Guest comments and talents - Bettina Network's Blog

Archive for the ‘Guest comments and talents’ Category

How to Unstop Your Sinks!

Wednesday, June 13th, 2018

We had a guest who came into the kitchen asking for baking soda and vinegar.  We didn’t know what to make of the request and asked if we could help with something?  She said no, she had everything under control, but we only had apple cider vinegar and organic at that.  She said she had never used the apple cider vinegar before but it would have to do.

When she came back to the kitchen about 5 minutes later to return the unused baking soda and apple cider vinegar she had this big smile on her face and said she was delighted to know that apple cider vinegar worked just as well as white vinegar because she preferred the natural kind, but had not used it before.

What was she doing?  The bath tub in her bathroom had water running out rather slowly and in her own home she put baking soda and white vinegar down the drains once a month.  She put that combination down every drain in the house on the first of every month.

So, of course, I took the baking soda – bought more from the store – went around the house and put baking soda and apple cider vinegar in every drain – showers, sinks, bath tubs, etc. and voila a small miracle – the drains run out quickly and just fine.  I was worried that I would have to call a plumber to have my drain pipes flushed out because I had noticed the slow draining water, but didn’t want to spend the money so I put it off.

Now I am glad I did.

Hope this helps someone.

P. S. – she was not the first person to tell us about baking soda and vinegar.  A couple from Hawaii, who we love dearly, left about a month ago and told us about the baking soda and vinegar, but like most of us I procrastinated and didn’t have either the drain pipes flushed out nor did I take their advice on the baking soda and vinegar.

I love this business.  Look at the information, wisdom and friendship that comes along with it.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

In June 84,437 readers and in August 92,452

Wednesday, August 30th, 2017

We went over the 2,000,000 readers mark in August, 2017.  Over two million readers have visited Bettina Network’s Blog.

If you are a member of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community you may contribute your writings, poems, thoughts, recipes, lifestyle contributions from your life, your research – scientific and otherwise, to reach a fantastic group of elegant people who care, think, are involved in life and want to hear from you. If you haven’t found it, search the Blog for the writing on Origami – not just for kids anymore – an outstanding contribution.

Your reward – great readers with whom to share your thoughts – and a complimentary one night stay at a Bettina Hedge School which you receive at the end of the year.

Email us at bettina-network@comcast.net to make your voice, your art, your lifestyle known to the rest of us so we can pick up some of your ideas before moving ahead with our lives.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

 

37,456 PEOPLE

Thursday, December 1st, 2016

The Number of People

who read Bettina Network’s Blog

in November, 2016

was 37,456.

Starting this month you are able to sign up to have Bettina Network’s Blog delivered to your email box whenever a new Blog is posted.

Up until now. you had to go to the Blog to read the newest one and you didn’t always know when a new blog was posted.

Just sign up using the green form which comes up on the page about 9 seconds after you start reading.  When the page becomes green, that is your sign to join a truly great group of people who are reading what Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community has to say.

If you are a member of that community you are able to have your blogs posted.  Just send what you want to say to bettinanetwork@comcast.net and we will post your blog – maybe editing a bit, if that is necessary – and maybe having a bit of conversation with you before posting. if that is necessary.  You can send pictures, drawings, whatever, to include with your blog.

The topic is up to you.  ACADEMIC PAPERS – because we have a very large academic readership; FUN QUOTES; with the advent of Donald Trump the interest in politics has zoomed up so feel free to send us POLITICAL ARTICLES, COMMENTS< and you can even tell us how to vote – not that we will take your advice, but its worth a try.

While we are using the blog structure, this is really becoming a newsletter and on its way to becoming a newspaper – written by people in the community who want what they have to say circulated to others.  If you have a response to anything, please feel free to send that via email.  We do not have the comments section of the blog open to anyone who want to comment so you will have to email your response as an article.  This is a CURATED BLOG.

COMMENTARY on whatever; RECIPE’s for your favorite foods; “MEMU’s you have experienced which sent you to heaven; CONSPIRACY THEORIES; ART – CRAFTS – MUSIC Videos that you have created; In other words – no end to the possibilities.

And we hope the end result is of interest to all of our readers.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

TRUMP: An Analysis

Monday, November 14th, 2016

11/14/2016

We have all had quite a week.  We put out two petitions asking you to sign them.  The blog before this one has the URL which you can copy and put into your address line to get the petitions.  We also put out a petition through Groundswell.  These petitions ask that a Special Prosecutor be appointed to investigate this Presidential election.  Something that is as big a shock to the entire country as the result of this presidential election, by definition, is flawed.

All of these folks can’t have been wrong in their expectations.  We also received several communications with information which the sender asked we give to the Special Prosecutor.  We would like to receive that information, but we also strongly suggest you send any information you have to President Obama and U. S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.  I doubt that either one is interested in naming a Special Prosecutor, but given the involvement of the FBI and its head Comey in moving this election in Trump’s direction with Comey or one of his underlings, apparently having given a heads-up to the Trump Campaign that information hurtful to Clinton and helpful to Trump was going to be released shortly before the election so the Clinton Campaign would not have time to react, this says such a Special Prosecutor needs to be named and soonest.  It is going to take a lot of pressure put on both Obama and Lynch to name such a Special Prosecutor.

We were asked to give an analysis of what we think happened.  We have our own resident seer who refuses, so after many conversations, this is a group effort as we try to fathom what happened.

