Fire Dogs

Fire dogs never sleep when the hearth is awake

Restlessness sat on them; a sojourn outside to make
When the green fields are laced lightly in white
Or the sun hung in a blue sky lower than sight
Birds call from deep within the fastness of holly
To ward off the cold and mourn their sibling folly
A badger may so stir, or a fox may his hunger blunt
But the fire dog knows to survive now he must hunt

Lateral

Lateral and careless save for seven shades of moonlight

That lingers long in the half light of this darkness and...
Sends the message to the corvine beast; darkness is coming
For not now one iota of hope is left of sacrifice unmeasured
That should comfort and hold the unlocked secrets of the day
Why did I linger so long on these desolate northern shores?
When all the ships have left carrying my heart with the tide

Snowfall

Snow falls like a meteor shower of whitest softness

Hits earth to effervesce and dissipate on warm surfaces
Sows grass on winter dunes rising up from a pale desert
Tarry not in warmth today; a pallid sendaline robed queen,
Shall come swift on a wind and leave sooner than desired

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fish food for thought

Some scientists published in the journal Fish and Fisheries

Sombre studious research concluding that fish feel no pain
It finds them impervious to hurt by insufficient brain power
I can but only disagree...
For if deficient brain power were the only marker of anguish
The world of men would be a more peaceful place no doubt
For fish swam in concord long before we came to destroy the world

Mist

Mist, mist wreathes everything

It seeps out of the very ground
Trees now bereft of green clothing
Hug it close; hiding their nakedness
It shields motion from eyes and ears
Circles and devours me in watery film
Luminous eyes glow in the half light
Menacing and advancing it comes
Looms large out of the myopic gloom
Into my clear view and happy is he
 My dog and the mist partners in joy

The Nexus of Lesser Men

Futility is the nexus on which society now pivots its future leaders

Here comes the time of lesser men to take up the reins of power
Striving only wealth as the key to unlock influence; tis a fools belief
The look to no superior deed; are not imbued with wisdom; cannot harm
True power comes through obedience to a pure personality; or to terror
The new see only a world where humanity is weak against moneyed might
But they do not see all ends and though we may lose now we remain...
Unbowed in the rattling of sabres by mice long enamoured of cheese

Light

The hour is seven dawn in the month of January

I can see light again on the eastern horizon
A pale fissure opening between the night and day
Starlight recedes into the west; spring is coming

Day shall give way

Day give way to night and scatter stars across the water

Pearls to make a trail of cosmic light to guide ships home
For though the world now closes in so fast about us
The spirit of past deeds, lingers like ghosts at dusk
They haunt the night air and pervade uneasy dreams
Till the sun rises again; high and new; in a dawn sky.
Yet the warmth of the fresh day cannot warm the chill;
The world has changed and our hearts are left in the past
To wonder; how on earth did it all come to this?

Love Remembered

Loves shadow lies long on the ground

It hugs against grass like a lost caress
I went back today to our special place
And sat on the ground under the trees
In the warm air within that silent bower
On a soft, mossy carpet of greensward
I felt your embrace upon me once again
And in the fragrant meadowsweet haze
I smelt your skin on mine and so briefly
The temperate breath of day made you real

778 Islands

East and West Island *and 776 siblings in the southern globe

Wait to share a sumptuous feast of yet undiscovered wealth
That is laid on the white tablecloth of the pristine land south
Libated with the cold wine from clear, southern Arctic oceans
Pity yet that the gluttony is so set against the tyranny of law
That disputes and niggles and gnaws at antiquities very bones
Even before the repast call begins to chime; the bell of war rings
Supplant, rename, invade, and where force fails; wreak diplomacy
The hunger of colonialism and the desperation for wealth see...
Two nations severed in any mediation by the desire to wrest...
One final gem from the last free clean land and sea on earth

*The Falkland / Islas Malvinas are an archipelago located in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 smaller islands. Controversy exists over the Falklands' original discovery and subsequent colonisation by Europeans. At various times there have been French, British, Spanish, and Argentine settlements. Oil exploration, licensed by the Falkland Islands Government, remains controversial as a result of maritime disputes with Argentina.

Gloom  

It wraps around me like a storm cloud; so grey is this winter day

Neither shall I, bird or beast venture from bush, hearth or sett
We will wait just a little more till the waxing days bring spring
Where light and warmth shall disrobe these dreary days and...
Make once more a fair garden to set aside these gloomy days in

W H Smith will not be shopping there again - 1p for a carrier bag indeed.

