Middlefocus

Three men on an island - James MacIntyre

2025-12-18T11:07:00.004+00:00

Really enjoyed this memoir from the reserved shelves of Libraries NI. An account of three artists, George Campbell, Gerard Dillon and James MacIntyre spending the summer of 1951 on the Island of Inishlacken on the western coast of Ireland across from Roundstone, County Galway. James was the youngest of the three and the author of the memoir. Gerard died in 1971, George in 1979 and James in 2015.

What I liked about this memoir was the sense of comradeship and adventure back in the early 1950s. The stories of the artistic community in Belfast of the time and the familiar (to me) places mentioned all combined to keep me turning the pages. There are delightful pen portraits of the characters and islanders. The observations on the work of artists developing their style were fascinating.

I went in search of this book having heard about it through the publicity for an event in the FE McWilliam Gallery in Banbridge. Back in November 2025 the Friends of the Gallery hosted an artist talk by Rosie McGurran on the Inislacken Project in County Galway. Sadly I didn't make it to that and went in search of the book. The local library worked the magic!

Published by The Blackstaff Press, Belfast in 1996 it is handsomely produced with dozens of line drawings, colour reproductions and photographs on high quality paper - a pleasure to hold.

I've rated it highly as I often do for books that I would like to read again and would like to have on my shelves at home. I have noticed that it fetches a high price from resellers online. I suppose that's the way of art and artists. They scratch out living, selling their work to buy materials and their next meal. Then when they leave us their work attracts a posthumous fortune.

I am delighted that the author recorded that summer and gave us a chance to share in that memory.

A delight.

Details:

Title: Three Men on an Island

Author: James MacIntyre

Published: The Blackstaff Press, Belfast 1996

ISBN: 0-85640-582-5

Sea Skin - Niamh Seana Meehan at The Mac Belfast

2025-11-12T22:48:00.004+00:00

Visited this exhibition at TheMacBelfast today. Okay the sound was off but that didn't detract from a wonderful deepdive into the sea bed. I'll be back to experience it again. It's on to January.

Why?

The dark is inviting. The colours stand out. I didn't touch but Oh... how I wished to roll in that seaweed texture. Wonderful!

The textures, the colours, the shapes, the fabrics. The creative process.

Do yourself a favour. If you are near this immerse yourself and

Let flow!

November 2025 Reads

2025-11-03T23:21:00.003+00:00

Four reads for November. Not weighty tomes this time but already sure that there will be plenty of stimulating content.

Fiction: Breaking Point by Edel COFFEY

Non-fiction: Women and Power, a manifesto by Mary BEARD

French literature: L'Heure Exquise by Dominique BARBÉRIS

Poetry and Drama: Red Velvet by Lolita CHAKRABARTI

I've set myself a new goal of reading a lot more non-fiction - a genre that will include essays, biographies and commentaries. Add to that a work of fiction each month as well as a French text and some poetry/drama.

We'll see how that develops.

The Red-Haired Woman : Orhan PAMUK

2025-10-23T23:03:00.002+01:00

Managed to squeeze-in-a-read on our trip in Turkey. How appropriate that it should be Orhan PAMUK's The Red-Haired Woman. I thoroughly enjoyed this story which reprised aspects of the Oedipus myth - the interplay of tensions between fathers and sons. The context of the novel is well-digging in a small town on the outskirts of Istanbul. The red-haired woman is a member of a travelling troup of actors who visit the town. She becomes the object of our narrator's attention. There is a connection with the father.

A terrible accident occurs and there follows decades of repressed guilt... and an unexpected denouement.

The story definitely kept my interest and the final pages definitely caught me off guard. Reading those I simply had to go back and restart the novel. Really? Check it out - you'll get my drift.

It was fascinating to read a novel in situ - travelling through parts of Istanbul mentioned in the story. I finished it while there but I didn't take the book home with me, passing it on to to a fellow traveller who would be staying longer in the city. I wonder did he manage to finish it. Leave it there?

Before parting with the book I scribbled my email address inside the back cover.

I wonder where it is now.

A book set adrift - a bottle in a literary sea. Thousands of miles away.

Will its ripples reach back?

The Lost Bookshop - Evie Woods

2025-10-23T22:56:00.003+01:00

Wasn't able to make this event - abroad on travels - but have read the book which I much enjoyed.

Anyone out there attend? Reaction?

What a great idea.

The logo at Ephesus

2025-10-19T00:01:00.045+01:00

The guide asked us to stop in front of this stone fragment on our visit to Ephesus in Turkey.

"What does it remind you of?" she asked.

Not being that sporty I didn't see the connection immediately.

But now, I cannot not see it.

According to the guide it was the inspiration for a widely recognised logo.

Do you see it?

It is an image of the Greek winged goddess Nike. She symbolises victory not just in wars but in more peaceful pursuits such as games and athletics. She is renowned for her speed and strength.

I guess the resulting stylised logo ticked all the right boxes.

October 2025 Reads

2025-10-01T00:25:00.002+01:00

I am plannig to read these four books this month.

My Name Is Red. Orhan PAMUK

The heftiest by far is Orhan PAMUK's My Name Is Red published in 2001 by Faber&Faber. We are holidaying in Turkey soon and as I like to read literature from the country I am visiting I thought this would hit the spot. Mind you, I'll have to be mindful of baggage allowances and so perhaps an e-version or audiobook might be more practical for carrying around.