What seems to be clear to us is that Donald Trump played the entire country.  We are not a country accustomed to the kind of lying, cheating and stealing that happened during this campaign.  How did he do it?  By divide and conquer.  A method of management which is as old as scripture. As old as the Scriptures held sacred by all religions.  What Trump did is what Scripture from many religions seems to have been written to prevent and/or warn its adherents against falling into this particular trap of Satan.  It is a way of control and conquer as old as humanity itself.  Power, greed, jealousy are some of the fuel which powers this management method.

To carry out a divide and conquer strategy on the scale it was carried out by Donald Trump and his campaign, to us, is the essence of evil.  It is one thing to engage in hypocrisy and to bend the truth for some small gains.  It is quite another to carry out this kind of grand scheme which is always attributed to whoever the evil one is in different religious bodies.

The race haters were called up and given a kind of acknowledgment, exposure and acceptance that they have never experienced before.  They reveled in all of the attention and the possibility that their way of life would become the American way of life.  At last, they would have their moment in the sun.

The civil rights fighters and those who have spent their lives trying to work within the system to bring America closer to achieving the dream of equality as they tried for generations to make real the promise written in the statue of liberty – ‘bring me your tired,………  They were also played by Trump and his campaign.

Besides the divide and conquer, we believe Trump worked through – or rather Vladimir Putin worked through Trump and his forces to help bring about the downfall of America – or at least to mitigate its power.  Both Trump and Putin were quite successful. Let’s not forget China as we bring together the foreign powers that helped the Trump victory become real.  When Trump talked to the president of China as he called to congratulate Trump, the President of China was talking to a man who promised the American public he would bring back manufacturing jobs to the United States.  True Trump made a few negative comments about China during his campaign, but what China saw was a Trump who bought his  steel from them in great quantities and whose daughter, Ivanka, has her clothes line made in the sweat shops of China.

That was easy to discover.  What is not so easy to discover is why the race haters and those who were wishful about bringing back a Colonial past were so easily manipulated by Trump and his group into thinking that a man, who gave his business to China and other countries, when that was his choice, would bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States.  This defies all logic.   A man who refused to give his tax returns to the American Public so they could see what was his involvements.  Where did that trust come from which convinced them that this man could be trusted when he said he was going to bring back to America jobs that had been outsourced to China and other countries?  What was it about this man that allowed the Evangelicals and other supposedly strong Christian to suspend their faith and belief to put it all in Trump.  This was a man who totally fit the description of those Jesus threw out of the Temple, whose money tables were overturned, and in the end when the sheep and the goats were line up on their way to eternity – his eternity set-up was called hell for an eternity.

With the United States being on the cusp of those considered ‘Minority” now becoming the “Majority”, all of those middle to upper middle-class folks (male and female), whose identity is fixed in the way this country is and the way it uses racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamaphobia, anti-semitism, anti-everything else except Northern European, to maintain their unearned identity, the fear of that event seems to be what motivated John and Jane Q Public who don’t want to be equal.  Why be equal when you have been “better than” for generations.

Maintaining their identity as “better than” is something they were born into, accepted, and were as skilled as Alcoholics in denial and finding excuses and pseudo reasons as to why things should not change.  Or better still, why they are changing, but it has to be a very gradual to no movement change.

All of this was sitting out there and Trump wrapped it all up in his campaign.

Lots going on in this election.

Trump played all of those forces and did it beautifully.  He weakened America while preaching the gospel of “Make America Great Again”.  Weakened America to the point of moving into the future with America being a country which would trail Russia and China in strength.  Many in these United States have been so wrapped up in fighting each other, no one was looking at this movement which was actually making the 1% stronger and everyone else weaker and poorer. That includes the race haters and those who have dreams of being on top again – the kind of on top countries were when Colonialism was the currency of the day.  Seeing America as an empire and them moving into the upper-classes is a dream that moved many people into the Trump camp.

What will Trump’s movement produce?  The serious reduction in regulation.  The regulators will be lining up at the unemployment office by the dozens.  The rich can’t get much richer without reducing the Regulation that has been set in place.  Think of what will happen when they cancel Dodd.

Serious reduction in health care to the point of having many millions of people unable to get health care or needing to go back to losing everything they have acquired if they are hit with a serious illness is what lies behind the canceling of Obamacare.  If folks have to struggle with serious illness without hospital or doctor care in their families, they won’t be much interested in what Trump and his colleagues are doing.

Racism, etc. is not an economically viable way to run a country.  One reaches the point the United States is now reaching where super large businesses will take over and governments will be symbolic and do things which are adjuncts to what will be sanctioned by the state religion.  Evangelism turns into State Churches.

White Churches, with a sprinkling of minorities will gradually change until they all have flags in the sanctuaries and they are clearly appendages of the state.  The state officials will become awesomely like priests, ordained by god.

The mastermind behind all of this is Donald Trump.  Only he doesn’t realize that already he is being moved aside.  He isn’t even inaugurated yet and his time of being relevant and necessary has already passed.  He can keep his golden palace for a little while, but eventually even that will be gone.

If he had been a younger man he would not have been entrusted with such a ‘revolution’.  But an old man – with an extremely fragile ego – and something wrong with his sexual functioning that he needs to constantly build his sexual prowess up with his talk and womanizing and more was an ideal foil around which to bring about this major growth of the 1%.

What is most amazing is that those who worked for and voted for Trump to become President with the hope and belief that he would make their condition better are soon going to discover he is making the 1% better, which means – by definition – the rest of us are going down the slide to a much lower economic place, because the 1% needs automaton workers, not those moving on up.

