Part II of Tour with the mother of all Gangsters and a Gateway to Nowhere to name a Few

AS PROMISED PART TWO OF THE CENTRAL FLORIDA TOUR:

You’ll cross a modern little bridge–this area use to belong to a Major Thomas Starke.  The major had a ferry boat here, the crossing was called Starke’s Ferry and still is.

Tom Starke was a secessionist and following the Civil War his home became a hide out for the Confederate Secretary of War, John C. Breckinridge, it was a very risky thing to do but the secretary eventually escaped to Cuba without Starke’s involvement being found out.

It was this period following the war that very shallow draft Her are scenic vistas and you may even see some of the remains of the once large scale orange groves that were once common to the area.

turn right/north on SR 25/Ocala Rd. (this was originally 441 before the new one was built 3 miles west of here)

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SR 25 recalls the day when travel was slower and roads went around not through things in the landscape.

Wierdale:  another tiny town.  The town was named for the Lake which SR 25 transverse the East borders—Nathaniel W-A-R-E, but with an incorrect spelling.

This area around Lake Weir was the site of many pre-Civil War plantations.

Col. Adam Summer raised prize cattle on the west site of the lake around the town that now bares his name Summerfield.    The Colonel owned a mansion there and after the war he also helped that same confederate government member Breckinridge prior to his movement to Starke’s land.   Breckinridge reportedly even swam in the lake during his visit.

 

Lake Weir became popular in the 1880’s when the rail road arrived and several small Tourist hotels (some even built second homes) were built along the beautiful lake with its sandy bottom.

By the 1920s a developer arrived with plans for the northeast shore for a fashionable hotel, country club, even a golf course…along with canals from the lake allowing sailing to other lakes in the area…but the depression struck first and nothing came of it.

SR 25 turns west/left above Lake Wier

image preview

OKLAWAHA

is really a very famous town…back in the depression times the popularity of the region had lost its glow and in November 1934 this area was still attractive but now a bit isolated…and it came to the attention of one  Kate Barker better known in crime circles as “Ma” and her son, Freddie as well as several other less than honest citizens.  The group called “The Barker Gang” had a history of robbing banks and along with that came shooting people.

But the most recent crime was more of a problem…they had kidnapped one of the Hamm Brewing family member, which brought them to national prominence and that mean the FBI had gotten involved.  So it was time to lay low…so after splitting up the loot, they split up the gang and moved on.  So Ma and Freddie rented a secluded cottage in the middle of the Florida nothingness.

At first the Barker were just normal neighbors, they seemed nice enough and Freddie tipped well but they began to complain when Freddie took his machine to the lake and shot the ducks.  Eventually even these remote villagers began to realize something was quite right with the new occupants.   So someone reported their odd behavior to the law and they started to look into the Blackburns whom they found to be dead ringers for Ma and Freddie Barker.

On January 16, 1935, 14 heavily armed FBI agents surrounded the residence.  When they called for the two to surrender, Ma and Freddie answered with gunfire instead.  The Feds replied in kind riddling the house with bullets for 45 minutes, then with intermittent fire for another 5 hrs.  When they finally entered the two outlaws were well riddled corpses.

The house still stands today, having had the 1,500 bullet holes fixed and pounds of lead removed and remodeled and resold.  Today you can’t tell it from the others which is how the owners want it, but as you drive down SR 25 past the community building look to you left along the northern shores of Lake Weir  you’ll see the houses set back from the road, just imagion which one you think looks the most wounded.

Once past Lake Weir SR 25 has been modernized and is rather uninteresting with boring landscape, scrubby pines and auto repair shops.

 

Old Belleview School, now the City Hall

BELLEVIEW:  This area was once a favorite place for the Seminoles to meet and was called Nile Mile Pond.  During a lull in the Seminole War they actually had officers from Ft. King here to attend a feast.  But hostalities soon resumed.

In 1982 the town had a major pollution disaster when underground fuel storage tanks leaked polluting all their wells and taking 8 months to clean up while they had to have water brought in from Ocala.  This resulted in Florida making laws about metal storage tanks taking decades and thousands of dollars to correct.

Turn right/north on US 27/301/441

This highway follows the route of the old Ft. King military road which at one time was a narrow dirt path, wandering through dense forest in the heart of Seminole Country–no more.

In three miles the highway splits near the village of Santos as it goes around a forested area.

this was originally designed to be a temporary bypass until the completion of a bridge over the never-completed Cross Florida Barge Canal….some thing very few Floridians know anything about.

An idea goes back as far at the Spanish Colonist, then the newly formed US (including John Quincy Adams…then Andrew Jackson, Calvin Collidge and Herbert Hoover).  Roosevelt (Franklin in 1933) had access to 28 surveys and even  a route selected River and exiting near Dunellon into the Gulf.  All in an effort to save shipping time and avoid treacherous seas.  Roosevelt added it to his Depression Work programs and a team started erecting a supply depot near Ocala.

The state called it “one of the greatest events…happen to the….state.”  Some churches called it “a holy enterprise.”  Everyone thought it heralded a new boom.  Things rolled on for awhile but then businessmen from Miami and Tampa started complaining on why Jacksonville should gain so much from this…Citrus farmers feared the digging and draining would damage their crops.  Towns became concerned of salt water coming in thru the locks and contaminating water. The debate and preparations went until  1936 when new appropriations were defeated and the work places were deserted (the ones for the original camp were used by the University for police courses.)

The idea was kicked around during WWII but was never considered due to man  power issues and in 1956 with one of the pushing points that the reduced travel would save beer consumers 42% per case.  And again in 1964 the work was resumed under LBJ with construction on both ends…a 150′ wide canal dug for 10 miles to Inglis Locks completed in 1970.  On the St. Johns, a dam was built at Rodman to create a navigable reservoir.

But now it was environmentalist that rose to stop it all with concerns of killed wildlife, saltwater seepage into the acquifer and the fact that seemly should have been mentioned years ago:  that most shippers would not use it.  Both Ford and Carter said no and it was finally dead.

But here the gateway remains a mute and mysterious reminder of yesterday and maybe a warning of tomorrow.

 

WE’LL HAVE MORE OF THE TOUR SOON….IT TAKES LONGER TO WRITE THAN IT DOES TO DO—HONEST.DSC_0854

This picture and the main one are both from Edinburgh

so it this one:

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FROM AN OLD HOTEL TO HORSE COUNTRY–A TOUR FOR THOSE IN FLORIDA

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Hello and today’s the last blog this week….and I thought I’d add the last thing to my what’s my blog about:  Think and do with a great tour from Longwood to Ocala Florida…..

All pictures today are from Edinburgh—at least my personal ones….the rest are borrowed from on line of the places we’re talking about.

But First:

THE DROUGHTLANDER—FIND YOUR WAY THRU—GUIDE

Start researching all the clothing etc products that Sam is a spokesman for or just doing ads for etc….the boy is getting rich….anyway let us know what you find.

Here’s a start:

‘Outlander’ Actor Sam Heughan Partners With Bear Strength Clothing for My Peak Challenge

there’s been some unhappiness at the lack of sex scenes in Season 2:

do you agree or no:   List your reasons yeah or no

If yes what can they do to improve in season 3 (this will include reading the 3rd book)

if not why not (reading book 2 is a pre-rec for this one.

here’s a starter:  https://www.inverse.com/article/18104-outlander-season-3-needs-more-sex

Do some research on the actual battle of Culloden and see how accurate the show is….there’s all manner of books and of course on line…..give me  a report….oh and start with this:

https://www.yahoo.com/tv/outlander-finale-sam-heughan-caitriona-balfe-talk-culloden-023006675.html

We start in Longwood.

If coming from I-4 exit 434/Longwood and go East  turn left at 426–at the light just past the railroad tracks

If coming from 17-92 turn left on 434 then right on 426 the light just before the rail road tracks.

Turn left at the first light and pull into the parking lot first on the left. 

You can get out and walk about the building

THE LONGWOOD INN.     http://www.peaceriverghosttracker.com/subPages2/longwoodVillageInn30610.htm

in 1965 it was used to film the movie “Johnny tiger” with Robert Taylor, Chad Everett and Linda Scott.  In 1969, the Central Florida Society of Historic Preservation selected Longwood as the nucleus of its historic restoration wit Longwood Hotel as it hub.

