The year is surely starting really well. Has anyone heard the latest news yet ? Jonathan Ross has quit the BBC. About time too ! There is much speculation about what is going to happen to the corporation if there is a change of government this year. Would the Conservatives tolerate the huge, costly bureaucracy, where there are job titles which do not exist in any other broadcasting system in the world?
What the BBC needs really desperately is a Director-General who fulfills the function of an editor, as the job was originally envisaged by founding Director General, John Reith. He/she should be answerable as it was in the past, before Tony Blair tinkered with useless reforms to a chairman and board of governors.
Jane
Completed Portrait
Jane: Next Steps
Jane: New Portrait
Vanesha: Finished Portrait
Vanessa's Portrait
Ruth's Portrait
Lunch, San Lorenzo
Hotel Christmas Tree
Dinner at the Dorchester
Birthday
Happy Halloween!
Sacre-Coeur
Montmartre by Night
Restaurant Le Consulat
Artists Quarter
Montmartre by Day
Louvre Museum
Pyramid
Cathedral
Notre Dame
Paris
Eiffel Tower
Peter in an Irish Pub
View from our room in Donegal
Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin
Entrance to the City of Ek-Balaam
Tlaloc God of the Rain
Mouth of the Serpent
Angel in Ek-Balaam site
Sculptures in Ek-Balaam
Ek-Balaam
Man on a Ledge
View from our room
Cancun
Hotel Beach
Cancun
Enjoying the sunshine
Ek-Balaam site
Sunset from our room.
Sunset. View from our hotel room.
Posing with a stolen apple.
"Mmm, Cheese!"
"No Mr Blair, I am not Spanish"
"What do you think, M. Sarkozy?"
Farmland
The Shrewsbury Road
Pastels
Farmland
Pastels
Other side of kitchen.
New kitchen
Merida, Mexico
Merida, Mexico
Peter, Maria and Richard Hammond
A Romantic Cruise
Lunch at Merida
Lunch at Cancun
Guest bedroom fireplace
Beams in Office
Master Bedroom fireplace
Patty Spilsbury, my sister
Not exactly a picnic
Towards the Farm
Back of our house
At the back of our home
Snow scenes at home
My son Hector Birchwood meeting Mrs Thatcher.
Hygeia
Work in Progress
Thanks to our camera crew for the photo
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Filming in Ireland: Heir Hunters
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Painting in Progress
Work in Progress
Floodlit Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral, Evening
Early Evening in Lincoln
Painted when I was 13 years old.
Venice
More detail
Our House
Another show for Heir Hunters.
Filming at the Bear
Bear Hotel, Hungerford
Maria, Victoria and Peter
Victoria
Interview
Filming at Denbigh Record Office
Formal night on the 2010 cruise
Black Poodle
The younger Leonardo
Friends from El Salvador in Madrid.
Charlie 2
Sweet Dreams
Charlie
Cat-nap
The Adoration pf the Shepherds
Guido Reni (1575 - 1642)
Lough Rynn Castle Hotel
Leonardo da Vinci
Dog2
Dog
Maria
The Crystal Palace in El Retiro Park
The Royal Palace
The Plaza Mayor
La Cibeles Fountain and the Post Office
The River Manzanares and the Cathedral
Monastery of the Escorial, Spain.
The Royal Palace, Spain.
Birthday Celebration.
Birthday Celebration
Like the wine, I get better with the years.
Maria Spilsbury's Painting
Nudes
Nudes
Nudes
View from our Balcony
Neptune Fountain
Red Roses
View from the back of my House
View from my House
Sra Dina de Spilsbury
My Mother
Port of Isla Mujeres
Our hotel beach
View from Tulum
Tulum
Turtles
Tulum near Cancun, Mexico
Detail of the same Church
La Merced Church, Antigua, Guatemala
La Merced Church, Antigua
Earthquake damage
Church of the Cross
Another Guatemalan Church.
Cathedral, Antigua Guatemala
Parrot and me
Courtyard, Convento Hotel Antigua
Room at Convento Hotel Antigua
Room at Convento Hotel Antigua
Mother and Child
Flowers
About Me
- Maria
- Maria Spilsbury Birchwood started painting at an early age at the studio of the Spanish painter Don Valero Lecha and the muralist Violeta Bonilla, pupil to the great Mexican painter, Diego de Rivera. She received her first commission at the age of 13: a commission to paint a bullfight.When she was in her teens, she entered a competition and learned that she had won first prize. She was presented to the sponsor of the competition,who offered her a scholarship on behalf of the Dante Alligheri Society to study art in Rome. Maria continued her painting studies in Madrid, Spain at the school of San Fernando under the tutelage of the foremost landscape painter Jose Sanchez Carralero. She moved to England where, in 1982, she married forensic genealogist Peter Birchwood. Over the years, Maria has exhibited her work widely in different countries; at the Barbican Gallery in London, in California where she worked as a scenic artist on theatrical backdrops, Bedfordshire, and Wales, where she now lives. A recent commission was to paint the portrait of Liberal Member of Parliament Lembit Opik. The portrait is now hanging in the House of Commons.
