Thursday, May 31

A Final Coincidence From Somerset - Probably


I thought I had covered all of the coincidences and synchronicity I had while on my break in Somerset, until today that is.

Karin and I walked to the local shop to buy a newspaper and on the way back met a man we often see as he walks his dog. We aren't exactly sure where he lives, but it's somewhere nearby. We got chatting and he told us he was off to Turkey in a couple of weeks for a holiday and we mentioned our recent stay in Somerset.

"Where in Somerset?" he asked.

"A small village called Roadwater," we answered.

"Whereabouts in Roadwater?"

And we told him the name of the house, as in the above photo.

He then explained that the house used to belong to his wife's grandparents or it might have been great grandparents, I can't quite remember.

"But," I said, "the owner of the house has lived there for over 30 years."

"That's right," he agreed and went on to explain how his wife used to spend her summers there forty years ago as a child. Her relatives were well known in the village.

Coincidences like this still amaze me. Just shows the links that are all around us without us realising. If he hadn't have mentioned Turkey we probably wouldn't have said anything about Roadwater in Somerset. It's a funny old world.

Roadwater in Somerset garden
Part of the garden in Roadwater Somerset
Other Somerset Posts:
The Lucky Lessons Learnt In Somerset
Synchronicity Starts With Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Clapper Bridge Where The Devil Sunbathes

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Wednesday, May 30

The Giants Of Somerset

St Dubricius Church Porlock Somerset

The moors of Somerset and the south-west of England were once inhabited by giants - yes really, if you believe in magic that is. But there is proof.

Look at the photo of Porlock church, Somerset above and then the picture below of nearby Culbone Church and you'll see the work of one of the giants. It's all in the church spires.

One of the giants snapped the top off the spire of Porlock's 13th century St Dubricius church, tucked it under his arm, and plonked it on the top of Culbone Church. The size was just right as this is the smallest parish church in England.

So there you are proof that giants weren't all bad.

Culbone Church

Porlock's St Dubricius has another claim to fame. He was the guy who is said to have crowned none other than King Arthur at Caerleon in Wales and later married him to Guinevere.

Inside St Dudricius church Somerset
Inside St Dubricius Church Porlock Somerset England
And there's another story: a person from Porlock also had an effect on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous poem Kubla Khan. If this person hadn't have interrupted Coleridge the poem would be longer than 54 lines.

Coleridge dreamt the poem. These are his own words as to why he was unable to write all that he had seen in his sleep:

"In 1797 ... On awakening he appeared to himself to have a distinct recollection of the whole (poem), and taking his pen, ink, and paper, instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that are here preserved. At this moment he was unfortunately called out by a person on business from Porlock, and detained by him above an hour, and on his return to his room, found, to his now small surprise and mortification, that though he still retained some vague and dim recollection of the general purport of the vision, yet, with the exception of some eight or ten scattered lines and images, all the rest had passed away like the images on the surface of a stream into which a stone had been cast ..."

It is generally thought that Coleridge had an opium influenced dream and that the unwelcome intrusion of the person from Porlock was someone from the Ship Inn, the oldest pub in the town, wanting him to settle his overdue bar bill.

Somerset, like Cornwall where I live, is full of legends, myths and history.

Other Somerset Posts:
The Clapper Bridge Where The Devil Sunbathes
Dunster And A Reminder Of Carefree Days
Synchronicity Starts With Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Holy Well That Saved a Saints Head

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Tuesday, May 29

Freemasonry And Good Stewardship

Time,

The following is something I obtained from an official Freemasonry publication, said to have been 'Published by authority of the Grand Master'. It was written by an 'author unknown' and therefore not covered by copyright.

Your whole life is made up of
Abilities, Time and Possessions,
Gifts from God.
Your Abilities include natural talents
and skills which you have learned.
Your Time is divided between
work and rest.
Your Possessions divide between
property you hold and money you earn.
How you manage your whole life,
responsibly or carelessly,
generously or selfishly
imaginatively or fearfully,
is your Stewardship.
All gifts belong to God and your are
the responsible caretaker for a little while.
To be a good steward
is to be able to offer each day,
as an act of worship,
Abilities well used,
Time well spent,
Possessions well distributed.

How the world would change if we all became good stewards.

P.S. I have no personal connection with Freemasonry.