Surrounding himself with men who are in the same place as he is and women who see themselves as only having worth as sex objects, Trump has gathered around him a group that cannot take over and do a great job with the ship of state.  By the time they have paid attention to their fragile egos and to their images, there is nothing else left to do the work of the state.

Moving downscale and marrying women who are steps beneath the last wife – both younger, which means more child like with less experience and less ability to function as an equal with no other redeeming education, experience or anything else not dependent upon Trump and those like him you have the 40% plus who voted for Trump and are going to be worthless except as consumers.  They will be shortly cast aside into the pit with the rest of us, working to maintain the very shallow and artificial lifestyle of the 1% and where is the redemption.

Is this the point at which we realize that we have all been working to set the stage for the Second Coming?

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

 

A Beautiful Meditation and Song

Thursday, March 13th, 2014

For a rare treat, click on the following YouTube recording.

http://I Then Shall Live)

Sometimes you hear a beautiful song with words which bring your life to a standstill and it fills you with beauty, strengthens your faith, and makes your day richer. This hymn created that for several of us.  We shared it back and forth and then decided to share it with you.

Sit in a quiet space and listen carefully the first time you hear it.  It is a prayer, meditation and the photography is breathtaking in how it matches the words.

As you listen to this you will find the events and actions and thoughts you engage in over the day change.

This Hymn with words by Gloria Gaither and music by Sibelius (Finlandia) is that rare musical match which takes place between people separated by a generation living very different lives, but coming together to create a soul stirring event.

If you would like to buy the video you can do so by going to the website www.gaither.com

May it reach into your soul and affect the way you live the rest of your life.

Once the video finishes you will have to click your ‘back’ button to come back to Bettina Network’s Blog.  We would like to do better, but technologically we are not there yet.

To get the full effect of the video, when the youtube comes up, at the bottom right of the picture you will find symbols.  Click on the one which looks like a square with spaces on the sides enclosed at the corners.  It gives you a full screen of the video and it is awesome.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

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Going to the Toilet

Sunday, October 6th, 2013

copyright 2013 Bettina Network, inc.

What a horrible title for a blog!  We have postponed writing this blog for a couple weeks, but it has been such a great find and the topic of several breakfasts so with fear and trepidation – here goes!!!!!!

We discovered – would you believe across the breakfast table – one of the reasons we think our ‘cultured’ cousins have such a problem with things like colon cancer, bladder problems, etc.  It was an off-hand remark by a guest which, of course, we could not let go of and kept her talking about for quite some time (after everyone had finished eating, of course).

The off-handed comment was about how difficult it is to travel in America and in some European countries because of the problems it generates with the simplest things like going to the bathroom.  We asked why – especially since we felt we had a really up to date bathroom complete with a toilet seat which could also act like a bidet, close by itself, work via remote control and provide heat or no-heat as the user desired.  That comment was totally deflating and one of the few times I became defensive.  All the money we spend in those bathrooms and someone has a problem, not just a problem -a complaint?

As it turns out, all that money spent was spent in vain.  I had a problem that those of us growing older have and it can be embarrassing – and that is, not being able to control the escape of air from the body at the most horrible times.  Nothing like letting people know you are gross without even trying, especially if that escaping air comes with a bit of noise.

That conversation has changed all of that.  It took about a week, but after that time frame I have no more problems with air escaping.

We, in the ‘cultured’ part of the world,  go to the toilet in a very comfortable way which helps to disintegrate our bodies instead of shaping them up and its getting worse.  You can now sit on the heated toilet seat and have a spray of water wash your bottom when you finish.  I thought that was the ultimate luxury, but wow have I ever changed my mind.

Have you ever thought of squatting instead of sitting on a toilet seat?  It is cleaner, quicker and strengthens the muscles which need strengthening to keep your colon, bladder, legs, stomach and balance in good shape.  I used to feel sorry for those third world people who had to squat to go to the bathroom.  I didn’t know how they survived such a throw back to primitive times.  Well, I feel sorry no more!  I can go anyplace, do anything and not be embarrassed by that escaping air – it just doesn’t happen anymore.  My legs are firmer, my stomach tighter and even my balance is better.  It took a couple weeks to make this a habit and to stop complaining because of how difficult it was to form this new habit at my age, but form it I have and a few others have come along for the journey.  We had to form a small support group – a telephone call when we were about to quit for a pep talk.

Today, there are no complaints, we are all healthier for this new way of using the toilet and a bonus – we can use any toilet anyplace and not worry about catching anything the former user of the toilet may have left behind.

Try it!  But you have to give it a good try of at least 14 days before you decide.  It takes that long for the good results to show up and you will be surprised at how many good results there will be.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Giordano Bruno – A Talk by Alan Powers

Thursday, October 3rd, 2013

 

Alan explores the life, writings and legacies of Giordano Bruno.  Powers has an addendum to his book on early efforts to map the moon.  He calls Bruno “The Man Galileo Plagiarized and having written 26 books Bruno lost a University post to a man who had written a small pamphlet – you have to see the video to know who was this person who had the influence to get such a job on such a small academic amount of publishings.

