Bien dit, while the Romans brought some positives such as the ending of human sacrifices, we must never forget the traditions, the bravery and the honour and glory of our Celtic ancestors. We the French, in many places live closer to the sea, the forests and the mountains herein North America and also in France when I have had chance to speak to those across the Atlantique.
It is for this reason that I spend less and less time near the tv, more time with books, in study and also in the forest everyday (between 1-2 hours a day now). I need the woodlands, and need to be in nature with the dog not just to think on how best to proceed with my novels but because I need to have that connection.
It is also why I seek to go back to Japan, for a time as there I went hiking, went down to the lake, went about in the woods every week. I was invigorated, and felt healthier and happier than I've ever felt in the West since my father passed, and so I definitely understand.
We are part of nature, and it is part of us. We of Celtic descent must remember the fire-blood of our ancestors and the honour they naturally had, and the love of nature they had. Trees are crucial, just as the mountains, and the seas are. I find greater joy in seeing an old oak or ash tree than I do in any new buildings.
Thanks for this post Frances. Swampy was the most famous protester from the Newbury trees protest! I know because at the factory I was working in, I got the nickname Swampy due to my appearance lol. It was your post about 526AD that really struck a nerve with me , as I was aware of it before and no one else seems to be factoring in that catastrophe as the necessary ingredient for triggering a Dark Age. All we were taught at school was that The Romans left and we fell to pieces! What a crock of shit that is!! Black Nobs' propaganda gets everywhere. I'd not seen the horses video before. I left the factory and got a job making horse racecourse fencing and did a job at Newbury racecourse plus I later got a job delivering fish from Cornwall to top end restaurants and used to stay overnight at a pub near there. Funniest thing ever was walking into the pub for the first time in white coat and saw the Clerk of Course for Newbury in there. I said "Hey, I know you!" - The look on his face was priceless as he was crapping himself about where he could have possibly met a scruffy dude delivering fish - quite telling !! I fessed up and said and he relaxed , a lot! Ha ha . Thanks for the reminder!
Thank YOU for the anecdote! The tragedy of failing to stop tree-felling always tears me up. Trees such as those killed at Newbury for the by-pass are hundreds of years old. The sight of anyone with a chainsaw, anywhere near a tree can have me rolling up my sleeves and marching up to the workmen furious and indignant.
In 2018 some numpties were doing tarmac repairs close to a magnificent old tree in the grounds of our block of flats for the elderly, here in my village. For some reason they had a small controlled fire spewing toxic fumes right underneath the old tree and I saw red. "Oi!" I shouted at them, "Put that damned fire OUT now!" and the men all looked up in surprise to see this aging hippy bearing down on them scowling. "There are birds nesting in that tree!" I raged, "You will frighten them off their nests! Idiots!" Well, they hopped to it pretty damned sharpish and their foreman apologised to me saying, "You are right! Sorry lady, we didn't think!" I stomped off stating, "Yeah, well.... that is why this world is such a fucking mess, huh? It is full of blokes who don't think!" and the younger high viz workers were gazing up into the tree, probably for the first time seeing it as a community and not just a big green thing which occasionally provided shade and shelter from the rain.
Beautiful! Yep, when I saw hundreds of years old trees being felled for HS2 , to be turned into "biofuel" it boiled my piss. More recently the felling in Scotland of all those trees for wind farms did the same. What beats me , is why don't the trees provide materiel for woodwork lessons at school, listed building refurbishment or brand new works of art? At least then the tree would be treated with respect. It is barbaric.
No they are not ETs. What I am saying is we, the entire human race, are not guilty. Only one very small group are guilty of empire building and they are the Black Nobility. They are not extra terrestrial, they are not gods. They THINK they are the Chosen Ones, they think they have a divine right to rule but they are weak specimens of humanity with twisted minds. They are actually parasites on us all, including all of nature and, for that we have to remove them from power for the sake of life itself.
this is gold. i thought at first that the last part of this piece was a particularly juicy vernon coleman rant.
thanks for that incredible video about the newbury horses.
before the plandemic i used to go see relatives out in the country, there was an ancient oak tree right at the train station which sometimes served as welcome shelter in rainy weather. will never forget the disorienting moment when i arrived and noticed that this familiar landmark was missing. i counted the rings on the stump, that tree had been there since before there were colonists on north american soil. a witness to 400+ years of history, gone.
Awww I hear you! Those old growth oaks... being cut down now here where I live because insurance companies wont cover your home if you have one of these ancient and magnificent trees too close to the house.
"If we looked up from our screens long enough to notice these strange warrior figures from our past passing by, what would we think of them?"
