17/12/2009 by admin.

A first edition of Lewis Carroll’s classic book “Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There”,  dedicated to the real life Alice who inspired the story has sold at a U.S. auction for $115,000.

Southern California-based Profiles in History said the book, the sequel to “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland“, was the highlight of its children’s literature sale. “Through the Looking Glass“, published in 1871, includes the nonsense poem “Jabberwocky.” Both works were inspired by 10 year-old Alice Liddell, the daughter of an academic friend of Carroll’s. The edition is inscribed in ink “Alice Pleasance Liddell”, and was described as having been presented to her by Carroll.

Okay - we need to offer another explanation on how this links to our novel. Our very own Eath Detective - Sarah Whittenbury - examines a magic circle drawn in the soil before the ’Web of Life’ through her looking glass (pages 162 - 164).  She discovers a frozen tear! Is this a reminder to humanity - a message to let us know what’s really going on. That a state of emergency is being declared for the web of life is in peril!  

Posted in Q58 Do things happen for a reason?, Q79 Have you ever looked into the shadows?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q57 Have you ever spied on anyone?, Q54 Do you enjoy a bit of a mystery?, Q12 Is our Earth enchanted?, Q22 Do you love our Earth?, Q.3 Do you have a good imagination? | No Comments »

27/11/2009 by admin.

In our novel, Sarah liken’s her father, Ben Whittenbury to the classic children’s TV character Mr Benn. She did so because of his habit of dressing up in different costumes - a polar bear and an 18th century military man.  Mr Benn’s adventures always began when he visited a magical fancy dress shop.

Well, as if by magic the residents of the street that inspired David McKee’s Mr Benn stories have chosen to pay tribute to the writer and character by laying an engraved paving slab outside of David McKee’s former house.  For his stories Mr McKee changed Festing Road to Festive Road and had Mr Benn living at number 52, next door to his own house at number 54.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GXfUN1grtA&feature=related

Posted in Q61 Have you ever worn fancy dress?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q54 Do you enjoy a bit of a mystery?, Q39 Do you believe in magic?, Q.3 Do you have a good imagination?, Q.2 Are you an art lover? | No Comments »

02/11/2009 by admin.

Our readers will know all about how our novel poses the question - “do we have the X factor?” That is do we (humanity) have what it takes to preserve our natural world or are we simply too selfish and greedy a species to merit our position as alpha species for very much longer?  Well we’ve seen a number of examples on this Watch of events linked to this point (just enter X factor in the search function below). 

Today we have another example to reveal: at the heart of arguably one of Europe’s busiest shopping streets a giant X has appeared in the road. Its a new pedestrian crossing at Oxford Circus based on designs from Tokyo which allows people to cross diagonally as well as straight across. 

So in these hey days of consumption we wonder whether the large X at the centre of a shoppers paradise is in reality a poser for humanity! 

Posted in Q36 Should a good life cost the Earth?, Q58 Do things happen for a reason?, Q34 Have you ever restored something?, Q20 Have your eyes ever deceived you?, Q.8 Do you crave a better life?, Q.3 Do you have a good imagination? | No Comments »

11/10/2009 by admin.

Last night on the BBC’s AutumnWatch the presenters, Kate Humble, Chris Packham and Simon King discussed the millions of Painted Lady butterflies that invaded Britain in the Spring.  Painted Ladies are a regular summer visitor to Britain and conservationalists believe the number of Painted Lady butterflies this year was the largest seen here since the 1960s.   

Kate, Chris and Simon were curious as to what happened to them all - they seemed to have just disappeared - they’ve asked for viewers to give their views or offer clues and help solve the mystery.  Chris suggested the butterflies might be flying back to Africa at higher altitude, but he liked the fact that we don’t know for it shows we have lots to learn about Nature.

One solution might be that the butterflies arrived in such numbers to guide us to take note of another painted lady - Lucy Ebbs in the Haymakers painting by George Stubbs.  Our story reveals that she is Mother Nature personified. The butterflies mysterious departure maybe another hint that we risk letting everything precious in our natural world fade away! Malachi seems to alert us too - on page 35 he says, “the flame of a butterfly before it settles”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7W44Ljn5FA

Whatever, the arrival of the Painted Ladies are a spectacular phenomenon. Here’s a link of interest…

http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/

Posted in Q76 Are you going to take action now to save our world?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q75 Have you ever put on a show?, Q58 Do things happen for a reason?, Q22 Do you love our Earth?, Q54 Do you enjoy a bit of a mystery?, Q.3 Do you have a good imagination? | No Comments »

22/09/2009 by admin.

In celebration of the Autumn Equinox - an event significant in our project - we’ve put together a promotional video, which is featured below.  

Sky TV and You Tube are running competitions for video entries to inspire and engage the world on the issues.  We could use the video as an entry but it may be judged a commercial activity (which it isn’t as we make no money from the project) or the mention of our website could disallow it.   These are fundamental parts of our project - we’re tempted to ‘break the rules’ but will have to tinker! Oh these things are so difficult sometimes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xbcG5bphlk

Posted in Q56 Do you believe rules are there to be broken?, Q68 Does the Earth have a spirit?, Q75 Have you ever put on a show?, Q78 Do you want to be part of the picture?, Q51 Have you ever taken part in a protest?, Q43 Do you believe in happy endings?, Q20 Have your eyes ever deceived you?, Q22 Do you love our Earth?, Q37 Do you know how to have fun?, Q.3 Do you have a good imagination? | No Comments »

10/09/2009 by admin.