Bruno is also the man who claimed there were billions of stars in the inhabitable part of the universe.  He didn’t fare too well with the inquisition, but is still important today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCaC-VexYoY&feature=youtu.be

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Poetry – Valerie Gillies

Tuesday, October 16th, 2012

copyright 2012 Marceline Donaldson

We experienced a wonderful, brief, impromptu concert of troubador harp music by daughter accompanying her mother’s poetry recitation.  It was a magical time.  We thought we would share with you a small glimpse of Valerie Gillies’ poetry.  She has several books of poetry, if you are interested and would like to read and know more about her work.  “Her poems are rooted in an elemental world, and take from nature a lightness as well as a terrestrial substance. At the technical level her experiments with the musical dimension of poetry increase its diversity and resonance: she sees message and form as indivisible.”

They were in Cambridge for a Celtic Conference which brings in the most interesting, talented and gracious people.  We look forward to their arrival every year.

copyright 2012 Valerie Gillies

FRUID WATER

Tune:  “Logan Water”

“Fruid Water, furthest of all from the sea,

yours is the voice that means far more to me

than the salty wave flowing up the beach

of a great stretch of ocean I may never reach.

Little I care for foaming breakfers on the shore

or the surface calm that moves so much slower

if I hear your notes that are sweeter than the surf

of all the different waters of the earth.

 

I don’t need to see the whale or sea-wrack,

the flight of the gannet, the diving of the shag,

I long to watch your trout or your owl flying low,

on your banks I hear the sudden hooves of the roe.

Each of us finds that you can quench our thirst,

stream and surrounding terrain belong together from the first.

In the face of the light you become, through your quality,

like an eye reflecting us in transparency.

 

Huge masses of water roll in the oceans,

deep currents circulate, of gigantic proportions,

but where you flow freely and trickle over stones

you play with waves in rhythm, vibrate and sing along.

Out of vapour you have come back to liquid,

you return in your course every time to Fruid.

Evaporting, loop with air currents and precipitate:

between earth and heaven you mediate.

 

Your moving form issuing from the hills

twists in strands of water changed like turning veils;

they make a rope that spirals down the glen,

new water falling through it to refresh men.

I can tell by the current as it swirls along

where it comes from, what rocks cause its tensions,

and I praise your wave shape through which the water flows,

for they remain the same, and rarely go.

 

From “The Chanter’s Tune” a book of poetry by Valerie Gillies                                                                                                                                                        Published by Canongate Publishing Limited Edinburgh Scotland

Republished here with permission of the author/poet

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Sew Creative

Sunday, January 16th, 2011

copyright The Bettina Network, inc. 2011

Sew Creative
14 Elliott Street
Beverly, MA. 01915
phone:  978 524 8848   fax: 978 524 8858
web site: www.sewcreativebeverly.com

Hours: Tue – Sat 9:30am – 5:30pm; Thursdays until 7pm, Sundays 12-4pm, closed on Monday.

A guest sent us an email suggesting we add “Sew Creative” to Bettina’s Blog. She also sent a review of the shop and urged us to put her review in the Blog.  We were intrigued and went to visit.  It was everything she described.

Her review follows:

During a recent visit to the North Shore, where I spent several days in a Bettina Network home,  I spent one morning looking for sewing, quilting, arts and crafts stores, – since this is my interest and I always like to see what’s out there when I get the opportunity to visit other cities.


I literally stumbled over ‘Sew Creative’ and almost didn’t stop because I was rushing to meet a friend for lunch.  I doubled back, however, called my friend and she met me at Sew Creative.


It is a wonderful, warm, friendly shop which contains everything you need, to do all kinds of quilting.  Yards and yards of beautifully printed cottons; all the findings – like thread and equipment you might not have or run out of; patterns, and more- but mostly the people who own and work in the shop are unbelievably helpful.  They have classes and regular times when you can just show up and sew with like- minded people.


There is an Embroidery Club, a Quilters Boot Camp, which gives you the basics of quilting; a ‘Girls Night Out’ which is $20 and gives you five hours of uninterrupted sewing time to work on a project of your choice and get expert help. The projects include quilts, clothing, using sergers, machine embroidery and some general sewing.  There are also classes for kids with no adults allowed.


What is shameful is that there are so few such stores around today where one can buy the beautiful materials I used to buy on a constant basis, whether I needed them or not.  I have quite a stash, but my heart goes out to those young people who won’t know the joy of finding an exquisite piece of silk for a beautiful suit to take home and sew or stash the material away for rainy days.  They won’t know the excitement which comes from discovering that all the pieces of material you have so carefully stored away – after making a project or cutting up an outfit you can no longer wear – are enough to make a divine quilt.  With the pieces from old outfits, it is especially wonderful to discover you have the kind of clothes and pieces of material which you can use to make a memory quilt.


When I return to Massachusetts I will always make Sew Creative one of the stops during my stay.”

Ed Note:  We sent someone to Beverly to check out Sew Creative.  It is as described and we had a lovely late morning stay.  We also added Sew Creative to Bettina’s Menu of Events.

We had an unexpected bonus from that trip.  Our ‘checker’ found material we were looking for to use to upholster walls. That has been a request from a couple of our bed & breakfast host families, but we haven’t had the time to go searching for just the right under-cloth to use. We will give you a write-up on wall upholstering in another blog – mostly because our host families wanted to know how to do it to save on their heating bills.

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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

A Harp Concert at King’s Chapel

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

copyright 2010 the Bettina Network, inc.

(If you would like to know more about King’s Chapel, another Bettina’s Blog reviews King’s Chapel and it is also included in Bettina’s Menu of Events.)