Hello silly company - you're selling mainly paper products and it kind of rains all the time here

To make it worse they are selling the same book on Amazon for £8.66 that includes a box and free delivery.

The whittling has finished. The judges of this year's Man Booker Prize started with a daunting 145 novels and have chosen Hilary Mantel's book ‘Bring up the Bodies.’ She becomes only the third author, after Peter Carey and J.M. Coetzee, to win the prize twice and she is also the first to win with a sequel to the first winning novel (Wolf Hall won in 2009) and also the first to win with such a short amount of time between books.

 Her revival of Thomas Cromwell – and with him the historical novel – is one of the great achievements of modern literature. There is the last volume of her trilogy still to come so her Man Booker tale may yet have a further chapter.

 Think I might have to get this book to see how her writing style works – I have to say she kind of looks like an author - see the picture below.

My heaven is not yours

Oh I understand that the empyrean* is not for me

Not in this lifetime; if ever it shall be within grasp
If the baser part of existence is unleashed and tamed
Even without divine intervention we find our heaven

*Empyrean (Pr empirian) - the highest part of heaven, believed in ancient Greek and Roman times to contain pure fire or light and believed by some Christians to be the dwelling place of God)

My Journey is not yours

Nobler than thou; hardly my dear, but so much older

I, so old to you now that when your world was young,
I was ripe for a dotage held within this crumbling edifice
That creation is now alas, a remnant of more elegant times
But there was never an era when red dragons rode the air
Nor of princes, elves or wizards righting all the wrongs
I am afraid we did all that you enjoy now without help
Though we may have desperately wished for it at times
This new avaricial beat of the world; I understand not
It never held any rhythmic sway over us then, but for you
It chimes in all you do; becomes the song of your existence
So look not into my life now its pool of stars is fading
Open up the night and make a wish on your own star

New Year

Slow is the perceived hand of time to the artist

Yet so, it carves a deep presence across skin
Destroys all touched with sweet cerulean decay
Hides behind the watchful eyes feeding its destiny
A tardy abridgment of a longevity gilt not renewed

Bonded within instance and memory into the aeons

I will become another

For now to be unremarked would seem to be right

Not yet a wizard carrying a carved wooden staff
Or a beard that had grown long, through the long ages
Matching waves of hair from under a pointed cap
But soon when the world ceases to be all that it promised
I will obtain the magic lore and walk in the world reborn
A new wanderer in grey; serious and grim, with a heart...
As big as the world, that is full of good deeds and songs

So I will desire for understanding and the humility to see it

For from the heart of Christmas must surely always come peace
But though it does not last and is so often bereft of sincerity
We celebrate what may yet come to pass within our wishes

Though the heart desires more speed, the world moves so slowly

In intricate slow dances that only the wisest may know truth of
For though hope is perhaps a window to look down on folly
Without that sweet chance of change we would not continue

Attest to be the unlooked for excellence within a gentler world

Release the encouraged separations we bring about so easily
For me I will take of the goodness I am offered and use it all
Unrestrained by conventions and the blind obedience to virtue

For of all the gifts and words and deeds we may give and receive

Time is the only one true endowment we have that is worth giving
Spend it wisely lest its jaws seize fate and nip away at our existence
That for all the heady semantics of prose; is my Christmas wish.

For whit I now make my plea of ignorance no less the bold for its stupidity

Sooth it was as colossal in size as told from legend by a nurse to a cradle
The elephant in the room now reveals itself and so may sit down beside me.
Yet I though alike to a juvenile, stumbling half king that possesseth no kingdom
Having less of the better part of valour and more of the main part of jest
Have a care and mock me not, for this regent my yet bite back if provoked
Or would so if it were unrestrained by convention and blind obedience to virtue

How may we live such sightless lives seeing naught of the devastated stratagems?

That sinks a country lower than heathen realms while its people decay Portamento
Whence good is lost to commerce so the world we knew looks upon its own feast
Devouring first its singed toes in spite and then each finger with aberrant relish
The marrow sweetened by idolatrous celebrity news hides the bitter taste of wrong
Feast away thus poor nation for I cannot help you regain thy mark in the world
Empires fall surely as night but more the pity that the treachery came from inside

© Edetric Vistal

Some pictures from around Entwistle reservoir yesterday. The tree decorators have been out in force this year but there is a note from the water company saying that if the decorations are not removed after Christmas then next year they will not be permitted and will be removed as soon as they are put up. This is because apparently; the Countryside Ranger time is too valuable to be used to remove them. But if they are going to remove them one way or another then they don’t actually gain anything, so humbug to you United Utilities.

