I’ve always been fascinated by underground homes, and by grottoes natural or man-made. The attraction is not simply that of the ecologist - some contemporary eco-homes are built partially underground for insulation and to enable the new-build to blend in more readily with its environment. This plays a role for me, but is not the whole story. An aura of secrecy and mystery surround underground homes, and the child in me revels in such atmospheres. Imagine, then, an entire city underground. We tend to think of such places as backdrops for Fantasy and Science-Fiction stories, but there are historical precedents. Edinburgh had an underground city; so did Liverpool. Tourists can visit the remains of these places. Picture an entire community of 20,000 people or more, living together beneath the Earth’s crust. Fresh air is carried down via long vents. Water is conducted by underground streams, wells and cisterns. The temperature stays around a comfortable 63 degrees. Flights of carved s

"There are knitters, and then there is the mighty Kate Jenkins. You won't find woolly mittens or granny blankets in her craft room. No, her needles whip up something much more interesting...." http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2010/jul/02/knitting-exhibition-come-dine-with-kate#/?picture=364479419&index=1

The mysteries of Ancient Egypt were not part of the conversation over the last two days, but the mysteries of life and death certainly were. While pharaohs built pyramids to ensure the preservation of their physical remains, Mum’s had a ground-floor bathroom and bedroom built to ensure that she will be able to remain in her own house should ill-health strike. She’s 81 and increasingly frail, and worried about any challenges which her future may hold. During the building process, the entire house had swiftly disappeared under a thick veil of gritty grey dust. Mum had already cleaned some of it but was nervous of lifting things off high shelves as she has vertigo. So yesterday my sister Evelyn and I shoed her off to her beloved Ladies Club (so she couldn’t keep “helping”!!) while we blitzed the kitchen. Every single item of kitchenware - plates, cups, casserole dishes, pans, glassware etc. - needed lifting off shelves and out of cupboards, washing, drying - and also the shelf or cu

An interesting comparison between British life forty years ago and now:- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/1970-vs-2010-40-years-when-we-got-older-richer-and-fatter-2017240.html The key to change... is to let go of fear. - Rosanne Cash This entire globe, this star, not being subject to death, and dissolution and annihilation being impossible anywhere in Nature, from time to time renews itself by changing and altering all its parts. There is no absolute up or down, as Aristotle taught; no absolute position in space; but the position of a body is relative to that of other bodies. Everywhere there is incessant relative change in position throughout the universe, and the observer is always at the center of things. - Giordano Bruno

"An academic at the University of Manchester claims to have cracked a mathematical and musical code in the works of Plato. Jay Kennedy, a historian and philosopher of science, described his findings as 'like opening a tomb and discovering new works by Plato.' Plato is revealed to be a Pythagorean who understood the basic structure of the universe to be mathematical, anticipating the scientific revolution of Galileo and Newton by 2,000 years." Read the rest:- http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/29/plato-mathematical-musical-code

“The more we have the courage to walk new paths the more we must remain rooted in our own tradition, open to others who let us know that we are not alone and permit us to acquire a wider vision of reality.” - Raimon Panikkar . Bright sunlight filtered through the curly leaves of the contorted hazel tree to cast green-gold dapples over the Grove. I’d been meditating for a while, trying to fend off the hen which kept pecking at the beads on my sandals. And the dog whose nose was edging ever-closer to my cup of tea. Ah, blessed solitude. No wonder the Buddha didn’t have a menagerie with him beneath the Bodhi tree. Or maybe he did, hmm? My fluffy and feathered buddies follow me around the house and garden, constant companions who demand to join in with everything. They tread the same ground beneath the same sky as me, but who really knows how a chicken, cat or dog views the world? How do human lives seem to them - magical, perhaps? Godlike? Bewildering? Largely irrelevant so long as

“You have a refrigeration problem,” said the fridge repair man. Hence the overwhelming lack of chill, hmm? The madly-gurgling contraption was barely two years old. We are not pleased. Certainly we will not be purchasing that brand again. The repair man said he could try re-gassing it but the likelihood of this lasting more than a day or so was slim to anorexic. Fortunately the modest freezer section wasn’t full to capacity. There were several tubs of home-made soups and Bolognese sauces which are now on the compost heap. And there was one lone samosa lurking in a corner. Last night’s meal was a bacon feast. We’ll be having roast chicken tonight, and again tomorrow night. Well, these things can’t be refrozen…. And the kitchen bin is filled with ice-cream (sugary poison anyway) and a spectacularly vile apple strudel whose twin was mostly fed to the dogs at New Year. Emily buried her share in the garden. To the best of my knowledge she’s yet to dig it up again. Our new fridge-fr