Here's some info on the book from Faber&Faber

This train is for. Bernie McGill

It's Book Week NI later this month and local writer Bernie McGill will be sharing some readings and reflections at Suffolk Library where I attend a monthly reading group. I've already started this one having picked it up at the library last week. The book, a collection of short stories, was published by No Alibis Press in 2022. Here's some details from the publisher and information from the author herself here.

There are plenty of events on for book week so why not check out librariesni.org.uk for details?

No et moi. Delphine de VIGAN

This is my French read for October. It has been selected for discussion by our French circle. It was chosen because a previous meeting had considered the author's Les Enfants Sont Rois which generated plenty of comments. No et moi has been translated into English, is offered as an audiobook and has been made into a film. I tend to read my French titles as ebooks. The reader offers the possibility of immediate translation and as often as not I find I have to look up clarifications of geographical or historical references.
Here are some details from Goodreads.

and finally

Written on the body. Jeanette Winterson

Carrying on the library connection this is one I ordered a while back and which has eventually arrived. I had read a review of it some time ago and felt I had to read it. The author is one of my heroes - I follow her pieces on Substack which I find challenging. A way with words!

Check out some information on the title from Penguin here.

Looking forward to getting lost in these pages.

Happy reading!

September 2025 Reading. Scheduling my TBR stack

2025-09-01T00:14:00.000+01:00

The plan has been a while in the making. It is to address my ToBeRead (TBR) stack which gets bigger by the week. Have you a similar pile? You know, the one that sits on a shelf or at the side of your bed. Yes that one! You pass a bookshop and something new catches your eye. Okay then, let's get that. Or you've been to a book launch, met the author and because it was a free event (maybe with a glass of wine) you felt it was just downright rude not to buy a copy of their latest. Don't even think of the book programmes on TV and Radio when listening in inevitably leads to another purchase.

So yes, I welcome all those opportunities for the new but feel the need to balance the flow and make room for them. The way I'm doing that is through a reading planner. I'll share this on another post but essentially I have created a specific calendar on my phone to schedule a month's reading in advance.

What's the saying? Those who fail to plan are planning to fail.

Some of the books I list in this post have, not for the first time, made it to the top of the pile but by sharing my intention to read them this month I hold myself accountable and trust that any readers who happen upon this post will call me out if I don't meet the challenge.

So here's the plan for the six books I'm going to read this September:

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig. It's our Library Reading Group's assigned read. We meet to discuss on the last Thursday of each month. So that's a pre-fixed, no fail deadline.

44 Poems On Being with Each Other from Pádraig ÓTuama. I've already dipped into this one as I finished his collection of Kitchen Hymns which I loved. I had the pleasure of meeting Pádraig back in February when he shared his poems with us at Belfast's Crescent Arts Centre. And I listen in regularly to his podcast, Poetry Unbound from the OnBeing Studios. Do check it out! Worth a listen.

Les Kangourous by Dominique Barbéris. I'm a keen Francophile and run another blog over at francofiled.org - come say bonjour ! - And so as to keep up my French I read texts in the language. These days it's getting harder and I have to stop reading to look up meanings, references and definitions. I confess that I usually use an e-reader. Not only do I get an instant translation with a touch or two but I can also highlight and add new words to my vocabulary builder. This book though is a hard copy, paper version. I love the scent and feel of paper. I've read another book by Dominique Barbéris - A Sunday in Ville d'Avray which I adored. It boasts a bookplate signed by the author. I was so taken with it that I also bought a hard copy in the original French. Looking forward to this one.

Two Summers by Glenn Patterson. Glenn is a regular contributor to local book readings and launches. I read his Where are we Now? a while back and enjoyed it immensely. He tells a good story. I'm interested in the structure of this one as apparently it's two good stories in one book. The blurb promises: Two boys, two cities and two summers. Another attraction was the endorsements from Wendy Erskine, Roddy Doyle and Will Self. Better crack on with it then. Actually it's first on the planner for this September.

Beowulf by Seamus Heaney. Hands up - I've little knowledge of this and it is one of the books that has made a recurring journey to the TBR stack. Time to put that right. I have a shelf full of the great poet's works and often lose myself in the various collections. Why now with Beowulf? I've spotted it a few times recently. Surfacing? Perhaps the old adage provides an answer, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

The School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. I remember studying this at school and our teacher really brought it to life. I enjoy plays with witty dialogue and this one has that in abundance. This edition dates from 1964 and is in remarkably good condition - only minor scuffs and of course the odd naive annotation from my younger self. It's also short and is scheduled for the end of the month.

So there we are. Six for September.

Just to really push the accountability thing - I'm also going to add a comment or two in footnotes to this post so that I can record my reactions to what I have read.

Come on TBR - let's go!

Montaigne : Stefan Zweig. Pushkin Press

2025-08-29T23:36:00.002+01:00

Title: Montaigne

Author: Stefan Zweig. Translation and Introduction by Will Stone

Published: Pushkin Press / Kindle 2015

First published 1941

I regret to say that I had not previously read anything by Stefan ZWEIG (1881-1942). However, I was intrigued to follow up on a recommendation to read this small volume on Montaigne, whose lifestyle and essay writing I have long found fascinating.

What struck me most in this short biography is the overlap with Zweig's own situation in fleeing the Nazi onslaught of the 20th century to Montaigne's position as a renaissance philosopher and essayist amid societal upheaval at the end of the 16th century. There are clear resonances with our modern world and I found myself on several occasions marking material that could apply just as much to today as it did in those earlier periods.

There is a substantial introduction to the book by Will Stone who translated the original and in his observations there was also much to highlight and think about. In essence then, this is a short book, that took only a couple of hours to read but whose lessons persist in the memory.