In 1972 It became the Longwood Village Inn.  If you look into the front door you can see the lobby in what is now a business office complex.

Return to your car

Turn right at the light on 426 and then right on 434 (next light)

Continue on 434 under I-4 and take the first right at the next light

Markham Woods Road

It ends on Markham Road–turn left

this road ends to at Longwood Markham Road–turn right

Continue until it ends at light on 46

Go to light beyond river 46A and go north–right

It ends at 44–turn left

We’re heading to

EUSTIS:  population 19,129.–It is centrally located and has a large population of retirees.  Located on a large lake it has good fishing, and a community college as well as the Eustis Memorial Library felt to be one of the best in Lake county.

Once you’re in Eustis 44 also becomes East Orange Ave

Continue on to Diedrich Street and turn Left

On your left at 117 is the

Dream Spinner Bed and Breakfast:  This northern style, two story-white clapboard farmhouse was built in 1881 and included 3 bedroom, palor and a home office, to the rear connected by a breezeway, was a kitchen and servant quarters.  At the time it was built it was outside the city which was called “Pendryville”

The house was built by Moses J. Taylor a Conneticut-born school teacher and later Colonel in the Civil War, live in Tallahassee where he met his wife and his 3 children were born and then on to Washington, DC where another son was born. He was one of the Founding fathers of the town and  worked as a real estate developer and citrus grower.

In 1988 the house which had remained basically the same over the years was restored and updated and the kitchen and servant quarters were incorporated into the main dwelling making it a 3,500 sq. foot dwelling.

In 1993 it was purchased by a Mt. Dora couple and converted into a Bed and Breakfast (Dream Spinner) which opened in 1994 and it was listed on the National Register in 1996.

Return to E. Orange/44 and turn left west

Back in 1881 Pendryville was a small settlement on Lake Eustis and eventually the town became Lake Eustis too, then the Lake was dropped in 1883 when it was incorporated.

turn right on Waterman Way

Hospital is on your right

WATERMAN HOSPITAL:  Now one of the Florida Hospital chain of hospitals

The original hospital was on the site of the Ocklawaka House Hotel (1880s).  The present hospital is large and well provided for as most of the SDA Church’s hospitals are.

The first post office and the first school (Oliva Pendry as teacher) were both located at this hotel.

The name Waterman comes from Frank Waterman, the head of the Waterman Fountain Pen Company in New York.  He stayed in Eustis during the winter and bought the Ocklawaka hotel and enlarged it in the 1920s renaming it The Fountain Inn which lasted until the depression caused it’s close.  He then gave the building to the city for a hospital.

Continue on Waterman which is one way north….Route 19

it eventually goes into a two way highway above town

almost immediately after this joining you will see CR452 forking off to the left—take 452

Seminoles once hunted on the lake shore here and the lake was originally named Sinufke for an Indian leader  It was not until after the Seminole war that it was renamed for  Col. Abraham Eustis, respected for his strict disclipine of his troops which was felt to have been a factor in winning over the Indians.

Continue on 452

Fort Mason:  was located in this area.  A minor outpost in the Second Seminole War (which is what took place in this area—there were actually 3 before fighting with the Indians ended), it became more important during the steamboat era.  During this time the waterways were the best transportation and orange growers sent there fruit from Lake Eustis along Haines Creek, to Lake Griffin, then down the treacherous Ockawaha to the St. Johns and on to Jacksonville.  The trip was slow, arduous and subject to always changing water levels.  After the rail roads started coming into the area the Fort went into a decline.

During the 1940s Eustis was known as “The Orange Juice Capital of the World.”  In 1998 there was a major med fly scare with all manner of effort to control any major damage to the trees.  Over the years bees were brought in by professional keeper to fertilize the plants.  These bees were brought from California and when the season was over they were then moved on to Michigan’s apple orchards.  But eventually bad weather and urban sprawl doomed the areas’ citrus.

Continuing on 452

Now the road leaves the former orange belt and goes into the Central Valley once part of a wetland connecting several major lakes, called Emeralda Marsh which is part of a conservation area administered by the state.

turn west (left) onto Goose Prairie Road 3 miles past Ft. Mason

Although it is not a spectacular drive, on your way you may discover large flocks of ring-necked ducks as well as sand hill cranes and other waterfowl.  You may also see some bald eagles, wood storks, limpkins and snowy egrets….

Follow it 4 miles

After the restoration of the marsh in 1993 the ponds were stocked with bass.

Continue a few miles to Emerald Isle road (it becomes that after a sharp right turn)

But this didn’t turn out well for the restoration

Follow Emerald Isle Road for 4 miles through the Marsh

and two more miles back to CR452—watch your road signs as road turns several times but keeps the same name

The bass that were put in the area didn’t reproduce and the fish when examined were found to have high female hormones in the males and vise versa.  One thought was that the reclaimed farmland had high levels of DDT—and it was further found that near by Lake Griffin ha a low (less than 5%) alligator hatching as well as high death rates of turtles and snakes.

Back on CR452 continue north along the Mout Dora Ridge

Until CR452 ends at CR 42

Turn west (left) on CR 42

In a few miles you make a gradual descent into the Ockawaha River.  Originally these lowlands had huge life oaks, but plantation owners had their slaves cut the and planted sugar cane instead.

This is just part of the tour….I will continue it for you until you ha

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and a bit of Scotland to change the pace.

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THERE ARE NO RECORDS OF LUDDITES TURNING AGST OVERT POLITICAL TARGETS

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This picture is the ruins of a building–industrial?—military?—after all it is northern England or southern Scotland—taken from my train window and given the fact there is no indication where one ends and another begins  along the road and this is a train–not a tour I’m sorry to say…so heaven knows…but the mystery and the size of it makes my mind wander.

One of the things that I use my blog for is to get you—my readers–to find things they’re interested enough in actually spend some time in finding out about them.  While I may some day find out what this building is I decide today todo something a bit easier as I don’t have all day to get this blog done….so right after my

Survival for Droughtlander Suggestions I’ll return to that.

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Of course, machine breaking, food riots and threats were neither unique nor original to the Luddite movement.”

This and all other quotes today are from

WRITINGS OF THE LUDDITES

By Kevin Benfield

 

Make Murtagh your point of interest and find all things about him—books and otherwise…then look up the actor that plays him and do the same…research etc—present it to me & I’ll feature it under your credit.

Or maybe Frank–Black Jack—no Frank—no….well you know would be more challenging:  http://zap2it.com/2016/06/tobias-menzies-outlander-game-of-thrones-catastrophe/

then there’s the obvious

http://www.dianagabaldon.com/books/outlander-series/

and finally

you could replay (for real) all the sex scenes with your significant other

http://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/Outlander-Sex-Scenes-41814595#photo-41814595

“….chart the movement from its 1811 origins among Textile Workers in Nottinghamshire….”

BUSH CLASH Participants Poster 1994 Daytona
Expires Aug 3, 2016
1 in stock
$9.99

Newstead Abbey

Oh and I failed to give a name for Bryon’s home in Nottingham yesterday–it’s:

Newstead Abbey Historic House and Gardens            https://www.artfund.org/what-to-see/museums-and-galleries/newstead-abbey-historic-house-and-gardens

check it out at the website listed.

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“Then its spred into Derbyshire, Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire…”

KNIFE SHAPERNER Built into Wooden Case Both top ad Bottom–Very Primitve Antique

While going through things I brought back from the UK I found this picture being used as an ad for the Galleries of Justice Museum   www.galleriesofjustice.org.uk (featured previously on one of my days in Nottingham)

The Title of the exhibit (which is no longer there) was

THE LUDDITES AND THE TRAIL OF DANIEL DIGGLE.

It encourage you to learn the fascinating history of the Luddites

as well mentioning

Daniel Diggle who was tried and executed at the Shire Hall for attempted murder duing the Luddite protests.

and featured a man (as seen above in a dress over his regular clothes as well as a hat which appeared to also be less than man-wear.

so I said OK doing a bit of research on this for my blog would fit right into research for fun and knowledge

as well as being weird enough to appeal to me and probably more than a few of my readers…

so away we go.

