Murals

This posting is in response to a request from Tex who asked to see the murals,on my cottage walls. Alas the numbers have been reduced to just two, both of them by the muralist Kit Wray and a few cartoons that I produced.

You might ask why I painted them in the first place: it was an indulgence that I gave to my inner child, the one who remembers being told off for drawing on his mother's wall paper! The other reason is that they represented the freedom to do whatever I wished in regard to decorating my new home by quietly saying fiddle sticks to convention !

For a few years I gave others the freedom to freely express themselves on the walls of my home, one young fraulien painted a pink elephant and a fire breathing dragon on the entrance walls to one of the driveways. Tex did a painting of a buxom wench spinning wool, a former partner did a nude self portrait and lots of folk expressed themselves their own style.

Wear, tear and redecorating accidents succeeded in reducing the numbers down to those displayed here. Enjoy !

Psss'st you will have to scroll down to the bottom to see them all as gremlins are at work and I was unable to place them exactly !

The faces I found in the relief of the walls

Atmosphere and Character

To say that this cottage is haunted, is too strong a word, better to say that it has a presence or to be more accurate presences, atmosphere and character. The latter words would be from a House Agent perhaps.

The previous owner recommended, once the legal papers were signed, that it would be "In your own interest to get a Mass said in the cottage". I didn't of course, that sort of thing is not in my nature and in any case I was already installed along with my bits and bobs by then.

I knew about the bedroom door that juddered at 2.30 in the morning telling me that it was time to go to bed and of the sounds that came from the furniture when I was in bed. The 'flump' sound of the seat cushion as a heavy person sat down and then the creak of the chair back as they leant backwards. The only puzzle to me was that the furniture didn't make those noises when I or another sat down; I should explain the easy chairs of those days were left here by the previous owner.

For most of my life previous to moving here, I had lived in houses with unseen visitors. In fact my Mother moved into brand new bungalow with one particular noise. It was the sound that a hard covered book makes when it falls flat onto carpet and this noise was always heard during the day time in her hall. When I first heard it and moved to see what had arrived, thinking that it was a package delivered by the postman, my Mother said 'Take no notice'.

Unfortunately she wasn't the sort of person that you could question on that subject. I often thought that by taking notice of something odd, that perhaps she thought it would give it energy, I don't know.

The unseen visitors come and go, I take no notice. Other than when they come really close and I feel the chill of them as they pass over me. Mostly it is when we have company and the yarns are going back and forth, that this type of visitor arrives, perhaps to enjoy the craic - who knows?

The only visitors that have been removed from the cottage were two horses and that was because of their smell. A psychic from England came over and gave me a hand to do that.

Another, the pipe smoking gentleman, hasn't been around for a long time and I think he may have moved on of his own accord.

That still leaves three females: an old granny, a mother and her young daughter. They seem to be the resident guardians of this place.

Other happenings are the sound of the front door opening and closing, the rattle of latches on the internal doors, the noise of a picture falling off the wall, a sudden bolt of white light passing across the front room,

and the fuzzy apparition of a slim woman standing by the front door.

There have been times when people have asked me to clear their unwanted, unseen visitors from their homes or work places. This I will do particularly if the owners or their children feel frightened or that the presence is causing a disturbance that is effecting their health.

Within in my own home it is fine, I accept the validity of their presence; this was their home and still is. The only difference is that they are now just energy forms without a fleshly body.

The Journey Within

A Samhain Garden

There have been times in the past when life seemed to be disordered, chaotic even and yes, this past year had moments like that. I felt myself facing what seemed to be an inevitable situation, far beyond my control and over which I had no responsibility, there being nothing which I could do to bring about change, other than to accept the consequences. The great challenge is to Let Go and from doing so we learn that from in-action, a positive change is made and that is Magic. Not the magic of spells or from fiction, but a happening for which there is no logical reason or explanation.

So I find myself at this time of the year between Samhain and Winter Solstice, when daylight shortens, travelling inwards, to go into deep reflection, a process that comes naturally to me. I look over my shoulder so to speak, at the past year and of that other years remembering those who have touched my life, in unmeasurable ways, enriched me as person deeply and profoundly. Not all of them have left this life, some have and yet even they are accessible, if only as memories or as mental pictures held within.

I have no religious belief, nor do I hold fast to a set of doctrines. In fact I find myself at odds with those who use the word 'belief' as it is entirely different from the word Know of knowledge.

The path I chose for myself is an interior one of silence and meditation, a path that transcends the mundane, beyond active thought. It is in the rich stillness of the mind that I becomes i and finally disappears.

A further explanation is below.

THE MOUNTAIN.

I climbed, but not on foot

and wearied an ancient path.

Steadfast through brambled grass

Belaboured by rambling thoughts

Mindful of a high peak.

Mindful of a high peak

Beyond the verbiage, where

Silence enfolds its own memory

Peace in blue-still air

Cascaded as rain

On the foot of my mind.

On the foot of my mind

I trod it’s tranquil waters

To a fountain of new wine

Transmuted by Love’s seed and fruit

Triumphant over mortal mass

In spirit cleansed by incense pure.

In spirit cleansed by incense pure

I bathed refreshed, relaxed

At the spring of new awakening

To glimpse the foothills of Nirvana

A oneness, in perfection of duality

©1984 MRL

Food of the Heron

Once or twice a week this Heron eats fish, sometimes even more frequently according to his luck. Regularly though fresh Tuna steaks are purchased to satisfy not just my taste buds, but for its nutritious and oily content which canned tuna does not have.

