Human Condition VII - and age.

"Our lives end on the day we become silent about the things that really matter" - in my memory a quote by M Luther King.
Couple that with another quote: "When you become old you find yourself become a Buddhist: Rid of all desires".

Staying young is, therefore, a question of keeping engaged, worrying about the things that have direct impact on your life here and now - and DO SOMETHING to solve even the nagging pebble in your shoe.

In my experience - and I am sure in most people's - if we can find peace, quiet and solutions to the "little things" that disturb our daily existence and that tend to frustrate the heck out of us, then we can begin to find beauty in the universe and find time and motivation to do things that don't matter, but which enrich our lives - whatever takes your fancy.

In Hammersmith they arrange a day for the over 50s with drinks, partying, dancing, food stalls etc.
They call it "The day of your life" for the older citizens.
Eh?
50?
Old?
The day of your life? If so - how poor is your life?

This is cakes for bread.
Why not use all this energy and money ensuring that people twixt 50-70 could have meaningful work, using their experience? In Denmark they call it grey gold - - how apt!
I am personally in the grip of awe about the size of Betelgeuse and take great joy studying Tempo Field Theory and other rather useless passtimes - but bollocks to it, as long as we have a society that has lost its way in materialism, youth worship and old by 50.

Cakes for bread!
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The Human Condition VI



Comparative sizes of various 'Suns' - click to enlarge



 A friend sent me some awesome pictures illustrating the size of the Universe and concluded that in comparison to the Universe, the little things that happen to us in our small daily lives could be considered insignificant.

Well - I don't agree!



If you ignore the considerable direct impact of our solar system on the life processes on Earth - processes upon which you have absolutely no influence - and perhaps also ignore the gravity impact of our galaxy (another process over which you have no control) - - then there is only one series of processes that matter to us 'ants': what is happening to you here with your feet firmly planted on mother Earth.

Do we care that E=mc2 is actually completely flawed on a cosmic quantum level?

No - for whatever we may need this field equation for, it works for us on Earth - bomb making or rocket construction.

Do we care that the speed of light (and other electromagnetic waves) are anything but constant, exhibiting big variation as time is dilated close to heavy gravitational fields and 'speeded up' in free space?

No - because it works for us as a constant on Earth.

Do we care that time itself can be dilated or contracted under the influence of gravity (can be measured simply with atomic clocks)?

No - because we still have to meet when the boss tells us.

Do we care that gravity is an instantly distributed quantum wave, i.e. with instant propagation across the Universe, that originates as a result of time-dilation/contraction and Universal mass/ energy ?

No - just ask our athletes attempting a 2.10m high jump.

Do we care that the Big Bang theory, the expansion of the Universe as measured by the red-shift Doppler effect and other present (but antique) theories seem flawed? - And if it really happened 13.7 Bill years ago, that the universe's most remote corners must be less than billions of light years away, as expansion is unlikely to have happened at the speed of light?



An enlarged image of an area that appeared totally empty
 in the Hubble telescope. Each spot is an entire galaxy!! 



I am totally in agreement that all these issues can make your head spin and let you drop the jaw in awe. These images truly humble you - but - -

It is the problems on Earth that I care about:

Can I pay my mortgage? Does my tooth ache? What do we eat tonight? Have I been a good boy today (important for my social life)? Can I get a finger up the nose of the banks, the phone companies, the politicians and other  Kafka-esque public institutions when they harass us?

Our inability to look at things in perspective is a tribal defect in the human species - and this happens mainly when one of the 80 major religions take over possession of the rational brain.

We should concentrate on living together in harmony and in support of each other, with respect for the nature that produced us from humble bacterial beginnings 3 bill years ago.

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Wine Serendipity

Out of the blue, a friend called and asked: "Would you like some small black grapes? It's you or the birds".
I am sure he meant 'pigeons' and not the short-skirted locals.

The surprise was in the story.
Apparently the vine producing these grapes was over 70 years old, as it reputedly was planted before the war! WWII, that is.

Who ever gets an offer like this? Old vine grapes, 70 years old, ready for the vinery?


Sweet blue grapes picked 1 Oct. 2010

 We picked the grapes in a steady drizzle from the autumn rain, but the quality was impeccable and I had to tie Natali's hands on her back, as she started to munch them by the bunch: sweet, concentrated juice - just what you'd expect from an old vine.

