h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Making progress on tropical section in the garden, anti-erosion log borders in place around main area and utility area, beds weeded, raked level and free of stones, anti-erosion and soil builder border planted, including some flowers.

Mexican and Hawaian papayas next.

Though intended primarily as a windbreak on the southern exposure, I have seen the papayas successfully brought into production locally.

The Carribean papaya and Mississippi/Missouri paw-paw on the shopping list.

Bananna pit still needs completion, about half dug, next needs barriers against burrowing pests installed and an organic fill rep!acing my local 95% muriatic acid soluable desert sand.

Bananna has survived a year in a bucket, is presumed acclimatized.

I'm using the Goldfinger bananna, frost hardy to 10F/-12C.

Will also put in a Madras bananna when I find one, since its similarly frost hardy.

If it can't survive an occasional frost, not worth the bother of planting.

Or delayed. Ralph just got delayed in the tunnel between dimensions. . Lucky you.

Till later. mwhahahaha

How come I find it so easy to share photos, even if they have writing all over them, but my writings without a photo just seem too long and clunky. hmm.

How do I photograph Ralph? He doesn't exist. .

Supper. I need supper.

Laters.

Hullo ITI! Your posting just fluttered in while I was obsessing. .

Great to hear from you! Will respond later, after I'm fortified by food and a drink.

mmm that's better.



You have a tropical section in your garden, ITI? That's amazing.

Papayas, paw paw, bananas. I can only dream about growing these fruits. That's amazing. Imagine making your own fruit salad from these, it's incredible.

Thanks for sharing. I wish we could send supper through the internet. I'd order my tropical fruit salad from California. Please post in next posting. heheh. Then it would somehow have to manifest into real food. With bowl. And spoon. And cream.

Lovely descriptions, thanks ITI.

OK I got it. Ralph said it's easy, just see paragraphs as photographs. They both end in graph. Whatever that means.



Theme/The Uninvited Guest



Picture One//The Crowded Flat//Uninvited Guests




Have you ever attended a party where you hardly know any of the guests? This is especially disconcerting if one is the host, or co-host.



This happened a lot in my youth, when I shared a flat. Who were all these people in my living room and kitchen? Were they invited?



Of course, you soon found out that most of them were friends of a friend's friend. Usually, an invitation that said 'bring a friend' was seen as a cue to invite friends of a friend's friend, or even one's entire family.

Picture Two//Absurdity//Ralph

I was once at a party where one of the guests arrived with his extended family.



This involved an ailing grandmother, two aunts who brought their own teapot and a basket of knitting, a shy cousin who drank several pints of apple juice, and a lady poet in a green silk hat, who said she was a member of his spirit family.



This paragraph is, of course, complete fabrication, but Ralph wasn't fiction, at least I don't think he was.

Picture Three//Ralph



I met Ralph at a party, much later in life.

My friend, who was the hostess, was asking everyone who he was.

'Probably a friend of a friend's friend' we laughed, remembering our youth.

It turned out that Ralph was, in fact, a friend of a friend's friend, proving that parties don't change that much, but that didn't stop people asking 'who is that guy?'.



You see, Ralph had a certain indefinable charisma, a magnetism. He sat on the sofa sipping a glass of wine, graciously introducing himself to anyone who asked.

And many people did ask. Charisma has that effect.



There was nothing particularly unusual about his appearance, except that he was very thin, and I would say that his smile was enigmatic. He was maybe fifty, noticibly articulate, with greying black hair, and keen dark eyes.



He told people that he was a pianist, that he would liked to have played in concert halls but in fact he played mainly in hotel bars. He liked entertaining the guests, especially when people sang along to their favourite tunes.



So why did Ralph have such a curious effect on people? He himself didn't seem to be aware of his magnetism, which was fortunate.

Picture Four//Talking Crazy About Ralph



My friend told me later that one guest thought he was part angel, she even saw his wings.

Too much whisky I reckon.



Someone else was convinced that he'd recently seen him at the reception desk of a motel near the Grand Canyon in Arizona.