On Tuesday, June 15th at 12:15pm there was a wonderful harp concert in King’s Chapel. The harpist was Franziska Huhn

Her concert included the Ciaccona from J. S. Bach’s Partita in D minor for solo violin (BWV 1004). It was amazing to hear this piece played on the harp. The ciaccona is considered a pinnacle of the solo violin repertoire and has been transcribed for other instruments – the piano, the full orchestra, the guitar, organ and others. Franziska played the Ciaccona brilliantly and set in the background of King’s Chapel the incredible feelings this piece generates came through the harp playing and made the afternoon.

Also included in this concert was Bach’s French Suite no. 5, BWV 816. Written by J. S. Bach for the clavier, Ms. Huhn transcribed these pieces for the harp. I thought I would share with you the musicians thoughts about the French Suite and her transcription.

A lot of movements have melodies based on arpeggios and some on scales, allowing for a sonority that should work well on the harp. I have had the French Suite on my mind since I first read through it in 2000. I thought then it would work beautifully on the harp and finally I decided to sit down and do the transcription.

All of the movements can be played in the original key and all voicings can be left intact. The only movement which proved tricky was the gigue. It has fast moving left hand lines which can easily lose their clarity on the lower register of the harp. That area tends to build up a lot of vibrations and clarity of lines can easily be lost. In Bach, both lines – the melody as well as the bass line – are equally important, so it is critical that the lines are clear. In later periods the melody rules and the left hand is “serving” the right hand, but in Bach they are equal partners. In the gigue, it took several small discrete register changes of the left hand to make sure it could be heard clearly.

Overall, the character of the Suite is very intimate and personal. It is not a large showy piece, which is one reason I love to play it and thoroughly enjoyed transcribing it for the harp. In this concert, it was a great contrast to the much more extroverted style of the Chaconne.

Ms. Huhn is a rising young musician who has an international resumé of concerts performed throughout the United States as well as Poland, Turkey, Georgia, Luthuania, Norway, Russia, Syria, Germany, Pakistan and more with several concerts performed for German Presidents – both Johannes Rau and Horst Koehler. Ms. Huhn performs as a substitute harpist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, plays regularly with several chamber groups and studied with both Lucille Lawrence and Ann Hobson Pilot, among others. She serves as harp faculty at the New England Conservatory and Longy School of Music, received the Artists’s Diploma from the Conservatory in 2005 and has several harp albums available for purchase. She is the Assistant Director of the Harp Seminar at Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute and the above is only a partial list of Ms. Huhn’s musical accomplishments. We know you will hear a lot about Ms. Huhn in the future and hope you take the opportunity to hear her play when she appears in your area of the world or when you are travelling to where Ms. Huhn is performing.

If you would like to follow Ms. Huhn’s career you will find her on the web at www.FranziskaHuhn.de.

She is also an important part of the Bettina Network, inc. and has been for over a decade.

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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Even More Stock Market Information

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

copyright by The Bettina Network, inc. 2010

A summary of this breakfast’s stock market conversation is only for the strong of heart.

We had a guest who was celebrating wildly at breakfast. He owns 1 million shares of a little stock called EKWX. To find it we had to go to http://investorshub.advfn.com/, an information web site for people who spend $50 and buy a few million shares of stock (I hope you realize that is an exaggeration).

This is a stock which sat dormant for several years at about .0006/share and since March 31, 2010 has gone to .002/share. Figure out that profit if you owned the 1,000,000 shares. There is no information on the company I could find. The guest knew nothing, he was totally into his euphoria over his great luck and he was going home to buy more.

Going to Investors Hub,—- when their site opened, on the landing page on the left hand side was a list of the 15 stocks with the most comments, which were left by those who regularly follow what happens on investors hub and at the top of the list was EKWX. Much of what we read was about conjectures that this was going to be a reverse merger where EKWX is a publicly traded shell, probably merging with a private company and the activity comes about because, as you know, news leaks, only we aren’t on the top of the list to get the leaks.

EKWX traded almost a billion shares today and has gone up some 350% since 3/31/2010.

We are going to follow this guest and his stock tradings. We asked him to write a blog for Bettina’s, but he spends his days watching the stocks he buys and sells and doesn’t write.

He danced around the breakfast table all morning, trying to stay sane until the stock market opened and he could watch his stock – which he did, all day. We would have danced with him if we owned any of EKWX, but since we don’t we just drank an extra cup of coffee.

If the stock goes to $1, he becomes an instant millionaire.

This has better odds than the lottery, at least you get to keep some of your money if what you expect doesn’t happen.

The blogs are hot with this stock and the conjecture on most of this is that EKWX – a public shell – is in the process of becoming a Reverse Merger. Which is what is causing all the furor.

What is a Reverse Merger with a Public Shell?

“A Reverse Merger is a transaction where by the private company shareholders may gain control of a public company by merging it in with their private company. The private company shareholders receive a substantial majority of the shares of the public company (normally 85% to 90% or more) and the control of the board of directors. The transaction can be accomplished in as little as two weeks, resulting in the private company becoming a public company. The transaction does not go through a review process with state and federal regulators because the public company has already completed the process. The transaction involves the private and shell company exchanging information on each other, negotiating the merger terms, and signing a share exchange agreement. At the closing the public shell company issues a substantial majority of its shares and the board control to the shareholders of the private company. The private company shareholders pay for the shell and contribute their private company shares to the shell company and the private company is now public.

