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Posts Tagged ‘uk’

How Cows Actually Help a Little

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 20, 2024| 2 Comments »

Livestock produces a lot of methane, which is unlikely ever to be balanced out by carbon captured in the soil. The Soil Association Exchange wants you to know about a few positive effects, however. 

It’s an ongoing process to keep up on the latest, especially when it comes to protecting the planet. I myself once thought that massive tree planting had the biggest bang for the charitable buck. Then I learned that, although trees are important, they can’t help much without due consideration given to where and how they are planted, and what varieties of trees they are.

Today I’m trying to bone up on the situation with cows, which we all know (including a young grandson who has cut beef out of his diet) produce too much climate-warming methane gas.

James Tapper reports at the Guardian, “New data shows [cows] may play an important role in renewing farm soil. Research by the Soil Association Exchange shows that farms with a mixture of arable crops and livestock have about a third more carbon stored within their soil than those with only arable crops, thanks to the animals’ manure.

“This also has an effect on biodiversity: mixed arable and livestock farms support about 28 grassland plant species in every field, compared with 25 for arable-only and 22 for dairy-only.

“Joseph Gridley, chief executive of SAE, which was set up by the Soil Association in 2021 to support and measure sustainable farming, said it was unlikely that carbon captured in soil would balance out the enormous amounts of methane created by cattle. Farm livestock around the world creates about 14% of human-induced climate emissions.

“ ‘It’s pretty unequivocal in the data that having livestock on your farm does mean you have more emissions – five or six times more emissions,’ he said. ‘But if you integrate livestock into the system, on every metric on soil health, there’s an improvement, and on a lot of the biodiversity measures as well.’

“Soils are degrading, but by how much exactly is unclear. In 2015, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization claimed that the world had only 60 harvests left, but researchers at Oxford University and Our World In Data said in 2021 that there was a complex picture. …

“Lee Reeves, UK head of agriculture at Lloyds bank, which helps fund SAE … suggested ministers should create a decarbonization strategy, and a standardized carbon calculator, so that farmers and other businesses could use a single tool to calculate their carbon impacts.

“ ‘Moving from traditional to regenerative farming can see a dip in profitability for the first five years, so the government needs to support farmers and banks in that,’ he said.

“[In the UK] the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has been investigating so-called methane blockers as a way to reduce emissions. Adding substances such as essential oils, probiotics and even seaweed to cattle feed can reduce the amount of burps and wind they generate.

“Last month the Green Alliance charity said that feeding Bovaer, a methane blocker, to a third of the UK’s dairy cows would cut the country’s emissions by about 1%. Yet this is not happening, the campaign group warned, because farmers were unwilling to pay extra for something they did not benefit from. It said methane blockers should be subsidized, as other green farming schemes were.”

More at the Guardian, here. The Natural Resources Defense Council explains more about regenerative farming here.

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Nefarious Theft of Cheese

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 30, 2024| 7 Comments »

Photo: Neal’s Yard Dairy/Instagram.
London-based distributor Neal’s Yard Dairy announced recently on Instagram that it was “the victim of a sophisticated fraud” involving high-value cheddar cheese.

You really don’t want to get mixed up with people who are intense about cheese. Years ago, when I was a member of Cheese Lovers International, I crossed knives with the highly emotional founder, whose name I no longer recall. To compensate for something I once complained about, he told me he would give me a discount on every order for my life. Unfortunately, his staff had no way of knowing about my discount. Explaining got to be too much work.

Rachel Treisman and Juliana Kim have a great cheese story at National Public Radio.

“Authorities in London have arrested a 63-year-old man in connection with the cheese heist of 2024, in which tens of thousands of pounds of high-value cheddar were stolen from a major distributor. ..

“ ‘The man was taken to a south London police station where he was questioned. He has since been bailed pending further enquiries,’ a police spokesperson said.

“Over the past week, the British artisanal cheese community has been reeling after Neal’s Yard Dairy announced it had been the ‘victim of a sophisticated fraud resulting in the loss of over £300,000 worth of clothbound Cheddar’ — the equivalent of more than $389,000.

“ ‘The theft involved a fraudulent buyer posing as a legitimate wholesale distributor for a major French retailer, with the cheese delivered before the discovery of the fraudulent identity,’ the company said.

“The thief made off with 950 wheels — over 22 metric tons, or roughly 48,500 pounds — of Hafod, Westcombe and Pitchfork cheddar. … The wheels came from three different artisan suppliers across England and Wales.

“ ‘Between them, these cheeses have won numerous awards and are amongst the most sought-after artisan cheeses in the U.K.,’ Neal’s Yard Dairy said. … The crime cuts deep: Cheddar, which originated in a village by the same name in Somerset, England, is the best-selling cheese in the U.K. and a big source of national pride.

“Last week, British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver explained in an Instagram video that there is ‘only a small handful of real cheddar cheese makers in the world,’ and that’s where the stolen cheese came from. …

“Neal’s Yard Dairy is shouldering the cost of the crime, having already paid the artisan cheesemakers in full. The company says it is now taking steps to ensure its own financial stability. …

“Tom Calver with the cheesemaker Westcombe says they were led to believe they were sending their products to France via Neal’s Yard Dairy.

“ ‘These guys … basically impersonated a wholesaler-slash-customer, quite a large retailer over in France,’ he said in an Instagram video, showing a row of empty shelves and noting he had posted excitedly about the 10-ton order just weeks earlier. ‘It was a hoax, it was theft, it was fraud. I mean, it’s nuts.’

“Patrick Holden, whose Hafod Welsh cheddar was taken, told the BBC … he believes they may be trying to sell it in the Middle East or Russia, ‘because people won’t ask questions there.’

“ ‘I think if they tried to sell it closer to home they’d find it difficult,’ he said, naming North America and Australia as examples. ‘Because the international artisan community is very connected.’ …

“Neal’s Yard Dairy is asking its ‘esteemed community of cheesemongers around the world’ to keep an eye out for the cheese and contact them if they are offered or receive any suspicious deals — especially clothbound cheddars of certain weights (10 kg and 24 kg) with the tags detached. …

“ ‘Because we can potentially trace it back — hopefully, maybe, I don’t know.’ “

I have one more question: Where was Ratatouille at the time of the crime?

More at NPR, here.

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Bird Lays First Egg at Age 70

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on September 22, 2024| 8 Comments »

Photo: Claudia Gooch, avicultural warden, Pensthorpe.
Gertrude the flamingo produced her very first egg at age 70.

The miracle baby of a 70-year-old flamingo make me tired just thinking about it.

Cathy Free writes at the Washington Post about Gertrude the flamingo and the surprise she gave the staff at her nature preserve.

“When the greater flamingo reached age 70 last year, it was a safe conclusion that she would spend the rest of her life as a grand-auntie among a flamboyance of 63 other flamingos at the Pensthorpe nature reserve in Norfolk, England.

