One visitor. One fridge

It's so interesting to see how the energy in the house changes from Lisbeth on her own to her with the dancing visitor. He is a great cook and isn't afraid to spend money on food or nice things - unlike Lisbeth. She tends to skimp, somewhat, and make do. Now I must say that this isn't always, or necessarily, a bad thing because she can be very frugal and that saves money. However, she is often frugal when spending is the sensible thing to do, if you know what I mean. Anyway, back to the shift in energy:

Lisbeth has been looking at fridges for some considerable time as the one she is using is really ancient. (It was in the house when she arrived; it was ancient then and that is now 5 years ago.) Also, as it is so old, it has been costing her a lot to run. So although she has been looking, she hasn't been able to find a decent make, that does what she wants, at a price that 'isn't too expensive'. This visitor has been here for two and a half days and she has bought a great Bosch fridge-freezer today in the sale. It's like magic!

Oh, and the kitchen is full of the most fab ingredients. And I mean full! As I write, her visitor is cooking and she is sitting on the veranda with a gin and tonic and a bowl of olives.

Welcome Home Boswell

Brave Boswell's made it through the pain
And starting to grow strong again
Grand celebrations now are due
Because he's home again, brand new

He had us worried all the way
(I feared it was his final day
and even penned a sadder ode
had he not managed living mode)

So let the celebrations start
for gosling Boswell, stout of heart
I'm overjoyed you're on the mend
My special, stardust, gosling friend

Dancing, dancing

It's certainly a movement kind of a week. Here are some dancing sheep. They give some idea of what life is like, here, at the moment. It's go, go, go. (There isn't anything to report outside because it rains every day.) Every day. It's horrible and everyone is fed up. Every day it rains. Every day.

Dancing with visitors

Phew! I've barely recovered from Bob's visit and another of Lisbeth's friends has arrived. (This one came to a different airport so at least there wasn't any of that parking payment nonsense.)

So what to expect this time? Well, after the heady days with Bob discussing the theory of consciousness, we are moving out of the brain and mind and into the body, because this visitor teaches dance in a university. (I know - pretty interesting friends, eh?) Anyway this week, I will be waiting with heightened expectations for my dance mirror newerons to get a good firing!

What! No slot?

When Lisbeth took Bob back to the airport, she went armed with some 1 & 2 euro coins for the car park. Charging for parking is a new thing. She hadn't had cause to pay before but knew that she would be longer than an hour and that some payment would be required.

Having said goodbye to Bob, she set off for home. Arriving at the automatic barrier, she put her parking card in and saw that 2 euros were requested. However, she couldn't find the slot. A car came up behind her and waited. Then another and another. Eventually, the lady in the car behind got out to see what the problem was. By this time, Lisbeth had realised that you could only pay with a bank card! (I know, for 2 euros!) So she ran round to the driver's side for her card. (She's right-hand-drive, remember so has to get out and go round to pay.) Now she was able to start again: parking card in; time elapsed; payment of 2 euros requested; bank card in......... but because she had used her English card, it said it didn't recognise it. By this time the queue was very long so the woman behind her suggested that she used her card to pay and Lisbeth pay her the 2 euros.

This airport is used more by the English than the French so what were they thinking?

The Sheep of Love

Now here's something.............. Lisbeth received an e-mail from one of her friends, today, in which she talked about spam and scam e-mails that arrive at her place of work. Today they received something from a young lady obviously hoping it would fall into some lonely person's Inbox. This young lady (from Brazil or somewhere) appears to be seeking love and the mail goes on, at some length, about how brilliant she will be to the right man. However, according to Lisbeth's friend, this young lady's English isn't very good.

I quote: "I believe that we will take the non-sinking sheep of love and will go far away to the ocean, on the waves of unopened passions, we will open the doors of wishes and dreams which never happened yet?"

Now what's wrong with that? It sounds perfect to my ovine ears! What's more, I AM that SHEEP of LOVE! Let's crack open the passions and make it happen!

