Have just spent a superb couple of weeks with Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and felt bereft when the book ended, especially because of the way in which it ended – no, I’m not telling! Ms Mantel’s use of language takes you right back to mediaeval times, despite being written in modern English.
Her use of ‘he’ in the writing to convey Thomas Cromwell’s thoughts really takes you inside the man’s head and gives the view of life through his eyes. The only difficulty I had was when there was more than one character speaking and I was unsure which ‘he’ was being referred to. However, this made me slow down and concentrate, rather than devouring the book in one sitting.
Reading Wolf Hall slowly was also brilliant procrastination on my part. I couldn’t possibly write another chapter of my novel when I had such a wonderful book on the go. Now, I have to update my blog, and I have the urge to write a few more Hubs about the summer and travel – then and only then can I settle down to the business of novel writing!
I’ve done a whole series of articles about how to read the Tarot, as it seems such a popular pastime nowadays. You can read How to Choose A Deck, How To Store A Deck and How to Read the Tarot, on my Hubpages site, whereas you can read about what the actual cards mean on my Helium site – www.helium.com, where I write as Georgina Crawford. Happy experimenting!
This is one of my favourite books, and every time I’ve shared it with other people, it’s become one of their favourites too.
It’s a modern tale about a guy called Ed, who meets a bloke in the local pub. Said bloke is Buddhist and tries to give Ed some good advice, as Ed’s life is all over the place.
One lunchtime, after being given a warning at work, Ed visits the pub to drown his sorrows and there he meets Geoff, fiftyish, slightly balding and with a bit of a pot belly, who is also having a drink. There’s a bit of a blockage in the gents loo, Geoff asks Ed to help him sort it out and they get talking before going their separate ways. Ed’s life begins to fall apart; a week later he bumps into Geoff again and finds himself pouring his heart out. Geoff listens and offers to help Ed work his way through his troubles, by telling him about his Buddhist practice.
Poor Ed, he has a really tough time, but Geoff’s there to support him throughout. Ed tries this new fangled Buddhism, with hilarious consequences. In alot of ways Ed’s just like most of us, muddling through and trying to do the best he can, but it all works out in the end.
This is one of the few books I’ve read more than once, and one I come back to over again. Read more about The Buddha, Geoff and Me.
In 2004, two friends, my partner and myself decided there had to be more to life than just working for the boss, and we decided to start our own business. Actually, it wasn’t quite as simple as that. We had many, many meetings together over many bottles of wine to decide what we could do. Eventually after several ideas we came up with the idea of opening our own continental cafe and chocolate shop, pictured to the right here? We had alot of skills between us, but were small business virgins so to speak and had to do a bit more thinking. We called our business The Chocolate Bar.
We set our business up from scratch, pooling our knowledge and resources and began expanding the business straight away. The Chocolate Bar paid my partner a salary and myself a small part-time salary. Our two friends remained in their other employment, but worked in the business part-time. They chose to take their money after selling up, which we did at the end of two years (with a decent profit for each of us), when the business was looking very solid and we were turning over in excess of £100,000pa. That’s alot of little chocolates and this is the story of how we did it.
If we can do it you can too, just think what your town needs, there will be as niche in the market somewhere. The full article details how to go about starting your own small business from scratch, and gives useful information about how to promote you business online. In particular the article gives tips on how to generate awesome, SAFE, backlinks to your site.
There’s nothing more exhilarating than walking in the wilds of Dartmoor and coming accross an ancient monument such as this. It’s not a famous stone circle. I certainly hadn’t heard of its existence before I moved to Dartmoor, and it’s no Stonehenge. But, when you stand on top of Mardon Down, and look around you at what has been described as the biggest stone circle on Dartmoor, you can’t help thinking about the history involved and the people who built it.
I am fortunate that this is on one of my usual dog-walking routes, and I sometimes forget that people don’t come accross these ancient sites every day!
The Circle sits at the top of Mardon, with a panaoramic backcrop of the HighMoor behind it. From the there, looking south you can see Hay Tor, Hound Tor, Manaton Rocks and Easdon down; on a clear day, the view is breathtaking, but usually windy!
At the centre of the Circle, people have built a small stone fire ring, and a trail goes through the middle of the stones. There was, at one time, a small fence announcing the monument and advising people to walk around it, rather than through it, but this seems to have vanished.
The stones area clearly visible, and the largest of them stands to the northwest of the ring. A lttle further down the hill, there is another circle of stones, but this is much smaller, and the Ordnance Survey Map lists it as a ruined cairn.
The stone Circle is easy to get to; the nearest town is Moretonhampstead, which sits at the base of Mardon Down. There are good car parks within Moreton, which also has plenty of Bed and Breakfasts, a hotel, a handful of restaurants, pubs and shops, providing all basic needs for the walker or holidaymaker (click here for detailed information)The round walk from Moretonhampstead is about three miles, but could be made longer if so wished.
