If you like reading up on Warrior queens, Antonia Fraser wrote a book of ancient to recent actual queens and political ones (unfortunately including Margaret Thatcher too) It has boudicca, zenobia, Cleopatra etc kicking the shit out of the Romans (for a while anyway)

I’ve always loved reading about Celtic life and history, they had 10 types of marriage, only 3 of which were permanent. Women could rule independently, own property, take lovers, and go into battle, a fact that absolutely horrified the Romans

…there would just be a high pitched sound and a photo of a girl and a puppet…

That’ll be the test card

Also there was ‘the interludes’ when they had to fill in a mini gap between programs, including, my personal favourite ‘the potters wheel’

https://www.bbc.com/videos/cv2z0v03n64o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUzGF401vLc&themeRefresh=1

Also do you remember the public safety films? The don’t go near deep water Content Warning- includes Jimmy Saville, stay away from the slurry pit, how to survive the bomb and the one that gave me nightmares broken glass (I can never frolic barefoot on the beach because of this film)

If my generation has emotional scaring it’s because of these films…

edit- for those that want a nightmare fueled trip down memory lane the bfi Public Information Film archives

Never heard of Hell Bunny before, they have some really nice baggy combats and crop trousers, and some of the grunge type skirts are nice too even though I don’t wear skirts. They have a Shirley Manson (from Garbage) vibe… that’s how I picture I’d look in them, but I’m too booby and hippy to pull off her look, unfortunately (she is a goddess of cool)

I think I feel a bit of online shopping coming on for some pants tho

I can remember only having 3 TV channels, and they closed down sometime around midnight until the morning. You got the fuzzy black and white bits of CBR on the screen when they turned the signal off

When videos came out, only my richer friends had them and they were few and far between, we used to have an after school video club where we’d pay 10p to watch a film in the AV room (sat on a carpet of old piss stains)

The internet didn’t exist, and I saw my first computer while at secondary school in the late 80’s (I’m thinking BBC commodore or something, I can’t really remember)

I feel so fucking old right now lol

Dr Martens Triumph 1914 Aimilita boots, discontinued, but available via ebay etc. I’m seriously coveting a pair to join my many other BOOTS!

Wow that would look amazing!

Burgundy hair sounds good, definitely worth a post!

I keep wanting to dye my hair something more interesting than mousey brown, but I can’t be arsed with the faff of root touch ups at the moment… last time I dyed it something fun I went for blue, and it came out a blue/black but like really black so it looked like I had Roy Orbison/Clarke Kent hair

I still keep eyeing up the red hair colour on the shelf though

BOOTS!!!

Like these…

The answer is always BOOTS!

For any ladies who are peri/post menopause or older and think it’s too late to start, here’s an article about some oldsters who began strength training in their 90’s!

They were able to prove that you can “…build muscle, strength and functional abilities as an older person…”

"Dorothy Tishler was 92. In her first session she lifted 17lbs with each leg. Eight weeks later, her strength had more than tripled. She lifted 60lbs with each leg. “I love it,” she told the reporter from the Jewish Advocate who visited the gym. “I have become younger. When I came here five years ago, I could hardly walk. Now I walk better than my daughter, who’s only 72.”

Resistance/strength training 💪

Congratulations!

I’ve recently started exercising again- press ups, squats and crunches with a view to picking up the free weights when I’m ready

My creaky hips and knees are moving easier and I can feel a muscle difference in my shoulders

I’ve also stopped eating crappy food too

Here’s to a fitter and healthier us this year 👍

I’ve seen lots of contemporary dance performances which have blown me away, one was called ‘The Silk Road’ and showed how dance, as well as material goods was passed on via the silk road.

It had traditional Indian dance and Spanish dance (the one where the men do the foot stomping, I’ve not been up for long and my brain is still in sleep mode). It was amazing. The dancing was beautiful and demonstrated how culture and ideas are transmitted, in this instance- the similarities of dance movements

Also saw a free performance of some students of Chethams School of Music (Manchester) perform the harp. I think there was 4, maybe 5 female students, and it was beautiful. I’ve never heard the harp performed just on its own and they used percussive rhythms made by drumming and tapping the instrument…

I have the flyers from both above performances, so I’ll edit my comment later on after I’ve found them

Also adding Estas Tonne…my boyfriend is a big fan and we traveled down to London for a week which included one of his gigs…it was held in a church and was just him and his guitars (and 2 incense sticks)

Guilty as charged

I rather like this one…

wearily she waves

the white flag of surrender

cobwebbed butterfly

—Tracy Davidson from here

Pawprints fade, empty

Silence fills the empty space

Love lives on, always

From here

I sometimes feel that the classic haiku are let down by some translations, and the fact there are Japanese words that don’t translate across very well or at all.

I have a soft spot for this one

The old pond,

A frog jumps in:

Plop!

Translated by Alan Watts from here

It’s interesting to see how each translation differs, and tries to put into English something that is probably untranslatable…also…

pond

frog

plop!

Translated by James Kirkup

‘The sound of water’ ‘kerplunk’ ‘splashing the water’ ‘leap, splash’ ‘water note’ …just don’t capture it for me

Do you know any that are decent?

I discovered The CryptoNaturalist over at the other place, and ending up buying ‘Field Guide to the Haunted Forest’ and ‘Love Notes from the Hollow Tree’ by Jarod K. Anderson…

Which is unusual for me as I detest poetry. I think it’s a pile of long-winded, navel gazing wank…Except for haiku, (because they’re short and sweet, and condense things down to their essence, which I like).

I like The CryptoNaturalist though, probably because they write about nature in a weird, beautiful and wonderous way. I want to use the word ‘magical’ to describe it, but am reluctant, for reasons

Also, thanks to this post I just found out there’s a couple of other books available which I’m going to buy tonight 😀

Nope, Bobbit Worm is far too classy for that!

Hi, I’ve only just found this community…I just want to say you’re doing amazing work rescuing Baxter…I fucking detest people who get animals and don’t look after them properly, or exploit them

I’m glad Baxter is out of solitary confinement, and mixing with his new pals and his lady friends

I really want this thing to exist!

I find that I’m both drawn the the building as well as the exhibits when I’m there, all the pillars are trees with texture and foliage (and monkeys too), the large room with the minerals has sea creatures carved onto the stonework. The carved wood, the floor even the outside with the metal drain pipes and tiled roof…it’s a Temple to Nature, really beautiful place!

Cheers!

Totally cute, definitely!