tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2009-11-12:/MokoFeed2009-11-12T12:03:42+01:00tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2007-03-23:/2007/03/23/horses_make_a_landscape~1962592/lazybeds2007-03-23T20:15:07+01:002007-03-23T20:15:07+01:00 <p>If you were brought here by my recent invitation the poem I referred to is in Alice Walker's "Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful" which is a book I have been given once and bought a number of times but there is never a copy in the house, because I keep giving to people and then hear nothing about whether they liked it or not, which is fine. Anyway, she has this poem in which she celebrates her friends and the original quote is "I will not think any less of you if you do not come to this meeting." In the same poem another friend is celebrated for knowing "that the sound of a woman coming (and probably not through the rye, either - Ed.)is better than the sound of a B52" which is a very Woodstock quote but none the worse for that.I think that deliberate celebration of friends is a good project because, if you don't do it, there is a fair chance that a funeral (yours or theirs)will come in the way. There is another problem - the need put it on record occurs to you most sharply if they become seriously ill and then you don't want to do it because it may make them think "I am on the way out this time - here they all are with their premature obituaries, I wish they would leave me in peace." So I think Walker had it right, get on with it now. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2007/03/23/horses_make_a_landscape~1962592/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2007-03-23:/2007/03/23/horses_make_a_landscape~1961537/lazybeds2007-03-23T17:47:56+01:002007-03-23T17:47:56+01:00 <p>If you were brought here by my recent invitation the poem I referred to is in Alice Walker's "Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful" which is a book I have been given once and bought a number of times but there is never a copy in the house, because I keep giving to people and then hear nothing about whether they liked it or not, which is fine. Anyway, she has this poem in which she celebrates her friends and the original quote is "I will not think any less of you if you do not come to this meeting." In the same poem another friend is celebrated for knowing "that the sound of a woman coming (and probably not through the rye, either - Ed.)is better than the sound of a B52" which is a very Woodstock quote but none the worse for that.I think that deliberate celebration of friends is a good project because, if you don't do it, there is a fair chance that a funeral (yours or theirs)will come in the way. There is another problem - the need put it on record occurs to you most sharply if they become seriously ill and then you don't want to do it because it may make them think "I am on the way out this time - here they all are with their premature obituaries, I wish they would leave me in peace." So I think Walker had it right, get on with it now. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2007/03/23/horses_make_a_landscape~1961537/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2007-01-17:/2007/01/17/backing_one_s_judgement~1568713/lazybeds2007-01-17T15:51:12+01:002007-01-17T15:53:23+01:00 <p>You make something, as an artist, a poet,a cook,a project manager or whatever. You are inclined to think it is a good piece of work and there was even some excitement as you completed it. It gave you pleasure to review it, to hold in in your hands, to read it through, to taste it, its intrinsic properties blending with the thrill of having created something.</p> <p>And then you submit it to a body of critics - your circle of friends, the people at table,the committee, the review pages of the newspapers,and their appreciation is somewhat restrained. Maybe there is puzzlement, or the subject is changed quickly and politely.</p> <p>I had this once with a poem. Untypically, it buzzed me awake at 4 a.m., three images wrapped round a pre-occupation, and later fell into a very satisfactory shape, at least to my mind. I shared it with friends. Mystification, embarrassed coughing, quick slide to a new topic. Though I would read it from time to time for my own enjoyment, it was put aside under a cloud of doubt about its value to anyone else.</p> <p>Then, a year or two later I showed it to the tutors at a poetry course and they liked it a lot. I also heard from a friend abroad that on reading she had been overcome with tears thought she did not understand a word of it. My baby!</p> <p>Question is, how do you know when and when not to back your own judgment? These friendly critics are really important to me for their honest feedback. With poetry the solution is fairly easy - you put it in the drawer for a long time and then have a fresh look at it. With other things it is far from straightforward. At any rate I guess it is a special blend of humility and sheer stubborn-ness. