A Long Intermission

For all of you who have been patiently (or impatiently?!) waiting for me to finish South England’s castles since mid-March, when I covered Buckinghamshire’s castles in one take, I thought it would be a good idea to let you know what I have been up to all this time while you’ve been waiting for an entry on Berkshire’s castles. To be honest, I’m stuck on the vastness of Windsor Castle and I’ve been enjoying a brand new tome about it since mid-year when I checked it out from the library and perused that for forty-two days! I finally decided to get my very own copy for my birthday! Everyone forgot me this year but myself, so I decided since it came down to this I’d make the gift a veritable treat! 

 https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/W/bo27433235.html

     As it is, with all its fabulous diagrams, maps and photos (plus paintings) which I’ve been basking in like a kid in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, the information is absolutely superb. All castle lovers and Royalty Magazine subscribers should get a copy of this as soon as possible or at least by Christmas. For those who are fascinated with the history and evolution of castles, especially those which have been preserved and rebuilt authentically, this book is an essential textbook extraordinaire!

     As much as I’d like to impart all the information, (which would be impossible, by the way, without rewriting the book) I’m going to give you all a Christmas gift of an entry exclusively on Windsor by Christmastime, hopefully, which will give you a true desire to get up off your couch and go visit the castle no matter where you are at, presently, on earth. How does that sound?

    

Prince Harry’s mid-May wedding helped the work, thus far, tremendously because I taped the entire wedding on the day from beginning to end- all five and a half hours of it!- starting at 3 a.m. Watching those long shots of Windsor Castle from great heights gave me a clear idea of true scale for a visit. Maps in the book facilitated my curious notating of areas throughout the site, to view and venture exclusive of the well-known and toured areas, inside and outside the walls. I have vowed to myself that Windsor Castle will be on the top of my list when I begin my England go-sees and site inspections. Be sure that this is not necessarily because Windsor is the castle most associated with the Royal Family but more because it is a true prototype for many English castles, as diversified as they are quite often. None can match it in size or increase but nearly all of them follow its basic pattern and layout.

     I also spent a good part of the summer reading Queen Victoria’s diary from 1862 to 1882. It is a treasure trove of getting her personal notes on numerous castles of Scotland. Apparently, she and her prince consort Albert were enthusiasts of all things Scottish. This was written at a time that she had lost her husband and was carrying on without him. Her attitude throughout is solemn but not without great anecdotes and adventures. I knew of many castles she visited and/or stopped to view prior to reading the journal but there are quite a number I’d never heard of which are off the books! This will give me more impetus to dig in and start working on Scotland’s castles. Her own, Balmoral, was purchased by her in 1852 and still stands today in marvelous shape. It has been a Royal summer retreat ever since.

     My six-month long interim of studying, researching and reading off line in 2018 has given me an immensely new perspective to continue my England work with a refreshed interest. It’s times like these that I am very content and feel very lucky that I became interested in castles at such a young age. The internet put wings on my favorite subject but there’s nothing quite like trying every dish and flavor on the menu and ruminating on the splendors of each one. How else does one know what is truly a favorite? Still working on that? - you bet!

Blissfully,

The Castle Lady

Sultry September

While the eastern states have been getting hit with incredibly bad weather all this year, Denver has been breaking or matching high heat records that make trees wilt. Old sol decided to give us a brief break at the beginning of this month- particularly around my birthday in the first full week- but it’s been back to 90 + days for about three weeks and only broke today with primarily 60 degrees. Our high today was 72. I’m looking forward to winter about now. Phew! I was ready for a break!

     Meanwhile, I’m dealing with an early grape harvest- the earliest I’ve ever known since Mom grafted a piece of Grandpa Walters vine from the old country in the yard. That comprises one large section of prize-winning grapes from Burgundy which stretches across 100 feet of fence line and I’ve already grabbed a sizeable enough batch of those for myself to make a gallon of juice! It is great tasting, full-bodied and sweet as can be without a single granule of added sugar! Concorde grapes like these are loaded with antioxidants and give you energy along with improving vision! The other 75 feet of vines are newer additions added more than a decade and a half past. If you happen to be lucky enough to live in the Athmar Park section of Denver you can mosey on over here and get some for yourself. Just make sure you call me first to let me know you’re coming. Bring a raccoon trap with you and I’ll give you a gallon of juice free. No kidding. Wascally wacoon!

