Pancakes. Superstitions. Looking at things from both sides. The need for cash in Gaza,'

 We did a monster pancake party yesterday with most of the family (not the southern branch - we’ll see them tomorrow). The pancakes went down well, although Granddaughter Number Two did strange things with chocolate and mini-marshmallows on hers! 

Today I met my daughter and the two smallest grandchildren at the library. There the staff were having to do everything with paper and pencil and an old-fashioned date stamp as the computers and all the automatic systems had broken down. IT is wonderful … until it lets you down. 

Afterwards we went for coffee and hot chocolate in a local cafe, which was quite run off its feet with so many people taking refuge from the  rather arctic wind. The small people had yet more pancakes, this time American style, small fat pancakes, with maple syrup and fruits of the forest! 

Yesterday my daughter commented that she wanted/needed to wash her hair but could not do so because according to Chinese superstition, if you wash your hair on New Year’s Day you wash away all the good things that might happen to you over the coming year. I never though of her as a superstitious person. Maybe it’s only Chinese superstition she holds to.

I commented recently on the British Museum removing from their exhibits labels that mention Palestine. Art historian William Dalrymple has this to say about it:

“I’ve just been chatting with Nick Cullinan, the excellent new director of the British Museum, and I’m very relieved to say that the story put out by the Daily Telegraph about the BM cancelling the name Palestine is a complete misrepresentation of the facts:

‘To reassure you, we are not removing mention of Palestine from our labels,’ Nick told me. ‘Indeed, we have a display on at the moment about Palestine and Gaza.

‘I know this is something our curators have thought long and hard about - as you can imagine. We amended two panels in our ancient Levant gallery last year during a regular gallery refresh, when some wording was amended to reflect historical terms.

‘To be honest, the even more frustrating and concerning thing is that I knew nothing about this until yesterday and it has only been explained to me this morning. i hadn’t even seen that [UK lawyers for Israel] letter, despite asking for it, until this morning. I’m disgusted by the whole thing’.”

There you go. Another view of a story put out by a respectable newspaper! 

Meanwhile, life in Gaza continues to be difficult, as this article tells us. Goods which make their way to Gaza markets are expensive. Nobody has enough cash. Employment runs at 80% - hardly surprising in the circumstances. People who used to earn their living and feed their families by going out to sea to fish cannot do so - their boats have been destroyed and, besides, they are denied access to the sea.

 However, mostly everyone has gone quiet about Gaza now that there is a ‘ceasefire’! Yet people are still suffering. We should not forget.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Chinese New Year. Year of the Horse. Also Pancake Day. Too much rain and not enough.

It’s Chinese New Year’s Day. On Sunday there were parades in Manchester as usual. I think they were a bit rained on this year but nobody seems to have minded.

It’s the start of the Year of the Horse. Some say that it’s the Fire Horse but all my earlier sources just said Year of the Horse. So I have crocheted some horses, following an amigurumi pattern, a type of crochet involving a lot of circular stuff. For the last five years (I think) I have crocheted two of the relevant animal at this time of year for our two youngest grandchildren, whose father is Chinese. This year I made horses.

It’s also Shrove Tuesday, aka Pancake Tuesday. Time for carnival to start properly. In Galicia they will be burying the Sardine.  In our house I’ll be making pancakes, proper crèpe pancakes, not the thick pancakes some people seem to favour these days, possibly an import from the USA.

Here’s a cartoon about pancakes.

I long ago gave up trying to toss pancakes. It may well be traditional but it’s also messy. With a good pancake pan, heated to a good temperature, an a careful use of the spatula, it’s quite possible to flip the pancake without having to toss it high into the air and try to catch it. There is no guarantee, after all, that it will land in the correct way in your frying pan. 

There was a time, a good 12 or 13 years ago when Granddaughter Number Two and Grandson Number One used to be dropped off here for breakfast a couple of days a week. We would have pancakes for breakfast, play a game of tig round the kitchen table and then rush out to the bus stop to catch the bus to their primary school. Pancakes are part of the family tradition, following my mother’s recipe! 

Here is a new word, perfect for a day like today which is bright and sunny but cold enough for puddles to be frozen first thing: 

Apricity - the pleasant warmth of the sun in winter. That cozy feeling that wraps around you when the air is cold.

Valentine’s Day has come and gone. Here’s a before and after pic of “Lovers’ Arch”, in Sant’Andrea, Puglia, Italy. On Valentine’s Day strong storm surges and heavy rain swept across southern Italy and the rocky arch, the backdrop for wedding proposals and romantic pictures, collapsed. 