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“There is very little evidence of persons who were not framework knitters participating in any attacks on the wide stocking frames,,,,”

First Luddities:

according to History.com

“its origins date back to a 19th century labor movement that railed against the economic fallout of the Industrial Revolution. The original Luddites were British weavers and textile workers who objected to the increased use of automated looms and knitting frames.”

They weren’t just upset with the production vales etc but:

“…were trained artisans who had spent years learning their craft, and they feared that unskilled machine operators were robbing them of their livelihood. ” 

Sounds all too familiar doesn’t it…you don’t have to be in 18th century England to appreciate that.

But now it gets a bit weirder:

“They called themselves “Luddites” after Ned Ludd, a young apprentice who was rumored to have wrecked a textile apparatus in the late-18th century.”  

and now I understand why they’re doing this in Nottingham.:

There’s no evidence Ludd actually existed—like Robin Hood, he was said to reside in Sherwood Forest—but he eventually became the mythical leader of the movement.

In case you’ve forgotten Robin Hood was (at the moment believed to be mythical or a combination of real people condensed into one) the abiding legend that was peculiar (originally) to Nottingham….Apparently Ludd didn’t catch on so much, but he still appears to be one of the city’s (pseudo?) sons.

http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-were-the-luddites

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“In…Yorkshire, most Luddites were cloth dressers in the woolen industry, also called croppers….”

In 1812 Parliament introduced the death penalty for anyone found guilty of breaking a frame.  http://cms.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/home/leisure/archives/exhibitions/africancaribbeanheritage/              georgeafricanus/luddites.htm

It’s a scone dotted minefield out there—Helen Graves

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Another day on the ole blog…and I thought I’d mention (just in the opening) another thing that my blog is for–and that’s to teach and educate you in things that I hope will stimulate your ambitions to do more study or to go out and find the subject of study—to explore or read or meet someone who’s interested tooo—you already have a life–my goal is to make it more exciting or at least more active and interesting.  Oh and a big thing to remember is that not all men (and/or women) find the same thing interesting, exciting–whatever.  But if you final goal is to end up doing it on the computer I will tell you right now that as far as I’m concerned it doesn’t qualify for what I’m aiming for on my blog.

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….Themed….that are more style than substance–all quotes are from Helen Graves

get the books and compare Glennis so far in the book as compared to the TV show and make a list of the difference and then send them to me at the blog and we can put them on to compare them.

Here’s a recap of the last episode that may help.

Outlander Finale Recap: Time Travel Never Felt So Real

Or you can watch all last season (again) and see if you agree with the 10 ten listed below—make you won list and then compare….send me your top 10 and I’ll feature them on the blog—-I’d like to have some input from other Droughtlander sufferers:

Top Ten Moments from Outlander, Ep 207: Faith

 

 

Watch the interviews on U-Tube they’re never ending—try these 2 they fun and short duration but obviously from same interview session..

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“it’s important to know which side your finger sandwich bread is buttered.”

Also all my pictures are from the train still (York to Edinburg)

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I was looking through some stuff and am already looking at stuff I would be interested in seeing or doing in 2020….my planned return to London year:

First though we had a great tea at the White Rabbit we never managed one in London….one of the places suggested is:

Calridge (pictured above)—It is specifically noted for it’s great traditional tea (which isn’t what I see in the lay out above….but I’m not a Brit so maybe my understanding of such isn’t as good as it should be.  They say the staff is good, the tea is perfect and the room it’s done in is  “!” not to mention the also perfect pasties (flavor, texture and presentation all great) and they go on to say nothing formal or stuff either.  http://www.claridges.co.uk/mayfair-restaurants-bars/london-afternoon-tea/

Other places were:

Mandarin Oriental in Hyde Park/Best Contemporay http://www.mandarinoriental.com/london/fine-dining/

Sanders Mad Hatter’s Afternoon Tea/Best Themed https://www.morganshotelgroup.com/originals/originals-sanderson-london/eat-drink/mad-hatters-afternoon-tea

Grosvenor House/Best Family Friendly  http://www.parkroom.co.uk/

http://londonist.com/2016/07/inaugural-afternoon-tea-awards-rate-london-s-best-afternoon-teas

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“…a panel of judges to selflessly eat their way through some of London’s best teas…..”

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RICHARD III EXPERIENCE                     http://richardiiiexperience.com/

Though I’ve been to York twice I’ve not managed to make it to this exhibit.  It’s at one of the gates on the medieval wall (about 3 miles of it still standing) and gives stories of power and conflict in the reign of the last Plantagenet King of England.  It might be noted that York backed Richard (you may remember him from being the hunch back in the Bard’s plays–a real baddie or more recently the king whose body was found under a parking lot and I would  think not portrayed here as such a baddie–as they present fragments of a church that Richard commissioned to mourn his fallen soldiers from another War of the Roses battle)’ plays and others that challenged the Tudors (after Henry VII took the throne from Richard —and in the spirit of equal time there’s another gate with an Henry VII exhibit).  Anyway it looks like a return to York is on my bucket list for next time.

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“to identify those that really are a cut above the rest.”

Maybe next year I’ll be in London in June for the

IMMIGRANTS OF SPITALFIELDS FESTIVAL   http://immigrantsofspitalfields.org.uk/

This festival celebrates the lives and heritage of multi-cultural Spitalfield

This year included:

The Children of Immigrants: The Religious and Cultural Lives of Young East End Bengalis (talk)

Stories and Song from the Jewish East End (sound recordings, literature excerts and live music with Kosher refreshments)

All About the Irish (stories and photographs of persons and children there around the 1900s)

to name a few.

Included Daily Walks with an expert guide to explore the migrant history of the area which also included Huguenots.

There’s also a Roman Festival in York in early June which could draw me in for the month…. http://www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/exhibition/eboracum-roman-festival-2016/

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“bubbly, enthusiastic and helpful….”

Some place we missed —wasn’t open when we were in NOTTINGHAM:

WOLLATON HALL                                     http://www.wollatonhall.org.uk/

This house was completed by Sir Francis Willoughby the same year the Spanish Armada was defeated  (1588).  It was purchased by the city in 1924 and opened as a Natural History Museum in 1926.  It was used by the army in 1944 (US Parachute Regiment) and then returned to it’s life as a museum.  The Natural History museum is still there as well as a Regency Dining Room, Salon, and Tudor Kitchensas well as a room that gives great views of the city…there are also deers (red and fallow) roaming free in the park and gardens that surround the house where the

Nottingham Industrial Museum is located and there is a café in the Courtyard Stables as well as a shop which has local produce as well as gifts and books. 

I might not come back just for this but there’s also Lord Byron’s ancestor’s home in what was once an Abbey which we missed too….so those two and since we’re going near by to York anyway may mean another day or two in Robin Hood’s Hood.

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“Lovely ambience…beautiful venue.”

AUCHINDRAIN   www.auchinrain.org.uk

I’m not sure how hard it might be getting from Iveraray train station (two changes but we can get a train from Edinburgh) so this one just might be maybe.  This 22-acre open air museum has houses where people and cattle lived under one roof, there are origina farming tools, dry-stone dykes, middens, a corn kiln and don’t forget the free-ranging hens, sheep and Highland cattle.  All set in the last farm “township” in Scotland that was inhabited and worked in until in the 1780s they were swept away by the Highland Clearances.   There’s also a visitor’s center with a shop that sells souvenirs, books and local crafts.  A tearoom with home-cooked food.

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“theme is very well done…”

and all the quotes are about afternoon teas..

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        The afternoon tea awards are sponsored by

www.afternoontea.co.uk     

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Be free, and live life fully. Caroline Shaw

Live life for the moment because everything else is uncertain!

Louis Tomlinson

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When I meet people and tell them I have a blog they ask what it’s about and I guess when I tell them anything and everything I pretty much have it right….but stay tune for some ideas on why I blog and what it generally is about after my usual OUTLANDER SURVIVAL HINTS:

Oh and all pictures today are from my train trip from York to Edinburgh.

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Even as we get older, we get in these routines – and routines are nice and comfortable – but I think that it’s important to live life to its fullest and try different things. Because you never know what you’re going to learn. You might not like it, you might like it.

Masi Oka

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First of all don’t know what all this BS about Outlander is:  Don’t have Straz—you can purchase the show on Amazon—check it out:  https://www.amazon.com/Sassenach/dp/B00SXK8R6S/ref=DVM_US_RP_PS_TKOUTLANDER?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1455261452&s=instant-video&sr=1-2

OK NOW FOR THOSE OF US WHO ARE GOING THRU WITHDRAWALS AND SUCH:

I LOVE THAT ONE.

