This weeks’ artists are a Corsican group we heard in Aix last summer. Have a listen. the sound is rich, multi-layered, a little bit wild. You’ve never heard anything like it.
Cantu Nustrale
Elizabeth
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Artists of the week Cantu Nustrale
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The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard
I struggled with this book to be honest. I kept wanting to disagree with some of the statements in it, such as that you can’t imagine a drawer without something in it. Believe me, since the day I read it, I have been doing that very thing on a regular basis. So much of what Bachelard says seems to me so much a product of his era and social class that I wondered how relevant it can be to us here and now.
That is part of the point of phenomenology, however. We do bring who, and when, and where we are to the activity of perception, and it’s silly (if not, in practice, impossible) to try to disregard it. However, when he was thinking about furniture he was moving into a reflection on light and darkness, comfort and vulnerabilty, and I couldn’t get past the smell of lavender and beeswax. Maybe I should write a poetics of housework!
As I went through the book, however, I began to see something more profound. My perceptions of shells, caves, cupboards and cellars might well be different from someone else’s, but imagining and daydreaming about them brings us all to profound experiences of such common themes as light and darkness, secrecy and disclosure, intimacy and isolation, transcendence and insignificance.
I am really intrigued about his differences with Freudian psychoanalysts. All this stuff, they say, is just a way of thinking about sex. But Bachelard says that sexual experience is so profound because it is a way of getting to grips with all this stuff – about who we are in the world and how we are going to get along with it all. And that seems a bit more useful than nostalgia for a comfortable (pre-war, well-to-do provincial French) home.
I have put links to some green fairs on the Lúcháir events page. They all seem to be happening in England, however. Scotland doesn’t seem to have so many,(perhaps it’s the weather) but keep a lookout for the Spades and Spokes extravaganza in Stirling in July. I’ll post more about this when I get back from holiday.
See you all later! pax et bene!
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The Garden in June
I was supposed to be weeding the roses this morning, but somehow I kept finding more interesting things to do. Like staking the pumpkin so I could make the most of this flower:
or sowing some crocus seeds I found under the rowan tree,
noticing how the furry leaves of this mullein trap the dew,
watching bumblebees on the thyme flowers
or discovering plants I thought I’d lost, thriving somewhere unexpected. So far I’ve found two sorts of campanula, tansy, sweet violets and lily of the valley, as well as this lovely welsh poppy.
And, of course, listening to the song of the
skylark. I think they must be out in the fields that surround the village, but it sounds as if they were overhead, pouring their songs into my garden.
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Artist of the Week – Marja-Leena-Rathje
This weeks artist is the Finnish-Canadian printmaker and photographer Marja-Leena-Rathje
Her blog features really stunning photographs of rocks, landscape formationsand natural objects, sometimes stark, sometimes sinuously curved, always beautiful and never twee.
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After the Gales
Last week’s gales caused an awful lot of damage here. We lost two panes of glass from the greenhouse when it was at its worst. The whole house shook and it sounded like armageddon. I don’t remember ever being quite so worried by the wind all the time we’ve been here, though it wasn’t the worst we’ve had. I think it was because the trees are in full leaf. It may not be quite as fierce as a winter gale, but it was certainly noisy. And the trees along the river bank really took a hammering.
It’s much quieter now, and the sun is out – a really good washing day. So that’s what I’m doing.
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Two recommendations
Please Note: One of my projects is to work with the Justice and Peace group of the Archdicese of Edinburgh and St Andrews to develop an environmental perspective on our work, so from time to time there may be posts on this blog which refer explicitly to Catholic teaching on various issues. This is not an attempt to convert anybody, nor to denigrate the wisdom of other faith traditions or philosphical points of view. If you’re not Catholic, just talk amongst yourselves for a bit.
First the serious one. Lush cosmetics are promoting a petition from No One Is Illegal. I know that the shops smell like an explosion in an eight year-olds dressing up box, but Lush really do seem to live up to their ideals, and this about immigration really is an important issue to me.
To get a little heavy for a minute: there is a Papal Encyclical called Populorum Progressio which came out in 1968 and is at the foundation of catholic Social teaching, and it says:
“We cannot insist too much on the duty of giving foreigners a hospitable reception. It is a duty imposed by human solidarity and by Christian charity, and it is incumbent upon families and educational institutions in the host nations.