http://evelyns-nailsforlife.blogspot.com

 

     Top agenda for me this summer was finally getting my hair done and needed it badly when I had it done on my birthday. I don’t know how anyone else feels about it but getting my hair overhauled gives me a new lease on life. It’s right up there with teeth whitening, a new handbag, new car or a whole new wardrobe! For others it may be getting a full set of nails after having them off for a long period of time but for me, that’s business as usual, of course. It’s one of the constant perks of being the best nail tech on the planet, if I have to say so myself. It speaks volumes that I wouldn’t consider getting my nails done by anyone else unless I’m out of town or in another country. Pedicures are another matter. When you have to massage your own feet something gets lost in translation.

     At any rate, I’m up to my elbows in too much to do, once again. Sometimes that’s great but along with the heat I’ve lost momentum and back in the proverbial molasses trying to paddle my way out. Before this week’s up I’m going to have all the invasive, dead or out and out tree stumps removed from my yard to make way for some changes and brand new additions to the yards. I want to do a small kitchen garden next year and I need bare and fallow ground for that! I tore out weeds this year as tall as myself all over my property and I’m still bagging them! This is no joke. Last May all my free ground was bare except for soil and it is once again but I’m going to have to figure out a way to protect whatever I plant. Those flower bed carpets don’t work, by the way. Just a warning! 

      Survival of this summer has entailed trying to figure out how to get a bunch of reading done so that I can get on with my castle writing. I feel stalled when, as a matter of fact, I’m really just trying to fit too much into a day and that never works, you know. There are only so many hours in a day and reading used to be the bulk of it. Now I have to try to read and peruse books like Windsor Castle: A Thousand Years of a Royal Palace  (which is 526 pages of text, diagrams, photos and paintings the castle contains along with magnificent trifold page maps of the upper and lower wards) in a matter of days with one hour left per day to actually sit down with it. All I can say is that hour is golden and wouldn’t give it up for anything. Finally, a book that does justice to a Norman castle!    

      I think I’ll hire someone to pick those grapes. How does a dollar per pound picked sound? Like Peter Piper picked a peck of grapes? I thought so.

The Castle Lady

Barbie Does Basketball !

     We’ve reached the Finals of the NBA championships and watched last night’s Game 1 to see the usual struggle between LeBron’s vulnerable ego doing battle with the Warriors insistence on humbleness. The game alone is enough entertainment especially since Shaq and Barkley had their laugh about the Benny Hill antics that go on when chaos clashes with insistence on order. (Their take on the new basketball!) I don’t see why anyone would purposely miss these games because the entertainment value is high. If you’re not watching you’re really missing out- I just had to say that! However, I can’t stand it when someone really gets hurt. That’s what happened in the first quarter between Klay Thompson and J.R. Smith. Before anyone could stop it J.R. slipped (probably on someone’s pool of sweat), colliding with Klay who had just taken possession of the ball, tripping him and he twisted radically, slamming down sideways on his right hip. Thompson tried to get up and apparently was in such pain all he could do was slam his fists on the wood floor. AUGH!

     That mishap sent him out limping to the locker rooms for the remainder of the quarter but luckily returned by the second quarter to make a round of perfect shots in the basket for the remainder of the game. His resilience alone is commendable but it made me wonder just how much daily pain these athletes endure over the love of the game. Who says they don’t earn their money ?

     At any rate, I watched a real tug of war for hours with the scores reflecting the struggle quite well. The Cavaliers and Warriors were head to head throughout the entire game. Durant really shined in this game. I noticed that Dramond Green tried to give LeBron a facial when he was trying to do a slam dunk. One word of advice to Dramond: Try to stay as far away from LeBron as you can during the remainder of the finals.

    

When the game went into overtime a sudden burst of perfect shots put the Warriors way ahead of the Cavs and you could see shock registered on the faces of the Cavs. Meanwhile, the Warriors were clearly rejoicing. When two and half seconds were left on the extended clock LeBron and Steph Curry decided to have a chat which escalated into a fast fight between several of the Cavs and several of the Warriors. There was enough time for it, wasn’t there? This was all started because Tristan Thompson had just been ejected from the game for unnecessary roughness. The ref actually started the fight, in truth. How important was it to eject a player when by all rights and purposes the game was over, pal?

