Cricket Ball Squash, Santa Claus, Italy and us ...

We do have some weird and wonderful mixtures of words and descriptions ... and as of last night my story today was not going to be on cricket, balls, squash, or Italy .. yes Santa Claus and obviously the blog. But there we go, another tale to tell.
What on earth could the connection be? Well – a friend of my mother’s, who lives in Cornwall, visits Italy twice a year .. and sees an old friend of hers, who used to live in South Africa, as I did. So one connection down! Elizabeth asked me if I’d heard of cricket ball squash .. “no”: I said – I’ve heard of and eaten spaghetti squash, but not cricket ball squash.

Oryx (a gazelle) – face similar to CedarPond’s herd .. but not the same!

The words don’t come out so easily now-a-days: too much going on – but I guessed that the little green round squash might hold the answer. This morning .. little gems came to mind. However I searched for “cricket ball squash” and up immediately up came the answer – little gems (acorn squash) halved, or baked and served a la Jamie Oliver. So that connection was solved – why it’s called cricket ball squash, when cricket balls are usually red – I have no idea.




Acorn or Little Gem Squash



The second of the searches stumbled me into CedarPond’s blog – and this wonderful picture .. which you have to click over to see – it epitomises Christmas as I’d love to see it outside my house – wonderful sheep (I tried to find out their name – not Bighorn, nor are they Mouflons – I hope Cedar Pond will tell us!) with their beautiful faces and clear eyes looking at us across the snow. On top of that Cedar Pond have their very own Santa Claus – and a very pretty good looking brood – looks like they’ll be having loads of fun at Christmas.

CedarPond had also seen the cricket ball squash and been so enamoured of it – they have posted a recipe for it. Well I have to say when I started out today I never thought our ubiquitous English game of cricket , usually played with a red ball not a green one, and certainly I never played squash with a ball larger than a squash ball – and the little gem is somewhat larger. Though the mess of hitting a little gem in a squash court with a cricket bat is a thought too far – especially now when we really don’t need any more cleaning up to do.

So I’ve solved one of Cilla’s (in Italy) question s – now the other escaped me .. it concerns Aesop’s African Fables .. and that I cannot find out about. However I have also been asked some other more suitable questions for this time of year – such as Advent, the 12 days of Christmas and the decorations of the Christmas tree – this last part was answered in my earlier post: What Christmas memory comes back to you at the beginning of December?

Mouflon in Buffalo Zoo (also not the same)

Santa Claus is another mix up – as his name is actually a contraction of Santa Nikolaus, the patron saint of German children, and he’s just had his feast day on 6th December, which still forms a major role at this time of year in certain European countries. He would be absolutely thrilled to visit CedarPond and all families with believing children to be able to work his magic there; as Santa Nikolaus distributes gifts to “good children”.

The present custom with his reindeer being introduced into England from Germany in about 1840, whereby small toys and other small presents are put into a stocking (as it would have been in the 1840s), so when they wake up on Christmas morning they find Santa Claus had remembered them. The wonders of childhood.

Merry Old Santa: 1881 illustration by Thomas Nast who, with Clement Clarke Moore, helped to create the modern image of Santa Claus

The beginning of the Church year is called ‘Advent’ and commences on St Andrews Day, 30 November, or the first Sunday nearest to it. It is the four week period before Christmas Day and commemorates the first and second coming of Christ; the first to redeem and the second to judge the world. The first Sunday in Advent is the beginning of the Church year. Elizabeth in Cornwall asked about this.

So now away from Cornwall and Italy to America, Japan and China .. another reader, whose wife is Chinese asked about the 12 days of Christmas ... in simple terms as far as the West is concerned it is the 12 day festival starting on December 25, and ending on January 5, known as Christmastide or the twelve days of Christmas.

The characteristic reindeer in Svalbard, an archipelago between Norway and the North Pole

As I described here Christmas as a date and period of celebration has over the past two thousand years been affected by societal development, from Saturnalia and paganism, to the more prescribed Roman practices, followed by Christianity and other changes .... including the move away from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar in the Middle Ages, also mentioned in this post.

The Feast of the Epiphany on January 6 is a Christian feast day celebrating the revelation of God in human form in the person of Jesus Christ, as described by the Magi (the three wise men) when they bore their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for the baby Jesus. Shakespeare’s play “Twelfth Night” (1600-1601) was so called because it was written for acting at the Twelfth Night revels.

Byzantine art usually depicts the Magi in Persian clothing which includes breeches, capes, and Phyrgian caps). A restored mosaic, dated circa 600, found in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy.

This third part of the Liturgical year has concluded our cricket ball squash story, Santa Claus and his hide out at CedarPond, and our tour around part of the world connecting questions raised with answers. Please continue to enjoy your Advent before the merrymaking of Saturnalia commences.

