Drinking

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the 'wild man' Enkidu is given beer to drink. "... he ate until he was full, drank seven pitchers of beer, his heart grew light, his face glowed and he sang out with joy." That was written around 4,000 years ago and the story is based in Uruk. Well, I seem to remember being in a similar state myself over the years.

3,900 year old Sumerian beer recipe

The first written records of brewing come from Mesopotamia where Uruk was situated. These include early evidence of beer in the 3,900-year-old Sumerian poem honouring Ninkasi, the patron goddess of brewing, which contains the oldest surviving beer recipe, describing the production of beer from barley via bread.

There is also a receipt found at Ur, another city in the area. The ‘Alulu beer receipt’ provides specific information about the world's earliest known drinks transaction. It was written during the 45th year of the reign of Shulgi, the King of Ur (2050 BCE) – we can be sure of this because the scribe who wrote it, Ur-Amma, signed and dated it. The text translates as “Ur-Amma acknowledges receiving from his brewer, Alulu, 5 sila [about 4 ½ litres or eight pints] of the ‘best’ beer”.

Sumerians enjoying a drop of 'best beer'

Written records aside, Thomas Sinclair says in his book, 'Beer, Bread, and the Seeds of Change: Agriculture's Imprint on World History' that the discovery of beer may have been an accidental find.

Paul Lenz writes in ‘A History of Ancient Beer’ that the very earliest, Neolithic, beers were almost certainly made in Africa, from grains such as sorghum and millet, but as the brewing vessels would most likely have been made from animal skins no evidence for them survives.

Then in the New Scientist on the 10th December this year Michael Marshall asks the question ‘Did ancient humans start farming so they could drink more beer?’ New evidence suggests that alcohol was a surprisingly big motivator in our monumental transition from hunting and gathering to farming. He continues thus:
‘Why this happened is puzzling, given that our species had survived successfully for around 300,000 years without having to reap and sow – not to mention milk, shear and shepherd. Many ideas have been put forward as possible explanations. The earliest physical traces we have found date back 13,000 years and were found in the Raqefet cave on Mount Carmel in Israel. Residues of fermented wheat and barley were identified on stone mortars, suggesting these grains were crushed to make a mash which was then brewed to form a thick, porridge-like beer.’

Anthropologists have been pondering this change since the 1950s. However, they didn’t have the technology back then to test any ideas. The challenge is to distinguish between beer and bread. Baking bread and brewing beer look superficially similar in the archaeological record, says Jiajing Wang at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire who has spent years finding evidence for the oldest alcoholic brew.

A good starting point was the later settled societies, like ancient Egypt, where beer-making was glaringly apparent. Egyptian archaeological sites often contain distinctive pottery jars. “They literally just call it a ‘beer jar’”, says Wang. At Hierakonpolis in southern Egypt, for example, they found beer jar fragments containing starch granules from cereals, yeast cells and crystals of calcium oxalate, or “beer stone”. These showed that people there were making beer from a mixture of wheat, barley and grass between 5800 and 5600 years ago – more than 2000 years before the first pharaoh of a unified Egypt.

Egyptian beer brewing

Similar evidence has been found in the 7,000-year-old site of Godin Tepe in modern-day Iran, while in Asia there is evidence from 9,000 years ago that a form of beer was being made in ancient China from rice, flavoured with honey and fruits. Meanwhile at the Skara Brae site in the Orkney Islands of Scotland, brewing was taking place more than 5,000 years ago. Beer was not invented just once; rather it seems that almost every culture that had grains figured out that they could be turned into beer.

Skara Brae brewery, Orkney

Well, that’s enough for now. It’s 10pm, New Year's Eve, and time for a small Guinness.

Terence, This is Stupid Stuff – from A Shropshire Lad – A.E. Housman (1859-1936)

Why, if ’tis dancing you would be,
There’s brisker pipes than poetry.
Say, for what were hop-yards meant,
Or why was Burton built on Trent?
Oh many a peer of England brews
Livelier liquor than the Muse,
And malt does more than Milton can
To justify God’s ways to man.
Ale, man, ale’s the stuff to drink
For fellows whom it hurts to think:
Look into the pewter pot
To see the world as the world’s not.
And faith, ’tis pleasant till ’tis past:
The mischief is that ’twill not last.
Oh I have been to Ludlow fair
And left my necktie God knows where,
And carried half way home, or near,
Pints and quarts of Ludlow beer:
Then the world seemed none so bad,
And I myself a sterling lad…

Thanks for reading, Terry Q.

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Lancashire Dead Good Poets' January Open Mic Night

Join us for our first online open mic night of the New Year. There's no set theme and no headliners.. 20 x 5-minute slots are up for grabs on a 'first come' basis. Newcomers are welcomed.

To sign up, please email: deadgoodpoets@hotmail.co.uk 

Hope to see you there,

Steve ;-)

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An Unlikely Love

I was tempted to skip this theme, to take a betwixtmas break from blogging, but then I thought 'You know what? I'm going to write a piece in appreciation of my favourite female footballer, Bethany Jane Mead.' Call it an unlikely love if you like.

Beth was born in Whitby but raised in the nearby village of Hinderwell in North Yorkshire. She started playing football at the age of six and it turns out she was rather good at it. "Football was my first love. It is my one true love." 

