants is still poorly; I’m awaiting a call back from my mechanic to get her fixed.  Anyways, on the way out I grabbed ‘The Folklore of Discworld’ by Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Simpson and thoroughly enjoyed reading it again during my journey there and back again to Merthyr.

‘Some of the things in this book may well be familiar, and you will say ‘but everybody knows this’.  But the Discworld series, which on many occasions borrows from folklore and mythology, twisting and tangling it on the way …’

And that is what I love about Mr. P – the way the familiar is just twisted enough to fit into somewhere else, with humour and a sense of ridiculousness, and often with quite a deep perception of how things work on our world, and plenty of chuckles along the way.

‘…there are some things we shouldn’t forget, and mostly they add up to where we came from and how we got here and the stories we told ourselves on the way.  But folklore isn’t only about the past.  It grows, flowers and seeds every day, because of our innate desire to control our world by means of satisfying narratives.’

And don’t we live, or re-live, our lives by stories, by narratives?  When we relate to others what we have done, what we have experienced, what ‘they’ said, or share our thoughts and memories we are relating a story.  I know in my day job I often teach in a story-telling kind of way, and I try to tell enjoyable and memorable stories.  I love to hear other peoples’ stories too.  Stories about us will be passed down through the generations, changing subtly with each re-telling, just as folklore always has done.

And folklore and stories have power, more so than the mundane reality of the truth.

‘But there is the truth, and, then again, there is The Truth, in the face of which truth can only shrug and grin.’

People prefer, generally, to believe the fantastic, and to add mystery to something that is ordinary.  And I can relate an example of this in action.

A few years ago, while walking across the old Severn crossing, I fell and hit my temple on the ground.  A silly accident, I was bending over my bicycle to see if I could sort out the gears that had stuck in one place, next thing I know my face had made intimate contact with the tarmac of the path.  This old bridge is bouncy, especially when heavy lorries shudder their way across, and I think two must have crossed near me at the same time and set up an extra big bounce that unsettled my balance.  Once I’d recovered my composure, I could feel my eye swelling and I decided to ride my bike back to my car, load it in and then get home asap, which I did safely..

That afternoon I ended up in A&E having a head x-ray as my eye had swollen shut, I had a wonderful black eye beginning to develop, but the emergency phone advice service insisted I go get my head checked out in case I’d managed to crack my skull.  I hadn’t, but by the next morning I had a black eye that was really black and the bruising extended from my eyebrow to below my cheekbone!  It was an absolute corker!

Monday morning came, no pain, but the eye was even more spectacularly black than the day before.  I had to go to school, and on my arrival the headteacher, chair of governors and other staff were concerned that I shouldn’t be there.  I explained that it looked a LOT worse than it was, that there was only a little bit of pain if I touched my temple ‘just there’ and I had had x-rays and was fine.

When I went to my class to do registration, they were shocked with my appearance and asked what was happened.  I told them the truth – the fall, the trip to A&E.

Did they want to believe it?  No.  One 16 year old lad was convinced I’d been out ‘clubbing’ in Cardiff and had got involved in a fight (me? fighting? no way!!! I’m way to gentle and kind for that … I’m very peace-loving).  I said, no, I don’t ‘do’ night clubs, nor do I fight.  He wouldn’t have it, so I went along with him, making up answers to his questions.

“Who hit you?  A man or a woman?  Did you know them?” he asked.

“A man, over six foot tall and built like a brick out-house, and I didn’t know him,” I replied.

“What did you do?  ”

“I hit him back.  I knocked him out.”

“You knocked him out? Really?  What happened to him.”

“Yes. Really.  He’s still in hospital I think.”

“Wow.  Were the police there?”

“Yes, they were.”

“Did they arrest you?”

“No, they saw that he hit me first and I just pushed back in self-defence.  They let me go.  And he’s not pressing charges as he doesn’t want it known he got knocked out by a woman”.

“Wow.”

By the end of the week, there were all kinds of stories circulating about how I got my black eye.  I’d been ambushed by a pack of ninjas who I’d fought off but one got a lucky kick in at my eye.  I’d got shot by an arrow as I was taking part in a medieval battle re-enactment.  A Viking had caught me in his head as I was axe-fighting with him.