     I think the NBA needs to call all the refs down on the carpet and start laying down some rules for them. Often their calls are way off, especially on fouls. It’s so bad, in fact, that I’m beginning to wonder what constitutes a foul. Even commentators are bringing this issue up on a regular basis and it’s definitely high time they have a conference between the players, coaches and refs and get their wires uncrossed. Those rules are in place to protect players, basically, so they have every right to question bad calls. Often they are quite justified in doing so and they should be included in these talks. It’s time to have it out. Right?

www.nba.com

Just my two cents worth !

The Castle Lady

The Happy Factor

    

If you are acquainted with the oft used text and Twitter anagram IRL (= In Real Life) then you may be a great candidate to read the following entry. My idea for this came from the fact that I am too often passed off or tagged a Pollyanna because I’m usually counter to negativism by using positive statements. Everyone needs to deal with sadness and depression at times in their lives but the quicker that you deal with the causes and decide to be happy, no matter what, then you’ll never have to be a part of the worldwide epidemic of depression. If you could use your mental and physical powers to lift yourself out of a funk rather than take a pill wouldn’t it be worth it? Here goes:

     1. Social media friends may be the worst source for help with depression. You are more affected by the people in your immediate environment than you realize and the sooner you come to grips with this the faster you’ll be on the road to happiness. In the Bible, one commandment reads: Love thy neighbor as thyself. Even if you don’t even talk to your neighbors you can be affected by the things they do, how they conduct their affairs in and out of your area. Your home is a sanctuary and they affect it. When you make peace with this consequential circumstance most of your work will be done. However, your next door neighbor isn’t your only neighbor. Where you work and who you work with is included into this and even people you see on a regular basis elsewhere is also a neighbor. That means on a plane seat, people in your car pool, etc. Teach yourself to see a bit of yourself in these people. Once you can truly empathize then you can get a handle on dealing with other people’s problems. It doesn’t mean you have to solve them- that’s in their area- but you can at least come out of your own skin and make some peace out of what can too easily become chaos.

     2. One sure way to clear your head of negative, unhappy moods and mindsets is to get some fresh air every morning. Get your body moving to aid your head from fogginess and forgetfulness. Forgetfulness is a symptom of depression. Go for a brisk walk every morning where there is mostly trees, other walkers, pets on the move and children running about playing hopscotch or whatever. It’s the finest and quickest mind-clearing exercise known. It works. Do it!

     3. Form an actual group of likeminded people (outside of social media contacts, unless they are people you see everyday in your real life). The best way to get happy and stay happy is to seek out those types of individuals. My experience in trying to cheer up people with serious depression issues is that misery loves company. They will bring you down unless you are determined to get and stay happy. My suggestion is to start dropping something positive into conversations with people you know are prone to depression. Do not hang around. Just call it your ‘happy bomb’ and move on. You’ve got too much of a great day to have to hang around for the excuses. Who knows? You may get them on your happy team eventually.

     4. Happiness is as much a sport as an actual sport. You’ll need to exercise it everyday and in every facet of your life. It’s a good and healthy habit and you won’t be taking any kind of pill unless it’s one of those placebos which debunk, often, even the biggest of naysayers. If you think you need a reason to be so happy then make a little happiness here and there for others. A key to all of this is that you need to get out of your own head and get a larger view of the world. The news can, too often, create a depression that you are unaware of so determine that each incident is just that- an incident, and not the entirety of life.

     5. Make sure you do something for yourself everyday. There’s no better way to keep a lighthearted and upbeat attitude than to be good to you. If you’re a person who tends toward self-criticism you’ll need to use this therapy on a regular basis. The objective is to get out of your own way and stop treating yourself like an enemy. Learning to really love yourself is a way to give peace of mind to everyone in your environment or neighborhood which includes you. You don’t have to spend money to do this by the way. Once you get a little creative you’lll find how inexpensive this advice really is and that it is essential to a happy life.

      There is more I could say but I think you can take this advice and run with it now…

Happiness is what you make it. Just like the song. 

 

 

Is Summer Over ?