But let’s get back:

You could take up fencing—-just buy a sword and keep rewatching the shows Jamie fences in.

Here’s a start:  Episode 5 in season two:  http://www.enstarz.com/articles/148259/20160314/outlander-season-2-jamies-big-spoiler-left-out-of-untimely-resurrection-episode-5-teasers-video.htm

I’m not going to tell you the rest—that’s time you’re not in withdrawal so it’s all good

Check out these spoilers to see what you can expect from Season 3:

http://www.bustle.com/articles/172172-outlander-season-3-spoilers-from-the-books-offer-hints-for-those-who-cant-survive-the-droughtlander

 

 Watch Claire Choose Jamie again—I love when she wakes him up and he sheds a tear….so yum.

It’s not about what you tell your children, but how you show them how to live life.

Jada Pinkett Smith

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I write about so many thing, but it’s all basically to help you find what you enjoy in life—it’s all about helping everybody–including myself who sometimes get the just lay around and watch TV or play on the stupid computer—after all it take less effort, cost less money and generally doesn’t raise a sweat—-but while TV—like the fun of OUTLANER (along with the books that I read that it’s based on) and computers are not a bad thing…NEITHER ARE THEY LIVING…in fact they are more like an excuse not to—-I have heard mother’s say that their children have on line friends—Jamie Fraser is probably less fiction than those friends and I insist that friendship is not completed unless you actually meet the person—for without that the two people are merely phantom friends.

Now I am fully aware that not everyone’s getting a life goes along the same guidelines as mine….while I enjoy writing and travel, art shows, buying and selling trinkets, and most thing British.  I would not fault you for enjoying watching movies, going to yogi classes, working with disabled children and doing an occasional amateur production of anything from Shakespeare to your own weird written prose.

All I ask is you find something to do, so people to meet—some place to spend your time beside at home..for in this day and age even the disabled can usually arrange some type of mobility that will allow for some fun, farther afield than afore.

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I don’t wait for the calendar to figure out when I should live life. Gene Simmons

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Say you are interested in the Civil War….take for instance West Virginia….not some place everyone would relate to the war but it does:  Check out http://www.greaterparkersburg.com/things-to-do/history-heritage/civil-war/

If you have kids you can look into what’s available—there are sites all over the south and some in the west:    https://www.nps.gov/abpp/battles/TXmap.htm

There’s even sites for those who would like to get involved in preserving these:    http://www.civilwar.org/?gclid=CjwKEAjw8da8BRDssvyH8uPEgnoSJABJmwYoFF-5IvAo856959fvqarnSUPTT0Iigax_Uf4uMyPfGBoCgFnw_wcB

Sound interesting?  You can find more on a state that you live in or would like to visit on your vacation:  http://www.civilwar.org/civil-war-discovery-trail/

I guess being on the internet might help you–just know when to say when.

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Nobody gets to live life backward. Look ahead, that is where your future lies.

Ann Landers

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But life is about sharing…and you can only share if you have at least someone to share it with….dogs and cats are nice, but friends even acquaintance help get you thru the days and nights of life….

If you have a significant other then doing things together is important—not everything though—having some life to share is great, but doing something with the guys and girls gives you both a break, let’s you spend time with different people for lets face it few people enjoy doing exactly all the same things—so while he’s having a few at the local pub, she’s at a play at the Globe featuring Shakespeare which he hates and he’s groovin’ with some friends she could survive without spending long hours with…..so you’re happy, share your adventure–pick out the things you know he’d/she’d like—the historical architecture at the recreated thearter and a suggestion you can go there for a tour and a walk along the river and he can tell her about the new bar tender at the pub and some of the silly jokes he told him and mention a place that his friend took his wife last weekend and maybe they should go there for dinner soon…a break is a good thing honest.

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When you realize you’re alive, you can live life!

Chad Michael Murray

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Make new friends:  In the US there’s Meet Up Groups—http://www.meetup.com/cities/us/   which have groups in all 50 states, Peurto Rico and the Virgin Islands as well.

Find out what’s happening in USA Meetup groups around the world and start meeting up with the ones near you. (6,150  members).  I belong to a few here in Florida and even serve as a planner in one group…..everything from watching old movies (with a gentleman who knows his movie stuff) at a Chinese restaurant to the one I host which includes visiting interesting places (one day we to a farmer’s market then on to a small museum and then on to lunch all on a Sat.—my next one is a reconstructed fort—a shop that sells Christmas items (year round) and finally an old Florida style restaurant on one of the marshy waterways near the coast)….so not only do you have a chance to meet new people but to find new adventures—explore places and new subjects that may lead to friendships and a fuller life doing new things with new people.

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Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.

Pope Paul VI

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You can stay in therapy your whole life, but you’ve got to live life and not talk about life.

Tracey Gold

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Mordred, I must remind you that I am a civilized man. With occasional lapses. King Arthur

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King Arthur: All we’ve been through, for nothing but an idea! Something that you cannot taste, smell, or feel; without substance, life, reality, memory.

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So I’m back again and today we’ll finish Arthur’s Legend with a look at the supporting cast and the plot enhancers (i.e. the grail and so forth).

But first I have to help my fellow suffers get through Droughtlander:

Making it thru alive and reasonably sane—try these:

Take up your spare time (as in every waking hour) making a list of the characters that have

a.  Died naturally or by murder most foul—

b. or in Colin’s case by choice.

c.  then add those who just wandered off

or went through the stones like Claire and Glennis

Maybe you should keep two lists where but that need to be clarified by when.

Then go thru the books and see if it is in full agreement w/the show…if not then you can do another list book deaths etc vs. TV

You could also add burial sites so that when you get really desperate you can go to Scotland and France to look for the final resting place.

Oh and this site may prove helpful:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/outlanders-shocking-deaths-ranked-911324

Do an Droughtlander Countdown Clock…Months, Days, Hours, Minutes and seconds….read every article (like the one below) and readjust the clock forwards or backwards as the last article you read tells you things are going…..that should take up a considerable portion of your life and then some.

‘Outlander’ Season 3 Will Premiere Sooner Than You Think

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King Arthur: Merlyn told me once, “Never be too disturbed if you don’t understand what a woman is thinking. They don’t do it very often”.

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Camelot:

We’ve already seen that even Ashe the man who insists it’s real doesn’t believe there’s a place like the mythical land of Arthur…..let’s see.

Jean Markale (King of the Celts) explains that “in time of war…the chief moved to a fortified camp on high ground.” She lists Tintagel & Castle Dore in Cornwall, Dinas Powys and Deganwy in Wales, Glastonbury Tor and Cadbury in Somerset and Maiden Castle in Dorset as typical of these during the period an in the area Arthur is believed to have lived.

Many question the reality of any place called Camelot…it is only described as laying on a wide plain besides a river and surrounded by forest.

The Round Table and it’s Knights

The men who clustered about the king and the table that has become perhaps the most enduring symbol of the legend.

Markale’s explanation of this very logical.  She state that “the chief and his men would gather round the fire sitting in a circle on the straw covered floor to eat from the cauldron held over the flames and that this tradition gave rise to the legends.

The first mention of the table is in Wace’s verse by verse translation of Malory’ s Mort de Arthur into French from it’s original Latin.

According to Malory there were 150 knights (while the Vulgate says 250 and Layamon 1600) who sat at this table which was made by Merlin for Arthur’s father Urhr Bendragon (Uther Pendragon)….

Excaliber:  the sword that may or may not have come from a stone but usually ends it’s life with a lady in the water.

 Caliburn (Welsh–per Peter Berresford Ellis’ Dictionary of Celtic Mythology)…Geoffrey Monmouth mentioned the sword (Calafwlch)  with Excaliber being a Latin corruption of these names.

Ellis feels that The sword goes back to the legend of Cladcholg (“hard dinter”) the sword of Fergus (Fergus…Irish mythology was a king of Ulster..High King of Ireland who may have been an actual person who lived about 50 BC).