“ ‘The average flamingo lives for 30 to 40 years in the wild, so Gertrude is quite unique,’ said Ben Marshall, manager of the reserve. ‘She’d just been unlucky in love and had never found a boyfriend.’

“That changed last month to the surprise of Marshall and other bird keepers at Pensthorpe.

“In late April, they noticed that Gertrude — normally shy and not one to cause a kerfuffle in her flock — was suddenly flirting with Gil, 37, a male flamingo about half her age.

” ‘She and Gil were giving each other wing salutes, bowing to each other, and displaying some of the other 136 different courtship and mating dances that flamingos have,’ said Marshall, 31. …

“The next surprise came in early May, when one of the flamingo keepers noticed that Gertrude had made a volcano-shaped nest out of mud and was sitting on an egg — the first one she had ever laid, according to caretakers at Gertrude’s previous bird refuge who advised the Pensthorpe staff, Marshall said.

“ ‘Our entire team was amazed — Gertrude and her egg were the talk of the reserve,’ he said. …

“The greater flamingo can start breeding at about age 5 and does not breed more than once a year. A male and female will bond for mating, then split up after breeding season. …

“It takes 26 to 31 days for an egg to hatch, and Gertrude dutifully sat on her egg for about 10 days, taking breaks only to get food and water. But in mid-May, the septuagenarian bird abandoned her egg, probably because it wasn’t viable, Marshall said.

“ ‘It could also be that at her advanced age, she decided it was just too much for her,’ he said. ‘Although it was a little sad for us, knowing the egg wouldn’t hatch, it was still a remarkable win for Gertrude,’ Marshall added. ‘She made the call herself not to incubate the egg, and she was able to simulate those maternal instincts ingrained in flamingos and experience something completely new.’ …

“It is unusual for a flamingo to have longevity like Gertrude’s, but it isn’t unheard of. Betty, a matriarch flamingo at the National Zoo, was 67 when she died in 2022, and a flamingo named Greater died at age 83 in 2014 at an Australian zoo. She still holds the record as the world’s oldest flamingo.

“Marshall said he wouldn’t be surprised if Gertrude were to break that record someday. ‘She’s quite sprightly and healthy, and she’s very friendly with the other flamingos,’ he said, noting that Gertrude is back to hanging out with younger females while they sit on their nests. …

“The birds are all greater flamingos — among the most widespread varieties of the species, with about 680,000 living in the wild in Africa, India, the Mediterranean and the Middle East, according to World Population Review.

“ ‘We have about 20 eggs at the moment, and one of them hatched a few days ago,’ Marshall said. ‘Every egg isn’t always viable, but we’re hopeful.’

“Even though Gertrude won’t have the experience of hatching her own egg, she will fill in as a protective babysitter for the other hatchlings — something she has done every year for decades, he said.

“ ‘She leads a laid-back life, but she still takes a turn teaching the chicks how to get food and other key skills,’ Marshall said. ‘She always works with the other flamingos for the good of the group.’ ”

More at the Post, here.

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Music for a Healthy Brain

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on April 1, 2024| 3 Comments »

Photo: Classical-Music.com.
Playing piano four-hands.

Where I live now, we think a lot about brain health. We know that parts of our brains are not working as well as they used to. It takes longer to remember a word. Sometimes a memory is completely gone, and then we worry.

I like to think of a young man I know whose father helped him use other parts of his brain for daily functioning after he was born without a cerebral cortex. This young man now lives independently, has a job in the city to which he takes a train, and is the subject of study by amazed doctors. He’s my hero these days. Brains can learn new tricks.

BBC health reporter Aurelia Foster wrote recently about one way to teach your brain new tricks, and that’s through music.

She wrote, “Playing a musical instrument or singing could help keep the brain healthy in older age, UK researchers suggest. Practicing and reading music may help sustain good memory and the ability to solve complex tasks, their study says. In their report, published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, they say music should be considered as part of a lifestyle approach to maintain the brain.

“More than 1,100 people aged over 40, with a mean age of 68, were studied. Scientists at the University of Exeter observed their brain function data as part of a wider study that has been finding out how brains age, and why people develop dementia.

“They looked at the effects of playing an instrument, singing, reading and listening to music, and musical ability.

“The researchers compared the cognitive data of those in the study who engaged in music in some way in their lives, with those who never had. Their results showed that people who played musical instruments benefitted the most, which may be because of the ‘multiple cognitive demands’ of the activity.

“Playing the piano or keyboard appeared to be particularly beneficial, while brass and woodwind instruments were good too. Simply listening to music did not appear to help cognitive health. The benefit seen with singing might be partly because of the known social aspects of being in a choir or group, the researchers say.

” ‘Because we have such sensitive brain tests for this study, we are able to look at individual aspects of the brain function, such as short-term memory, long-term memory, and problem-solving and how engaging music effects that,’ lead author Prof Anne Corbett told the BBC. …

” ‘Playing an instrument has a particularly big effect, and people who continue to play into an older age saw an additional benefit,’ she said. In the study, people who read music regularly had better numerical memory.

“Prof Corbett said: ‘Our brain is a muscle like anything else and it needs to be exercised, and learning to read music is a bit like learning a new language, it’s challenging.’

“Researchers did not test potential benefits of taking up a musical hobby for the first time later in life, but Prof Corbett said she believed, based on current evidence, it would be ‘very beneficial. …

” ‘The message is around how people can proactively reduce their risk of cognitive decline or dementia, and really thinking about engaging with music as a way of doing that.’ … However, she said: ‘It would be naïve to think taking up a musical instrument would mean you won’t develop dementia. It’s not as simple as that.’ “

More at the BBC, here.

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Amateur Sea-Slug Sleuths

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on January 29, 2024| 1 Comment »

Photos: Libby Keatley.
Libby Keatley and some of the “inherently charismatic” sea slugs she has encountered. 

After blogging singer Will McMillan told us more than we ever imagined about sea snails once used for a royal purple dye, I remembered that the Guardian had an equally fascinating story on sea slugs. It turns out some young people are huge fans of the critters and are helping scientists keep track of them.

Helen Scales writes, “Two years ago, Libby Keatley was diving off the coast of County Antrim in Northern Ireland when she spotted something unusual. It was a sea slug – or nudibranch – whose transparent body had orange lines running through it and twiggy projections arranged along its back. ‘It was quite distinctive and not like anything I’d seen before,’ she says.

“Keatley called over her diving buddy, Bernard Picton, a local marine biologist and pioneer in UK sea slug studies. He scooped it up in a plastic bag and, back at his lab, confirmed it was a newly discovered species. He named it in Keatley’s honour: Dendronotus keatleyae.

“ ‘Three years ago, I didn’t really know what a nudibranch was or I thought they only lived in tropical countries,’ says Keatley.

‘It just shows you can learn – you don’t have to be somebody who’s been in a lab for 20 years to know that something looks a bit funny or different.’

