Muses, Malmesbury, Water and Books

With the weather turning a little nasty last week, as far as visits are concerned, I don't have a great deal to share with you.

The photographs above show the extent of the flooding of the River Severn.

The top picture was taken last Thursday (27/9 ) at Tewkesbury. You can see in the distance the Severn Ham; common grazing land, which is  showing evidence of flooding.

The bottom three were all taken today (29/9) at the  Riverside pub ' The Coalhouse, ' near Apperley.
There was no risk to property; but to quote Captain Beefheart: " It was looking fat and bulbous. "

Yesterday we visited the Cotswold town of Malmesbury in Wiltshire.

The main street had the usual range of shops, selling apart from the Co-op and bread store; things you didn't really need; but making for interesting browsing.
What it did have, however was, inscribed on a pavement edge a note  from Sir John Betjeman, extolling the virtues of Malmesbury and hoping it didn't change in character.   It also had a pub sign for " The Smoking Dog;" I kid you not.

Of, perhaps  more importance, from an historical perspective, is Malmesbury Abbey, situated in the centre of the town.

This former monastery has had a continuous history from the 7th Century until its dissolution under HenryV111 in 1539.
It is still used as a church today.
Photo 2 shows the elaborate carving on the arch leading into the main entrance to the church.

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When the late Douglas Adams (Hitch-Hiker's Guide ) wrote about his affection for Apple Mac computer: that you could tolerate a PC; but you can fall in love with a Mac. It was for me the tipping point and I became an Apple geek.
As Douglas said " The Macintosh may only have 10% of the market, but it's clearly the top 10%. "
read some more of his quotes here:
Douglas's Quotes.

My love affair has not waned; but oh my goodness what is happening? In a recent poll the Apple brand was voted the coolest brand pushing Aston Martin into second place: surely not.

 My hope for the future is that Apple retain their search for ideas; underpinned by a sense of humour; that the creative dreamers continue to instruct the software writers with their visions.
I would hate this brand to be merely a spreadsheet performance model, seeing life merely as a number
of units sold.

Recently two things have helped me keep the faith. With the latest incarnation of the iPhone (5) and as part of ios 6 system.
 ( 1 ) There is a program called 'Passbook' which takes care of your electronic tickets, vouchers, etc.

Passbook

Ok, I hear you say but....?
Well, when you want to delete your stuff, a 'virtual' shredder does the job complete with noises. Trite perhaps, but amusing I think.

( 2)  Having successfully downloaded the latest operating system ' Mountain Lion, ' there was an update for iPhoto, which amongst  new features was a better integration with 'Twitter.'
to try this out I sent a photo to Twitter. Having written up a few words I pressed the Send button and was rewarded, seconds later with the sound of a bird 'tweeting; ' how charming.

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Having watched " Salmon Fishing In The Yemen " on DVD recently, I have been reading the works of the book's author Paul Torday.

Find out more here:

Paul Torday

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We often say " when so and so has had a holiday " he'll/she'll will be 'As right as rain! '

It struck me the other day watching coverage of the Yorkshire floods, that maybe you wouldn't be so 'right' with that amount of rainfall they have had. Just a thought,

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Hoping for a quieter week weather-wise. The leaves are beginning to turn.

Cheerio

Ck,