And my friend herself spent the next week telling me she'd realised he was the guy from the flower stall outside Piccadilly Circus underground station, who sold her a bunch of daffodils in 1976.




When I met Ralph, he was charming and polite, and we talked about piano music. Then I went on my way, and I didn't think much about him until he had left the party.



Who saw him leave? Presumably he left with the people or person that he came with, but it was almost as if he had evaporated into the atmosphere, leaving a space, and a curious yearning.

I found myself having strange thoughts. Had he really been there?

I tried to shake myself out of this absurdity. I wasn't about to start talking crazy about Ralph, the same way everyone else was.



I put it down to the indefinable effects of charisma. If I ever manage to define these effects, I'll let you know. Perhaps I'll meet Ralph again one day, see if he has any answers.



I imagine he'd just smile in that enigmatic way, and ask me what on earth I'm talking about. Good question, Ralph, very good question.

Charisma is a strange thing - hard to define,but recognisable.

The most charismatic person I knew was a fellow volunteer at CAB. she was tall, with a mass of brown curls and you noticed her the moment she walked in. She was charming, outgoing and warm. But I discovered after a while she was very unreliable.

heheh, yes, that's quite annoying. .

I like that sigh smiley. .

It is a strange quality, there's no doubt. Interesting. I've known quite a few charismatic people, interesting characters for sure, but grrrr often quite difficult to be around at times.

My Gran was very charismatic, she was quite a character. She was lovely though, people felt alive around her, because she could talk to anyone, and she was genuinely interested and open minded.

I've met one dangerous charismatic person, who set himself up as a guru, and a lot of people got hurt. In the end, there was only space for one Chosen One, and he was It. Fortunately his entire set up, which was influential, has now been debunked.




Meanwhile, I'm doing a study of spaniels in literature. , as one does, unless one doesn't.

Inspired by Jasper, the cocker spaniel in Rebecca, of course, (because I'm just back from Cornwall), but I don't know any others, because I don't read very much.

I just Googled spaniels in literature, looks interesting.

Spaniels in literature? I don't know, to be honest. Must be lots of dogs, from the hound of the Baskervilles,through faithful Gelert to Lassie on TV.

Lots of horses too, from Bucephalus and Shadowfax to... I can think of a couple of donkeys. Dmitri wrote about Modestine, the donkey which Robert Louis Stevenson rode in the Cevennes. (I realised I'd been to some of the places he rode through. ) And there was Sancho Panzo's donkey which, I've just discovered, was called Dapple. I think I'll call my bicycle Dapple.

heheh, I love that. A bike named Dapple. . I always feel like I'm saddling up a steed, every morning, when preparing the bike for morning shopping.

I think I might name my bike, also.

I wonder what sort of steed my bike is, though? Part mule, part unicorn part grinning mythological beeste?

Do you two still shop by bike, mvp?



I love cycling. I have a new ride, now, on certain afternoons. From where we live, to the leisure centre. Takes me along the canal, over the marshes, there are swans and magpies and cormorants and hikers and cyclists and joggers and spaniels and other hounds. And now I can get home in the light. Lighter evenings! Springtime!

Spaniels! Yes! My google search for spaniels in literature was very fruitful, there's an entire website devoted to quotes about spaniels in literature. It's very spaniely. And literary.

Interesting about Modestine. I must find Mister D's story. (hint for link)

And all and everything!



I'm in a quandary about my contribution to h2g2, in the light of new announcements by the wonderful team who run it.

I think I'll go to the next posting for incredibly not-interesting yet heartfelt quandary.

Good word, quandary.

The quandary.

Cue the quandary.

Good afternoon from the quandary.



OK, serious now.



I don't think my contribution to h2g2 is adequate. I can't write Guide Entries, that's my trouble.

I'm a snailbrain in an academic and intelligent environment.

I feel bad that the wonderful volunteers who run this site have to spend time modding and keeping a check on journals such as mine. Their time is precious.