Dear Mr Postman .. many thanks for delivering this letter on what appears to be our last warm day before the cold of winter really sets in. All seems quiet at the moment with my mother and she is pleased to get her Christmas cards as they are starting to come in and it cheers her that she hears from family and friends. I have yet to do the decorations!

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat ...Christmas through the ages ....

Some more fascinating facts as we roam around the world and wonder which century we are in? Turkey’s are American, the Spanish, in the early 1500s, brought turkeys with them on their return across the Ocean, established them in farms, from where they quickly spread across Europe, but it took a few centuries before our Christmas dinner was usurped by the American invader!



Medieval Christmas centred around the lord of the manor and his tenants and had different customs dependent upon the specifics for that lordship. The peasants would have bread, cheese, pottage, two meats, but would have to provide their own plate, mug and napkin, if they wished a cover to be on the table; then the peasant would have to bring a faggot of brushwood to cook his food, unless he wanted it raw!



Spring planting on a French ducal manor in March - from the illuminated manuscript: Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 1410s



The manorial barons feasted when it suited them, not necessarily related to the Church festivals, though these merged over times, but the feasting could last for days. The quantity of food consumed appears to be huge, but the entourages of their guests needed to be fed too. The platters offered would have included a boar, beef, deer, pigs, fowls, partridges and geese, bread and cheese, gallons of ale and mainly red wine, though some white – and this was in the 1200s.



Early Medieval literature flourishes with descriptions of Arthurian Christmas feasts lasting over a fortnight – festivities over a period of days was quite common - clarion trumpets would marshal the guests to table, hands were rinsed in spiced scented warm water, while a Latin Grace was chanted. Then the servers would appear with steaming platters of spit-roasts, baked dishes, roasts and boiled dishes, and finally an elaborate “sotelty” – which is an entremet: ‘between the courses’ .. to allow time for digestive settlement, without stopping the festivities and may have depicted a successive phase of the Christmas story.



So I think you can see as England became more settled and more established into the manorial system, which over time has been phased out (though was still apparent in parts of east Germany even after the 2nd World War), food was the preserve of those who could earn or barter. As more and more produce became available either by cultivation of the lands, or through imports as the world became more connected our tastes grew. A sauce, similar to Worcester sauce, honey, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, saffron, mustard, dried fruits and nuts had all been available and would have been used by cooks even in Roman times.



However as with all good things, and all development, a spanner was thrown into the works in England as Christmas was banned by Oliver Cromwell (the Protector ruled 1653 – 1658); he banned carols and anyone cooking a goose, baking a cake or boiling a pudding was in danger of a fine, confiscation or worse! Charles II reinstated the holiday albeit in a subdued manner.



A tremendous amount of food had to be kept on hand, for the guests and family of the large houses, remembering as well as the servants, gardeners, coachmen, stable-hands etc. Recipes made in advance and served cold became popular – cold meats, pickles, jellies and puddings. There was always a turkey (picture above), this was the late1700s, goose or mutton, though venison held pride of place, while afterwards the Christmas or plum pudding was served ablaze with brandy sauce.



As the years passed people remembered the rituals of their ancestors or added new ones and by the 1800s it was once again a highly celebrated and significant time, though it would not reach its zenith until the Victorian era.


Did you know that Charles Dickens, in October 1843, was happily (I presume) writing Martin Chuzzlewitt, when he had an inspiration to write a “little carol” finishing it by the end of November, self-publishing it in time for Christmas .. and the rest is history for “A Christmas Carol”.



First edition frontispiece and title page: as published and approved by Charles Dickens



The impoverished Cratchits as described by Dickens in “A Christmas Carol” took their Christmas goose to the local bakers to be cooked for a small fee, as the homes of the poor in Victorian times were equipped with open fireplaces for heat and cooking, but not ovens.

The Victorian poor may have saved over several months, by paying a local public house landlord a small fee, in exchange for the goose at Christmas time – these were known as Goose Clubs. The bird may well then have been stuffed with various force meats, including chestnuts (free), herbs from the fields, vegetables, mixed in with rusky bread. It was those Romans again and the Arabs, who started filling the birds’ cavities before cooking to give extra flavour.



Now for our Christmas, we will have on Christmas Eve glazed roast ham with good fresh vegetables, and a light fruit dessert, like spiced oranges – before we go to midnight mass at our local Church of England church; Christmas Day is usually smoked salmon, fresh salad vegetables, mince pies, breads and cheese before a good walk across the Downs with the dogs.



A deserving slice of Christmas cake with tea next, followed later on by dinner of roast turkey and all the trimmings – ham, chipolata sausages (thin ones!), prunes wrapped in bacon, two sorts of stuffing, roast potatoes, carrots and brussel sprouts, with lashings of gravy, bread sauce and red currant jelly; then a flamed Christmas pudding dotted with silver good luck coins (we have to return them for next year! and we, being Cornish, have Cornish clotted cream with ours, as well as brandy butter.


