Haven - Aspects of Water 6 - Drinks June 8th

A nice cup of tea British style

Water is a good excuse to talk about drink in all its many manifestations. 

To narrow the choice a little we focused on some of Britain's most popular bevvies;

Tea, gin and whisky.

First some famous quotations about TEA:

“If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are too heated, it will cool you; if you are depressed, it will cheer you; if you are excited, it will calm you.”
William E. Gladstone
“There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea”
Bernard-Paul Heroux
“Where there's tea there's hope.”
Arthur W. Pinero
“When we sip tea, we are on our way to serenity.”
Alexandra Stoddard
“Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea! How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea”
Sir Philip Sidney (English Statesman, 1554-1586)

May you always have walls for the winds, a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire, laughter to cheer you, those you love near you and all your heart might desire.”

Irish Blessings quotes

You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me”

C.S. Lewis

But some people demand something stronger, especially the creatives.....

A Drink With Something In It

by Ogden Nash

There is something about a Martini,

A tingle remarkably pleasant;

A yellow, a mellow Martini;

I wish I had one at present.

There is something about a Martini,

Ere the dining and dancing begin,

And to tell you the truth,

It is not the vermouth--

I think that perhaps it's the gin.

Scotch Drink - Robert Burns

Gie him strong drink until he wink,
That's sinking in despair;
An' liquor guid to fire his bluid,
That's prest wi' grief and care:
There let him bouse, an' deep carouse,
Wi' bumpers flowing o'er,
Till he forgets his loves or debts,
An' minds his griefs no more.

a quotation to round off our Water theme:Our continual mistake is that we do not concentrate upon the present day, the actual hour, of our life; we live in the past or the future; we are continually expecting the coming of some special moment when our life will unfold itself in its full significance. And we do not notice that life is flowing like water through our fingers...Father Alexander Elchaninov (from The Diary of a Russian Priest)

Haven - aspects of water 5 - Cleansing & Healing June 1st

Water has long been revered as a source of healing - cleansing both body and soul. Many civilisations associate "dirt" with "sin" and try to wash them both away. There are numerous metaphors to this effect. 

Oddly, the Romans seem to have been rather bad-tempered when their clothes were stolen in the Baths and wrote "curse" tablets to revenge themselves on the thieves.  Apparently some of the curses were very bloodthirsty and totally disproportionate to the crime. The waters of "Aquae Sulis" didn't seem to calm and soothe their spirits as one might hope...

This is a curse tablet found at Bath 

Britain has a long history of sacred springs going back to the Celtic worship of the goddess Sulis.  Later, as early as the 17th century the Brits discovered the virtues of fashionable sea-bathing:

In the English coastal town of Scarborough in 1626, a Mrs. Elizabeth Farrow discovered a stream of acidic water running from one of the cliffs to the south of the town. This was deemed to have beneficial health properties and gave birth to Scarborough Spa. Dr Wittie's book about the spa waters published in 1660 attracted a flood of visitors to the town. Sea bathing was added to the cure, and Scarborough became Britain's first seaside resort. The first rolling bathing machines for bathers are recorded on the sands in 1735

Scarborough

Sea Ritual

Sonia

Cupped hands scoop seawater and

Cradling gently the precious elixir

The children walk carefully up the beach

The water has trickled a little

Through their tiny hands

Their precious grandmother envelops

Them with her smile as they approach

And pat her face and hair

With  the cool kiss of the sea

as she sits against the sea wall

Watching their activities

She has always had her sea ritual –

A walk to the water’s edge

To splash her face in the sea water

She has taught her child

And now her grandchildren

Understand the importance

Of this loving gesture

They will bathe her face

The Tao te Ching associates water with goodness: 

Tao Te Ching  8

The highest good is like water

The highest good is like water

nourishing life effortlessly

flowing without prejudice

to the lowliest places.

It springs from all

who nourish their community

with a benevolent heart

as deep as an abyss,

Who are incapable

of lies and injustices,

Who are rooted in the earth,

and whose natural rhythms of action

play midwife to the highest good

in each joyful moment.

The Highest Good

Sonia

When self is lost

The highest good becomes

Part of life’s flow

Imparting time and care

As a natural spring

The shallow water holds

All that has come to rest

The debris caught

In the weeds of time

At last freed

It will flow to the sea

A last word :  

Remember, cleanliness is next to godliness and keep a good watch on your toga when you take a dip.

                                                                                                                                                                       

Haven - Aspects of Water 4 - Travel

This week we looked at The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Great Clipper Race of 1866, and that literary classic to rival Coleridge's, The Pobble Who Has No Toes by Edward Lear. 

We listened to "Albatross" by Fleetwood Mac for further inspiration and tried not to think about that Monty Python sketch. Here are a few samples:

The great clipper race of 1866

The greatest and most famous clipper race took pace in 1866. 10 clippers bound for London set out from Fouchow on 28 May. Fastest away were Taeping, Fiery Cross and Serica, but Ariel swiftly gained on them. So evenly matched were these four ships and their crews that the clippers were frequently within sight of each other as they raced across the Indian Ocean, round the Cape of Good Hope and north across the great Atlantic. Huge sums had been bet on the ships.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner   - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–98

The famous bits -

 

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, every where,

Nor any drop to drink.

