Haiku~~~~A MEMORY OF MY FIRST MENTOR

 

wAS IT YESTERDAY?

YOU TAUGHT ME  THE FLOWER' S NAMES

I DRIFT OFF REPEATING 

 

  

Guest blogger Hugh Williams. on the Humber Stone

Not all that far from where is used to live there is/was an abandoned stone quarry.  A place just waiting for  adventurous  children of all ages, and in an even earlier time moonshiners.   It gradually became a site of paranormal {not the term we used then} events, and abductions of unwary young people, ghostly sights and sounds,  all the sort of tales made up  in my not so humble opinion, buy parents.  Oh, and there were also mountain lions sighted there,  which at least turned turned out to be true.  
Anyway, where was i going  with this, ah yessssss!
I find these places interesting, and  the Humber Stone, is no exception.   Since roughly  90% of the earths crust  contains silica, and silica which is used to make chips, computer  chips ,  is the earth then some sort of computer????   Saving bits of information , words , thoughts, symbols etc, etc and resembling them?

I think, yah, i know!, i think too much.  But i digress and i do that too much also.  I think there could be a syllogism written to prove that  " one never knows what one never knows."

 

 

Hugh Williams

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A mangled block of stone lies in a small field in Leicester, between a branch of KFC and a housing estate. People walk past it everyday, many of them oblivious to its identity...what is it, and why is it there?

The Humber Stone is a massive rock that sits with most of its mass under the earth, like a stone iceberg. According to 19th century antiquarians it was used by some of the ancient inhabitants of the area as a "sacrificial altar", a claim requiring a pinch of salt perhaps - but it gets stranger.

The stone has gone by other names – Hell Stone, Holy Stone, all tenuously following the tradition that some kind of ritual may have gone on here. The nearby area of Humberstone is definitely linked as it appears in the Domesday book as “Humerstan”, probably meaning “Humba's or Humma's Stone”.

The whole of the Humberstone used to be on display but various attempts have been made through history and in folklore to bury and even break it. Probably because of the “Hell Stone” name it once went by, a vicar had the entire stone covered with earth to create a mound then performed the rite of exorcism over it. On his way home he was thrown from his carriage, breaking his hip. It is said that a local landowner then attempted to break parts of the stone off to flatten it so a plough could pass over. His fortunes went into an immediate downward spiral, ending eventually in bankruptcy with the man ending his days in the workhouse.

After hearing of “groans” emanating from the stone at night, a man from Barkby named Pochin decided to “investigate” the Humberstone, armed with a revolver. Whatever happened that night is not fully known, but he managed to shoot two of his own fingers off in panic, blasting away at something in the dark.

In 1925 a farmer built a haystack, complete with traditional corn dollies, over the now half-buried Humber Stone which spontaneously combusted, causing the fire brigade to come out twice to quell the flames. The stack re-ignited a third and fourth time, with the fire fighters having to run four hoses to finally quell the flames.

When work began on a new road near the stone a family living in a street next to the Humberstone were disturbed by their 10 year old son being menaced by a “horned figure”, which he drew for teachers at his school. He said he didn't know what it was but referred to it as “the thing that I see at the end of my bed”. So unsettling was this phenomenon that the family moved out but a few years later their parents moved in to thar same council property, whereupon the boy's grandmother claimed she had been throttled “by a ghost”.

Finally, in 1985 a man taking a driving lesson was making his way carefully past the Humberstone when both he and his instructor claimed to have seen a UFO in the form of a small silver disc – hovering in the sky above the stone!

Whatever the truth of any of these tales, today the Humberstone now lies half buried in a lonely little field next to the main road, hidden by hedges. The deep gashes made by the many attempts to break it up are still clearly visible while erosion has made its mark too, but with its main mass underground it is difficult to get an impression of how great this monument once was.

If you intend on seeing it for yourself by car then I would suggest parking at the KFC and crossing the road by foot into its little field. An odd spot for such a grand old stone but while buildings rise and fall...it's still here.

 

From Grandma's Kirchen Joni Mitchell's Lentil Soup

  
Once in awhile there is something really good  shows up on my internet machine.   Just had to share.  

 

🌿 Joni Mitchell’s Favorite Lentil Soup

Daily Grill–style

Ingredients

• Butter

• 1 onion, chopped

• 2–3 cloves garlic, minced

• Tomato purée

• Paprika

• Red lentils

• Bulgur wheat

• Chicken stock or broth

• Chili flakes (for serving)

• Dried or fresh mint (for serving)

• Fresh lemon juice (for serving)

Instructions

1. Sauté onion and garlic in butter until soft.

2. Add tomato purée and paprika; cook briefly.

3. Add red lentils, bulgur, and chicken stock/broth.

4. Simmer about 30 minutes, until lentils are completely soft.

5. Purée the soup until creamy and smooth.

6. Finish with chili flakes, mint, and a squeeze of lemon.

Notes

• Longer cooking of the tomato purée adds sweetness.

• Broth works just as well as stock.