I would show them the love and respect they deserve; I would stand with them, I would paint my own face blue and join their march for Nature's Justice.
In my studies of the ancient's ways and culture, the most powerful aspects that I adore so deeply is their love and union with nature.
My own sister taught me how to brew the ancient ale styles of Celtic origin, like Gruit Ale and Pictish Heather Ale. A big part of the brewing process is knowing the power of the plants, respect for the culture that cultivated that knowledge.
The very trees had names to the people who knew them. Forests are the true cathedrals.
A big part of the brewing process is knowing the power of the plants, respect for the culture that cultivated that knowledge.
At first I thought you were describing the culture of the process.... either way, both are so important... now a daze, I think the process has become so commercial, who knows what they are doing to cultivate the culture...
Commercial ingredients in brewing can be harmful, depending on what those are.
When you make Gruit Ale from scratch, by foraging the herbs in your local woods, you are adding a personal touch to what you are making. You can always be confident in what you have because you created it.
The part of culture I was referring to is being spiritually connected to the land and plants you use in the process.
Yes, and the most deep sense of culture is really internal, so "they" don't actually have access to it. It's yours; what is inside cannot be changed by what seems to be on the "outside," in fact what is Inside is what can cause change to the world. The Ale is only symbolic of certain things. The important part is our connection to Nature and to each other; the Parasites trying to mess with our Culture have zero chance of winning.
I have a vision of millions of people, all painted with woad and standing in silent vigil outside our Houses of Parliament and every other 'Government' building in this world.
In my vision we wait, in reverent silence for all human beings to acknowledge the call and join us until the buildings are empty and we can repurpose them, repopulate them with reverent people who would never dare to claim dominion over nature again.
That would be the day that my heart would be willing to stop and go on to my next destination.
That's beautiful Frances, those who are our beloved ancestors are indeed there...... in our hearts. That is what gives me a real backbone to stand. Each of us have a sense of this in different ways, it looks like you and I are quite similar.
Of course we are! You may not be a Brit, living on these WISE ISLES (Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England) but you have the same love of life that courses through the veins of any decent living being.
I've gotten used to Heather Ale. It's not the heather flowers that impart the "effects" you mentioned. It's a little known fact that heather has a companion that grows on its leaves; a lichen or epyphite, which like mushrooms has some psychedelic properties.
Just recently, I have started questioning, my antipathy for “war metaphors“ and the language of battle. Can’t we all just get along? We do seek peace, and we want it, and rightly so, but the reality we are living in is that we are under assault. We are in a fight for our lives, for the life of our planet, and all its present and future inhabitants. We need to be willing to fight, and be strategic in how we do it. We need Celtic warriors, we need a Boudicca or two. We need to be them.
And actually, a further thought, we have been overly domesticated around this notion--that we should never fight, always be peaceful--for times like this--so we don’t fight back or defend ourselves. It’s “violence” to do that, to fight back even when our lives or those of our loved ones are being threatened. As a recovering liberal, it is becoming clear to me that I have espoused ideals that I have been programmed with to ensure I stay docile. Done with that.
When I was 24, an enemy tried to glass me in the face. I battered her into hospital. It upset me enormously at the time, because I had been a hippy for a decade by then and firmly believed that violence was totally unnecessary. After the enemy was put into hospital I was nicknamed Rocky and my gentle hippy reputation was in shreds!
I now see that, had I not done that, my life could have been completely ruined and my family would have had to look at a scarred face for the rest of their lives.
It was a sharp lesson. Self defence is not violence. It is vital.
This is so deeply important to read. Thank you, Frances. I have always loved trees and feel so grateful for them. I keep learning from them. They deserve being noticed. They offer so much, as all of our natural world does. 🤗🌳🙏
Fuck, we're so off track! It's Pink Floyd's Welcome to the Machine. They have no idea that they're just little wind-up soldiers and dolls, so completely programmed and convinced of their rightness that they barely have an independent thought or room for a soul.
It's ironic but Newbury is the perfect location to epitomise the decline. Headquarters to huge tech and comms companies like Vodaphone, its character has been subsumed by styleless flat-fronted brick buildings thrown up for the cheapest price possible and sterile in their cleanliness. It pretends to be "in the countryside" but is populated by either commuters or middle management types in Marks and Spencer suits trying to get one rung further up their climbing frame, whose vista peaks at a night out in TGI Fridays. It is everything that's wrong with the whole concept of an "M4 corridor" so of course they cut down trees. "It's progress, y'know."