“For a niche but growing group of amateur naturalists, sea slugs have become an ideal subject: as stunning as butterflies but with the good grace to sit still while you peer in close and take a photograph. Distant relatives of the slimy, drab land-dwellers that live in gardens, sea slugs are an altogether more endearing bunch. Many are daubed in jewel-like colors that warn off predators. Others take on hues to blend in with their surroundings, often gaudy seaweeds and sponges. There are also plenty of sea slugs to discover in UK waters, with about 150 known species across the north Atlantic. …

“To show me why the hobby has attracted a worldwide community of scuba divers and amateur photographers – and how it makes important contributions to scientists’ understanding of how our oceans are changing – Keatley takes me diving in Strangford Lough. An hour’s drive south of Belfast, it is one of Europe’s largest sea inlets and a renowned wildlife spot, home to seabirds, seals and recently a pair of bottlenose dolphins.

“There’s even more going on beneath the waterline. At high tide, the Irish Sea brings in a soup of particles and nutrients which feeds a rich mix of underwater species – and a host of other creatures that feed on them. …

“We are joined on the dive by Keatley’s partner and fellow enthusiast, Phil Wilkinson, and Picton, who recently updated a guidebook to sea slugs of the north Atlantic with Christine Morrow. …

“We find more sea slugs than I’ve ever seen, even in tropical seas: neon pink ones and transparent ones covered with finger-like projections with shiny turquoise tips; another is white with yellow specks and a pair of bunny ears that are for smelling not hearing. We encounter a gathering of sea slugs that look like miniature fried eggs splashed in chili sauce, and Keatley points out a peach-colored specimen hitching a ride on a hermit crab. It feeds on minute hydroids – stinging relatives of jellyfish – that grow on the crab’s shell.

“For Keatley, sea slug spotting was part of an unexpected reawakening of a childhood interest in nature. In January 2019, she learned to scuba dive and was an instant convert to the underwater world. ‘I couldn’t get enough,’ she says. ‘The more I saw, the more I wanted to learn, and then the more I was seeing. So it just snowballed a wee bit.’ ”

Don’t you love the variety of things that people get interested in? At the Guardian, here, you can read about the importance of citizen scientists in the slug world. No firewall. Donations encouraged.

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Starting a Trombone Career at 72

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on January 26, 2024| 10 Comments »

Photo: Fabio De Paola/The Guardian.
Eighty-four-year-old Noreen Davis took up trombone at 72 and never looked back.

Where I live now, it’s nice to see people taking up some pursuit that always interested them but seemed out of reach. For example, there’s a retired radiologist across the hall whose wife is an artist whose work he has always admired. Nowadays, he’s throwing himself heart and soul into some high-level art classes here and is doing an impressive job.

Today’s story is similar. It starts with a woman in the UK Midlands paying attention to a dream she had when she was sound asleep.

Ammar Kalia writes at the Guardian, “Twelve years ago, Noreen Davies had a dream. In it, the artist and cafe owner, then 72, saw herself wielding an unusual instrument. ‘There was a jazzy tune on in the background and I was playing along on a trombone, bending the notes and having a great time,’ she says. ‘When I woke up, I knew I had to learn it.’

“She headed to her cafe in Leominster, Herefordshire, and had a [routine] meeting with her accountant. ‘At the end, I asked him if he knew anyone with a trombone I could try out and he said he had five! Turns out he played in a local brass band with his wife, so he ended up bringing one round to me, along with an old music book on the instrument, and that’s how it all started.’

“Now 84, Davies has gigged throughout the West Midlands with groups exploring everything from the blues to vintage jazz and big band funk. No matter the tune, she has stayed true to her vision of bending the notes on the giant horn, twisting and wailing like a held string on an electric guitar. ‘I’ve only had two lessons and in the first one the teacher told me to just play what was written, but I do whatever I want to,’ she says. ‘I use it more like a percussion instrument, improvising over the tunes.’

“The trombone is notoriously difficult to learn, since players have to judge the distance between notes by pulling and pushing its tubing, rather than pressing fixed keys. Davies, though, found the instrument easy, thanks to her musical history. At 14, she took up the guitar and taught herself to play chords with her younger brother. ‘I forced him to play along with me. I taught myself the piano, too, by working out songs I liked listening to,’ she says. …

“Davies’ confidence to play live grew through hosting monthly music nights at the cafe, including a jam session with Ric Sanders of Fairport Convention, although she faced a setback when a series of operations on her lungs meant she was unable to play for several months.

“One evening in 2018, when she had regained her strength, she went along to a jam session in nearby Bromyard and met two young musicians who were looking for a trombone to round out their trio. Luckily, she had hers in the boot of her car in case such an opportunity arose. ‘We did a few numbers together and they ended up adopting me,’ she says. ‘We played for a couple of years, until Covid. It was great fun.’

“The open world of jam sessions and gigs has since led Davies to more instruments. She is back on the piano and has added the accordion, the washboard and the baritone ukulele. ‘I ended up in a vintage jazz band because they needed a washboard player and I was the only one who took it up in the local area. I also play Bob Dylan tunes on the ukulele and I’m trying to learn some Cole Porter on the accordion,’ she says. … ‘Everyone should try it out – just get yourself to a jam session somewhere and see what happens.’ “

More at the Guardian, here.

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Teaching Urban Farming

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 29, 2023| 3 Comments »

Photo: BBC News.
Rooted in Hull, a nonprofit that teaches people how to grow produce in urban areas, flourishes in the industrial heartland of Hull, UK.

Here’s a city in the UK that is essentially giving residents permission to save the planet in those small ways that can add up. It’s about growing healthful food where polluting industry once held sway.

Kevin Shoesmith writes at BBC News, “Hull looks set to become the first UK city to give people the ‘right to grow’ food on disused council land.

“Council bosses say the move would bring communities together, reduce antisocial behavior and make places look better, as well as put quality food on dinner plates. As campaigners call for the idea to be adopted nationally, BBC News visited one Hull-based community group that is ahead of the curve, growing healthy food in the shadows of factories. …

“In multiple raised beds on a graveled patch of land off St Peter’s Street, plants flourish, irrigated using a system which collects and stores rainwater from the roof of the Royal Mail’s sorting office next door.

“Stopping to inspect an apple tree as an HGV rattles by, Martin King, manager of Rooted in Hull, a not-for-profit community organization, said staff and volunteers have proven food can be grown almost anywhere.

” ‘You don’t need a lot at all,’ he says, grinning. ‘Joinery students at Hull College made the raised beds for us.’

“The organization acquired the land in 2015, with Mr King explaining it was once a basin used to hold ships delivering timber to a nearby dock. A stipulation of the lease, he told me, is that no foundations must be dug, hence the presence of containers, a compost toilet and even a reed bed that filters dirty dishwater. …

“[King is] supportive of Hull councillors who recently unanimously passed a ‘right to grow’ motion. If approved by the city council’s scrutiny committee, a map would eventually be produced showing suitable land it owns that could be used by those who want to grow their own fresh food.

