Why settle for some vile excuse of a burger which tastes like a fried carpet tile when for minimal effort you can enjoy homemade burgers? Easy Meals - Homemade Burgers

Rosa gallica, also known as the apothecary's rose or Rosa mundi, is in full bloom right now in my garden. It was one of the most-painted roses in Renaissance art, and was cultivated by Romans then later by monks for its alleged medicinal values. I grow it simply because its fragrance is divine.  Surely that is reason enough, hmm?

http://www.learn4good.com/games/kids/ufo.htm 'Tis silly, but deliciously so.

This video by Kevin Carlyon offers an introduction to tarot cards and explains how spot a genuine tarot reader as opposed to phone scams. If you're interested in learning more about how to read tarot cards, then visit my Hubpage here:- http://hubpages.com/hub/Tarot-How-to-Read-the-Minor-Arcana .

Conversation between a door-to-door schoolleaver salesman and me:- Me: Can I help you? Salesman: Don't worry, I'm not a salesman. This is free. Me: Oh? Salesman: All it is, is that we're doing roofing.... Me: Free roofing? Salesman: Erm, no. I mean the quote's free. Someone will come out to you to give you a free quote. Me (with evil grin): Ah, so you're the sales guy to has sell me a sales guy! Salesman: Erm, well, erm, yes, I mean no, I mean... Me (putting the poor kid out of his misery): No thanks! But thanks anyway. Salesman (smiling with relief): Oh, ok then.

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

asato mā sadgamaya tamaso mā jyotirgamaya mṛtyor mā amṛtaṁ gamaya From the unreal lead me to the real, From darkness lead me to light, From death lead me to immortality. - Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Have you ever stopped to wonder just how much of reality you simply don't notice? Gurdjieff used to talk about "buffers", and how people block out reality in accordance with their own mindset. He termed this semi-aware state "sleep" and insisted that the vast majority of people live out their entire lives as slaves to this condition of automatic self-hypnosis. He developed what he called the Stop Exercise, which was a method of bringing each practitioner into an awareness of their own state of “sleep”. He devised all sorts of irritating, annoying and seemingly pointless tasks for people to do with the sole intention of jolting them from their unconscious habits. This wasn’t a new idea, of course. Many monastic orders and religious teachings have u

It’s strange to realise that we’re only eleven days from the summer solstice and yet spring blossom lingers on the trees here. How are you planning to spend the solstice? Do you do anything to celebrate the year’s longest day? Many people assume I’ll be heading off to Stonehenge. They’re wrong. I much prefer to visit such places when I’m the only person around, so that means out-of-season and usually in weather which deters everyone else. I have my reasons. In all truth, I’ve never once been to Stonehenge. When I was a child, my parents tried visiting it but couldn’t find it. I kept insisting they were walking in the wrong direction…. Speaking of amusing visits, much fun was had during a recent weekend break with friends. Topics for discussion were kittens, pregnancy, the whereabouts of food deliveries and the mysteries of the universe - all splendid stuff! Returning home, chaos awaited. Can’t I leave this house for a few days without mayhem erupting?!! The dogs had sulked, t

I’m in the process of developing three new fictional characters for Fabian . I use a combination of methods when creating new people. There’s no right and wrong way to do these things. It’s more a case of experimenting to discover what works for you. For example, with one of these new characters I used a rather direct method. He appears very briefly in Rowan , so I already had his first name and the fact that he’s a musician. I wanted physical contrast with my other main male characters, so choices about looks were easily arrived at. I also wanted a personality which would provide a strong contrast to my other main characters, and so he was given a big, bombastic name to match his loud, exuberant traits and the plot role he plays. For a middle name, I thought of those marvellous Victorian names, heavy with pomp. The surname had been floating around in my mind for a while, and I liked the feel of it and it sounded right. Then I encountered a touch of serendipity. As his is a very

The contents are: Peter Hurd: The Literary Chicken; Carbon Footprints; A Matter of Principle. Tim Hulme: The Sugar Loaf; The Mckechnie Plunger; One More Day. Carol Falaki: Equal Footing; I Am; Eran . Peter Caton: The 437; Grandads; Zi and The Boy. Adele Cosgrove-Bray: Food; Party Time; Shell Boy . Andy Siddle: Old Poet; The Old Wirral Line; The Present. Eileen Brown: Waiting; Autumn . Catherine Evans-Hewitt: Celebrity . Clive McLaren: Crippen's Couplet; Water Refelctions; Handsome Is As Handsome Does. The anthology costs £3 and is available  from Riverside Writers' events; Lingham's Bookshop in West Kirby, Wirral; Hoylake Library; West Kirby Library. By the way, Shell Boy features Rowan, albeit in an anonymous capacity.

 If you like children's books, then give  Ingo by Helen Dunmore a try. This story about mermaids off the Cornish coast was imaginative and thoughtful, and introduces the reader to two modern-day children who are grieving for their father. The mermaids may be enchanting but can they be trusted? I can’t wait to read the second in the new series. Also good was   North Child   by Edith Pattou , which has elements of Beauty and the Beast and The Snow Queen. The heroine comes from a farming family who’ve run into hard times. She is pushed into a dangerous and scary life with a talking polar bear - but who is the polite stranger who sleeps beside her each night? Several members of Riverside Writers enjoy reading children’s literature. They admit that having kids or grandkids is a great excuse to indulge in the latest stories. I have no such excuse - but who cares! On Monday, May 24th, local author and playwright Marc Gee will be giving a public talk about his writing career and ne