Of course, a quarter of a century ago girls' football wasn't a thing, so her only option was to play for the boys' team of her local primary school, and all credit to them for allowing it. Beth ended up being made captain, which encouraged other girls to join in. Oakridge Primary won the local area Boys' School Football Competition under her captaincy and with three other girls in the team.

Outside of school, there was the same limited choice for a football-mad girl - either don't play the game at all or find a boys' team willing to take you on. With her parents' encouragement, she signed for, trained and played with local side California Boys FC. The parents of boys in rival teams in the league used to laugh at the idea of a girl turning out for the opposition - that is until Beth Mead ran rings around their sons. Her parents instilled in their daughter that it was best to ignore the sexist comments and let her footballing ability do the talking. 

At the age of nine she was talent-spotted and enrolled into Middlesbrough FC's centre of excellence. Her mother took a second job in order to be able to cover the cost of driving her daughter the 25 miles to training and back twice a week. Beth blossomed as a striker and aged 14 scored a hat-trick for Middlesbrough Academy against Sunderland who at the time had one of the best women's football set-ups in the country, so it was no huge surprise when Sunderland came in for her as soon as she turned 16. Their manager at the time declared "She was a proper goal scorer, with either foot, from anywhere". 

In her first season for Sunderland in the Women's Premier League (WPL), Beth Mead's 23 goals in 23 games helped her team to the title, and Beth to the first of many golden boot awards. In her second season, her tally was 30 goals in 28 games and another golden boot. At this point she was still an amateur, playing for Sunderland alongside pursuing a degree in Sports Development and Psychology at Teesside University, but she signed professional forms having helped Sunderland gain promotion to the top flight, the Women's Super League (WSL), and on condition that she would be allowed to complete the final year of her degree.

Goals and success continued to flow with Sunderland. Aged 20 Beth became the youngest ever winner of the WSL golden boot and was nominated for the PFA's player of the year. In her five years at Sunderland she scored an amazing 77 goals in 78 games. It was only a matter of time before one of the elite women's clubs came in for her, and that club was Arsenal 

Beth Mead of Arsenal and England (image credit: Rachel O'Sullivan)

She signed a long-term deal with the Gunners in 2017, aged 22, and moved down south to St. Albans. Arsenal had just acquired a world class centre-forward in Vivianne Miedema (the first Netherlands player, male or female, to score 100 international goals), so the coaching staff set about turning Beth into a fast-paced and tricky winger, a progression she relished. Playing in a top WSL club allowed her to take her game to the next level.

She was soon setting records for the most assists in a season, the most chances created from open play and was part of Arsenal's WSL title-winning team in 2018-19, by which time she had also broken into the England first-team squad as a regular Lioness. She also entered into a relationship with her Arsenal team mate Daniëlle van de Donk and felt that she'd finally found her football home.

The 2021-22 season was Beth Mead's finest to date. It started off with her becoming the first woman to score a hat-trick at Wembley, this in a World Cup qualifier. She scored a second hat-trick and then four goals in further World Cup qualifying matches. In February 2022 she set up a scholarship at Teesside University to support female students looking to break into professional football while progressing academic careers. By the end of the WSL season, in which Arsenal were beaten to the title by one point on the final day, Mead had notched up 50 WSL goals and taken the all-time record for number of assists. She was named FSA Player of the Season and the UEFA Women's Euros hadn't even begun.

In that tournament, played on home soil, which the Lionesses won in July 2022 at Wembley to become the first England team to win an international competition since the men in 1966, Beth Mead scored the most goals, registered the most assists and created the most chances of any player. She won the golden boot and was named Player of the Tournament. Her 14 goals for England during the season meant she had also broken Jimmy Greaves' record that had stood since 1961. In the aftermath of the Euros, she was named by many sports writers Best Player in the World and it came as no great surprise to anyone but Beth herself that she also scooped BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the first woman footballer to ever achieve that accolade.

Beth Mead Sports Personality of the Year 2022 (image credit: BBC)

She wore the superstar tag with humility, happiest that she had made her parents proud and made all their sacrifices worthwhile in allowing her to follow her dream.

Since that summit there have been serious downs in her life, as you can read in her excellent autobiography 'Lioness: My Journey to Glory'. Her relationship with Daniëlle van de Donk faltered, her mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and Beth herself ruptured her ACL and was out of football for over a year. The silver lining to that long-term injury was that she was able to spend time with her mother during June's painful last months. By then she was in a new romantic relationship with strike partner Vivianne Miedema who, in a bizarre coincidence, ruptured her ACL weeks after Beth's injury. 

Such a mishap can sometimes be career-ending, but Arsenal's set up is one of the best and both women received the top quality medical and recuperative treatment required to bring them back to match fitness. In another intriguing coincidence, Beth and Viv have now become the first two players to score over 100 goals in the WSL.

Although she doesn't feel she's quite back to her best yet, nevertheless in 2025, Beth Mead (now 30) has won the UEFA Women's Champions League title with Arsenal (defeating Barcelona 1-0 in the final in Lisbon in May) and the UEFA Women's Euros with England for the second time (defeating Spain on penalties in Basel in July). She continues to be a talisman for both Arsenal and England, doing what she feels she was born to do, play football. 

