23/04/2012 by admin.

In our novel Malachi alerts us to, “Moby Dick” the infamous white whale from Herman Merville’s great novel of 1851. 

Guided by the words of Mother Nature in our novel Albinos are a common theme in our watch as they illustrate the diversity of the natural world. Curious then that an adult white Killer Whale or Orca has been spotted for the first time in the wild.  Scientists have nicknamed the whale ‘Iceberg’ after it was caught on camera off the coast of Kamchatka in eastern Russia. The whale was sighted by a research cruise led by Erich Hoyt a senior fellow from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. 

We ask, “Has humanity lost its soul?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7dSTdHziMs

Posted in Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q15 Do you sometimes fear the worst?, Q.9 Do you feel in control of your life?, Q.3 Do you have a good imagination? | No Comments »

20/04/2012 by admin.

“Which came first the chicken or the egg?” is a dilemma that has caught the imagination of philosophers for generations. Malachi, our famous messenger, asked the very same question as we gradually exposed the questions in The Haymakers Survey.

Malachi’s comments are few and far between so we should take heed as a chick has been born withou an egg!!! It happened on a farm in Sri Lanka, where the chick was incubated inside mother hen for 21 days before hatching.  PR Yapa a vet in Welimada withnessed the event and confirmed that the chick survived and is said to be healthy but the mother died of internal wounds.

Curiously if we look further into the chicken and egg dilemma we found many strange chicken egg examples in recent months - a bowling pin shaped egg, world record sized eggs (largest and smallest), a round egg, and a record breaking 14 eggs laid in two hours. The link below looks at these in more detail. What does it all mean? Certainly Mother Nature is trying to tell us something?

Let’s examine further. More than 50 billion chickens are raised annually as a source of food, for both their meat and their eggs. According to the Worldwatch Institute 74% of the world’s poultry meat comes from intensive farming techniques, so there’s a huge debate about the ethics.  Chickens are also significant in religion and mythology as a signal of vigilance and betrayal. The Romans used chickens as oracles and Jesus said (Matthew 23:37), “I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wing, but you were not willing.”

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/896744-chicken-without-an-egg-born-in-sri-lanka

Posted in Q65 Have you ever wished you could fly?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q54 Do you enjoy a bit of a mystery?, Q41 Do you like surprises?, Q20 Have your eyes ever deceived you?, Q12 Is our Earth enchanted? | No Comments »

13/04/2012 by admin.

It’s Friday the 13th! Fitting then that Edvard Munch’s fanous haunting The Scream picture has been put up for auction at London’s Sotherby’s. The iconic picture by the Norwegian artist will be on display for a week and is expected to achieve over £50m. The Scream is the defining image of the Expressionist movement. The picture has a poem by Munch inscribed on the front. It tells us that the scream isn’t coming from the figure’s mouth, but is the scream of Nature he is hearing through his ears. It’s a powerful image of man’s anxiety and alienation from the natural world.

For us, the timing of the sale is symbolic - as though Mother Nature herself is up for sale! And, in our novel our soothsayer,  Julia Whittenbury, endures a nightmare where The Scream comes to life beneath the foot of Yggdrasil, the mystical Norwegian Tree of Life. As the world’s fragile eco-systems and bio-diversity are at the mercy of humanity The Scream says it all!

As Charlie says, ‘It’s dangerous to play with fire.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-F5Q10QT3Y

Posted in Q21 Have you ever hugged a tree?, Q34 Have you ever restored something?, Q58 Do things happen for a reason?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q16 Have you ever had a psychic experience?, Q15 Do you sometimes fear the worst?, Q.8 Do you crave a better life?, Q10 Have you ever seen a ghost?, Q12 Is our Earth enchanted?, Q.2 Are you an art lover? | No Comments »

11/04/2012 by admin.

The historic carved oak Great Bed of Ware has completed its move from the Victoria and Albert museum in South Kensington to take pride of place for a year at the tiny Ware museum. An official display at the musuem will be officially opened on 14 April by Lucy Worsley, Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces. A Heritage Lottery Fund award helped the Ware Museum Trust put on the display.

Our readers will know The Great Bed of Ware is mentioned by Charles Lamb in his 1821 journal. So we’re especially interested in the bed’s return home and also to learn that in the process of dismantling the bed Kate Hay a curator in the V&As furniture department discovered previously unknown graffiti from the 18th and 19th century - 20 scrawled names and initials - were these left by the famous members of the Blakesware Set as suggested in our novel? And remember the bed is thought to have been made by Jonas Fosbrooke, whose namesake is one of the creators of The Haymakers Survey.

Fabulous coincidence or something deeper?  

Learn more about the Great Bed of Ware…  http://www.greatbedofware.org.uk/index.html 

Posted in Q58 Do things happen for a reason?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q54 Do you enjoy a bit of a mystery?, Q47 Do you know your history?, Q34 Have you ever restored something?, Q.3 Do you have a good imagination? | No Comments »

02/04/2012 by admin.

In celebration of his 80th birthday the British pop art icon Sir Peter Blake has recreated the world famous cover to the 1967 Beatles Sgt Pepper Lonely Hearts’ Club album. For the  2012 version Sir Peter has chosen famous and great British people from the modern cultural era, including Amy Winehouse, JK Rowling, Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller and Mick Jagger.

Given the significance of Billie Shears and the LHCB in our novel we’re amused at the redesign, especially the Bo-Peep like figure on the right of the new design. She resembles Mother Nature at the heart of The Haymakers Survey picture. There are also 80 questions in our Survey and the Blakesware Set are influential.

