Blighty could be worse....

Polly Persephone Beer got spliced on Friday and is now Mrs Paul Bearman :)
Here are her brothers and sister- Stephen Leo Beer, Mark Dominic Beer, me, Simon St John Beer; PollyPoo and Paul with JackJack (aka Batman), Ellie, seated is Anna (these three being Pollys kids); Sallie (Stepmother); more brothers, Harry Cosmo Beer and Matthew Giles Beer. And yes, I am tragically shortarsed.
Needless to say, fantastically good day. Nice to have a new brother. Thanks, Pol!

Yesterday I visited Frank and Liz who used to live in Esperaza. I still miss them so took a train to Bexhill-on-Sea to check them  out and lo! They are extremely well and happy. Beautiful house, great dog (Ben) and the cuisine on the waterfront aint bad either.
Naturally they miss us all and send love to their friends in France.

Today I went to Greenwich Market to meet old chum Daniel and the rain, oh la, the rain it was a-raining. Luckily my sisters wedding was on Friday, warm and dry enough to be outside. Tomorrow I'm off direction Cornwall and Devon, then Cambridge, then back to London. We I don't die of cold and wet first.

hello and goodbye

Janie and Pam are back. Ryan and Alicia cooked a fabbo dinner last night for them, Annie and Pete and Kat. It was good, everything; food, drink, company, conversation...
so why am I off to Blighty for 2 weeks? Well, my little sister is getting married and our tribe is turning out to see that she does the job properly.  Plus I have a workshop on alchemy to get to. I can think of no other reasons for leaving this corner of paradise, especially at this lovely time of year.

Annie and Pete are off to Glasgow this week. Our first couchsurfer is arriving today:) Dinner with Toby and Leo tonight, then hey ho for Ryan Air. Back in a fortnight.

bull

Imagine my surprise to see this garlanded bull swimming up river this morning.... a resurgence of the Mithraic cult in the region?

Report from Edinburgh...

Our Edinburgh correspondent Iain writes;

 

 Hi Vanilla,

Well that is the festival over and I had thought that summer had also slipped away but no, it seems to be back but, in an Edinburgh sort of a way. That means that it is windy and the temperature is about 19 but the sun is shining and it’s expected to do so all this coming week. Last week we had the coldest August temperatures since records began but happily I’ve just spent a lovely day in the garden so all is well. I say the festival is finished but it does not do so until tonight when we have the annual fireworks spectacular. It’s such a lovely evening I might even wander along and watch them.

The festival has been fantastic. I say that every year but it simply is. I pretty much ignored the fringe this year. It’s now about seventeen pounds a ticket for the bigger venues and the shows are generally just under an hour. Because I am so bloody ancient if I  book after August 1^st, my tickets for the international festival are half price. So I went to see the Julliard Dance School from New York with Steve for £8.50 per ticket and it was brilliant. Most of my shows cost me £10 or less. I splashed out for the hottest ticket of the festival and saw the Marinsky Ballet do Cinderella last night for £20.00 , really wonderful. I went to about 15 shows over the three weeks.All of them were good and many of them spectacular.

I went to see the Bathshiva Dance Company from TelAviv perform at the Playhouse and not entirely surprisingly walked into a bigish demonstration. A big pro Palestinian demo, both outside the theatre and inside during the performance. I have to say my sympathies tend to be with the Palestinians and thought the demo both, understandable and reasonable. I was handed a leaflet by, what turned out to be a pro Israel group describing themselves as the, “Let Israel be heard”, movement. I told the polite lady that I thought that the Israeli tanks were doing that without any help from her. The performance itself was the least enjoyable thing I saw and could best described as chaotic angst, although I’ve nothing against chaos nor angst I fdear an hour and a half of it began to wear me down. Needless to say the five interruptions of the performance ensured that the company were given a standing ovation that otherwise might not have been forthcoming. On leaving, the demonstrators were chanting that our tickets were soaked in Palestinian blood which I though a little strong but it made me think.