"one rung further up their climbing frame" - impressed me. Your journalistic skills far exceed the norm, Christian! Who is Norm anyway? Some dickhead living in Newbury, perhaps? 🙄
Thanks for that, Frances. It's always nice to get a little encouragement. With all these long replies on Substack, mainly on yours, I keep getting a tap on the shoulder that I could be putting this effort into that banking book I told you about. I've got plenty of things that I actually WANT to do before that (or am already trying to do) but if I feel strongly enough to spend time expressing my thoughts here then shouldn't I be writing that book? Of course it's a little easier here as everything is already in me, or off the top of my head - and I get ideas from other people to get me going - but just the plain number of words would get the book done pretty rapidly. Graham Greene only set himself a target of 750 words a day, and we know how prolific he was, and i wouldn't be surprised if I'm doing double that.
Incidentally, I had some high standards around me, one of whom was that girlfriend from Poole. She did English at Pembroke and went into publishing. I've often dreamed about how great it would be if she could be my editor, excising the occasional superfluous adjective and reining me in when I get carried away. Then we could produce something really crisp.
Can you find her now? Contact her and let her rein you in big time! That might be the impetus you need to kickstart you.
I wrote my autobio in 41 weeks simply by applying myself to produce one chapter with a cliff-hanger ending every Sunday morning. It was surprisingly easy. Sometimes the next couple of chapters were already drafted by the time I was answering comments on the latest post. I was amazed at how fast my old brain fetched memories from decades ago and with such fullness of colour and nuance. I also wrote two books in the same way! One romcom and one expose of a most arrogant family of Nobs.
You can find them serialised here on Substack as follows:
Sorry to take so long to reply to this. I did actually catch it just after you wrote it but needed to have a snooze (don't ask, I woke up the other day at 6 O'Clock and didn't know if it was am or pm).
I don't think this is a runner. Fate played a huge role in what happened and it was a big fork in my life. But we went out together in three different periods and she actually gave me first dibs on marrying her - or else she was going to marry her guitar teacher, which is what she did. I have no idea if that's still going but I wouldn't want to crash it. She's very much a one man woman, and everyone else gets excluded. Anyway, the only place I could get in touch with her that I know of is through her parents' house in Poole. I did see they still lived there when I last went past, but that was probably nearly 15 years ago, taking the children crabbing on Sandbanks. There's also a bit of a history of me writing to her there and I don't think it would really be fitting to add to it.
Btw, did you see Celia's post about Gonzalo Lira having died in prison? I've actually put a note up about it. I know I won't forget it as he has managed to die on my mother's 90th birthday, which has its own complications.
Ive seen whole For rests. Come down for shoddy home developments. Not one tree standing... And its 100 degrees here on a cool summer day.. What are they thinking.
What an amazing tale. Sometimes i wish i had lived back in those times. When people lived so close with nature. Thanks for writing this Frances. Very much enjoyed the details.
I love trees. They have often been the subject of my art.
I have also enjoyed studying the Wood Wide Web.
Recently i did a detailed series of trees and botanical life in relationship.
thank you so very much Frances, your compliment means the Woo(rl)d to me!
I didn't see your post as a rant at all, but of a Re-membrance, a re collecting of What was considered so important in our past. When we were connected so much more to the Natural World, when we understood the relationship with the Natural World.
We are so dis connected today while plugged fully in to technology
My comment may seem a bit off-topic, but isn't. Quoted from the above article: 'The Romans brought their vision of a global Empire to Britain’s shores and they started as they intended to continue. They hacked into the forests and created un-natural straight stone-surfaced roads,'
I once had a friend who happened to be a master class furniture builder. His works were marvels of curving faces, lines, and meticulous detail. All in hand selected woods that were typically hundreds of years old. He never incorporated 'farm' grown woods, and often utilized Flame Birch, quarter sawn Oak, or other carefully harvested woods from old growth forest. Every piece was a master piece.
I was drinking in the craftsmanship of a desk and chair combination he had just finished, and kept commenting on how I couldn't take my eyes of the work. He stated it was the curves and angles that had me mesmerized, and that straight lines are all an illusion... I had never considered this before.
In the years that have passed since then, I believe the decay of western civilization has much to do with the illusion that man is superior to Nature. There are no straight lines in Nature. Take notice...
I am reminded of the idea of “angles of sorrow,“ what right angles and corners are called by some in building design, as compared to the curved and rounded walls of say an earthship-type design.
Hello Betsy: Yes. Exactly. I did not state it in my original post, but rather alluded to the straight line hazard. Modern architecture is invariably angular or straight line, and incredibly sterile. The cold, detached, and dead to the world modern psyche, are related to this unnatural structuring and 'order'... We're devolving into stick-persons, rather than glorious sculptures...
