Write-Place

Which came first - Easter, the egg or the chocolate ? T he egg has long been a symbol of renewal and rebirth. Though the feast is a moveable one, Easter falls on the first Sunday after the full moon which occurs on or after the Spring Equinox. Lambs and rabbits are born, chickens and birds are hatched and new plant life growth is showing  after the cold dormant winter. Easter is a Christian celebration today, but has been adapted from older traditions. Symbols of rebirth and traditional sacrifice come from the Norsemen's Easyat, Ostara and Ostar and the pagan goddess Eostre, all involving the time of the growing sunshine and new birth. Ancient Egyptians, Persians, Phoenicians and Hindus believed that the world began with an enormous egg, and so the egg as a symbol of new life has been around for thousands/millions of years. The Easter Bunny most likely arose  as a symbol of fertility due to the rapid reproduction of rabbits. But what of the chocolate ? Painted and decorated eg...

  Posts From the Pasts - 20th November 2014 Three things have moved me to resurrect this blog today which has not been posted on since February this year. It's not that I have not been "moved" (insert as appropriate -  shocked, angry, happy, joyful,  thankful, grateful, upset, furious, insensed  ) for the last 9 months because believe me, I have. But the rapidly diminishing brain cells have often prevented me writing it down.  The other blogs / pages that I post are specific to a theme so that leaves me with  Write-Place  to well, write other stuff. I have checked back to the original gumph of what I said in 2008 that I intended posting on it and am pleased to be reminded that I said almost anything was appropriate, so here we  are.  I was brought up in a family culture that listened to and discussed the weather forecasts on the radio and then television and "lighting up time" was noted faithfully. Not that we ever had a car but cycling was a...

Sorting through my bookcase yesterday, I came across "The Golden Treasury of Longer Poems - selected and edited by Ernest Rhys" published in 1939 and reprinted in 1950.  This book is my Dad's copy, purchased for "3 and 3" (3 shillings & 3 pence) on  8/4/55 and is suitably annotated throughout in his neat, tiny handwriting. I think that if it was a font on a computer 'app' it would be size 8 ... without magnification of the screen or document. How he managed to write so clearly and accurately amazes me ; mainly with a fountain/cartridge pen and ink and only much later with a ballpoint or 'Biro', as we called them. I still do. My grandfather's handwriting was even smaller than this and I remember him clearly using a magnifying glass as he wrote - but this is a post for another time. Of course, once the Longer Treasury was in my hands it stayed there a while as I refreshed my mind on Gibson, Binyan Byron and many other of the "greats...

Since this post in 2012, many things have happened worldwide which could suggest that we are still in an end of days age.  Astrologers maintain that an astrological age is a product of the Earth's slow precessional rotation -    the 'gyration of the rotating axis of a spinning body about an intersecting axis' - and that this lasts for 2106 years, on average (a 25,920 year period period or great year, divided by 12 zodiac signs Astrologers maintain that an astrological age is a product of the Earth's slow  precessional rotation  and lasts for 2,160 years, on average (one 25,920 year period of precession, or  great ye ar , divided by 12 zodiac signs equals a 2,160 year astrological age) The  Age of Aquarius , in astrology  is either the current or forthcoming astronomical age  depending on the method of calculation. Astrologers do  not agree on when the Aquarian age will start or even if it has already started.   C...

 Day 3 of Posts From the Past   My idea to repost past blog posts of mine to remind myself (and others) of my ability to do so and to compare/contrast my thoughts, then and now continues. I am finding that not only does this improve memory and recall, but also fills my mind with other things that I need to be writing about.  With thanks to my children and grandchildren for making me a mother, and to my own Mother, not with us here on earth since 2018, but forever in my thoughts. 💖                                                                                    -   March 22, 2020 I knew weeks ago that I ought to be keeping a daily diary on here or elsewhere of events, appointments, thoughts, feelings and opinions.  I knew way back in August when I purpo...

  The debate over how the Internet is affecting our brains is on again and the   ‘mind change’ brought about by using the internet needs urgent research to work out its long-term effects - so says Professor Susan Greenfield of University of Southampton. She fears that technologies are “ infantilising the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment “ I know what she means.  My mind seems to be completely infantilised and my attention span is mostly lower than the average 2 year olds (as I often comment on) Whether this is due to the internet or not of course, needs researching too. Search engines are “driving us to distraction” and technology is moving faster than neuroscience can monitor its effect on our brains. In simple speak, I think that means we don’t know what it is doing to our thought processes. I know that advert about search engines that'...