There is only one tiny problem: we have no idea what type of grapes they are. They are larger than triomphe d'Alsace, smaller than Brant and could easily be a Pinot-variety.
Pinot is normally too difficult for the English climate, but as we picked them 1 October, i.e. late, and they appeared ripe (minus a lot of  un-pollinated grapes in the centre of the bunches), there is a good chance that it could be Pinot Meunier.
I need a specialist to identify the bunches and the leaves.

The result is now bubbling away in the vat, ca 8 litres incl. peels and pips, ready to be decanted into the demijohn in 3-4 days, but an initial taste has revealed an enormous concentration of fruit and sugar (21% according to the refractometer), all natural juices.
However, I did add a little sugar to the pulp, as well as 1g wine-yeast, just to get the process started quickly and to ensure that the relatively small amount of wort would not invite bacteria or thirsty flies to the party.

Pure serendipity - lots of expectation!!!
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Harvesting the Brant-Vine 22 Sept. 2010

Ripe and healthy Brant grapes in my patio garden

The Brant grapes were harvested on the last sunny and warm day of September 2010.
According to the Met-office we will have rain and chill from now on.
I believe them, so I set out with buckets, secateurs and a ladder in 24 C.!!

At the top of the road, in the front garden of Nr. 2, I had spotted a wild growing Brant, that for 2 years had spread its tentacles into a tall Magnolia tree. The grape bunches were literally whispering to me every time I passed: "pick us - pick us" - - so I asked if the people actually were interested in their grapes.
As the answer was no,  that's where I started.
It was a difficult climb and I had to leave several tempting bunches where they were due to the height, but I managed to pick 2 full buckets.
The grapes were not ripe, many were totally green, but so what? All they contained was grape juice.
Nothing that can't be modified with the aid of a bit of sugar. 

My own Brant left - "imported" grapes at rear and right



The average sugar content of these grapes was 14%

Next I picked my own grapes.
And that was a different kettle of fish!
One bucket full and sugar content of 17.5

So there's the difference between a grapevine looked after and a wild growing one.
I have used 'green cropping' (i.e. removing green grapes or bunches) in order to concentrate the fruit in the remaining grapes - although probably a waste on Brant ;-) - - but they do that in the Bordeaux region, so why not in London?

Late afternoon, and all was crushed and poured into the fermentation vat, where I shall leave the must for 4 days.
Why 4?
Well, 3 is too little and 5 too much.

The colour is best described by Rudyard Kipling's marvellous description of "the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo river" - You can almost taste the rythm - although I trust the wine will improve considerably on this image.
I remember seeing the same colour many years ago in the Mosel district, when a huge tanker tried to pour its content of newly pressed must into a steel vat for initial fermentation and the hose popped out, spilling a considerable content on the concrete foreyard. The difference between sewage and raw wine must appeared insignificant. Commercial winemaking is surely a little less poetic than what goes on in a couple of patios in West London!
I suspect the colour will change a little, as the red skins from some of the grapes deliver their 'teinture', but the wine is definitely going to be more rose than red.
What a difference from the Triomphe d'Alsace's dark, blood-red colour.

Finally, a little 'chaptalisation' with 700g sugar to the 15 litres in the fermentation vat brought the sugar content up on the desired 21% - enough for a 12.5% alcohol result, if all goes well.
It is important regularly to press the cap of the crushed grapes down at regular intervals lest noxious bacteria develop on the surface. I presume it also helps provide colour and 'fruit', as all skins get in contact with the must.
Initially one has to work hard on the cap, but after a couple of days it becomes easier to press it down.


The cap of crushed Brant-grapes on the second day.



It is interesting to notice that you can feel the heat from the fermentation as you work the cap.

When the pulp has been wringed through a linnen bag and the juice stored away in the two waiting demijohns, there's little more I can do than wait and hope for the best.

There is only one matter I haven't got sorted out: Malolactic fermentation. Once the initial fermentation has finished around Christmas and the wine has been bottled, there is a good chance that a second fermentation may take place. That's the one that makes all the corks pop and leaves you with a major cleaning job in the morning, when you find the fruit of your efforts on the kitchen floor.

I will have to seek advice on this effect next year.

Beyond the 2 gallons of Brant now bubbling away I had a little more than 2 litres of must left over. I poured this straight into 3 bottles and corked them loosely, so any CO2-result of further fermentation could escape.

Brant "Suser" Sept. 2010

This is what the Swiss call "Suser" (Suess-wein/ Sweet Wine), the Germans call "Feder-weisser" ('feather wine' due to the white colour as a result of the suspended yeast particles). The French call it "Bourru" or "Vermache". During my years in Switzerland we tried it several time. It is  actually quite refreshing due to the CO2 and the fruitiness.

