We popped to a coffee shop and bakery during the weekend drizzle. Slightly damp, the outdoor, rustic table showed signs of many a coffee spill. A hard working piece of wood, but nothing like as hard working as this similar looking piece of wood which I photographed supporting the jetty for the Statten Island Ferry in New York.
Decades old wood still working hard, long after its life as a living thing is over.
And now just bystanders to coffee and commuters.
Interesting though that if I digially abstract the cafe table the image can look exactly like a forest clearing.
Nature is a wonderful thing.
In other news I am continuing with my Glastonbury supported summer clear out. Doing the non day to day Domestic Admin that builds up behind the scenes.
To be frank, on day 3, I am at the point with my domestic admin that I am beginning to feel lethagy.Not unlike attending an actual music festival, I don’t much care who is on the stage I just want to lie in my tent and commune with nature,I am done with the whole thing. The summer clear out is over for now. Who knew domestic admin could fill a festival weekend quite so pleasurably? Until the moment when you know.
What does a woman who loves music festivals do when she does not get a ticket for Glastonbury. This one plans a weekend of ‘jobs’ that are vastly improved by the background sound of the BBC livestreaming the music aspect of the festival.
And just like that the futility (utility) room was stripped out tidied and put back together. Our store of Covid restriction ‘essential’ baking and cooking ingredients have gone in the bin.
Farewell inert dried yeast and sumac + many others well past their best.
Tidy Cook Books
Hello tidied camper van too.
And as a reward, a little live night music. Shanty singing in a Cornish Village Hall.
I pinched this poster from a Glastonbury Festival web page. Something about it caught my eye, but for the life of me I can’t quite identify what it is.
My best guess is the stylised butterfly and the designs similarity to a Brasso tin.
Brasso was my paternal grandparents idea of a good time for their only grandchild.
“What shall we do with her while she is here?”
“Lets get the Brasso out and then after that we can play Scrabble”
Hours passed, spoons were shined. Scrabble was played with no consideration given to the differences in our ages or vocabularies. Beyond that I read books that I had brought with me or lost myself in the concise encyclopaedias on their bookshelves. They had a television, I never experienced it being turned on. At the end of their period of caring I was either collected by my dad or sent home to walk home via the roads or via the fields of two conjoined farms that were between their home and mine.
I was taught to achieve this journey, safely by my grandfather who would accompany me to start with and then gradually once he was confident that I knew where I was going he did less and less of the journey with me. Ultimately just waving me off either at the front gate or the style at the top of their property which led to the meadows and pastures of the countryside that circled the small market town where we all lived.
Their ‘no frills’ grandparenting style taught me the power of one.
I can’t say that beyond that I have achieved the promise of the poster. I have only ever made little things happen and any movements I have started have not changed the world significantly. But also I don’t think I have done too much harm. Which is a good thing, but hardly the sort of statement that sits well on a poster.
Are there things you try to practice daily to live a more sustainable lifestyle?
I try wherever possible to buy second-hand things. Clothes, books and items for our home in particular. More so in the last 20 years, to a lesser extent for the last 50. I also buy canvasses for my large paintings from charity shops. The large box canvasses that retailers sell in their thousands for people to adorn their walls with instant pre-curated art which are then abandoned for the next easy home switcharound.
I have been doing it long enough to be confident in my purchases. I would say that my success rate is slightly higher than it was when I used to buy more new items.
The world has caught up with me and passed me by. Second-hand, thrift, vintage, pre-loved are the current trending trends. There are a huge variety of new ways of doing what I have been doing for decades and yet I stick to the methods that work for me.
1.Charity Shops. Giving wisely and receiving all in one transaction.
2. Ebay- used with caution and learned wisdom.
3. Gifts or swaps with friends. One woman’s error is another woman’s gem.
Fast Fashion teases and traps me on occasion, and I feel no shame because however fast it is at inception I know that the garment will be with me for the long haul and will be styled with something from the last century. On a woman from the last century who sometimes puts pockets in things that didn’t start life with pockets.
Today I commented that two of my friends looked fabulous. Both whispered the word ‘Primark’ and then the word ‘Pockets’.