Thanks for reading, S ;-)

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An Unlikely Love

I’m going to have to go back to my school days and up until my mid twenties to make sense of An Unlikely Love. In school, and out of school, I could lose myself in books and was obsessed with playing and watching football. Listened to all sorts of music. From what I remember I hadn’t really thought about the future but Mom and Dad said you should include something to do with sciences as well. So, I did and got a feeble Phys/Chem O level.

I left school and had various jobs including Butlins in Pwllheli as Plain Clothes Security, doing a couple years on a Business Studies course, Telephonist at City of London Maternity Hospital, Postman in Bournemouth. Friends from back then, I presume, would have had me down as a literary type, still playing football and spending time on the beach during the day after working as the Night Casualty Porter at Boscombe Hospital.

And that job is where all the above becomes relevant. I was there for five years and during that time a few of the Path Lab technicians who were on call during the night would pop over to Casualty for a chat and a cup of tea. They would take me over to the Labs and I became fascinated by the role they played in the hospital and curing patients, although I couldn’t see myself within a laboratory.

But that caused me to become really fascinated by the way the monitors in our department could measure the body’s functions. How the medical staff used them and why. I found a course at Lanchester Polytechnic (now Coventry University) and by getting an OND in Electrical Engineering and crucially using that feeble Phys/Chem O level I was able to be accepted there to study Medical Electronics.

I'd I always pass on that advice from Mom and Dad. Leave yourself choices.

I loved that course, so totally different to anything I had experienced before (and they had a great football team as well) but I’m not going to go into that because on qualifying I managed to get a post at Charing Cross Hospital when I was 31 years old. A post in the National Health Service.

If I loved the course at the Lanch, then I developed a passion for the NHS. It is being part of a team dedicated to helping people. We could be Nurses, Midwives, Care Support Workers, Doctors, Healthcare Assistants, Allied Health Professionals, Admin & Clerical, Healthcare Scientists, Porters & Support Services.

Here are a few quotes:

“Working in the NHS has allowed me to see both children and adults come to hospital, sometimes at their absolute worst, emotionally and physically, to within days or weeks leave looking and feeling better and grateful. I have recently been to a third world country looking at their health care system, which has made me even more appreciative of what the NHS offers us as workers and as patients. We don't truly know how lucky we are to have the NHS.”

Emily - Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation trust

“I love how patients are always put first and how the staff go above and beyond to meet their needs...The NHS makes Great Britain Great.”

Jessica – City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust

“I love working for the NHS as I think it is the most important institution we have in this country. I love helping the patients and working with my colleagues. Everyone is pulling in the same direction and it feels like one big family.”

Scott – East & North Hertfordshire NHS Trust

              

“The best feeling is when you make any positive difference to patients’ lives. For me, working in a non-clinical area, even the seemingly small actions of easing the administration process or making sure their referral journey runs smoothly can be greatly appreciated at what is often a vulnerable time for many.”

Geethani – South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

“I love being part of a team that works so hard and unrelentingly for people. I'm only 5 years younger than the NHS but I never take this institution for granted. It's a gift and we should treasure it.”

Lynn – Wirral University Teaching Hospital

That last point about not taking the NHS for granted and we should treasure it is why I wanted to write this article. However, it is and wasn’t a gift. People fought for it and now it is gradually being privatised. This has to stop.

As I started at the beginning of things I suppose I’d better finish with an ending of sorts.

Flirting

Flirt:
origin obscure
possibly connected to fleureter
to talk sweet nothing

the icing on my cake
of day to day work
where an ECG is drifting
or I sort out a fault
for the Sister in Charge

hoping I’ve made it fun
knowing the limits
leaving the ward with her smile
tucked in my tool case

knowing the limits
knowing it doesn’t work
when the Staff Nurse is twenty five
and I’m….well…

I’m not.

It’s time to go
the job is changing
and so am I
it’s time to try
shy and retiring.

First published in Pennine Platform, May 2012

Thanks for reading. Happy Christmas, Terry Q.

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Robins

Top birds, robins. They don't really have red breasts, though, more a shade of dark orange wouldn't you say? And this is their season, of course, entwined as they are into our national psyche as "Christmas card pin-ups", to quote ornithologist David Lindo. 

Back in 2015, Lindo conducted a poll of the British public to establish what we consider to be our favourite birds. 60 species were long-listed, 10 were short-listed, and the clear winner with 33% of votes was the lovely robin, or Erithacus rubecula to give its official Linnaean binomial. (The barn owl came 2nd, blackbird 3rd and wren 4th.)

Lindo then requested David Cameron, who had recently won the 2015 general election, to declare the robin officially Britain's 'national bird' (as many other countries have one), but that never happened. Cameron and his government were totally consumed with infighting and unleashing the disastrous Brexit referendum. Still, until there's another countrywide poll, the robin remains the unofficial national bird, and tomorrow (21st December) is unofficially National Robin Day.  

Erithacus rubecula, Britain's unofficial national bird 

We've enjoyed a riot of robin blogs this week, affectionate and informative portrayals of this iconic little bird. I'm not going to cover that ground again (seek them out on the website). Instead, this is a personal testament.