Style and Character is sculpted from the inner Spirit. The outside frames are but a glove to the 'modern psyche.' The healthiest forms are that of mother nature.
All of nature is curvy, like a woman. That is why we love it! Great comment, btw. I love hand crafted furniture and once possessed a teak table and chairs made from a recycled wagon, wheels and all. It came from Thailand and cost me a fortune. I had to leave it in my finca in Spain because the purchaser fell in love with it and paid top dollar in cash for me to leave all my furniture, tools and art collection included in the sale. They bought my life, effectively and the only things I came back to UK with were the crystals given to me by clients from my herbalist days and a couple of art pieces that I had made myself. I could not part with those.
I left my entire book collection, my music tapes and most of my clothes too.
Sometimes I think of that lovely house and its precious cargo and I wonder if my soul astral travels to visit every once in a while. It can happen.... I have been seen astrally visiting places. One enemy complained that I was haunting her.... my best friend retorted, "Don't be daft, Fran is still alive, she can't haunt people!" but the enemy said, "Fran can!"
Hello Frances. Funny that you mention "curvy" as of a woman. My friend mentioned this as I marveled at a portfolio of items he had made over the years. All legged pieces had subtle curves, much like well proportioned female legs. Everything he had fashioned displayed the subtle shapes of breasts, checks, hip lines, etc. It wasn't noticeable until he clued me in. It was amazing and thoughtful work.
Astral travel and remote viewing are precious inheritances from former selves. I sense you have a very compelling presence. It's a gift. Be well...
It has been said, many times, that my home falls into a silent, cold and greyed dull sleep when I am not in it. I have been told that I am a very scary individual by some, approachable by others. I seem to impact different people in different ways, depending on the strength of their own character, I guess.
Nowadays, I am an old worn out hippy-crone with a walking stick and that, in itself, intimidates some people. It stops me looking in the mirror, that is for sure!! 😂
You are very welcome to read without paying! Nothing will ever be behind a paywall because I hate them! Knowledge was always given to me freely and I once meditated to Hecate, the old crone aspect of the 3-fold Goddess. It was a very important question that only she was qualified to answer. I was asking if I should accept an invitation to join a local witches Coven. The Book of Shadows that they gave me to read stated on the first page that I would have to keep the contents completely secret and I closed the book to meditate on the matter.
The vision took me up at speed until I left the planet completely and a vast black spider came into view. I was sucked into the mouth, masticated until I became a stream of blood and then spat vigorously at the Earth. My blood covered the whole planet until it became a red ball in black space. Then a gentle but very firm voice stated "This is what we do with knowledge!"
Secrecy or occult is wrong. It denies people vital information that they need to understand themselves. I would not even THINK of re-opening that Book of Shadows and I passed it back to the witches with a polite refusal of their invitation.
I have never regretted that decision so keeping anything I write now tucked behind a paywall would be as wrong as keeping the secrets of Wicca, by my reckoning and that of Hecate, the crone whose power comes to us during the dark of the moon. So be it! xx
Bien dit, while the Romans brought some positives such as the ending of human sacrifices, we must never forget the traditions, the bravery and the honour and glory of our Celtic ancestors. We the French, in many places live closer to the sea, the forests and the mountains herein North America and also in France when I have had chance to speak to those across the Atlantique.
It is for this reason that I spend less and less time near the tv, more time with books, in study and also in the forest everyday (between 1-2 hours a day now). I need the woodlands, and need to be in nature with the dog not just to think on how best to proceed with my novels but because I need to have that connection.
It is also why I seek to go back to Japan, for a time as there I went hiking, went down to the lake, went about in the woods every week. I was invigorated, and felt healthier and happier than I've ever felt in the West since my father passed, and so I definitely understand.
We are part of nature, and it is part of us. We of Celtic descent must remember the fire-blood of our ancestors and the honour they naturally had, and the love of nature they had. Trees are crucial, just as the mountains, and the seas are. I find greater joy in seeing an old oak or ash tree than I do in any new buildings.
