Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Dreamworks
Interesting dream last night from the seaside. Didn't involve any people as far as I can recall. At another of those places which I visit nocturnally from time to time, although I have a feeling this place has a real antecedant - although I can't place it. A small muddled beach to the left, good for messing around in. A large, handsome but empty beach on the right. A sandy promontory in-between. Going around the promontory, from left to right, come across a narrow range of steps, rising away into the distance, looking rather like the steps up one of those Central American pyramids. But on closer inspection the steps are a few inches high each and a right pain to climb up. Make it to the top and discover there is a black rubber lined slide at the top, looking rather like the flumes you get in swimming pools. But open rather than closed. Being a bit twitchy about heights and rushing down same, don't like the look of this, so have to get down the narrow steps again. Luckily, the steps now turn out to be covered with another strip of the black rubber lining, which on lifting and grasping an edge in both hands turns out to be moving gently downwards. So just hold on and the dream drifts away as I drift back down the steps.
While in parts West we had occasion to sample eco eggs. That is to say the lady in the village who keeps the alpacas (which foxes are said not to be too keen on), also keeps very handsome black chickens called black rocks. Most of the time running around in the same field as the vicunas but sometimes straying further afield at which point they are at the mercy of the foxes, as much a pest there as here. There favourite food is (cooked) pasta. Eggs had surprisingly yellow yolks, going down well in a ham omelette.
Was also reminded of the splendid Witherspoons church in Exeter with the splendid pulpit. Just the thing for dramatic readings or recitals. Maybe I should organise a series of readings from Dickens by someone dressed in the style of the master himself.
On the way back we see that all the people who had been working for the signage industry appear to have been diverted to tree regulation compliance. Having spent a lot of time and money planting trees along the A303, we are now spending a lot more chopping bits of some of them off and chopping others down. Perhaps there is a concern that a bit of branch might fall through the roof of a passing truck. Perhaps there are a whole lot of regional and national initiatives about how the oiks on the ground ought to look after their trees. Generally we seem to be moving towards the same sort of active management of open spaces alongside roads that the people who look after Epsom Common are into. Great pain. Why can't they all just leave things alone? Go and play golf or bridge which does not bother anyone other than the other participants. Or carry on picking up all the litter alongside roads (something which we do seem to be getting better at).
PS in the first version of this, I talked of vicunas rather than alpacas. Having decided that the name of the animal I meant started with an A and lived in Peru, Mr Google revealed the truth in very short order. Also that vicunas are a relative of alpacas. Apart from Mr Google, all I could think of was flogging through the A section of the dictionary until I came across the answer which would have taken a while. I don't suppose the encyclopaedia would have been much help. The Peru article would probably not tell one anything about iconic fauna. Alternatively one just walks away from the missing word until, some time later, it pops up of its own accord. Hopefully at a time when one has access to a pencil and paper. But why did I veer off from an A-ainmal to a V-animal in the first place?
While in parts West we had occasion to sample eco eggs. That is to say the lady in the village who keeps the alpacas (which foxes are said not to be too keen on), also keeps very handsome black chickens called black rocks. Most of the time running around in the same field as the vicunas but sometimes straying further afield at which point they are at the mercy of the foxes, as much a pest there as here. There favourite food is (cooked) pasta. Eggs had surprisingly yellow yolks, going down well in a ham omelette.
Was also reminded of the splendid Witherspoons church in Exeter with the splendid pulpit. Just the thing for dramatic readings or recitals. Maybe I should organise a series of readings from Dickens by someone dressed in the style of the master himself.
On the way back we see that all the people who had been working for the signage industry appear to have been diverted to tree regulation compliance. Having spent a lot of time and money planting trees along the A303, we are now spending a lot more chopping bits of some of them off and chopping others down. Perhaps there is a concern that a bit of branch might fall through the roof of a passing truck. Perhaps there are a whole lot of regional and national initiatives about how the oiks on the ground ought to look after their trees. Generally we seem to be moving towards the same sort of active management of open spaces alongside roads that the people who look after Epsom Common are into. Great pain. Why can't they all just leave things alone? Go and play golf or bridge which does not bother anyone other than the other participants. Or carry on picking up all the litter alongside roads (something which we do seem to be getting better at).
PS in the first version of this, I talked of vicunas rather than alpacas. Having decided that the name of the animal I meant started with an A and lived in Peru, Mr Google revealed the truth in very short order. Also that vicunas are a relative of alpacas. Apart from Mr Google, all I could think of was flogging through the A section of the dictionary until I came across the answer which would have taken a while. I don't suppose the encyclopaedia would have been much help. The Peru article would probably not tell one anything about iconic fauna. Alternatively one just walks away from the missing word until, some time later, it pops up of its own accord. Hopefully at a time when one has access to a pencil and paper. But why did I veer off from an A-ainmal to a V-animal in the first place?
# posted by Jim @ 3:25 AM 