Robins really are the friendliest of birds, not tame, but brave, inquisitive and trusting. I've known several down the years and in different gardens. They have become almost companionable, especially when I've been turning soil. 

In Bethnal Green in the early 1980s there was a robin would come and stand on the handle of my spade which I left stuck in the ground as I drank a cup of coffee during a gardening break. If I sat still and talked to him quietly, he'd dart down, having spotted a worm or grub, then return to the handle of the spade to enjoy it. I would always throw him a few biscuit crumbs for afters.

When I moved out of London to the Shire of Herts, with larger, greener gardens, robins seemed more numerous. I've been told they're fiercely territorial but I never saw any battles of the 'redbreasts'. Instead they would appear whenever I was working in the garden. It's been suggested that they regard human beings as foraging animals in much the same way that wild boar are. Robins have been observed following wild boar to take advantage of anything that might be turned up. The advantage we have over wild boar, as far as the robins are concerned, is that we are both more widespread (especially in urban areas) and more likely to positively offer tidbits to them.

My Hertfordshire robins would come right down onto the patches of garden I was digging and would take worms off my hand if I proffered them. My cat regularly accompanied me on gardening duty, would just lie and watch, under strict instructions to leave the robins be, and robins and cat co-existed quite peaceably, although she would chase other birds. I've read other instances of this being the case. 

Victorian Christmas card "pin-up"

Where I live now, I don't tend to get robins in my garden as there's not really an expanse of exposed soil, meaning my garden is not of much use to robins. (I get blackbirds, dunnocks, great tits, long-tailed tits and wrens mostly.)

However, when we go walking in the woods of Blackpool's Stanley Park, we usually take a bag of mealworms or seeds with us and quite often the robins will come down and eat out of our hands.  I'm told that this level of trust exhibited by British robins is not generally found in Europe. The difference appears to be that centuries of hunting of small birds on the continent has left them constitutionally wary of human beings. We in this country have been rewarded for our kindlier attitude to our little native birds.

This latest from the imaginarium fast-forwards through the winter months to the flush of a new spring. (I'm not sure about the somewhat jokey title.)

Reliant Robin 

he's flaming in  the new-leafed  tree

proudly puffed  up and  bright eyed

with  fresh-hatched  babies  to  feed

in some  nest  in an old  pot  or shed

should  be foraging  for  juicy  grubs

to take  back  to his speckled  brood

but  he's content  to  watch  and wait

happy  for me to  do  the  spadework

this beautiful spring garden morning

Thanks for reading. Merry Festives, everyone. See you in '26. ;-)

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Robins

“The English robin is a bird rather smaller than a sparrow, in build between a thrush and a warbler, uniform brown on the upper parts, with an orange red breast and white abdomen. It is widely distributed through the woodlands of Europe, and in Britain is also a familiar garden bird.”

Stephen Moss quoting the great ornithologist, David Lock in his 'The Life of the Robin', 1943.

Isn’t there something heart-warming about our avian friend, who is a feature on our Christmas cards in the last month of our year and in the winter season? This is an image on a card I received from my dear friend, J this year.*

It is archetypal of the rather romantic picture we have of a lone songster in a bleak and hostile environment, its red breast puffed out, perhaps indicating to us hope of the new year and the warmer climate of spring to come.

This blog will give insight into the realities of this beautiful and familiar bird that has found its way into every art form involving the visual, aural and even the kinaesthetic. You will learn how and why it should be associated with the Christmas season and its actual relevance to the Christian religion.

Bird lovers, you will also know what you should leave out for them in a freezing cold winter.

Well, here goes. We will start with robin statistics.
Height: 5.5 inches, 14 cm
Wingspan: 8.4 inches, 21 cm
Weight 18 g approximately
Lifespan: 1-2 years

It has a membership of the largest of all the world bird orders – the Passeriforms. This bracket of bird includes almost half of the world’s species. Four thousand, like the robin are songbirds.

The robin is the only species on its individual genus Erithacus. There are one hundred different robins and some species of birds termed robins are not really robins at all. There will be more on this later.

Their plumage is not always so colourful. Juvenile robins, which are around in the spring seasons, are brown, mottled and often speckled in appearance. Only adults have the familiar orangey-red feathers. Females and males are identical in appearance.

In the UK we think of it as British. In fact, robins inhabit Europe, from Gibraltar to beyond the Arctic Circle, the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. Robins in Eastern Europe leave their breeding ground in autumn where they look for warmer climates, including the UK.

The actual nature of this bird suggests Tennyson’s description of nature in his poem In Memoriam, A. H.H. as,

“red in tooth and claw”.

According to Stephen Moss, author of 'The Robin: a Biography', they are vicious and when competing for a mate, duel their rival to death. Their mating season starts in January.

There is one reason this male sings so sweetly. It is to breed, their sole purpose and instinct in life. The song is a call to a mate. They often die shortly after this. They are territorial and defensive of territory they establish, frequenting cities and the countryside, often inhabiting woodland areas.

In March and April their song is continuous, but the aim is to repel other males. Once they have their territory established, they begin nest building, egg laying and finding food for their hungry chicks, particularly vulnerable at this time to jays and magpies, which prey on the chicks. In the autumn, the juveniles develop their beautiful bright coat.