Andrea Hopkins (Chronicles of King Arthur) confuses thing further stating that “Excalibur is not in fact the sword..Arthur…drew out of the stone” which signified he was entitled to be king.  The stone’s sword she tells us was broken in combat with King Pellinore and he was given Excalibur (the sword of destiny) later by the Lady of the Lake and that was the sword he uses from then on.  (the first a symbol of his right as king, the second the well-being of the kingdom).  A less known fact is stated by Ronan Coghlan (The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Arthurian Legends) that the sword’s scabbard stopped bleeding.

Markale goes on to say that the sword was given by Arthur after his living thru the final battle, to Gilvaethwy son of Don (Hopkins says it was Sir Bedivere) , who was suppose to throw it in a lake, he didn’t and was sent back 3 times before he finally did throw it in the water and saw the hand rise up and receive it.

The Grail:  Was it pagan or Christian…was it a cauldron of eternal life or the cup of the Christ at his last supper.

Roger Sherman (1887-1966) an American Scholar, Professor and co-founder of the International Arthurian Society published many books on the subject of Arthur the one I’ve been using is The Grail:  From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol and for me the whole grail story is pretty much given it’s most basic explanation in the title.

Ellis feels the origin of the grail (from a French word meaning a kind of dish) is the Celtic legend of the cauldron of abundance (i.e. The Spoils of Annwn) Though there are stories and legend unending about the grail but the earliest is felt to the stories of Peredur, in the Mabinogi.

Hopkins credits an early 13th century, Burgundian poet named Robert de Boron who wrote a sequence of poems explaining the entire Grail history, how it got to Britain and the involvement of Arthur and his court, as being one of the prime sources of this legend, which was profoundly altered when the Vulgate Cycle version of the story was written.  This changed the hero of the story from the flawed Perceval to an newly invented hero Galahad, who’s purity allowed only him to reach the “peak of beautific ecstasy.” (again Coghlan gives some different information adding Gawain and Bors as other knights said to have been the hero who obtained the Grail.)

Coghlan explores the possibility that it is the symbol of some Celtic fertility rite (specially sitting the idea in some of the stories of a sickly king and correspondingly a sickly land) and that this could possibly be tied into the better known Celtic legends of the cauldron of plenty (he goes on to quote at least two early tales where Arthur goes to the Otherworld and to Ireland to obtain a cauldron.

Sherman describes the Christian concept as “the dish from which Christ ate the Passover Lamb at the Last Super, ….or the chalice of the first sacrament in which the Savior’s blood was aught as it flowed from…his…wounded body.”  Ellis gives defines it as the chalice which was held by Joseph of Arimathea and goes on to state that the stories tell that Galahad was the last descendent of Joseph as well as Arthur’s most noble knight.  While Mirkale thinks that the “initial diffusion of the Round Table Romances in Western Europe, hoping they did to spread the good word through the myth of the Grail.” was accomplished by the Cistercians.  But she goes on to say that the tales retain all kinds of non-Christian themes.  While Cohlan insists these legends developed much later.

Avalon the mythical isle of apples where Arthur was either cured or died depends on who you talk to.

Ellis defines Avalon as the Otherworld or Land of the Dead and of Eternal Youth.  In Celtic mythology this was the lands of the gods, both good and evil as well as where the spirit went to be reborn after death.  You lived in both worlds and when you died in one you were reborn in the other.  He says the Celts mourned birth as it meant someone died in the otherworld and death with celebration because someone was born in the other.

Some believe that the name comes from the Irish word oilean (island) which was in Celtic mythology a Celtic paradise where crops could be produced without cultivation.

According to Loomis Morgan and her maidens dwelt on the winterless Isle of Avalon.  In the VIta Merlini, Morgn is describes as the chief of nine sisters living on the island and abl to turn into animals, heal the incurable and prophesy the future.

In Perlesvaus, Guinevere and Loholt (Arthur and her son) both died before Arthur and were buried here.

Markale feels Arthur lived on after the last battle when he  was taken here by Modron where he waits to assume leadership of Britain again.

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Mordred: I like my women married, my willpower weak, my wine strong, and my saints fallen.

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And so there is my accumulation finished of the greatest legend ever:  The kind and his men….maybe I’ll tell you more about my novel too one of these days.

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King Arthur: Proposition. If I could choose from every man who breathes on this earth, a man for my brother, a man for my son, and a man for my friend, it would all be Lance.

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Yes that is really still York

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Lancelot Du Lac: My strength, from purity.

King Arthur: Well, that’s a unique recipe.

Dap: He is a unique man, your majesty

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“…that they might not be brought to utter destruction, took arms under the conduct of Ambrosius Aurelianus, a modest man, who of all the Roman nation was then alone in the confusion of this troubled period by chance left alive. Gildas – “On the Ruin of Britain” (De Excidio Britanniae, c. 540)

He thrust beyond three hundred, most bold, he cut down the centre and far wing.
He proved worthy, leading noble men; he gave from his herd steeds for winter  He brought black crows to a fort’s wall, though he was not Arthur.
He made his strength a refuge, the front line’s bulwark, Gwawrddur.

Aneirin – “Y Gododdin, Stanza 98” (c. 600.)

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So I’m back again and we’ll do the normal—my Outlander help items

and then we’ll look at some of the  Arthurian Legend again:

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DROUGHLANDER HELP PAGE

  1.  Watch all the shows (both season) just paying attention to one character: i.e. Martaugh and then do it all over agan with Angus and so on…..that should take up a considerable time.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Outlander_episodes

2.  Keep a list–on line or by hand of all the stuff they tell you about next season….maybe break them down into categories—like Lord Gray…you could combine the listing with the watching the old shows and keep notes on the characters and if there’s any indication of characters carrying on (as in Angus Case I find that highly unlikely)   http://en.yibada.com/articles/143071/20160719/outlander-seasons-3.htm

3.  Worry about Jamie and Claire getting older and look up some herbals that might help them get more comfortably through their old age:  http://www.inquisitr.com/3328968/outlander-star-sam-heughan-drops-major-spoilers-about-jamie-and-claires-reunion-in-season-3/

“They had at that time for their leader, Ambrosius Aurelianus, a man of worth, who alone, by chance, of the Roman nation had survived the storm, in which his parents, who were of the royal race, had perished. Under him the Britons revived, and offering battle to the victors, by the help of God, gained the victory.

Bede, the Venerable – “Ecclesiastical History” (Historia Ecclesiae, 731)

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“Then it was, that the magnanimous Arthur, with all the kings and military force of Britain, fought against the Saxons. And though there were many more noble than himself, yet he was twelve times chosen their commander, and was as often conqueror.”

Nennius – “History of the Britons” (Historia Brittonum, c. 829-30)

ARTHUR the once and future King–according to Loomis in his book The Grail–there were by the 12th century a class of professional story tellers, who made a living telling the stories of Arthur, in fact he states it has spread as far as the Crusader states of Antioch and Palestine.

in The Dictionary of Celtic Mythoogy (Peter Berresford Ellis) says that Arthur while “Perhaps the most famous of Celtic mythological figures,…..ws undoubtedly a historical person, living in the late 5th and early 6th century and says the first reference to Arthur is by Aneirin in his poem Y Goddin, where he states he (Mynddawn Mwynfawr, was a chieftain in Scotland.

And the historical one?—Gildas (AD 500-570) concerning the ruin and conquest of Britain…and Nenniu (AD 800) who credits Arthur with 12 major victories over the invading Saxon…an a Latin history(AD 955) on his victory at Mount Badden an his death along with Medraut (Modred) at the battle of Camluan (AD 537).

The Celts (by Jean Markale)says  that the historic Arthur led the stuggle against the Saxons as the personification of yet another myth, the Celtic fatherland and that only mythically did he attain supreme kingship.

Ellis goes on to say that when Malory gave him permanent form in 1496 in Morte d’Arthur he went from “Celtic chieftain, fighting against the English conquest of Britain to an English medieval king cloaked in romantic knightly chivalry”

Markale (King of the Celts) says that in the late 19th century he was viewed as an ancient god, “whose worship the Britons resumed along with other Celtic traditions in the dark ages.”  But she says that this is disproved by the fact that there was never any previous note of this god which disproves this as the other gods being worshiped were historically accounted for.

