Round the Herne

 This is my reading of the third chapter of Kenneth Grahame's wonderful 1908 children's story "The Wind in the Willows". In this chapter Mole gets wanderlust and decides to brave the Wild Wood. I love the lyrical description of plants as the seasons change - very reminiscent of Oscar Wilde's nature poetry, filled with the same love of the green realms. 

 My reading of the second chapter of Kenneth Grahame's delightful 1908 story "The Wind in the Willows", in which Mole meets Toad and the all enjoy (for a very brief period) the joys of life on the open road.

 My reading of chapter one of Kenneth Grahame's wonderfully lyrical 1908 children's story, "The Wind in the Willow". Mr Mole awakens from his winter slumbers and encounters both the River itself, a central character in this semi-animistic tale, and Mr Rat who dwells beside the waters.

 A recording for the Suffolk Jungian Circle (and anyone else who might be interested) reflecting on Jung's views about the archetypal nature of unidentified objects in the sky. If you would like to take part int he online discussion (7.30pm on Wednesday 28th May).

 As today is St George's Day, I thought I would share a short story about a dragon - the Krepel is part of the folklore of Bytom in Poland. The area where the dragon once lived is no longer forest land but part of the city itself (as to what became of the dragon in the long-term, alas I do not know - there are no accounts which I could locate answering that one).

 What started off as some research for a lecture (around male friendship) took me off down various mythological tangents, including into the daimona/goddess/spirit Philotes from Ancient Greece who formed and sustained friendships between people (and sometimes also sexual relationships, but that is a side issue). The work-related research has been looking at the connection between social isolation and what are euphemistically called negative life outcomes - ill health, mental problems, increased chances of suicide etc.). While friendship may not get anywhere near the modern cultural coverage of romance (thinking about all those soppy songs, films, Mills & Boon novels etc.), in ancient times there were plenty of tales about friends going off on adventures together.