I noted some and think they bear close attention as the issues examined are of recurring concern.

Here is one on Rattling chains:

"It seemed to our generation that Montaigne was simply rattling chains we thought long since broken and we could never imagine that in fact Fate had reforged them for us, far crueller and stronger than ever before". (p40)

Another on Essential Values:

"For one of life's mysterious laws shows that we only notice the authentic and essential values when it's too late". (p40)

And on Freedom:

"The true essence of freedom is that it can never restrict the freedom of another". (p109)

I thought about Zweig and Montaigne earlier this evening when I listened to a discussion between two politicians. One of them was espousing older, time-honoured values of humanity, rights and freedoms while the other insisted that times had changed and those values were no longer relevant to the modern world. I have to say that I instinctively recoiled when I heard the latter. I read once that you only really know what your values are when they are offended so I will need to explore that recoil to better understand it. But I find it fascinating that Zweig in his time of peril found comfort and direction in Montaigne's essays from 300 years earlier.

The lesson seems to be that we should be open to those human values and not to shrink into ourselves as

"the more we reduce our space, the more petty concerns prey on us". (p122)

The short book is full of such mind-expanding thoughts. However, I want to close with this one from three centuries ago that I have chosen as an antidote to the swirls of negativity, fear and doom mongering that I increasingly sense all around:

"My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which have never happened."

Michel de Montaigne

Check out this Wikipedia article on Stefan ZWEIG

Closed opening: Kraków near Museum of Contemporary Art

2025-04-27T15:30:00.002+01:00

In Kraków for a short break we had been making our way to the Oskar Schindler factory which sits alongside the Museum of Contemporary Art.

We chanced upon this painted doorway which certainly catches attention. I knew as soon as I saw it that it would pass the test for inclusion in my photo collection of Closed Openings.

No descriptive words for this one.

Just look at it. Observe. Anything come to mind?

Balanced stone stack

2025-04-02T19:30:00.026+01:00

Walking a beach today, we came across a group of stones balanced on top of each other. Not a natural formation and clearly someone had found the time to engage in creative effort. How much time? How much effort?

No doubt it was a meditation of sorts. Picking the right stones and shells to lend structure and support.

The stack looked as if it would topple over at the slightest touch but no…it resisted the incoming waves that washed and frothed around.

I stepped into the foam to get a close-up picture. I thought of other times; childhood, when armed with buckets and spades we sculpted with sand. This seemed the product of maturer effort - a rock castle and moat.

Later we watched as a small flock of turnstones flew down, plumage the colour of the foreshore, and got busy living up to their appellation, flicking over pebbles in search of food. Did the stack look out of place to the birds? Upset their larder?

Not a bit of it, they took it in their glide.

A small stone stack, kinder to the environment than litter or graffiti.

A vintage bottle surfaces

2025-03-30T18:18:00.001+01:00

It may have been the light from a sunny day at the beach because a glint of something caught my eye and made me pay attention. Glass. I stooped to look closer and picked up a bottle.

Had it been just discarded or washed up? It looked as if it had been buried, brown caked-on sand around its neck, still stoppered.

I could feel the embossment on the body and dusting it down could read the details:

REGISTERED. WJ. BRIGGS. BELFAST and signed WJ.Briggs. But what did it contain?

Holding it up to the light I peered inside hoping to find a roll of paper - a message in a bottle maybe. No such luck, it was quite empty. No hint of or even a trace of whatever liquid it once contained. One thing was sure, it was a glass bottle, dulled by abrasion but clearly vintage.

This would-be beachcomber wanted to learn as much as possible about it.

Questions surfaced. Why was the bottle here? How come? What was nearby? Who left it, an adult or a child? Does the Briggs company still exist? Where was it?

Standing on a shoreline answers to those questions would not be immediately forthcoming and so I took a picture - the one above and returned the bottle to its finding place, tucked in safely so that it wouldn’t cause injury to a child or animal. I’ve used online reverse image searches before and figured that using that technique when I got home might satisfy some of my curiosities. Sharing the picture later, a close family member with a specialist interest in old glass and object biographies berated my decision, “Oh you should have brought it home for me!!!” followed not long after with we’ll have to go back and get it. Well, we could do. More on that later.

The reverse image search, turned up loads of stuff. Who knew? Bottles like this one are indeed vintage. Some even attract good prices on online sales sites. My find appeared to be in better condition than several others I viewed. Helpfully some of the online vendors had done their own research and provided supporting details for their sale items. The Briggs family it transpires were manufacturers of aerated waters and were based in Belfast’s Pine Street from the mid-1880s to the early 1900s. The business appears to have developed through the family line and changed name in the 1970s. My bottle appears to date back to around 1910.

That’s something. How has it managed to survive intact for over 100 years? I think of the history through which it has endured; the bubbled memories of lifetimes though which it has remained hidden.

How has it surfaced? Lara Maiklem in her wonderful book, A Field Guide to Larking (Bloomsbury, 2021) explains in a section titled, The Best Time To Beachlark, that high winds and rough seas can cause movements of sand and drag up hidden objects from the sea floor. We have had plenty of storms and rough seas over the past year so that indeed could be the reason the bottle has found a new hiding place.

Could I recover it? I think so. You see poor substitute as it was for the vintage bottle the photo has at least a modern attribute. Geotagging. When I took the picture on my phone I hadn’t realised it added other data such as latitude and longtitude. So when I click on the information button that accompanies the photo it pulls up a map of where the image was taken.