MERLIN:  Mage and  driving force in most of the stories.  Geoffrey of Monmouth (yeah him again) states that Merlin predicted that Arthur’s life and deeds would provided a livelihood for the bards and story tellers that earned their keep on telling stories of the legendary and famous (which was mentioned under Arthur).

Roger Sherman Loomis in his The Grail From Celtic Mythic to Christian Symbol identifies Merlin with the Caledonian prophet “whom Ciraldus Cambrensis called Merlinus Celidonius.”  While Ellis states he was a magician, or druid who figured prominently in the early Welsh writings and Geoffrey of Monmouth turned the bard Myrddin into Merlin, who went mad after a battle.  On the other hand Markale connects Merlin “with the life of St Kntigern who came from the same area. ”  Now if that’s not a lot of variation—I read somewhere–sorry I don’t remember the source–that the author felt that Merlin was actually an early Christian Bishop (not Catholic for at this time the Celtic church was separate and had several beliefs separating them from the Catholic beliefs….it was only later that they agreed to adjust and come under the control of the Roman Church.)

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Loomis says that the name Lancelot was influenced by the name Lancelin from Brittany (1034) and he credits the Bretons for spreading the legends throughout the French speaking world.  He also states that Kulhwn’s(Welsh 1100) story may have been heavily borrowed from (like convention speeches today) by a French writer Chretien (1160) who reportedly changed the Welsh Llenlleawc to the French Lancelot.

Malory (13th book) gives an account of Lancelot’s repentance and confession which according to Loomis is directly from a sermon by the Monk of Clairvaux.

GUENEVERE:  The king’s faithless wife and the 3rd side of the triangle of betrayal and the failure of the legend.  Loomis points out that in the Welsh tales she was Gwenhwyvar (means white ghost or white spirit), while in Chretien she becomes Guenievere.    He also attributes the origin of the abductions of Guenevere which appeared in multiple accounts as originating in Ireland.

Ellis states “she has her counterparts in Helen of Troy…her beauty and abduction bringing betrayal, war and ultimate disaster.

Markale says that the name is spelled in several different versions but that the root word is gwen

which has four meanings

First “white and thus beautiful, since white and beauty were synonymous among the Celts

Then it came to mean blonde

and finally as white and blonde which were all thought to be characteristic of the high-born,  (a word used to mean well-bred or those of pure blood.)

In Brittany (still Markale) it was even used to mean saintly in a Christian sense.

Interestingly enough in one of the Histories Guinevere is kidnapped (see more under Modred) and because it is felt she is compliant with her abductor, her former lover Lancelot kills her.

MORGAN LE FAY:   Arthur’s half sister and a popular character to place much evil and blame upon.  Loomis points out that her character is varied and she “may be the most beautiful of nine sister enchantresses and nurse to her brother Arthur in Avalon, or she may be an ugly crone who plots his death.”  He goes on to say “…though Morgan le Fay has precisely the family relationship of the Welsh Modron and is therefore like her, descended from the Celtic goddess Matrona and is in fact called a goddess in four medieval texts,…..generally presented in Arthurian romance as a benevolent or malevolent enchantress.”   And he notes that there is no attribute of Morgan’s better authenticated than her power of healing.

While in Mallory she is Arthur’s half sister, by his mother Igraine’s first marriage, in the Vulgate Merlin and the Huth-Merlin she is his niece, the daughter of King Lot.  According to Coghan’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Arthurian Legends she learned most of her magi from Merlin and depending on the story she was in love with another of Arthur’s nephews, Guiomar but ended marrying Urien, while in another she tried to have her lover (Accolon of Gaul) kill Arthur.  And somewhere in the midst of all that she fell in love with Lancelot, but he escaped and she still had time to help bare Arthur off on a barge after his final battle.

Cohan feel that she originated from the goddess Modron.  Even in  Sir Gawain and the Green Knight she is called “Morgan the goddess.”

In early Welsh stories Modred married and had two sons and he seems to have been regarded as a hero rather than a villain

While one legend says that Modred was the incestuous, illegitimate son of Arthur and Morgan, Geoffrey says that Mordred was the son of Arthur’s sister Anna and her  husband, Lot.  In Dream of Rhonabwy he is Arthurs Nephew and foster son.

Malory added the incest angle to Mordred’s birth, with Arthur sleeping with Morgana, with out knowing they were related

Geoffrey tells that Modred seized Guinevere and the throne while Arthur was away on a campaign (or in Mallory’s account while Arthur went to fight Lancelot), which all ended at Camlann.

In later tales Arthur becomes symbolic of Christianty who is defeated at Camlaan by the forces of evil in the shape of Arthur’s nephew Mordret (Mordred) the ally of the heathen Saxons and Irish. (Markdale).  In fact the final duel to the death produces no victor and both Arthur and his nephew (and illegitimate son) die at the battle.

Like Morgana, Mordred’s legends are sorted.  In Annales Cambriae it is recorded that both Arthur and Medrawt (Mordred) perished at Camlann….but never does it say they weren’t on the same side.

While Ly Myreur de Histories advises that Modred survived the battle but was defeated by Lancelot  (whom he was friends with in the Malory stories)and thrown into a cell with the body of Guinevere–he eventually starves to death (but not before he dines on the corpse of the late queen).

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“The valiant Arthur, who was at that time the commander of the soldiers and kings of Britain, fought against [the invaders] invincibly. Twelve times he led in battle. Twelve times was he victorious in battle. The twelfth and hardest battle that Arthur fought against the Saxons was on Mount Badon, where 440 of his men died in the attack that day, and no Briton stayed to support him, the Lord alone strengthening him.”

Henry of Huntingdon – “History of the English” (Historia Anglorum, c. 1130)

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“And even the renowned king Arthur himself was mortally wounded; and being carried thence to the isle of Avalon to be cured of his wounds, he gave up the crown of Britain to his kinsman Constantine, the son of Cador, duke of Cornwall, in the five hundred and forty-second year of our Lord’s incarnation.”

Geoffrey of Monmouth – “History of the Kings of Britain” (Historia Regum Britanniae; c. 1136)

All pictures are still from York

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Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise King born of all England. Malory Morte de Aurthor

Always Sir Arthur lost so much blood that it was a marvel he stood on his feet, but he was so full of knighthood that knightly he endured the pain.

Morte de Author—as all the quotes are today

Main and all personal pictures today are York in the UK

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sorry I’m so late today—but I’ve picked up a part time job which takes up 4-5 hours of my day and so puts me a bit behind on the ole blog.

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The joy of love is too short, and the sorrow thereof, and what cometh thereof, dureth over long.

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Getting you thru Droughtlander one Blog at a time:

Watch the Druids Dance

2.  Coming up with ideas how we can get the Emmys to not snub them again in 2017.     http://www.threeifbyspace.net/2016/07/outlander-got-premiere-date-affect-2017-emmys/

3.  Re-watching and debating what is being said and do you even care what critics say and don’t?       http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-hinckley/outlander-finishing-seaso_b_10791780.html

4.  watching the shows and then reading the chapters to compare—https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/07/dragonfly-in-amber-bookmp4.html

The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in May, in likewise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover, springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds. For it giveth unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May.  (Still Mallory)

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And now onto the business of the day—as promised King Arthur

Today we’ll deal with where it takes place.

The Englishman Willaim of Malmesbury, in the 12 century told us that Arthur was a Welsh Hero.

According to Coghlan in his Illustrated Encyclopedia of Arthur Wales during the traditional Arthurian period was a patchwork of kingdoms including “Gwynedd, Dyfed and Powys…

In the Estoire it was identified as the Waste Land.

The earliest surviving romances centered on Arthur are in Welsh and deal with a story about him helping a family member.  It is described as a story untouched by chivalry.  (The Arthurian Legends Selected by Richard Barber).

There is a real Camlan (Arthur’s last battle) in  Wales in a valley containing a small river.

Geoffrey of Mammoth–one of the most influential writers in starting and perhaps even sustaining the legend states that Ireland is part of Arthur’s domain and that he defeats the king and takes it.

He is also described as defeating the Scotti (not Scottish but rather Irish “boat people” who invaded Britian–it is thought to be where the Scottish name came from).

Cornwall was according to Coghlan the realm of King Mark and during Arthurian times, “part of the kingdom of Dumnonia.”

According to Jean Markale in King of the Celts Arthur was generally accepted to be from the South West.

