Things ancient and modern....

Now the Beard is among those of us who remmeber a golden age, a time of plenty, where peace, love and understanding ruled... no, sorry, actually I don't.... but the other day I had the good fortune to be in one of those few pubs which actually publicise it prices on the pumps, and was surprised by many of them... not least the IPA at a quid and a half for a pint.... but it was only then that i realised that cider had undergone a change.... now, back in the long ago, when the beard was just able to legally imbibe, cider was the chosen drink of the student, mainly due to two things... its higher than beer alcohol content, and its cheapness.... but nowadays, tying in with the reinvntion of perry as pear cider, cider itself is more expensive than beer.... just aas diesel was once quite a bit cheaper than petrol.... one day i am sure that beans will outprice caviare.... but i digress.... for once though, I have not forgotten the point that the beard wished to make, as there actually was no point, except to say that times change, things change, and one day, so will my underpants... suffice it to say, th carvery at the plue of feathers was well received by two weary travellers, and the Birmingham museum and art gallery was very welcoming.... the Matthew Boulton exhibition i found especially stimulating.... and one of the paintings in the round room, well, all i can say is that it bears further study, specially for those of us with arthurian, wagnerian, masonic, templar or grailian bents.... on top of this, the beard is extremely happy, with loneliness no longer being the default position.... and after wowing everyone with a display of dancing on sundy night, after three meat and one veg samosas, and numerous diet pepsis, the beard can only say that those who believe him to be a closet party animal are only possibly mistaken.... but yetagain i digress..... haikus are on thecards (quite literally) as is a treatise on treats, but chocolate flavour swedish glace ( a non dairy ice cream like confection) is beckoning me even at this late hour.. so off to beddy byes goes the beard... so it just remains to say, until we all realise that syllabls are worth counting, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Two beaches, three seas and a dinghy.....

or what the beard did on Holiday.... well, sort of.... and when I say three seas, it could be less or more, depending on how you see these things.... at least, the english Channel and the irish sea cannot be quibbled with, even if you are of a nautical bent, but whether Poole Harbour counts i frnkly debatable..... but a discussion about whether the Channel counts as part of the North sea or part of the Atlantic ocean, or whether the alleged Sleeve is a sea in its own right, led the beard to wonder quite wonderingly as to where the borders of our various seas are, and why..... of course, all borders are a man made confection, with the possible exception of coastline, but at least land borders (some at least) are easily explainable.... rivers, mountain ranges and the like... although some are less so, relying as they do on imaginary lines invented by slightly less imaginary people, or on vague land aquisitions by men with weaponry..... but sea borders are even less obvious and even less logical.... if they were, for example, based on coral reefs, or some such... well.... admittedly, the western 9to the Beard) border between the atlantic and pacific i slightly obvious on a map, being the American continent, but again, lss so on the ground, as it were..... out of sight of land, how do i know if I'm in the south china sea, the pacific ocean, or the Indian ocean... or even the Baltic for that matter..... and this, i think, is the nub of the matter.,,,, that the sea, even more so than the land, is one entity... it has no borders, and to the best of our knowledge, no nations.... but the sea itself hides the fact that all land is actually joined together..... no, for centurie swe have divided everything, from land, to resources, to seas.... hen really what we should have been doing was sharing them.... a a friend of the beards once said, in response to yet another appeal to help relieve famine, there is enough food to go around... problem is that it stays in one place.... but I digress..... the point is that my head hurts from lack of sleep, one of my projects is desperate for a re write, and I'm starting to lose track of what i actually wanted to say..... so I'll leave you all to it, except to say thatuntl we all believe in sharing without division, Wisebeard Salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!