It may be drunk 'as is',  filtered (melita filters work well) or left alone for a couple of days for the sediment to sink to the bottom, after which it can be decanted.
It is a good idea to add a little sugar before drinking this way it becomes the most delightful  'fruit juice'

Whatever you do, it is your own, it is the result of your efforts and it is organic.

 There is no end to the fun you can have with wine!

Jorgen Faxholm : Bargeme Provence 1995

Painted Sept. 2010


As so many places in Provence (Var), a site with an immense atmosphere: the distressed stones, the clear blue sky - and history oozing out of every corner.

The Human Condition V

In a recent TV-feature about Al Quaeda’s bombing of two American embassies in East Africa, one of the victims, a woman who lost her eye-sight in the Nairobi blast, said: God, if you have to, please take only one eye.

The statement stunned me.

What kind of god would take up that offer?
If he had decided to take both eyes, he would surely take them, as it was unclear what the woman had to offer in return.
And if she had something to offer, what kind of miserable, stingy, vengeful god would consider such a trade-in?
Wouldn’t it have made more sense to ask Osama Bin Laden for compensation for this incredibly cowardly act? The chance of a positive response would have been endlessly higher – albeit minimal.

Let me demonstrate through their own account how sick these terrorists are:

The one allocated to the Nairobi plot was supposed to have shot the guard at the embassy entrance, paving the way for the other to drive the explosives through the gate.
However, he forgot his gun at the back seat of his car.
As he couldn’t shoot the guard immediately, after which he’d probably have been killed himself, he figured that he had messed things up – and ran away.

The logic is that in order to obtain a one way ticket to paradise, he had to be killed in the act – and not afterwards, as this would be considered suicide.
And suicide is not allowed.
Chew on that one for a while.

I don’t know who of the two people, the blind lady or the terrorist, I pity the most. Both are lost in an illusion that only religion could bring about.

My conclusion is, that our time on earth is short and final. Therefore it is better to concentrate on friends and family and make the most out of life here and now than to believe in deluded promises of a paradise – or to believe that God (which of them?) has monopoly on being good.

The problem, of course, is that friends and family may not see it that way, but the solution is simple: convert them to at least understand the "here and now" principle - or dump them.
Time is much too short to live with waste and futile hopes.

What a relief this insight has become for me!

Wine Harvest 4 Sept. 2010

Triomphe d'Alsace

The same amount as last year? Unfortunately not!
Grapes were small, 50% didn't pollinate and many dried out.
The result was a little more than a gallon - but what a gallon! 22% sugar according to the refractometer, now bubbling away for the next 3 months!
Volume low - quality high - that's OK!
The proud vigneronne demonstrating - -

- and here bubbling away on 7 Sept. after 3 days in the vat. Last year they spent 5 days before being poured over to the demijohn. In theory the longer in the vat, the more 'fruit' in the wine. But this also increases the chance of noxious bacteria developing - hence the short initial fermentation. Let's see in 3-4 months!

Brant.

So far left on the vine (8 Sept.)

They do take their time to become ripe and this year the miserable spring and summer didn't do much to promote great growth. But there is enough to fill another demijohn - just about. Let's see in about 2 weeks (i.e. 20 Sept.) - but here's a pre-view on the vine:

I have removed as many leaves as possible to let maximum air and light into the bunches.

Sun, please!!!

And now hear this:

Pour que le vin fasse du bien aux femmes, faut que ce soyent les hommes qui le boivent!!

Perhaps I shouldn't be so impatient? This is the state of the art at Nyetimber's vineyard in Bignor, Sussex.

Not exactly well ripened fruit either. Tough year!!

Pinot Meunier, 11 Sept. 2010, Nyetinber Vineyard.

Jorgen Faxholm : Tourtour Provence

Tourtour meadow.

Just outside Tourtour, a medieval village with castles and tourist traps, near Salerne and Villecroze, this wonderful view can be found. It takes in the blessings of Provence: The deep blue sky, the cooling Mistral, lavenders, medieval towers and a breathtaking view towards the Esterel mountains.
It just had to be painted!

Jorgen Faxholm : Roman bridge

Pont Julien

Between Apt and Bonnieux this 2000 year old Roman bridge still carries the main traffic from "Gallia Cisalpina to Gallia Transalpina" - the only remaining bridge of a series of constructions that took trade and legionairies around the old empire.

Don't be fooled by the apparently wafer-thin top of the bridge. It is strong as an ass's back and may stay safe for another 2000 years!
(My painting 2010).