Flowers in a Vase
23 comments:
Dougie, I'm not ignoring our discussion we simply ran out of space on the last thread and to answer to your question. Yes, I do care, of course I care and the rakets and the milking of the system from those illegal immigrants who arrange vogous marriages with British people for £20,000 should be punished severely, with a long spell in prison and deportation, in my view. This is not only defrauding the system, but also making false declarations in a legal document. A law has to be passed to stop the sham marriages and enforce it. At least, in that we are both in agreement. So far, goverments have come and gone but look the other way and have not done a blind little thing about it because the politicians are too busy in taking advantage of our system too, and they know in the end, its going to be you and I, the poor taxpayer who is going to foot the bill. They are too busy with their fingers in the till to worry how the system is drained, on the contrary the treasury is being ransaked with a billion a week mispent in keeping British troops in foreign countries, we cannot afford this adventures abroad just so the likes of Tony Blair can make £15 million pounds and have bodyguards costing the tax payer £150,000 a week! you could buy a house with £150,000. He created this situation we are in, with all his lies. I would be happy if his bodyguards were removed and leave him to his fate.
Maria,
Its ok,just like to say its silly to call someone a racist cos they remark on issues that everyone knows of..but are scared to talk about in public.
When one looks at how big britain is and how many people we are cramming into it,its plain there is a problem...labour have done this deliberately in order to have more people voting for them...anyone who complains is racist.....its said we need 3 cities the size of birmingham every year to be built every year for next 20 years to house the immigrants and their offshoots,let alone the native british.(i think it was 3 every year,or was it 10 every year?) everyone knows what inner city life is like in britain(a veritable hellhole) do we want more or less of these godforsaken places? is the time that far away when we will need to take our grandchildren to a museum to show themn wat a tree or a blade of grass looked like?
Id like to hear roberts and victorias views on this issue ,they are more level headed ,and calm about issues in general than I.Too much emotion finds its way into my comments..its what becomes of wearing ones heart on ones sleeve.
Oh emotion is alright Dougie, it shows you care but you have to admit that the government should do their job and unfortunatelly they are not. who ever gets in government this year, has to do it and I don't think it will be Brown, hopefully whoever gets in, has to tackle this problem head on. Well, all my bags are packed and am ready to go ! Leaving on a yet plane, don't know when I'll be back again. In the meantime, in case I don't come back, I leave you with these cards of my cat Charlie. The design is flat because the more colours you give the printer the more expensive the cards will be, so it is a minimalist composition with very few colours and not too much depth. I just hope the cards sell.
Dougie, make sure you do not wear your kilt with this weather, it might blow up. Ooops! Sayonara!
"Leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again" ...
very good Maria, John Denver I believe.
All the best, talk to you on your return!
The card pictures are great, they will make lovely cards.
dougie,
have been looking at your 'discussions' with Maria only briefly, and can see points for both sides, maybe a little misunderstanding between the two of you also.
It is 3.30am saturday morning here ..going back to bed, will comment more early in the week, but no doubt Robert will come in with a very balanced viewpoint in the meantime.
Ha, Ha! Oh, I'm keeping out of it.
I must say, I like the cats.
I didn't know you were going on holiday, Maria. I hope it's somewhere warm. Anyway, enjoy your trip and speak to you on your return.
Oh Robert ...
I was relying on you for help!
I believe our Maria has gone to Madrid .. she should return on tuesday.
in fairness to robert,he has to go on casebook,and if casebook members DO come here (i dont know if they do,but maria thinks they do) then whatever opinion on the issue robert does have,will land him in trouble anyway,we dont have those "problems "....well not officially anyway.
bon voyage maria.....cat pics? what cat pics?....i see no cats
absolutely fascinated by the governments latest bid to win votes from the "poorest in society" in this country..which im presuming means the long term unemployed..you know the kind i mean-the type that always seem to be unemployed whether its boom time or recession time. I guess the 20 year old "bikes" with 6 children from 6 different partners,living in a council house-paid for by the rest of us silly bastards...as usual,and their baseball capped-beer swilling,vomit inducing counterparts.
