Postcard 63: Festival of the Trees - The Rufus Stone

Welcome to the UK and to my Festival of the Trees post!

Summer evening in the New Forest:
mare and foal

The three-sided Rufus Stone

"Here stood the oak tree,

on which an arrow shot by Sir Walter Tyrrell at a stag,
glanced and struck King William the Second,
surnamed Rufus on the breast,
of which he instantly died,
on the second day of August, ANNO 1100."

The Rufus Stone, stands in a shady glade in the New Forest in Hampshire, UK, set back from the A31 road, near the village of Minstead.

The stone memorial has three faces (and is a bit like a trig point). It was erected in honour of King William II, aka as William 'Rufus', son of William the Conqueror by John, Lord Delaware (who had seen the oak tree) in 1745. The Conqueror's son died in the immediate vicinity on 2 August 1100 as a result of an arrow fired by Sir Walter Tyrrell. The killing was said to be an accident rather than a murder. On hearing the news, Henry, the youngest brother of the departed monarch, was hurriedly proclaimed king by the barons, in a bid to beat his eldest brother, Robert of Normandy, to the throne of England.

The bones of William 'Rufus' lie in a mortuary chest (press link, then scroll down) in Winchester Cathedral, along with those of other members of the Royal Family, such as King Cnut and his wife, Emma. You may be wondering how the body turned up in Winchester for burial. A man known as 'one Purkis' laid the royal corpse in a cart and took it to the cathedral city. The original Rufus Stone became defaced and hard to read: a replacement memorial was erected in 1841.

The face of the New Forest

The New Forest today is a wildlife paradise. The following species of vertebrates and invertebrates can be found: ponies, deer, cattle, badgers, foxes, donkeys, bats, mice, water voles, adders, grass snakes, owls, warblers, curlews, spiders and butterflies. The ponies, donkeys and cattle belong to commoners, who receive grazing rights for a small fee. I imagine that there is a similar arrangement for pigs and sheep.

Above: a Lapwing
Below: a forest pig enjoys a wallow

There are also many species of tree, e.g. oak, beech, holly, sycamore, alder, ash, silver birch, sweet chestnut, horse chestnut, crab apple, blackthorn, hawthorn, viburnham, whitebeam, pine, redwood and yew. Some of the trees are very special: you can read here about the Knightwood Oak, the Adam and Eve Oaks and the Eagle Oak. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the White-Tailed ('Sea') Eagles returned, albeit with a bit of help? We so enjoyed watching these magnificent birds on the Scottish islands of Skye and Raasay last summer. There was great excitement in 2009 when a new kind of fungus, a yellow form of Phellodon melaeucus, was discovered in the New Forest. The fact that this area has been managed in traditional 'commoning' ways, without the intensive use of artificial fertilizers and chemicals may contribute to the amazing biodiversity and number of rare species.

• What exactly is the New Forest?
  
• What of its history? and here.
  
• Find out about the ornamental and historic trees in the forest.
• The Forestry Commission - and the Rufus Stone
• About 'The Children of the New Forest' by Captain Marryat
• BBC Autumnwatch: the New Forest featured in a number of stories e.g. like these from 2008.
  

Postcard 62: Philippa Scott of the Wetlands - a tribute

Swans in flight over WWT Llanelli, Penclacwydd
Photo: David Gill
(click on picture to see detail)

I hope you will join me on a winter ramble
through the WWT (Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust) site
at Penclacwydd near Llanelli.
Not surprisingly, there are many signs of winter,
but there is also an indication
that spring is not too far away.

But before we set off,
I want to draw your attention
to The Guardian obituary of Lady Philippa Scott,
widow of Sir Peter Scott, who set up the WWT
and did so much else besides in the field of conservation.

Lady Philippa Scott died on 6 January 2010, aged 91.

Lady Scott, also known as Phil, was a keen photographer, scuba diver and writer.
Her publications include two autobiographical accounts,
Lucky Me (1990) and So Many Sunlit Hours (2002) -
and a book on one of her multi-talented late husband's passions,
The Art of Peter Scott (1989).

The Scott family legacy will live on in the minds and hearts of many of us.

The sun is low at this time of year, so we had better hurry.
There was a Bittern in this vicinity a few days ago,
but sadly there is no characteristic boom from the marsh today.
The snow has all melted;
and to my surprise, there is a great bloom of algae
on the waterways around the scrapes
by Vole City.