Not to worry. We have an interesting seasonal possibility in Denver called Indian summer which often comes when we most seem to need it. Indian Summers were more prevalent during my young years in this city but they seem to be making a comeback, especially this year. If you’re from back east or a part of the eastern states of the Union you may be wondering just what an Indian summer might be and it is simply this: A period of mild, warm hazy weather following the first frosts of late autumn, especially on the North American continent. At least, that’s the first definition according to Webster’s New Universal.

    

Denver has very early Indian summers and they can be quite pleasant in all honesty. Our summer evenings, as a rule, do not remain hot even if we hit high 90 to 100 degree weather but Indian summer evenings are quite cool and make air conditioners irrelevant through September and October. We never know how long they might last but sometimes clear up to Thanksgiving or even Christmas. No kidding. I think it’s because we have an arid climate, as a rule. Whatever we get you can bet it will be crisp. This entire year has been arid and I counted our snowfalls on one hand for 2017. I’m sure it would’ve affected the grapes if I hadn’t watered them quite a bit. Interestingly, I’m harvesting them now and after the fact of critters like raccoons, squirrels and various neighborhood filchers who leave messes behind.

    

I was still able to make 2 quarts of juice off of what they left me. Nice.

     At any rate, I can’t think of a better time to make the most of an Indian summer and just bask in it until I see it really is finally over. We’re so lucky to have the weather we have in Colorado and so I’m going to make the most of these so-called

…The Castle Lady

Keep Your Eyes on Summer

My title is not only the name of one of my most favorite Beach Boys songs but it’s very appropriate this summer. As a matter of fact, 2017 has seemed to be off schedule all year long! I can honestly say every month in Denver has been quite unusual in correspondence to its season and August has been no exception. Everyone’s talking like it’s autumn already and it’s not even close! The strong heat started right at the beginning of June for one, with no storms whatever. July was steadily hot and well above 90ْ, also, with few storms. August has been rainy at night and much cooler, overall, than June and July combined. That’s weird weather for August considering that it’s usually our hottest month.

    

Perhaps this total eclipse coming up has something to do with all of it. Denver is right in the path for an overhead viewing at 92% but I won’t be watching any of it. A partial total eclipse is a non-event in my estimation and its main claim to fame is that it will be really dark in the middle of the day for about an hour and a half. Yawn. Don’t be surprised if your dogs and cats decide to go to their backyard houses or favorite night time spot. They’re smarter than they seem. If by chance you insist on looking at what will be basically just darkness, be sure to take the ‘special glasses’ wearing to heart. Can’t get a hold of a pair? Then, please, at it don’t stare. (hee hee) Simple.

    

Remember when I vowed that I was not going to mow the lawn this year and that someone else was going to have to do it? Well, guess who got the so-called honors anyway? You guessed it. Who else but yours truly?  I’ve never felt so exhausted in my life! Avoiding the heat was impossible and you can’t mow at night. Let’s just say the latter isn’t a good idea. The other part of this is that it takes away from my writing time. Have you noticed West Somerset on my Word Press blog yet? Right. It isn’t there. It shouldn’t take me too much longer but it seems as if it’s taking me forever- face it! -but not because I haven’t put the effort in.

     As a matter of fact, I’ve written the thing nearly twice now. The first nearly completed final draft just suddenly disappeared from my computer without a trace in February after some extreme weirdness with my P.C. That is not the first time this has happened but I have vowed that it’s never going to happen again. What could be more frustrating than watching something that you’ve spent four months writing suddenly vanish? I honestly can’t think of anything worse right now and so I’m telling any type of malevolent miscreant or namby-pamby glitch that they better not touch this or something’s going to get hurt. Bad. When I show any signs of aggression in word, thought or deed you can be assured that you’ve pushed me over the edge of my good nature. You have been warned. 

     It may sound like summer has been a bummer but most of it has been much nicer than I expected. I’ve had a bit of a reprieve on extra duties around the house just simply because I’ve let some chores and extra work just go. You have to do that at times, you know. Most of my life I’ve been a live-for-the-moment type of person and this summer I let myself do just that. I’ve been catching up on the news and happenings and at my leisure rather than on the run. Here again, the heat may be partially responsible because when your body gets to a certain temperature you just have to sit down and do something that doesn’t involve movement of any kind. I’m getting good at it again. I’d almost forgotten what it’s like to stare off into space!