Our choir were performing for one night during the fringe and it was a sell out with quite a few turned away. The venue seated 300 so that’s pretty good given that there are literally hundreds of shows to choose from. We seem to have a pretty good following. Two shows near Christmas so we will see just how good a following. Great fun though.

As usual I’ve left the exhibitions till the crowds are gone. I went to the Picasso and Modern British Art Exhibition yesterday and it’s brilliant. Going to the Van Goth to Kandinsky next Saturday so I’m looking forward to that.  There is a big John Bellany exhibition coming in November to celebrate his 70^th birthday. Lots of good things coming in the autumn.

I enjoyed my holiday in Esperaza. It was great to be back and you made it a really great time. Thankyou.  The time being split between Esperaza and Bordeaux made the holiday seem more than a week. It has made me think about holidays.  I’ve decided to take some weekend city breaks. Anywhere that has direct flights from Edinburgh. I’ve still never been to Amsterdam and I’d love to go to the Concertgebouw. There are plenty of cheap flights. There are flights to Madrid, Geneva, Paris, Munich and lots more so I just need to get my finger out. Steve seems interested in an Amsterdam break and likes the idea of weekends away.[ATTENTION LEO AND TOBY (Ed.)]

The adverts for Christmas are already about. Restaurants are advertising their menus and venues selling tickets for events. Last Christmas doesn’t seem that long ago and as ever it seems bloody early to start a countdown. Maybe we’ll get a winter like last year. Now that would be great. Virtually no snow and no very low temperatures with lots of sunshine. I’ve probably buggered that up now by mentioning it. We’ll probably find ourselves up to our armpits in the white stuff.

Are Annie and Pete in France or are they in sunny Glasgow? It will be fun to meet up. It’s forty minutes in the train so they won’t be far away. I dreamt about their mill. They were wanting help to move it. Kind of odd thing to dream about but there again so is the mill  and not to mention moving it. In my dream Annie explained why she wanted to move it and to where but could not understand a word of it. No change there then.[ATTENTION ANNIE AND PETE (Ed.)]

My fruit planting was a bit of a damp squib. My strawberries all rotted in the ground before the fruit ripened.  Too much rain apparently. Red currants produced about 1 ½ pounds of fruit, the gooseberries about the same and the blackcurrants produced lots of foliage. I’ve managed to kill my rhubarb which I’m told is quite a feat as it normally grows like a bloody weed. So no great selection of home made jams and chutneys to pass around.

My neighbours seem to be dropping like flies. Four have gone in the last two weeks. Fortunately the ones I know well are flourishing.

I hope that you are all doing the same. Flourishing seems like a good thing to do. I hope you managed to get things sorted out with your new blog. By the way how did you manage to make me look so butch in that picture? My name and that word are rarely in the same sentence. Give my best to Ryan and Alicia, I really enjoyed meeting them enjoying their company and eating their food. I think in that order. It’s good that you don’t need to chain them up to keep them.

CHEERS IAIN! Nice to get your news

50 th post

 Esperaza Follies is 50  today. Here's a dead mole to celebrate - seen above the graveyard today -

 and a picture of the train to Carcassonne running through Esperaza, seen on the way back home after wandering the hills in the sunshine all afternoon.

None of this has anything to do with anything except life is good. Except for the mole, of course.

Debs goes potty

Debs has filmed some of the pottery shes made at Ediths atelier (behind the Creperie) to music by Vince Guraldi... lovely!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5r6Oykrd3I&feature=share

Possibly a perfect sunday

 The sun shone, the market was lazy and fun... Annie picked me up and took me to the Mill where I was treated to a visit of himself  in his office. What a divine room and what a suitable setting for his genius.

 On we went to the vide grenier at Rennes les Bains, where the sun beat down mercilessly and I bought a watchstrap. And some books. And a couple of postcards. Peter bought a beautiful pocket watch with a key to wind it, that tick-tocks like a proper timepiece. And a book on watermills.  Annie bought figs.