My taste buds are salivating at the thought .. this is all laid out and served on a table well decorated with – flowers from the garden, probably autumn crocuses, linen table cloth, with napkins made into water lilies, wonderful crockery and glass, candles, crackers .. what else could one want – a pleasure to behold – watched over by a decorated Christmas tree bursting with birds, baubles, tinsel and glittering lights. We are blessed by my sister-in-law who puts all this together for us.


Canada Geese: true geese


I have to finish with a poem .. and just a reminder of those days .. the animals and birds were walked to the fair before being sold! Tough times ....

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat
Please to put a penny in the old man's hat;
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do,
If you haven't got a ha'penny then God bless you!

We can all give this Christmas according to our means ... even if we can only give our blessing and peaceful thoughts.

Dear Mr Postman – we will continue to visit my mother during this period, even though she cannot participate with the food or drink. Interestingly this year she has said she’d like some Christmas decorations .. so I shall have to put some up – the room is not really designed for things like this .. still I’ll make a plan – I decorated my uncle’s room when he was in over Christmas two years ago.

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

What Christmas memory comes back to you at the beginning of December?

Cold weather, crispy grass under our feet, icy puddles, our breaths leaving vapour trails, dark outlines of bare trees, variegated holly with masses of berries ... inside warming fires, toasting marshmallows, crumpets by that fire, spicy delights coming from the kitchen – has your Christmas pudding and cake already been made – ready for that last minute decoration?

Are the children or (perhaps and/or!) grandchildren under your feet getting in your way, or asking to help .. their little fingers into every pie going, greedily tasting all edible goodies available? Looking under every bed, in every cupboard, every nook and cranny to see if their wish has come true?

Christmas market in Jena, Germany

Those were the days the excitement of the weeks before – Carol Services to sing in and go to, Nativity plays to watch applauding our nearest and dearest become little angels for a few dear minutes!! The gathering of the Christmas tree, the decorating the house with holly, mistletoe and decorations .. so much to happen in the four weeks of December starting tomorrow.

Where did it all start? and now .. what do we experience ...? The Roman festival of Saturn was held in December when the temples were decorated with the fir, the pine and the slow growing evergreen box (boxwood in the States); the Druids are associated with mistletoe, while the Saxons used holly and ivy. These customs have been transferred to the Christian festival. The holly or holy-tree is called Christ’s thorn in Germany and Scandinavia from its use in church decorations and its putting forth its berries about Christmas time.

The ancient Roman Saturnalia festival was celebrated on 19 December, eventually being prolonged for seven days, and was a time of freedom from restraint and merrymaking, and often riot and debauchery. During its continuance public business was suspended, the law courts and schools were closed and no criminals were punished .. lucky them – especially in those days of ‘being thrown to the lions’!

Mistletoe in a Silver Birch tree

The Romans also decorated a Christmas tree, though the Christmas tree as we know it today, was introduced by Prince Albert to Queen Victoria, influencing the way Victorian households provided a focal point for decorations, present gathering and general festivities around the fire hearth and the tree.

Christmas as a season, we in the western world have become accustomed to, began in the days of heathen peoples ... when the winter solstice was a time of festival; the Church fixed this day in AD 440 as what to the Anglo Saxons would have been known as the beginning of the year .. when the circle of life, according to the sun and moon, started again as the daylight hours increased.

So for the Anglo Saxons the 25th December was the start of the year, but from the 12th century until the adoption of the Gregorian calendar by the British and the Protestant world in 1752, the year began on Lady Day, 25th March. Did you know we “lost” ten days doing this?

Detail of the tomb of Pope Gregory XIII celebrating the introduction of the Gregorian calendar

The druids, a priestly and learned class active in Gaul (France and Belgium) and Celtic Britain during the final centuries BC, were suppressed by the Romans and had all but disappeared from the written record by the 2nd century, although outlying nomadic groups may have survived, particularly in Britain and Ireland as they feature prominently here in mythology. In the 18th and 19th centuries there was a revival of interest in Druidism, and a new romantic and unhistorical cult grew up, which has become known as Neo-Druidism.

Woodcut published in The Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells Of England, including Rivers, Lakes, Fountains and Springs (Carrawbrough: Covertina's Well)

Society was settling down and developing during the next 1300 years before countries, or provinces came to be more established, populated with settlements, and brought with them their traditions and cultures they had been absorbing over the centuries. Today regional aspects of Christmas are still, and no doubt will continue to change over the future years to come.

