※SpinalGap24 ※

They call it care or welfare
words, mere words without figures
never given a second thought
nor pondered with due wage
it's sour milk and stale bread
that's earned a reputation in the wards
we can fight, or choke, even exhume
but a living soul comforts hope
undiminished as one of nature
ocean stars, sun and rain
lifeblood of all that is made
the world needs no doctrine taken in vain!

written tonight by lauren6
a reminder to senior medical consultants, that we are human beneath our suffering.

In a blossoming trend, people are turning away from popping pills and looking for cures for their ills among their gardens and hedgerows.

Even members of the royal family are believed to carry natural remedies to boost their health.

But can a few drops of flower oil really make a difference, or is it all in the mind?

At a conference in Cromer this weekend guests from around the world will be speaking on the merits of using plant extract for medicinal purposes.

Julian Barnard, producer of Bach herbal remedies, said: "People who don't believe that these remedies can work haven't tried them.

"If they used them then they'd immediately change their minds, but unfortunately there are a lot of small-minded cynics out there.

"People say that it's the placebo effect - you think you're taking something to help, so you feel better. But I've given a very distressed horse some and it immediately calmed down. How can you use a placebo on a horse?"

The idea is based on the belief that each plant has a different quality to it, which can be used to benefit people.

Made from blossoms of wild plants, bushes and trees, the remedies are designed to encourage a positive frame of mind.

For instance shy, timid, people who are easily scared could take mimulus which will encourage feelings of courage, safety and security.

Or if someone you know suffers from being too absentminded and clumsy then offer them clematis to make them more focussed.

And large numbers of people are increasingly subscribing to going Bach to nature - their herbal remedies sell across the globe, and are not only found tucked away in an apothecary shops but on the shelves of high street chemists.

Dr Bach spent much of his time in Cromer discovering three new flowers, agrimony, chicory and vervain, around the seaside town as well as making many of his first 19 potions there from plants such

as clematis and cerato found on the cliffs.

Gerard Wolf, flower finder for the Bach company said: "Obviously we can't offer medical advice but they can be used as an alternative or alongside treatment.

"When I first read a book about how it all worked I just couldn't finish it because I didn't believe it but then I went through a bad time and used some emergency essence and the effect was amazing. I knew I had to help produce these products."

from EDP

Another song from the multi-talented Anggun...who will reappear on my blog a few times!

Anggun - cesse la pluie

Là-haut sur un nuage
J'aimais sans me douter
Qu'éclaterait l'orage
Je n'ai pas vu le temps changer
Tes mots sur leur passage
Ont tout noyé, brisé
Tu es resté fermé
Je ne sais où aller...
Oublier cet orage éphémère
L'effacer et t'aimer comme hier
Je cherche et je cherche
Le remède pour qu'enfin
Cesse la pluie
Cesse la pluie
Oublier cet orage éphémère
L'effacer, retourner en arrière
Je cherche et je cherche
Le remède pour qu'enfin
Cesse la pluie
Cesse la pluie
Tu as tourné la page
D'un coup de vent glacé
Et d'un éclair sauvage
Balayé le passé
Si le ciel se dégage
Le coeur léger j'irai
Sur un nuage me poser
Et me laisser aller...
Oublier cet orage éphémère
L'effacer et t'aimer comme hier
Je cherche et je cherche
Le remède pour qu'enfin
Cesse la pluie
Cesse la pluie
Oublier cet orage éphémère
L'effacer, retourner en arrière
Je cherche et je cherche
Le remède pour qu'enfin
Cesse la pluie
Cesse la pluie

One of the most beautiful songs of recent times, with an equally beautiful, (European tour) video to accompany it.

I'm happier now.
This is for preciousKK and my close blog friends...

I idolised Ofra Haza years ago...and now she is no longer with us, it's hard to believe she has gone, but her voice, songs live-on forever.

This is my favourite of hers, from 1988's "Shaday" album. But I prefer the album version much more, due to it's haunting, ethereal atmosphere.

This version is still damned good...

