Povey Prattle

Reportedly from a gas/petrol station in Seattle.

As (thanks to my journal) I have delved into memories of my 1975 summer in the U.S.A. (the year I grew my beard).  I have been back at the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra -  Tanglewood in Lenox/Stockbridge MA. My summer supervisor Bishop Alexander Stewart paid for his Vacation Bible School student teams (of which I was a member) to attend a Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert at Tanglewood.  They were the inexpensive lawn tickets, but the concert was grand. It featured Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. I had heard this magnificent music on the radio, but I'd never heard it "live". It was a magical moment for me.    So much so that I could not sit  on the lawn. So I stood at the back of the  Music Shed and savoured every sight and sound. Music Shed It was not only the music. It was also the twilight, the end of evening, the starlight, and the beginning of night.  It was the goosebumps on my body and in my soul and spiri...

Fancy Condominiums.  Dead Fishes. If you do not live in south west Florida you probably have not heard enough about this major environment disaster. That's because it seems that for many purveyors of news the Narcissist in Chief's Tweets are of the utmost and crucial importance.(He is bamboozling the media so well).  I live about three miles from Sarasota Bay (as the crow flies) and the stench of dead sea animals, turtles. and fishes is ever present in the air.  Red tide will most likely abate, but the damage to the ecology of the Gulf of Mexico will take a generation to be undone (or longer if we have another Deep Water Horizon disaster).  Of course it is ghastly  for those whose livelihoods depend on tourism or fishing, and it is horrible for those whose homes are near Sarasota Bay or the Gulf of Mexico.  It is the death sentence over and over again for marine life, and most likely for those ...

Children of the depression in the U.K. and the U.S.A,  and children of  World War Two and the following years in Europe/UK will remember that if there was meat on the plate it was always from the cheapest cuts. The cheapest cuts were always those with a lot of fat. Our Mum was a genius in making tasty and nutritious meals for her brood of nine using the least expensive meat. In my home that would be "best end of neck of lamb" for lamb stews, or roasted belly of pork slices , or roasted breast of lamb, or brisket (uncured) of beef, or lamb shoulder. Today for the first time in forty two years I saw belly of pork slices in my local supermarket.  I couldn't resist and bought some. I roasted them in  a 450 degree electric oven, with red potatoes and plum tomatoes. Oh so good! Taste buds are an important part of memory. The fat on the meat was almost as crispy as my memory told me it should be. The meat was better than good.    Than...

https://youtu.be/jIjUaxP7PPE Ann and I left New Orleans to head for Tulsa, via Memphis.  I think now that I was mistaken when I wrote that our journey from Atlanta had been via Jackson.  It was on this NOLA to Memphis journey that we stopped in Jackson and (according to my journal)  had a hassle there as we tried to find a Bank to cash travelers cheques.  Remember them? I also forgot to say that en route to New Orleans were were amazed when we came to Lake Pontchartrain having never heard of it.  The causeway "blew our minds away". ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We arrived in Memphis in the late afternoon and had enough time to take a River Cruise, about  which I said we were feeling very romantic. This is not our boat and photo' is from the web, but I remember being mightily impressed with the magnificent bridge. After the cruise w...