The Christmas tree is an established part of our English Christmas time, while other traditions are entrenched in different countries – Mexico brought us the poinsettias, possibly because the Mexican Franciscan monks included the flower in their Christmas celebration in the 1600s and they thus became popular, and were brought back to Europe by the Spanish – remember then we were going through three Little Ice Ages (1650, 1770 and 1850) , when it was definitely colder than it has been during my lifetime. In the 1950s and 1960s it was also colder than it is today.

Pointsettia tree (with star on top) in San Diego

So many cultures and traditions have grown up in different countries of the world that I am sure most of us have not got a clue about .. when we start Christmas .. St Nicholas Day, or Christmas Eve .. or ... what we eat, what we do, and what little quirks we have each developed within our own families and that have been passed down through the generations. Is it Father Christmas, or Santa Claus, or Noel ... or, or, or ...

So much to find out in the month ahead – what we all do, what foods we eat, what are our expectations.... I have just been in Manchester about 250 miles (400 km) north from here where the population of the environs is approximately 2.5 million – so a city worth a street market for the month before Christmas.

There were stalls from Italy – with salami (including hazelnut ... see my last post), nougat from France, delicious Dutch ‘cookies’, carved wooden toys and small items from Nuremberg, Germany – famous too for spicy gingerbread - and I am sure many more .. I had a lovely time in the few breaks we had wandering through the Christmassy stalls savouring the days to come and remembering the days gone by of our childhood Christmas times.

So much to tell you and so much to find out from you, dear Readers, about your traditional and cultural celebrations – I remember my times in South Africa .. and it is seriously difficult to become enamoured about plum pudding when the sun is beating down – but we did and had the works .. though the Christmas tree was an aloe branch, painted silver, and decorated with Christmas baubles .. my best Christmas tree so far!

Dear Mr Postman – haven’t we had such terrible weather – floods in the north, floods in the south – we have floods here .. my brother’s village has been flooded – they are alright they’re high on the hill above .. but the last time it happened this badly nine years ago – a car was floating in the street – now that is a site to behold. They had 65mm of rain in the last 24 hours, while the monthly average is 80 mm. We count our blessings we do not have to deal with that aftermath. My mother is very sleepy .. so my visits are short ..

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Witches, Hazels and helmets ...

Those Romans again .. they brought the “Greek Helmets” to England – the husk which partly covers the fruits – the hazelnuts - became known by the Greek generic word for a helmet. The hazel may well have already been here when the Romans came to conquer, as it is known to be one of the first plants to reclaim the lands when the glaciers withdraw. Stone Age man would also have included these nuts in his seasonal diet.

The hazel is one of the few trees to have been credited with magical properties: it was one of Thor’s trees and so the Saxons chose hazel groves as holy places. Thor was the Scandinavian god of thunder, as well as the god of the household and of peasants, while his name is perpetuated in our Thursday and in a number of place names.

The Filbert variety from America

The association of hazel becoming known as witch hazel probably arose from the Anglo Saxon word “wic-en” meaning to bend, which referred to the hazels pliant wands, or in Middle English “wiche” for witch. Both species of hazel twigs were used as divining rods, the American, a completely different type, and the English variety on the two continents.

Interestingly witch hazel as an astringent is produced from this different shrub, called “Witch Hazel” by the North Americans, which grows naturally in Nova Scotia west to Ontario and south to Florida and Texas. The plant was widely used for medicinal purposes by American Indians. The witch hazel extract was obtained by steaming the twigs.

Linnaeus gave the “wild nut of Avella” the scientific name of “avellana” from the Italian town, snugly perched high in the foothills, inland from Naples. Virgil recorded that the territory was not fertile in corn, but rich in fruit-trees, while the neighbourhood abounded in filberts or hazelnuts of a very choice quality.

The Romans almost certainly called for and were sent the Avellananux sylvestris species of hazelnut to stock the lands supplying this seasonal delicacy to the garrisons. The Kentish cobnut is a cultivated hazelnut (much as a Cox is a type of apple), with its long green husk (the helmet) encasing a milky-white, crunchy, moist kernel. Roman bakers were famous for their varieties of breads, fruit tarts, sweet buns and cakes – sadly none of these recipes exist today. Much as sweets are today, nuts were thrown to the crowds at festival times.

Dacquoise sandwiched with chocolate souffle cake layers, coffee buttercream and whipped cream: Picture by Kate of A Merrier World - an English cook and blogger

Wherever new lands were conquered stocks were sent for, so plants crossed the continents and Filbert seeds were among the list of Old World plants requested to be sent to the colonies by the Massachusetts Company in 1629. The Filbert nut is edible, and is very similar to the Common Hazel nut (or cob nut – as they have become known after cultivation in the 1800 and early 1900s).

The garden county of England - Kent – became the centre for the cobnut orchards supplying Victorian and Edwardian grand houses with a nutty gem to finish off their fine meals with the port and cheese: the railway line in 1838 had greatly facilitated Kent’s ability to transport its produce straight to the heart of London’s markets.