Young people, in particular, must be given a warm reception; more and more families and hostels must open their doors to them. This must be done, first of all, that they may be shielded from feelings of loneliness, distress and despair that would sap their strength. It is also necessary so that they may be guarded against the corrupting influence of their new surroundings, where the contrast between the dire poverty of their homeland and the lavish luxury of their present surroundings is, as it were, forced upon them. And finally, it must be done so that they may be protected from subversive notions and temptations to violence, which gain headway in their minds when they ponder their “wretched plight.” (58) In short, they should be welcomed in the spirit of brotherly love, so that the concrete example of wholesome living may give them a high opinion of authentic Christian charity and of spiritual values.
68. We are deeply distressed by what happens to many of these young people. They come to wealthier nations to acquire scientific knowledge, professional training, and a high-quality education that will enable them to serve their own land with greater effectiveness. They do get a fine education, but very often they lose their respect for the priceless cultural heritage of their native land.
69. Emigrant workers should also be given a warm welcome. Their living conditions are often inhuman, and they must scrimp on their earnings in order to send help to their families who have remained behind in their native land in poverty. “
(you thought we only go on about sex? Silly you!)
I am including this rather preachy bit because there are various high-profile Catholic politicians who got asked to speak for the Church, and pontificated about moral values while at the same time bringing in laws ro restrict the rights of immigrants and refugees,lock up their children and use them as hostages to make sure their parents leave the country quietly.
Please stand up for the rights of people to find work and peace and stabilty for their children where they can.
The second recommendation is more fun. If you get the chance go and see Stirling Castle. They have just finished an enormous restoration project on the Palace Apartments, and they are wonderful.
Floss of Troc, Broc and Recup has also agrred to do the Green Chain interview. She is on a break just now, but do look out for it when she gets back!
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Two recommendations
First the serious one. Lush cosmetics are promoting a petition from No One Is Illegal. I know that the shops smell like an explosion in an eight year-olds dressing up box, but Lush really do seem to live up to their ideals, and this about immigration really is an important issue to me.
To get a little heavy for a minute; There is a Papal Encyclical called Populorum Progressio which came out in 1968 and is at the foundation of catholic Social teaching, and it says:
“We cannot insist too much on the duty of giving foreigners a hospitable reception. It is a duty imposed by human solidarity and by Christian charity, and it is incumbent upon families and educational institutions in the host nations.
Young people, in particular, must be given a warm reception; more and more families and hostels must open their doors to them. This must be done, first of all, that they may be shielded from feelings of loneliness, distress and despair that would sap their strength. It is also necessary so that they may be guarded against the corrupting influence of their new surroundings, where the contrast between the dire poverty of their homeland and the lavish luxury of their present surroundings is, as it were, forced upon them. And finally, it must be done so that they may be protected from subversive notions and temptations to violence, which gain headway in their minds when they ponder their “wretched plight.” (58) In short, they should be welcomed in the spirit of brotherly love, so that the concrete example of wholesome living may give them a high opinion of authentic Christian charity and of spiritual values.
68. We are deeply distressed by what happens to many of these young people. They come to wealthier nations to acquire scientific knowledge, professional training, and a high-quality education that will enable them to serve their own land with greater effectiveness. They do get a fine education, but very often they lose their respect for the priceless cultural heritage of their native land.
69. Emigrant workers should also be given a warm welcome. Their living conditions are often inhuman, and they must scrimp on their earnings in order to send help to their families who have remained behind in their native land in poverty. “
(you thought we only go on about sex? Silly you!)
https://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
I am including this rather preachy bit because there are various high-profile Catholic politicians who got asked to speak for the Church, and pontificated about moral values while at the same time bringing in laws ro restrict the rights of immigrants and refugees,lock up children and use them as hostages to make sure their parents leave the country quietly . And because in our own parishes there are people (embarassingly) complaining about all of “them” coming over here —.Please stand up for the rights of people to find work and peace and stabilty for their children where they can.
The second recommendation is more fun. If you get the chance go and see Stirling Castle. They have just finished an enormous restoration project on the Palace Apartments, and they are wonderful.