Ofra Haza: Lovesong

SIMENI KAHOTAM AL LIBECHA'
SIMENI KAHOTAM AL ZROECHA'
KI AZAH KA'MAVET AHAVAH
KASHAH KISHOL KINA'AH
RESHFHA RESHPE YESH
ESH SHALHEVET YAH
MAYIM RABIM LO YUCHLU
LECHABOT ET HA'AHAVAH
VUNEHAROT LO YISHTEFUHA
IM-YITEN EYSH
ET KOL-HON BEYTO BA'AHAVAH
BOZ YAVUZU LO

I was searching some books that I remember well, and miss reading, one which was entreched on my mind today was, "The Country Day by Day" by E. Kay Robinson from the early twenties...I have this at home, and found it here this morning.
But amazingly, it is a chronology of a country year, and within it's 372 pages, an old receipt was placed...can you guess which page it laid?
Yes, it was there within the page for September 24th!! A coincidence perhaps.

With that, I will post the contents of this day, from nearly a century ago, according to the brilliant nature notes of E Kay Robinson;

When a chilly wet wind blows, we often have false alarms of the departure of the swallows, because on looking out of the window towards the roofs where day after day they have been sunning themselves by regiments, we see no sign of them.
Instead of the wheeling clouds of birds, which at short intervals used to burst upon the sky and fill the air with darting, twittering shapes, only one or two hardworking house-martins, which still have young in the mud nests under the eaves, come and go, bringing food.

But if you watch these solitary martins as they leave their nests, you see that, instead of circling round the house as they do when the air is warm and still, easily catching what they need of the multitude of straying flies, now they go straight out of sight. And if you follow them, you find out at once where all the other martins and swallows are.

To leeward of every large tree and along the sheltered side of every hedge they are darting and wheeling in busy company. It is not they mind the wind and rain so much, but they know that in such weather the only insects abroad are those blown from trees and hedges, or which dance in the shelter of overhanging boughs. So the swallows resort thither for such breakfast as may be going; but when the wind drops, and the sun draws the teeming insect life out again, they return to their easy, idle life upon the steaming roofs. And, looking out of window, some one says with pleased surprise, "Why, the swallows have not gone, after all!"

The root of the matter

A porcupine came and asked a dog for food. The dog said he had no food but showed him a field of sugarcane belonging to a judge.

"Eat as much as you want," said the dog, "but leave the roots intact so that the plants will grow again."
The porcupine found the sugarcane sweet and juicy. He began to visit the field every day. In the beginning he ate only the stems, as directed by the dog, but after a few days he began to eat the roots too.
One day the judge saw the destruction in his field and was very angry. He called the dog and accused him of destroying his crop. The dog said it was the porcupine who was to blame. The porcupine said he was innocent and suggested that the matter be settled in court. The judge agreed.

The porcupine waited till winter set in. Then one chilly morning he went to the dog's house and told him the judge had summoned them.
When they entered the judge's chamber the dog began to shiver with the cold.
"See how he trembles, Your Honour," said the porcupine. "Isn't that a sure sign of guilt?"
"What do you have to say for yourself?" asked the judge, looking sternly at the dog.
But the dog's teeth were chattering with the cold and he could not speak. Thinking that his silence was an admission of guilt, the judge pronounced him guilty and kicked him out of the house.

Whenever a dog barks incessantly, Africans say he is warning the judge that the porcupine has got into his field.

The BBC World Service had a great report from Japan last night, about a claim from a northern prefecture that Jesus is buried there...hard to believe, but worth reading-on...

below is another report which is a revelation, though quite how deep a legend is, is anyone's guess...

Church bells will ring out louder this year as millions of Christians across the world join in songs of praise for Jesus Christ's 2000th birthday. While most turn their thoughts to Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem, few know of the important role some claim Japan played in the life of Christ.

There are probably very few Christians who have even heard of the small village of Herai that lies tucked away in the northern reaches of Aomori Prefecture, but some here maintain this to be the place where Jesus settled, married and died at the ripe old age of 106. Although it's commonly held that Jesus grew up as a carpenter in the Galilee town of Nazareth, according to the legend of Herai, or Shingo as it's now known, the 11 "missing years" of Christ's life not accounted for in the New Testament of the Bible were spent in Japan.

