The Glory of Birstall.

"Ed, you're always shoving your life in my face all the time and it's boring. Instead of telling me about your life, tell us about places that are relevant to your life, that inspire you mkay."

Alright.

There is a reason that I love Birstall, my home village. There is an obvious attachment because I have lived here all my life. I have been inspired to write a few stories based on areas around Birstall.
The surrounding area is interesting too. My mum told me that in the nearby village of Wanlip in a church yard are buried the bones of a black slave worker. You only ever think of black slavery happening in America... but then you are reminded that it happened in Britain also.
There are many parts of Birstall and this blog is made to show places that I go to. I took my brothers camera with me and went around Birstall. I'm going to show you Birstall as I see it and spots that I enjoy walking to. Hope you like it.

This is the pathway that leads to the public park...not the Watermead Country Park that you will see later but the park with the swings, slides and so forth. Nobody ever uses this path. I walked down it today when it had rained slightly and there was the most beautiful smell of wet wood and flowers that I had ever smelt.

As you leave the pathway and have strolled through the park you enter the place that my family calls Old Birstall. This part is with older houses, not like the modern houses that we build nowadays but stuff that is not dissimilar to this cottage. The picture that is below will show you what is on the roof of this cottage.

The fox up there is only a statue but the pigeon is real. It looks like the pigeon is having a ride.

I like to think that this part has inspired my writing in some way. The picture at the top is the opening gateway of St James Church. As you enter through this opening and look to your left you see this statue of an angel. There is something very gothic, solemn and... dare I say it... aesthetically pleasing (WOO to long words) about it. My mum has named her something but I can't remember what the name was. I think that she looks like an Evelyn to me.

As I went down this pathway as a child it would always freak me out. In my mind I was thinking,
"Oh my god, each side of me there are buried dead bodies...I hope their aren't any ghosts."
Now I don't feel at all bothered. It sparks your imagination...especially Evelyn. By the way I don't do this whole I love graveyards thing very often...just saying. I have been inspired to write stories from the atmosphere that this place gives off. I passed through the church yard and entered the country park.

I saw this as I entered Watermead Country Park. In my eyes this sign means that if disabled people enter the park then they are shot by a radar... but that is only my humble interpretation.

I took this picture because I wanted a bird in this blog. When I uploaded the picture I saw that there were little chicks... you just went awwwww didn't you. Yup.

You step into a new world that can only be entered in through nature and can only be parodied by art.

Birstall has been very good to me. Since I was born I have lived in two of it's houses. I have done work experience at the local primary school in the village. I still get my weekly fix of sweets from the local newsagents two minutes away from my house and I still walk through Birstall all the time and find out things that I had never known about it before.

The place that I have lived all my life has had a great influence on me. Birstall has a soul and a long history. Wherever you are in the country or even the world you can find beauty...and I mean everywhere, you merely have to look hard and if you see no beauty then you need to change your perception.

To sum this post in three words...

I... like... Birstall.

Over and Out.
ED

My first attempt at the Tarot (P.S I hold no personal belief in it).

I've been trying to learn the Tarot as some people may know who have been willing over the past few months to read my blog. I have always wanted to do something like this but have decided to do some other hobby instead. But now the time has come. I have tried to have a basic understanding of the Tarot and I still have got a lot to learn and memorize...it may take years.
The main idea behind the Tarot is that you are not trying to contact some supernatural being who is guiding you to pick certain cards. It is all about you contacting your higher self (apparently) so that you may decipher what your higher self is trying to say so that you can contemplate about your life and what you want to do in the future.
There are many spreads that can be used. The most common one used is the Celtic Cross spread. This is what that spread looks like,

• 1---means what covers you. It is also meant to be the significator.
• 2--- means what crosses you.
• 3---means what crowns you.
• 4--- means what is beneath you.
• 5--- means what is behind you.
• 6---means what is before you.
• 7---means 'Yourself.'
• 8--- means 'Your House.'
• 9--- means your hopes and fears.
• 10--- means what will come.