For Boswell

Goose Boswell: Fight! Your life to save
We know that you are very brave
Just hang on in and know that you
are stronger than you ever knew

Boswell update

He is to have an operation tomorrow.

Boswell in Hospital

I've just heard that my friend, Boswell, from IBM is in hospital. Can I ask you all to think 'Get well Boswell' thoughts and send them to him, please?

The Thick Moment

While here in France Lisbeth has been practicing 'mindfulness'. This is trying to be in the present moment: just being 'present' to whatever it is that she is doing. She reports varying degrees of success dependent upon the context and whether she is well or run down or stressed.

She was talking to Bob about it and he mentioned something that Nicholas Humphrey calls the "the thick moment of consciousness". This is when one feels oneself "living in the present moment" with all the accompanying sensations of 'being'.

I've mentioned it because I like the name 'thick moment'. (Lisbeth likes it, too.) It's very evocative, don't you think? Are you aware of experiencing any 'thick moments' of consciousness? I'm sure I do. These will be different from yours, of course, because I am a sheep, and the 'quality' of my 'thick moment' will be mine and I suppose that this is my reality and my 'sheep consciousness'.

I was wondering also if, within my 'thick moment of consciousness', I am aware that I am alone (a being in consciousness and nothing more) or, if being in the 'thick moment' means that I can't consider such a concept? Mmm....... It will have to be the latter, I'm sure, because a concept is a concept, and I would bet my woolly jumper that being in the 'thick moment' is concept-less.

Missing Bob

Lisbeth has taken Bob to the airport today. This means that, if it's fine tomorrow, Lisbeth (who's feeling a little better) will be trying to get to grips with a depressingly overgrown garden, leaving me to my own devices on the veranda. I know I sound a bit pathetic but it has been great to have some really serious talking practice with Bob and my days will certainly be a lot less interesting for a while.

We have talked about life, the nature of consciousness, mirror neurons, notions of emptiness, Buddhism, enlightenment, happiness, the development of civilizations, models of personality, psychology, science v. arts, the Enneagram, NLP, Don Juanism, the grand narratives (and death of), semiotics, the thick moment, music, writing, philosophy, critical theory, death and dying - to name but a few.

Let's hear it for visitors!

Mirror Neurons on the Wall

Mirror neurons on the wall
Who's the fairest of them all?
Firing here and firing there
You can't take neurons anywhere

Doing something neuronesque
(like sitting reading at your desk)
will trigger mine to copy yours
(even if I'm on all fours)

I've read they fire for this and that
They fire without a safety hat
It's evolution taking place
Our sense of difference to displace

So mirror neurons on the wall
They are the fairest of them all
They help us empathise, and see
that we connect: this 'you' and 'me'

'Dalai Lama' Neurons

The weather is still dreadful so I've been looking at more mirror neuron stuff and talking it over with Bob. I was interested to read that the celebrated neuroscientist V S Ramachandran has referred to mirror neurons as 'Dalai Lama' or 'empathy' neurons because, he argues, they demonstrate the interconnectedness of individuals. Apparently, if you watch a person's hand being pricked by a pin, the same pattern of neurons fire in both your brain and theirs simultaneously. Thus there is some scientific evidence for notions of empathy.

Mmm......... I think I can feel a poem coming on..................

Firing Newerons?

Continuing the neuron thing, I was wondering if my mirror newerons only fire in response to other sheep or if they would fire in response to human actions? If Bob got on all fours and did something in the way that I might do it, like eating some grass or walking forward, for example (not that he would, of course), would that be a firing situation for me, even if he isn't a sheep?

Then I was thinking about actions that I wouldn't do. Let's say Bob is sitting in a chair reading. When he turns the page, would this action fire my mirror newerons, when sitting in a chair to read is not a regular activity for a sheep?

I ran all this past Bob and he said that it's all possible: My mirror newerons may well fire in response to him turning the page of a book. Alternatively, I may not actually have any mirror newerons at all! Now that I didn't like to hear. I am sure I do have them.