Jack Russells, in common with many terriers, tend to have sensitive stomachs, as we quickly found out a few months after having Zebedee. Every few days she would have green diarrhoea with mucus and blood, and so began a long process of trial and elimination of various dog foods.
We did alot of research in local pet shops and online, and eventually discovered what worked for Zeb, but it was a costly process in the meantime.
We tried as many free samples as we could lay our hands on; typically, Zebedee would eat the food for a short while, but then, having bought a big bag of the stuff, she would turn up her nose. We tried James Wellbeloved dog food and Oscars dog food also, which are both great hypoallergenic dog foods, but in the end, the VAT FREE, Autarky won.
The Jack russel Terrier (JRT) is a principally white dog, with various markings. The breed is not recognised by the Kennel Club in the UK, only the Parson Russell is, so JRTs in the Uk are generally considered ‘mutts’.
Nevertheless these sparky little dogs do make great pets, and are fast becoming popular. However, they were bred for hunting, so there are several considerations to make before you embark on being owned by a JRT. The origins of the breed date back to John ‘Jack’ Russell, a Parson from Devon, born in 1795, who wanted a dog for hunting, and bought a little white bitch, called Trump, from his milkman. From Trump, he bred dogs for courage and stamina. It is highly unlikely that any JRTs today have any of the original ‘Trump’ lineage, as Parson Russell had to sell his dogs many times over during his life, as he hit on hard times. He died in 1883.
It’s important not to let your Jack Russell Terrier become too bored, as they are intelligent, inquisitive dogs and need alot of stimulation, but that is easily achieved with plenty of appropriate play and exercise. If you’d like to learn more about suitable Jack Russell training toys, click here.
For a long time I have had the dream of earning my living as a writer, and in 2009 discovered that the way to do this was to WRITE.
So far I have published two children’s books, Archie-Parchie-Piddley-Poo, and the Tales of Zebedy-Do-Dah, as well as magazine articles, and short stories. I am also slowly writing a Novel and have now added writing online to my skills.
The most important thing for a writer, I think, is to be curious about everything and everyone you come across. I am interested, and will write articles on just about anything except maybe plate spinning and hang gliding (couldn’t do the research – too high up). My main passions are: fine wine and dining, and all the accoutrements that go with it, early Catholic music, gardening, especially giving advice on how to grow stuff, and helping people to set up their own business, so they can start earning money for themselves. I also like to write about my local community.
Moretonhampstead probably has the longest name in England – people who create forms, take note, we need more space in the boxes to write! There has been a settlement here since around 680 Ad, and the town was mentioned in the Domesday book in 1086, so already you can see that this is a place with alot of history.
In 1207 King John granted Moreton (as the place is usually called, the full name being too much of a mouthful) a charter, so that the town could have a market, the rent for which was one Sparrowhawk a year, history which is celebrated in the many sculptures about the town. Twelve years later, the nearby town of Chagford also set up a market in competition, and rivalry exists between the towns to this day, further encouraged in the Civil War, as Chagford supported the Cavaliers, whilst Moreton supported the Roundheads.
Twelve years later, the nearby town of Chagford also set up a market in competition, and rivalry exists between the towns to this day, further encouraged in the Civil War, as Chagford supported the Cavaliers, whilst Moreton supported the Roundheads. Just out of town, on the 382 towards Bovey Tracey at Wray Barton there is a pointed hill, crowned with trees, where Oliver Cromwell is said to have surveyed the area with his troops, before going into battle.
By the 1300s Moretonhampstead had become an important town for the production of woollen clothing, evidence of which can still be seen.
If you are interested in the history of the town, perhaps the best thing to do is visit the Tourist Information Centre to find out more about the Town Trail, or partake in one of the regular guided town walks. Learn more about this beautiful Dartmoor town – click here.
Why stop at five? Good question, but actually having a limit on the number of things I could write about forced me to really look at the most important ones. I tend to be a bit like a kid in a sweet shop when it comes to gardening, so much so that I’m not allowed to the garden centre alone, and certainly not with my hot little hand on a debit card! The last time I went (earlier in the Autumn) I was accompanied by my partner (who supervised the money) and Son, who pushed the trolley; even then, I was only allowed to look at sale items. secretly I think they accompanied me mob- handed in case I needed restraining.
I’m writing this in November, so firstly, there’s not alot of gardening to be done, the weather is at its Dartmoor best, a mixture of low cloud, fog, rain and just above freezing, Secondly there’s the C-Word to consider – Christmas. It’s looming on the horizon, and as one of my passions is gardening I couldn’t resist sharing some of the things I have enjoyed receiving as a gift. I have sneaked in the tiniest thing I would like to receive and will be encouraging my family to READ THIS HUB!
Uncategorized | Georgina_writes | 
September 8, 2010 5:12 am | 
Comments (0) 
Subscribe