We will rock you

Cairn Cornwall May 2005 by Pupski

I made this mini Cairn on the rocky beach at Mousehole in Cornwall last week.

I am still finding out more about Cairns and it seems that they are to be found all over the world in some form or another.

Clicking on today's title will take you to a site about cairns in Pensylvania, the cairns there are many and varied but noone really knows why they were built.

For myself I find cairn building a slightly compulsive and therapeautic pasttime. It puts me in touch with the earth and the elements and is extremely satisfying, it gives me a sense of being connected to the past, knowing that people have created similar structures for thousands of years. There is also great pleasure in building them on the beach where you know that ultimately they will be washed away by the high tide, the rocks reclaimed by swirling salty water so that but for phot or memory you would never know that they were there.

Books....

Lokking at Dr Joolz blog about Flat Stanley got me thinking about children's books. I was an avid reader as a child. I started off with books like Cat in the Hat from the young learners series (others were One Fish, two Fish Red fish Blue Fish, A Fly Went By, Green Eggs and Ham, The King, the Mice and the Cheese, The Three Bears Picnic and my favourite The Diggingest Dog (click on titles for fun pages!).

Later on I graduated to Enid Blyton, which I was into in a big way, I used to get second hand Secret Sevens and Famous Fives from a little eccentric second hand book shop called the Scientific Anglian in St Benedicts Street in Norwich, which was like a maze of little rickety staircases and floor to ceiling dark wooden shelving heaving with books of every sort imaginable. I loved that shop as a child and was sad to see it closed. Sadly shops like that aren't possible any more in this age of safety paranoia!

Cinema

Went to the cinema the other night to see Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, which I have to confess I was a little disappointed in. I can't quite put my finger on exactly what it is that is wrong with the film. It could be that I just know the story too well and so there was no surprises, it could be that it just works better on the radio or as a book, it could be because they have changed the story (left bits out and made a love story where there was none), or it could be that the actors were just not up to it. The special effects were excellent but and the actors were certainly trying hard but somehow it just didn't work.

Talking of cinema I have myself getting excited about seeing the new Star Wars film Revenge of the Sith . It's funny how I have found myself buying into the build up and excitement even though I was disappointed by the last star wars film. It's as though on some level I can't quite believe that George Lucas could make two bad films in a row.

Art and agriculture

I have been watching a programme on BBC2 called How Art Changed the World . This week they revealed that agriculture was first developed to feed the people who were building some kind of big temple. The fact that hundreds of people had come togethjer in one place to create the temple led to the problem of how they would feed them all so they planted wheat and other crops.

It's amazing when you think about it, if we hadn't developed agricuture then the world and society would be very different. For a start the physical landscape would be different, there would be more natural forest, we wouldn't have had the need to irrigate and drain big tracts of land. cities and large towns probably wouldn't exist. You need agriculture to be able to sustain so may people in one place. Maybe the population would not have grown at the pace it has done.

makes you think...

Toys are us

Holmes wrecker corgi breakdown truck

N was watching a tv show where they were asking people what their favourite toys were as children. N would probably say something to do with Star Wars or Lego but it got me thinking about the toys I had as a child - here is my top five:

1. Corgi Holmes Wrecker Breakdown truck (pictured above) - this was my absolute fave, the cab lifted up to reveal a detailed engine and it had metal legs that came out at the sides to steady it when it was first lifting. Never did understand why it had those 2 goofy men with it - they are out of proportion to the truck.

2. Toy farm - lots of plastic animals, a big plastic barn and wooden houses and trees - great!

3. Better builder - like an early version of lego that didn't stick together so well, came in a round plastic tub.

4. Mako magnorama - a big magnetic board with two big pictures (landscape and townscape) that you attached to it and lots of disney figures that you could attach to it to make a scene.

5. Etch a sketch - the old ones were made of glass, amazingly enough I didn't break mine - think I was careful because I loved it so much. It was very hard to choose a top five of toys and I feel slightly guilty for not including any of my cuddly animals (especially Easter Bunny), other faves worth a mention are a service station, all the toy cars ( and I had loads), daisy doll and a Simon Snorkel fire engine that actually shot water.

I loved toy cars as a child and always remember the feeling of excitement and trepidation when I finally got into the toyshop with some money. The Matchbox cars were in a big glass case and it was always really hard to choose just one. Then the shop assistant would go to the back and slide the box out of the unit. There was something very special about the fact that those cars came in little cardboard boxes. I looked at toy cars in several of the toy stores in Norwich and they just aren't the same these days.

I don't think they are a big seller like they were in the 1970s they have been eclipsed and overtaken by themed toys from movies and lego and playmobil. But I do wonder if they would be a bigger seller if they went back to the old way of displaying them, a few bubble packed cars hanging up high on a shelf is much less likely to grab the attention of a 6-year-old than a big glass case at childs eye level full of shiny metal cars. The other thing with bubble packs is that unless you carry scissors around with you you often can't open them until you get home. N had lots of tears over unopenable packaging when he was younger. Kids like the immediacy of easily openable packaging, they want to be able to touch, hold and sniff their purchase as soon as they buy it. Bring back matchbox cars in cardboard boxes - it could be the next craze!

What do we put down our toilets?

A friend who read my blog got me thinking about what we put down our toilets. She knows someone who puts all manner of stuff down her loo - teabags, paper, food, plastic bags... It is a subject that I sometimes ponder whilst on foreign trips. In the UK we flush loads of stuff down the loo yet in other parts of Europe they don't even flush away toilet paper (presumably this is to conserve water and to quicken the biodegrading of waste).

When you start reading about and talking to people it is amazing the kinds of things that they do put down their toilets. Here are some examples:
dead goldfish
tampons
nappy liners
tea leaves and coffee grounds
food
cotton wool
cat litter
newspaper
chihuahua
hamster (accidently)
frog
dead mice
and more

I found this site that tells you that only paper, and bodily waste should go into the sewage system.

This seemed like a pertinent subject considering the furore about the alleged Qu'ran in the toilet incident I can think of several books that should be flushed down the toilet...

On a lighter note I found a great little survey on toilet habits.

Hats off to Roy Harper...

Flat, Baroque and Beserk

Spent some time yesterday putting some music on the mp3 player as I am going on a trip next week. Space is limited so I needed to be selective about the tracks. I have been drawn more and more to old tracks that I used to listen to in my teens and twenties and found myself experiencing a huge urge to hear Flat, Baroque and Beserk by Roy Harper (1970) pictured above.

Nostalgia is a funny thing sometimes I find myself feeling warm towards music I didn't even like at the time it was out - like Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet, and sometimes music I did like I find I really don't like any more like Spirit and Santana. But there are some albums that I liked when I was younger that still sound great when I listen to them now and Flat Baroque and Beserk definitely falls into that category.

You can listen to Don't you Grieve after me at http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/harper_roy/288457/album.jhtml
that is the only track from Flat baroque but there are excerpts from other Roy Harper albums as well.

So far I have in my nostalgic list:
Roy Harper
David Bowie
Judie Tzuke
New Model Army
Air
Depeche Mode
Michelle Shocked
Moody Blues
Pink Floyd
Simple Minds
Boomtown rats
UB40