This one is desperately sad – shame on you tree decorator people

Some other shots

 

Now into my 7th week of not smoking. I have an electronic cigarette for the moment which is completely harmless and smell free. I am loving being able to walk up the inclines without any huffing and puffing. It’s amazing how much of a difference it makes to the lung capacity so quickly. Don’t think about it - Just do it. There is a scare story circulating of increased resistance after vaping but this seems to be a red herring. My oxygen levels are now amazing. Gee it only took 38 years and loads of missing teeth to wise up.

I have saved so far up to today a total of £450 but have spent on the electronic substitute £185 so really saved a grand total of £265. It would have been more but I switched types of e-cig so that bumped up the cost a bit. I now use the Liberty Flights kit. There is a shop just around the corner. Good vape and looks like a mini huqqa pipe. They also do a pipe – cool!! Thinking about one of those.

 http://www.liberty-flights.co.uk/

 

 

I previously used the ‘nicolites’ product which was good but way too expensive.  It was also too realistic if you understand and long term I don’t want to get hooked on a long term replacement.

 

 

You know one other great thing was that finally the taxman didn’t get the revenue... that is so pleasing. Let’s all move to ecigs, get vaping and then stop. Don’t get hooked long term because the chancellor’s eyes will be looking this way at the tax revenue he’s missing.

I finally decorated the cakes this week. The square 14 inch monster (22lb) is for Nick’s Rumbletums catering in Clitheroe and the 12 inch round one (14lb) is for home. Simply decorated really, (what else) but holly is a good Christmas motif. Both cakes have a combined weight of 16.5 kg or 36 lb.

A heavy hoar frost has been with us for some days now. It is thickening its grasp on the trees and plants. Even without snow after a while it starts to look almost like we have had a blizzard.

T-6 Days

 

The end of the world is nigh so apocalypse observers would have us believe. The Mayan calendar may have begun in 3114BC and continued accurately ever since, but it comes to an abrupt halt on 21 December 2012. Hence, the belief that the cosmos will cease to exist in a few days' time...It would have been my brother Phillip’s 53rd birthday on the 21st.

Soon enough; without the help of the Mayans, this will all end for each of us one way or another and then our entire current personal world will fold in upon itself to dissipate into the cosmological machine. The time of that event is unimportant because probably we are living multiple parallel lives that span simultaneously the whole of time. When one strand finishes another begins and joins with those already in play.  They touch, caress and repel with equal force through the spatial time layers triggering thoughts and reverie in us from the other strand events.

We have already lived so many lives flowing ceaselessly through time in multiple directions and will subsist in so many more that we have no need to fear anything from the future; for not all of them can be tainted by our current measures of regret and longing. That is my belief because in the final analysis; just one lifetime would be too easy. The world and the universe don’t appear to do fair and uncomplicated in this strand. But hope is a child born of hidden knowledge garnered in the cosmic cycle of rebirth.

 

 

Went to watch the latest ‘Great Expectations’ film last week. Enjoyed it very much (so recommended) but I generally like anything Helen Bonham Carter is in. Love the line (departing slightly from the Dickens text) from Miss Havisham (played by HBC) as she shows Pip the wedding table complete with decaying cake “The mice have gnawed at it, but the sharper teeth of time have gnawed on me.”

 
I won’t be going to see the new Hobbit film though as I am not playing the 3 films over 3 year’s game again. The Lord of the Rings was quite enough.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Expectations_(2012_film)

 

Gabrielle’s chariot descends to bear me away

The inviolate forever meets the indomitable
Pity the porcelain now lost amongst the glass
Yet all is not lost; while we attempt restoration
The king has lost his crown; gainsay not his head

Uncalled but not unlooked for on the horizon

The first snow of the winter season fell today
Swirling in unison down onto hard starlit paths
Highlighting the fading relief on ancient words
Biting through melancholy; wrapping us in glee
Whispering promissory notes of cold sterility

The first house east of the sea and west of the world sits atop a green rolling hill that rushes toward the sea like the keel of a ship. Proud chalk bows pierce the waves that crash and roll remorselessly against them. If ever you arrive in winter all may seem bereft of joy and warmth on the desolate deck of this land but there is a welcome waiting for you within the halls of the steward that assuages all hurts.

One day we will travel there and see ourselves what dreams a smouldering sunset over calm sea can bring to our eager minds. There we shall sit on the edge of the aquatic realm in the garden of Qustal and count stars emerging as the day sun passes away to draw down night from the heavens. As gentle and gracious shall the transition to dusk fall, that it shall recall to us the russet and gold gown worn by fairest lady Agrimonea, as she exits our presence  in a passing of beauty that we know shall come not again; till the morrow. If hope were a star that could be plucked from the heavens; its name would be Agrimonea.