Spot on! Yes, that’s exactly the place. So next time there I’ll go beachlarking, phone in hand and hope that it’s still there. I would hate to see it on an online auction site.

And I’m also thinking that I’ll bring my own well-stoppered bottle with a note inside to cast on an outgoing tide.

On the proximity of trains

2025-03-14T23:31:00.039+00:00

A railway line runs close to the rear of our home. Local and express trains including the hourly ones serving the Belfast/Dublin route hurtle past every fifteen minutes and apart from the occasional sustained warning blast of an air horn we don’t pay them much attention. Visitors to our home are taken aback: “Does that noise not bother you?” It doesn’t. It is simply part of the soundscape of where we live; something we are used to.

Our paternal family has close connection with the railway. Granda Christy was a driver on a steam locomotive for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) which also operated in Northern Ireland. A story is told of him stopping his engine on the Antrim Coast as he felt that the sound coming back to him from up ahead was not quite right. His intuitive experience was correct, boulders had fallen unto the track. Catastrophe avoided. A close call.

Christy TRACEY with his steam locomotive. Photo source unknown.

Exterior sounds are one type of resonance and those inside another. When travelling by train, I love that rhythmic, clickety-clack of the wheels and that steely, acidic squeal of the rails. I often find myself internally reciting one of my all-time favourite poems, the wonderful, Night Mail by W.H. Auden which was composed to accompany a film documentary of the same name. Consider this opening verse

This is the night mail crossing the border
Bringing the cheque and the postal order
Letters from the rich, letters from the poor
The shop at the corner, the girl next door

Say it with that clickety-clack and you get that lovely onomatopoeic sound of the train wheels. Why not stop reading this now and go look it up?

Go on, there’ll be another train of thought in a minute …

Back to where we live. We have a train station nearby and two level crossings, one for pedestrians only and another for people and vehicles. Protecting the traveller clearly figures in the minds of railway managers as there are several safety notices on display. And at the station you are instructed to stand well behind the platforms vivid yellow line.

All those warnings. Best not to get too close.

Those warnings were nowhere in evidence late last year when our travels took us to Vietnam. Among many cities we visited Hanoi and near our hotel was the aptly named Train Street. Apparently it is the place to visit to experience the regular and close encounter of a huge passenger train. Thousands of people turn up. The odd barrier, no yellow lines and few if any warning lights. Instead tiny businesses of bars, restaurants and shops ply their trade within inches of the passing trains. Merchants can be seen walking across the tracks, serving their customers and sometimes pulling back tables and chairs that maybe, just maybe are a little too close. While the train is still far enough away people place bottle caps on the tracks. These are recovered flattened to wafer thin after the train has passed over them.

This short video captures the sense of proximity and let’s face it, danger.

Train Street. Quite an experience. A thousand miles away from our day-to-day living.

Try to cross while our local level-crossing barrier is closed could open you up to a hefty fine.

Railway buffet services here aren’t about to serve platform drinks shaken and stirred by huge passing locomotives. And that’s as it should be. Leave that up close rail stuff to the railway staff.

I’ll still enjoy the trains going by, listening out for those long-carriage Belfast/Dublin ones and think about who is going where. I’m sure I’ll also think back to Hanoi and Train Street.

And with each blare of the modern day air horns I know I’ll remember my grandfather, translating those klaxon sounds to mental whistle blasts from the age of steam.

The open and shut charity bookshops

2025-02-27T23:21:00.001+00:00

There are times when I feel that I have to clear out some of my books. It’s not that I no longer appreciate those that I have decided to re-home, it’s more about making more space to let in the new.

My latest dispersal included several books not on display but stored away in cupboards. It has been years since I opened them and I decided that they needed a more conscientious custodian. Use them or diffuse them! is my new guiding mantra.

Mind you, flicking through some that I had earmarked for donation, I found myself rereading. Interest renewed I decided to keep them. They live to light another day.

I wondered how much I had invested in the books and did a quick online search to check availability and current values. Even some of my pristine hard covers were only just a few £ pounds and there were loads for sale. So having decided to send the books on their way to new owners, it would be relatively simple and cheap to buy them again if I found I was missing them.

Selections made and packed into carrier bags it was off to the charity bookshop.

I had recently been to a newly opened store and spent some time discussing books and authors with the very knowledgeable vendor there. He welcomed the donation and thought many of the books would appeal to his customers. He also asked if I would complete a donation form describing the various books I was leaving. Of course: Miscellaneous titles, business and marketing, popular psychology, philosophy, leadership and some novels. That categorisation of the books was instructive, as many had been bought during my working life and now seemed less relevant in these retirement years. I was delighted that a future good home was assured and said that I would return in a couple of weeks with more books. Back home I resumed the task of clearing.

It’s a pleasure to handle books and I lost myself in the flow of thinning out their spaces. I packed up some heavyweight volumes in terms of both their poundage and content. I was sure that my new bookseller chum would be just as impressed as last time. But why had I packed so many? Clearly this new-found, guilt-free enthusiasm for parting with books had got the better of me. In my rush, I picked the wrong type of carrier bags; you know the ones with handles that dig deep?

I stopped a few times carrying the books to the charity shop only to arrive and find it closed. The times of business sign on the door confirmed that it should have been open but no - Books bite back!

What to do? Bring them home? Obviously not as that would mean stop/starting again, swapping loads and massaging fingers. Decision tome!

I knew there was a second-hand bookstore nearby where I could drop them off and although I have bought many a bargain there I was still wedded to that notion of goodwill gifting of the books. I thought of another charity shop that specialised in book sales. I had often gone there too and my donation would have the added benefit of supporting their good cause. It wasn’t far away either.