“Hull would become the first city in the UK to give people a right to grow on unused council land. …

“Inside a grocery box before us is an abundance of autumnal vegetables destined for the dinner plates of volunteers. Glancing over the road towards the muddy banks of the River Hull, [King] says: ‘Let’s wash away the idea that Hull is some rundown backwater.’

“Incredible Edible, a network of more than 150 community growing groups, is pressing for more councils to do the same. The group insists unused land could ‘with a little TLC be turned into oases for food and wildlife.’ …

” ‘Land already earmarked for building in the future could be temporarily used to grow food,’ [Councillor Gill Kennett] says. ‘Years pass before the foundations are laid and fruit and vegetables could be grown over several seasons.’

“Councillor Mark Ieronimo, the council’s infrastructure portfolio holder, says the city is ‘blessed with green areas,’ adding there are also spaces that are no longer used, such as former car parks. … ‘This will bring people together and it’ll improve mental health and reduce food waste.’

“Back at Rooted in Hull, two volunteers beaver away, weeding and removing the remains of wilted, summer crops. Kale and butternut squash are in plentiful supply.

“Mr King agrees community gardening projects such as this one can help boost mental wellbeing. He says the group works with many vulnerable members of society, including Hull All Nations Alliance (HANA), which helps refugees.

” ‘We had a group of kids from HANA come down,’ he points out. ‘They made chips and pizzas using produce grown here. We help tackle social isolation.’

“At the back of the yard, there are three beehives. ‘A man serving a sentence at HMP Hull used his graphic skills to design labels for the honey,’ Mr King informs me.

“Mr King is content but conscious that more spaces, not just in Hull, could be used in a similar way for food production.”

More at BBC News, here.

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Fairies Forever!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 3, 2023| 6 Comments »

Photo: Estate of Cicely Mary Barker, 1934 Flower Fairies.
The Crocus Fairies from Flower Fairies of the Spring – the watercolors are still popular today with “fairycore” fans, the BBC opines.

Hannah will remember my devotion to the subject of today’s post. Fairies. I have always been into fairies, and long ago Hannah joined me in bringing them to life.

Meanwhile in the UK, the BBC’s Holly Williams writes this about them: “Imagine a fairy. Is the picture that appears in your mind’s eye a tiny, pretty, magical figure – a childish wisp with insect-like wings and a dress made of petals?  

“If so, it’s likely you’ve been influenced by Cicely Mary Barker, the British illustrator who created the Flower Fairies. 2023 marks 100 years since the publication of her first book of poems and pictures, Flower Fairies of the Spring – an anniversary currently being celebrated in an exhibition at the Lady Lever Gallery in Merseyside, UK.  

“The Flower Fairies’ influence has endured: they have never been out of print, and continue to be popular around the world. … Barker’s delicate watercolors certainly helped cement several tropes we now consider classic – almost essential, in fact – in the iconography of the fairy: they are miniature, sweet and youthful, they are intertwined with plants and the natural world, and they are distinctly twee.

“Yet her drawings were also ‘firmly footed in realism’ points out Fiona Slattery Clark, curator of the show. … Barker drew children from the nursery school her sister ran in their house in Croydon near London; each was assigned a flower or tree, and Barker’s detailed illustrations were botanically accurate – she would source samples from Kew Gardens, says Slattery Clark. Even the petal-like wings and fairy outfits were closely based on plants: an acorn cup becoming a jaunty cap, a harebell becoming a prettily scalloped skirt. 

“The Flower Fairies were an immediate hit – but Barker was far from the only artist of her era to find success with fairies. In fact, fairy fever swelled within the United Kingdom for over half a century, reaching something of a peak around the time the Flower Fairies emerged in 1923. Over 350 fairy books were published in the UK between 1920 and 1925, including in Enid Blyton‘s first fairy foray, a collection of poems called Real Fairies in 1923. Fairy art even had the stamp of royal approval: Queen Mary was a fan of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite‘s ethereal drawings, and helped popularize them by sending them in postcard form. …

“But for many hundreds of years, they were not necessarily tiny and fey, but grotesque or fierce elemental forces, capable of great darkness. ‘In 1800, if you thought your child was a fairy it would have been like demonic possession – you would have put that child in the fire to drive out the fairy,’ points out Alice Sage, a curator and historian.

“Yet within 100 years, the whole conception of fairies completely changed. … Fairies became a fashionable subject for Victorian artists, often taking inspiration from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest. John Anster Fitzgerald, Edwin Landseer, John Everett Millais, Joseph Noel Paton, Arthur Rackham and even JMW Turner – among many others – painted supernatural sprites from the 1840s onwards. But there was still a sense of otherworldly strangeness in many of their depictions – as seen in the work of Richard Dadd, who made his hyper-intricate fairy paintings while living in a Victorian asylum. …

“Barker never made any claims for fairies being real – ‘I have never seen a fairy,’ she wrote in a foreword to Flower Fairies of the Wayside. But it is worth noting that she first published the Flower Fairies at a moment when the desire to believe in magical beings was at a rare high. In 1920, Britain was gripped by the story of the Cottingley Fairies, after two girls claimed to have photographed fairies at the bottom of their garden in West Yorkshire – and were widely believed.

“Their beautiful photographs were created by paper cut-outs, floating on hat pins. Although many were skeptical, they nonetheless also fooled many of the great and the good – the photographs were brought to prominence by no less than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes, who wrote a whole book about it, The Coming of the Fairies, in 1922.

“Cousins Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths were aged 16 and nine when they took the first photos. Many years later, in the 1980s, they admitted it was a hoax, explaining that they kept up the pretense that the fairies were real a because they felt sorry for the middle-aged men, like Conan Doyle, that so wanted to believe. …

” ‘For Conan Doyle, it was all about a search for another realm of being that related to life after death, vibrations, telepathy, telekinesis – this fascinating world on the edge of the limits of human perception,’ says Sage. ‘And obviously that’s connected to the loss of his son in World War One.’ …

“Sage is pleased to see the Flower Fairies exhibited in a fine art context at the Lady Lever gallery. For a long time, men painting fairies has been considered art – but when women do it, it’s just silly flowery stuff for children. ‘This is fine art – it’s mass, popular fine art,’ insists Sage.”

More at the BBC, here. No paywall. If you live in the UK, you have until November 5 to see the fairy exhibit at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight Village.

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Ancient Salt-Making Art

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on October 15, 2023| 10 Comments »

Photo: Oscar Espinosa.
“Jordy Navarra, chef at Toyo Eatery in Manila, Philippines, delicately grates a bit of ‘asin tibuok salt on top of flan de leche ice cream, one of his restaurant’s signature desserts,” reports the Monitor.

When Fuji Xerox brought the Kinoshita family over to Rochester years ago, I spent a lot of time with Yuriko. She had lots of questions about the US but spoke great English and soon was advising other Fuji Xeros families, even making a guide book for the women.