It's been great, here, for me, on this Daydream thread. Such a magic and amazing time with friends. A trusted and wonderful part of my life.

Have I given back as much as I've received?

Seems like a few of us from this thread are moving on now, this is healthy.

Is it time to retire the Daydream thread?

This way I won't have to worry that the volunteers are having to use up their precious time on my rambles.



The only contribution I can offer to h2g2, other than this journal, is submitting photos (sometimes with funny writing on them) to The Post.

I feel good about this, at least. Does submitting photos take up volunteer's time?

Does it compensate for my lack of Guide Entries?

I'm a very neurotic, yet hopeful, person.



If the Daydream thread does retire, we'll always have Paris, or even email, so we can keep in touch.

End of quandary.

No, no, don't stop! The Journal is adding to h2g2, au contraire.......

Spaniels in literature? I can think of two right away:

1. Jip, Dora's pet in 'David Copperfield'. Most people think Dora was silly, but there's an academic journal article with a resistant reading that I approve of. Dora was wise, and so was Jip:

http://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-384438871/spenlow-s-spaniel-voicing-dissent-in-david-copperfield

Watch those dogs - they're symbolic. It's all about speaking truth to power, folks.

2. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's cocker spaniel, Flush. Definitely an instrument of fighting back against oppression. Virginia Woolf even wrote his biography:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/jul/14/fiction.virginiawoolf

Another cute dog from the British Isles is the Dandie Dinmont---which is not a spaniel but a terrier named for a character from Walter Scott.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-31062073

They are really cute, but as terriers they are too energetic for sedentary old people.

A Shih Tzu like our Ariel was nominated as the Most Valuable Player in the 2015 Puppy Bowl. Cara is a 14 week old puppy. The Puppy Bowl is an alternative program to America's big football match produced by Animal Planet cable channel.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/02/02/2015-mvp-named-in-puppy-bowl-xi

Hah! There we go, see? Two major literary spaniel situations straight away. .

I hadn't heard of Jip, that's interesting indeed.

I should have remembered Flush, although I haven't read Virginia's biography of him.

Ah, we're deep in cocker spaniel land now.



Really? So I should put my quandary on hold?

I guess I'm always easier when I can pay the barman, at least. Then my conscience can rest easy.

Step forward, barman, or barwoman!

(big crowd of barmen and barwomen surge forward into posting)



Well, it's what I'm used to, after a lifetime of hiring church halls and function rooms for homegrown revue shows.

Like, if this technical journal set up, with all the magic smileys and everything, is like a function room, a meeting space, I'm used to paying for the room, and paying the barman!

Is there a contributions box at least?

I'm serious about this. My conscience is silently bubbling.



I must change postings to consider the Dandie Dinmont.

How fascinating, Elektra! I had no idea about the history of the Dandie Dinmont! I love Dinmonts.



I like pugs. There's a fine tan pug who lives round the corner from us. He has fans in the neighbourhood, eveyone loves him. He's a big fella, a real bruiser.



Awwww. Ariel. I remember Ariel. That's adorable about the 2015 Puppy Bowl, the Shih Tzu being nominated.

That's funny, Most Valuable Player, the header says MVP! heheh.

Hey mvp, Most Valuable Player.

Woof!

at MVP

Retire the daydream thread, nooooo, *makes extra strong pot of Perculiar ot revive herself from the very thought*

Your contributions here and elsewhere CC are beautiful, unique and very delightfully quirky

heheh.

Hullo Peanut, divine loveliness! (drinks a gallon of Perculiar) How are you these days?

That's good to know, about this thread and elsewhere, , thanks! Good to express my neurotic quandary.

(searches for h2g2 contributions box to pay for tea and tea smiley).

OK, so onward, beyond the quandary. The quirky quintessential question of the quandary. The quagmire of the quandary. And other things beginning with qu.

I passed a very happy looking cocker spaniel on my walk into town this morning. I secretly asked it if had appeared recently in any famous books. . Then I started chuckling, so I had to walk on quickly.