67 Not Out Similar Posts:
Freemasons: The Solemn Obligation Of A Master Mason
Elvis Presley And Madonna's Satanic Illuminati Links
A Secret Freemasons View Of Old Age And Death

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Monday, May 28

The 315 To Majorca

315 to Majorca

My son arrived home - with his wife and son - from a holiday on the Balearic Island of Majorca. After watching the video they had made, which included lots of footage of my wonderful grandson, he said, "Here's a coincidence for you."

When they drove into the official Bristol Airport car park, prior to departure, they parked in space number 315, after seeing a coach destined for Eastbourne - being also a number 315.

On arrival at their hotel in Majorca they were allocated room number - yes, you've guessed - 315.

While he was away I was on the Internet, looking up the hotel where he was staying. I remembered that I read: 'The Balearic Islands have an excellent climate with around 315 days of sun per year, wonderful golden beaches and a rich cultural offering.'

As for that 315 coach, Karin had been saying to me during the week that she would like to visit Eastbourne again, maybe later this year.

So, 315 seems to be the number of the moment for my family!

As for my son's holiday - it was great!

Further Number Posts:
The Coincidence Of The Numbers Of Life
Numbers 9 And 11 In New York Visit
Coincidence Of Lucky Numbers

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Sunday, May 27

You Don't Have A Soul


You don’t have a soul
You are a soul
You have a body

~ C S Lewis

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Saturday, May 26

Distinguishing Between False And True Signs

cat thought he was a lion

Often on this blog I've talked about signs and symbols. I've mentioned, for example, about how white feathers are meaningful for me and black feathers have indicated bad luck. Coincidences or synchronicity have also been important in my life.

All well and good, but sometimes I feel we can overdo such things. Reading the signs can easily become an obsession so that we end up being 'guided' by all sorts of symbols, signs and happenings. For instance early last week I walked out of my front door and there was a big black feather waiting for me. "Oh, bad luck coming. Wonder what the feather signifies," I immediately thought.

black feather
After arriving back home from a walk, just before my house, there was another black feather - was this to reinforce the warning?

By the end of the week nothing had happened, all was well with my world. Phew!

What I'm getting at is that we have to be able to distinguish between genuine and false signs. "But a black feather is a black feather," you may argue.

It is, but my own belief is that any 'true' sign or symbol has an actual power that goes with it. Personally I see the sign and there's an inner feeling that goes with this. It's hard to describe, other to say that it simply 'feels' right. Intuition has perhaps clicked in.

It's also the same with dreams. Some 'feel' as if they are meaningful and may include a message or a warning about something. Other dreams are simply dreams.

As we are individualised parts of the whole, we recognize true signs or dreams in various ways: perhaps a tingle, a feeling in the stomach, heart or somewhere deep inside, maybe what seems like a voice is heard and many other ways. It's up to us to decipher how we sense genuine signs - that black feather could have simply fallen from a passing bird.

If we come to believe that everything is a sign of some sort we'll drive ourselves nutty and will miss out on so much of life. In fact it may have the very opposite effect to what we wish.

Going pack to my personal signs with feathers. If I see a black feather and think immediately 'bad luck' I could well create something bad with my own thought patterns. What we give out, we get back. In other words we see a false sign or symbol and then attract what it is that this sign or symbol means to us. In this case we feed the effect or outcome.

Somehow we have to work out our own personal way of distinguishing the difference between true and false signs.

Our brains seem to be wired to see patterns and to attribute meaning to these. Novice magicians are said to be often led down the garden path because of this, and find delusions everywhere instead of truths. The sorcerer's apprentice needs intelligence and discernment to distinguish between the truly magical and the mere ordinary.

Other Posts:
White Feathers And A Special Beach
Symbols And Signs For Positive Results
Good luck Symbols Really Do Work

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Friday, May 25

Synchronicity Starts With Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Statue of the Ancient Mariner at Watchet

It was the first full day of our break in Somerset and the morning was dark, dismal and raining. Never ones to let the weather get the better of us we headed to the nearby small coastal town of Watchet. As we walked in the drizzle by the harbour we came across a statue of the Ancient Mariner. This was in respect of the poem of the same by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

I said to Karin that my mum liked reading Coleridge, especially the poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan. I thought no more about this but when I got back to our car I realised that a trashy paperback I was reading was also by someone named Coleridge: Nicholas Coleridge.