One day Yuriko asked me why Morton Salt said “with iodine” on the label. I told her Americans didn’t get enough of that essential ingredient in their typical diets. But it got me interested in salt.

Oscar Espinosa and Laura Fornell have a report at the Christian Science Monitor on a particularly unusual salt.

“Smoke escapes from a hut in front of the mangroves of Alburquerque, on the Philippine island of Bohol. The pleasant smell of wood, coconut, and salt burning over a slow fire signals that the making of artisanal salt has begun. 

“The process, which had been passed down for generations, results in a product known as asin tibuok. It’s an oval piece of salt compacted into a clay mold that has been partially broken by the intense heat of the fire. Asin tibuok is only produced in this small coastal town of about 11,000 inhabitants. 

“ ‘For the next few days, we’ll be taking turns so that we can watch the fire 24 hours a day,’ says Nestor Manongas, who keeps his eyes on the pile of smoldering wood in the center of the hut. ‘We will have to be pouring seawater [in] to prevent the flame from igniting so that the coconut shells are slowly consumed,’ he says. ‘We can’t get distracted because the process could be ruined.’

“This controlled combustion will result in gasang, a highly salt-concentrated ash, which is then placed in a funnel-shaped tank made of bamboo, where the salt is filtered out of the ash by pouring in more seawater. The resulting brine, called tasik, will be used to cook the asin tibuok pieces.

“Mr. Manongas is one of the last remaining makers of this salt. But thanks to the determination of his family, this old trade, which had fallen into oblivion, has been revived.

“ ‘Against all odds, we kept going because we were determined to give it a new life,’ says Crisologo Manongas, Nestor’s brother. He recalls how, little by little, asin tibuok became known, with university students making it the subject of their research, chefs from Manila discovering it, documentaries being made, and in 2017 a Filipino American entrepreneur based in California deciding to import the product to the United States.” Fascinating pictures at the Monitor, here. No paywall.

For more on the production of salt, particularly the production of sea salt, I turned to Malden Salt, here. Of course, it’s self-promoting, but I think you may learn a few things, as I did. Those of you who are cooking bloggers might be especially interested.

The website says, “Salt production is one of the oldest practices dating as far back to 6,000 BC. Used for various trading and religious offerings, empires such as the ancient Romans actually used salt as a means of commerce, with Rome deriving the word ‘salary’ from salt. … Not only does it enhance flavors within dishes and allows you to season to perfection, it is an element in which the human body can’t live without – sodium. …

“Sea salt is made by seawater from the ocean entering into shallow ground or a ‘salt works’ (man-made salt water pools) where by time the sun will begin to evaporate the water, leaving behind sea salt crystals – this is called solar evaporation.

“Now this is is the easiest and preferred method for warmer climates with a low rainfall and high evaporation rate. But what about the other climates like the UK that aren’t graced with regular hot weather? This is where countries like ourselves get creative with sea salt production.

“[It’s] a naturally occurring element, containing less iodine than table salt and obtains traces of minerals/nutrients including magnesium and potassium. …

“Although it’s safe to say Maldon is sea salt’s biggest fan – there are other salts. Table salt [is] mined from natural salt deposits (older bodies of seawater which have dried long ago) the salt is then processed and manufactured into smaller crystals. Unlike sea salt, which is produced through natural methods, table salt production involves chemicals after being mined. It’s purified and striped of minerals and infused with anti-caking substances.

“Mineral salt [is] similar to table salt, but this type of salt is specifically mined from areas such as Pakistan, near the Himalayas. Did you know it’s colors are influenced from the additional minerals, such as calcium, potassium, and magnesium. You may know this as ‘Rock Salt.’ Here at Maldon we stock Tidman’s Natural Rock Salt. [Unlike] other salts, Tidman’s is also additive free. …

“Since 1882, our world-famous salt flakes have been made with the same traditional artisan methods from the coastal town of Maldon, Essex. Our salt works are run by the fourth generation Osborne family, currently in the hands of Steve Osborn, following his father’s footsteps Clive, grandfather Cyril and great grandfather James.

“Seawater from the the Blackwater Estuary in Maldon is carefully harvested on the spring tide, where there is an appreciated art to the temperature and timing, which is a family secret. Master of salt makers have been hand harvesting the naturally formed pyramid-shaped crystals that have since became Maldon’s signature.

“Maldon Salt is created through an evaporation process. Brine is evaporated in our salt pans over flames to form the unique salt crystals. [Our] salt makers use the same time-honored techniques with skilled hands poised over every batch. You can find out more where Maldon Sea Salt comes from by heading over to our YouTube channel.” Read more here.

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Iron Age Woman Warrior

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on September 10, 2023| 7 Comments »

Photo: Historic England Archive.
An aerial view of the Isles of Scilly, with St Martin’s in center left and Tresco and Bryher in the background. A discovery on Bryher has led to insight into women warriors.

Today’s archaeological story is set in a British island cluster with a name that sounds like “silly.” A discovery there adds to the evidence that there have always been women who have served in male bastions.

Caroline Davies reports at the Guardian, “For decades archaeologists have puzzled over whether the stone-lined burial chamber, which was discovered in 1999 on Bryher Island, contained the remains of a man or a woman.

“Excavations revealed a sword in a copper alloy scabbard and a shield alongside the remains of the sole individual, objects commonly associated with men. But a brooch and a bronze mirror, adorned with what appears to be a sun disc motif and usually associated with women, were also found. The grave is unique in iron age western Europe for containing both mirror and sword.

“Now a scientific study led by Historic England has determined the remains are that of a woman, a discovery that could shed light on the role of female warriors during a period in which violence between communities is thought to have been a fact of life.

“Original attempts to establish sex by traditional methods, such as DNA analysis, failed because of disintegration of the bones. All that could be seen of the skeleton was a dark soil stain where the body had once lain, with only small pieces of bone and teeth. …

“Scientific advances, in particular the development of a sophisticated technique at the University of California, Davis, meant it was possible to test tooth enamel, according to research findings published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

“Dr Glendon Parker, an adjunct associate professor in the department of environmental toxicology at UC Davis, said: ‘Tooth enamel is the hardest and most durable substance in the human body. It contains a protein with links to either the X or Y chromosome, which means it can be used to determine sex. This is useful because this protein survives well compared to DNA.

“ ‘Our analysis involved extracting traces of proteins from tiny pieces of the surviving tooth enamel. This allowed us to calculate a 96% probability that the individual was female.’

“The main form of warfare 2,000 years ago is likely to have been raids – surprise attacks – on enemy settlements. The mirror and weapons found in the grave are all associated with warfare.

“It is thought that mirrors may have be used in the iron age for signaling, communicating and coordinating attacks. They also had ritualistic functions, as a tool to communicate with the supernatural world to ensure the success of a raid or ‘cleanse’ warriors on their return.