Will I be able to keep away..
I will try.
Are there things you try to practice daily to live a more sustainable lifestyle?
Summer is officially here and a job needed doing. We have a large parabolic sun parasol. Something was not quite right with the parasol last year but we put it away regardless. In my experience over-wintering a problem never improves the situation.
Me and the parasol resolved our differences after a few hours of relocating the base and replacing some nuts and bolts. All a question of balance and diligence. I think last year the parasol base was not level which caused a slight imbalance and nuts and bolts do need attention at some point.
On balance all is well that ends well.
Balance was certainly on the mind of this snail who really had no need to take himself along the yard-long stalk of an Agapanthus. Snails do not eat Agapanthus blooms.
On balance all was well that ended well for the snail too.
Yesterday it rained and a scrappy old rose that persists in the tropical bed in the yard put on quite the show against the water butt. I am not quite sure why we allow the rose to continue. A misplaced belief that it marks the spot where someone unknown, a previous owner of this house, had buried a beloved pet. It is a very old gnarly thing that has survived against the odds. It blooms throughout the summer, but not really in a meaningful way. The buds are neat and a fresh bloom can be beautiful, as this one is. But within a day the flower will open fully and fall apart. Just looking tatty and ugly.
The bush is mostly hidden beneath ferns. Out of sight and mind. Apart from yesterday when this perfectly pink bloom properly perked up a wet summer morning .
I would say spirituality is one of the great intangibles. It presents in so many ways. I have no idea where I sit on the spirituality spectrum. Nowhere near the elite end, but probably more spiritual than a broad bean.
Proof of how intangible spirituality is I looked up the broad bean only to discover that it is quite the Spiritual Legume.
Broad beans, also known as fava beans, have a complex symbolic history, particularly in relation to death and the afterlife. While not universally considered spiritual, they have been associated with funerary rituals and the belief that they contain the souls of the deceased in some cultures. However, other traditions view them as symbols of resurrection, good luck, or even royalty.
Here’s a more detailed look:
Symbolism related to death and the underworld:
Ancient Greeks and Romans:Believed broad beans were linked to the underworld due to their long roots and the black spots on their flowers, which were seen as a connection between the world of the living and the dead.
Funerary rituals:Broad beans were sometimes spread over tombs to provide peace to the deceased.
Fave dei morti:In some traditions, like those in Italy, small cakes shaped like broad beans (but not actually made of them) are eaten on All Souls’ Day, symbolizing “beans of the dead”.
Soul wind:Some believed that eating broad beans released the soul wind through the body.
Symbolism related to resurrection and reincarnation:
Growth:The bean’s upward growth from the earth can be seen as a symbol of resurrection and spiritual awakening.
Rebirth:Some traditions view beans as symbols of reincarnation, where the seed contains a dormant soul waiting to be reborn.
Other symbolic meanings:
Good luck:In some traditions, like 17th and 18th century Britain, broad beans were associated with good luck, sometimes found in cakes like the Twelfth Night cake.
Royalty:In traditions like the Portuguese king cake, a bean inside the cake signifies the person who gets to provide the next cake.
Magic:Broad beans are also mentioned in folklore as having magical properties, such as warding off ghosts or even being connected to witches.
*See below
Research is a fabulous thing. I have just learned that Fava beans are Broad Beans. I had no idea, but I also discovered that spirituality-wise I am exactly a broad bean.
Broad beans are not considered universally spiritual.
Sometimes I suffer from ‘Soul Wind’
Will I ever be able to say the Lord’s Prayer without thinking? ” Our Fava”.
I have been enlightened.
*See below
*The Buddha with the fractured skull lives in our yard and has lived in my last three gardens.
She was a regular,uninjured, deity until a freak mini tornado in South London picked her up and tossed her against a garage wall. Her left Temporal bone was caved in. An earthly rather than spiritual injury.
Instantly she was turned from a peaceful piece of garden adornment into a unique planter. Her scars and missing bits of skull are covered by plants as she lays serenely in our yard.