Why should these birds be on Christmas cards? Interestingly, they do have a connection with Christianity. Among ancient folklore is a tale about a robin trying to keep the baby Jesus’ fire lit, and doing so, scorching its breast, symbolizing its devotion. Mary then humbly declares that its red breast is to be handed down to its descendants.

There is also a connection to the crucifixion. Another legend concerns a crown of thorns, which a robin plucks from Jesus’ crown when he is on the cross, which leads to its breast being stained with blood.

During the Victorian era the new tradition of sending Christmas cards emerged because of the development in printing, which led to robins being a favourite on cards. Sir Henry Cole sent the first Christmas card in 1843 then the size of a business card used today, because at first, they were expensive to make. By the 1860s, cheaper cards were available.

Postmen were referred to as “robins” because they wore red coats as part of their uniforms. It led to the bird becoming a festive symbol.

By the 1880s, Victorian artists showed the robin delivering Christmas cards to peoples’ houses instead of a postman – and the tradition has stuck. The British love to give feathered and four-legged creatures anthropomorphic qualities. See the image below.

A modern Christmas card in Victorian style, with the robin delivering the Christmas card to a recipient. This looks rather cute, don’t you think? I would like to see the robin at my door! Or on my local post box!

Until the mid-twentieth century, this bird also acquired the nickname Redbreast. The description ‘redbreast’ first appeared in the fifteenth century and was used until the middle of the twentieth century. In 1952, the British Ornithologist’s Union showed the species official name as ‘redbreast’. The Victorians no doubt helped with this by giving the bird human qualities of delivery. It would have seemed natural to give the bird a name Robin redbreast. There is a pleasing alliteration that would have appealed to children of the time.

Moss, in his book points out that the bird’s breast is actually orange, rather than red, and suggests that it was called redbreast because the actual fruit orange only appeared in the Middle Ages. It is referenced in the nursery rhyme,

“Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of Saint Clements.”

The rhyme heralds the excitement of the bells of an exciting and tasty new fruit to arrive on Britain’s shores at that time. The colour orange was first used in 1557, over a hundred years after the word ‘redbreast’ was used to describe the robin. There was no colour called orange in the Middle Ages and it only became an accepted shade one hundred years after the fruit orange was imported into Britain.

The robin has since found its way onto clothing and Christmas decorations, solidifying it as a Christian icon in the UK and elsewhere.

The name, ‘robin’, if not the actual species, proliferated round the world because of sailors and explorers, who, landing in other parts of the world and having no ornithological expertise at all, called all kinds of small colourful birds with red, pink or yellow breasts robins.

The name stuck, however, which is why there are Siberian blue robins, Indonesian cloud-forest robins, Polynesian robins and the American robins, which are not robins at all!

The robin has made its presence in all art forms. Apart from the visual, the paintings, drawings, decorations and embroidery kits, on which it is displayed, the robin has found its place in orchestral, ensemble and popular music and across traditional and pop dance.

French composer Olivier Messiaen, a passionate ornithologist, in addition to being a genius as a musician, loved the robin and his music reflects this, featuring the European robin in his small bird sketches, (Petites Equisses d’Oiseaux. There is a movement titled Le Rouge-Gorge, (The Robin).

His large, orchestral work Des Canyons aux Etoilles has a movement titled Le Cossyphe d’Heuglin, The White-Browed Robin-Chat, (an African Robin).

Here is Matthew Schellhorn live, 29th January 2021 playing Robin, by Messiaen. While this is playing, you will see drawings by talented children and youths of the robin. These illustrations are fitting to be shown while the music is playing of the man who regarded birds as “the greatest musicians upon the planet.” Link: Robin

In popular music, the “American robin” that inspired the Al Jolson hit When the Red, Red, Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along, is actually a THRUSH. (Remember our sailors and explorers?) 
According to Moss, it is “lumbering and bulky”, not like our robin at all. Link: Red Red Robin

This thrush is also the bird referred to in the hit Rockin’ Robin, made popular in 1972 by Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five. Remember anyone? Link: Rockin Robin

Here, you see the robin represented kinaesthetically with dance. They have movements called ‘tweets’ with jive steps, bouncy motions and running in circles with high knees to create a bird-like movement.

For robin movements, choreographers create quick, sharp, head movements, (rocking the head and listening for prey), hopping and sudden stops, pausing and perching movements alternated by moments of stillness followed by spurts of energy.

A more traditional robin dance is where the men and women dance in a counterclockwise circle. The movements are inspired by the running and hopping of the robin. Link: Iroquois Robin Dance

In literature, the writer Anthony Trollope, himself a post office employee has characters in his novel 'Framley Parsonage', who refer to the postman by his nickname.

This postman says, “Oh, but it is mortal wet,” as he hands the vicar the post and newspaper.
Jemima the cook responds with the phrase, “Come in, Robin Postman, and warm yourself awhile.”

Other writers who use the robin in their repertoire include Enid Blyton, Shakespeare, Robert Burns, Robert Herrick, Chaucer, Shakespeare and Frances Hodgson Burnett.

The British, ardent bird lovers in general, do have a soft spot for the robin.

In 2015, the robin topped the polls for Britain’s favourite bird, while in 1960 it was crowned Britain’s national bird.