“Dr Sarah Stark, a human skeletal biologist at Historic England, said … ‘Although we can never know completely about the symbolism of objects found in graves, the combination of a sword and a mirror suggests this woman had high status within her community and may have played a commanding role in local warfare, organizing or leading raids on rival groups. …

” ‘This could suggest that female involvement in raiding and other types of violence was more common in iron age society than we’ve previously thought, and it could have laid the foundations from which leaders like Boudicca would later emerge.’ ”

I guess all British people know who that is, but since I don’t, I went to Wikipedia.

“Boudica was a queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe, who led a failed uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61. She is considered a British national heroine and a symbol of the struggle for justice and independence.

“Boudica’s husband Prasutagus, with whom she had two daughters, ruled as a nominally independent ally of Rome. He left his kingdom jointly to his daughters and to the Roman emperor in his will. When he died, his will was ignored, and the kingdom was annexed and his property taken. … The historian Cassius Dio wrote that previous imperial donations to influential Britons were confiscated and the Roman financier and philosopher Seneca called in the loans he had forced on the reluctant Britons.

“In 60/61, Boudica led the Iceni and other British tribes in revolt. They destroyed Camulodunum (modern Colchester) … at that time a colonia for discharged Roman soldiers. Upon hearing of the revolt, the Roman governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus hurried from the island of Mona (modern Anglesey) to Londinium, the 20-year-old commercial settlement that was the rebels’ next target.

“Unable to defend the settlement, he evacuated and abandoned it. Boudica’s army defeated a detachment of the Legio IX Hispana, and burnt both Londinium and Verulamium. In all, an estimated 70,000–80,000 Romans and Britons were killed by Boudica’s followers. Suetonius, meanwhile, regrouped his forces, possibly in the West Midlands, and despite being heavily outnumbered, he decisively defeated the Britons. Boudica died, by suicide or illness, shortly afterwards. The crisis of 60/61 caused Nero to consider withdrawing all his imperial forces from Britain, but Suetonius’s victory over Boudica confirmed Roman control of the province.”

More at the Guardian, here. No firewall. Donations encouraged.

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Wool Waulking

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on August 24, 2023| 7 Comments »

Photo: BBC.
A group of women from the Western Isles of Scotland perform a Waulking Song while softening wool so it can be woven and made into clothes and blankets.

Have you ever heard of “wool waulking”? It was new to me — a step after shearing the sheep and before turning wool into something usable. It shows up in various parts of the British Isles, and in addition to the delightful idea of working together to prep wool, it involves a special kind of song.

As in the old photo above, the wool “is banged off of a table, or ‘waulked,’ in time to songs that take the form of question and answer type songs. One woman would sing the question and the rest of the group would sing the response.”

A blogger at the website Shepherd’s Dream opines, “One of the most powerful aspects of working with wool is how deeply connected the tradition is with our Ancestors. Learning the traditional ways that our Ancestors worked with wool is a powerful way to connect with the fabric in our lives. Reading about the history of waulking songs is one of those opportunities. …

“Waulking is another word for fulling, a step in woolen clothmaking that refers to the practice of cleansing the cloth to eliminate oils, dirt, and other impurities. Fulling involves two processes, scouring and thickening, and is one of the steps in creating melton cloth.

“Originally, fulling was carried out by pounding the woolen cloth with the fuller’s feet, or hands, or a club. In the Scottish Gaelic tradition this process was accompanied by Waulking Songs, Scottish folk songs which were sung to set the pace.

“One person led the group by singing well-known verses or making up new lines. The rest would then come in on the chorus while the leader took a breath. A fulling session usually began with slow-paced songs. The tempo only increased as the cloth softened. As the fullers sang, they gradually shifted the cloth to the left so as to work it thoroughly.

“In this tradition moving the cloth counterclockwise is unlucky. It is also bad luck to repeat a song during a fulling session, which explains the large number of songs and verses.

“Our washable mattress protectors are made out of our pure melton wool textile and our mattresses are encased in this historical material as well,” the blogger adds.

Wikipedia also talks about “fulling” and adds some surprising details.

“Fulling, also known as tucking or walking (Scots: waukin, hence often spelled waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven cloth (particularly wool) to eliminate (lanoline) oils, dirt, and other impurities, and to make it shrink by friction and pressure.

“The work delivers a smooth, tightly finished fabric that is isolating and water repellent. Well known examples are duffel cloth, first produced in Flanders in the 14th century, and loden, produced in Austria from the 16th century on.

“Waulking could be done with the hands and feet. In Medieval Europe, it was done in water-powered fulling mills. After the industrial revolution, coal and electric power were used.

“Felting refers more generally to the interlocking of loose wool fibers; they need not be spun and woven first.

“Fulling involves two processes: scouring (cleaning) and milling (thickening). Removing the oils encourages felting, and the cloth is pounded to clean it and to encourage the fibers to felt, so in practice the processes overlap.

“Urine was so important to the fulling business that it was taxed in Ancient Rome. Stale urine, known as wash or lant, was a source of ammonium salts and assisted in cleansing and whitening the cloth and having its fibers intertwined.

“By the medieval period, fuller’s earth had been introduced for use in the process. This is a soft clay-like material occurring naturally as an impure hydrous aluminium silicate. Worked through the cloth, it absorbs oils and dirt. …

“The second function of fulling was to thicken cloth by matting the fibres together to give it strength and increase waterproofing (felting). … After this stage, water was used to rinse out the foul-smelling liquor used during cleansing. Felting of wool occurs upon hammering or other mechanical agitation because the microscopic scales on the surface of wool fibres hook together, somewhat like hook and loop fixings. …

“There are several Biblical references to fulling (2 Kings 18:17; Isaiah 7:3 and 36:2; Malachi 3:2; Mark 9:3). …

“Scotland, then a rather remote and un-industrialized region, retained manual methods into the 1700s. In Scottish Gaelic tradition, this process was accompanied by waulking songs, which women sang to set the pace.”

More here, at Shepherd’s Dream, and here, at waulk.org. No firewalls.

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English Cheese-Rolling Race

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on August 4, 2023| 5 Comments »

Photo: Dave Farrance at Wikimedia Commons.
An annual cheese-rolling competition is held on Cooper’s Hill near Gloucester in England.

Do any longtime readers of the New Yorker magazine remember the bottom-of-column blurbs called “There’ll Always Be an England?” Although that faith is questioned in some quarters nowadays, a recent article suggests to me that English quirkiness is still going strong.

Jennifer Hassan reports at the Washington Post, “For hundreds of years, people have gathered in Gloucestershire, England, to fling themselves down a notoriously steep hill — in pursuit of a hefty chunk of golden-yellow cheese.

“The annual cheese roll, a race dating back centuries, often results in broken bones and concussions as participants tumble, run and bounce down the 180-meter (590-foot) hillside to become the first to cross the finish line.

“This year was no exception: Delaney Irving was crowned the winner of the women’s cheese-rolling race Monday — but the 19-year-old Canadian apparently did not actually realize she had won the competition until she regained consciousness in a medical tent shortly after.