According to the local legend, Christ first came to Japan, aged 21, during the reign of the 11th emperor, Suinin, and landed at the port of Hashidate on the Japan Sea coast. Apparently, he settled in Etchu province where, under the tutelage of a great master, he studied Japanese language, literature and various other subjects. The Legend of Daitenku Taro Jurai (Daitenku Taro Jurai was the name Christ is said to have later taken) claims that at the end of his 11-year stay, Christ returned to Judea, aged 33, where he taught about the "sacred land" of Japan. But, unfortunately, "Christ's teachings about Japan were considered too radical," and he was condemned to death.

The New Testament teaches Jesus was crucified at Golgotha, rose from the dead after three days and later ascended into Heaven. However, according to the legend of Herai, Jesus escaped this fate, and instead his brother Isukiri was nailed to the cross and died. Christ, meanwhile, fled with his disciples and went into hiding, carrying locks of the Virgin Mary's hair and his brother's ear. After an arduous journey across Siberia, Christ finally returned to Japan and settled in Herai where he changed his name, married a Japanese woman called Miyuko, fathered three daughters and lived to the age of 106.

Devout Christians may insist that the Garden Tomb, which lies not far from Damascus Gate outside the Old City of Jerusalem, is Jesus' true burial site, but the people of Herai have another story to tell-marked by a large wooden cross, Jesus' tomb (Juraizuka) sits alongside his brother's (Judaibo) in Herai. Isukiri's tomb holds his ear and locks of the Virgin Mary's hair.

It's hard to imagine anyone, let alone Christ, would have schlepped out to one of the remotest parts of northern Japan in days of old, as even today it demands a great deal of effort to reach the village. Herai epitomizes the middle of nowhere. The place is little more than a lonely grocery store, a sprinkling of farmhouses and scraggly garlic fields and rice paddies blanketed with snow at this time of year. Most tourists either already know about the tombs, as well as the "pyramids" said to predate those of Egypt, or are so intrigued by the wild talk they hear of Herai while trekking out near Towadako Lake they can't resist coming to check it out.

Pyramid scheme
The first pyramid of the "O-Ishigami Pyramid" circle, we are told, was discovered in August, 1935 on Mt Towari, exactly one day after the discovery of Christ's tomb in the village. According to the "history of the Divine Age" found in the documents of the Takenouchi family, there are seven pyramids in Japan, dating back tens of thousands of years and older than the Egyptian pyramids. Legend has it that the largest of these "pyramids," the Mirror Stone, used to stand upright and had writing engraved on it, but fell over during an earthquake in 1857 and became embedded in the ground. Disappointingly, not one of the rocks slightly resembles a pyramid in the Egyptian or Mexican sense, but apparently Japanese pyramids are different from those found elsewhere. They were triangular rocks situated on the top of mountains and used for sun-worship in ancient times.

continue article...

It started well enough, quite normal in fact, by the sea in summertime, with family and friends, but something was missing in the quiet ghostliness of a seaside place, or port, lacking many people.

Was it the sun? Almost entirely obscured by a thick summer haze beyond 7oktas, common to Norfolk, (but this was probably not Norfolk at all), and I was wondering, or even wandering.

We approached some gangway, rusted drips by it's fading white painted sides, leading upwards and onwards, downwards and forever forwards, until the seaview could be witnessed, deep pea green, slight waves and a total absence of people. Where was I now? It felt port-like, looked, resort-like, but showed neither quality on second-sight.

Then the strangest things happened...people sat beside us, and boats, appeared too.
Out of the blue, we sent a birthday card...yes...and what a sizeable one too, it was 'sent' but to no avail, because within a moment, I saw it floating by a jetty...this spelled the lowest point of the dream, as we were devastated to see such a sight.
I jumped down and waked an ancient steel pillar, that led right to the sea, closeby the floating greeting; amazingly, I walked right onto the water, untroubled, and rescued our unopened card, and retrieved both myself and the sizeable blue envelope ashore...by which time, a phone was ringing unanswered...there was no way of finding where it was...it kept calling, message signals, but no where to be found...I ventured back up the walkways and into space...the dream continued....somewhere...

-lauren6