 The heat was ferocious so we cooled our heels in the mighty river Salz and watched the fish.

Thence on to a  lunch at Angus and Mary's -  arriving with a sudden downpour in a clap of thunder and a startling flash of lightening. Dramatic entrance. Angus met us at the car with umbrellas which I think is my new definition of a gent.

Fierce rain drove the other lunchers out from the garden and back into the house. Much eating and drinking followed.


Then it stopped raining and we had pudding outside. All was fresh and clear; lovely. Stayed chatting for ages before realising how late it was and heading back to Esperaza.

 on  the way, saw these ENORMOUS birds in the valley - think they are immature vultures. 

convivial pleasures

 Its been many weeks since a dinner has occurred ; I'd forgotten the pleasure of sharing a meal with  friends. All were on form, Dave, Alicia, Marco, Aileen, Ryan, Kat, O-B. We had coq-au-vin, ratatouille, potatoes and salad all from the garden except for the bits of pork.




 Here's Olle-Bendick pondering his Pavlova :) - and Marco measuring his. Its clear both are sculptors.

natures bounty

 Sunrise this morning on the tree by the station;  a blue bee; an orb, aka alien, taken from photo of Kelly reassembling a bed; and a collection of assorted figs, fruits of Alecias foraging.

 Fish 'n' Chips in Fa on Friday....

 

Moules frites in l'Air Marin Narbonne plage on Saturday...

.....Dinner with Annie and Pete on Sunday. 

I've been in bed since then, no doubt due to gastronomic excess. Symptoms belong with dodgy seafood / massive neurosis but have gone now.

-Captain Bob has gone to London, Theo and Sylvie have gone to Galway; the tribes disperse.

Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke 1953 - 2012

 Sorry - but sometimes Esperaza Follies is just a platform for whatever I want to say. Today, I have been told that my tutor has died and I have nowhere else to pay tribute to a remarkable man.

 Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke was born January 15, 1953 and was the Professor of Western Esotericism at the University of Exeter. His first book was The Occult Roots of Nazism. It has remained in print since its publication in 1985 and has been translated into eight languages. He has also written on the occultist aspects of neo-Nazism in Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity. He edited a bunch else, with rigour and awesomely analytical clarity (if the subject is of interest to you, google his work)

On a personal note, he was terrifying. He didn't take prisoners. When I applied for my M.A. under him, he put me through my paces, introducing himself with the pleasantry that he was only spending time on me because I had a B.A. in Theology. As an artist, I was suspect; dippy, doolally. Fortunately he was persuaded that l was worth the investment and the two years I spent under his tutelage were revelatory. The sheer sharpness of his thought and the capacities of his dissective thinking were an instruction.

His impact on the wonderful world of Western Esotericism is immeasurable. He it was that arranged the collaboration with the Blavatsky organisation that funded his chair; that designed and described the roots of the course that has set the standard for academic esotericism.

Needing to marry my interest in esotericism with my life in art, I chose to write my dissertation on the work of David Jones. At first Nicholas tried to talk me out of it as there wasn't an established route between the visual artists and the academics on the course, but as David Jones has written a great deal it seemed that the problems could be circumvented. Once this was established, Nicholas was not only encouraging but amazingly knowledgeable. How on earth did he know all that he knew about Jones' background? I'd studied him and his friends on and off all my life and he had info I wasn't aware off. He was truly a well-rounded savant -

My thesis was marked at the Sorbonne and it did well. Nicholas was charming and fulsome in his praise, not mentioning once that it was actually all his and Clare, his wife's, work - they led me away from the obsessive cul-de-sac's and held my hand down the paths of clarity.

Oh la. He was too young to die. I'm particularly sad for Clare Goodrick-Clarke, of course, but also for this years intake of Exeter students who will not benefit form his charm, intelligence and care. If any of you such aspirants should read this, please get his course notes and read his work - you will get the flavour and the grace of the man you had the malchance to miss.