© Edetric Vistal

Bread prices set to rise after bad weather hits UK wheat crop. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said millers were expected to import 2m tonnes of mostly German wheat to make up for a 13% shortfall in the home-grown crop. It will be the biggest wheat import since 1980, and is expected to lead to a substantial increase in the price of bread next year.

The price of bread-quality wheat for delivery rose by £5.50 a tonne last week to £261.50 a tonne, according to the Home Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA), a trade body.The cost of basic feed wheat on the futures market rose to a record high of £227 a tonne, a 45% increase since January. Global wheat prices are also at near-record highs.

Glencore, the global commodities trader, which controls about 8% of the global wheat trade, is expected to be a big beneficiary of the price rise. This year the boss of its food trading business said the worst drought to hit the US since the 1930s would be ‘good for Glencore’.

Chris Mahoney, head of Glencore's agricultural division, told investors this summer. "High prices, lots of volatility, a lot of dislocation, tightness, a lot of arbitrage opportunities (exploiting price differences in different markets). In terms of the outlook for the balance of the year, the environment is a good one.”

Thanks for the reassurance Chris and perhaps it is good for Glencore investors but probably not so good for the rest of us – no wonder they call money by the old euphemism ‘dough’.

See full story in the Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/dec/04/bread-prices-uk-wheat-crop

 

On a clear and frosty day to surely attend

Under trees; do shadows and sun blend
The beauty of the winter we may lend
But remember, fauna from the cold; fend

One day I will live in a house high on a bleak heather clad hill close to the stars. The air will be as clean as the stream that feeds the well and shall carry to me the scent of the world and there will finally be room for the mind to expand to its potential across the rolling, empty spaces...one day!

Most authorities trace the name 'Darwen' to the Brythonic* derw "oak", originally applied to the river; an etymology supported by an older form of the name, Derewent (1208).

The area around Darwen has been inhabited since the early Bronze Age, and the remains of a barrow from approximately 2000 BC have been partially restored at the Ashleigh Barrow in Whitehall. Artefacts including a bronze dagger and urns containing human ashes were found, and a small number of these finds are now on display at Darwen Library Theatre. The Romans once had a force in Lancashire, and a Roman road is visible on the Ordnance Survey map of the area.

Mediaeval Darwen was tiny; little or nothing survives. One of the earliest remaining buildings is a farmhouse at Bury Fold, dated 1675. Whitehall Cottage is thought to be the oldest house in the town, and was mostly built in the 17th and 18th centuries but contains a chimney piece dated 1557.

* The Brythonic languages derive from the British language, spoken throughout Britain south of the Firth of Forth during the Iron Age and Roman period

Here are some pictures from the walk around Bury fold the other day.

 

The ultimate futility of the inbuilt need to exist can only ever be modified with exquisite grace. It rises and falls extant in delicate virtue till we are transformed to constant joy by it.  

The world sits behind the stars

The stars sit behind the creator
The creator sits beside nothing
Nothing is the design of intent

 Apple and Olive Oil Cake

 280g plain flour

½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
1tsp baking powder
75ml virgin olive oil
25ml hazelnut oil
150g vanilla caster sugar
4 eggs
4 dessert apples, peeled and cut in 1cm dice
Zest from 1 lemon
30ml milk
2 eggs (whites only)

• Preheat the oven to 160°C, grease 2 x 25cm cake tins and lightly dust with flour
• Weigh the sugar, vanilla seeds and oil into a large mixing bowl; use an electric mixer to whisk the sugar and oil till light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time, whisk until creamy and pale in colour.
• Sift all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Fold half of the dry ingredients gently into the egg mixture with a metal spoon.
• Add the milk and fold the rest of the flour in. Do not over work the batter.
• Fold in the diced apples and lemon zest.
• Whip the egg whites to soft peaks and fold the egg whites into the cake batter.
• Divide the cake mixture between the two cake moulds. This will give you two fairly shallow cakes, if you like a higher cake only use one cake tin.
• Place the cake tins in the preheated oven on the middle shelf and bake for 1 ½ hours.
• Once the cake is cooked, remove from the oven and let the cakes cool in the moulds for 10 minutes, turn them out on to a cooling rack and let the cakes cool completely.
• Dust with icing sugar

This cake is interesting and tastes rather like a steamed sponge pudding and is best served warm with custard or cream. It’s nothing like the one at Breda Murphy’s the other week. I probably wouldn’t make it again with this recipe.