    

However, I would have you know that I’ve, in fact, been overflowing with ideas for writing projects for over a year and a half and getting overwhelmed with the amount of writing time I’ll have to do to get it all done. I thought my castles projects were overambitious! Whew! At one time my family thought I was going to become a hermit because I had a great place to hide and write all day. Those were the days! I need to get back to doing that and once I figure out how, I’m going to be unstoppable. Look out World!

    

At any rate, you can expect to see a fabulous version of West Somerset in the very near future. (Promise!) Along with all that you can expect to see quite a few sideline entries on all these ideas that have been fermenting, getting jotted down at odd moments and ultimately committed to a non-electronic apparatus which I’ll call the aide to my P.C. Hint: It’s called pen and paper! Yes, I still do that and this year it’s been done in the coolest place I can find- my basement! Bliss!

     Well, have a wonderful remainder of summer. It won’t be officially over until September 21^st- or thereabouts- and you may get to see a whole lot more of my writing on castles and much more for the remainder of this year than you’ve seen in quite some time. It’s proverbial. Life gets in the way of art but to be truthful there is just no comparison to the reflected life. Both are worth living but you have to learn to balance the two and take your bliss where you can get it.

The Castle Lady

In April...

     First, there were early daffodils which showed up the first day of April. Every day in this month has been a whirlwind of activity with personal appointments, outside work and housework with extra spring cleanings and decluttering the house from items to put up for an E-garage reality sale*. Then, later on, there was planning for Easter and the day itself. Earth Day was a day for doing outside work in earnest and I managed to find the greatest ground cover mulch with pine needle droppings from the tree I planted back in 1990 in the back ! Now I can defeat the weeds on a greater level, the mulch is naturally aromatic and I doubt that any weed is going to break through that stuff! Nothing under the tree did- that's for sure! (hee hee) Believe it or not, I've actually mowed both my front and back lawns already and we've practically had no real rain or snow through most of the winter. Go figure.

*(explained below !)

     E is also for me. Evelyn. Yeah me! I am one tired lady most of the time. Between kitchen, living room, laundry, salon, bathrooms, bedrooms (3 of 'em) duties plus office organization, studio straightening and cleaning and sorting through the garage, it's been decided that placing the mulch is the last bit of yard work I'm ever going to do. One has to draw the line somewhere and I feel I have finally met my match with it so someone else will have to take it on. Wish me luck in finding the right person for the job because if I find that one they will have a job for life!

   

     One way or another I always pull it out for baskets every morning. I've decided that while it may not be my raison d'etre, it is still a very important part of my day. I'll never give it up no matter what I am doing or where I happen to be. They do have basketball courts in England- I've seen them ! Eureka ! I've also decided to rejoin the human race in one thing. For years I've walked where I need to go most of the time and not just because my car is now 27 years old. I'm determined to keep gas guzzling to a minimum but sometimes you just have to take off and be somewhere else besides your home turf. Considering that I'm a travel writer, primarily, I'm going to travel more- one way or another. If I start there and gain some momentum I figure on accelerating that and go further and further afield. However, I'm not walking to England!

     E is also for Ella! Fitzgerald, that is...It's the 100th anniversary of her birthday and if you get a chance you should check out this link to see what I put up on my rock blog about her. It's not comprehensive but relevant to her current fame which has not waned. More musical artists, this year, are recreating her tunes than possibly any other jazz singer, ever, and considering that this is Jazz Appreciation Month it's very apropos and de rigueur that you visit her web site if you are even a little bit of a fan of jazz music. You'll be glad you checked it out. Here's mine: http://evelynsrockpages.blogspot.com  and Ella's official web site: www.ellafitzgerald.com  

     Of course, this is all after the fact with this being the end of April. I guess that Nat King Cole song is absolutely right...

            Lost April...where did you go ? Like winter snow

I saw you vanish

Lost April...so soft and warm, a memory not even time

can banish...

Here comes May,

 

        Check back often for a new widget to this blog which will be my E-garage and actual garage sale.

I'll be bringing my live sale to you with its own blog on which you can make bids with your (undisclosed) e-mail address.

Coming soon ! ! Details later...

          

Once only imagined, now true...