Anyway its apparently free laptops and free broadband internet access for them poor souls..but of course it isnt free at all is it? if they get it free,then the muppets who buy a pc and actually pay for internet access will obviously be paying a levy somewhere along the line to give these poor souls these luxuries.
Why doesnt the govt simply say to these people."do you want a pc and internet access?" if the answer is in the affirmative,then the reply should be..."well get a bloody job then!"
Hi there ! I have finally returned last night at 12P.M. it should have been at 7 p.m. but unfortunatelly the French air traffic controllers decided to have a strike sending all the flights around Europe into disarray. I have to say, that no one in our Easy Jet airplane minded at all, such was the professionalism and good manners of their crew. I have to say that Peter and I were very impressed by the good service we had. The pilot was also very nice and kind, giving us updates on what our situation was, and his landing was the easiest I have ever experienced, the next door passenger sitting on the isle beside us, couldn't even feel the landing, it was that good. Amazingly, even the many Spanish children travelling with us behaved quite well, considering the long delay but it was all done in such a way, that it was to a certain extent amusing for all of us; there was a sort of cheerfulness and confidence the crew displayed, that it was almost endearing. The stay in Madrid was really, really lovely at the hotel we always stay in, there is always something exciting happening there. This time, the actors and producers of the film Sherlock Holmes were staying there as well to launch the premiere of their new film in Madrid. We saw one of the actors dressed in his character, wearing his top hat being interviewed by a journalist but I already knew there was something happening the night before. The staff, at the hotel know that I like to hear about this gossip and that am very curious when there is a film star staying at the hotel, so they told me about it and also, that the first 100 people who arrived at the cinema were going to enter free of charge plus have the actors' autographs too. Unluckily, it was the same day we were due to leave. It was fun though.
Maria, is this new film in Spanish? I'm wondering what the Spanish for "Elementary, my dear Watson" is.
Here's my attempt : Elemental, mi caro Watson.
I've tried to make sure it doesn't come out as "Simple-minded, my expensive Watson."humble
That 'humble' bit was me trying to type the word verification and getting it in the wrong place.
Hi Robert
It is made in England but the studios are Warner Brothers so it is American money behind it. Elemental mi querido Watson ! The new Heir Hunters show starts on Monday with one of our cases. I just saw our own preview on a Spanish case my son Hector did and he came out really well. The story is very interesting. I'm very proud of Hector and of Phil, Saul and of course dear Peter they have all come out rather well. The cinderella of the show doesn't have a talking part just on show, I don't mind, considering there are too many other stars in our show, this way, I retain an air of mystery.
Dougie,
Stop looking into the abyss or the abyss is going to swallow you !
Ah ha maria so you at least admit such a thing exists!
For some reason this poem I heard and learnt as a child has kept ringing in my ears.Ill dedicate it to victoria and mr powell who have been taking a bit of a hammering on the diary/book thread...
heres to you victoria(and steve)
He has no enemies,you say
my friend the boast is poor
he who hath mingled in the fray
of duty that the brave endure
must have foes
if he has none
small is the work he has done
he has hit no traitor on the hip
has cast no cup from perjured lip
has never turned the wrong to right
hes been a coward in the fight
Heres looking at ya kid
I have been (reluctantly) in conversation with a priest few times in last couple days,and at 61 ive finally learnt one thing about the church that i wasnt aware of .......a golden rule if you like...never talk about judaic-christian principles to a priest,a rabbi or a minister...theyd never know what the hell you were talking about!
Somebody today said to me "hey you look white as a ghost"..I said "the way I feel Ill very soon BE one"
The curtain rises-the curtain falls...only then is the farce we call life over and done with.
Whats he rabbitting on about ? I can hear you thinking....nothing really, nothing at all.
Welcome back Maria and hello to all.
Nice poem dougie thank you .. I will pass it on to Mr Powell.
"The curtain rises-the curtain falls ... only then is the farce we call life over and done with."
"Whats he rabbitting on about?"
I am curious as to who said that to you .. some priest or just a friend, and what they really think it means.
To my mind straight away came Shakespeares quote ..
"All the World's a stage,
And all the men and women have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts"
And Jesus says something to his disciples when they ask him how their end shall be .. something like .. 'you ask about the end and you know nothing of the beginning'.