An English CobNut - bursting with nutty bunches

The Greensand Ridge with its free-draining soil is ideal for the short, gnarly cobnut trees frown in plantations (locally known as “platts”) and on a sunny day, the platts resemble a Tuscan olive grove. The demand for cobnuts waned after the First World War, when labour became much more expensive, and there were enormous technological changes in indudstrial machinery available for working the land, as well as a requirement for more profitable horticultural production.

Now seventy years later cobnuts are once again being championed as a seasonal local fresh food. The cob platts went into decline, apples first, soft fruits following, before in the new millennium today’s farmers are looking to different crops from which to make a profit. Kent now has a wider range of marketable produce available to the London markets, but also importantly to the local farmers’ markets and local restaurants.

The Romans were wise – six of today’s cobnuts are said to contain the same amount of protein as 4 oz sirloin steak, while they are brimful of vitamin E, calcium and other life-enhancing substances. They’re ideal for vegetarians and can be eaten fresh in salads, chopped up lightly, mixed with a little olive oil and a dash of flaky salt and then spread over a salad, or freshly boiled vegetables. They can be pounded with bread, garlic and oil, lightly fried and once again make a topping for vegetables, or casserole.

The garden county of Kent in south east England

Chocolate is the word we might well associate with nuts today – as in praline, or Quality Street’s hazelnut with caramel (“the purple one” - as below), or fruit and nut bars, home-made hazelnut truffles sound good to me, as do chocolate filled hazelnut meringues, or how about a gold foil wrapper revealing a silky milk chocolate with hazelnut praline and small pieces of roasted hazelnuts.

Tradition and culture still remain with us – the lore of the 7th century French monk, St Philbert, whose saint’s day is August 20th, reminds us that for centuries this is the earliest that the cobnut can be picked. In September ripe cobnuts abound ready for the picking. They will keep fresh, and if placed in the fridge with a tiny pinch of salt will keep until Christmas and the New Year – a good fresh nutritious snack readily available to take away some of the Christmas richness.

Dear Mr Postman, amongst these continuing gales and heavy rains, we are having a quiet period .. my mother is sleeping much more – but seems in reasonable health.

Happy Thanksgiving to all Americans ..

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

What is a Persian Palette...? Turquoise, Seagreen, Magenta ...

Turquoise, Persian palette, manganese carnations, Spanish-Moorish lustres all hues, colours, and techniques that brightened and enhanced pottery over the last five hundred years. William de Morgan, a great friend of William Morris – the textile designer, were both hugely influential in the Arts and Craft Movement, and both had enormous energy designing, writing, painting, translating, furniture making and more.

De Morgan explored the Persian patterns and medieval designs, experimented with innovative glazes and firing techniques. His designs included dragons, galleons, fish and popular motifs, as well as ‘fantastical’ birds and other animals. He created pictures with his tiles that could be built up to become intricate patterns when placed together.

These Victorians with their insatiable curiosities experimented with all things, testing and developing skills that we see all around us now – their architecture, furniture, textiles, ancient and medieval text translations, stained glass, art and novels. I am sure you will have seen William Morris textile designs still in use today, and very probably been aware of de Morgan’s work through the reproduction of his tiles into greeting cards: this is how we came across him and as is my mother’s wont – please find out more! I see my print-outs are over two years old now! So her interest hasn’t waned.

The Arts and Craft Movement sprang from this period (the late 1800s and early1900s) as a reformist movement that influenced architecture, interior design, cabinet making, decorative arts and even the “cottage” garden designs of Gertrude Jekyll that prevailed between the dominant eras of Art Nouveau and Art Deco.

Fantastic ducks on 6-inch tile with lustre highlights, de Morgan - Fulham period

The Arts and Craft Movement was a British, Canadian, Australian and American aesthetic movement inspired by the writings of John Ruskin and a romantic idealisation of a craftsman taking pride in their personal handiwork. Art Nouveau became global, and Art Deco started in Europe, spread to America and then went global with the industrial architectural elements of the period.

William de Morgan’s speciality was as a British potter and tile designer, but he’d started out experimenting with stained glass, ventured into pottery before shifting his interest wholly to ceramics. In 1872 he set up a pottery works in Chelsea, so that he could explore every technical aspect of his craft: this insistent curiosity and inventive streak was encouraged by the arts and crafts ideology he was exposed to, particularly through his friendship with William Morris.

De Morgan became drawn to Eastern tiles with their Indian colours, their richness of design and their depiction of geometric motifs entwined with creatures of the wild. The limited range of oxide colours available in the 17th century did not deter delftware potters from painting exotic flowers, covered by an expensive opaque-white-tin-glaze while the back is simply lead-glazed, which made large numbers available from the potteries of the day in Southwark and Lambeth.