Look!
A flash of brilliant red overhead.
A Bullfinch - no, a pair of these beautiful birds.
Watch as they dart in unison
along the winter hedgerow.

Listen!
There is no mistaking that steady flap-flap of large wings
as a Grey Heron soars majestically overhead.
The lichen sparkles in the fading sunlight,
and the reeds and rushes make a wonderful backdrop
to this water-world.
Can you smell the salt from the Loughor estuary?

The Mute Swan over there seems quite obsessed with her fine reflection.
That Cormorant, on the other hand, seem content to stand in a stark pose,
like those sad statues in Narnia.

I find it quite hard to believe
that this land of small creatures
was once the home of huge mammoth and bison.

Did you know that a Pleistocene hippo tusk
was found beneath nearby Loughor Bridge?

Wouldn't we have a shock if we encountered an Ice Age survivor
emerging from the shadows,
around the next corner?

It's almost 5pm.
We had better begin to make tracks,
and leave the Robin to his worm .

But what about those signs of spring?

Well, if you look up now,
you will see the silver sparkle of the sun's ebbing ray
on those bursting Pussy Willow buds.

It's time for tea!

Thank you for joining me.

• BBC report
• WWT Llanelli
• N.B. I have tried to follow Seabrooke Leckie's helpful practice of using the US and North American notation, giving upper case letters to the names of species. This way it should be easier e.g. to tell a green frog from a Green Frog!
  

Postcard 61: Chris Kinsey, BBC Wildlife Poet & Greyhound Laureate

Above: Chris Kinsey reads from her book,
Kung Fu Lullabies
published by Ragged Raven Press

(photography: courtesy of Chris Kinsey)

Below: Greyhounds in the snow

I was delighted to receive a package from Romania this week. This time it was the special issue [Anul II - Nr.9 (14)/Nov.-Dec. 2009] of 'Contemporary Literary Horizon' magazine/'Contemporan Orizont Literar'. The publishing concern responsible for the venture is a media partner of MTTLC at the University of Bucharest. I am very grateful to Daniel Dragomirescu, editor-in-chief, and his team of translators: they do a terrific job in producing a publication that is always thought-provoking and highly 'international' in outlook.

The current issue contains features and poems from writers in Romania - of course - like Mihai Cantuniari (Director of CLH); from India (Vinisha Nambiar and Venkata Ramanan); from the USA (Michelle Brooks, Bert Rashbaum and Mike Essig); from Slovakia (Allan Stevo); from Nigeria (Abiola Olatunde); from Mexico (Marina Centeno) and from Australia (Mark William Jackson) ... to name but a selection.

Wales is not forgotten: this issue contains my interview, 'The Otherness of Creatures' with Greyhound Laureate and 2008 BBC Wildlife Poet of the Year, Chris Kinsey. My thanks go to Chris for her informative answers - and to Daniel for publishing them! If you are thinking of taking out a subscription to this innovative magazine from Romania, you will find a poem by Chris in English ('One February Night'), with a Romanian translation undertaken by Roxana Mindrican-DRĂGUŞIN. Thank you, Roxana.

There are a number of arresting pieces in this issue: I found myself pausing over a poem called 'At the Laundromat' by Mike Essig, mulling over the shades of whiteness, the stories, the silence... Daniel Dragomirescu has written a substantial review article, translated by Alina-Olimpia Miron, entitled 'Poetry and Logos', in which he touches on the part played by suffering in the creative process, with reference to Dr Theodor Damian (Philosophy & Ethics, Metropolitan College of NY and President of the Romanian Institute of Theology and Orthodox Spirituality, NY).

Why not visit the C&LH site: you will find out a bit more about the current state of international culture - from a Romanian perspective!

Postcard 60: Anne Frank's Amsterdam

Amsterdam
The Netherlands
1999

Have you begun a 2010 diary?

I struggle to write a regular diary; but I enjoy the discipline of trying to keep one going on a somewhat erratic basis. I wonder what works for you in terms of the actual book or folder that you use - or do you prefer to keep your diary in electronic form, and if so, is this primarily so that you can reach the world or save the trees? I like to use a Folio Society diary (usually for the wrong year!), which has been passed on to me. I love the feel of the paper and the illustrations. The hard cover makes writing easier, particularly if one is on the hoof; and the built in ribbon marker helps to keep my place, since my entry for 12 January 2010 might fall in the slot for 24 June 2003!