To me because of my beliefs it seems obvious, because in spiritual terms .. this life is only a dream (or a farce if you like)
It has a relative reality .. but is not the absolute real, which to be real, must be something that never changes, always is, and everlasting.
Mostly we are so identified with our lives .. we cannot possibly think that it may not be all as we think.
To know and 'see' this is true positively for oneself .. can only happen if one became 'awakened' (from the dream) like the Buddha etc. Mind you others and so called ordinary people have lesser experiences .. and can know the truth also.
I know my comments on these things are controversial to most of you and believe it or not ..I try to avoid saying anything .. but today when I saw that comment .. I just couldn't help myself.
Hello victoria,
The phrase "the curtain rises...etc" I found in a book I was reading about the Rev Gerald L.K. Smith described by H.L.Mencken around 1936 as "the gutsiest and goriest,the loudest and lustiest,the deadliest and damnedest orator ever heard on this or any other earth"
I quite liked the phrase-so I took it for myself,sums things up i think.I guess he might have sawn off a chunk of that shakespeare you quoted..condensed it and used it when he felt it was appropriate.nothing perhaps is new,just rechewed ideas -put into different words,but basically the message or the thgought remains constant.....bit like ripperology If I might be so bold as to say.
Your beliefs?Why shouldnt you speak of them?Though I too believe "this" isnt the whole picture,and that behind it all is something infinitely greater than we know of,and probabley far more complex than a human brain could possibly understand.Im not sure that we survive and become part of it.
Im loathe to believe in ,or follow any particular religion or "authorised" belief....the christian church for instance maybe started off with best of intentions ,but has been morally bankrupt for centuries.
Eastern beliefs ....well they are enticing,im serious there victoria,but again its had its fair share of frauds too rhampa.maharishi yogi etc....I dont know.......though on occasion ive questioned the validity of your beliefs, it has been done to get a response,I can be mischevious sometimes....but theres been no ridicule attached.
However ,for me there are issues with the "oneness" with yourself -with your maker-with nature that are a fundamental part of eastern belief,as i understand it...(if im talking out of my backside here you are free to correct me)
The state of "oneness" (Ill use that word as i cant think of a better one right now)is attained by meditation..relaxation and such like.....getting the mind (and body) in the right state to appreciate this state.
Its not too different from the principles of auto-suggestion,which basically speaking is self hypnosis.....its relatively simple to practice and can come in handy for issues as diverse as getting up at a set time in the morning-feeling active-optimistic-confident or even for treating phobias.....what im saying is the mind is so powerful,and one can convince oneself of almost anything by these kind of techniques..even change your character so the question for me is how much of what we perceive is within our heads and how much outside?
In short Ive at various times in my life practised this kind of technique(for want of a better word)The results can be so relaxing ,mentally and physically,dreams for me became so much more vivid..almost frightenly so,at times i felt as though i was almost on the verge of understanding more than id ever understood before...kinda its there -but you go to grasp it -and you almost do-then its gone....hard to explain......imagination? reality? i confess ive no idea.. but i certainly wouldnt ridicule anyone who holds fast to those eastern ideas iof mysticism....not at all.
so hard tho it may be to believe,dougie has/had a mystic side too
as dave allen used to say
good luck and may your god go with you.
regards
Hello dougie,
thanks for the very thoughtful post, and yes maybe it is 'mystic dougie' really, from the different things you have said here and previously on casebook.
Yes more frauds in India and the east than the genuine article, pity about the Maharishi .. being such a public figure it then gives a bad impression to the few genuine yogis. Not sure who rhampa is? Are you talking about Lobsang Rampa?
As you say the mind is very powerful, and you can convince yourself of anything. In meditation practises and the like people can get caught up in all sorts of 'interesting' areas of the mind .. believing they are in some sort of enlightened state, because of the peace, space and heightened awareness of the five senses.
But the true 'oneness' is beyond the mind, so anything that you 'think' it is ..is not it.
The bottom line in most spiritual traditions is that there is only One .. call it Truth, Self, or God. And who we think we are .. dougie or Maria are untruth, even though we have a so called soul that goes on, governed by the laws of karma .. this is really all part of the dream.
This idea is based on the reasoning that something is real as long as it is evermore.
Also that you cannot be what you observe, so as we can observe our mind .. we are not that either.
There is always 'observer' and the 'observed' ... when there is truly just observing ..we are closer to the mark. If absolutely nothing else is going on in the mind ..even subtly then we are closer to being in the 'present moment now' .. the only thing that ever truly exists. It is always here, always has been .. but we prefer the past or future.