“ ‘How are you? You took a hell of a tumble,’ one British interviewer asked Irving, shortly after she regained consciousness after bumping her head. Irving replied: ‘Did I?’ …

“The teenager was one of hundreds of racers who chased a cheese — a seven-pound full-fat hard cheese named ‘Double Gloucester. ‘ … The cheese can reach up to 70 to 80 mph as it topples down the hill, according to Gloucestershire outlets. Rugby players wait at the bottom of the hill to catch people as they crash across the finish line.

“Footage recorded of Irving shows her emerging triumphant — with her lump of precious cheese. …

“The tradition, according to a website for the modern-day cheese-roll organizers, is believed to be one of the oldest customs to have survived in Britain. A site for the town says the first written evidence of it is found in a message to the town crier in 1826. It brings spectators from around the world who gather to watch in awe and horror as individuals tumble down the hill.

“A 2020 Netflix documentary — on ‘unique, quirky and bizarre’ competitions people may not know about — dubbed the cheese roll as the ‘world’s most dangerous footrace.’ …

“The rules of the race are simple. Admission is free of charge. Participants must gather at the top of the hill before the race starts. The first person to cross the line wins, and gets to keep the cheese.

But the contest, often labeled an ‘extreme sport’ is not for the fainthearted. Injuries from past races include bruised kidneys, severe concussion, broken bones, sprained ankles and dislocated joints. …

“Irving was not the only overseas visitor to take part in the event. An American man dressed as George Washington attended the contest Monday alongside his friend who also dressed as the first president, local media reported. The pair’s day took a dramatic turn when one of the George Washingtons broke their foot amid the downhill race.

“Aside from the risks to people, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) also expressed concern about the risks to animals. Ahead of the race, they urged organizers of the event to … to ‘switch to a vegan cheese,’ a move they said would be ‘better for cows and the planet,’ while making the race itself ‘more inclusive.’ “

More at the Post, here.

Although it’s not nearly as cool, there’s a parade for a giant cheese in Massachusetts every year. Read about that here.

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Creating Dance with Regular Folks

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on June 20, 2023| 1 Comment »

Photo: Luke Waddington.
At Cambois Miners Welfare Institute, Esther Huss’s avant garde dance group involved local residents in performing Stairwall. Another choreographer in the north of England tapped local low-income children for a production and realized that it would be practical to make costumes that the kids could keep.

When the arts engage local people, they learn fast that fantasy tied to the practical concerns of daily life works best.

Lyndsey Winship reports at the Guardian on dance groups in the UK that are serious about involving the community.

“On the beach, the sand is black-flecked with coal. The pit closed in 1968, houses condemned and residents pushed to move out. But people stayed. ‘There’s not much in the way of anything really,’ says one local resident, Becca Sproat, except for a strong sense of community.

“This isolated patch of Northumberland seems an unlikely place for the German choreographer Esther Huss to have set up shop, after 20 years in London. But her husband, the playwright Alex Oates, who grew up down the coast in Whitley Bay, brought her here. ‘I fell in love with the oddness of this place, this meeting of the industrial and nature and being slightly outside mainstream society. It’s creatively interesting,’ she says. …

“In the middle of a row of brightly painted houses stands the Cambois Miners Welfare Institute, built in 1929. It had been unused for more than a decade until Huss asked to have a look inside. … Huss and Oates took on the lease, shared with the local boxing club. So there is a boxing ring on the hall’s stage and leather punchbags along one wall. As well as Huss making her own work here, she runs a dance group, and Oates runs a writing group, shivering through the winter with no heating and scraping together funding to keep everything free. Some artists pay lip service to reaching new audiences, Huss and Oates are actually living it. Next is a two-year project Cambois Creates, to make a memorable event for the whole community.

“Huss’s choreography is inspired by dadaism, German expressionism and the Japanese dance-theatre form butoh, and in the Cambois dance group, she encourages novice dancers to create their own movement.

‘My family howl at me,’ laughs 61-year-old Alison Johnson, ‘ “Oh mam, show us your latest interpretive dance!” But it’s nice to do something different,’ she says.

“ ‘It’s become such a safe environment where we all get out of our comfort zone, because we trust each other, because of Esther. It’s special.’

“Sproat, 33, had been stuck at home for 16 months during the pandemic when she got a leaflet through the door. ‘Something about a dance group, and I just laughed and binned it, because there’s no way I was going to do that. Or so I thought!’ she says. Desperate to get out of the house, she agreed to volunteer at the Institute, ‘And somehow Esther’s enthusiasm rubbed off on me. I’m not a dancer,’ says Sproat, who has some mobility issues, ‘but I’ve learned how to express myself through movement. I’m a lot more confident than I was.’ …

“You’re a long way from the London bubble and for artists working here that can be part of the appeal. ‘Moving up here, it changed everything,’ says Huss. ‘I always felt like, does London need another dance piece?’ Liv Lorent, who moved to Newcastle 30 years ago, tells me the same: ‘London didn’t need another choreographer.’ Lorent only planned to stay a few months, but fell in love with the people, the light, the beauty, the audiences. [They’re] no-nonsense, there’s no woolliness, she says, but there’s always a sense of humor. …

“Lorent describes herself as ‘all heart and idealism’ and being in the north-east has allowed that. Like Huss, she’s long been committed to community involvement. Her company, balletLORENT, recently moved into a 1930s former school building in Newcastle’s deprived West End. Lorent frequently works with local adults and children in performances. She tells me about one project where there was a costume budget, but knowing some of those children were in need of every day clothes, she made the costumes something they could take home and wear after the show. It’s about creating fantasy, while living in the real world.

“Huss likes to take her fantasies into the real world. Her last piece, Stairwall, toured in unconventional venues including a timber merchants in North Shields. She heard that some of the male staff were expecting the dancers to arrive in heels and sexy outfits – ‘It’s quite blokey up here sometimes’ – so they must have been surprised by Huss’s multidisciplinary dance-theatre. But some of the men were game to be part of the performance, one telling Huss: ‘When I die, this is going to be one of the proudest days of my life.’ She loves seeing how people respond to her work. ‘I’m not pretending everyone liked it, but generally people were really open to it,’ says Huss.

“ ‘I was surprised how immersed I became in it,’ says Johnson. ‘I found myself becoming quite emotionally charged. The fact that she’s showcased these within Cambois, I remember feeling very privileged that something you would see on a stage in a major town or city was on in Cambois Institute!’

“ ‘I didn’t think I would actually like it,’ says Sproat, ‘But it was just so inspiring. Esther and Alex lived in London and there’s millions of opportunities down there. So for them to come here is amazing.’ ”

More at the Guardian, here.

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Britain’s Record Store Day

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on June 7, 2023| 2 Comments »

Photo: Getty Images.
Record Store Day celebrates independent music stores in the UK, says the BBC, “with many labels and artists releasing limited vinyl editions specifically on the day.”

