28 June ‘23 …
Things are so slow around here, (except opinions and memories) so unless something extremely notable happens the blog will reset to biweekly.
As a result the blog may be longer and hopefully of more interest.
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Temps with cooler mornings lately with an unexpected frost then a return toChilly morning but increasingly warmer days.
We did have an interesting rain last week.
The evening of the 25th started with a rain so heavy it sounded like hail and was accompanied by thunder from the southwest.
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I’ve been reading the book titled Finding Arthur by Adam Ardrey which is leading me along an interesting path using very thoroughly researched footnotes.
There is another book by Ardrey titled Finding Merlin of which I have yet to find a copy I can afford.
There is also a series of books written by Signe Pike which seems to be based in part on information in the Ardrey books. Her books start with the Lost Queen followed by the Forgotten Kingdom and Pike has promised a third book to finish the story.
Wait and they will come.
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I remember seeing and recognized the widely scattered depiction of a Síle na Gigh pronounced …. Sheela nah Ghee (for want of a better descriptive designation, a pagan fertility Goddess) called by Archaeological scholars by several names and in articles from several sources citing stone carving in/on prehistoric sites as well as many 6th Century Irish and southern England buildings including castles and cathedrals such as …
This carving is titled “A 12th-century sheela na gig on the church at Kilpeck, Herefordshire, England.”
And then I saw the following as part of an article in the June 2023 issue of the Smithsonian magazine about a Puerto Rican artist named Alice Cheveres citing her remarks concerning her work being particular to her family as a way to preserve ancient Taino traditions and educate other indigenous peoples and the modern world about the influence of African inheritance (which she labels AfroCaribbbean) on current art forms and lessen the modern risk of cultural amnesia …
This is her version of the Sheela Na Gig which she calls “Survived by Few” and is based on an ancient Taino deity which she claims is an art form founded in Torrecillas in 1984 by her mother Earin Chereres.
It is what caught my eye when I remembered the Sheelas seen all over the southern UK.
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Then I was reminded of other things from my past …
A picture of my parents on their wedding day , 25th of December 1928, which I call “Cracker Jack and Orange Blossoms” because my Daddy was a Gunners Mate aboard the USS Pennsylvania (which was at that time a Battleship and the Flagship of the Pacific Fleet) and the picture on boxes of candy covered popcorn was a sailor in Navy blues called “Cracker Jack”, and the flowers in Mama’s hair and bouquet were small white flowers (of which I never knew the name) and lots of Navel orange blossoms which bloom in late December .. hence “Cracker Jack and Orange Blossoms”
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Another memory was of the truck full of baked goods such as cakes, pies, cookies, jam filled doughnuts, and lots of other good stuff which drove through the neighborhoods stopping to show you all the wonderful treats in the drawers in the back of his truck.
Mama would let me pick out my favorites. I loved the messy jelly filled doughnuts.
Of my three sons,only the eldest had the chance to enjoy visits from “The Helms Man”, about which he wrote recently:
“If there’s one memory of growing up in Los Angeles County I could share with everyone I know, this would be it. The whistle – even on these suburban trucks, it sounded like steam – that let you know the Helms Man was in your neighborhood. The way the driver remembered who ordered what kind of bread and how often. The jelly-filled doughnuts dusted with confectioner’s sugar. The drawers and cabinets were hand-built out of oak good enough for a Rockefeller yacht, with their silent bearings and their precision fits and the way the waxed lacquer caught the sun every so often glowed like it was lit from the inside. And all of it right out in front of your house, just about the time you got home from school. Imagine that.” JSDibelka
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It’s well documented that the areas surrounding Mount Shasta are full of legends and mysteries. From paranormal encounters to treasures lost in history. Dramatic tales seem to have found a welcomed home in Siskiyou County.
There are stories of mystical creatures like the Lemurians, a presidential extramarital rendezvous, missing gold and horses at 14,000 feet, and that’s just a smidgin of what I call the woowoo tales with the exception of the affair between Hearst and Davies which was real.
I had nursing friends whose families lived in the McCloud area and remember as children being invited to Wyntoon by Ms Davies for Christmas parties.
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And last but also memorable was the time when the Beatles’s album called Yesterday and Today was issued with a rather blaaaah picture of the Fab Four on the cover.
Then I got a letter explaining the original cover had been meant to be satirical but was upsetting the Yanks and so was covered with the bland cover picture.
Of course … but I’ll let my son tell the rest of the story. He sent me an email …
“I thought you might get a kick out of the attached. I remember your having noticed your copy of this album had two covers and steaming off the tame version, this is what she found …” JSDibelka
The world was a very different place fifty years and more ago.” JSDibelka
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So to close the week …
I believe that ancient tribal cultures have important lessons to teach the rest of the world about the interconnectedness of all things and the simple fact that our very existence is dependent upon the natural world we are rapidly destroying.
Adapted from a writing by Wilma Mankiller, Deputy Chief, Cherokee 1991
‘til next week …