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2007/01/17/backing_one_s_judgement~1568713/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2007-01-16:/2007/01/16/trouble_making~1562362/lazybeds2007-01-16T17:14:47+01:002007-01-16T17:23:36+01:00 <p>I like this quote from George Monbiot:</p> <p>"Trouble-making is a costly nuisance, a drain on public resources, an impediment to the smooth functioning of government. It is also one of the only means by which our political leaders can be forced to address the concerns of the excluded, the dispossessed or, indeed, anyone who does not number among their target voters." </p> <p>This chimed in with reading Paul Robeson's essays in "Here I Stand" where he chides the Gradualists, those who looked for incremental improvements in civil rights through patience and a growth in understanding.</p> <p>I think the nature of the stushie is really important. I am suspicious of actual revolutions since they seem usually to bring in something worse than the status quo ante. At the other end the doctrine of "always keep a hold of nurse, for fear of finding something worse" just will not wash. These days I am a bit muddled about how to navigate between these extremes. Clarification work needed. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2007/01/16/trouble_making~1562362/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-12-29:/2006/12/29/the_burn~1491954/lazybeds2006-12-29T20:50:35+01:002006-12-29T20:50:35+01:00 <p>Through the naked trees<br> The winter burn is a string<br> Of grey green jewels</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/12/29/the_burn~1491954/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-12-16:/2006/12/16/a_volcano_called_anthea~1444778/lazybeds2006-12-16T13:28:15+01:002006-12-16T13:28:15+01:00 <p>The bleak public discourse about education persists. Nadine Cole of Girls Aloud, reflecting the drivel that has become increasingly respectable, says that you have to accept that some kids are just not going to be as bright as others. When I read this, alongside the same sort of thing from from ”professionals”, I remember Anthea. It was 2nd year RE and I had posed the question: Why did Jesus tell his disciples to keep quiet about the miracles? Blank looks all around and then Anthea’s hand went up. This caused an expectant hush since she just never volunteered anything and had a problematic stammer. (We teachers had, in our perceptive way, dubbed her as not very bright.) She went bright red, stammered and stopped. We all waited for her to try again - and the wave of encouraging patience was coming from the whole room, not just me. After two or three tries, she got it out. I can’t remember the detail now, but it was a simple exposition of the concept that Professor Barret called the Veiled Messiah, with the additional insight that in the fragile early stages of communication aimed at developing significant relationships, tentative and obscure gambits may be used. I was stunned. For the rest of term she made no other contribution. It was a brief and brilliant volcanic eruption. I heard later that she had taken certificate RE in 3rd year but had made rather a hash of it, because her writing skills were poor. She is just one example - so don’t give me any crap about ability. We don’t know what we are sitting on top of. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/12/16/a_volcano_called_anthea~1444778/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-12-12:/2006/12/12/upstairs_downstairs~1428291/lazybeds2006-12-12T10:15:07+01:002006-12-12T10:15:07+01:00 <p>Mention of back stairs in old houses the other day reminded me of a tragi-comic incident years ago in Islay. The old manse had back stairs with the additonal oddity that they had a door at the top. Which was fine if you knew about it. 80 year-old visitor Mrs Tregunna was heading for the bathhroom, opened the wrong door and stepped into the void. Alerted by the slowly decelerating series of thuds we rushed to the scene. She was OK but a little bemused. The most immediately alarming thing were the loud wails of her husband who, reasonably enough, reckoned that she would not have survived the fall. That must have been some experience for the old lady as the brain hurriedly advanced draft hypothesis after draft hypothesis of explanation. Anyway, Dad made a virtue out of bolting the stable door by eliminating the stairwell, thus extending the bathroom on the upstairs and making a cute cupboard for the hoover below. Interestingly, this is the only domestic adaptation he made as a result of an accident. The many others (stories for another day)he just did for the hell of it. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/12/12/upstairs_downstairs~1428291/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-12-04:/2006/12/04/we_are_all_suicide_bombers_now~1402591/lazybeds2006-12-04T23:27:40+01:002006-12-04T23:27:40+01:00 <p>Sad but not unexpected day when Blair announces the continuance of Trident for ever and ever amen. I sometimes think the world is being run by weans, but then I think of the weans I know and their approach is so much more sensible, mature, imaginative, responsible etc. etc.than that bunch of pipsqueaks, arseholes and hangers on. And the sickening silence and acquiescence of MPs - lots of jokes and childish put-downs in the Commons as they decide to continue with the most barbaric weapon imaginable - making us all suicide bombers. And this crap about reducing the number of warheads - Genocide Lite. Anyone know any good countries that would take me?</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/12/04/we_are_all_suicide_bombers_now~1402591/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-12-04:/2006/12/04/we_are_all_suicide_bombers_now~1402376/lazybeds2006-12-04T22:26:28+01:002006-12-04T22:26:28+01:00 <p>Sad but not unexpected day when Blair announces the continuance of Trident for ever and ever amen. I sometimes think the world is being run by weans, but then I think of the weans I know and their approach is so much more sensible, mature, imaginative, responsible etc. etc.than that bunch of pipsqueaks, arseholes and hangers on. And the sickening silence and acquiescence of MPs - lots of jokes and childish put-downs in the Commons as they decide to continue with the most barbaric weapon imaginable - making us all suicide bombers. And this crap about reducing the number of warheads - Genocide Lite. Anyone know any good countries that would take me?</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/12/04/we_are_all_suicide_bombers_now~1402376/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-11-28:/2006/11/28/all_feet_have_some_clay~1378128/lazybeds2006-11-28T14:51:18+01:002006-11-28T14:51:18+01:00 <p>Re-reading Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle and am able to clarify for myself what I like about his work. I don't think of it as reading the work of a genius, whatever the blurbs on my edition say. There are many annoying features, such as the sexism and the snobbery, as well as a certain rawness and clumsiness in the narrative. The flaws do not matter, mainly because what counts is the humanity of it all, the richness and honesty of the human description, the ability to make a world for the reader in which you can live. The characters (full of flaws and frailties) become your friends and familiars. You are in a ethos in which weak human beings are valued and accepted, which is not a bad place to be, when you are sixty-one and occasionally prone to looking back. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/11/28/all_feet_have_some_clay~1378128/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-11-21:/2006/11/21/i_name_this_bridge~1353077/lazybeds2006-11-21T13:19:30+01:002006-11-21T13:19:30+01:00 <p>Sometimes I think we are collectively dafter than a hairbrush. There is a campaign locally to give a certain new (unfinished) bridge a certain name. The bridge will take road traffic across a stretch of the Forth estuary just north of the present Kincardine Bridge and there is a big effort to get it called the Clackmannashire Bridge after the county it will connect to on the north side. It all seems, in a quite literal way, to be a one-sided argument.Supporters of the campaign should be aware that a road into Clackmannanshire is also a road out of it. Even if you granted the to Clackmannanshire the right to call the bridge after itself (as against, say, the Falkirk Bridge, or the Airth Bridge) it would still be loopy, since it implies that the road is only for coming north, or, alternatively, only for Clackmannashire people going either north or south. And that name doesn't even give status to Clackmannanshire, since, if that county had a really good conceit of itself it would want to name it after the place its residents wanted to get to. Chauvinist residents of Skye probably wanted their bridge to be called the Mainland Bridge. There is a way out of this which has a symetrical attraction, though some practical difficulties are attendant, and that is to name the bridge the Clackmannanshire Bridge when southbound and the Falkirk Bridge when northbound. </p> <p>Ok, I can hear the challenge. What would you call the bloody thing? Obviously, the Fifth Bridge. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/11/21/i_name_this_bridge~1353077/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-11-18:/2006/11/18/old_and_new_leaves~1342213/lazybeds2006-11-18T07:29:10+01:002006-11-18T07:29:10+01:00 <p>It was special yesterday travelling briefly in the car and at the same time listening to someone on Radio 4 explaining something of the biology and chemistry behind the colour of autumn leaves - and all the while these same leaves were gloriously illustrating the points as I sped through Blairlogie. The explanation as inadequate (partly because a radio cannot be interrogated) but there were enough hints to make me want to find out more. This all brings back again the puzzle as to why I seem to be seeing autumn leaves for the first time. Is it because the display is especially vibrant this year or because there is some change in me which has switched on perceptions? Or a combination of both these reasons? I wonder if anyone else shares this? </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/11/18/old_and_new_leaves~1342213/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-11-14:/2006/11/14/some_ducks_don_t_quack~1330636/lazybeds2006-11-14T21:54:12+01:002006-11-14T21:54:12+01:00 <p>The other day I heard a chap on the radio say that Muslims worldwide agree that members of the Ahmadiyya movement are not real Muslims. Slight problem here is that the worldwide poll he referred to clearly did not include members of the Ahmadiyya movement who, of course, consider themselves to be Muslims, in spite of the fact that they are hideously persecuted by other people who call themselves Muslims. So who decides? I suggest that it should be the same as names – that it is up to people what they want to call themselves and if we think, for instance, that they are mispronouncing their originally Gaelic name then we should shut up because it is none of our business. So if someone wants to call themselves a Muslim, or a Jew, or a Socialist, or whatever then that should be entirely up to them. It is also irritating when members of a religion or an ideology make sweeping generalisations about their faith. Ann Widdicombe says that Christianity is the gentle religion and Jonathon Sachs says that Judaism is a non-proselytising religion and neither allows for the exceptions (or the rule, as you wish). Of course in my Christian days I was familiar with and shared in the obsession with defining what a real Christian was. What is the motive for this insistence on homogeneity which is so at odds with the facts? I suppose it is mainly control but also may be a need for a workable map and the ability to predict at least the likelihood of the existence of certain beliefs and patterns of behaviour. Certainly as a teacher I have been guilty of it. Muslims pray five times a day, don’t drink alcohol etc. instead of pointing up that these were crude generalisations. So I guess we need less certainty and more humility (which is what you would expect from a real Muslim, Christian, Jew, Socialist . . .) </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/11/14/some_ducks_don_t_quack~1330636/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-11-10:/2006/11/10/you_know_it_s_good_for_you~1315188/lazybeds2006-11-10T11:13:52+01:002006-11-10T11:13:52+01:00 <p>It’s some months now since I read Jared Diamond’s Collapse but I keep coming back to it. The book looks at why some societies have survived and others have not and he identifies as critical the ability of societies to abandon or change long held values when under environmental stress. </p> <p>Most arrestingly to someone like me with anarchic tendencies he cites occasions when imposed authoritarian solutions have saved the day – notably the successful response to incipient deforestation by the Tokugawa regime in Japan. It is interesting that today discomfort with top down responses to environmental or health threat is more common outside the anarchic left than in it – witness windfarm protests, resistance to smoking bans and articles like Brendan O’Neill’s in Spiked Online re the recent London Climate Change demo. And of course there are values and values, such as the difference between say, the determination to cling to a cow-based pastoral culture which Diamond says killed off the Viking Greenlanders, or something deeper, such as the decision to go in for population control via infanticide, or the abandonment of the right to decide for yourself. On the latter there are of course grey shades. The acceptance of personal restrictions due to a sense of social responsibility, for instance, or the recognition that the perfect anarchic society is some way off, to put it gently, and that its remoteness requires some present compromise.</p> <p>Of course Diamond himself leaves one value unexamined –survival itself. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/11/10/you_know_it_s_good_for_you~1315188/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-11-08:/2006/11/08/more_golden_light~1310635/lazybeds2006-11-08T22:32:52+01:002006-11-08T22:32:52+01:00 <p>In our yard there is a beech tree which my neighbours wanted to cut down if the Council would have allowed it. Today it stopped me in my tracks for about a minute as it swam and basked in the afternoon light, turning that light on its outer, wasting leaves to a rich warm gold and on the inner ones to a glittering green, so that it seemed not to borrow the light but to be its source – another firework. I felt I should touch my hat to it and perhaps walk away from it backwards.