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A personal weblog with photographs and comments. Quiet ramblings, quite rambling...

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• What really happened in Croydon? - (3)
  
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• Three Way Chess - (1)
  
• Gamelan instruments - (2)
  
• Oh no! John! - (2)
  
• “Bells and Smells” Mass - (1)
  
• Turn cash into less cash - (6)
  

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This is the view down Wenceslas Square from behind the statue of the king.

It was here that the events of the Prague Spring unfolded 40 years ago. On 21 August 1968, Soviet tanks rolled into the square and two young men were killed in the protests that followed.

Here are some Gamelan instruments from an event I attended on Saturday with Pinkie. I was telling her this is part of her heritage, as some of her ancestors come from Indonesia.

The last blog entry (posted from my mobile phone) didn’t work so well as the subject was corrupted. I’ll sort it out on Wednesday when I’m home. Hopefully I won’t have the same problem with this one.

This is the St Thomas Catholic church in Prague where Pinkie and I came this morning for a serious morning service at which the Wadham College Choir, Oxford, sang. You can see the lingering evidence of the incense in the photo above. After the service we had lunch at a nearby street cafe with Bluemeanie. We then went back to the church this afternoon for a concert by the aforementioned choir, the last of their tour of Poland and Czech Republic.

I think these are so cool. I spotted them yesterday afternoon on the Paris metro (at Chatelet). Many of these so-called African prints don’t come from Africa. I remember reading somewhere that the clothes for the recent Number One Ladies Detective Agency film were made from cloth produced in Scotland.

I like the way this “weedy” meadow grass is cultivated on the pavement verge here in the Western suburb of Nanterre Ville, Paris. The opposite verge was freshly mown.

A strange juxtaposition of public messages (seen in Oxford recently).

Spotted in the car park at work. Nice to see that I have a colleague keeping the faith alive.

Unfortunately Leeds failed to get promotion last year and so continue their struggle next season in the third tier of the football league.

This is the daisy flower, either bellis annus (the annual daisy) or bellis perennis (the English daisy). The French word for daisy is Madelaine but the English Daisy in French is known as the Pâquerette (presumably because it makes an appearance in Spring, at the time of Easter). I like the way that the English wiki article on the daisy has information about the plant propogation and its appearance on one’s lawn[/url] whereas the French wiki article on this flower dispenses medical advice:

La pâquerette est souvent prescrite pour l’hypertension et l’artériosclérose[réf. nécessaire] (utilisation des fleurs et des feuilles). En infusion, une cuillère par tasse d’eau bouillante, laisser infuser 10 minutes, 3 tasses par jour.

Which loosely translates as:

The daisy is commonly prescribed for hypertension and artiosclerosis (utilising the flowers and leaves of the plant). Enfuse one spoon per cup of boiling water. Leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Take 3 cups a day.

The English article did however warn that the daisy is an astringent.  I like the mandala like patterns that are formed by the arrangement of the anthers of the flower.

It’s almost the end of the poppy season now, but I found a field with a few still going strong. While these poppies are not narcotic, there are fields in the UK devoted to producing opium.

According to the BBC:

The wild field poppy enjoys cultivated, disturbed soil, which is why swathes of scarlet blooms often appear in cornfields. The basic form has scarlet, single flowers, each petal often marked at its base with a black blotch. Size varies according to the soil in which plants grow, the poorer the soil, the smaller and paler the blooms… Plants self-seed readily.

It is known to have been associated with agriculture in the Old World since early times. It has most of the characteristics of a successful weed of agriculture. These include an annual lifecycle that fits into that of most cereals, a tolerance of simple weed control methods, the ability to flower and seed itself before the crop is harvested. Like many such weeds, it also shows the tendency to become a crop in its own right; its seed is a moderately useful commodity, and its flower is edible[citation needed].

Its origin is not known for certain. As with many such plants, the area of origin is often ascribed by Americans to Europe, and by northern Europeans to southern Europe. The European Garden Flora suggests that it is ‘Eurasia and North Africa’; in other words, the lands where agriculture has been practised since the earliest times.

Bluemeanie’s wearing a new t-shirt today.

And the people did beat their drums, and scream and shout, and dance and celebrate. Because it was the time of sunrise on the longest day of the year, and they were at the sacred site of the stones, and they had been up all night.
And they were pissed or stoned out of their minds. And then they went home leaving a great mass of litter behind.

I arrived at Stonehenge about one hour before the 4:44 am sunrise and made my way to the inner circle. This was a privilege (shared today by many thousands of play pagans) as normally the guardians of the site (English Heritage) restrict access to the footpath which runs around the perimeter of Stonehenge. There was an eclectic bunch of people there, all choosing to experience and interpolate in one of many different ways.

The glow beyond the stones in the photograph is provided by the artificial lighting provided by English Heritage: “ambient light ... in the interests of public safety”. Most thoughtfully, the lights were “systematically turned off as dawn approached”.

There was not to be a dramatic (Hollywood-style) dawn with a ray of sunlight cutting a shaft into the stone circle. I have my doubts that this would occur in the best of weather, despite the endeavours of the man next to me to demonstrate the principle using his fingers. As it was we attained enlightenment through the ambient glow of clouds and rain.

As I wait at Clapham Junction rail station for the train to work (and it’s turning into quite a wait) I was looking through some photos I took last night. I think I should have taken my photos earlier before the light faded so. I’m also feeling weak and hungry, but it only became noticeable when I had left home. Bastard next to me is drinking coffee. I’m now amused that my phone dictionary doesn’t have the B-word in it.

The walk on Saturday took us past the French Street Stables, where we saw this magnificent sight. The tail of the horse seems to be kept unusually long. I just missed a shot of the woman holding the tail and squirting water up the horses behind. The horse seemed remarkably relaxed about this (compared to say how you or I would feel about having this done to us).

It was a warm sunny day. This morning the weather forecast predicts more of the same but looking out the window I see it’s overcast with rain. This poses a dilemma: after work I am going into central London for drinks with friends. Do I dress according to what the forecast predicts or what I see outside?

Another photo taken near Toy’s Hill. These plants are also known as Polypodiophyta. The photo actually shows a fiddlehead - the young unfurled frond.

Fiddleheads of some ferns are eaten, as are the roots. Don’t try this at home - they are poisonous plants and some specialised knowledge/preparation is required.