Upon completion of the reverse merger, the name of the shell company is usually changed to the name of the private company. If the shell company has a trading symbol it is changed to reflect the name change. An information statement, called an 8-K, must be filed within 4 days of the closing. The 8-K describes the newly combined company, stock issued, information of new officers and directors, a full description of the business, and financial statements audited to US GAAP standards. The 8-K must disclose the same type of information that it would be required to provide in registering a class of securities under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
(See Sec Final Rule 33-8587, pdf file)

If the shell company is listed on the Bulletin board, the registered or “free trade” shares can continue to trade. The company can do a private placement immediately. To trade new shares offered by the public the newly combined public company must first register the shares with the SEC. This process takes three to four months and normally requires filing a Registration statement with the SEC under Reg. SB-2 or SB-1.

If the shell company does not have a symbol, an application for a symbol is usually made to the NASDAQ Bulletin Board. The application for a symbol requires filing a Form 211 by a market maker that is a member of the NASD. The Bulletin Board has no financial requirements. A listing will be granted if the affairs of the company are in order and the company answers the questions posed by NASDAQ.”

ED: NOTE; THIS WAS COPIED FROM THE Investors Hub Web site to give you an idea of what this kind of trading is like and how and where to find information when you are off the big board and onto the sub-penny stocks. We hope they don’t mind.

Of course, another possibility is that this is what is called a “pump and dump”, something which happens on these boards. Someone starts buying a stock to get your attention, little by little others jump on the band wagon seeing the action and when the stock has moved up a bit, the original person sells all of his stock and runs to the bank with the money, leaving a lot of folks holding the “bag”. Only generally, the stocks don’t go this high this fast with a pump and dump operation going.

Wheee! Isn’t this fun? It actually would be if we had money invested in EKWX at .0006. This way, as observers, it is a learning experience and especially learning how to contain our jealousy of someone who has that 1 million shares.

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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

Cayenne Pepper Stories

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

copyright 2010 Bettina Network, inc.

Stories about Cayenne Pepper and what it does for you have been floating around the breakfast table at a couple Bettina homes for several years.

The first time we heard about cayenne pepper – other than as a spice in your food – was from a Canadian Guest, in town to run a 26 mile Marathon. He was a serious runner who trained extensively. Before leaving for that particular Marathon, he asked his host family for cayenne pepper. They obliged and guests watched as he put liberal amounts of cayenne pepper in the inside of his running shoes. Of course, that generated much conversation. Before leaving to run the Marathon he had to answer many questions – how long had he done this; what affect did it have; how did he find out about cayenne pepper, etc.

At the end of the day, the only person who came back still walking and in pretty good shape was the Marathon runner who, that morning, liberally sprinkled cayenne pepper in his shoes.

We tried it for a couple months and it works. We don’t run or train for the Marathon, but we do shop and shop and shop. Before leaving home we always sprinkle cayenne pepper in our shoes and it works amazingly well. What was once a tiring time has become a time which puts a spring in our step. We don’t know what happens or why, but we do know sprinkling cayenne pepper in the bottom of our shoes seems to drop years and gives us much more energy to do our chores.

But for bed & breakfast, we would still be walking on tired legs and feet.

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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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A Change to Bettina’s Coconut Cake

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

copyright 2010 Bettina Network, inc. by a guest

I made the Coconut Cake and it was just as great as I had hoped it would be. I did a few things a little different and wanted to share that with you.

For the icing, I used whole eggs instead of just the egg whites. I hate to waste and I knew I woulnd’t be up to making Bettina’s Chocolate Pudding or anything else after I finished this cake. I put four whole (organic free range) eggs in the mixer. I bought the Cuisinart stand mixer when you wrote that blog on your thoughts about mixers. I let the mixer beat for about 15 minutes. That is how long it took for the eggs to become fluffy the way I wanted them to.

In the meantime, I put the sugar and water on to boil. I used 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1 1/2 cups water instead of the 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water in your recipe because I wanted lots of icing.

When the water and sugar reached the 240 degree stage I started to pour it, very slowly, into the eggs while letting the mixer keep going.

When I finished that, I started to put into the mixer the butter. I cut the butter into small pats and threw each pat into the mixer letting it mix for a few seconds. Altogether I used three sticks of butter.

I also put in about 1/3 cup organic virgin coconut oil – which was hardened since that is its natural state. I got the idea to do that from your suggestion of using coconut milk in the cake. If you use coconut milk in the cake, why not coconut oil in the icing. It is the consistency of butter, whips up into a very light confection like butter and sure enough, it worked.

I let the mixer beat the icing until it turned into a light buttery like creation. At the end, before stopping the mixer I put in the vanilla oil you suggested in another recipe – the organic oil, you remember? That was the ultimate.

I did not put shredded coconut on my cake, I put the icing on as it was. The coconut milk and oil carried the day and gave the taste so I didn’t need the shredded stuff.

It was unbelievably good. Thanks for the recipe. In case you don’t remember me, I am the one who asked for the recipe and I appreciate your putting it on the blog.

Enjoy this change – it is nice to have more than one way to do something.

A loyal guest!
Thanks for not using my name. We are all paranoid these days.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

Breakfast at Bettina’s – By a Guest!

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

This is great!  I’ve had this secret wish to be a journalist for a long time.  I do a lot of writing, but all scientific and publishing for scientific journals so you can guess I am an astrophysicist, and those who stay at Bettina’s a lot and recommended this house to me – you know where I am – with my family this time, not on business.  i had to show my wife and children this house.  They love the doll houses and all the toys.  The kids slipped out of the room very early in the morning.  At first I panicked, how do I keep them reined in here – and I almost lost it when I thought of all those antiques in every room of the house,  then I heard ………. offering them a cup of hot chocolate and I knew I could go back to sleep.