These lines, from 'Robin Redbreast', by W H Davies, (1908) sum up our national affection for it.

Robin on a leafless bough,
Lord in heaven, how he sings!
Now cold winter’s cruel wind
Makes playmates of withered things.

Robins are aware of our feelings and, perhaps unbelievably, there is a relationship between the robin and us. They know we leave out food for them in cold winter months, when the ground becomes too cold and hard for them to find food and makes them vulnerable to starvation and death. Even woodland birds know to visit the British garden.

The custom of the British being generous towards feeding birds began over one thousand, five hundred years ago as did our love for the robin.

There is the story of a youth, (Saint Serf), taming a robin by giving it food but his classmates killed it out of jealousy. Miraculously, his friend Kentigen, (later St Mungo) brought the robin back to life.

Feeding birds declined through the centuries but was revived in the Victorian era when they extended their charity to all God’s creatures, with the exception of workhouse residents.

In 1890-91 the writer W H Hudson noted working men gathering along the side of the River Thames during their lunch break to give scraps of food to starving birds, which led to the custom of regularly feeding our birds in our gardens.

The result is that fourteen million households leave food out for garden birds and there are more than six million breeding pairs of robins in this country owing to our generosity to this breed of bird. This is surely a great achievement.

So when you put out food in bird feeders, remember to include sunflower hearts and corn grains for our robins to keep the population high as these give them energy.

In the next few days, listen out for the sweet song of the robin and Happy Christmas to you all.

Anne G. Dilley

*This image is on a card to raise money for the Leprosy Mission, see THELEPROSYMISSION.COM

Bibliography:

The Robin, a Biography by Stephen Moss

postalmuseum.org/blog/a-history-of-christmas-cards

https://poetrynook.com

https://www.bostonglobe.com

https://www.youtube.com

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Robins

Robins (Erithacus rubecula, European Robin) are small birds with a distinctive red breast and are a common sight throughout Britain and indeed, throughout Europe apart from bits of the Mediterranean coast and northern Scandinavia. These little birds can also be found in parts of North Africa and out into Turkey, Iran and central Russia. In Britain, it is found in parks, woodland and gardens and is quite a tame bird which has been known to eat food from people’s hands. In Europe, however, the robin is much more cautious as they are shot in their thousands for sport and food though quite why anyone would want to kill and eat a such a charming bird is beyond me but there you go.

Image of a robin (Erithacus rubecula) 

How the robin came to have a red breast is the topic of much folklore and mythology in many different countries and has been associated with good luck, fire, happiness, rebirth and even messages from departed loved ones. Indeed, it is equated with so much symbolism and hope which may be a reason for it being such a loved bird.

In Celtic mythology, two kings constantly battle for power or control over the seasons of the year. The dark Holly King and his twin, the Light Oak King try to dominate each other at the Winter and Summer Solstices through the beginning and end of the seasons. The Holly King takes the form of a Wren and the Light Oak the form of a Robin. The Holly King (Wren) rules from Midsummer to the Winter Solstice and the Light Oak (Robin) rules from the Winter Solstice to the Midsummer Solstice. The wren brings darkness and reflection and the robin brings light, earth fertility and growth showing the robin and wren epitomising the changing seasons of the year.

Image of Celtic Summer Light Oak King (Robin) and the Winter Dark Holly King (Wren)

In European mythology, the robin appears to be a sacred and protected bird and if anyone kills one it was supposed to bring bad luck. In Norse mythology, the robin was sacred to and protected by Thor, god of lightning and anyone found hurting the bird was in serious trouble. In German mythology it was believed the presence of a robin stopped lightning from striking. In medieval times the wassailing ceremonies to welcome the new year saw gifts of food being left out for robins who were seen as good spirits hopefully bringing luck for the following year.

Robins have come to be seen as messengers from the spirit world. There is a saying ‘robins appear when loved ones are near’ and a robin may be seen nearby ready to escort the deceased from this world to the next. Robins can be seen on the day of the funeral and will appear later to remind the bereaved that everything is going to be fine and that the departed loved one in the spirit world is at peace. The appearance of the robin lets people know that those left behind are not alone. Consequently, the little bird has become a symbol of good news and hope for the future.

Image of the robin as a messenger from the spirit world

Today, robins are synonymous with Christmas. This may be due to the robin being associated with Christianity and Jesus in particular. In Christianity, it is believed that a robin fanned the flames of a fire with its wings to keep Baby Jesus from overheating after he had just been born. However, a sudden gust of fire scorched the then brown bird’s breast turning it red and the new red breast was passed on to every robin generation since.

The robin has also become associated with Christmas thanks to the penny post created by Rowland Hill in 1840 and this led to the invention of the Christmas card in 1843. The postmen who delivered the mail wore red tunics and were called ‘Robins’ so Christmas cards began to have the small bird illustrated on them as well.

Image of the robin at Christmas/wintertime

The robin is a bird steeped in mythology, religion, growth and freedom. It is revered in many parts of the world and is a bird protected by friends in high places so do not hurt these birds as it may be bad luck if that happens. This small bird is an emissary from the spirit world delivering messages of peace to the loved ones of those who have departed. At Christmas the robin adorns Christmas cards and decorations symbolising peace and love during the cold winter season. All in all, the robin is a little bird with a big story to tell.