Perhaps Sir Peter Blake was having a little fun with us? We do hope so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOO8-Jp-xsg

Posted in Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q80a Do you keep a diary?, Q78 Do you want to be part of the picture?, Q49 Do you ever think about the old days?, Q.7 Have you dreamed of being a champion? | No Comments »

10/02/2012 by admin.

Sir Paul McCartney has been honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  The long overdue award means arguably the most key member of The Beatles now joins his fellow band members, John, Ringo and George in being recognised with a plaque.  Despite the award being over 20 years in the waiting, Sir Paul was delighted with his star, nostalgically looking back to a time before the band’s success saying, “That was an impossible thing to happen.”

We like the impossible. Our readers will know that The Beatles had a strong influence on the content and it’s striking that when the anagram at the heart of the story is revealed it falls under a star and begins with a Key and a message to Rush Save Our World! Well what are we waiting for?

It’s also curious that the Hollywood star has Sir Paul’s name spelt as PAUL MC CARTNEY so we explored this a bit further. A NEY is an ancient woodwind instrument similar to a fife used by the Haymakers’ in our novel to lead the procession to PULL the CART loaded with the magical Yggdrasil tree. It’s the same cart to feature in The Haymakers’ painting by George Stubbs.  Whilst MC is an acronym for Master of Ceremonies… the host or compere of an event.

We love this concidence!

Posted in Star Question - what happened to the blue ribbon?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q67 Have you ever decorated a tree?, Q47 Do you know your history?, Q.7 Have you dreamed of being a champion?, Q14 Do you believe your stars?, Q.2 Are you an art lover? | No Comments »

30/01/2012 by admin.

Bird watchers in America are reporting a mass exodus of snowy owls from Arctic into the lower 48 states. The beautiful birds have been seen from coast to coast in a southern migration described as unbelievable by the owl research institute. The migration has baffled the experts with no logical explanation coming to the fore.

Snowy owls have been in the limelight for a number of years due to Harry Potter’s pet Hedwig, but we think this is real magic. The opening scene of our novel includes a white owl flying over the head of Ben Whittenbury as a prelude to all that follows, empowering him with the support of a hidden force - the Earth spirit or a divine creator - to serve as Nature’s Champion. This is deep magic and humanity neglects this sign at its peril.  Time for Bob Marley..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWw_gP0vDfE 

Posted in Q68 Does the Earth have a spirit?, Q75 Have you ever put on a show?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q54 Do you enjoy a bit of a mystery?, Q39 Do you believe in magic?, Q16 Have you ever had a psychic experience?, Q20 Have your eyes ever deceived you?, Q12 Is our Earth enchanted? | No Comments »

18/01/2012 by admin.

UK wildlife charities have requested the public’s help to see if hedgehogs are being affected by climate change. Numbers of the delightful creatures have plummeted from 30 million in the 1950s to less than 1.5 million in 1995 and the numbers now are thought to be much lower. Changing landscapes have clearly had a huge impact but the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species want to find out if high temperatures during hibernation and periods of extreme cold are adding to the decline in numbers.  Ideally hedgehogs prefer to hibernate in temperatures just below freezing.  The charities want people to register with the project and map them through February to August and submit their obeservations regularly. 

Five years ago the hedgehog was voted the favourite UK animal and we share that love. From our perspective, the study’s symbolic given the hedgehog question in our survey. It’s a question that stems from Hertfordshire folk being historically and fondly known as hedgehogs due to their supposed slow and prickly manner. 

We wish the survey every success. Here’s a delightful video of a hedgehog waking up… enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99peshpBzTU&feature=related

Posted in Q34 Have you ever restored something?, Q19 Do you love hedgehogs?, Q.9 Do you feel in control of your life? | No Comments »

12/01/2012 by admin.

The high street bookshop Waterstone’s has decided to drop the apostrophe from its online presence - a move designed to bring more vesatile and practical for the modern digital age.

The decision has not been without its critics with the Chairman of the Apostrophe Society calling the decision, ‘plain wrong’. Others have tweeted voicing their disquiet.

None of this surprises us since we had a huge debate about the appropriateness or otherwise of an apostrophe in ‘The Haymakers Survey’. The point is to illustrate how modern society is too focused on detail and triviality and has lost perspective and a sense of proportion on a whole range of issues.

Maybe the distractions are deliberate - to take our minds away from the bigger picture - maintain the status quo and defer action needed to protect the natural world and bring about a more just world.

Posted in Q76 Are you going to take action now to save our world?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q62a Is life logical?, Q56 Do you believe rules are there to be broken?, Q20 Have your eyes ever deceived you?, Q46 Do you value a good education?, Q17 Can you speak another language? | No Comments »

10/01/2012 by admin.

As the New year begins to unfold its of interest to us that two movies have been grabbing the headlines - War Horse and the Iron Lady.

We’re amused since our environmental project is all about finding the right balance between industrial growth (otherwise known as Gross Domestic Product) and defending Mother Nature. This is symbolised in the opening scene of our novel when an unknown figure is galloping on a horse to save Mother Nature from unbridled exploitation and destruction by humanity with a ghostly Lady in Grey (who represents industry - an Iron Lady) mournful at setting humanity on a precarious path. Its a struggle that continues today and everyday, perhaps these movies are a timely reminder of the need for humanity to progress ethically and morally? Here’s the trailers…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7lf9HgFAwQ 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDiCFY2zsfc

Posted in Q58 Do things happen for a reason?, Q75 Have you ever put on a show?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q49 Do you ever think about the old days?, Q47 Do you know your history?, Q10 Have you ever seen a ghost?, Q12 Is our Earth enchanted?, Q13 Have you ever been mistaken for someone else?, Q.7 Have you dreamed of being a champion? | No Comments »