Albatross - “The Pious Bird of Good Omen” 

He prayeth best, who loveth best

 All things both great and small;

 Coleridge

The Pobble Who Has No Toes

by Edward Lear
 

First verse:

The Pobble who has no toes
Had once as many as we;
When they said "Some day you may lose them all;"
He replied "Fish, fiddle-de-dee!"
And his Aunt Jobiska made him drink
Lavender water tinged with pink,
For she said "The World in general knows
There's nothing so good for a Pobble's toes!"

and it all ends happily despite many accidents ....

Last verse:

The Pobble who has no toes
Was placed in a friendly Bark,
And they rowed him back, and carried him up
To his Aunt Jobiska's Park.
And she made him a feast at his earnest wish
Of eggs and buttercups fried with fish, -
And she said "It's a fact the whole world knows,
That Pobbles are happier without their toes!"

We spent virtual time aboard tall ships and some ship's logs were written with absolutely no mention of weevils or ship's biscuits (such a cliche) but there was a lot of rum, tar and swabbing.

Travel by water just isn't what it used to be... no scurvy, no press gangs, no Cat O' Nine Tails...

Haven - Aspects of Water 3 - Inhabitants

As a sort of prologue we read a poem that I recently discovered courtesy of a friend and felt I should pass on as it's such an encouraging piece - here's an extract:

The Laughing Heart (Charles Bukowski)

your life is your life

don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.

there is a light somewhere.

On the watery theme we had Nightswimming by REM and You're by Sylvia Plath

We talked about humans in water and how we started off in the water element - both as  a species and as an individual.  We can't remember our time in the amniotic fluid but some people vividly recalled their experiences of skinny-dipping at night!! I'll update this post with some of the writing as soon as I've finished censoring it.

Meanwhile here are snatches from our two poems/lyrics.

REM - Nightswimming

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night

The photograph on the dashboard taken years ago,

turned around backwards so the windshield shows.

Every street light reveals a picture in reverse

Still it's so much clearer

I forgot my shirt at the water's edge

The moon is low tonight

You're

Sylvia Plath

Illustration by Jessie Wilcox Smith

  from “The Water Babies”

Clownlike, happiest on your hands,

               Feet to the stars, and moon-skulled,
           Gilled like a fish. A common-sense
               Thumbs-down on the dodo's mode.
                 Wrapped up in yourself like a spool,
      Trawling your dark as owls do.


Sonia 

Spinning Jennie

 Written after reading “You’re” by Sylvia Plath

Wrapped up in yourself

like a spool curled, unfurled

Floating yet attached

Alone, but not alone

Symphonies and sonatas

And the heartbeat

Holding the bobbin

Shaped by the stitching of time

Sewn into the fabric

You will discard at will

Weaving and threading

Your way

Into the light

 And, as a final thought, if you were a sea-creature (real or mythical) what would you be and why? here's one possibility: 

Sonia

A Sea-creature – you must be joking!

 – a Nonsense verse, the very worst

(extracts from a longer poem)

Oh for goodness sake! You’ve asked what creature

I would be deep, deep below in the sea

Well I wouldn’t be a halibut, plaice or hake

Nor netted tuna – oh man!

Squashed in brine, in a can….

I’d rather be a saucy fish

A glamorous angel fish

A fish with style on a centre-fold

In fetching colours on Page Three

With scales to die for and wispy fins

A “come hither” pouty grin….

But no, I’ll not be a Dover sole

Red mullet or sea bass

A whiting would be rather crass

A cod would be quite mundane

You’d think of chips and vinegar again

No! No! No!

It’s a ROBOT fish I’d rather be

Monitoring pollution in the sea

A fish with a sensor to let scientists know

Whether the pollutants are high or low

Yes, that’s me, that’s what I’ll be!

Transmitting data day and night

To keep the oceans clean will be a mighty fight

But you must admit

Being a Robot fish has a cerain ring

You certainly couldn’t bring

Me to your table as first course

Garnished with watercress sauce!

Next time - Travel by Water - May 25th

Haven - Aspects of Water 2 - Shape-shifting April 27th

This week we considered the remarkable shape-shifting abilities of water: liquid, ice, steam, vapour - and of course in terms of weather - cloud, mist, rain, rain, rain (all sorts of rain at the moment), snow, sleet, hail - you get the idea. 

Not surprisingly rain got into the choices of poems/lyrics but ice did get a look in and for "homework" people have promised to write some Hot Steamy Haiku to offset all that chill.

We read "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost.  (See above) and one of the brilliant responses was this little ICE acrostic from Siriol:

It happened imperceptibly, a sequence of tiny blows,

and crystal by crystal, my heart froze

Cruelty I thought it was, because I couldn't see

that your heart was frozen and your ice froze me

Every frozen crystal thaws

my heart has healed, but I fear for yours.

We also read and listened to a Bob Dylan song that has been covered by many artists - notably Adele and our respect and awe for BD is unbounded - but we did have some dispute over whether or not he can actually sing. 

A tiny sample:

Make You Feel My Love  by Bob Dylan

When the rain is blowing in your face

And the whole world is on your case

I could offer you a warm embrace

To make you feel my love

It's the first line that clinched it!  If you don't know this amazingly good love song then go onto Youtube and check it out.  It's like a mental hug.

It was an especially wonderful session and we all felt warm and dry by the end.