Turquoise pebble, one inch (25 mm) long. This pebble is greenish and therefore low grade

A breakthrough occurred with de Morgan’s rediscovery of the technique ”lustre ware” (characterised by a reflective, metallic surface) known as tin-glazed pottery. This glazing technique had been found in the Mediterranean being practised in Malaga or Majorca, before spreading the knowledge into Sicily and Italy, where it is known as Italian Maiolica, during the Renaissance period in the 14th to 16th centuries. Once Spain conquered Mexico, the tin-glazed maiolica wares came to be reproduced in the Valley of Mexico as early as 1540 and are famously know as ‘Talavera’.

Tin-glazed pottery example - blue and white vase with oak-leaf decor, Florence, 1430 (Louvre Museum)

The influences of the East, particularly India, Asia Minor and Persia, permeated de Morgan’s notions of design and colour. The “Persian” palette became his preferred choice: dark blue, turquoise, manganese purple, green, Indian red, and lemon yellow – and he mixed these in what we now know as his unmistakeable style, in which fantastic creatures are entwined with rhythmic geometric motifs float under luminous glazes.

His works inspire me as they are so attractive and so imaginative that today we can see some of these non mythological creatures for real .. I found these geckos and was inspired enough to save the pictures, which seem to resonate with the colours of the “Persian” palette – the Smith’s Green Eyed Gecko from Asia, which seems turquoise to me and fairly or otherwise has multiplied across the net as National Geographic wallpaper - but it's copyrighted, so I'd better leave it - sorry!

Or how about the Gold Dust Day Gecko (left) found in Madagascar... or even better these incredible reptilian eyes (above) – where are they from and to whom do they belong – other than once again National Geographic and some amazing photographer - I cannot trace.

The de Morgan centre has an amazing collection but I see the Museum itself is closed for relocation – but we can still see some incredible tiles, tile panels and other work – I recommend scrolling down the first page of the Centre here to see a galleon representation and on the page here as above the dragon tile – but truer to its roots at the Museum.

I see that de Morgan did a lot of work for the Pacific and Orient Shipping Line in their heyday ... think about the luxuriousness of travelling the seas in those days with these kinds of tiles just as decoration on the walls!

Persian Palette – I rather fancy that description for a range of colours .. turquoise, sea green, Tyrian purple, Arabian red, ochre yellows .. my mind races on to tapestries new ...

Dear Mr Postman – thank you for delivering this – my mother when she’s awake is very interested and involved, other times she sleeps; my neighbour is improving. Our minds are occupied by the torrential rains we’ve had – and the damage it has done to homes and infrastructure, let alone one poor family, whose policeman father was swept away when a bridge collapsed. More rain and sea surges are forecast let’s hope more disaster is averted by the powers that be.

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Iron Curtain or a rich Green Natural Wilderness

The great divide – that Iron Curtain separating Western Europe from Eastern Europe – is now known as the European Green Belt – who would have thought it? That border defence symbolising the ideological and physical boundary dividing Europe from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991 has now with the foresight of a German doctor become a Nature Reserve.

above: Panoramic image of Danube pictured in Ritopek, suburb of Belgrade, Serbia.

Growing up within sight of the wall a young West German boy with an interest in nature used to roam the boundary and hinterland jotting down and recording all possible wildlife sightings – and as anyone with a hobby knows it slowly grows into a passion until it is a part of their life. Dr Kai Frobel became a man, a family man, a doctor, an ornithologist and conservationist – and as such realised the significance of these so-called restriction zones and the way the ‘Wall’ had been constructed.

Border post watch tower, rusted barbed wire

Churchill had coined the phrase “iron curtain” from the antagonism between the Soviet Union and the West – fortunately it was never a curtain, nor an iron one .... but the imagined vision of chain mail hanging from the clouds somewhat bemuses me. The “wall” was in fact a series of strips of land fenced with barbed wire, watch towers etc – different sections sometimes hundreds of yards wide, one barren strip, while the rest were almost untouched by human hand for 37 years had become natural wildernesses.

These strips of land containing small bushes and grasses, which had been wiped out with industrial farming on the western side of the iron curtain, became wildlife havens for threatened species of birds, mammals, insects and plants. A treasure trove of wildlife, including black storks, wild cats and whinchats, wood grouse, and a range of rare mosses.

The actual start of the “fall of the Wall” was in Poland with Solidarity’s historic victory in June 1989, before Gorbachev had visited Berlin later in the year, criticising the East German regime which precipitated the domino-like effect of the collapse of other eastern bloc countries’ defences, that we saw portrayed in the news on 9th November 2009, with the painted dominos depiction in Berlin.