Amazon Shorts will cease to be available from June, so if you wish to purchase copies of my two Shorts, A Wirral Otherkin Trilogy and Quiet Lives , you’d best act now. You’ll find these on Amazon, or you may prefer to use the clickable links on my website. According to the email sent out by Amazon, their Shorts program has been replaced by Kindle. If I wish to make my Shorts available on Kindle (an e-reader which costs nearly $300) then this self-publishing option is available to me. Otherwise, all Rights revert to me. My views about self-publishing can be read here: http://hubpages.com/hub/Self-Publishing-Pitfalls Amazon Shorts were short digital downloads which enabled a customer to try out a writer’s work for a minimal fee. For the author, Shorts offered a way of supplementing their income and promoting their work to a wider audience. At least, this was the theory. In practice, few people seemed to grasp what an Amazon Short was. Was it a piece of clothing designed for

Ashton Park’s rose garden has a path lined with cherry trees, and they’re all in full blossom right now. A slow stream of ice-pink confetti drifts down on all who stroll beneath. On the park pond it’s serious nest-building time. A pair of coots are trying their best to attach a pile of sticks to the base of the fountain. That a 30’ jet of water streaks past their little heads is no deterrent. Maybe this is the same pair of coots who successfully built a nest there last year. The dogs and I virtually had the beach to ourselves earlier today. Right now, they’re flaked out - one stretched out along the back of one couch, and other curled up on a tuffet facing the sunshine streaming in through the French doors. Tonight is Riverside Writers’ AGM. Is our anthology ready to go to the printers tomorrow? Will the Chair, Secretary and Treasurer be re-elected (again)? And will we break our own record for the fastest AGM, which currently stands at ten minutes flat? Let’s be honest here - ha

You're invited to read this interesting interview with published poet and author Adrienne Odasso:- http://hubpages.com/hub/Interview-with-Poet-and-Writer-Adrienne-Odasso

I hope you'll use the link below to read this interesting interview with published author Heidi Ruby Miller, the Educational Marketing Coordinator at Frank Lloyd Wright's House on Kentuck Knob and adjunct creative writing faculty at Seton Hill University in America. http://hubpages.com/hub/Interview-with-Writer-Heidi-Ruby-Miller

Yaay, we have sunshine! This means that my two little dogs are gazing at me with their best pleading expressions, which roughly translate into English as, “Walkies! Walkieeees!! Waaalkieeeeees!!!!!” Ok, ok; I get the message, pooches. Un momento, si? As may be guessed, the dusty language CD has been dusted down and (Attempt to) Learn A New Language proceeds (as poorly as before, actually) despite me being rather busy posting adverts for Richard’s studio across every reachable corner of our cyber-realm. After Easter, his tattoo studio will be open six days a week - Monday to Saturday, 11am - 5pm approx. This week, he tattooed a lady who was in her seventies. She wanted roses flowing over her breast and shoulder, and she intends to have the design extended so it will continue down her arm. Chris brought in his new acoustic bas guitar and sat down playing that - and if you visit the studio today you’ll hear Chris and Lee jamming on their guitars together. Lee’s performed in folk

This adorable gay bear is one of Spooky Cute Designs' most popular items.  He's available on a wide range of t-shirt styles and sizes, and also on other items too.  Exclusive to Spooky Cute Designs, he can be found only at http://www.zazzle.com/AdeleCB

It has been a busy week in hubby’s studio, and a fun week also - which began with Chris coming in with his bongos and entertaining clients while they waited to be tattooed. Chris is a really cool guy, heavily into Native American shamanism and philosophy. Everyone loved listening to him play his bongos, and a few clients were tempted to have a go themselves. Later in the week, a lady told a hilarious story about her three West Highland White Terriers. Her father is looking after them for a while, and as he’s a barber he thought he’d save her some money by trimming their coats himself. So he whipped out the electric trimmers and gave each of them a No.1 haircut. When she saw what he’d done, she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry! Crufts would not approve. Meanwhile, I was talking to Tim - who is recuperating after an operation - and learned that he has had a life-long interest in model-making which began when his father used to bring home sheets of white card (which had been used

I have decided I won’t be moving to the Arctic Zone. We’ve had one week of freezing temperatures here in Wirral and already the novelty has worn off. Snow-gowned landscapes look enchanting in photographs, but the trouble with the real McCoy is that anyone brave enough to venture outside needs to be an ice-skater of Olympic status in order to navigate our treacherous pavements. Even my dogs are bored with it now. When their shiny brown eyes first feasted on their new flawless white world they couldn’t wait to hurtle through it, pouncing and digging and having a merry doggy time. Now they keep looking at the bright sunshine and wondering why the outside temperatures don’t equate. Fortunately our chickens are largely protected by their coop and run. Inside the coop is plenty of dry, clean hay and straw, and it’s surprising how warm it gets in there. They’ve not even stopped laying their daily egg each, which is a big tell-tale sign that all is well with them. Maybe I should try pu

Hubby swears he never snores, and so I filmed him. He challenged me to upload it to YouTube, and here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3RJ9RA2fk8 Soon after uploading the video, I was contacted by a Brazilian death metal band, Máquina Voadora , who asked if they could use a few clips as part of their forthcoming video to accompany their new acoustic song about sleeping. Richard loved the idea! View Máquina Voadora's video here:- http://vimeo.com/8676341 I have been busy creating more new Hubpages . I've rather taken to that site... Recent additions include interviews with a Druid, a green witch, and artist Pixie Wildflower , plus articles on writing, kombucha, cryonics, reincarnation, the minor arcana and Welsh rarebit - among other topics. Browse my Hubpages: http://hubpages.com/profile/AdeleCosgroveBray   Parallel Dimensions , the Fantasy and Science-Fiction event which I organised last June for Hadley Rille Books ' authors, has been invited to retur