Some of us still listen to our vinyl records. And others are starting to. In fact, vinyl records have become so popular in England that there is now an official Record Store Day to celebrate the bricks-and-mortar places you can buy them.

Gareth George reports at the BBC, “More young music fans are snapping up the latest releases on vinyl, triggering a boom in LP sales. In 2022, vinyl outsold CDs for the first time in 35 years. Ahead of Record Store Day in the UK, the BBC asked young record store regulars why ‘old school’ beats downloads. …

“Will, 16, is a GCSE [General Certificate Secondary Education] student and guitarist who hopes to study music full-time at the Colchester Institute. He believes buying vinyl is a better way of supporting artists than streaming or downloading music and reveals he has inherited his own collection of records from parents and grandparents. …

” ‘You can inherit not only the music, but also the memories, and tell the story though vinyl.’

“Will is running a second-hand vinyl stall with Sam, 18, from Chelmsford, a guitarist and singer who plays in a band called Alison. Sam says record fairs are essential because new vinyl LPs can be expensive for budding collectors.

” ‘It’s hard to become a vinyl collector now when you go to your local record shop and see that it’s 40 quid a record,’ he says. ‘That’s why these record fairs are important. Stuff’s just cheaper.’

“The pair work at Intense Records in Chelmsford, one of the hundreds of independent music shops across the UK taking part in Record Store Day on 22 April. The annual event, which was established in 2007, has become one of the biggest in the music calendar, with independent record shops often achieving their highest sales of the year. …

” ‘We’ve definitely seen a new generation of younger music fans embracing vinyl,’ says Record Store Day UK co-ordinator Megan Page. ‘For superstar artists like Taylor Swift and The 1975, vinyl has become a really important part of their marketing campaign. …

“Jon Smith, manager of Intense Records, says DJs will be playing to the crowds of collectors expected to go along. He said many customers hope to grab a bargain or snap up a limited release on the day. …

“Nineteen-year-old Kasabian fan, Geordie Breeze, is ‘crate-digging’ in Norwich – a vinyl hunter term for flicking through the rows and racks of records in music shops. The environmental science student at Lancaster University says he already has ‘a few hundred’ vinyl LPs. ‘I think the sound quality’s better, and I like a physical record to hold,’ he says.

“According to figures from the British Phonographic Industry, vinyl records outsold CDs in 2022 for the first time in 35 years. The revenue generated from vinyl was [about] £119.5m [$128 million] more than CDs. …

“Musician Imogen Bradley, 23, looks out for ‘old school hip-hop’ on vinyl. She is a fan of British rapper MF Doom and American hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. ‘I just prefer having a physical copy,’ she says.”

What was before vinyl? My grandfather left behind a wind-up Victrola with a horn that would be valuable today. But my brother and I at a young age thought it was hilarious to smash the records. Golly, but kids are weird!

More at the BBC, here. No firewall.

Photo: Suzanne and John’s Mom.

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A Long Trip on UK Buses

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on March 3, 2023| 10 Comments »

Photo: Emily Turner.
Emily Turner (pictured) planned to take 16 buses in total, traveling exclusively by buses that fall under the government’s £2 [$2.40] local bus program. 

The other day, a friend asked me what I will do if I decide to give up driving: for example, how will I get to the Providence grandchildren from Massachusetts. Public transportation, I said. It will take all day, and I’ll have to go there less often and stay longer, but it’s doable. I’ve tested it.

Because public transportation in the US is not the best, I think you really have to reorganize your life around using it. And you have to assume everything will take a lot longer. But what’s the hurry?

Here’s a woman in the UK who decided to test how far she could go just using public buses. She’s been buoyed by all the people following her adventure on social media.

Sophie Zeldin-O’Neill reported last month at the Guardian, “A British woman undertaking an epic three-day expedition from London to Scotland using only local buses has expressed her surprise at the level of support from thousands of people following the chronicles of her journey on Twitter.

“Writer and podcast host Emily Turner, from London, began her nearly 400-mile journey in the early hours of [Feb. 10], announcing on Twitter: ‘I’ve been wanting to do this for YEARS!!’ …

“She plans to arrive at her destination, Edinburgh, on Sunday, taking 16 buses in total, and traveling exclusively by those that fall under the government’s £2 [$2.40] local bus program. …

“Turner, who hosts the Roundel Round We Go podcast about the London underground, planned her trip to coincide with her 35th birthday on Friday, and is attempting to keep the total cost under £35 [$42].

“On Friday night, she tweeted: ‘And that concludes my 35th birthday. When my mother turned 35, she was about to give birth to me, but I feel like today I have given birth to a whole Twitter bus lover community, so to each their own.’

“In response to one Twitter user who commented ‘I bet it’s going to cost more than a single megabus ticket,’ Turner replied, ‘Oh definitely! It was more about the journey than saving money.’

“Upon arriving in Leeds, she explained some of the background to her penchant for public transport, saying: ‘Leeds is a city I’ve spent about three weeks in previously. They were while I was doing intensive teacher training, and I was spending a lot of time with large groups of people, which I found exhausting, so I’d escape and go ride buses.’

“Thousands of people around the UK have followed her account before and during her journey, providing tips and encouragement – and sharing their own bus-related anecdotes. One Twitter user said: ‘Looks like you passed my house on the Stagecoach 59 from Barnsley this morning. Wish I’d known, I’d have got you a coffee and a sandwich from Noble’s at Busy Corner.’ …

“Turner has been compiling a bus-themed playlist, with songs including Erica Banks’ ‘Buss It’ and ‘Vengabus’ by the Vengaboys.

“In response, she has been offered tips for audio accompaniments to the voyage: ‘I hope you liked the 16-minute @GratefulDead song I recommended earlier,’ said one follower. ‘If you’ve got another long bus ride still to come, I’ve got a 30-minute one ready for you.’

“A newer follower added: ‘Very much enjoying the @ETWriteHome bus tour … I did a similar hitchhike to Paris from Edinburgh in 2010. If you can muster the energy down to @NewbarnsBrewery when you make it to Edinburgh there will be a drink on the bar for you.’

“Despite trying to adhere to a strict schedule en route to Scotland, Turner’s journey has been disrupted and delayed at various points. On Friday, she boarded an unplanned bus at Luton, and on Saturday, she got stuck after her card was declined – something which, it transpired, was because she had carried out more than the permitted number of Apple Pay transactions in a single day.

“At the time of writing, Turner is in Newcastle. She plans to get the train back to London on Sunday evening.”

Have you had public transportation adventures worth sharing? I seem to recall that blogger Asakiyume tweeted that her son had planned a similar trip in the US. And the reason I learned that public transportation to and from Providence was doable was a blizzard.

I left my car in the Amtrak garage in Providence and trained it to South Station in Boston. From there, I took the subway to Porter Square, Cambridge, and hung around for the commuter rail to my town. When I got to town, I walked across the snowy street to my house, a block from the train.

It was the only moment I needed my snow boots.

More at the Guardian, here.

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