Monday 26 February 2018

QC; The New Silks Appointed; Queen's Counsel


Alex, Westminster Hall, London


A snow-storm and sub-zero temperatures, but the Lord Chancellor made this a special occasion for all the new silks and their families. He reminded those present that Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, KC (1561 – 1626) was the first person to be designated a QC/KC (at about the time that his famous Essays were first published).

Francis Bacon, Of Judicature

"Judges ought to be more learned, than witty, more reverend, than plausible,and more advised, than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue...The principal duty of a judge, is to suppress force and fraud; whereof force is the more pernicious, when it is open, and fraud, when it is close and disguised...Judges must beware of hard constructions, and strained inferences; for there is no worse torture, than the torture of laws...In causes of life and death, judges ought (as far as the law permitteth) in justice to remember mercy; and to cast a severe eye upon the example, but a merciful eye upon the person".

This probably applies to QCs too.












Lord Chancellor welcomes promotion of new silks - Her Majesty The Queen has approved the appointment of 119 new Queen's Counsel, from gov.uk.

Queen's Counsel

On the way to the Ceremony (in a blizzard)


Celebrating in Soho:



The Daily Telegraph, 27 February 2018:



"A senior barrister leaves the Palace of Westminster after being appointed Queens Counsel (QC), colloquially known as silks, following a swearing-in ceremony presided over by the Lord Chancellor, David Gauke MP. A total of 119 barristers were selected". See Zimbio Pictures




 Westminster Hall 
Michael Angelo Rooker ARA (1746 - 1801)
Collection of BNY Mellon; photography by Adam Milliron


Saturday 24 February 2018

Dowland: Fantasia No. 7 played by Andrey Lebedev


I'm sorry I missed the Dorset County Museum Music Society concert in Dorchester on February 7th, supported by The Countess of Munster Trust. Russell Dawson told me it was excellent - as are most of the Music Society's concerts.


Andrey Lebedev plays Dowland (YouTube)

Christopher King, Writings and Records



From Long Gone Sound Productions

Past Projects

Epirus (Amanda Petrusich)

East of Venice: La Serenissima as seen from its eastern frontiers; Corfu and Greekness



A round table panel discussion I wish I could have attended in New York on February 13


"Viewing the history of the Venetian Republic through the lens of its neighbors in the Balkans and its Mediterranean frontiers, this international panel of specialists examines the various exchanges—cultural, linguistic, and religious, among others—between the Ottoman and the Venetian worlds, between East and West".

Especially interesting, the topic of the paper by Dr. Daphne Lappa (University of Crete):

“Borderland Religion in the Eastern End of the Serenissima: Greeks in the Venetian City of Corfu”

"What did it mean to be “Greek” in the early modern Venetian and Ottoman lands? Was this a uniform category? Or, could it take on different, local contents? The paper addresses these questions through the study of Greek-Orthodox religion as practiced in the city of Corfu, a part of the Venetian maritime state since the late fourteenth century. Using the concept of “borderland religion” to frame the very local, urban religious mélange of Latin and Greek elements in Corfu, it also compares it with Ottoman Greek-Orthodox religiosity, suggesting that these presented two different ways of being “Greek.”"


Co-presented by Carnegie Hall, Columbia University’s Department of Italian and its Italian and Mediterranean Colloquium and The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America.

Thessaloniki, Greece, Port Privatisation



From The Greek Crisis and FT


Friday 23 February 2018

Epirus in Winter: Linda Fagioli-Katsiotas (The Nifi)



Epirus, a land of many treasures and for all seasons, indeed.

Weymouth: The 'Peninsula" Redevelopment



The Peninsula Redevelopment – recap and next steps, Dorset For You

Dorset: Dorchester's Victorian Fayre at the Corn Exchange on Saturday, February 24, from 11am until 3.30pm.


From The Dorset Echo, Meghan Hindley: Step back in time and experience the delights of Dorchester's Victorian Fayre.

"The event is being organised by the William Barnes Society and aims to celebrate the life of the Dorset dialect poet. The fayre will be held at the Corn Exchange on Saturday, February 24 from 11am until 3.30pm".

Dorset steps back in time as traditional skills and crafts are showcased at Victorian Fayre



Drimpton Village Hall: The Grahams Rock the Joint; Artsreach; Dorset


The little Dorset village of Drimpton (population 400), located close to Beaminster, Crewkerne, Bridport and the wonderful walking country around Pilsdon Pen and Lewesdon Hill (although you wouldn't know it on a cold, dark February night), seems an unlikely venue for a rocking  4-piece country band of musicians (on an Artsreach tour) who hail from from Manhattan, Nashville and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Described as a "dynamic Americana duo", the singer-songwriter guitarists, childhood sweetheart husband-and-wife Alyssa and Doug Graham, had the wildly enthusiastic audience stomping their feet on the wooden village hall floorboards and calling for more.