Thanks for this post Frances. Swampy was the most famous protester from the Newbury trees protest! I know because at the factory I was working in, I got the nickname Swampy due to my appearance lol. It was your post about 526AD that really struck a nerve with me , as I was aware of it before and no one else seems to be factoring in that catastrophe as the necessary ingredient for triggering a Dark Age. All we were taught at school was that The Romans left and we fell to pieces! What a crock of shit that is!! Black Nobs' propaganda gets everywhere. I'd not seen the horses video before. I left the factory and got a job making horse racecourse fencing and did a job at Newbury racecourse plus I later got a job delivering fish from Cornwall to top end restaurants and used to stay overnight at a pub near there. Funniest thing ever was walking into the pub for the first time in white coat and saw the Clerk of Course for Newbury in there. I said "Hey, I know you!" - The look on his face was priceless as he was crapping himself about where he could have possibly met a scruffy dude delivering fish - quite telling !! I fessed up and said and he relaxed , a lot! Ha ha . Thanks for the reminder!
Thank YOU for the anecdote! The tragedy of failing to stop tree-felling always tears me up. Trees such as those killed at Newbury for the by-pass are hundreds of years old. The sight of anyone with a chainsaw, anywhere near a tree can have me rolling up my sleeves and marching up to the workmen furious and indignant.
In 2018 some numpties were doing tarmac repairs close to a magnificent old tree in the grounds of our block of flats for the elderly, here in my village. For some reason they had a small controlled fire spewing toxic fumes right underneath the old tree and I saw red. "Oi!" I shouted at them, "Put that damned fire OUT now!" and the men all looked up in surprise to see this aging hippy bearing down on them scowling. "There are birds nesting in that tree!" I raged, "You will frighten them off their nests! Idiots!" Well, they hopped to it pretty damned sharpish and their foreman apologised to me saying, "You are right! Sorry lady, we didn't think!" I stomped off stating, "Yeah, well.... that is why this world is such a fucking mess, huh? It is full of blokes who don't think!" and the younger high viz workers were gazing up into the tree, probably for the first time seeing it as a community and not just a big green thing which occasionally provided shade and shelter from the rain.
Beautiful! Yep, when I saw hundreds of years old trees being felled for HS2 , to be turned into "biofuel" it boiled my piss. More recently the felling in Scotland of all those trees for wind farms did the same. What beats me , is why don't the trees provide materiel for woodwork lessons at school, listed building refurbishment or brand new works of art? At least then the tree would be treated with respect. It is barbaric.
I imagine the Tory government would choke on its caviar if they had to give anything to the people!
Amazing post. Loved the history. Loved the videos. What is wrong with humans that they think they must kill everything?
It is not humans.... it is the Roman Empire, aka the Black Nobility!
https://francesleader.substack.com/p/black-nobility-101
Are they ETs?
No they are not ETs. What I am saying is we, the entire human race, are not guilty. Only one very small group are guilty of empire building and they are the Black Nobility. They are not extra terrestrial, they are not gods. They THINK they are the Chosen Ones, they think they have a divine right to rule but they are weak specimens of humanity with twisted minds. They are actually parasites on us all, including all of nature and, for that we have to remove them from power for the sake of life itself.
Aewar has a great video out today on Shadow Rome:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfALeXLKNiQ&ab_channel=AEWAR
amazing!
Omidog, you have said exactly what I've been learning of late-- YES!!!!!!!!
As usual, my friend, YOU SAID IT. Word and Woof and Wow. I'm ready to FIGHT.
I musta heard you howl it into the wind as it raced across the pond!
^_^
I feel something approaching...
Time to gear up.
this is gold. i thought at first that the last part of this piece was a particularly juicy vernon coleman rant.
thanks for that incredible video about the newbury horses.
before the plandemic i used to go see relatives out in the country, there was an ancient oak tree right at the train station which sometimes served as welcome shelter in rainy weather. will never forget the disorienting moment when i arrived and noticed that this familiar landmark was missing. i counted the rings on the stump, that tree had been there since before there were colonists on north american soil. a witness to 400+ years of history, gone.
Awww I hear you! Those old growth oaks... being cut down now here where I live because insurance companies wont cover your home if you have one of these ancient and magnificent trees too close to the house.
😪some people are so effin mentally deranged that a high security mental health facility would not be sufficient to mend their ways.
I still say Lethal Injection would be poetic justice...
"If we looked up from our screens long enough to notice these strange warrior figures from our past passing by, what would we think of them?"
I would show them the love and respect they deserve; I would stand with them, I would paint my own face blue and join their march for Nature's Justice.
In my studies of the ancient's ways and culture, the most powerful aspects that I adore so deeply is their love and union with nature.
My own sister taught me how to brew the ancient ale styles of Celtic origin, like Gruit Ale and Pictish Heather Ale. A big part of the brewing process is knowing the power of the plants, respect for the culture that cultivated that knowledge.
The very trees had names to the people who knew them. Forests are the true cathedrals.
A big part of the brewing process is knowing the power of the plants, respect for the culture that cultivated that knowledge.
