Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!

I've been on holiday and forgot to tell you I was going.

I am fit and well and I've had a grand time. Among other things I've been staying in Worcester with Burnie the Hot Bear and his friends Sheila and Stephen, with whom I stayed in their previous home in Pershore, two years ago.

I'll post properly very soon.

Birthday Greeting for Millie ~ Elder Blogger

There is no away ...

Catchy phrase, eh? Or does it puzzle you? Here is the full sentence:

DON'T THROW ANYTHING AWAY -

THERE IS NO AWAY

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I still had to think about it a bit, though. It was the headline to a magazine advertisement by Shell, offering "real energy solutions for the real world". It went on: "If only we had a magic bin and could throw stuff in and make it disappear for ever. What we can do is find creative ways to recycle." It then specified two ways in which Shell is doing this, but I didn't have time to copy them down - (I was in the hairdresser). Here is its website though www.shell.co.uk/realenergy.

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Since reading that ad I have found the phrase "there is no away" echoing in my head, and making me feel ever more conscious of the rubbish that goes into my general household waste, destined only for landfill. One way of being creative is through FREECYCLE.

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This is an international recycling group on the internet hosted by Yahoo. I expect many of you have come across it. I think it started in America, but there are local groups in many areas in the UK now. If you have something you no longer need, you offer it to the group by email, and anyone interested gets in touch with you. You then pick one person and arrange for them to collect from you. You can equally post a 'wanted' email for something you need, though the idea is to give more than you ask for. You should be able to get in touch with branches all over the world by clicking here.

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Don't be disappointed though if you are still left with some of your junkiest rubbish on your hands to be taken to the local dump. Which makes me think of an interesting experiment: how about offering something really rubbishy on Freecycle, and also for sale on Ebay. What do you think the chances are that a buyer would be found on Ebay, but no takers on Freecycle?

Afterthought :: Back in the 1970s, when I used to read a lot of science fiction, I imagined the worst waste scenario that I could: that for want of any further room on earth, mankind would start firing its rubbish into space, leaving it to circle the globe endlessly, reducing sunlight to the merest glimmer, so that we gradually became a race of pallid, peering, stunted creatures .......... urghh! I don't think I want to imagine any further ..... er, are we nearly there yet?

Is this a first?

In the last eight days I have had two Outpatient appointments at hospital clinics: one for an ultrasound scan of my carotid arteries (looks OK the technician says but a consultant has to interpret it), and one to see a dermatologist.

With both of these I was into the consulting room, seen to, and out again before the clock had quite reached the time of my appointment. Sometimes things go better than you expect!

Climbing trees again

Quite an exciting day today. Stitchwort left me a comment on my last post, in which she told me about the website http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ (free births, marriages and deaths). As she said, they have got most of the General Register Office index transcribed and searchable without charge, and if you click on a "pair of spectacles" symbol you can see the scan of the original GRO page, and enlarge it enough to read the entry.

The entries are all post 1837, so they are a bit late for some of the enquiries I am making, but I was able to find the month and year of birth of my husband's father, which we hadn't known before, and it was quite a moving moment to bring up a photograph of the actual index page with the entry on it. Now I have to decide whether I want to pay for a copy of the birth certificate - probably not!




I found one or two other birth dates as well, but it is much easier where the person has an unusual name. My husband's father was Harry Fisher Taylor, and his brother Herbert Gate Taylor, so there was only one entry for each of them in the right place at the right time. I was not so lucky with the other two siblings, Frederick and Mary Isabel, as there were a number of entries to choose from for each. There's a peck of frustration for only a pinch of success in this game!

Response to comments

There is a fault in my comment section at the moment. The security window keeps popping up repeatedly and getting in the way of the comment box so comments can't be keyed in. This is happening on my own blog, and some of the other's I visit too. So I will have to make the responses I want to make here in a new post.

Climbing Trees (Genealogical research)

Paul ~ Yes, such a tool would be invaluable. On Avus's suggestion I took a look at Ancestry.co.uk, and thought it looked very promising. However, as soon as you get past the first page of interesting basic data, you have to sign up for a subscription (around £79.00 for a year), or a free 14 day trial. But even for the free trial you have to give them your card details, so they can charge you the minute the trial is over, if you haven't remembered to cancel. I just am not prepared to play that game.

My brother, who is the serious researcher in my family, tells me:

"There has, over the years, been a lot of criticism of Ancestry.co.uk in that they are very ready to take your money and reluctant to allow you to cancel. I don't know if this is still the case, although I suspect they may have pulled their socks up. I know that they are very widely used, however."

Avus ~ As you are happy with Ancestry.co.uk, perhaps you would tell us how you get the best value for money out of their system. Do you go for the full year's subscription? Have you tried Pay Per View (£6.95 for 12 views of records over 14 days)? I should be most interested to hear. I think there is an American website too, but I don't know about one for Canada, Paul.

The Sun

Julie ~ Thanks for the link to the cloud website. I agree that coudless blue skies can be quite wearing if the sun is in pitiless mood. I should no doubt be grumbling about heat exhaustion if we were to get that sort of weather to replace this.

Sharon ~ Nice to see you here again. I'm afraid I've been a bit short on inspiration in the last few months.

The sun

The sun is shining this morning. Is that really something worth blogging about? You notice I dare not even say 'today', but only 'this morning'. In this abysmal, dismal summer in which we are drowning this year, here in the UK, waking up to sunshine is certainly something worth noting.





I am a SAD case. Well, I may not actually suffer clinically from Seasonal Affective Disorder, but I sometimes think I am not far off it. Another summer like this one, and I could well lose my will to live.






OK - I don't want to depress you all. But I am sure there are few of you who will not resonate to what I am saying, except perhaps those who live in permanently sunny climes. My friends in Australia may not have the same problem, though they may have others.






So I have decided to celebrate the sun today. I searched Google Images for depictions of the sun. I was surprised at how few simple, graphic or cartoon-style images there were. I looked at 20 pages with 18 images on each, and found only 10 out of 360. I am offering you the best of these.






I also looked for poems about the sun. The first to catch my eye was one by Katrina Mathy which speaks directly from and to my heart:

I sit and wait for the sun to come
For the fog to clear
For I wish to leave this deep dark rest

I sit and wait for the sun to come
For the light to come back to my heart
For I wish to leave this barren cell

I sit and wait for the sun to come
For the rain to stop
For the thoughts to depart

I sit and wait for the sun to come
For the tears to stop
For the pain to cease

I sit and wait for the sun to come
For now it is too late
For now I will no longer come

But this is meant to be a celebration, so, a poem by Hafiz

Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,
"You owe Me"

Look what happens with
A love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky

And finally a quotation from William Empson, which also takes the long, long view:

Gods cool in turn, by the sun long outlasted.