One of my most memorable trips abroad was to Amsterdam, with a visit to the Anne Frank House. The canal boat ride was delightful and the sun was shining; yet despite the passing of all these years, a certain sangfroid gripped us as we landed near the Westerkerk with its haunting bells. I took faltering steps towards Prinsengracht 263-265a, that house with a million secrets.

Do you know the evocative poem, Anne Frank Huis by Andrew Motion? You can read it here on the Poetry Archive. The two words that stand out for me are 'whispering' and 'loneliness'.

You may have heard that Miep Gies, the 'guardian angel' of the Frank family, has just died, aged 100. You can read an account of her extraordinarily sacrificial life in The New York Times.

Links

• Holocaust Memorial Day Trust - don't forget to light the candle on this site.
• 27 January 1945: the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, designated as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
• Holocaust facts, including the origin of the name.

P.S. As I was posting a link to Miep's obituary from my Facebook page, the Word Verification letters that I had to type included the word 'paragon'. Serendipity - for if ever there was a paragon of virtue...

Postcard 59: The Holy Land

My thanks to David Gill for the use of his photographs.
Click on the image to enlarge.

Above: desert travellers...
Below: The Church of the Nativity, Manger Square, Bethlehem


'This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.'
Luke 2:12

'We saw his star in the east...'
Matthew 2:2

Nadolig Llawen!

Postcard 58: Calum's Road on Raasay

I wonder if you are still trying to find that last minute gift or to secure a little holiday reading for yourself.

We are devastated that our Borders store is closing down, but back in the summer I stumbled across a book by Adam Nicolson called 'Sea Room'*, all about the Shiant Islands, with their wild and rugged beauty, their puffins and their rats. I loved some of Nicolson's descriptions, but did not feel on balance that the puffins had as good a press as I would have liked (but then I may be biased, as those of you who have read my puffin posts will have realised!).

However, this book prompted me to seek out other books about the wild corners of Scotland's highlands and islands. If you like out-of-the-way places where the sea meets the mountains, you might enjoy the following books, too.

• Calum's Road by Roger Hutchinson (Birlinn Ltd), RAASAY (near Skye)
  
• I Remember: Memories of Raasay by John Nicolson (Birlinn Ltd), RAASAY (near Skye). I am just coming to the end of this fascinating memoir.
  
• For the Islands I sing by George Mackay Brown (Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited (30 Jun 2008). I knew virtually nothing about George Mackay Brown until 'A Poet's Guide to Britain', the television programme presented by Owen Sheers earlier this year. I have not been to the Orkney Islands, but maybe one day I will venture out in that direction... THE ORKNEYS
  
• Sea Room by Adam Nicolson (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd) THE SHIANT ISLANDS

I thought you might like to join us on our tour in the footsteps of Calum of the road...

We left Sconser and the Cuillin mountains on Skye in misty sunshine, and thoroughly enjoyed the short CalMac ferry ride to Raasay...

... where - wonder of wonders - we were greeted by White-tailed (Sea) Eagles.

We drove along the road, passing this glorious inland loch...


... until we reached the eastern shore, and the landmark of Brochel Castle. David ran down to explore while I got out my watercolours and did a quick sketch.


We had not realised that we were so close to the start of Calum's Road, which is marked by the sign above and the cairn below.


The inscription on the cairn explains that the footpath to Arnish, a distance of one and three-quarter miles, was 'widened to a single track road with passing places and prepared for surfacing by Malcolm Macleod B.E.M. (1911-1988)', (aka Calum), who carried out the road-building work over a period of ten years. It was an extraordinary feat.


I love pigs - and I love unusual 'wildlife' road signs. This really made me smile! We didn't see any pigs, though, except...

... this one on another Raasay road sign. (Click the picture for a close view of the spots!).


We got out at the point where the road became impassable to motor vehicles, and found this spade propped up against the rock face. We just wondered if it might have belonged to Calum...

Do let me know if you have any favourite books about wildlife or off-the beaten track destinations.

I would also love to know what unusual animal road signs you have encountered on your travels.

* The expression 'Sea Room' is a nautical term.