What is now true was once only imagined.  - William Blake

Whatever may be said of dreamers and builders of the future we cannot refute that if those of the past had been discouraged from their obsessions and fervent or adamant quests this would be a truly impoverished world to live in at this point. We have never in history had such knowledge and expertise in technology readily available to us in common usage form as we do at the present time. We are truly blessed and those of us who are thankful or mindful of gratitude for these tools and devices are doubly so. However, technology is almost overwhelming for a certain demographic known as those who will not embrace the change or who stubbornly refuse to at least try to understand these advances. Ask anybody over the age of 80 who still say, "Huh?" when you ask them for their e-mail address. I have a certain amount of sympathy for them because I don't really embrace change readily- especially when I perceive that everything is fine as it is- and as long as it is working.

     It is wrong, however, not to recognize achievement and the desire of those who wish to improve this world in anyway they can. Indeed, such trailblazers as these should be commended, not discouraged or disparaged as though they meant to do harm. People will always pan those things they do not understand  or comprehend and so they must be encouraged toward understanding and not chided as if they just flubbed saying their ABCs. Nobody gets to the age of, say, 75 without having a few more bits of knowledge than the under 40 crowd who currently calculate their infallibility as quite high.

Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have faith in  people, that they're basically good and smart and if you give them tools they'll do wonderful things with them.

- Steve Jobs

     I believe my own fascination with technology started early but I haven't been one to charge ahead without reservations. For one, I remember my Computer Science major for a brother once telling me to wait to buy anything techno because in a few months nearly everything on it would be obsolete and I'd have to go through the trouble of trying to update something that would need to be replaced completely in the end. That type of advice sticks with you and besides I found him to be absolutely correct- so far!

     What's the answer then ? How do we reach the unreachable elders ?  I can't begin to answer that except with what William Blake said years ago. (See above.) If those who can use their imagination to bring us the world at our fingertips could find a way to urge humanity to forge ahead with this knowledge, then we will be on our way. I've always been a possibility thinker, however. I know that nothing is impossible to God but man needs a whole lot more encouragement than Tally ho ! Techno needs to get back into the realm of high touch so that those who drag their heels- for a good reason mind you!- can reach out and enjoy the miracle we're all experiencing. Maybe they'll stop saying, "Heck, no!" to techno.

Stay connected,

The Castle Lady

Playoff Procrastination

I'm sure my regular readers are wondering why I hadn't written about the Playoffs which have been over for about three weeks now. Quite frankly I think I'm still a little stunned at what happened even though I'd been noticing photos like this in the NBA twitter camp:

That's Stephen Curry in the middle with the number 30 jersey.

It's very obvious to me that LeBron is going to be in the Playoffs every year whether he plays for the Heat or Cavs or the Mavs for that matter. I think he's an amazing player with plenty of days of championships ahead. Look what he did for Miami! This is in the face of some serious injuries which other opposing teams seem to disregard flagrantly as a regular thing. It's like he's the NBA punching bag or something. In sports it's very difficult to get respect. There are so many sports journalists who think it's their job to make snarky comments about every player that shows true ability. He hasn't escaped his share but he is so cheerful most of the time that no one notices that Mr. Bobblehead gets knocked around too much. On June 11th I watched the Warriors whip the hides off the Cavs in a 103--82 final score and LeBron's shooting was held to 7 of  22! The series had been tied up to that point and I started to get worried. 

Even so, Stephen Curry is obviously coming into his own. He was so happy after they won but also so incredulous he kept yelling at his teammates, "What ?" Even he couldn't quite believe what he pulled off but each game was so close regardless of the final score that I watched both teams struggle like fury to get the other contained and with LeBron it's just not possible. Even Stephen Curry would say so if someone was bold enough to ask him. The Cavs were actually doing very well at the beginning of the championship playoffs until the series switched to the West Coast- the Warriors home base. People can say all they want about teams generally doing better at home but that's not always true and the Warriors did lose twice in the playoffs at home against Memphis and Cleveland! I sat up and took notice of the GSW when they won over the Nuggets back in 2013 during the first-round playoffs. They were defeated by the Warriors then and haven't made it to the Playoffs since ! GSW happens to have Andrew Iguodala, who started out with the Nuggets and their coach Steve Kerr is a star coach. We're going to have to keep our eyes open on GSW because they've broken some kind of spell. Watch out NBA !

The Castle Lady