This is deliberately the last image of a weekend of Summer Solstice swims. It is an entirely composed and invented view of the Bobbers reality. Magic realism at its most local.
Magic realism is a literary and artistic genre that incorporates fantastical or mythical elements into a realistic setting. It blends the ordinary with the extraordinary, often blurring the lines between what is considered real and what is not. Originating in Latin America, particularly through the works of Gabriel García Márquez, magic realism explores the coexistence of the mundane and the magical, challenging conventional notions of reality.
Here’s a more detailed explanation:
Key characteristics of magic realism:
Realistic Setting:The stories are typically grounded in a recognizable, everyday world with ordinary characters and situations.
Fantastic Elements:Magical or supernatural events, creatures, or phenomena are introduced into this realistic setting, often without explanation or justification.
Matter-of-fact Tone:These fantastical elements are presented as normal occurrences within the narrative, without the characters or narrator questioning their presence or logic.
Symbolism and Metaphor:Magic realism often uses these elements as metaphors to explore social, political, or psychological themes, adding depth and complexity to the narrative.
Cultural Hybridity:It often draws upon folklore, myths, and indigenous beliefs, blending them with Western literary traditions.
Examples of Magic Realism:
Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude:Features characters who levitate, have premonitions, and experience impossible events, all within the context of a Colombian family’s history.
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis:Gregor Samsa wakes up to find he has transformed into an insect, a fantastical event presented with a detached, realistic tone.
Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits:Blends magical events with historical and political events in Chile, exploring themes of family, love, and political upheaval.
Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber:Retells fairy tales with a feminist perspective, incorporating magical elements and exploring themes of sexuality and power.
How is it different from fantasy?
While both magic realism and fantasy include fantastical elements, they differ in their approach to reality. In fantasy, the fantastic elements are central to the world-building and often require extensive explanation or rules. In magic realism, the fantastic elements are integrated into a realistic world, often serving as metaphors or symbols rather than the core focus of the narrative.
The Bobbers started swimming at dawn and dusk on both the Summer and Winter Solstices during 2021.
In June 2021 we were still living under COVID Restrictions. A lot of Bobbers bobbed both morning and evening Bobs. We had not returned to real life.
4 years later and real life has returned. Bobbers are not as free to swim twice a day to mark the longest and the shortest day. But being there and not being there have some significance for all of us. Including the sun. In the real world the sun does not rise or set behind Drakes Island when viewed across Firestone Bay from Tranquility Bay beach.
In the real world only 2 Bobbers bobbed the morning shift and 5 bobbers, a dry bobber and a dog made the evening shift of 2025. Other swimmers raised the number to nearly a 100 in the morning and about half that in the evening.
But bobbers and ex-bobbers, even non-bobber swimmers everwhere know how it feels to swim in this specific place and can imagine themselves there for those moments. And in everyone’s imagination the sun for sunrise and sunset makes a perfect debut and finale just behind Drakes Island. Magic Realism is a powerful thing.
Summer Solstice started with a burst of colour over Firestone Bay as two bobbers and about 100 other swimmers took to the sea at dawn, the conditions were perfect.
Then the Solstice took a more practical turn as twenty volunteers, including two bobbers, took on the annual task of painting the Tennis Club Clubhouse with preservative.
Then it was back to the sea for more swimming at sunset.
So much exercise in one day and not a gym in sight.
A day painted perfectly.
Painting the Summer Solstice at Stonehouse Lawn Tennis Club.
In other news, the Solstice was celebrated in the local Tinside Lido.
For four years the bobbers have celebrated both Summer and Winter Solstices by dipping at sunrise and sunset. Summer takes more dedication with early and late starts. Winter takes more grit because the weather is disgusting and the water is very cold. Summer has not always been kind to us but in our collective memory the event is always magical. These two images of the early morning dip and the evening dip are entirely fake. Created by stitching three actual magical dips together. The location is accurate, as are the conditions and the swimmers. But they never actually occurred all at the same time in the same place so perfectly.
But in our recollections Solstice swims are magical. And I have the photographs to prove that.
Summer Solstice Double Dipping P.M
May Summer wrap her arms around you whilst the sun gently warms your soul.
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