Sometimes sounding like a Nashville country-rock band, at other times like a post-hippy, Jimi Hendrix revivalist duo (Doug's stinging guitar-playing, at least, with his ample use of distortion, fuzz-box, wah-wah and other pedal effects), they have written some outstanding song lyrics and concept albums (songs of their extensive US railroad, river and highway adventures), even if the unnecessarily high levels of amplification drowned out the words in this small, intimate village hall. Sitting close to they front, I had to block my ears at times, to try and catch all the words; it would have been great to hear them play a semi-acoustic set as well. US Northerners by birth, they must have been made welcome in Nashville and the South, as they have absorbed many regional musical influences on their travels.

Whether their occasionally ironic take on Americana in a song like Revival Time was so well received in the Bible belt, I'm not sure. The audience loved it. I had asked the sound technician at the start if they were going to sing that song - and if they'd brought the snake along with them. They hadn'tWatch the official YouTube video.

I wish the sound had been kept at this sort of level - hear, for instance, another great song, Biscuits.

Congratulations to the band, Artsreach and the Drimpton organisers.

I'll be keeping my eyes open to see what else they're bringing to Drimpton Village Hall.

In all of the 25 years that my mother used to live in West Bay, Bridport, I don't think I ever visited the village - though I have climbed Lewesdon Hill, and I much admire William Crowe's 1788 poem. Perhaps The Grahams could set part of it to music? I hope they had a chance to see something of the beautiful Dorset countryside, at least.


Thursday 22 February 2018

Online Etymology Dictionary



A very useful resource - Online Etymology Dictionary

"This is a map of the wheel-ruts of modern English. Etymologies are not definitions; they're explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago. The dates beside a word indicate the earliest year for which there is a surviving written record of that word (in English, unless otherwise indicated). This should be taken as approximate, especially before about 1700, since a word may have been used in conversation for hundreds of years before it turns up in a manuscript that has had the good fortune to survive the centuries".

Brexit: BBC 4 "Guide for the Perplexed "- Gibraltar and the Overseas Territories



A rather satirical, tongue-in-cheek BBC 4 Radio programme about a serious topic (15 minutes)


"Far away from the main Brexit negotiations in London and Brussels are the British Overseas Territories. Dots on the global map whose people may be strongly affected - and who are struggling to make their voicesheard. Chris Morris travels to Gibraltar to see what's at stake, and discovers too a hidden but vital Brexit story in the Caribbean".

Dorchester, Dorset: Recreation sites and play areas to make way for new homes?


From Wessex FM: Dorchester Town Council and Magna Housing consultation event. 

"The council are concerned that young workers are finding it impossible to find good quality accommodation in Dorchester, to both rent and buy. The idea is to look at land they own, to see if it could be suitable for housing".

Five sites have been identified:

Elizabeth Gardens
Poundbury Crescent
Fortress Green
Mellstock Avenue
Sandringham Annex

Bournemouth the UK’s best beach? Travellers' Choice


From The Guardian - TripAdvisor crowns Bournemouth the UK’s best beach - The south coast town’s golden sands have been ranked as the best in the country in TripAdvisor’s Traveller’s Choice awards – and the fifth-best in Europe


Weymouth No. 5 this year


Bournemouth 5th Best Beach in Europe


Bournemouth 14th Best Beach in the world

Wednesday 21 February 2018

On Copyright and Related Rights; The National Archive



From The National Archive (pdf)


Using materials from The National Archives (pdf)


Citing documents in The National Archives



Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Blue Nile River



Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project, Benishangul-Gumuz, Water Technology

Oil and Gas Extraction in Epirus, Greece: WWF and Greenpeace Initiative and Legal Challenges to Exploration, to Protect the Environment


Πρωτοβουλία κατά της έρευνας και εξόρυξης υδρογονανθράκων στην Ήπειρο, WWF and Greenpeace
Αίτημα για περιβαλλοντικούς ελέγχους στα Ιωάννινα

Παρασκευή, 16 Φεβρουάριος 2018

"Με κοινή τους επιστολή προς το Σώμα Επιθεωρητών και Ελεγκτών ΥΠΕΝ και την Περιφέρεια Ηπείρου, το WWF Ελλάς, η Greenpeace, και η Πρωτοβουλία κατά της έρευνας και εξόρυξης υδρογονανθράκων στην Ήπειρο ζητούν τη διενέργεια ελέγχου νομιμότητας για τις εργασίες που έχουν ξεκινήσει στα Ιωάννινα στο πλαίσιο του προγράμματος έρευνας και εξόρυξης υδρογονανθράκων".

Διαβάστε το πλήρες κείμενο της κοινής επιστολής εδώ.

Pesticides on Fruit and Vegetables



Which French fruits and vegetables are most likely to be contaminated with pesticides? Emma Beswick, Euronews


"Which fruits were most contaminated?

Topping the ranking for fruits were grapes with 89% of samples containing pesticide residues.

Which vegetables were most contaminated?