So with the information I had gained I attempted my first reading. I did not know many of the meanings of the cards so I was constantly looking through the book but it was a fine attempt nonetheless.
Your question to your 'higher self' need not be specific so I wanted to find out how my life might turn out in the future. Here is my spread that I made.

Fair doos spread made. Let's get this contacting- your- higher- self- thing on the road.

• 1--- This was in the first position and was the Significator. It described what covered me. This card indicates a dark young man, faithful, a lover, an envoy, a postman. Beside a man he will give favourable testimony. So this card is indicating what covers me now at this point in time. If I interpret this to my real life it could mean me gaining good news concerning the work that I am hopefully about to get accepted into...favourable news eh. Let's hope so Page of Wands!

• 2--- This is in the position to try to show me what crosses me. The Two of Cups indicates Love, Passion, Friendship, Affinity, Union, Concord, Sympathy, the Interrelation of the sexes, and that desire that is not in nature but is still sanctified by it. This could mean anything. I guess when a card indicates 'that desire that is not in nature but is still sanctified by it' then you know that your higher self is trying to remind you that chatting up radiators is wrong...well higher self, I shall chat up radiators if I please thanks.

I don't want to go through all of the cards, partly because I am not allowed for some reason to upload pictures properly anymore and also because going through all the cards might be very long and boring. 

The fifth position intrigued me as it involved indicating what was behind me. Well behind me (which is sad somewhat) is my time at university and three years of being a student. I looked at this card to see what was picked up. 

• 5---This was the position of what was behind me and was the Moon. This card is Higher Arcana and from what I have read means that this card effects me as the person that I am and not a circumstance or event. The card represents the life of the imagination (oi oi, hint hint) as being apart from spirituality. The dog and the wolf represent the fears of the natural mind in the presence of that place of exit. The intellectual light that the light of the moon represents the 'unknown mystery' which it cannot shew forth. The light illuminates our animal nature and also illuminates the urges that are below our animal nature. Wow, after thinking on events, the symbolism involved in this card really rings true.  

I won't talk about any more cards in the reading. I'm glad you've read this far into the post. Here are all the cards that I had in their relevant positions,

• 1---Page of Wands.
• 2--- Two of Cups.
• 3--- Seven of Wands.
• 4--- Six of Swords.
• 5--- The Moon.
• 6--- King of Wands.
• 7--- The Sun.
• 8--- Temperance.
• 9--- The King of Cups.
• 10--- The Star.

An interesting and thought provoking activity. I'm off to have a (playing) card game with my higher self...get it.

Over and Out.

ED

A Book Review. Dracula: The Undead.