Postcard 57: International Magazines - and Thomas Hardy

Left: Contemporan Orizont Literar [C&LH] from Romania
Right: Metverse Muse from India

The woods near Thomas Hardy's Cottage in Dorset, England, UK

The memorial in Stinsford Church, Dorset
Hardy's heart is buried here.
His ashes rest in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, London

I have had a very international delivery of literary magazines this week. It is always a thrill to receive the monthly journal, Contemporan Orizont Literar [C&LH] from Romania. It came in the same post as Metverse Muse, the annual poetry publication from Visakhapatnam in India.

***

Issue II, Nr. 8 (13) for September and October 2009 of C&LH is beautifully produced and largely bilingual. It has an arresting red cover and is packed with a mixture of features, poems and articles. Mihai Cantuniari is the Director of the publication, with Daniel Dragomirescu as the Editor-in-Chief. You have only to glance at the back cover to find that there are contributions from writers in all four corners of the globe: the USA, UK, India, Japan, Nepal, Israel and Belgium are all represented. Alina-Olimpia Miron is responsible for some of the translations in to English. I enjoyed the Haiku and Tanka from Victor P. Gendrano. His poem, 'Ode to the Banyan Tree', subtitled 'Captain Cook, Hawaii', is most poignant.

Western readers will be familiar with the work of Pascale Petit, who is the featured poet in this issue. Her poem, 'Chandelier Tree', is a fine complement to Gendrano's 'Ode to the Banyan Tree'. Petit's poems are often energised by wild and wonderful symbolic creatures, and this selection is no exception. We find the 'electric eel', the 'atlas moth' and the twelve 'frozen horses'.

This characteristically cosmopolitan edition ends with a fitting tribute to 'Pace' or 'Peace' by Abiola Olatunde from Nigeria. Thank you, Daniel and the team, for another great issue! If you would like to find out more or take out a subscription to C&LH, do visit the blog here.

***

Metverse Muse is edited by Dr H. Tulsi. It contains about 600 poems from nearly 60 countries, so is equally international in approach. The issue contains work by some familiar UK names - Wendy Webb (of Norfolk Poets and Writers), Claire Knight (recent winner of the Haiku section of the New Zealand International Poetry Competition), Bernard Jackson (Metverse Muse Literary Adviser), Les Merton (editor of Poetry Cornwall/Bardhonyeth Kernow and featuring in my Echo blog), Norman Bissett, Diane Simkin and others. This issue contains a workshop entitled 'Key into the Interlocking Rubaiyat' by Bernard M. Jackson, with hints on executing a successful poem in this form. It had not occurred to me previously to consider how closely Frost's masterpiece 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' resonates with the Rubaiyat form. There are differences, of course: metre, for instance, as Jackson explains.

Dr Tulsi has included my sonnet on p.92, 'Hardy's Cottage', in which I try to capture a flavour of the wooded landscape around the poet's delightful cottage in rural Dorset. The cottage garden flowers in the hebaceous border, however, give a deceptively tame impression of this out-of-the-way place where wild creatures roam. You can read about the snake here.

The photograph above shows the woodland route to the cottage. We were there in early Spring, before the leaves had grown back on the branches. The Hardy graves in Stinsford Churchyard are worth a visit. Do look in the church, too, for the stained glass windows are magnificent.

• Thomas Hardy
• iKnow Dorset on places associated with Thomas Hardy
• Hardy Country
• Hardy's Cottage
  

Postcard 56: A Sunset for the Guy

Cuillin sunset, Skye, Scotland
June

Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire, Wales
August

Narnia in a Lamp?
Tree reflections in the lamp, the Cathedral Close, St Davids, Pembrokeshire, Wales
(Can't you just imagine Mr Tumnus appearing through the trees and meeting Lucy?)
November

The Weaver of Grass has celebrated Bonfire Night (aka as Guy Fawkes Night) with a wonderful blend of sunset photography and poetry. Do follow this link HERE to her site.

I decided that I had a few sunset photographs of my own that I could post. I hope you like the ones I have chosen, taken in different months, years and geographical locations. If you have a favourite sunset photograph, why not post it on your blog, and let us know.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis is one of my all time favourite books. You will remember Mr Tumnus the faun, with his 'strange but pleasant little face' and his cloven hooves. Later on, of course, he is turned into a stone statue by the White Witch. But can Aslan the lion come to the rescue...?

The wardrobe is on display in the Wade Center in Wheaton College, USA.