The cooking of and buying of fish regardless of type, is mine alone. My normal method is a medium fry using a dash of olive to which half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper is added. This to my mind brings out the full flavour of the fish, including white fish such as cod or even scallops.

Another preference is to eat the cooked fish without the accompaniment of vegetables, preferring it on its own or with fruit or on a bed of parsley. Tonight I peeled and sliced a sweet apple, dropping the slices into the pan when the tuna was three-quarters cooked.

The end result was simply delicious, I was yumming away so loudly that even Mrs Heron swiped a slice off my plate, fortunately I managed to consume the remainder of the apple before she had the chance to rob me again!

I rarely use recipe books preferring to experiment rightly or wrongly (and isn't that how the recipes were got ?) . Am a firm believer that if you start off with good quality produce and use a spoonful of common sense then you will not go wrong.

Chestnut mushrooms are a firm favourite: I chop them roughly into quarters or halves, leave on the stalks. Toss them into a small pan under a low heat, add a knob of butter, thinly slice a clove of garlic. Let them heat slowly giving a bit of a stir, then add a tablespoon of olive oil by dribbling it over the 'shrooms and another gentle stir before adding a glass of red rich Merlot. All is ready when the 'shrooms have shrunk by 25% or more; remove from heat and serve on to previously heated plates. They can be consumed as a single dish or added to some grilled Linda McCartney's veggie sausages and do dribble any excess sauce from the 'shrooms over all.

I consider myself to be a semi-vegetarian because I eat fish regularly and very, very occasionally Mr Pig in his various forms, mainly as a rasher or a slice of ham. In listening to my body and its needs as it ages, I remain relatively fit and have not lost any feathers, functions or mobility. Am a great believer in regularly taking Lecithin with my organic, oat based, sugar less morning muesli, softened with unsweetened soya milk. In addition I take supplements of Vitamin E 200 iu, Zinc, Omega 3-6-9, garlic and other vitamins come to me via fresh fruit such as pears, plums and bananas on a daily basis. Plus 1 square per day of 60% dark chocolate.
A good guide for your supplements and herbs is BRIGHID'S HEALING by Gina MacGarry ISBN 0 9547 23302 3 published by GREEN MAGIC www.greenmagicpublishing.com

The foods that I avoid like the plague, are wheat, sugar, salt, dairy products (butter is used for cooking now and then so 1/2 lb. lasts for 3 weeks) and all food additives, especially artificial sweeteners and preservatives, such as Aspartame E951 (and its cousin Neotame) & Sodium Benzoate. They are I believe the majority cause of obesity in society and the silent killers!

The clue to the products that contain these silent killers is the prefix words DIET or SUGAR FREE read the small print before you purchase, if necessary take a magnifying glass with you for it is printed in very small print.
Because the manufacturer really doesn't want you to know how bad for you their product is !
These poisons, the silent killers can also be found medicines too again check the labels! Because you are responsible for what you put in your mouth.

Sensory Deprivation

Where are today's children and why are they not outside playing in nature getting cold, wet, muddy and enjoying every minute of the day.

I recall as a child of playing in the water filled tracks that stood in unmettled lanes. As on the photo above: the grass strip in my imagination, would have been an island or even possibly two; For as I might have dug a channel across connecting up the muddy pools.

I often wonder how people, who live in centrally heated and doubled glazed homes , know or even realise on a winter's night that there is frost in the air, when they are without a glowing fire, that is tinged in its heart with a blue flame, indicating a drop in temperature .

Neither do they get a waft of winters of cold air leaping out between the heavy curtains and the wall. Nor the thrill of an unheated bedroom and the clean fresh air, a boon to a good nights sleep.

What awareness do they have of a light or heavy shower of rain, or even the soft skitter of snow and the gentle airs that suddenly gust as an express train to die away then rise again. When their one-eyed monster is blaring out the latest commercial jingle.

It truly amazes me that folks actually cut themselves off from Mother Nature and voluntarily pay thousands to live in Sensory Deprivation from all that is to me the seasonal gifts of the good life.

I was absolutely gobsmacked during the summer when I visited a beach on a bright and warm sunny day. To see the majority of parents and their children dressed in one piece neoprene suits, that completely isolated their bodies from the elements and all they did was to stand in the water up to their knees and talk to similarly dressed idiots.

There was totally no need for these suits, for both the sandy beach and that part of the shoreline is noted for it's cleanliness. Had it been a November or December day, then yes I would have seen the sense in wearing them.

We often don't appreciate the benefits of suffering for a week to ten days from a common cold. Nor do we realize that by doing so, it is actually strengthening our auto immune system to fight off the more serious influenza. Instead many folk go running off to their Doctor looking for an antibiotic, which reduces the cold and kills off the bodies good bacteria along with the bad; thus leaving them wide open to catch something worse!

Which is why The World Health Organisation being aware of the over prescribing of Antibiotics, was able to declare H1N1 as becoming a (probable) pandemic. This in turn scared the living daylights out of some people and caused panic buying of pharmaceutical products.
Being scared is a negative reaction that opens us up on many levels, to the acceptance that something bad can occur and because of that it generally does.

There are other people who remain positive and knowingly or even unconsciously
have the characteristic of Mind over Matter and will remain healthy.