You will remember, in my response to Maud's question concerning our level of intelligence, that we can see in colour, recognize faces and emotions etc. Hence I think it's pretty likely that my ovine newerons are busy mirroring away and firing on all cylinders in exactly the same way that your mirror neurons are functioning for you.

So........... mirror newerons on the wall, who has the fairest of them all?

Mirror Neurons and Mirror Newerons

After yesterday's (after midnight) post about talking with Bob, I've been looking up Mirror Neurons, as you would expect. It's a bit tricky for my ovine brain, but as far as I understand it, they are called mirror neurons because if an animal or a human does an action (which fires certain neurons in their brain), then the same neurons are fired in the brain of the observer, as if they were actually doing the action that they are observing. Cool stuff, eh?

Apparently, it kind of explains how empathy works and it is thought that they fire more strongly in women than men, giving some credence to the view that women are more empathetic than men. It doesn't say anything about sheep, though.

I said to Bob that I didn't really understand it all and he was really nice about it. He said that I would learn. So what I'm doing is waiting for Bob to do some action and then I can notice when my mirror newerons fire. Isn't life exciting!

Talking with Bob

Lisbeth's first summer visitor has arrived and, lo and behold, the summer appears to have arrived with him. It is hot and sunny and hard to believe that we have had so much rain. That is unless you look round the garden, of course, which seems to have generated four months of growth in two weeks. As Lisbeth is feeling much better, she has been working in the potager so I have had the opportunity to talk to Bob. He's been sitting next to me on the veranda.

When he's not been reading, we've been talking about his theory of consciousness. (He mentioned something called 'mirror neurons', whatever they are!) It's all a bit above me but it's nice to have someone to talk to.

Under Pressure: Moi?

Lisbeth says that posting a video, yesterday, for Sunday Morning, even if it's called 'Sunday Morning' is a bit of a cop out because it doesn't help me with my talking practice. Well, there maybe something in that, but she isn't under pressure to write every day, like I am. It's not easy, you know, to come up with something interesting every 24 hours.

Now I know what you're thinking. You thinking "Well nobody forced you to write every day." That's as maybe. But in life, we start doing things or living a certain way and before you know it, we think that it is the only way to feel OK. Hence we set expectations of ourselves and then we actually 'fail' ourselves (as if we were our own parent or teacher) if we don't meet those self-set expectations. How ridiculous is that!

Apropos posting: Mr Occasional Stirrings has got it about right, as has The Idle Writer. They write something from time to time and, under the 'less is more' adage (or whatever) their less is certainly more. What they write is well written, interesting, often witty and usually has some 'depth'.

I don't really do depth. I'm probably more of a flounderer.

So let's hear it for the flounderers: splash, dip, delve! Yee-Ha!

Sunday Morning

A place for everything

So what have we here, then? This is one of the photos that Lisbeth brought back from her trip out the other afternoon. I think they are holes to put things in. Things certainly go in them or there wouldn't be so many holes, n'est ce pas?

I like places to put things. Well you never know when you're going to need a place for something and, here, there are lots of places.

Did you know that the phrase A place for everything and everything in its place is quite old? The first record of it in print can be found in an article by the Reverend C. A. Goodrich entitled 'Neatness', December 1827.

The phrase kind of 'guilts you out', don't you think? It implies that there is, indeed, a place for everything and if you don't know where it is, or don't use it, you're not doing things properly?

Lisbeth seems to have quite a few things just laying around. Can laying around be the place for some things? Is it about being organised and putting things 'away' or about finding a 'proper' place for things? If the latter, then 'laying around' might be more about aesthetics than organisation. So it could follow that some things are in their 'proper' place when they just look nice, even if they are not in the theoretical place that they might be in, if you had one. So what about things that don't have a place? Are there any? Are these things 'proper' things?

I'm more of the Zen kind of creature: I don't have things. Je suis comme je suis et je fais que je fais.

And while we're in party mood...................

OK. Following yesterday's birthday merriment, I thought you all might like to get involved in the on-line game of Pin the tail on the ........................ No, just kidding!

What I am suggesting, however, is still in the realms of 'animal fun'. Although I can't, for the life of me, work out why you humans are always so willing to create stupid games about animals or want to make fun of us................. Anyway, I've started, so I'll finish.