I had told each and every pupil the truth, that I’d fallen and hit my head.  But not one of them wanted to believe the mundane truth.  The wanted The Truth – a story with excitement, mystery, amazing powers or luck or magic.

The first lad accused me, on his last day of secondary school, of lying to him.  I said I never had, wondering what he was on about.  He said I’d never had a fight in a club (duh!).  I reminded him that I had told him the truth, but it was too ordinary for him to want it to believe it to be true.  He’d helped make up The Truth and preferred to believe that.  He accepted that!

So, there lies the power of narrative, or stories, of words … it can be used for entertainment, for fun, for good things.  However, it is used by others for manipulation, deception, to gain power over others and to do bad things.  And it can change, and be changed, depending on the point of view of the storyteller, their cultural background, their own beliefs and morals … and we can change our own stories too, which is an entirely different set of ideas!

We may not be able to change the events of our lives, but we can change how we view them, how they affect us, how we feel about them and our reactions to them.  In doing so we can change our reactions to similar circumstances that we come across now and in the future, so changing our ‘story’.  It’s not easy, it takes a lot of effort and a lot of courage to face these situations, to face our reactions to them, and then to view things in a different way, something I’m learning about in counselling.  It’s not easy as the inertia of The Truth as it applies to such situations is great, and the truth may not be apparent as all we have our our memories, emotional responses that memories can trigger in present/future experiences so that we are no longer bound by our old, negative, automatic thoughts and responses.  It’s not about making everything in the past lovey-dove, it’s about finding a way to deal with life without automatically blaming ourselves for other peoples attitudes, responses, actions.

Labels, work, stress and knits.

Angela PorterLeave a comment

Jam Jar Labels.

I got some labels done for a friend for their home made jams and chutneys.  They are chuffed with them, and I’m pleased that they like.  They liked my illustration for my Harvest Moon blog entry, and wanted their labels in a similar style.   The first one below is for the larger jars, the second for he smaller jars.  It took a while to get the first one ‘fit for purpose’, but I’m really pleased with it.  It gives visual hints as to where the produce was grown and collected for the preserves.  I also am pleased that my rather simplified style of art has found a ‘niche’.  The smaller label works just fine too, similar design, but the landscape faded out so the information about the contents can be typed over it.

A friend at work asked if I’d design some for a relative of hers as a Christmas present, as they are always making jams and preserves too.  So of course I’ll do that.

Work, stress and knitting.

Three weeks back at the chalkface (though no one uses chalk in the classroom anymore!) and the stresses of dealing with uncooperative, disrespectful teens and managing a workday that is like climbing on a treadmill that has been set by someone else who is calling the tune, and running to keep up with the changes in pace until eventually you are thrown off as your feet get in a tangle.  Well, that’s how it feels once more at the moment…despite the help I have once a week, I’m not yet able to break the cycle I’ve managed to get myself caught up in over a lifetime, and of course when things go wrong, or at least aren’t perfect, then I blame myself and beat myself up with it once again.  But it’s not as bad as it used to be, it just seems a long journey to get to where I’d like to be.  And one straw was added to the burden that’s built up since the return to work on Thursday that caused me to lose my temper briefly.  That led to me having a very upset digestive system for the rest of the day night, and a thumping headache that was with me most of Friday, Ibuprofen only just taking the edge off it.

This lead me to feeling I needed to find an activity in the evenings that relaxed me, didn’t require a lot of concentration and that I could just pick up and put down at will.  I love art, but when I start on an art project I can get consumed by it, stay up later than is wise for me as I totally lose track of the time.  I wanted something that wouldn’t need my eyes to work in sharp focus (note to self – opticians!). Something that didn’t need a lot of concentration.  Something that kept my hands and eyes busy but left my mind free to think or to follow a film.  And that reminded me of why I used to love to knit and crochet so much.  I was doing something, something creative, but something that let me be still and calm, to just ‘be’.  I knew I needed projects that could be either finished quickly or were made up of smaller individual pieces which could be finished quickly.  Projects where I could utilise my own creativity, perhaps even learn about free-form work, and maybe even combine all of this with other forms of art that I love to do to create mixed media works or jewellery.   I wanted things I could do while too tired, too stressed out to settle to anything else.  Something that would help me settle when like this, and perhaps small enough that I could carry it with me.