"To be or not to be, that is the question"
In that moment 'Now' is the underlying consciousness that is the reality.
We are the creator, we dougie or Robert create our own destiny .. today we are creating our tomorrows.
Like that old fashioned sign we used to have here ..you probably had it there as well 'What you eat today, walks and talks tomorrow'.
I remember it on the side of a hamburger shop when I was young.
A great book by a modern spiritual person is 'Stillness Speaks' by Eckhart Tolle. He talks so plainly and is easily understood, and in this book he uses minimal words .. a bit like ancient sutras, and you are hit by the power of the meaning and not lost in a maze of imagery.
He was very depressed and had thoughts of suicide up until his thirtieth year ..and for whatever reason he had a profound spiritual awakening. He spent time with spiritual masters and now is a teacher .. not of any denomination or path. He speaks from personal experience which is important for a true teacher.
I just opened the book randomly ..
"The human condition: lost in thought."
"Most people spend their entire life imprisoned within the confines of their own thoughts. They never go beyond a narrow, mind made, personalised sense of self that is conditioned by the past."
"In you, as in each human being, there is a dimension of consciousness far deeper than thought. It is the very essence of who you are. We may call it presence, awareness, the unconditioned consciousness."
If you like or are interested, I also have the book on cd .. he reads it so well, (great to listen to it in the car on a long journey) I could send you a copy, it would be no trouble at all.
Maria,
I've just noticed the photo that you posted .. what are beautiful room that you are in ..sharing a meal with friends. Some historical building in Madrid .. now a hotel or restaurant?
Hi all
Victoria, I don't think your views are controversial. As for their being eastern, well that might be true today, but they do have a history in the west too, e.g. Plato.
However I'm not sure how much enlightenment there can really be, for if you cannot be what you observe, does it not follow that god cannot know himself?
Robert,
maybe I should not have used the word controversial, but when 'truth is stranger than fiction' .. and sometimes if you say such things it upsets peoples views. It is possibly better to say nothing about anything, but maybe I should look to myself and see that I might always be trying to avoid confrontations.
I best read dougies poem again, I can see a message in it for me ...
Yes that is right God/Self cannot know himself .. he can only 'be himself'.
"To be, or not to Be"
There are lots of stories about the creation and why it has come into existance.
The Self is unmanifest, beyond all, unthinkable, unknowable etc .. it then has a manifest nature, which is like say the nature of an orange, which is sweet. This 'nature' or footprint of the Self is what we may have a 'taste' of in some spiritual experiences. In and from this nature come the Gods which are really only the forces of that nature. Creation flows outward from these forces. In the stories they say 'The Gods' .. created this and many other universes for the Self to enjoy himself.
The great cosmic dream.
When there is only the one .. he cannot see himself, in the creation there are two ..or the many, he (with eyes to see) can see and experience himself in that creation.
So a truly realised person would look at you or I and see himself .. he would realise it as the same essence.
We have a taste of that sometimes ..
It is said that often when for the very first time that you fall in love, you see 'yourself' (not Robert or Victoria) in the other persons eyes
and that is what you fall in love with .. as really there is only one love (which follows if there is only one being) ..
I don't think that keeps going obviously .. lust very soon appears!
Also sometimes out of the blue you can really connect with someone through the eyes .. as if you really know them. I have heard many stories on this.
One that I had one evening some years back ..I was taking enrolments for a course, and when I looked up at this youngish man, I was just so struck as to who he was, I felt as if the most special person had come into our midst. The feelings of awe, majesty, etc that I felt seemed most intense and .. afterwards bizarre when I thought about it. He apparently had some similar experience also, as I heard from the person taking his class, that he said similar things about me.
We could all see such connectedness in each other .. all the time if we were truly present.
But we live in our heads .. live in our thoughts.
But even one experience gives you the taste.
Yes Plato is good .. says all the same things as eastern traditions.
I just have to get into Plato mode sometimes to be on his wavelength to understand.
Hi everyone. I seem to have lost my only other follower. Lynn Risor was her name from Texas. Funny she never wrote. I have no idea who she was. Anyway.. the conversation is interesting it is surprising that Dougie is dwelling into the Eastern philosophy another thing is funny. I dreamt about this last earthquake. Saw lots of palm trees uprooted, aqua colour water piles of rubber and people trying to escape it, I thought it was Florida but as you can see it was Haiti. The situation is bleak there. It seems as if every New Year starts with a catastrophe. Not a good year starting for them it is incredibly sad. I can't bear to see the images anymore
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