Since they were playing right outside the door – one into the doll houses, the other hauling toys up to the landing from the toy room downstairs, I felt ok to sleep without worrying about them.  The place was a grand mess when we finally got up and dressed.  No one seemed to mind so we just left the mess because we knew it would only recur.  We did clean it up before we left for home – for those of you who don’t want me to ruin a good thing for you!

Breakfast was really special.  Having read the Blog, I wondered about those ‘stock tips’.  Maybe I would be at breakfast the morning a great investor dropped a huge tip which would make us a fortune.  Well I was at breakfast with a fairly heated discussion about a couple stocks.  Much heat, not enough light, but I am going home to buy the one which won the battle – Ford Motor Company.  A couple, who are in the stock market on a regular basis, talked about their ‘investments’ and they just bought Ford Motor Company.  My first thought was – WHY?  It just didn’t sound very exciting and given all the trouble with the automobile companies who would jump in and buy one.  By the end of breakfast I was quietly convinced I should put nice money into Ford.  It is selling today at about $11, according to my breakfast mates.  They bought Ford at about $8.  I am going to buy around $11-12.  Hopefully, I will make enough to pay for this trip.

Because it is a holiday – although not my holiday, our hosts put a book at each plate.  That was our Christmas gift.  Its great.  You can’t move in that house for tripping over books so it made sense that a book would be a gift.  Being very comfortable since I’ve been here a zillion times, I had to ask if I could swap the book they gave me for one I was reading in the bedroom and of course I could, so I am going home with three books – one a first edition.  My wife is horrified at my lack of manners, but I go downstairs late at night in my robe and pajamas to get hot milk, why not ask about another book?  Is it possible to feel too much at home?  I actually feel as though I am visiting my parents – I would say grandparents, but they are going to read this blog and I want to be welcomed back.

My wife plays the piano so she enjoyed playing on the grand piano in the house.  I’m not sure the rest of us did.  Later in the day we heard fantastic music coming from the piano.   We were really tired and didn’t go down to see who was playing.  It was so nice just to listen, in bed.  I know enough about music to know it was Chopin, and to know it was good, but I did fall asleep in the middle of the music.

Oh, I almost forgot.  While my wife and I were sleeping the kids made playdoh – well not the real thing, but a pretty good imitation.  It was the highlight of their stay and they are bringing it home with them.  They made it out of flour, water and salt cooked up in a very large pot.  Given our lack of an organic home and our tendency to buy all of their toys, they were really excited about this amazing experience.

Hope you enjoyed my blog.  It was fun writing it.  Is this payment for the books I am bringing home?

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

The harpist you heard at a Bettina home is —-

Monday, January 4th, 2010

Deborah Henson-Conant.  A fantastic jazz harpist and Grammy nominated electric pedal harpist.  If you have a chance, don’t miss one of her concerts.  In the meantime if you want to see her again try this

www.youtube.com/watch?v-pECeohhUBSs or www.hipharp.com

A great, fun experience!!!  She has quite a few videos on Youtube.com.  I don’t know if she has CD’s out but I suspect she probably has!  We are delighted you were able to have that experience!

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

What I like most about Bettina homes!

Friday, January 1st, 2010

I read your update on adding computers to Bettina homes.  I call only Bettina’s when I travel and because of my research I mostly travel to Harvard Square Cambridge.  I wouldn’t stay anyplace else.  When you leave home you leave all your conveniences.  I like to play the guitar when I get home from a tough day.  When I get to Cambridge, the home where I stay has a guitar which I take over and take to my room and play it evenings.  I’ve met other people who stay in your homes because they have access to other musical instruments.  Another house in Harvard Square has a harp which people can use.  I’ve been there to see friends staying there so I’ve seen and played the harp (sort of).  I met a woman there who plays beautiful harp – jazz harp, that was quite a while ago.  She played a brief concert for us and I will never forget hearing her.  Don’t remember her name!

Your network is really a fantastic way to travel.

Thanks for your holiday greeting.  Keep up the good work and lots of luck in 2010!

A reader (no name please)

editors note:  Whenever we receive an email or phone call or etc.  We put your notes in Bettina’s Blog, but we don’t ever put your name or other identifying information unless you tell us its alright to do so.

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

An Interesting New Book by a Bettina Guest

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

NUMINA ~ Power, Spirit Place

by Anne Gordon
What follows is an interview of Anne Gordon by Anne Allanketner about the process that went into the writing of “NUMINA”.
“Anne discovered labyrinths in 1997 and became a Veriditas Labyrinth Facilitator in 2002. She lives in Eugene, Oregon, is married, and has a 20 year-old son. She is a bookkeeper and in addition to presenting lectures on the history of the labyrinth, she has been on staff at Sacred Heart Medical Center as a Labyrinth Facilitator for six years. She is self-publishing “Numina” through LuLu.com. Anne Gordon’s novel is available from LuLu.com or by contacting Anne at greeneden@comcast.net.
Your novel is called “Numina ~ Power, Spirit, Place”. I understand this is your first book. What does Numina mean and what happened along your path that brought you to writing a novel?
 