Well, in quite a synchronistic manner, one of those emails containing recommendations of books from Amazon appeared in my in-box, and on it were books of knitting and crochet.  I followed them, and added a large number of books to my large-ish Amazon wishlist, and I ordered two books that really caught my eye.

One was the ‘Prayer Shawl Companion’ by Janet Bristow, which caught my attention because of the contemplative, spiritual aspect of knitting, and gathering together with other like minded souls to create to gift to others in need, to send out thoughts for healing, love, peace and help to where it is most needed.

The other was ‘Mindful Knitting by Tara Jon Manning’ which appealed because it talks of the contemplative, meditative aspects of knitting.

Both of these books are on their way to me, and I hope that they are what I hope them to be.  I may post pictures of the projects here.  And it may be that like-minded people may gather together with me to create to help others.  I don’t know…yet.

I do know a friend at work has asked me to teach them to crochet.  So, after work on Thursday, I wandered through my local town to the only shop that now sells yarns, knitting needles and crochet hooks, to get some light coloured chunky wool, a large hook so she can see easily what to do, and can hold it more easily in her hands – she has rheumatoid arthritis, but she thinks this will help to exercise her hands and give her something creative to do.

Of course, I have been knitting squares of various stitch patterns and using coloured yarns, all of a similar size, just to keep me occupied while I await the arrival of the books.  And hopefully the books will also inspire me to be confident in creating my own things.  I’m particularly intrigued by ‘free-form’ crochet, as I am with ‘free-form’ beading.  But, we shall see what comes of this.

I do create textile jewellery from time to time – many examples can be seen at Artwyrd.deviantart.com, though I’ve not created any for a long while now, having a stock of them and nothing to do with them!  Finding the right market for them is a problem as they are so unique I suppose.  Maybe I can make use of my knitting/crochet skills to create different ways of wearing my beaded/wire/textile art … that’s something to think about at least!

I did have an interesting time trawling through eBay looking at the knitting yarns available and seeing some rather exquisite, and expensive, examples.  And with some of them my mind went to making small, heartfelt gifts not to wear but to keep.  Something to do for Yuletide/Christmas gifts p’raps.  Now that’s a thought.  And it’s more or less time for me to start thinking about creating my Yule cards.  For a good few years now I’ve made my own cards for that time of year, and it does take quite a bit of time to create them!

Autumn Equinox

Angela PorterLeave a comment

To Autumn  – William Blake

O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stained
With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit
Beneath my shady roof, there thou may’st rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe;
And all the daughters of the year shall dance,
Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers. 

Some Equinox Thoughts

At 04:09BST tomorrow morning, the Sun enters Libra and this event marks the Autumn Equinox, the start of Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere.  Equinox literally translates as ‘ equal night’, and the two equinoxes are the times in the year when the hours of light and dark are almost equally balanced – they may not be exactly the same length, but it’s the closest they get to being so!

I always find the Equinoxes and Solstices charged with a buzz, with energy.  A great sense of change is in the air.  Autumn is always a time to harvest that which has ripened, to clear away the chaff and dead leaves.  In doing so the land and the trees have their underlying supportive structure laid bare.  And so it is with life, as it seems to me.  It’s a time to celebrate that which has come to fruition, a time to clear away that which has served its purpose or has not grown, time to reveal what lies beneath the surface for contemplation as the Sun’s strength begins to wane and the night lengthens into day.  Letting go of things is not easy, even when they are complete, but it is necessary to make way for the  new that is to come.  It is also important to take time to reflect on what has been gained, learned and lost as that too brings a harvest of its own, and it is important, I think, to give thanks for this harvest of personal work done and progress made along our own way.  It is also a time to think to the future, to set new goals now that the space in which they may achieved is apparent.

Tomorrow, after a good nights sleep tonight, I will find time to sit in meditation and contemplate my personal harvest, what is complete, and my goals for the coming year, and to give thanks for all these things.

A curious custom – sin eating.

Angela PorterLeave a comment

The newly restored grave of the last sin eater in England, Richard Munslow,  is to be celebrated with a church service – BBCNews.

“The Last Sin Eater (2003)”is a film starring Heath Ledger, one I enjoyed watching the once, but has not been watched again even though the DVD resides in my collection.  It’s not the only film with this title, “The Last Sin Eater (2007)” featured this old custom too.