Giant dominos lining a segment of the route of the Berlin Wall were toppled Monday during a ceremony commemorating the 20th anniversary of the wall's fall. c/o Axel Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images

These swathes, off limits to most personnel, of prohibited and deadly strips in the aftermath of the Iron Curtain’s collapse, left behind a refuge, a haven for wildlife and nature to flourish in: an ironically uniquely natural fertile world, where many rare and endangered species flourished.

Dr Frobel’s early observations became suddenly “an Eureka moment” – a realisation that his special patch of Iron Curtain, with its abundance of undisturbed wealth of plants, birds, insects, reptiles, and small mammals would presumably have also occurred down its entire length. A different hunt was on – an urgency to secure this unique landscape as a nature reserve.

With Kai Frobel’s foresight, his knowledge of the land, his enthusiasm, his lobbying in high places has ensured a pan European effort of a green belt connection, consisting of National Parks, Nature Parks, Biosphere Reserves and trans-boundary protected areas transcending the potentially narrow thinking. The aim now is to turn the Iron Curtain’s entire 4,250 mile length into what is already being called the Central European Green Belt.

Whinchat: Adult male in breeding plumage

Two decades after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the creators of this amazing ecological treasure trove are celebrating the fact that 23 European countries are currently engaged in the project to turn or keep its entire length into the reserves naturally occurring after the 37 year period of non-interference.

It will run from the Barents Sea within the Arctic Circle, south down the Finnish – Russian borders, through the Black Sea, down through Germany and central Europe, with three spurs to the Adriatic Sea, finally east along the border of Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey to the Black Sea – some journey, some nature reserve, some brilliant thinking to tie all these together into a natural swathe for wildlife through the middle of the European Union landmass.

In the foothills of Rhodope Mountains (Sofia Echo Newspaper) - Photo: Nadezhda Chipeva

The national ecological networks, the biosphere parks, wetlands, floodplain meadows, riverine habitats, deltas, wildflower meadows are where many species, that have disappeared in extensively agricultural or industrial areas, can feel at home and have flourished in these quiet and undisturbed parts of middle Europe.

Where else, to name but a few, would you get wild daffodil meadows, alluvial forests, fish spawning grounds because the standing water stays so warm, traditional scythed meadows, fens, oak, poplar and willow forests, river banks for nesting sand martins and kingfishers, the return of the European Lynx, originally living all over Europe, but returning today?

Eurasian Lynx

The legacy of this unique and extraordinarily rich chain of ad hoc nature reserves will be enormous to the scientific community – the botanists, the biologists, the geologists, geographers, conservationists, environmentalists – who will revel in this natural world and can record and gather all sorts of information for posterity about these unique areas that remain within this once reviled landscape, now reborn as a jewel of nature.

Dear Mr Postman – the gales and rainfall continue, but I gather we’re not alone the same is happening in the States. We’re well – I have had another trip to the hospital with my neighbour who inadvertently had tripped her latch, so we needed to break in to let the ambulance crew in – she hasn’t broken anything .. but another day! Her son has arrived today – we go on and my mother is quite sleepy.

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

A is for Apple - an Apple a day keeps the doctor away ...

Harvest time is over, the mists, damp, grey skies are here, the cooling rain is in the air waiting to knock the final full fruits off their boughs, above the gnarled trunks, into the long damp grass beneath. The autumn offers us free foods in the hedgerows – the apples abound in the lanes, or are hidden in the back gardens or estates of larger properties lying on the ground providing essential fodder for insects, larvae, small mammals who can lay up extra nourishment before the winter sets in.

Cox’s Orange Pippin

The apple has seeded itself all over this England of ours, descended from the wild ancestors of the pomaceous fruit tree (“pomum” – Latin for apple) found growing in the mountains of western Asia (the species Malus domestica is part of the rose family, Rosaceae). Alexander the Great (356 – 323 BC) is credited with bringing the apple back to Macedonia (north of Greece), from where it spread, as exploration occurred, to the rest of the world.

Red Gravensteins

Winter apples, picked in the late autumn stored just above freezing, have been an important food in Asia and Europe for thousands of years, as well as the Americas with the arrival of the Europeans in 1492. Storage of the apple enabled it to become possibly the most versatile and ubiquitous fruit we have in the world. The Gravenstein apple, still considered the choicest apple by many Nova Scotians, for instance was possibly introduced by Russian fur traders travelling via Jutland, Denmark to the New World early in the 19th century.

Fairs and fetes bring the fun of apples out, or at home with the children participating in the making of toffee apples here in England .. an apple coated in hot toffee, left to cool before tucking in to that delicious mix of gooey toffee and fresh apple; or in the States as candy apples (a coating of hard crystallised sugar syrup) or even caramel apples.

The proverb “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” reputedly dates from 19th Century Wales .. came to remind us that there are enormous health benefits in an apple, particularly antioxidants, albeit there may be relatively low amounts of vitamin C, the fibrous content of apples may reduce the risk of bowel, prostate and lung cancer.