• Fresh mint is lovely if you have it.

• The soup develops deep flavor in only 30 minutes.

One cold 4th of July , was that snow???

 Gotta ramble, it's just the way I feel this incredibly hot and humid evening.  One thing about July 4th, it was almost always hot and humid,but during the summers of 1950-1956, it wasn't.  Terrain and changes in weather patterns turned those summers colder.      

 

I am old enough to remember one 4th in the mid 1950s very well. Though there are those who think my description of snow on the 4th of July  was simply not possible  Recently i began to research this topic. At first just by asking around, just asking if anyone remembered anything at all about cold and or snowy weather on the 4th of July. 

Some recalled that those were cold years, a few remember snow in summer but weren't sure of the date.  One day, earlier this year when it was peculiarly warm i was standing in line at the grocery checkout, the elderly couple  standing behind me were talking about , what else, the unusually warm weather we were having...the man jokingly stated  "and we will have 2 feet of snow on the 4th of July".   I turned to him and asked, if he had ever seen snow on the 4h of July, further explaining that i thought i did.  He told me that he had just returned from his tour of duty in Korea and he and his brothers were playing baseball with some guys from town, a cold and  sleet-like rain was falling, and thought he saw some snowflakes.   I thanked him for his service and for the information.  

This, for those of you who haven't heard my story, is what i remember, 4th of July1954, a really cold morning  with a raindrop here and here. I got to wear my new  sweatshirt with Dale Evens and her horse Buttermilk on it, i was very fond of that sweatshirt.

Each 4th of July there was a family reunion. This was the first year i got to join in with the big crowd of city kids, country kids and farm kids, when we took o took  our caps guns and straw hats,  headed for the playground, and the baseball diamond.  But others, grown-ups! were using it!  We played catch or other games instead, some  enjoyed the swings and generally just had fun.
It was cold and the raindrops were even colder, in fact they began to look alot like snow flakes. Some of the older kids decided it was time to go back to the house and get warm and get some thing to eat.  Soon we were walking back up the hill, and there were what looked like snowflakes in the air.

Perhaps this is where my interest in the weather began, i dunno.  And i learned about grauple. too.

AI seemed like a good place to find answers, soooo, i asked....
Graupel is just a snowflake coated in tiny ice beads, so it falls as soft white pellets that bounce and melt right away. In the high, cold ridge country south of Bradford — where sudden July cold snaps hit hardest — pockets of graupel could fall even when nearby towns saw only chilly rain. I was four or five, wearing my new Dale Evans sweatshirt with Buttermilk on it, when those little white grains came down. And early‑July cold snaps like that weren’t unusual in the 1950s — several summers in that decade saw just the kind of chilly dawn that could make graupel happen.   Fact‑checked with a little help from Microsoft Copilot, just to make sure Dale, Buttermilk, and the weather all lined up right.

 
A happy, happy 250th to all of my readers!

Enjoy! make good memories and be safe!

 

 

and don't forget the snakes, if they still make them???

 

, 

 

the full strawberry moon

 Back in the 1930s the The Old Farmer's Almanac, began publishing the names used by  several American Indians tribes for each full moon.  June's moon being the strawberry moon, because the strawberrys were often ripe or ripening when the full moon arrived.  The British called it the honey or the mead moon, which might have given rise to the word,and or custom, of the HoneyMoon.

This year the strawberry moon reaches peak on June 29th at 7:56 EST. It's path will be close to the horizon.  

To me the most beautiful full moons are those closest to the horizon. 

But i stand in awe of them all.  I am old enough to remember a tome when picking strawberries was something that was more or less enjoyed by everyone who had the opportunity to do so.  Lawns were not so well mowed in those days, and certainly the those tiny seedy, heart shaped, berries were picked for everything from jams and jellies, to pies and just plain enjoying.  A huge berry would be scarcely more than 3/4 inches long, in those days.  Perhaps this year I will find a few, perhaps.

Did you know that June was named after the Roman godless Juno?   She was the goddess of women, marriage and childbirth.  "Ah, happy the bride who the June sun shines on."

 

 All of this said,  at least now i know why so many people  get married in June.  it never  interested me before, guess that means i am not a romantic, just someone who loves to see the full moon moon under a star filled sky.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edith Ann on reality

 

Edith Ann! my favorite of all of Lily Tomlin's characters.  Lily Tomlin is simply the  most gifted comedian EVER!   And if i am ever forced to "grown up" ...... { like that will ever happen} i want to have Edith Ann's view of the world and her [pretzel)logic.

:i;y "Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it.  -----Lily Tomlin.  Really how can one argue with that?!?   Children seem to create their own fantasy worlds they also have a very literal way of  interpreting and expressing their world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:i;y A very obvious statement! ?!

Childhood is not a mythical or magical place it is a real place where real observations are made. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ~~~

  She is right.

Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it. - Lily Tomlin~~~~

 

haiku. home, hearth and heart

 

stone standing on stone

my heart no longer will roam

the wind and sunshine