Robins

At Christmas time in the dark and
cold, the Robin red breast
shines hope, love, peace

It heralds a budding new season
bringing fertility, growth, plenty
in a warm summer land

In legend he wards off lightning,
storms, protecting loved ones
from harm and ill-luck

And took a thorn from the
crown to ease the pain of
Jesus’ crucified suffering

Or sits on a branch to let
you know the spirits of those
departed are nearby

It greets the dawn with the
sweetest of songs to welcome
the newborn day

The robin does all this and
more and tells us to look to
the future, learn, love, explore.


Thanks for reading and please leave a comment as they are much appreciated.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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Robins

Mark Robins scored one of the more iconic goals in his career when he was playing for Manchester United in an away game against Nottingham Forest on the 7th January 1990 in an FA Cup third round tie. It was widely speculated that under-pressure United manager Alex Ferguson would have been sacked had United lost as they were 15th in the league and had been eliminated from the League Cup. Instead, Robins scored the winning goal. Ferguson kept his job and go on to achieve success at the club over the next 23 years. Which is more than enough about Manchester United.

But what about the name Robins? When I was thinking about it I wondered why any family would be named after the plural of a small bird. So, I had a look.

The surname Robins is a name of ancient Anglo-Saxon origin. It is derived from the baptismal name Robin, which was a diminutive of the personal name Robert, and refers to ‘a son of Robin or Robert’. Variations of this name include: Robins, Robyns, Robbins, Robbings, Robbens, Robens and many more.

Surnames weren’t widely used until after the Norman Conquest in 1066. As the country’s population grew and to allow the new King William I to extract the relevant taxation, it became necessary to distinguish between people and so names began to include descriptions of the person, such as Thomas son of John, Peter the Baker, Richard the Whitehead, Mary Webster, etc.

These descriptions would grow to form the surnames we recognise today although they could change over time as a person changed his job. For example, John Blacksmith might become John Farrier as his trade developed. Today there are perhaps as many as 45,000 different English surnames.

That was about as far as I wanted to go on surnames as I had begun then to wonder about the small bird and what was the collective name for them. 

Well, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) did a survey in 2011 which found the following: the top three suggestions received were Round, Breast and Blush with Rabble, Bobbin, Red, Squabble, Rash, Hood, Riot and Reliance making up the rest.

I had no idea that there is an annual awareness day for robins. National Robin Day is on the 21st December, created by the charity Songbird Survival in 2016 as a way to raise awareness of not only robins but also all small garden birds who may struggle to survive the cold winter months.

I suspect that this date does not have any relevance to the invention of the Christmas card in 1843. Victorian postmen already wore bright red uniforms and had gained the nickname ‘Robins’. Many Victorian illustrators started to depict robins delivering Christmas cards in their beaks.

Royal Mail vans and post boxes are still painted red due to the original Victorian branding.

Robin Redbreast

Good-bye, good-bye to Summer!
For Summer's nearly done;
The garden smiling faintly,
Cool breezes in the sun;
Our Thrushes now are silent,
Our Swallows flown away, —
But Robin's here, in coat of brown,
With ruddy breast-knot gay.
Robin, Robin Redbreast,
O Robin dear!
Robin singing sweetly
In the falling of the year.

Bright yellow, red, and orange,
The leaves come down in hosts;
The trees are Indian Princes,
But soon they'll turn to Ghosts;
The scanty pears and apples
Hang russet on the bough,
It's Autumn, Autumn, Autumn late,
'Twill soon be Winter now.
Robin, Robin Redbreast,
O Robin dear!
And welaway! my Robin,
For pinching times are near.

The fireside for the Cricket,
The wheatstack for the Mouse,
When trembling night-winds whistle
And moan all round the house;
The frosty ways like iron,
The branches plumed with snow, —
Alas! in Winter, dead and dark,
Where can poor Robin go?
Robin, Robin Redbreast,
O Robin dear!
And a crumb of bread for Robin,
His little heart to cheer.

                                       William Allingham

The poem was first published in his collection of poetry, "Day and Night Songs" in 1855.

Thanks for reading, Terry Q.

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Build-Up

We are well into the build-up to December's Festive Season, call it what you will... Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Koliada, Laylat al-Raghaib, Saturnalia, Yalda, Yule. (I prefer the latter, it's in my pagan Viking blood).

Of course it's all about celebrating rebirth and redemption as we pass the shortest and darkest days of the old year and move into a new year, with light in the darkness symbolic of that cyclical seasonal transition to better times ahead (even if January and February may prove a little shit along the way).

play "spot the Christmas tree"

But it's all got too commercialised and drawn out for me. Call them what you will...Christmas trees, Festive firs, Seasonal spruce, Winter evergreens going up in living-room front windows ever since mid-November, what's that all about? We used to put ours up and decorate it on Christmas Eve, then place presents underneath it ready for the morrow. Then would come Christmas Day with its family gatherings, festive mood, food, fun, followed by the other eleven days of Christmas, playing with presents, reading our new books, experiencing inventive ways of serving up turkey leftovers.

Nowadays it seems to me there's just too much build-up, too much stress and I started becoming a bit contrary and bah-humbug about it all.  But then I thought maybe there's a reason for all the early trees and overdo of lights. Maybe we are desperately trying to cheer ourselves up as a nation.