Today, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to go 'Through the Keyhole' and see who lives in a house like................. No, just kidding, again.

We're actually going to learn how to draw a cartoon sheep.

Well, you never know!

Happy Birthday Keithyd

Happy Birthday Keithyd
One year older by decree
Looking now at what to do
with the years now left to you

You're a writer; that I like
Writing books about Sam Dyke:
A new detective to beguile
the English, in American style

The second book is on its way
Well done to you, I have to say
I know it's hard to persevere
But you are dauntless, that is clear

So light the candles, eat some cake
Pop a cork for old time's sake
Think celebration all the way
throughout your youthful aging day

Sing Happy Birthday, I'm still young
A new exciting year has sprung
And choose the best life there can be
for birthday writer, Keithyd

Sheep Detectives

A apropos the ovine intelligence post, I was interested to read a review of a book, translated from the German, featuring sheep as detectives. It is a murder mystery involving a shepherd and his sheep where the shepherd is found murdered and his sheep come together to track down the murderer.

And why not? I have already explained that we are more intelligent than you might imagine, so why not sheep detectives? In my previous post I spoke of our ability to see in colour and our memory for faces. The other advantage we have over human detectives is our sense of smell and it is this facility that helps the sheep in this story to solve the mystery in Thee Bags Full.

More Maud

After yesterday's poem, I found this rather irreverent version of the song. (If it doesn't play, copy and paste the www into your browser.) While you're listening, if you read or scroll down the page, you will find 'Maud's reply' courtesy of Joyce Grenfell.

For Maud

I think you’re in the garden, Maud,
Invited by the song
to wander, now the sun’s abroad
and know that you belong

With bat and black night flown away
the morning, soft, it came
He waited near the garden gate
to say your lovely name

He speaks of music and of dance;
of rose and lily fair
The larkspur listens in a trance
and asks "Oh, is she there?"

So linger in your garden, Maud
Wherever that may be
The poet isn’t overawed
to speak again of thee


(The 'Maud' poet and the poem)

Ovine Intelligence

Question from Maud to me:

"I wonder if you would like to comment on the assertion that sheep rank in intelligence just below pigs?"

Thank you, Maud, for this. Of course we are more intelligent than people think and pigs are more intelligent than people think they are, as well. In fact pigs can rank as smarter than dogs (see stories) and not everyone knows that.

The article that you referred me to draws attention to the fact that we can see in colour. Imagine what it's like for us, therefore, having to look at all those awful glossy kagools worn by the walkers who swarm through our pastures at the weekend and assume we're stupid! We know they think we're stupid because we also have an excellent hearing.

Another little known fact is that we can recognize faces and remember up to 50 faces of our sheep friends for several years. More importantly, we know whether you (or our sheep friends) are happy or angry so we like it better if you smile at us.

The only real drawback is that we're not good at getting up if we fall over. But then neither are you humans when you're drunk!

So, think on! We are not just dumb woolly creatures. Next time you're out walking and the sheep move away from you, consider that it might be because you look unhappy or angry; because your kagool clashes with your trousers; or that we prefer to reflect, quietly, on absent friends!

Go to sleep with The Counting Sheep

While I've been mouldering on the veranda waiting for the weather (and Lisbeth) to get going in sunny mode, I found these nice ads using sheep. Have a peek at this one

Now I sound like Tony Hancock

What time is it? I ask again. The weather continues to be dull and now Lisbeth is ill and has been in bed all morning. She has picked up this really horrid bug added to which the barometric pressure is giving everyone headaches. Life is no better for me on the veranda as the grass is growing and Lisbeth has no means to cut it so it is all looking a bit sad. So it's another lonely day for a poor a sheep in France.

There you are, you see, it's not all sun, cheese and wine! PLEASE send me a word to play with?

Sheep detectives

A apropos the ovine intelligence post, I was interested to read a review of a book, translated from the German, featuring sheep as detectives. It is a murder mystery involving a shepherd and his sheep where the shepherd is found murdered and his sheep come together to track down the murderer.