There goes a tourist attraction! The mayor of the town said, “It is a devastating blow to the heart. One of the most famous tourist features of our coastline and of the whole of Italy has disappeared.”

While so many places in Europe (and elsewhere) are suffering from too much rain, Cyprus is having a drought. Residents are being asked to reduce their water use. Reservoirs are running dry and ancient monuments are reappearing from under the water of those reservoirs, like the St Nicholas church in the Kouris reservoir.

Meanwhile, I am seeing video footage of aqua alta in Venice. Strange times! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

A waiting game. Thinking about Palestine, Lent, the environment. And looking towards summer.

 I’m waiting for a phone call. My GP’s surgery kept sending me reminders to arrange to discuss the results of a recent blood test. So I tried. My regular GP is not available for weeks and weeks. I made an appointment with one of her colleagues. That was cancelled as the doctor fell ill! So I’m waiting for a telephone appointment with their chief clinical expert nurse! “About 9.00,” they said, “but it could be any time between 8.00 and 10.00.” It’s now almost 9.15 and I’m still waiting. I can’t really go anywhere as it would be inconvenient to discuss my health in a public place. Such is life!

Here is a post from an organisation called Wear the Peace - posting on Facebook:

“The decision by the British Museum, the largest museum in Britain, to remove the word “Palestine” from its ancient displays reflects a troubling pattern of erasing Palestinian history and identity from global narratives. UK Lawyers for Israel put pressure on the museum by arguing that the term was being used “retrospectively” to describe civilizations that predated the modern use of the name, according to The Sunday Times. The museum abided and removed the word from its display panels.”

Source: @telegraph The Sunday Times

Thinking about the whole Palestine business, it struck me that most people have always been vaguely aware of a place called Palestine but in an almost mythical way, rather like Atlantis. But over the last few years Biblical places like Bethlehem and Jerusalem, Babylon and Damascus, Jordan and Canaan, have become real places in the news. And, however,now Palestine can be erased from labels in the British Museum.

Meanwhile Carnival time is approaching. Or rather, we are about to start Lent, a time of giving things up, of abstaining. After all, for believers, eating pancakes and having carnival parades was supposed to be a last fling before a period of abstinence. Pope Leo XIV has published this message for lent:

“I would like to invite you to a very practical and frequently unappreciated form of abstinence: that of refraining from words that offend and hurt our neighbour.”

Maybe we should agree to abstain from war as well.

And abstain from ruining our planet. At Lytham Saint Annes, not far from Blackpool, they’re burying discarded Christmas trees to create extra sand dunes to protect houses near the coast from the increasingly high tides. They dig trenches, bury the trees and pile sand on top. The trees disintegrate and a new sand dune is formed. Brilliant idea!

Finally, from the gloom of a wet winter (it rained copiously in the night) here is a painting by Beryl Cook. The bathing pool. Looking towards summer! 

Life goes on, stay safe and well, everyone!

Crocs. Clogs. Flamingos. And Cuba.

 I am told that Crocs are really comfortable and very good for your feet. When they first appeared they struck me as something really good for children to wear when playing on the beach, messing about in rock pools and other such summertime activities like paddling in the ford down by one of our local millponds. Definitely not, I thought, the sort of thing sensible adults would wear. Nowadays I see people of all ages wearing crocs in all weathers. Although actually I don’t see many children in crocs.

It was this article about a collaboration between Crocs and Lego to produce footwear that looks like Lego bricks. A Guardian reporter road-tested a pair, looking as though he had the walk in the same way as you might if you were wearing snow shoes. 

They definitely look as though running for the bus might be impossible. Walking up and down stairs, using the escalator, just plain walking, all caused problems for the intrepid tester. What’s more they cost £199 a pair!

He concludes his article: “Back at home in my trusty Adidas, I realise these aren’t shoes; they’re a performance art piece about the triumph of novelty over sense. My feet survived – barely – but my ego needs a rebuild. If fashion really is passion over practicality, then I think I’ll just stay fashionably ignorant, thanks very much.”

I did a bit of research. Ordinary Crocs can cost you around £50. Any footwear is expensive.

Lego is not the only firm to collaborate with Crocs. Here is a £720 example:

“Part of a Balenciaga x Crocs collaboration, these silver-toned clogs feature the iconic silhouette updated with a platform sole. The rubber pair is adorned with playful Jibbitz charms inspired by Balenciaga icons.”