Speaking of the USA and returning to 5 November, do take a look at Steven's blog post for today. It was good to be reminded of the (rather gruesome) tale of our Parliament. I wonder how many of you saw the Guy Fawkes lantern on display in the revamped Ashmolean Museum on 'The Culture Show' this evening on BBC2, with Andrew-Graham Dixon. There was also feature on Keats - with Andrew Motion alluding to the new film, 'Bright Star', with Ben Whishaw in the lead role.

Postcard 55: Of Bards and Birdboxes

Female Pied Flycatcher
(Above and immediately below)

Male Pied Flycatcher
(Below - at least I assume it is a Pied Flycatcher!)

I wonder whether you have been taking part in the RSPB Feed the Birds Day this weekend. There have been over 100 events across the UK.

I took these photos earlier this year in one of our favourite areas of woodland in Carmarthenshire. I'm afraid the quality of the pictures is not very good, but the birds were so fast that it was hard to click quickly without jolting ther camera. We did not like to go too close.

We received a note from out local branch of the RSPB yesterday, telling us the good news that the two nestboxes we sponsored in Cwm Clydach RSPB Reserve had both been used successfully.

One of the boxes had been taken over by a pair of Pied Flycatchers. The nest building was underway on 20 April 2009. The first egg was laid on 6 May 2009 and a total of 4 eggs hatched on 26 May 2009. Alas, there was one casualty - but three of the four young fledged successfully.

The second box was used by a Blue Tit family. The nest was built around 16 April 2009, and the first egg was laid on 30 April. This time 8 eggs hatched on 19 May and all the chicks fledged. Great news!

You may be wondering what this has to do with literature. Well, I was reading the current RSPB magazine, Birds (November 2009), and was delighted to find a reference to a letter by Professor David Morley of the University of Warwick. Professor Morley has developed what he calls Bard Box poems. These poems - which often resemble the call or movement of the bird in the box, or the shape of its nest - are painted on to the outside of the nestbox and allowed to weather, so that the young 'nest in a poem and the fledglings then emerge from within a poem'. Humans enjoy the spectacle of these Bard Box examples of public art, so it is not only our feathered friends who benefit.

N.B. Professor Morley issues a word of warning to budding Bard Box artists, 'I have a patent pending on this idea so hands off, eco-capitalists!' ...

That said, do take a look at Professor Morley's Strid and Sessile blog entry to find out more about this fascinating project.

I wonder how you celebrated Feed the Birds Day. Let me know if you did anything interesting.

Incidentally, we were just having lunch yesterday when a large male Sparrowhawk perched on our fence. We sometimes get a TITTERING, a TIDING, a GULP, a MURDER or a CHARM of Magpies, but this was the first time I have seen a Sparrowhawk in our neck of the (town) 'woods'. Is there a collective noun for Sparrowhawks, I wonder?

Postcard 44: Dylan Thomas Festival, Swansea, 2009

The Dylan Thomas Centre,
Swansea, Wales

The 12th Dylan Thomas Festival (26 October-9 November 2009) is about to begin in the Dylan Thomas Centre, with supporting events taking place around the city.

I have only just realised that the dates coincide - give or take a day - with the anniversaries of the poet's birth (27 October 1914 at Number 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea) and death (9 November 1953).

A rather unseasonal photo of Cwmdonkin Park...

... with its drinking fountain where the young Dylan sailed his ship.
Sadly the chained tin cup is no longer there...

The festival takes its name from Dylan's work, 'In Country Sleep'. It is dedicated to the memory of poet and writer, Aeronwy, daughter of Dylan and Caitlin, who died on 27 July this year. Dannie Abse, Stevie Davies, Owen Sheers, Fflur Dafydd, Byron Beynon, Kathryn Gray and many others will be taking part.

The events are being organised by David Woolley, Jo Furber, Jeff Towns and others. The festival aims to celebrate the 'power of the creative word', using Dylan's work as a springboard for contemporary art that has an eye to the future.

• Dylan Thomas Homepage (with links to the Centre etc.)
• Dylan Thomas Festival Brochure
• Forthcoming events at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive
• More tributes to Aeronwy: here (by Peter Thabit Jones) and here

'Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn,
what makes my toenails twinkle,
what makes me want to do this or that or nothing.'
Dylan Thomas

(Source for quotation: Encyclopedia Britannica)