“Numina” is a Jungian term referring to a spiritual force or influence present in an object, phenomenon or place. It is the product of a lifetime of musings. I think we all carry with us deeply felt emotions and ideas. I did not set out to write a book, but I found that when our only child left for college, I had the opportunity to transfer this tapestry of thoughts and reflections to paper. These reflections came out as short stories and ultimately as the story line of “Numina.”
This is a work of fiction. Are there labyrinths or labyrinth experiences in the novel?
 
There is a labyrinth and a labyrinth experience in “Numina.” In the literal sense, one of the main characters who resides in a different time period, makes an annual pilgrimage to a Gothic cathedral. At the end of her visit there, she walks the labyrinth. In the symbolic sense, the flow of the book is very labyrinthine. As I mentioned, there are short stories and these are interwoven with the main narrative. The main narrative takes place in present time and also several hundred years ago. While I take great liberties with linear time in the novel, the characters, whether those of the main plot or those of the short stories, are all traversing a path much like that of the labyrinth. They are in different places on the path. The characters are held by the container of the book as we are held by the container of the labyrinth when we walk. What might appear to be a detour or backtracking from the plot is actually a necessary meandering. As the reader enters the book, softening his or her focus, it is evident that the characters are all moving towards a common center. This is very similar to watching people walk the labyrinth. The order and interrelatedness of things is apparent only over time.
What are some of the themes in the book?
 
Women’s History, religion, politics, evolving consciousness. When I began writing “Numina,” I thought the book was going to be an examination of the Burning Times, a time in our history when many women (and men) were executed for being different. These people were driven to the margins of society. They were ostracized and condemned for worshpping differently, for being healers, or simply being eccentric. As I followed the story in my mind’s eye, watching it unfold through the main characters, I was led to the topic of our creation story. The characters in “Numina” spoke to this damaging portrayal of women and how it may have played a role in allowing atrocities to be committed against women and against many people who revered the feminine face of God. The result was that “Numina” became a story about the betrayal of the feminine and of our relation to the Divine Feminine as she is present in Nature.
Is this a book for men as well as women?
 
Absolutely. Men and women were cast out of the Garden, and we have been dealing with the repercussions ever since. “Numina” is about healing our stories and ourselves.
Some people think this book is very radical. What do you think about this? Are there radical elements in this story?
 
Well, if taking a break from thousands of years of acceptance of a story that demonizes half of humanity is radical…then I guess it might be considered radical. If on the other hand, you feel comfortable examining long-held assumptions in a different light, it would be a story about just that.
You have taken on enormous historical topics in “Numina.” Why is it a work of fiction?
 
Many wonderful and informative non-fiction books have been written on these topics. I am not claiming to be a historian, but I was able to weave a large amount of historical fact in with an ineresting human story. in writing “Numina,” I realized there was a lot going on in the world that did not suit me, so I created the world I wanted. This book contains a great deal of history and no small amount of political thought, but it is not about pointing fingers or ranting against the patriarchy. It is about posing questions instead of prescribing answers. It is about healing, rather than judgment. “Numina” considers the possibility of restoring a Partnership Paradigm.
You mentioned following the story in your mind’s eye. What do you mean by that?
 
When the storyline of “Numina” first appeared to me, it was in the form of a movie. I imagined being in a small, darkened theater. The screen was black and the sounds of the opening scene came first. Then, I could see in my mind’s eye what was happening. When I was able to quiet my mind, often as I walked the labyrinth, I could re-enter the world of “Numina” and gradually more and more of the book was revealed. Eventually I stopped listening to the radio when I was driving, I wanted to be available if ideas for the book entered my imagination. Gardening was a place of inspiration, so I kept a notepad handy when I worked in the yard. Many ideas and conversations from the novel’s characters came to me as I walked the labyrinth. Since I didn’t really want to interrupt by walks, I found it became necessary to walk with paper and pen in hand.
How did you know the book was complete?
 
The characters stopped talking. At first it seemed as if they had moved away. Then I realized they had not moved away, they had simply finished telling me their story.”
To the readers – Anne Gordon introduced the Bettina Network to labyrinths. We learned about them over several breakfasts with Anne and have introduced them to other homes in the Network and to other people we have met. Anne wrote an article for the Bettina’s Blog about her experiences with labyrinths and we are very grateful to her for the introduction. We take the opportunity to look for and walk labyrinths wherever we travel. You will find the location of several labyrinths in Bettina’s Blog and we will probably add more as we find them. Click on the label “labyrinth” and enjoy another great read.
 
We hope you will buy and enjoy reading “Numina”.
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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

Divining at Breakfast

Thursday, May 28th, 2009
by Marceline Donaldson
copyrighted to Marceline Donaldson 2009

We had a really fun and interesting breakfast a few days ago.  We had the opportunity to watch one of our guests use a V shaped tree branch in the dining room to find water.  She walked around with the divining rod, which she broke off the cherry tree in the back yard.

It was an amazing happening!  She has promised to write something for Bettina’s Blog on water divining – if I am calling it the right thing – so you can all share in the process.
We thought her divining rod would point to the Charles River.  Instead it led her to the front door and pointed definitely down just before getting to the door.  We didn’t understand why this divining rod would point to water at the front door until someone realized that water comes into the house exactly under the spot where the divining rod turned down.
I tried it, but it didn’t work for me –  I have been practicing since and hope to get this perfected in the not too distant future.  In the meantime, the old lady you see walking around with a v- shaped tree branch, followed by a trail of squirrels – that will be me!
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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 


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