</p> <p>And where have the mice gone? Because the floor covering in the hall had to come up I took the chance of looking under the boards to see if there were any signs. Not the tiniest turd. This is a bit spooky, given their cheerful resilience for several seasons, their ability to find new ways in, up and around, even after several of them got involuntary retirement. In spite of my admiration I don’t miss them one bit, but what cataclysm has hit them? Could it be catching? First they came for the mice . . . . The said Pastor Niemoller (just imagine the dots) appears in Denis Giardina’s absorbing “Saints and Villains” an imaginative retelling of the story of Dietrich Boenhoffer which I pick up (because it fascinates) and put down again (because it is very disturbing indeed). </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/11/08/more_golden_light~1310635/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-11-07:/2006/11/07/history_boys~1304526/lazybeds2006-11-07T10:44:55+01:002006-11-07T10:44:55+01:00 <p>Why did this film irritate me so much? The stagey, choreographed smart-alicking? The feeling that here was a club to which I clearly did not belong? The ponderous pace? There is one fine and moving scene where boy and teacher discuss Hardy's poem "Drummer Hodge" and this made it worse in a way since the rest of it fell so far short of that standard. Maybe all of these plus on my part a failure to accept that it was just a film of a stage play with all the conventions that attend that form. This is maybe why it was difficult to suspend disbelief and forget I was just watching some very smart actors. Or maybe it is just very dated. Or maybe I was on my high horse and refusing to be amused.</p> <p>Anyway I regret now giving my immediate and sour reaction to a friend who liked it. It's not nice to spoil the fun </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/11/07/history_boys~1304526/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-11-06:/2006/11/06/what_generation_gap~1301153/lazybeds2006-11-06T12:45:41+01:002006-11-07T16:34:52+01:00 <p>From where I am standing the GG doesn't really exist anymore, especially in my experience of peace activists. It is of course possible that the yawning divide is still there but is diguised by the tolerance and courtesy of the young. My good experience was again boosted by congenial conversation yesterday and in the past I have been taken by the way younger people straighforwardly share their skills (usually IT)without any hint of impatience or superiority. True,there are rare exceptions on both sides (smart alick tendencies and pompous traits) but gentle peer pressure moderates it quite quickly. </p> <p>And on Jane Eyre (read again after 40 years or so) the theme that jumped out on me was not the romantic one but how Jane manages to find herself under great pressures to conform - the escape from Rivers is more significant than the run to Rochester. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/11/06/what_generation_gap~1301153/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-11-04:/2006/11/04/back_to_kelvingrove~1296089/lazybeds2006-11-04T22:05:35+01:002006-11-05T00:40:31+01:00 <p>For my mother and father in their courting days in the middle thirties a special day out was to get the tram from the bottom of Kilbowie Road all the way to Kelvingrove and spend the afternoon there (morning was work), perhaps listening to an organ recital, and certainly having tea and a scone in the douce tea room. As I went into the refurbished gallery for the first time today I wondered what they would have made of it. I guess they might have missed a certain gravitas and the very ordered and sequential presentation of all the items. But I like to think they would have appreciated the change. The ordering of items follows a different logic but one just as valid and the whole affair has a life and colour that easily compensates for the loss of reverential hush. And real hard work has been put in to making it accessible, especially with the language which is used on the labelling. I would nit-pick a little about the content of these labels on the paintings which I found very directive and sometimes questionable in their interpretation. I think we should avoid hampering the response of the viewer by opinionated and oversimplified statements. But all in all a super change! Great to see the old familiar detail - the unique benches and the loo sign "Gentlemen's Lavatory". </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/11/04/back_to_kelvingrove~1296089/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-11-02:/2006/11/02/nice_danish_kids_and_collatoral_damage~1289748/lazybeds2006-11-02T21:34:24+01:002006-11-04T22:06:44+01:00 <p>The kids from a school in Aarhus in Denmark were on the phone again early this morning in my third interview about nukes and their effects for the school newspaper. They are chirpy, courteous and most of all persistent - refusing to be put off by language problems, reframing the questions time and again until they are satisfied. It was good fun but I shudder to think what I may be quoted as saying. I was stumped by a question about Einstein's role in splitting the atom. They said goodby this morning and I shall miss them. Nordic/Scandinavian manners are refreshing. </p> <p>Thinking over the business of the responsibility we have for the negative effects of actions we take with good intent - "collateral damage" if you like. Since all actions will have some negative effects it seems sensible to posit a continuum so that, with appropriate awareness, you can work out what is the ethical tipping point. But being a continuum, I suppose it could slide up on you unawares. At one extreme complete inaction (not itself without ill effects) and at the other the insouciance of warmongers who shrug their shoulders and refuse even to count the civilian dead. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/11/02/nice_danish_kids_and_collatoral_damage~1289748/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-10-31:/2006/10/31/title~1282847/lazybeds2006-10-31T22:51:03+01:002006-10-31T23:12:18+01:00 <p>Today the golden light fell upon high triangles in the hills and made the russet banks of old bracken burn, while the wind still tugged and tugged. Last night it was strong enough to overturn our allotment shed which survived with little damage. As I opened the door sideways and gaped in on the contents which looked as if they had been spun at 2000rpm I thought it might be ok that way round and quite Wendy House. With Jim's help it was stood up again and anchored with a large slab inside on the floor. We are also one compost bin down - I guess it must have gone to Tullibody. Better news of my sick friend - now definitely mending. Feeling so feeble has focussed me more at home and home making and this led to decisions about a carpet and some laminate flooring at which I have always hiss booed but . . . . </p> <p>Our only guisers were from the Avenue, two delightful kids, the younger one lisping all the way through Incy Wincy Spider. And tonight the cold and naked moon does not scare - it is scared itself, so conspicuous, so scarred, so vulnerable. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/10/31/title~1282847/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-10-30:/2006/10/30/clouds_and_mysteries_of_time~1276438/lazybeds2006-10-30T08:05:47+01:002006-11-07T16:33:09+01:00 <p>News of the serious illness of one of my best friends is a dark cloud. Nothing more to be said about that but to wait for time passing and better news. This changing of the clocks is faintly disturbing, perhaps especially for our generation so generally cut off from natural rhythms. This morning writing an opinion against the Iraq invasion for a school student who is doing a little thesis for RE.The process stirs up again that internal rage along with guilt that we did not do more to stop it in 2002/3. Dawn is lighting up a wall of mist outside. I love that blend of mystery and cosiness. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/10/30/clouds_and_mysteries_of_time~1276438/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-10-29:/2006/10/29/herding~1272858/lazybeds2006-10-29T07:03:23+01:002006-10-29T07:03:23+01:00 <p>After helping my friends tidy up their temporary (three day) residence in a church in Glasgow which involved more mopping than I have ever done and overhearing some very bad language as an opened carton of soya milk spread itself over a newly packed food box, it was off to meet up with siblings and partners at Mugdock Country Park. A lovely spot in dripping spotty autumn shades marred by a hideous garden centre full of expensive tat and novelties. This spawned a conversation with Iain about herding and tourist assembly line funnels and how embarrassing it is to be part of one and what snobs we are to feel that.Good craic but I had to take myself to the car for refuge due to ongoing feebleness and my clock recently reset at different hours to others and just about to be made worse by the end of summertime. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/10/29/herding~1272858/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:lazybeds.blog.co.uk,2006-10-27:/2006/10/27/spate~1266793/lazybeds2006-10-27T10:54:27+02:002006-11-08T22:36:19+01:00 <p>Fifty yards away the burn is leaping and rushing past, sweeping away all the crisp packets and poly bags that have been hanging around since the last spate. It's surprising how short the duration of a spate is, how quickly the douce trickle is restored. The choice to live on the gravel bed at the entrance of the glen is a good one given the increasingly sodden nature of the fields just sixty feet lower. Meanwhile folk in Dingwall are still lugging the sandbags about and the news is full of dire warnings about our flooded future. </p> <p>In these last few days the allotment has become a different place with mud the special feature and the beginnings of retreat into corm and bulb. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://lazybeds.blog.co.uk/2006/10/27/spate~1266793/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>