Due to the business of my whole university work it has taken ages for me to finish reading this book but finally, after about a year and a half I have finally got to the end of this novel.
I have a taste for dark literature, gothic and shizz...you would know of this if you read my blog. Strangely I have always loved this kind of stuff. I remember when I was about six years old and my family got a computer. There was a program that allowed you to make your own bookmarks. My sisters chose nice pictures, my brother chose cars and I chose the Wolfman, Dracula and Frankenstein cartoons on my bookmark. I suppose it is in my blood. (Note: another reason I like gypsies is because they are described in Dracula. In the last scene the main characters were fighting gypsies because they were carrying Dracula's coffin.)
This is the OFFICIAL sequel to the original 1897 original (Ahhhh was my original reaction).When I heard that a sequel had been written I was mortified that such a classic had been developed upon. I have always hated when people make sequels of much loved classics. You instantly think...Oh gawd, they are going to ruin the book aren't they?
Once the story of the original has finished I believe it is a better thrill for you to imagine for yourself what the characters in the story did for the rest of their life. After Dracula had been killed and everyone had settled down I thought that they would visit Transylvania, regularly meet up with each other and talk about the old times...but not in this interpretation.
I bought the book as I knew I would do and began turning the pages. It was written by two people, a direct descendant of Bram Stoker, Dacre Stoker and a writer called Ian Holt.
The story began with a hunt for Elisabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess of legend who is being hunted by Dr J Seward himself. They have depicted him as a broken man who feels he doesn't have much purpose any more. Bathory is a lesbian, they made this very obvious because there is a description about the first time she fell in love with a woman. I have no idea whether the real Bathory of history was of the persuasion but...ya know, she killed lots of servant girls in her time.
You slowly learn that a lot of the original characters have gone a bit downhill, all scarred in their own way by Dracula. Everyone is scarred apart from Quincey Harker that is, the son of Jonathan and Mina Harker (named after the original and was only mentioned briefly in the epilogue of the 'real' book.)
One thing that I disagreed with was the writing style. I thought that if you were going to write a sequel to a nineteenth century novel then you should adopt the literary style of both the style of the writer and the time. For example nothing is hidden in the writing. Everything was hinted at, not actually mentioned. An example is in the story 'Carmilla' by Sheridan Le Fanu, in which the vampire character was an obvious lesbian. It was the same in Dracula, everything is 'suggested' and I think that this way of doing things should have been carried on  in the sequel...ah well, I can let them off that.
...but then the writers did something blasphemous...all of the original characters started to be killed off one by one. What were they thinking? Dr Seward was run over by a carriage, Jonathan Harker was impaled in the middle of London (why?) Oh yeah and Dracula was not dead but had become an actor and was acting himself in the Dracula play. Even Bram Stoker himself becomes a character in the story, looking over the play of his own book. Dracula is depicted as a sympathetic character as well who looks back at the old days when he was a prince fighting the Turks...oh yeah and Abraham Van Helsing turns out to be a right old nut job.
I won't spoil the ending in case you want to read it but although I was sceptical about it at the beginning I thought it was an enjoyable enough read it. I still held my own opinions about what happened to the characters after the original story so I treated this book as somebody's own interpretation. A good book for the bookshelf with those with an interest in this sort of thing.
A good read if you don't take it too seriously. Why are most female vampires depicted as lesbians?...in literally every single vamp book.
I might do a few more book reviews. I'm now reading 'Rabbit Stew and a Penny or Two' by Maggie Smith- Bendell. She is a gypsy and the book is her childhood memoirs of being a gypsy during the war but also growing up in the 1950's. Good 'ole Jip- Japs. Watch this space.
Over and Out.
ED

Dawn of the Ed.

Here is a list of some more life ambitions,

• Go and travel for a year sometime in my life.
• Write a book about Gothic Fiction.
• Learn German properly.
• Write this blog for a very, very long time.

Well my degree is over and I am back in Leicester for a bit. With the new found time that I have that isn't taken up with meeting up with people, I have delved into something that I have not properly done for three years... frickin' read...and it was amazing.
I have read Hop Frog by Edgar Allan Poe, The Strange High House in the Mist by H.P Lovecraft, the first chapter of 'Rabbit Stew' by Maggie Smith- Bendell and a Judge Dredd story arc from 2000ad on Sunday. Bliss.
What does one do after university?
"Get a job Ed...perhaps...duh Ed?"
...............Yeah well you know what I have to say to that?
"Tick!"
With the little time I have off to do that I have made it my mission to sleep and read, go and enjoy things for a bit... just until I have to work and gain the work experience that I need.

In July I intend to write a blog post every day for the entire month.......awww yeahh, bring it on boyo!

Over and Out.
Ed

The little time that I have to write a blog post.

I believe that one of the many uses of writing is to reflect, to vent things that went well and vent things that didn't go well. I have written this piece honestly as a reflection of my time at university. Well it's almost the end of the year for my university and the end of an era (and not long before I have the essay in front of me finished). It is time for me to step out into the world and enjoy a good life, away from all of the formalities of education. It has been a long ride, a right old goodun.
But what about the questions?....

Have I improved as a writer?....

The answer is yes. I have a greater passion for writing than I had before starting. I have learnt the ins and outs of the business, of the simple joys of expressing yourself, of creating work that have hopefully benefitted people that have read it.

Have I become a better person?...
I have grown thicker skin. I have come to the understanding that not everyone will understand you.

Have I met good friends?...
Of course. I have met friends that I wish to stay friends with for the rest of my life. I have interacted with a lot of people and found amazing people who have enriched my life.

Would I do it all again?...
It was good and all but......nope.

Favourite moments?......
Well there are many. Too many to count.

Life is good. I love life.
Over and Out.
ED.