R's rue

Illustration: Lee Martin/Guardian Desig n Let me say straight off that I am an omnivore. I will eat just about anything apart from endangered animals and foie gras. I mean, the traditional  process for producing foie gras seems downright cruel to me. Yes - I draw the line at foie gras. I suggest that every omnivore is different from the next. We each have our preferences and dislikes. I have never been fond of octopus and if I never eat it again in my life I will not be bothered. When it comes to vegetables and fruit, I will eat just about anything though I am not fond of pears. On the other hand, my wife likes a nice juicy pair pear but hates okra for some unfathomable reason. She is also not fond of fatty bacon - preferring the really lean stuff. Such idiosyncrasies are typical of omnivorous humans  - well perhaps only those of us who are fortunate live in the affluent west. Years ago when our Ian was but a babe in arms, we invited a family we knew round to our hou...

 A bowl  Of shrimp And grits At lunch Still has My mouth  Salivating And me  Licking my lips from R's rue https://ift.tt/3NvFYqj

On the back of my earlier blog entry I am intrigued by what everyone would have written on their epitaph or headstone  What would you have written if allowed.  On my headstone would be  “ Here Slumps John Gray              Loving friend, colleague, brother and husband               Back Home by 100 yards “    Tell me your chosen headstone epitaph .. from Going Gently https://ift.tt/pwCsI5t

As I said before, the world of music lost Lata Mangeshkar very recently but a week earlier, it also lost the great English folk singer Norma Waterson. Some might say that she was the queen of English folk music. She was 82 when she died. Norma was born in  Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorkshire in 1939. The Watersons were a musical family and became a big presence on this country's folk circuit. In 1972,  Norma married the legendary Martin Carthy who influenced both Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. It is often claimed that the modern version of "Scarborough Fair" was down to Martin Carthy and not Paul Simon. Arguably, Carthy never got the credit he deserved. Norma and Martin were both steeped in traditional folk music and very knowledgeable about it too. They had one child - Eliza Carthy who still follows in her parents' musical footsteps. Remember  how, a few weeks ago, I was exploring The Black  Death in this corner of the blogosphere? Well it seems that the following so...

  My elder sister Ann has run the Prestatyn Flower Show for some 25 years  Covid had put paid to the last two shows and without the impetus and with difficulties with an older committee demographic and other logistical problems she has decided to pull the show for good. I understand her emotions , having gone through the same thing just three years ago, but there is something to be said for letting things go whilst on top . I collected two of her Show’s trophies that I had donated  The Joan Gray Cup and The Wynyard Cup came back home this morning.  I’ve been researching if I can book a plot for myself in the village graveyard. It’s not as easy as you may think Perhaps it’s because I’m six months off sixty that I’m revisiting things like my will, my funeral plot and expenses my death would create . I don’t want anyone else to be burdened with any of this shit….. from Going Gently https://ift.tt/B9zR5W2