In our novel (page 177) Malachi quotes from a collection of old Nordic poems preserved in the Icelandic medieval manuscript Codex Regius, (Latin for King’s Book). He says, ”They stretched out strings of Gold and fastened them under the Hall of the Moon”. 

Malachi said this after mention of how an invisible magical force holds everything together. Let’s look at this more closely. We believe in Nordic mythology Vidofnir sits glistening like Gold in the tree tops and its around his staff that Icelandics weave their string or thread. It is this thread that is tied to the hall of the moon -its crescent.  It explains how the Earth and the Moon are tied together in orbit - by [unseen] strings of Gold. 

So, with this in mind we’re fascinated that scientists believe they’ve discovered the oldest example of humans making cords. In a cave in Georgia, when looking for pollen they were surprised to accidentally stumble upon microscopic fibres more than 30,000 years old.  A researcher from Harvard University said they are weaven in a way that suggestes a very old princple of making rope or cord, preserved in mud that accumulated over thousands of years. Some of the fibres were coloured using natural plant pigments - were they Gold perhaps?

Maybe Malachi’s quote also suggests we are risking upsetting the natural balance of things! That things are hanging by a thread - in the Antarctic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_k2Vbhza9o

Posted in Q80 Have you ever searched for buried treasure?, Q46 Do you value a good education?, Q41 Do you like surprises?, Q.3 Do you have a good imagination? | No Comments »

04/09/2009 by admin.

Researchers writing in ‘Polar Biology’ report a small group of light-mantled sooty albatrosses have chosen to nest on King George’s Island, one of the South Shetland Islands in Antarctica. The colony is the southern-most breeding location ever recorded for any albatross species (by 1,500km); previously it was only thought to nest as far south as sub-Antarctic islands. 

The birds were first sighted on the island on Christmas Day.  The researchers - Simeon Lisovski and Hans-Ulrich Peter of the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, in Germany and colleagues Karel Weidinger and Vaclav Pavel of Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic - are unclear why the birds chose to nest so far south, speculating that climate change may be the cause. 

Well, perhaps there’s another more mystical reason - our novel and Charles Lamb’s journal puts new light on the significance of the albatross in Samuel Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and also includes several mentions of King George III - who governed at the time the poem was scribed!  Its worth noting that the island was named after King George III!

Curious then that the birds should make the link real. What do they call it - life immitating art? 

Posted in Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q75 Have you ever put on a show?, Q58 Do things happen for a reason?, Q12 Is our Earth enchanted?, Q.3 Do you have a good imagination? | No Comments »

30/08/2009 by admin.

On Sunday afternoon drinkers at the Castle Hotel, Neath in South Wales, had the surprise of their lives when a 16in Dogfish fell from the sky and landed on a canopy above them.  Andrea Lewis, Assistant Manager, said ’something hit the canvas really hard, startling the guests and started flapping around.’

Its far from a fishy tale and where it came from remains a mystery. The favoured suggestion is one of a pair of rare Osprey’s in the area may have dropped its catch.  Whatever the reason we’re interested because of Bill Richmond’s claim recorded in Charles Lamb’s journal and in our free Journal extract that, “I’ve seen fishes fall from the sky” to help illustrate the miraculous is all around us.  Strange that the fish to fall should be a Dogfish given the role of Malachi our Samoyed dog as Mother Nature’s Messenger!

Posted in Q58 Do things happen for a reason?, 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?, Q12 Is our Earth enchanted?, Q20 Have your eyes ever deceived you?, Q.3 Do you have a good imagination? | No Comments »

17/08/2009 by admin.

Crasher the Squirrel has become an internet sensation recently after he popped up in a photo taken by Melissa Brandt and her husband at a National Park in Canada. Since then the curious fellow has gone global with his image superimposed in many famous pictures around the world. 

Here’s the original….

And here’s some of the follow ups…

It’s another delightful story involving grey squirrels whose antics have intrigued us given their role in our novel as a partner to Yggdrasil - the mythical ‘Tree of Life’. The squirrels are present to demonstrate that the time for talking on action to preserve the environment is over, so its fascinating that Crasher popped up in a National Park - a reserve of land declared or owned to protect it from human development and pollution. 

According to the World Conservation Union there are now over 6,500 such parks worldwide. The National Parks of England and Wales are relatively undeveloped and scenic landscapes. There are currently 12 in England and Wales - the same number as the mystical stones revealed in our story. The national parks include the Lake District, which William Wordsworth described in 1810 as a ’sort of national property in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy.“

Posted in Q78 Do you want to be part of the picture?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q41 Do you like surprises?, Q37 Do you know how to have fun?, Q20 Have your eyes ever deceived you?, Q.3 Do you have a good imagination? | No Comments »

03/07/2009 by admin.

We’ve previously commented on the sad death of Michael Jackson, the ‘King of Pop’ and how the star linked with our story.  Well given the reference Sara made to Neverland and the ghost seen by Ben and recorded in Charles Lamb’s journal, we were curious about the mounting speculation about a ghostly shadowed figure seen during a CNN tour of the popstar’s former residence. 

There may well be a logical explanation but it makes for fascinating viewing….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Am67-Sew7k&feature=related

Posted in Q62a Is life logical?, Q79 Have you ever looked into the shadows?, Q59 Do you like surprises?, Q20 Have your eyes ever deceived you?, Q.6 Do you believe in fairy tales?, Q10 Have you ever seen a ghost?, Q.3 Do you have a good imagination? | No Comments »