Five hundred years ago Henry VIII with his voracious appetite and vast court, needed to be fed at each of his palaces, or when a nobleman was honoured by a kingly visit, ensured continuation of the fashion for planting orchards filled with the fruit and nut trees of the day, also importing new species from the continent, guaranteeing a plentiful fresh larder at all times of the year.

Our two thousand year association with the apple and its various cultivars is still as strong today as it was then – in the last century it was realised that a great many of the old non-commercial varieties of tree were being lost, let alone the orchards themselves. These fields of fruit trees, with an undergrowth of meadow like habitat, have over the centuries provided symbiotic havens, for insect life, wild flowers, reptiles, small mammals and on the fringes the hedge rows provided natural plantings for use by blackbirds, song thrushes, woodpeckers and the like.

Alexander fighting the Persian king Darius III From Alexander Mosaic, from Pompeii, Naples Naples National Archaeological Museum (Battle of Issus 333BC - Mosaic detail)

There are 3,000 or so different types of apple, dessert apples and cookers, some readily available, others almost forgotten, surviving in old gardens or places that are tucked away – such as Bardsey Island. A gnarled and twisted trunk growing within ancient monastery boundaries on the island, was probably tended by the monks who lived there a thousand years ago: the Bardsey Apple has had cuttings taken, which will raise funds for the Island Trust, as well as save a singular apple species.

A Cider Press Jersey, Channel Islands

Who would think that names such as Slack-M-Girdle, Pig’s Snout and Hangy Down Cluster would refer to misshapen, tannic and rough-skinned apples ideal for making our English cider. While other ‘pomologists’ have been recording, crossing, classifying these fruits of the earth, these tempters of fate: as Eve found out – to ensure that we keep a rootstock of these delicious and subtly flavoured apples.

A dumpling – a Norfolk one – is an apple that has been brought back to life in the garden of a former rectory. A retired doctor found an ageing specimen, along with over 50 other varieties, in his orchard and it has taken this apple expert over 25 years to grow a young tree, which has finally fruited: the Norfolk Dumpling. We need dedication like this doctor in this day and age, with so much grubbing out and our lack of knowledge of these ancient natural plants, to ensure that these special varieties are preserved.

Apples do not grow true from seed, so in order to propagate a new tree a bit of the old is required: a piece of budded “scionwood” must be hand-grafted onto sturdy rootstock and nurtured as it grows. Think of the thousands of hands that have lovingly created countless new trees, since the Roman Naturalist, Pliny the Elder praised “the Lady apple” a tiny fruit in the first century AD.

Fresco from Pompeii with fruit. Annurca apples believed to be the apple depicted in frescoes at ruins of Herculaneum and mentioned in Pliny the Elder's "Naturalis Historia".

By the 1600s the French were devouring this succulent wee treasure, as it may be “eaten greedily with all its coat on” - the small fruits were able to be secreted about a courtier’s person in their pockets. Today in the States they ripen late in the season – hence being known as Christmas apples, or Annurca variety. Our ancestors knew the best way to eat these treats – raw as the peel adds to the winey, semi-sweet taste of the flesh.

Claude Monet's Still Life with Apples and Grapes (1880) Art Institute of Chicago

Cox’s Orange Pippins are our Christmas apples in England, their creamy-coloured flesh is crisp, fine-grained, hinting of Christmas tastes - honey, nuts and pears – they store well and can be used in a variety of ways. These too are relatively small, albeit commercial cultivars tend to have become larger fruits. As a child I remember shaking the ripe apple to see if their pips rattled, as they are only loosely held in, whereas other apples have their pips contained as part of the apple flesh.

The French Orchards in Normandy very possibly came from the pips dispersed by the Romans and Norsemen (early Normans!) in the pomace (the residue of skins, pulp, seeds and stems of the fruit), which was spread in the pastures as manure – resulting in many seedlings. The Normans brought large quantities of these apples trees to Britain after 1066.

Apple trees of many varieties live on, new cross variants being tested are so versatile and can be used in all sorts of recipes both savoury and sweet, soups, starters, breakfast, as a vegetable or a sauce, stuffed inside a game bird to give a bit of flavour and juice – or as an early cure for keeping the doctor away. Apples also have other attributes – such as keeping potatoes from budding, by including an apple amongst their midst; or how about putting an apple in the bag to ripen avocados or bananas? Such a treasure of a fruit ....

Dear Mr Postman on this weekend of gales and floods – thank you for delivering this story up to my mother – I have been taking my time as the apple is an enormous subject, and as I’ve a great many letters to write on my mother’s behalf for her birthday, together with the letters that I have felt I wanted to do for my uncle to let everyone, who was unable to attend the funeral, have ‘a feel’ of the day: which seems to have been appreciated: though I’m lettered out!

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories