Jim Webster's Blog, page 27

Pontifications along a road less travelled, blog that, darling.

  Somebody pointed out this photograph to me with the comment that somebody had kicked off a row over the university offering a qualification in Mansplaining. I just shrugged. I mean if they want to get upset about something to do with universities, perhaps they’d get upset about the fact that working class white males …

Pontifications along a road less travelled, when things get out of hand.

    I learned long ago that people don’t read blogs about authors going on about the trials and tribulations of being authors. The world at large tends to cast a jaundiced eye in their direction and suggests, helpfully, that they might like to consider getting a proper job. So I now want to hand …

Pontifications along a road less travelled, Sylvia, her mother and that nice young Doctor Hook.

It’s funny what tunes stick in your head, and in my case last night it was Dr Hook and Sylvia’s mother. Anyway as I was supposed to be trying to sleep, somewhere in my brain decided I obviously had nothing else to do with my time than to listen to it on constant loop. But …

Pontifications along a road less travelled, delayed gratification.

  It’s a funny topic, delayed gratification, and it’s entirely possible to get deep and philosophical without answering the question. Or indeed without even acknowledging there is a question that needs to be answered with any sort of haste. Back in 1965 when my parents started farming, what happened was that my father and his …

Pontifications along a road less travelled, boundaries and lines.

    I saw this comment. “Anoia, Goddess of Things That Get Stuck in Drawers, might have been a creation of Terry Pratchett, but the ancient Romans did have a goddess of hinges. Her name was Cardea, and according to Ovid, “she opens things that have been closed, and closes things that have been opened”.” …

Pontifications along a road less travelled, a historical perspective.

  Every so often two or three things come together at about the same time and spark off each other. One was the cartoon above. The other was a quote. A friend has lent me the book, ‘The Diamond Age’ by Neal Stephenson. So far I’m enjoying it. But more pertinent to my thoughts at …

Pontifications along a road less travelled, if it ain’t woke, don’t fix it

There are times when it’s wise to chat things over with your co-workers. This, to be honest, is when I miss old Jess most. She’d been there, seen it, sniffed it and piddled on it. Sal on the other hand still has a puppyish enthusiasm at times and occasionally still believes things that she’s told. …

I suppose it’s probably summer

  Whilst we’ve had a lot of hot dry weather up here, the ground was so wet that we’ve seen very little sign of grass burning off. Indeed everything still looked pretty green even before the last lot of rain. This is especially true of anything deep rooted. When you look at the photo above, …

Foxes, Sal, cultural dissonance and virtually the whole tree!

Have you ever wondered whether you were breaking the law or not? This morning I was quietly minding my own business, walking round the farm checking to see that various batches of sheep were OK. Of course I had Sal with me because even when there’s no formal work to be done, she can still …

Isn’t the air thick down here?

    Every silver lining has a cloud. Living here, every so often you get Herdwicks. Herdwick Hoggs are brought down from the fells to overwinter, and some of them wander off. They wander off because they’re Herdwicks. It’s just what they do. “I wander therefore I am.” Anyway one of them wandered during the …