Geoffry Ashe In His Discovery of King Arthur says that the only traditions giving Arthur a birthplace and a home put them in the west country, “Between Land’s End (Cornwall) and Bath” while the early Welsh gave him a home in Cornwall at “Kelliwic” which Ashe thinks might be the Castle Killibury, “a few miles from Tintagel.

Andrea Hopkins in her Chronicles of King Arthur site the discovery in the 1930’s of remains of what was thought to be a Celtic monastic community…however further findings of “imported pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, dating from the fifth and sixth centuries…now felt to be a chieftian’s stronghold and she states that Geoffrey (of Monmouth) may have been “recording a local tradition with some basis in fact.”

Ashe also speculated on the Isle of Scilly off Cornwall being the land called Lyonesse, over which Tristan reigned.  Hopkins lists multiple possibilities including  Lothian in Scotland as well as stating Scilly was the site in later romances.  She also tells of archaeological evidence that part of Mount Bay–between the isle and Cornwall proper–shows that part of the bay was once dry land and that remains of stone walls and post sockets below the water line suggest this was probably about the time frame for the legendary king.

As to Arthur’s final battle Camlann (Hopkins) “is probably a contraction of the British word “Camboglanna”  (crooked river bank).  Geoffrey of Monmouth insisted that the battle took place on the Camel in Cornwall and in fact there has been a battle there but it happened 300 years or so later (AD 823).  Even the Triads insist that the site was in Cornwall (Mordred is Cornish–Medraut is Welsh)

Then there is Britian (from the name Priteni,
“the term the Picts used for themselves.”)  Geoffry insisted that the name came from Brutus so that gives you so  me idea of his accuracy.

Geoffry Ashe (the man who did a lot to rebirth the legend and the possible truth of it) in his book the Discovery of King Arthur says that Camelot “never existed anywhere.”  But he goes on to say that Cadbury thought by many to be Camelot  could be “in a mundane sense as the far off reality behind it, the personal citadel of the original Arthur.”

Hopkins also notes Cadbury Castle (Somerset) as a possible Camelot and goes on to describe it as “an iron-age hill fort….archaeological evacuations carried out…since 1966 show that the hilltop was refortified and occupied…sometime after about AD 460….she also lists another possibility:  “the Roman city of VIroconium in Shropshire,….re-occupied in the fifth century…” and there is a river Cam (last battle at Camlann) not far from here which could be both his fortress and his last stand.

Ashe also disputes the claim that where Arthur fell at a Camlann, is not as some feel at “a fort on Hadrian’s Wall…called Camboglanna.”  He insists the idea failed  “to stand up convincingly.”  He attributes this being picked out in some Welsh poetry was because the bard who wrote the Welsh poem was originally from this area and not due to any fact other than his knowledge of the area.   Hancock gives it as one of the possibility of the battle along with several others.

Geoffrey of Monmouth favors the magical island of Avalon as the kings final resting place while others believe in a second tradition that Avalon is Glastonbury also in Somerset like Cadbury and the Cam river.  But Hancock says that this tradition of Glastonbury probably post dates the alleged finding by monks of a tomb in 1191 that they claimed was Arthurs.  However she does also sight archeological findings that show there were ancient settlements in villages around the area of the Tor, including one of them containing a religious community which eventually became a monks community resulting in ancient traditions…”associating Glastonbury and especially the Tor, with religious worship.”

and don’t forget Brittany, now part of France at the time Arthur would have existed it was (again according to Coghan) mostly inhabited by immigrants from Britian.  According to Geoffrey, the Breton royal family was closely related to the British.

In Hopkin’s book she states that some versions of the story of Tristan that the country his father ruled was somewhere in France, possibly Leonais in Brittany.

Continue reading Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise King born of all England. Malory Morte de Aurthor

That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory Called Camelot. Camelot (1960; 1967)

Ready my knights for battle. They will ride with their king once more. I have lived through others for far too long. Lancelot carried my honor, and Guenevere, my guilt. Mordred bears my sins. My knights have fought my causes. Now, my brother, I shall be… king.

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So hello—how was the weekend….I did some socializing and a bit of shopping on Sat….too hot here to get out a lot and my usual Sun manning the museum, which is fun and if it’s slow (it was busy for one hr. and then slow the rest) I can read–which I did.

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One day, a King will come, and the Sword will rise… again.

Getting through DROUGHTLANDER 3 BY:

Following Sam as one of 3 hunks that are polo’s new ambassadors:  http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/piaget-introduces-polo-s-collection-911709

And organizing a boycott of the Emmys which completely snubbed Outlander while giving Game of Thrones 23 nominations. http://www.ew.com/article/2016/07/14/emmy-nominations-snubs

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I found Him in the shining of the stars,
I marked Him in the flowering of His fields,
But in His ways with men I find Him not.
I waged His wars, and now I pass and die.

TODAY I THOUGHT I WOULD SPEAK OF LEGEND

TODAY I THOUGHT I WOULD SPEAK OF A KING

THAT LIVES ON DESPITE WHAT MAN MIGHT SAY OR DO

THAT LIVES IN OUR MINDS AND DREAMS

IRREGARDLESS IF HE EVER LIVED ON THIS EARTH

Linda–Blogger supreme

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Knights! The gift of freedom is yours by right. But the home we seek resides not in some distant land. It’s in us! And in our actions on this day! If this be our destiny, then so be it. But let history remember that as free men, we chose to make it so.

I am Sarren; I am of the old people, the ancient ones. Through my blood runs the blood of the Celt, the Pict and the peoples who left the stones scattered around this haunted, enchanted isle like a great child’s toys. And through my blood runs the magic of the land and the blood of other more mythical and mysterious dwellers and wanders who are as much a part of this place.

That is the opening of my book which I really am working on…and in it I use Arthur as a way to insure that the ancient isle beloved to man, and fae (fairy for those who aren’t in the language thing) is protected, now in the future.  It is told by a child–at least part way thru the first book and it is pure fiction…fantasy and has magic abd wizards:  Merlin being only one of the men and women who are or can do magic.

But so many people argue about his very existence—to my book it doesn’t matter…for fiction needs no solid proof—fiction is my mind and my Arthur and though he and the people that inhabit my novel’s world do not have to be proven, but are admittedly creatures of my mind (and if you knew me well that might scare you) and so need no proof.

But this is not my story, it is theirs. My long time friend and childhood companion Morgana and her Sibling Arthur. It is the story of their line: brave but flawed Uther, the beautiful high priestess Igraine and of course the mysterious dabbler Merlin. OR AT LEAST THAT’S WHAT SARREN SAYS in the (my) novel).

As for me….Yes I believe he was a real person….I have studied history for years—it is one of my passions (and I have more than a few)and I have seen that things that are legend generally have a spark or more of truth in them.

For instance Tintagel—It was said that Arthur was conceived (and possibly born) on the island–that use to be an outcropping of land that was separated by a storm in what I believe was the 17th century.   Then the modern scientists and historians came around and showed that the ruins that were here were medieval and not 5th – 6 th century—the time period most accepted for Arthur.  But then came the fire….It burned away undergrowth, down into the roots and suddenly those same nay-sayers were saying that yes there was a considerable building here in the proper time period for Arthur–what appears to be a dweling and a wealthy one at that for it had imported dishes—something that until recently they had thought stopped being imported when the Romans left the area in 410 AD.   Hey they’ve even started speculating that maybe those Dark Ages (a title you don’t hear much anymore) might not have been so dark after all.

Or as Sarren so ably says:  For long years I have listened to the tales of them and those that clustered around their bright flames and the stories have become more complex and more outrageous. I have been disturbed that they have not always been treated fairly or honestly. How the legends were tinged with each successive generation and that how even Christianity who shunned them for so long has now added their grail…to further strain the telling.

Was he a king–no, rather a warlord who could use his father’s reputation and loyalties to help boost him to power but who like the Celts of this period he would have had to have the support of his people to take the reigns of protecting the land.  In fact I do not believe there were any kings in the land then..the closest I would come is someone similar to the Clan Chiefs in Scotland…with one chief–the strongest, the one with the greatest warriors that would defend the lands of all and would collect tribute for this protection and quite possibly claim men from the chiefs when severe danger (like the Saxons invading) required men to stand with his own men—and no not knights….that was a less Dark (age) and more medieval invention.

No one wore armour—maybe some early chain mail combined with a lot of heavy leather.   There was no jousting, or ladies in waiting to give out favors…nor any of that bunk that passed for honor and love in 13th & 14th c. France where a lot of the defining stories came from.  And yes there was heavy influence in France of the British–first Britany was almost completely settled from immigrants from England.  And then we had the Normans who brought a very Norse ancestor-related form of French (the English Court spoke French for many year after the invasion, but this is nothing new for while Celtic speak —still seen in Wales and Ireland and to a lesser extend in Scotland–was the native speech the English that became the official language came from the Anglo-Saxon invaders which history indicates were the very peoples Arthur spent so much time fighting) of cross countries culture that further confused and re-configured culture for years on end as the Normans ruled in England but preferred to be buried in France.

I like Sarren:   I desire to tell it as I am one of the last that knows its truths. I can do no less than write it down for them. I think that current mankind needs to better understand that glorious age of quests, and magic, when monsters in human and inhuman forms roamed the land. It was a wild time betwixt and between…a time when one conqueror had left and a lesser civilized but no less deadly vied to take their place. Magicians roamed the land, Druids returned from distant fortresses where they had hidden. It was a rebirth of the Celts. It was only later that we understood that it was the twilight of those peoples and though they would still survive they would never again reach the pentacle of this last great saga of the land now collectively called England.

I will give you my ideas—many of which I have included in the book, but as I explained before the book does not have to be logical, though despite the fact that it’s a novel I do want to present an Arthur who is more like my idea of him and his.    But this week in the Blog I will give you some of my studies and some times just my ideas based on those studies as to things like where he was from, where his adventures occurred and address things like the tomb found in Glastonbury and the insistence of some authors and historians on placing him in places like Scotland–even Ireland over the years.

I will try to make them interesting so as to not bore anyone and give you some bits from my book to see if you might like that–if I ever get it finished….and so on.

To Quote our girl:  And so I tell their story, so that when I am gone there will be a true account, an account from what the magi called the catalyst, the child that was born to facilitate the last great age of the Celtic people, the last great age of magic and legend. An age when people still believed in the impossible, when legends and fairies roamed the lands..When danger and wonder were abroad and a man named Arthur set the throne and became the legend and the land.

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In the midst of the lake Arthur was ware of an arm clothed in white samite, that held a fair sword in that hand.

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My name is Sarren: I am the child of what the Romans called Britannia. My roots reach deep into its earth and I have seen and known the man, the magi and the sorceress and I have loved them all and so I am the one who must tell this tale.

You’ll forgive me if I do the deed for Sarren this time around I hope.

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Just because you can’t understand something, it doesn’t mean it’s wrong!

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others. Buddha

When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.

Mahatma Gandhi

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My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

Dalai Lama

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GETTING YOU of OUTLANDER THROUGH DROUGHTLANDER

Do you recognize Sam (in above picture)—no ginger, just his dirty blonde hair and he’s only 24 years old when he did this is a British TV series where he’s battling the Nazis instead of the British…check it and other stars (including Tobias) that can be streamed at THIS WALL STREET JOURNAL (OMG the Journal…we’re big money then?):  http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2016/07/15/battling-droughtlander-5-streaming-choices-featuring-the-stars-of-outlander/

and while we’re on the subject of Tobias check out his TV main roles and guest roles…I just saw him on Bone Kickers—he plays a villain in Episode 6-(-the last one–It only did 6 episodes I liked it but oh well-)-what else–in this old–he’s a bit younger here himself–in this one…(I bought it on Daedalus but I can’t find it there anymore):  http://sharetv.com/person/tobias_menzies/shows

Oh and SAM again:  He’s been rightly selected by Barbour — the jacket maker of choice for southern fraternities and British hunters — to be their first Global Brand Ambassador. It’s a good fit for all of the obvious reasons: Heughan’s personal style seems to align perfectly with the heritage brand, and he grew up in Galloway, not far from where the founder John Barbour lived in the south of Scotland. And, of course, because of those eyes.   http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2016/07/14/outlander-sam-heughan-new-face-barbour/87090046/

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Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.

Buddha

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Today I’m talking of religion—I am not judging or picking a belief over another…but as is my usual stance:  that I ask that you look before you leap to conclusions—or political candidate’s judgement calls that may well be self serving ( a self serving politician, naw never happen) rather than realistic……

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You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.

Swami Vivekananda

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I got started on this topic today because of two things:  First a friend of mine questioned how the Muslim’s religion could be so violent.  I assured her this was not the case, but that there are always those that bend things to their own belief and needs and that she could find similar incidents within her own Christian faith.

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Prophet Muhammad“Feed the hungry and visit a sick person, and free the captive, if he be unjustly confined. Assist any person oppressed, whether Muslim or non-Muslim.”

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the second was today when I was reviewing a site I put on my facebook–Fort Caroline:  A site of French interloping on Spanish territory and of a massacre:

“With a captured Frenchman as translator, Menéndez described how Fort Caroline had been captured and urged the French to surrender. Rumors to the contrary, he made no promises as to sparing them. Having lost most of their food and weapons in the shipwreck, they did surrender. However, when Menéndez then demanded that they give up their Protestant faith and accept Catholicism, they refused. 111 Frenchmen were killed. Only sixteen were spared – a few who professed being Catholic, some impressed Breton sailors, and four artisans needed at St. Augustine.”

https://www.nps.gov/foma/learn/historyculture/the_massacre.htm

I, as a history buff,  was well aware of this but it had slipped my mind until the new review of facts….and I wandered if this had happened in the now of today,  when all manner of massacres met the national news if a Buddhist or Muslim or others might not have questioned the tenants of Christianity and it’s beliefs, not to mention it’s death to non-believers (and I won’t even get into the fact that both sides were Christian which would appear to be equally confusing to a non-participant).

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To gather with God’s people in united adoration of the Father is as necessary to the Christian life as prayer.

Martin Luther

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I am not judging, but I am saying that there is good and bad in most religions:  i.e. we have more recently had “Christian” Sects that take cool aide and ambush congressmen….or at least that’s in my memory—the only sect that I don’t usually associate with anything violent to others are the Buddhists who I remember during the Viet Nam War (Monks) protesting by setting themselves afire….I actually have a lovely Turkish friend who is Buddhist….She is not the rule—which  goes to show that at first glance (which is often what too many of us base our judgments on) you would never have associated her with such.

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Prophet Muhammad“Men will be liars towards the end of the world and will relate such stories as neither you nor your fathers ever heard. Then avoid them, that they may not lead you astray and throw you into contention and strife.”

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Again I take no sides, I have been raised Christian, and a strict sect at that…I accept, as I have told you all before, your (or anyone’s belief) as long as your beliefs do not infringe on the rights of others, do no harm to others (any harm to yourself is frowned on but if you are in your own right mind that’s your choice) and as long as you don’t try to convert me…I have no objections to you telling me your beliefs, I tend to take the best points (in my judgement which is mine and mine alone) of different sects and dogma but letting me be the judge on what I embrace is important to me–then I have no problems.

I fully realize that this is not necessarily easy for many true believers to accept, their belief in the importance and life saving value of their faith some times makes them, in their love for others, become a bit more zelous in their ways….that again is understandable…..but as sojourners in this world tolerance of those that are less informed becomes a necessity…… in order to survive with equally zealous true believers of other equally important and true (to the particular believer) faiths.

In no way am I saying that either is right or wrong….that either has the right to impose or punish or look down upon the other-faith believers—or for that matter those that have failed to find a belief that works for them.

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When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.

Desmond Tutu

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It is also important that the few do not forever taint our views of the whole.  Christianity can’t be thought of as suicidal just because of a few people who had a need for Jones’ belief….neither should we think of Muslim  (or any other religion or belief for that matter) as such because of a disgruntled fringe who are now making  headlines (or may in the future).

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For a break down on these into numbers and the discussion of the non-believers now being the 3rd largest categories check out:

http://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/

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I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.

Francis of Assisi

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All religions must be tolerated… for every man must get to heaven in his own way.

Epictetus

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True religion is real living; living with all one’s soul, with all one’s goodness and righteousness.

Albert Einstein

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There is nothing evil save that which perverts the mind and shackles the conscience.

Saint Ambrose

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