The staff member at this next bookshop was pleased to receive the carrier bags asking, as the first recipient did, whether I wanted them back. No thanks.

Have I missed the books? No, not yet.

I have though been tempted to call back into each of the shops to see if any are on their shelves and to check for how much they are selling them. My bookshelves aren’t empty however. Those freed-up spaces didn’t stay clear for long and new book tenants jostle for attention. They sit next to old inhabitants, familiar titles. Although many of these are in various states of wear and tear I couldn’t bear to part with them. Books are a bit like friends - the older, the nicer. Looking around I see instantly that some of them were pre-loved and picked up in charity bookshops. Other readers must have had their own clear-outs.

Thanks to those previous owners whose charity ends at home.

In situ reading: Power of the Powerless

2025-02-20T22:00:00.026+00:00

Preparing for our trip to the Czech Republic I purchased a copy of Vaclav Havel's Power of the Powerless with an introduction by Professor Timothy Snyder. I've made this contract with myself that wherever I go abroad I'll delve into appropriate literature from the country, get a book, bring it with me and read it when there. A cultural backcloth to the visit. In situ reading.

Close to our hotel in Prague we spotted this memorial to the Velvet Revolution and returned to picture it with the book.

Power of the Powerless is a challenging although instructive read.

Notes:

Check out the Vintage edition of the book here.

See this related Wikipedia article here.

Find the Velvet Revolution Memorial on Národní Trida in Prague

On tasting AI wine

2025-02-12T22:54:00.006+00:00

Here’s something I learned last week. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used to produce wine.

Really? What about the vintner? I always thought that their practised, artful skill is what wine making was all about it. Technology and machinery in the vineyard by all means but in the alchemy of turning grape to wine surely not.

There’s a first time for everything and so it was back to school for a lesson on and taste of AI-curated wine. School in this case was a wine appreciation class where a dozen of us meet each week in a local social club. Our tutor - we’ve come to look upon him as a benefactor - selects several wines he thinks we’ll like and we spend a couple of hours tasting our way through them and comparing notes and picking favourites. In a recent class many of us also sampled for the first time “orange” wine and that might be the subject of a future post.

But back to that AI curation.

CTZN - Luminous Drift is a wine blend from South Eastern Australia, apparently bottled in London. That probably means it is a “tanker” wine, imported in large containers and bottled on arrival to reduce transportation costs. AI has no doubt been deployed there to maximise efficiencies.

At 11% volume, Luminous Drift is subject to a lower duty rate than other more powerful wines. This makes it more marketable as rates for all alcohol products sold in the UK are now linked to strength. That lower volume is attractive to many people , like me, who favour lighter styles for health reasons.

Do you know what? The wine was very well-received by our group. Fresh, bright and elegant with a nice acidity that would pair well with some pasta dishes or goat’s cheese. A summer-sipper many of us felt. And most would gladly have it again.

I wonder if producing this class pleasing result is how AI played its part. It seems that curation relies on algorithms harvesting data; pressing our preferences for various grapes and styles and fermenting our likes and dislikes to finally bottle something that appeals to the widest possible number of people. The outworking of those data points results in a wine blend of 52% Pinot Grigio, 23% Sauvignon Blanc and 16% Riesling. Of course, there is a Human dimension. That final 9% is the Vintner’s craft working to achieve a balanced finish.

Serious students do homework and so a trip to the off-sales was prescribed.

Back home with the bottle I noticed a QR code on the label. Now that was clever. Scanning the code with my phone camera a robot character called SOM - short for sommelier - appeared on screen. Som’s task is to guide the purchaser through a virtual wine tasting. It would be great to screen share that with a group of friends while also sharing the contents of a bottle. CTZN also offers a couple of reds in its hard drive, so more than enough for a virtual home tasting. Maybe not for our class though.

Som was a fun character but not as yet a replacement for our wine tutor, the benefactor who each week goes shopping for wines he thinks will delight us.

As well as wine knowledge, his human algorithms factor in history, geography, experience of and anecdotes from visiting the wine lands.

Emotional and actual intelligence. Worth bottling.

PS: Please be a good CTZN and drink responsibly

Haiku on storm-tossed trees

2025-02-06T23:00:00.013+00:00

Sense? Pencil shavings.

Trees. Fallen by the wayside.

Sawdust. Pooled like blood.

The Refugee Woman and Child

2025-02-03T00:10:00.068+00:00

The beautiful church in central France where I met the Refugee Woman and Child

I wrote the following poem 50 years ago. Scalded by an experience I found that I could only express my feelings through writing it. Whatever the poem lacks in style and structure, the act of going home and penning it had a powerful effect. Powerful enough to have stayed with me for 50 years. Still vivid in my memory.

I had been at a church service in a town in France and during the ceremony a woman, clearly a refugee, head covered in a blanket and carrying an infant made her way up the aisle through the congregation reaching out her hand for money. It was a direct approach to a captive audience. I remember seeing the celebrant taking her to the side and discreetly giving her some money. She hadn’t finished just yet however and continued her path through the church, having much less success with others in attendance.

Then our eyes met.
The look in those eyes. Defiant dignity.
I felt really uncomfortable as she headed towards me.
My moment of truth…

The Refugee Woman and Child
This morning I met the mother of God
As she held out her hand to say
« Give me some money for my child in rags,
I’ve asked and been turned away »

I gave her some centimes in loose change.
Her eyes questioned, Is that enough?
And the paper money in my wallet is still there
Richly folded up

Now I think only of that young child

That we are nailing to a tree.