At first I thought you were describing the culture of the process.... either way, both are so important... now a daze, I think the process has become so commercial, who knows what they are doing to cultivate the culture...
Commercial ingredients in brewing can be harmful, depending on what those are.
When you make Gruit Ale from scratch, by foraging the herbs in your local woods, you are adding a personal touch to what you are making. You can always be confident in what you have because you created it.
The part of culture I was referring to is being spiritually connected to the land and plants you use in the process.
I get it...
in both, the making of the Ale,, or the making of Culture (human social constructs)
They are messing with Culture... you see? LOL
Yes, and the most deep sense of culture is really internal, so "they" don't actually have access to it. It's yours; what is inside cannot be changed by what seems to be on the "outside," in fact what is Inside is what can cause change to the world. The Ale is only symbolic of certain things. The important part is our connection to Nature and to each other; the Parasites trying to mess with our Culture have zero chance of winning.
I have a vision of millions of people, all painted with woad and standing in silent vigil outside our Houses of Parliament and every other 'Government' building in this world.
In my vision we wait, in reverent silence for all human beings to acknowledge the call and join us until the buildings are empty and we can repurpose them, repopulate them with reverent people who would never dare to claim dominion over nature again.
That would be the day that my heart would be willing to stop and go on to my next destination.
Now that sounds like a plan!
That's beautiful Frances, those who are our beloved ancestors are indeed there...... in our hearts. That is what gives me a real backbone to stand. Each of us have a sense of this in different ways, it looks like you and I are quite similar.
I'd guess this is really a HUMAN thing, and not just one group, everybody. Well, except for pathological murdering psycho freaks...
Ooh yeah! Except for THEM.....
😁
Of course we are! You may not be a Brit, living on these WISE ISLES (Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England) but you have the same love of life that courses through the veins of any decent living being.
curious, did you watch the Outlander series?
I've gotten used to Heather Ale. It's not the heather flowers that impart the "effects" you mentioned. It's a little known fact that heather has a companion that grows on its leaves; a lichen or epyphite, which like mushrooms has some psychedelic properties.
Just recently, I have started questioning, my antipathy for “war metaphors“ and the language of battle. Can’t we all just get along? We do seek peace, and we want it, and rightly so, but the reality we are living in is that we are under assault. We are in a fight for our lives, for the life of our planet, and all its present and future inhabitants. We need to be willing to fight, and be strategic in how we do it. We need Celtic warriors, we need a Boudicca or two. We need to be them.
Too right, Betsy! Thank you for saying that! xx
And actually, a further thought, we have been overly domesticated around this notion--that we should never fight, always be peaceful--for times like this--so we don’t fight back or defend ourselves. It’s “violence” to do that, to fight back even when our lives or those of our loved ones are being threatened. As a recovering liberal, it is becoming clear to me that I have espoused ideals that I have been programmed with to ensure I stay docile. Done with that.
When I was 24, an enemy tried to glass me in the face. I battered her into hospital. It upset me enormously at the time, because I had been a hippy for a decade by then and firmly believed that violence was totally unnecessary. After the enemy was put into hospital I was nicknamed Rocky and my gentle hippy reputation was in shreds!
I now see that, had I not done that, my life could have been completely ruined and my family would have had to look at a scarred face for the rest of their lives.
It was a sharp lesson. Self defence is not violence. It is vital.
This is so deeply important to read. Thank you, Frances. I have always loved trees and feel so grateful for them. I keep learning from them. They deserve being noticed. They offer so much, as all of our natural world does. 🤗🌳🙏
Fuck, we're so off track! It's Pink Floyd's Welcome to the Machine. They have no idea that they're just little wind-up soldiers and dolls, so completely programmed and convinced of their rightness that they barely have an independent thought or room for a soul.
It's ironic but Newbury is the perfect location to epitomise the decline. Headquarters to huge tech and comms companies like Vodaphone, its character has been subsumed by styleless flat-fronted brick buildings thrown up for the cheapest price possible and sterile in their cleanliness. It pretends to be "in the countryside" but is populated by either commuters or middle management types in Marks and Spencer suits trying to get one rung further up their climbing frame, whose vista peaks at a night out in TGI Fridays. It is everything that's wrong with the whole concept of an "M4 corridor" so of course they cut down trees. "It's progress, y'know."
Mental note: Avoid Newbury!