As for vegetables, celery stalks showed the highest levels of pesticide contamination at 85%."



Tuesday 20 February 2018

Augustus John and Henry Lamb: two exhibitions (Poole and Salisbury Museums)



Major exhibition of work of leading 20th century British artist to go on show in Poole, Bournemouth Echo

Jade Grassby writes:

"A MAJOR exhibition of the work of one of the towering figures of twentieth century British art will be shown at Poole Museum this year. Co-curated by the writer and art historian David Boyd Haycock, and organised in partnership with The Salisbury Museum, ‘Augustus John: Drawn from Life’ will open on May 26 and run until September 30. The Salisbury Museum will be host to a similar Augustus John exhibition in 2019 and is curating an exhibition about Henry Lamb in 2018 which will, in turn, come to Poole next year".

Conference in Thessaloniki - 10 to 13 May, 2018; Aristotle University of Thessaloniki - THE MACEDONIAN FRONT 1915 - 1918 POLITICS, SOCIETY & CULTURE IN TIME OF WAR


THE MACEDONIAN FRONT 1915 - 1918 POLITICS, SOCIETY AND CULTURE IN TIME OF WAR

Information here (pdf file)

"From Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 May 2018 the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki will hold an international conference marking the 100 years since the end of the First World War. This will take place in Thessaloniki at The Teloglion Fine Arts Foundation, next to the campus of the Aristotle University. The Aristotle University, King’s College London, the Imperial War Museum and the British School at Athens are all represented on the Organising Committee. The event will be under the auspices of the British Embassy Athens. Our aim is to offer the public of Thessaloniki, especially university students, a conference of a high scholarly level, which will promote the knowledge and sustain the memory of the First World War, a momentous event for the history of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece and indeed all the European countries involved. The emphasis will be on the ‘other’ aspects of the Great War, i.e. political, economic, social and cultural, without neglecting military operations or diplomacy. Parallel events will include an exhibition of documents and photographs organised at the Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive of the Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece".

Provisional List of Speakers (pdf file)

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/ahri/eventrecords/2017-2018/CHS/CHS-Conf-May-2018-announcement.pdf


SEE ALSO:

Salonika Remembers


Neanderthals and Art




Drawings of Representational Images by Upper Paleolithic Humans and their Absence in Neanderthals Might Reflect Historical Differences in Hunting Wary Game, Abstract, Richard G. Coss, Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture

Did Neanderthals' poor art ability contribute to their extinction? The Telegraph, Henry Bodkin

Saturday 17 February 2018

A Dorset Shepherd and his Flock; Bridport, Dorset



From Mail Online, Tom Payne - The Dorset flock roaming the downs since Thomas Hardy’s time

Christie's Guide to Contemporary African art



From Christie's


See also my posting: South Africa, The Art of a Nation; British Museum

Earthquake Felt in Poundbury, Dorset



The house shook this afternoon. I was sure I felt a tremor from a small earthquake. It was an earthquake,

4.4 on the Richter Scale, at a depth of 7kms, in the region of Cwmllynfell, South Wales

Confirmed: Earthquakes around the British Isles in the last 50 days
Last updated: Sat, 17 Feb 2018 , 14:31:07.6

Latitude 51.776

Longitude -3.837

See also, Dorset Echo: Did you feel it? Earth tremor felt across Dorset

"It is thought to have had a magnitude of 4.4 with its epicentre in Wales".

Update: BBC, Earthquake felt across parts of UK

Mail Online report

Ionian Islands, New Shipping Links, May 1 - October 31, Ilida Paxos




Direct coastal shipping link between Ionian islands, eKathimerini

"Hydrofoil company Ilida Paxos announced this week that it will be starting direct coastal shipping links between the Ionian islands on May 1...The new service will link Corfu with Paxos, the southern port of Vassiliki on Lefkada, Sami on northwestern Cephalonia, and Zakynthos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, while sailing the opposite way on Tuesdays, Thursday and Saturdays".

Friday 16 February 2018

Stone-Carving, Chilfrome, Dorset (Holy Trinity Font)








Also in the church:



Flints found on yesterday's walk:



The sculptor Henry Moore found inspiration in the shapes and forms of flints.

Chilfrome and Frampton, Dorset; Floods, The River Frome, Snowdrops and a Sacred Tree


From two Dorset walks, yesterday and today:








"The Frome, wi' ever-water'd brink,
Do run where shelvèn hills do zink..."

William Barnes


Chilfrome, Holy Trinity Church:













Thanks to Bill, for leading the walk on Thursday, and to fellow-walker
 Sheila, for recommending the snowdrops at Chilfrome!

Chilfrome (Holy Trinity) from Dorset Churches

Chilfrome (Wikipedia)

Chilfrome (British History Online)

Chilfrome: "Estate on the River Frome, belonging to the noble-born sons"
(Dorset Place-Names, Their Origins and Meanings, A.D. Mill (1991 edition).