« What you give to the least of my brethren

Then that so you give unto Me. »

I think of that experience often, especially these days when countless more displaced people are on the move worldwide. The lack of respect in how they are treated has not improved in those 50 years. If anything it has deteriorated and the dehumanising terminology used to describe refugees does society no credit.

That child, if still with us, would be in middle age by now.

What life have they had? What legacy is theirs?

I hope that somehow, against the odds they made it.

That the mother’s love blanketed their growing up.

I hope they inherited those eyes with defiant dignity.

Surréalisme 1971

2025-01-30T22:30:00.008+00:00

"Make sure," advised the museum art curator, "to always buy the catalogue of important art exhibitions you attend." She explained that a great deal of time and effort would have gone into bringing the various items together from different collections or galleries around the world. It would be fairly certain that those pictures would never again be together in the same exhibition.

Since that talk about French art given to our Belfast French Cercle around 15 years ago I've heeded her advice as often as interest and my wallet would allow. Pity I wasn't aware of her good counsel for one exhibition I attended when I had just turned 20 and when such advice was beyond my maturity. Still, it was an exhibition that left an indelible mark and an enduring appreciation.

Surrealist exhibition

It was 1971 in Bordeaux. I had been working there as a moniteur / supervisor in a summer camp just outside the city. Having been given a free day away from the duties of the camp a group of us visited the Galerie des Beaux-Arts which was hosting an exhibition on Surréalisme. We recognised of course some of the artists' names such as Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso and were introduced to René Magritte but it was the effect of those paintings that left the indelible mark.

There were two paintings in particular that remain vivid in my memory. One a large picture of the Madonna spanking her child over her knees, a halo lying on the ground and three men looking at the scene through a small window. The other was of Saint Anthony being tempted, pursued by ominous clouds and sensual demons.

Of course I didn't take the details of the artists at the time much less buying a catalogue. Nor did I take the titles of the works. But decades later and having heard the art curator's advice I thought it would be interesting to track down those images.

Tracing the artists

Where to begin? Books on Surrealist art naturally and internet search engines. It was amazing and daunting to see just how many times Saint Anthony was tempted. Poor chap! And as for the Madonna and Child? - a needle in a haystack.

What about checking the site of the Gallerie des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux? Yes, some interesting pointers but then a moment of inspiration. If the art curator who had given us the talk was right and the done thing was to purchase an exhibition catalogue then maybe there would be a copy online. I knew exactly where and when the exhibition took place, Bordeaux 1971 and so it was worth a try.

Surreal ! There it was - a catalogue for sale from Galerie Artima in Paris.

Yes, you're right. I did buy. There it is, pictured above.

The exhibition catalogue all the way back from the past. It's in a remarkably good state, with wear mostly on the spine. A colourful cover, La main fertile by André MASSON designed specially for the exhibition and with mostly black and white pictures inside.

The curator was definitely right - the provenance of the artworks from individual collections and galleries was widespread: Anvers, Bâle, Bandol, Bordeaux, Bruxelles, Charleroi, Dortmund, Gand, Genève, Hambourg, Helsinki, Ixelles, Knokke-Le Zoute, Londres, Limoges, Marseille, Nantes, Neuilly-sur-Seine, New York, Paris, Prague, Saint-Denis, Seillans and Strasbourg. That must have been some task; a labour of love to reach out and coordinate all those places over several months, if not years. Confirmation that those pictures were most unlikely to ever be under the same roof again.

But at least now I had the catalogue!

Sure enough, one of the colour plates was Item #96 Max Ernst's La Vierge corrigeant l'enfant Jésus painted in 1926. Its dimensions were recorded as 196 x 130 cms and was contributed by Mme Jean KREBS, Bruxelles.

Saint Anthony was there too. The sensual horror of the scene muted by its reproduction as a small black and white image. It's La Tentation de Saint Antoine by Dorothea Tanning. Item #221, it was painted in 1945 - 46 with dimensions 121,5 x 91 cms. So smaller than the Max Ernst but large in my memory. It was supplied by the Galerie François PETIT in Paris.

Those two pictures, separated by 20 years in their production, were not only connected in my memory but it turns out that their artists were also connected. In a biographical note the catalogue records that Max Ernst went to the United States in 1941, staying there for twelve years. While there, he connects with American, Dorothea Tanning and they marry.

Where are they now?

So well over 50 years on, where are the pictures now? I've spent some fascinatingly, fruitful hours tracking them down and meeting other great pictures that they have created on the way.

The Max Ernst now hangs in Museum Ludwig in Köln while the Dorothea Tanning is in La Salle University Art Museum, Philadelphia. So together in Bordeaux in 1971 and today continents apart - that art curator knew what she was talking about.

I have become quite a fan of Dorothea Tanning who lived to over 100 years of age from 1910 to 2012 and who in her later life became a novelist and a fine poet.

But what if a reader wanted to know more about those artists and pictures?

Well I was coming to that...

These links should help:

Spend a while at the Museum Ludwig in Köln for Max Ernst and then spend 5 minutes with Dorothea Tanning with superb commentary on the Temptation of Saint Anthony by Impressionist and Modern Art specialist Vanessa Fusco of Christies art auctions whose New York house managed the sale of the picture back in 2018 for well over $1,000,000. And you can read there too about the art prize in which the winning picture of Saint Anthony being tempted in the desert would be featured in the 1947 film of The Private Affairs of Bel Ami based on the Maupassant short story. Dorothea's Anthony didn't win but Max's Anthony did and just as in my catalogue his picture is presented in colour in an otherwise black and white film.