Ever since the twin catastrophes of Brexit and Covid, the impact of war in Ukraine, the legacy of years of Tory mismanagement of everything except their own aggrandisement, the destabilising second coming of the odious Trump, that shameful genocide in Gaza, it feels like the spirit of the country has taken a knock, adopted a darker hue of anger and hopelessness fuelled by propaganda about Britain being 'broken'. It could be the case that people feel everything is coming crashing down and they just want a bit of light relief.

everything is coming crashing down

I've been way too busy with footballing stuff, poetry events, present buying, to write a new poem this week so instead I offer you two things.

One is a poem I wrote a few years ago in a blog about Space and Christmas: Only Sky

The other is a song by Scottish band TV21, the chorus of which runs "And all the time you build me up, and I'm waiting for the drop". The choice is pertinent, because the songs of TV21, dating from the early 1980s, chronicled the time when Britain really did start to go downhill. They were the Thatcher years when the vicious free-market ideology of that Conservative government began to decimate the best of British institutions and principles. We've never recovered. TV21 were punchy and post-punky. They foresaw what was coming, corruption, exploitation, hopelessness, selfishness, the alienation festering in the heart of the nation. We should be better than this. Maybe Labour can turn things around, rebuild community out of chaos, because Reform is certainly not the answer, it's Thatcherism by a harsher name.

Waiting For The Drop

And I laugh, and I get confused

And I cry, and I feel abused

In my dreams, in my nightmares too

In my mind I must get to you

And all the time you build me up

And I'm waiting for the drop

Crushed by three fingers I fall

Crushed by three fingers I fall

And I lie, and I bleed inside

And I cheat so I've got to hide

Behind books, behind magazines

Behind films and my teenage dreams

And all the time you build me up

And I'm waiting for the drop

Crushed by three fingers I fall

Crushed by three fingers I fall

Watch me falling down...

        I fall

                I fall

                        I fall

                                 I fall... 

You can listen along to the song performed by TV21 here: Waiting For The Drop

Thanks for reading, S ;-)

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Build Up

The other week my friend was telling me about the trip she had made to Dubai with her son. She was describing the places they had visited which was interesting as I’d visited there years ago when I worked in the United Arab Emirates. Then she mentioned this.

I should be able to get to the end of this article without feeling a bit unwell, I hope so. The thing is that one of the the places they had gone to visit was the Burj Khalifa which stands at a dizzying (not my word) 828 metres, or 2,717 feet tall and 163 floors high. It has two observatory decks. ‘At the Top’ at 452 metres, while ‘At the Top Sky’ is 555 metres in height, making it the highest observatory deck in the world.

Burj Khalifa, Dubai

When work began on the Burj Khalif in January 2004, many of the project’s details, including its height, remained shrouded in mystery. When it opened in January 2010, the team behind the Burj Khalifa revealed it had broken not just one but eight world records.

As well as surpassing the Taipei 101, formerly known as the Taipei World Finance Centre in Taiwan, as the tallest building in the world, it also holds the record for the world’s highest occupied floor, the world’s highest outdoor observatory deck and the longest elevator travel distance.

It was designed by Chicago-based architectural, urban planning and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM), who are also behind Manhattan House and Willis Tower.

American architect Adrian Smith was responsible for the vision and design which is innovative but also serves a practical purpose. His inspiration for the tower was the Hymenocallis flower Or Spider Lily – a regional desert flower. Like the Hymenocallis, the Burj Khalifa has an elegant and balanced design. As the tower increases in height, the ‘wings’ or ‘petals’ of the flower re-configure the shape of the building. This mechanism reduces wind and the elements’ impact on the building.

It is an example of a building that embraces the circular economy. The tower is covered in solar panels, which heat more than 140,000 litres of water every day. In turn, this water is used by residents and businesses daily. It also includes an irrigation system that collects condensation from the air conditioning, which provides 15 gallons of water a year, some of which are used on the building’s landscaping and plants.

Burj Khalifa apartments for sale or rent

The Burj Khalifa is home to over 900 residential units and can hold up to 10,000 people at any given time. As well as private residents, it houses businesses ranging from real estate to construction firms, Armani hotels, offices, and fine dining. With its proximity to The Dubai Mall, it attracts legions of tourists, about 17 million people per year, on average.

And two of them were my friend and her son. Now I can understand, just, having a stroll round the shops or trying to see a celeb but they went straight for it and as my friend said, went whizzing up in one of the lifts. One of the 57 lifts, produced by world leader Otis Elevator Company, which apparently are unlike those in any other skyscraper. They are one of the fastest elevators in the world. They zip passengers from the ground floor to the 124th-floor observation deck in just 60 seconds, reaching speeds of 10 metres per second (36 km/h or 22 mph).

And then they looked out of the windows. Madness.

view from the top of the Burj Khalifa

This is why I was a bit concerned about getting to the end of the article.

Vertigo

Mind led body
to the edge of the precipice.
They stared in desire
at the naked abyss.
If you love me, said mind,
take that step into silence.
If you love me, said body,
turn and exist.

                        Anne Stevenson

                        from ‘Granny Scarecrow' (2000)

Thanks for reading, Terry Q.

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