Crocs have been around for almost a quarter of a century. “Scott Seamans, Lyndon Hanson and George Boedecker Jr. created Crocs in 2002 to make and distribute the sandals, as they saw its potential and ease of use for consumers.

The trio acquired Andrew Reddyhoff's design from Foam Creations, Inc. of Quebec City, which became the foundation of the Crocs sandals known in the present day. Seamans, Hanson, and Boedecker were drawn to the shoe's comfort and practicality.

In 2002, Crocs unveiled their first model, the Beach, at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show in Florida, and all 200 pairs produced sold out.”

Oddly enough I remember owning a pair of actual clogs some time in the 1970s. Made of blue leather and with a classic wooden sole, they were very trendy in certain circles, comfortable but quite impractical for everyday living, and useless for dancing. As regards dancing, I suppose they were easily removed and then you could dance barefoot!

Just for the fun of it, here is a picture an equally impractical-looking thing: a flamboyance of flamingos. Having watched various tv programmes with our smallest grandchild I know that flamingos also have a dance, well, really a fancy stepping manoeuvre to cross difficult terrain. It’s also part of their mating rituals. 

Enough of that!

Some seven years ago now, a good friend and I went on an adventure to Cuba, exploring Havana, visiting a tobacco farm, dancing to a Buena Vista Social Club tribute band. We had a great time but were aware of how privileged we were, how our life style contrasted with that of most Cubans. Yet we felt welcomed and on the whole were impressed. 

Now, according to this article, as well as other problems arising from the oil embargo - power cuts, food shortages - tourism is also affected. Flights from places like Canada and Russia, which send a lot of tourists to Cuba, are being cancelled because the planes cannot refuel for the return flight!

Where does the arrogance come from that permits one country to interfere in the way another place organises its life?  The world is a depressing place!

And yet …

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Sunshine for Valentine’s Day. Some comments on Valentine’s Day. Awards for athletes. And politics in art.

 Today began with blue sky and not a cloud in sight. It was, however, very cold: -3° according to my phone’s weather app. 

There was snow on the hills up towards Marsden, hills that have been hidden under cloud for the last few days.

If you paused in a sunny spot it actually felt warm; the February sun is getting stronger. In the shady places, however, it certainly felt like -3° and the millpond was frozen again! 

Here are some expressions about rain. In Wales they say that it’s “raining old women and sticks” and in various parts of England people will comment that it looks’ “black over the back of Bill’s mother’s”.  In Manchester they say., “If you can see the Pennines from town, it’ll be raining soon. If you can’t see them, that’s because it’s already raining.” Mind you, other places, as I have commented already, seem to be having more rain than we are at the moment. 

Variations on the Manchester comment exist: in Devon (“If you can see Dartmoor …”), Edinburgh (“the Fife coast”), Swanage (“the Isle of Wight”). In Spain they will tell you it rains jugfuls - Llueve a cántaros - and in France it can rain like a peeing cow - il pleut come une vache qui pisse. Here it’s just cats and dogs. 

It’s Valentine’s day. All the shops and cafes are decorated with hearts and flowers. I’ve seen advertisements for ‘gifts to give your children for Valentine’s Day’. Good grief! There was a time when Valentine’s were sent anonymously or one person would ask another, ‘be my Valentine’. Now it’s another excuse for manufacturers of cards and tat to make more money. Here’s a link to an article bemoaning the modern trend to decorate your house with seasonal tat. 

Here’s caroonist Madeline Horwath on Valentine’s day for city dwellers:

Love knows no bounds, except perhaps the morning commute.

I read this morning that President Zelensky has awarded the order of freedom to Vladyslav Heraskevych, the Uktanian athlete banned from wearing “helmet of memory” in the Winter Olympics. “Remembrance is not a violation,” Zelenskyy told him. “Ukraine will always have champions and Olympians”. Well, I bet that makes him feel better!

Writer and film maker Arundhati Roy, one of my favourite authors, is not afraid of speaking her mind. She has just withdrawn from the jury at the Berlin film festival in protest at Wim Wnders’ claim that films should “stay out of politics”.  She said Wenders’ stance was “unconscionable”, and that to “hear [him] say that art should not be political is jaw-dropping.”

It’s nice to have amusing, beautiful, carefully made films and other pieces of art but sometimes art should be more than that. If political comment was banned then works like Picasso’s Guernica might never have been created.

There you go.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!