Hope you enjoy. I would love to know what you think.

And if I could leave you with a piece of advice?

When you are next at a major exhibition, don't be tempted not to, BUY the catalogue!

Reading back

2025-01-01T23:41:00.002+00:00

I always like to begin writing in a fresh notebook and diaries are special in that regard as a new year, whether calendar or academic, offers the promise of starting again.

Gathering up my store of diaries, I look back and see that I first started using the Collins Essential One day type (pictured above) in 2021. That diary format tied in nicely with a new year’s resolution to write around 300 words a day. I guess that I have nurtured and stuck to that habit as lots of words have been written over the years.

I had used Moleskin notebooks for a long time before that mainly to capture ideas and snippets of information. The Moleskins also doubled up with journal entries and travel logs. The issue I always had was how to track and call up the information my notebooks contained. I’ve made various attempts to index the contents with limited success. As well as my diary, I still use a notebook to record ideas and snippets but treat it as a kind of commonplace book. My latest one has a front section of contents in which I can list various subjects, topics and themes. The pages aren’t numbered so I am still on the lookout for a format that addresses that need as well.

More about Commonplace notebooks in a future post, meantime, back to the diary.

Diaries of course are for writing in. They are also for reading from. And I want to make a point about reading back over entries.

In his book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Virgin books, 2014, p78) Greg McKeown recommends a technique in journal-keeping. After the habit of daily journaling has been established he suggests reading back over the past 90 days. The purpose is not to go into the minutiae of everything that has been written but rather to become aware of trends or patterns.

Do you know what? Having looked back over several quarters the suggestion works - definitely spotted some trends which are not for sharing here!

If calculating time periods are not your flavour of the month, then the day-to-view diary has some useful little numbers at the top of each page which you may find helpful. The month, date and day are there of course but so too are the week numbers as well as the number of days into the year and the number remaining. So ninety days from here brings us up to 31 March 2025 with 275 days remaining.

That’s the quarterly review date set.

I’ll be on the readback for those trends.

Persistence

2024-09-05T23:42:00.001+01:00

Camouflage of weed,

For the gull, a tell-tale sign.

Flex loose the mussel.

Hold, rise, let fall ... Repeating

'Til shell cracks. Prizing open.

This Tanka was prompted by watching gulls pecking at mussels on a tide-out shore at Cultra beach. The crafty gulls work the mussels free from the rocks then gripping them fly up a few metres and drop them onto hard surfaces below. They do this a few times until the shell gives way and they descend to feed upon the flesh. How have they learned to do this? Instinct? Certainly persistent.

Interesting piece from BBC Maestro explaining the Japanese Tanka verse form here.

Three Seascape Haiku

2024-04-11T18:32:00.003+01:00

6th April 2024 Newtownabbey

Warning has been sent.

Kathleen agitates the waves,

Whipping up a storm.

8th April 2024 Cultra beach

Taking up the strain,

Rocks piled against the sea wall

Grunting, "We've got this!"

11 April 2024 Newcastle

Coastal strategy:

Groynes contest the wave's advance,

Divide and conquer.

Indispensable

2024-03-20T00:30:00.078+00:00

In 1967 when I had just turned 16, I got a summer job working in a fabric shop where my aunt was manager. It was a store selling dressmaking cottons and curtain material and my job was to brush and vacuum the floors. Before leaving to resume school I made it to the sales counter. After those first pay packets I thought I was "landed" - indispensable maybe?

The workers there took me under their wings and I fondly remember one old gentleman who must have had a theatrical bent as he would share lines of poetry and plays with me.

One day he declaimed the poem below. I can see him still, sure he was giving me a life lesson. I loved it and learning the words from him, I too committed it to memory. Over the years since I have remembered its key moral message about indispensability.

I had occasion to recall the words recently and typed them in to a search engine. The result flashed back instantaneously. And there was the the poem at the top of the search and importantly the name of its author - unknown to me for over 50 years. Her name was Saxon White Kessinger and she wrote the poem in 1959.

Like most of those workers the author too is now gone; she died back in 2010. Odd that her work so vividly audible in my memory for her name to be unknown to me. She clearly left an impression on my then senior colleague. And through him on me.

Here's to the threads of memory that are woven into the fabric of our connections.

Here's to the lasting impressions people, now long gone, have left us.

Here's to the enduring and indispensable legacy of poetry.

Here's to the memory of Saxon White Kessinger and her 1959 poem:

The Indispensable Man

Sometime when you’re feeling important;
Sometime when your ego's in bloom;
Sometime when you take it for granted,
You’re the best qualified in the room:

Sometime when you feel that your going,
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these simple instructions,
And see how they humble your soul.

Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining,
Is a measure of how much you’ll be missed

You can splash all you wish when you enter,
You may stir up the water galore,
But stop, and you’ll find that in no time,
It looks quite the same as before.

The moral of this quaint example,
Is to do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself but remember
There’s no indispensable man.

Author: Saxon White Kessinger

I aim to discover more about the poem's author and indeed to research other poems she may have written. Certainly Indispensable Man is widely available on the internet, a sharing medium not available those 50 plus years back when word-of-mouth oral tradition served to keep it in public awareness. I'm pleased that at least some of the postings online note that the author had given permission for publication. With her passing I cannot make the same statement but trust this acknowledgement of her authorship does not offend any posthumous rights obligations and if that were to be the case would strive to obtain permissions retrospectively.

