"...The (V&A's) new doll archive: rows of stark grey metal shelves, from which dozens of bisque, wax, wooden and vinyl faces stare out...   (One) has articulated legs and arms, so its owner could walk it about the room (move a leg and the arms move robotically in time); it has luxuriant and adult-looking blond curls that I am loath to touch.  Most curiously of all, inside its rosebud mouth is a row of tiny white teeth, pointy and sharp." by Rachel Cooke. Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/aug/29/doll-face-museum-childhood-review "What, another doll?" The Drawing Room, with a Whole Lotta Sewin' Goin' On. Now everyone recycles, Wombles had to get another job. My three-storey Georgian dolls house in its entirety. I've always liked dolls.  Walk around my house, and this would be self-evident.  I have three dolls' houses.  Well, two houses and one shop, to be precise, in various stages of completion.  Sev...

Make Kiwi and Apple Jam

Interesting footage, including contributions from Zecharia Sitchin.

"The giant storm levelled virtually everything standing along 100 miles of coastline. In all, it killed 1,800 people in seven states, and caused $90bn (£58bn) of damage. It wreaked colossal damage on the region's oil, forestry and tourism industries. More than one million people were left homeless... At its height, four-fifths of New Orleans was under water, to a depth of 20 feet. Today, more than a quarter of the pre-Katrina population of 450,000 have not returned." Source: Hurricane Katrina:  The storm that shamed America , by Rupert Cornwell - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/hurricane-katrina-the-storm-that-shamed-america-2057164.html

"It is with great sadness we announce that Laurence Gardner passed away on the 12 August 2010, after a prolonged illness. "Laurence Gardner is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Distinguished as the Chevalier de St. Germain, he is a constitutional historian, a Knight Templar of St Anthony, and is Presidential Attaché to the European Council of Princes. Based in England, he is author of The Times and Sunday Times bestseller, Bloodline of the Holy Grail .  "Laurence Gardner's (other) books include Realm of the Ring Lords ,  Genesis of the Grail Kings ,  Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark ,  The Magdalene Legacy , and  The Shadow of Solomon ." Source:  http://graal.co.uk/ It was probably around six years ago that I first encountered Laurence Gardner's writings, after my friend Jon had been enthusing about Gardner's very different version of both Biblical and European history.  So I read one of his books, Genesis of the ...

"...We're living in era where a writer can't just write. They have to be out there. Some would argue that readings are part of a writer's job... Do readers expect their writers to be performers too?" - Ben Myers. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/aug/11/public-role-private-writer Over the years I have attended many book events, and obviously some were delivered more smoothly than others.  But they've rarely failed to be interesting.  Audiences welcome the chance to meet a favourite writer, or to hear a first chapter or short story by a name who is new to them.  If they weren't interested, they wouldn't have made the journey to the event. I've also taken part in readings.  I've even organised a few.  Walking towards the mic can be a nerve-wracking experience  as every writer wants their work to be liked, but when total strangers keep on listening to the next bit, and the next bit and the next, and then smile and give a heart...

Such lavish colours and reflections in these paintings:  http://www.gongchi.org/popup/081125/picture3.html The Lake Como Villa, Rendezvous in Venice, Varenna Relfections, Villa in Capri and Springtime in New York are especially lovely.

“The first truth about awareness… is that the world out there is not really as we think it is. We think it is a world of objects and it is not… It’s not as solid and real as our perception has led us to believe, but it isn’t a mirage either. The world is not an illusion, as it has been said to be; it’s real on the one hand, and unreal on the other… We perceive. But what we perceive is not a fact…, because we learn what to perceive.” - Don Juan, from The Fire From Within by Carlos Castaneda. “T” ( Thomas Joseph Walton AKA West Cheshire Lad) used to talk about this subject at great length. He would describe the biological function of the human eye, and how it receives light through the iris which then hits the retina, and from there light is translated by the human brain into what we perceive as being exterior to that brain (and ourselves.) “T” would go on to say how quantum physics has long-since demonstrated that our perception of objects around us is flawed, in that every thing...