"one rung further up their climbing frame" - impressed me. Your journalistic skills far exceed the norm, Christian! Who is Norm anyway? Some dickhead living in Newbury, perhaps? 🙄
Thanks for that, Frances. It's always nice to get a little encouragement. With all these long replies on Substack, mainly on yours, I keep getting a tap on the shoulder that I could be putting this effort into that banking book I told you about. I've got plenty of things that I actually WANT to do before that (or am already trying to do) but if I feel strongly enough to spend time expressing my thoughts here then shouldn't I be writing that book? Of course it's a little easier here as everything is already in me, or off the top of my head - and I get ideas from other people to get me going - but just the plain number of words would get the book done pretty rapidly. Graham Greene only set himself a target of 750 words a day, and we know how prolific he was, and i wouldn't be surprised if I'm doing double that.
Incidentally, I had some high standards around me, one of whom was that girlfriend from Poole. She did English at Pembroke and went into publishing. I've often dreamed about how great it would be if she could be my editor, excising the occasional superfluous adjective and reining me in when I get carried away. Then we could produce something really crisp.
But thanks again. xx
Can you find her now? Contact her and let her rein you in big time! That might be the impetus you need to kickstart you.
I wrote my autobio in 41 weeks simply by applying myself to produce one chapter with a cliff-hanger ending every Sunday morning. It was surprisingly easy. Sometimes the next couple of chapters were already drafted by the time I was answering comments on the latest post. I was amazed at how fast my old brain fetched memories from decades ago and with such fullness of colour and nuance. I also wrote two books in the same way! One romcom and one expose of a most arrogant family of Nobs.
You can find them serialised here on Substack as follows:
https://francesleader.substack.com/p/my-autobiography
https://francesleader.substack.com/p/the-nobs - a comedic look at posh people
https://francesleader.substack.com/p/how-hard-can-it-be-b74 - the story of Lymp Duhdashian
Sorry to take so long to reply to this. I did actually catch it just after you wrote it but needed to have a snooze (don't ask, I woke up the other day at 6 O'Clock and didn't know if it was am or pm).
I don't think this is a runner. Fate played a huge role in what happened and it was a big fork in my life. But we went out together in three different periods and she actually gave me first dibs on marrying her - or else she was going to marry her guitar teacher, which is what she did. I have no idea if that's still going but I wouldn't want to crash it. She's very much a one man woman, and everyone else gets excluded. Anyway, the only place I could get in touch with her that I know of is through her parents' house in Poole. I did see they still lived there when I last went past, but that was probably nearly 15 years ago, taking the children crabbing on Sandbanks. There's also a bit of a history of me writing to her there and I don't think it would really be fitting to add to it.
Btw, did you see Celia's post about Gonzalo Lira having died in prison? I've actually put a note up about it. I know I won't forget it as he has managed to die on my mother's 90th birthday, which has its own complications.
I have visitors atm so no, I haven't seen Celia's post nor your note!
Ive seen whole For rests. Come down for shoddy home developments. Not one tree standing... And its 100 degrees here on a cool summer day.. What are they thinking.
What an amazing tale. Sometimes i wish i had lived back in those times. When people lived so close with nature. Thanks for writing this Frances. Very much enjoyed the details.
I love trees. They have often been the subject of my art.
I have also enjoyed studying the Wood Wide Web.
Recently i did a detailed series of trees and botanical life in relationship.
If youve got 3 minutes here it is
https://youtu.be/pYkhQqx3urc?si=wPvLaz5MhIgxCiw2
I also am reading a book by Peter Wohlleben called The Hidden Life of Trees.. An excellent book. On what they feel and how they communicate...
Love your Art! I love trees, also.
Thank you very much. Appreciate it!. I liked the 2 quotes you posted at the top of your notes! Looks like a good day here for a walk in the woods!
That is a superb and moving work of artistry, dear Karafree!
Thanks a lot for adding here. It is the perfect compliment to my rant. xx
thank you so very much Frances, your compliment means the Woo(rl)d to me!
I didn't see your post as a rant at all, but of a Re-membrance, a re collecting of What was considered so important in our past. When we were connected so much more to the Natural World, when we understood the relationship with the Natural World.
We are so dis connected today while plugged fully in to technology
thank you sooooo much!!!
My comment may seem a bit off-topic, but isn't. Quoted from the above article: 'The Romans brought their vision of a global Empire to Britain’s shores and they started as they intended to continue. They hacked into the forests and created un-natural straight stone-surfaced roads,'
I once had a friend who happened to be a master class furniture builder. His works were marvels of curving faces, lines, and meticulous detail. All in hand selected woods that were typically hundreds of years old. He never incorporated 'farm' grown woods, and often utilized Flame Birch, quarter sawn Oak, or other carefully harvested woods from old growth forest. Every piece was a master piece.