Read Saxon White Kessinger (1921-2010) obituary notice here on Idaho Statesman

Bookshelf: Amongst Women - John McGAHERN

2024-01-06T16:53:00.032+00:00

Title: Amongst Women

Author: John McGahern

Publisher: Faber and Faber, 2008

ISBN: 978-0-571-22564-4

Paperback. Pre-owned

My rating: 4*

The back flap sets the scene: "Moran is an old republican whose life was forever transformed by his days of glory as a guerrilla fighter in the War of Independence. Now, in his old age, living out in the country, Moran is still fighting - with his family, his friends, even himself - in a poignant struggle to come to terms with the past."

This is a relatively short book at less than 200 pages and it soon becomes clear that the title Amongst Women not only refers to the farmhouse home at Great Meadow in which the action largely takes place but also to the phrase in the Hail Mary prayer recited in the family Rosary that recurs often in the story.

The writing is lovely and captures the mood as the story goes through various and sometimes repetitive phases. This seems to me intentional. There are no chapters but the text is broken into distinct phases - 10 of them - perhaps reflecting the repeating structure of the Rosary with its decades recounting scenes of various mysteries - joyful, sorrowful, glorious and luminous. I may be stretching a point but it's a thought.

Some of the situations and social conventions were familiar to me - redolent of growing up in the 50s. At times I felt these were uncomfortably familiar - the scenes in which Moran's new wife, Rose, stretches to keep the domestic peace would I think be recognised by many readers. The patriarchal, old guard, regime has had its day, but its impulses live on. Right from the opening sentence we are set up for tension: "As he weakened, Moran became afraid of his daughters" but "this once powerful man was so implanted in their lives that they had never really left Great Meadow..."

I thought a wedding scene at the marriage of Moran's daughter, Sheila and her husband Sean was poignantly drawn. Growing up, Sean's mother had saved him from the tough life of the farm; she had doted on him and he was the "special one" whom she had imagined becoming a priest who in time would say mass for her soul. Sean had not followed the plan and here he was getting married. That religious connection again - that Wedding at Cana decade?

Recommendation?

I would suggest this book to anyone interested in the social milieu of 1950s Irish society - things have come a long way but the author pulls at the roots. It would also appeal to those interested in literature with a sense of place and people in that place; those who, like me, are fascinated by family and social interactions and dysfunction will find plenty to absorb them.

I liked this book a lot. It certainly made me reflect.

More?

Check out information suppled by the publisher at this link.

Men in the Middle by Kori Reed

2023-09-21T00:21:00.000+01:00

Title: Men-in-the-Middle

Conversations to Gain Momentum with Gender Equity's Silent Majority

Author: Kori REED

Publisher: Pure Ink Press, 2023

Ebook ISBN: 979-8-9875866-5-5

My rating: 5*

The media soundscape reverberates with discussions on gender issues often emphasising equity issues in the workplace. For some reason male voices seem to be silent on the conversations that need to be had. This was one of the key observations put forward in this challenging yet engaging book by Kori Reed.

The book's structure is built around conversations with men discussing various workplace practices and situations, which being familiar to me as a male rang true. The premise was inviting and moments into the introduction I was hooked. I think I realised right from the outset that this should not be a quick read - the ideas and challenges shared would need time for reflection and action. So I took a chapter at a sitting. You can read each of the eleven chapters in 20 minutes or so but since each ends with a summary of key points and questions to consider it’s possible to spend a similar amount of time or longer in the reflective process.

And that was what happened.

In fact days after finishing the book that reflection continues, brought back to mind by a news item or reported instance of inequitable treatment. Of course reflection is one thing but the challenge is not to remain silent and to take action. Is writing a blog post joining the conversation?

The author is at pains to explain why men need to be part of these equity conversations. In the United States, for example, men represent just under half of the population but occupy the majority of leadership roles in organisations; the author contends that men therefore are already in positions to make a positive difference. She revisits this point in different chapters. We are hooked alright and in the nicest possible way she is not letting us off that hook! In a compelling argument and reinforcing her point about people already in positions of influence being able to help, she cites a strategy adopted by Martin Luther King. As part of his civil rights campaign, in the background, Dr King built key relationships with people in the white “middle” who could influence change.

The style of the book is user-friendly and the tone encouraging especially when she explores with her interlocutors male reticence in taking part in equity conversations. I appreciated the subtle shifts in mindset; these guys really had something to say. The author has been able to show us that there is a lot going on below the surface; in the "bummock" as she puts it, that large part of the iceberg hidden from view.

In its later chapters the book takes aspects of an existing model for change and applies that discipline to the gender equity equation. I felt that was useful and I liked how that equation was couched in terms of mutual benefit - a win-win for organisations.

I read the book in e-format and looking back over it a moment ago I can see that I have highlighted significant portions to consider further; to memorise and to follow up. As mentioned above an extensive reference section is provided with sources detailed for each chapter. This is very well organised - meticulous. I clicked on several of the links suggested and following up on her references for the Martin Luther King strategy I spent quite a while reading articles on that from the Washington Post. All pertinent stuff. I have also signed up for newsletters and further information from some of the sites concerned. The momentum is underway.

In conclusion, I would say that this book is a call to action. A shout-out to men to break their silence. It would be a powerful resource for leaders in all types of organisations seeking to have a workplace characterised and enabled by gender equity. I imagine those with interests in personal and organisational effectiveness will gain useful insights and strategies for further development and I readily commend the book to their attention.

It has thoroughly engaged mine.

More:

Author's website: https://www.korireed.com/

I was grateful to receive an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of Men in the Middle from NetGalley, where it is now archived. Here is a link for further information.