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How Bad Are Bananas Mike Berners-Lee – Review
Published 2010 by Profile Books
This book is not so much about how to cut your carbon footprint, but attempts in a chatty and informal way to provide a way through the morass of information and misinformation on the subject. It takes many familiar issues – using dishwashers, food miles, flying and so on, analyses why they might present a problem and evaluates how big a problem this might be.
In other words, it gives a context for all your good intentions, exposes some myths (for instance, that cotton is always preferable to man-made fabrics, or that bananas are a problem), and enables you to set priorities and make sensible choices, instead of operating, as we mostly seem to do, on a mash-up of taboos and political correctness, for example, agonising over whether organic vegetables from Kenya are better than local conventional ones.
It also exposes the assumptions behind some popular assertions – that a dishwasher is more eco-friendly than handwashing (not in my house it isn’t!) which enables you to check your own practice against the recommendations you get from elsewhere. All in all, a useful and interesting read.
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Artist of the Week
I am tinkering once again with the Lúcháir website. I’m much busier now than I was last year, and so some pages are not being updated as much as they really should be. Also, I’m getting better at working out what a web-site can do well and what it can’t, and shifting my focus to more of the former and less that would be better done some other way.
I’m particularly disappointed in the gallery page. Doing what I originally intended ie showcasing the work of the artists crafters and photographers I love, is beyond me, so I’m having a total re-think. In the meantime however, I did find a lot of truly beautiful artists’ blogs that I’d like to share, and here’s the first.
Roxana Ghita illustrates some very exciting poetry with the most beautiful, moody and evocative photos I have ever seen. Marion Macready is using one of her pictures on the jacket of her forthcoming poetry collection, so that gives me two reasons to be impatient to see it!
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Green Chain Interview
This was posted yesterday, but I removed it when some difficulty arose with contacting green Chain. As the firm have been very prompt and helpful in resolving the issue, Iam very pleased to reinstate it.
Turning the heating down by just one degree in your house saves 240kg of CO2 a year. It would take eight trees to soak up this amount of CO2! Are you currently doing anything to make your home eco-friendly?We draught-proofed and insulated as far as you can in an old house, and have the thermostat turned down as low as we can bear it.
– Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth’s land surface, now they only cover 2%. How are you reducing your use of paper?
Working on-line saves paper, though I do wonder about our electricity consumption! In addition we re-use and recycle as much as possible. For instance I shred sensitive documents and add them to the compost heap.
– At PriceMinister we believe that trading second hand items online is a great way to extend the life span of products. Have you ever thought of buying or selling second hand items on or off line?
I buy a lot of second hand books! both on-line and off line. I think ourfirst flat was almost entirely furnished from auctions, but that’s not so easy now, as we’d have to travel much further. Apart from books (where I know what I’m getting)I’d be less happy to buy second hand on-line. I like to look things over first.
– One of the biggest environmental challenges we face is Freshwater Shortages. Are you taking measures to reduce your water consumption?
We use a low-consumption shower and toilet, don’t have a dishwasher and don’t run the washing machine unless it’s full. In this area we don’t need to water the garden much, but I do plant with an eye to making best use of the rain we get, rather than allowing it to run-off into the drains and create flood risks.
– How do you choose the produce that goes into your shopping basket? (any favorite products?)In order of priorities, I try to shop fo
fair trade (this includes British goods – farmers’ markets give producers a much better deal than supermarkets)
fresh
seasonal
local
organic. Organic is a complicated one, and I’m not consistent. I am aware of many high quality producers who do the work but can’t be bothered with the hassle of certification. It’s always worth checking out organic suppliers though, as those who care enough to go organic often also care about animal welfare, working conditions and community involvement. I’d recommend farmers’markets, but don’t want to single out any one product.– What is your favourite green space near home? (a photo would be great!)
Apart from my garden – which gets a fair amount of exposure on this blog already – I like this
It looks towards the Ochil Hills. It’s always lovely.– Which charity would you like to support and why?
I’d like to support Trees for Cities. Apart from the environmental benefits of greening up urban areas, it’s important to remember that most of us live in cities. Green movements often focus on the countryside, but negative attitudes towards towns will only alienate those who live there. https://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
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If any bloggers would like to take part in this challenge, and raise money for one of PriceMinister’s three designated environmental charities, please let me know, and I’ll tag you.————————————————————————————-
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