I was drinking in the craftsmanship of a desk and chair combination he had just finished, and kept commenting on how I couldn't take my eyes of the work. He stated it was the curves and angles that had me mesmerized, and that straight lines are all an illusion... I had never considered this before.
In the years that have passed since then, I believe the decay of western civilization has much to do with the illusion that man is superior to Nature. There are no straight lines in Nature. Take notice...
I am reminded of the idea of “angles of sorrow,“ what right angles and corners are called by some in building design, as compared to the curved and rounded walls of say an earthship-type design.
Hello Betsy: Yes. Exactly. I did not state it in my original post, but rather alluded to the straight line hazard. Modern architecture is invariably angular or straight line, and incredibly sterile. The cold, detached, and dead to the world modern psyche, are related to this unnatural structuring and 'order'... We're devolving into stick-persons, rather than glorious sculptures...
Style and Character is sculpted from the inner Spirit. The outside frames are but a glove to the 'modern psyche.' The healthiest forms are that of mother nature.
Hello Nefahotep: I thought you might enjoy this quote. >
Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect.
- Chief Seattle, 1854-
Thanks, that's beautiful. A perfect way to frame what we have been observing.
All of nature is curvy, like a woman. That is why we love it! Great comment, btw. I love hand crafted furniture and once possessed a teak table and chairs made from a recycled wagon, wheels and all. It came from Thailand and cost me a fortune. I had to leave it in my finca in Spain because the purchaser fell in love with it and paid top dollar in cash for me to leave all my furniture, tools and art collection included in the sale. They bought my life, effectively and the only things I came back to UK with were the crystals given to me by clients from my herbalist days and a couple of art pieces that I had made myself. I could not part with those.
I left my entire book collection, my music tapes and most of my clothes too.
Sometimes I think of that lovely house and its precious cargo and I wonder if my soul astral travels to visit every once in a while. It can happen.... I have been seen astrally visiting places. One enemy complained that I was haunting her.... my best friend retorted, "Don't be daft, Fran is still alive, she can't haunt people!" but the enemy said, "Fran can!"
Hello Frances. Funny that you mention "curvy" as of a woman. My friend mentioned this as I marveled at a portfolio of items he had made over the years. All legged pieces had subtle curves, much like well proportioned female legs. Everything he had fashioned displayed the subtle shapes of breasts, checks, hip lines, etc. It wasn't noticeable until he clued me in. It was amazing and thoughtful work.
Astral travel and remote viewing are precious inheritances from former selves. I sense you have a very compelling presence. It's a gift. Be well...
It has been said, many times, that my home falls into a silent, cold and greyed dull sleep when I am not in it. I have been told that I am a very scary individual by some, approachable by others. I seem to impact different people in different ways, depending on the strength of their own character, I guess.
Nowadays, I am an old worn out hippy-crone with a walking stick and that, in itself, intimidates some people. It stops me looking in the mirror, that is for sure!! 😂
Heh, heh... Shapeshifter's only change shape in the eyes of the beholder... I've been rather avoiding mirrors for a couple of decades... Kwap!
I hear that they are spraying Spain too.... I can't imagine what Spain would be like without the incessant sunshine! It is unthinkable!
You are very welcome to read without paying! Nothing will ever be behind a paywall because I hate them! Knowledge was always given to me freely and I once meditated to Hecate, the old crone aspect of the 3-fold Goddess. It was a very important question that only she was qualified to answer. I was asking if I should accept an invitation to join a local witches Coven. The Book of Shadows that they gave me to read stated on the first page that I would have to keep the contents completely secret and I closed the book to meditate on the matter.
The vision took me up at speed until I left the planet completely and a vast black spider came into view. I was sucked into the mouth, masticated until I became a stream of blood and then spat vigorously at the Earth. My blood covered the whole planet until it became a red ball in black space. Then a gentle but very firm voice stated "This is what we do with knowledge!"
Secrecy or occult is wrong. It denies people vital information that they need to understand themselves. I would not even THINK of re-opening that Book of Shadows and I passed it back to the witches with a polite refusal of their invitation.
I have never regretted that decision so keeping anything I write now tucked behind a paywall would be as wrong as keeping the secrets of Wicca, by my reckoning and that of Hecate, the crone whose power comes to us during the dark of the moon. So be it! xx
It is already done!
https://francesleader.substack.com/p/my-autobiography
I have also written two fiction books:
https://francesleader.substack.com/p/the-nobs - a comedic look at posh people
and
https://francesleader.substack.com/p/how-hard-can-it-be-b74 - the story of Lymp Duhdashian