Sunday 11 August 2013

A shortcut to nettles...etc

There is a slight nostalgic feel to this post as today is the end of my hols. It has been a mixed summer but with tremendous weather and some lovely places visited and times spent.Yesterday saw us visit the local Farmer's Market here in Dunfermline.We bought some super plants for the garden - a yellow Crocismia and Echenachea White swan ( apologies for mispellling but I can't be bothered checking them) and some splendid beer-
It was sold by a chap who has a one man brewery-
http://standrewsbrewingcompany.com
I can vouch for this splendid ale which I had the first of yesterday.I couldn't resist popping a in a flag from a League of St Andrew unit I'm painting at present-a unit of Germanic pork butchers orginally from Edinburgh.
In the picture is a book I am currently reading by Aidan Nichols O.P -a favourite author of mine and this,his latest book, is excellent too.he talks of this land which he calls Albion in the following way-
As we know ,awareness of our patrimony,the millennium and a half of Albion's existence, and not only in its Christian aspect,is under threat today ,owing to various factors in our culture:the 'neophilia' or the love of the new,which arose in the 1960s and produced in the Blair years such shallow mutations as 'New Britannia' and 'Cool Britannia';the emphasis of the educational system and its curricula on immediate relevance...
I will leave it there as I think I have said enough.
Today after church whilst I cut the grass Jan collected nettles from the garden  and made some splendid soup for lunch-
It was very tasty indeed ,and as I type,my eldest daughters are preparing rhubarb crumble  with rhubarb from the garden for tea.Can't Wait!
Finally a recent arrival in the Duchy -
A Minifigs Mythical Earth giant.I hope to put him through his paces soon...
I'll leave the last word to Tolkien himself-
Still 'round the corner there may wait
A new road or secret gate;
And though I oft have passed them by,
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.

10 comments:

  1. Oh ! I remember that Mini Figs Giant I had one 30 + years ago - a classic figure ! Cheers Tony

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad to bring a little nostalgia into things for you

      Delete
  2. Albion still produces nettles and rhubarb so all is not lost...as long as they are EU compatible I suppose! Back to work for me as well sadly. A week does not go by this fast at work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't get me started upon the subject of the E.U....

      Delete
  3. Alan, I'll go with Nichols' argument there. Spot on. 'Relevance'. Ha! As someone whose work has taken him round plenty of schools, the thing that struck me in the 'great rebuilding' phase of Neue Arbeit was how new school buildings looked like the regional headquarters of international businesses, with added slogans often painted onto the walls of the 'atriums'. All complete rot! I hope you have a decent Michaelmas term.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michaelmas Term has begun with the usual flurry of new methodologies ( not thought through as ever) uncertainty and web down at work...

      Delete
  4. A very pleasant post. I think if I had been fortunate enough to be in Dumferline on market day and had met a one-man brewery, I would have bought something to be sure, especially if it had been a Scotch ale.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Perhaps you have an equivalent market near you perchance?

      Delete
  5. It sounds like you had a wonderful day. Keep up the good work. My father retired several years ago from teaching, I very much doubt you would have much in common politically, but he was deeply concerned by the direction education has been going in.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Interesting to have an Irish perspective on things and I am intrigued by what you think my politics might be :)

    ReplyDelete