Scrapped the Sunday bike ride; doing all the things I’d normally do on a Saturday instead: window ledges, varnished; back-door, painted; slab, dug out. Got some energy, but not enough to ride.
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Author Archives: essiep
Olenyek, Sakha
Staring emptiness
Woke puzzled: why feel all this staring emptiness?
Later it became apparent that I merely have a cold. Back to the slow kind of country then for me.
Two astounding plants
..
Angelica (above) & Artemesia Ludovicia, below
They’re shooting up like something from jack-in-the-beanstalk, flashing out massive paddle like leaves as they go. They make me smile these two. What will they do next (don’t tell me, I await the surprise)?
Back from Moelwynnions
The Moelwyns And Yr Widdfa.
Saturday: wandered about the Moelwynnions, visiting ponds & small lakes on the hills south of Snowdon. The Rain threatened but didn’t carry it out until I was most of the way down. Then we walked through a dense forest which was good shelter.
Sunday: From Llyn Gwynant towards Pen-y-pass (but cut north to the Moner’s track & make Snowdon. It was horrible, I have never seen it so crowded. We pushed through the masses and found a quieter place on the Rhyd Ddu path. Met some nice people on that route, who I caught up with again after climbing Yr Aran. Beautiful day but cold in the strong wind-chill.
Today ( Monday): Drove home through the Arenigs, I’d love to camp there next time. Endless rolling grasslands which should offer some peace and solitude. There are few official campsites there.
There is another way.
This needs some research. Marina Tsvetaeva:
[388]
the leaves’ gooey cursing, the sticky oath
of our violating, perjuring earth:
mother of snowdrops, of maples and oaks.
Look how I’m buttressed and blinded,
subordinated and resigned to the roots;
Isn’t it overwhelming and wonderful
for one’s sore eyes in the thundering park
where the frogs, like droplets of mercury,
linking up their voices in a single sphere
transform the fragile reeds into branches,
the steam-like mist into a milky mirage.
Voronezh, 30 April 1937
Woodman
Benedict condoms
British Govt. have apologised for a joke press release suggesting the Pope branded condoms. I think it’s appalling too, the marketing men will really struggle to sell "Holy Condoms". The upside of the story is that has been demonstrated that a large organisation can apologise for a mistake when it’s still fresh. The Catholic Church could learn from this- they waited fifty years to apologise for their part in the Holocaust. There are numerous other apologies that were either too late, or not been issued yet (Crusades, Inquisition, death threats against Galileo when he discovered moons around Jupiter). Presumably there are thousands of other death threats issued by the Catholic Church that have not been mentioned yet, never mind the millions of actual killings they have sanctioned over the centuries. Did anyone mention child abuse?
Daily-mail man
Pyracanthus & Ceanothus. bought, planted and settling in.
On the walk home, spotted these growing under a hedge of conifers. What are they?

It looks like a very small horse-tail grass. Hold on, I will go to look it up.
See how dry it is, we’ve had no rain for three weeks. What we’d give to have three dry weeks during the summer holidays.
Today has been a hammock day.
Found it: Common horsetail: Equisetum Arvense. The book I have doesn’t make it clear whether it’s a plant, or a lichen/fungus. I will assume it’s a plant, though it looks like a relatively primitive one. This is going to be one to watch as it grows by a fence at a nearby school.
Man parks on grass:

It’s been a very long winter, at last the grass is growing, all bright green and a bit vulnerable, then this guy parks his 4×4 car on the grass verge opposite some empty parking bays. A passing pedestrian and I raise this with him, his excuse? He can’t fit his car in the bays because the back would stick out. My response- my car is the same length as yours and it fitted in just fine. Anyway, the argument became a little heated though not out of control. He agreed that he was bloody minded and arrogant and will park where-ever he likes.
The photo above shows him shouting at me that it’s illegal to take a photo of someone without asking permission first. I said “nonsense, there is no such law” and then took another photo. He said: how would you like it if I took photos of you? A: Doesn’t matter, I’m in a public place etc.
By now I was annoyed, I really scraped the bottom of the barrel and accusingly “are you a Daily Mail reader? (Yes it got that bad).
He didn’t deny it.
I still wonder where that idea about permissions comes from- it certainly doesn’t come from British law.
Let the right one in
"I have been twelve for a long time": a Swedish vampire film. Normally I’d avoid this kind of thing, but not this time. Glad I didn’t too. Thanks for the recommendation Kermode and Holly.
The film was funny, romantic and peppered with that female-juvenile fascination with blood. Vampire stories hold a strong appeal for women (or maybe just girls) I am told. Apart from these thoughts, this Swedish film was made in the winter, in a sharp artificial white light. there are some warnings on teh web that suggest the subtitles are full of mistakes, some of you may have trouble with this. Cinematography had everything it needs to captivate me. Perhaps even a poor film shot this well would do it for me.Wonderful.
I like pictures.
St. George’s day: a patron saint of England. Haven’t stopped to question this before, but why has England adopted a Lebanese man who killed a non-existant animal to be it’s spiritual figurehead? Since he is associated with the red cross on a white background, it would now appear that he’s the patron saint of football hooligans here in the England.
Smolensk for FSX
First vapour trails lace the sky again, it’s been six days and the media are rambling on conspiracy theories. 
FSX: back into making addons for FSX (the flight sim). After Poland’s disaster last week, I decided to add these missing airports (doing Smolensk South too). It fits in nicely with previous projects because there are RBMK-1000 Nuclear reactors in the East of the city. They are of the same type that blew up in Chernobyl in ’86. They even look alike.