And why not? I have already explained that we are more intelligent than you might imagine, so why not sheep detectives? In my previous post I spoke of our ability to see in colour and our memory for faces. The other advantage we have over human detectives is our sense of smell and it is this facility that helps us to solve the mystery in Thee Bags Full.

Sulking: moi?

Yes, I know it's childish but no one has left me a suggestion. You don't know what it's like here in France when the weather is terrible. It rains and rains (Lisbeth says it's a bit like her memory of Wales.) and the sky is dull and the sun won't come out to play. It's boring on my veranda and Lisbeth has spent a lot of the day with the plumber trying to sort out problems with the down pipe. They can't find out why water came into the salle a manger, nor how it got up to the room above to come down through the ceiling. Bla bla bla bla bla..................

So, suggestions, please. (Lisbeth now claims I sound like the little robot who needed a constant diet of information in the film 'Short Circuit'!)

Give me something to write about

I have discovered that I like responding to stuff that comes my way. This can be in the comments that people leave, or things that are sent to me or sent/given to Lisbeth. E.G. Visitor 1, my 'ovine' self, the sheep mug (which generated four or five posts) Biquintiles (several posts) Boswell (several posts) and the noticeboards etc., etc.

So if you would like me to apply my ovine brain to something (which will also help me with my talking practice) please leave your suggestions in the comments.

The meaning of sheep

Now this is the sort of thing that could go on any self respecting noticeboard, don't you think? Five sheep, all sheep-shape and Bristol-fashion.

I wonder what meaning they have............? They could be an advertisement for real or toy sheep for sale, woollen goods or a knitting group? On the other hand, they could be advertising the next meeting of the a self-help group (for those who feel sheepish about going.)

Then again, it could be a poster for the next concert of a pop group, featuring the lead singer (or baarer, if it's a sheep group). It might be showing a soloist with their groupies or, continuing the musical theme, it might be referring to the Lake District sheep singing Jerusalem.

Another thought is that they could be advertising a course on how to speak 'Sheep' because they all seem to be saying something, although the one top left looks as if it might be dancing, so it could be a call to go Line Dancing: Open to all. No one baared.

Playing with the noticeboard

I've had a comment from Maud asking if she can put yesterday's poem on her noticeboard.

Is a noticeboard a board for notices or a board that you're suppose to notice?

I was noticing the board when I got bored. I got bored noticing the noticeboard. If I got bored noticing the noticeboard, would anybody notice?

I was noticed, noticing the noticeboard. I hope no one noticed I was bored.

If you notice, could you give me notice, if there are new notices on the noticeboard in case I don't notice?

I notice that, when I notice the noticeboard, I am aware that the notices are on the noticeboard to be noticed.

Unnoticed by anyone, I noticed that (when I had noticed the noticeboard) the noticeboard didn't have any notices on to be noticed and no one had noticed that the noticeboard had no notices.

If I were you

If I were you, the bullfrog said,
I'd think of life as art
And anywhere you think you are
is just a place to start

You're never where you cannot leave
You'll always be OK
So get creative with your life
and get out of your way

A very French day out

Lisbeth has had a really French day, today. She went to a nearby village where they had organised a typical village get-together. They started with coffee and cake, then walked (8km). After that there was a meal eaten outside followed by games. Then Lisbeth got involved in judging home made 'Broye'. (I think that's how you spell it.) It's a sort of big round shortbread biscuit which is a specialty of the area. At the same time, others were judging 'Pineau' (an alcoholic drink that they make locally.)

To finish the day, Lisbeth won a bottle of wine for guessing a number close to the number of buttons on this coat.

The Haik-ewe experiment

As it's still raining here and is very miserable I've been checking out this quantum physics poetry thing "through the medium of sheep"(I really like that phrase!),

Check out the real thing at Quantum Sheep: The Haik-ewe experiment and then make some poetry of your own with these two-dimensional sheep. Each time you refresh the page, you get a different arrangement of the sheep and (because they are the medium) a different poem.