The Much Married Man by Nicholas Coleridge

The afternoon brightened up and we walked along the shore line past many beaches full of pebbles. That's where I took the above photo.

Pebbles on the beach at Somerset

In the evening, when we got back to our accommodation, I was looking at some leaflets the owner had left for us. And one of these was regarding the 'Coleridge Way'. This is about 'Following In The Footsteps of the Romantic Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772 -1834'. So that was why there was a statue of the Ancient Mariner in Watchet.

It seems that Coleridge lived in this area at a place called Nether Stowey and the Coleridge Way goes right past where we were staying at Roadwater. We were literally on the Coleridge Way. I didn't know any of this until I read the leaflet while sitting in the corner seat below.

Inglenook Fireplace at Roadwater Somerset

Next to the chair was a small corner table, which can't be seen in the photo. On this table, left by the owner, was a book called Bambi and Me. As I mentioned in my post Memories Of Bambi this animal has sentimental links for me to my mum.

Bambi and Me

So, putting the synchronicity all together: we see a statue of the Ancient Mariner at Watchet in recognition of one of my mother's favourite poets Samuel Coleridge. I just happen to be reading a book by Coleridge. On returning back to where we were staying I find out there's a 'Coleridge Way' passing yards from where I was sitting - and next to me was a book about Bambi, which links me again back to my mother.

Chance happenings? I don't think so. There's more to it than that, but I'll leave readers to draw their own conclusions.

And changing the subject completely, while in Watchet we came across this tiny lock up jail used prior to the 1800s.

Tiny jail in Watchet Somerset used prior to 1800s

The court was held at the nearby Bell Inn and anyone causing a public nuisance, or considered likely to abscond while waiting trial, was held temporarily in this tiny lock-up jail. Be careful in Watchet as this court still technically exists - and you wouldn't want end up locked in this jail with no facilities! The building adjoined to it is now a small museum.

Other Somerset Posts:
The Clapper Bridge Where The Devil Sunbathes
The Holy Well That Saved a Saints Head
Dunster And A Reminder Of Carefree Days
The Lucky Lessons Learnt In Somerset

Photos: © Mike Perry

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Thursday, May 24

Links Of Prince William And Royal Family To Hitler And Nazis

Prince William and Kate Middleton wedding

Here's a bit of a nonsense coincidence ... or is it!

Someone pointed out to me that Prince William and Kate Middleton were married on the same day as Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun: 29th of April.

Okay, so what, but he then went explain that Hitler and Braun were married in the early hours of the said date at a ceremony conducted within the Führerbunker. But there's another coincidence:

The night prior to her wedding Kate Middleton stayed at the Goring Hotel in London and it was from here that she made her way to Westminster Abbey for the wedding ceremony. And who was one of Hitlers associates? Hermann Göring (though sometimes spelt as 'Goering').

All of this may be pure chance (if such a thing is possible) but there are many links between the UK Royal Family and Germany and even the Nazis. It was King George V for instance who, in 1917, changed the present Royal Family name from the 'House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha' to the 'House of Windsor' - which is still used today.

There is a 1936 photo of Hitler with King Edward VIII (the uncrowned king) and his wife to be Wallis Simpson. It is said that the FBI took and interest in King Edward in 1941 as there were rumours he was passing secrets to the Nazis.

King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson with Adolf Hitler

There's also a photo of Prince Philip (Queen Elizabeth II's husband, father of Prince Charles and Grandfather to Prince William) at a Nazi funeral. That's him circled.

Prince Phillip at Nazi funeral

Then, of course, we mustn't forget how Prince Harry dressed up as a Nazi, which made front page of the Sun newspaper.

Prince Harry dressed as Nazi for party

This is hardly earth shattering news but what about if we also threw in the Freemasons to the mix as well. Lots of the Royal Family are, and have been, members of the craft. There's even a Lodge at Buckingham Palace. But more on that perhaps another day and, who knows, gradually bit by bit the jigsaw may actually fit together.

Other Posts:
Hitler And His Divining Rod For Dark Forces
Queen Kate Middleton For Sale On Ebay
A Nation Seduced By Symbols And Expectation
Freemasons: The Solemn Obligation Of A Master Mason

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Wednesday, May 23

The Time Shift Into Another Era Or Life

Broad Street New York 18th Century

Here's an interesting story from Penny which is on a similar theme to my post A Glimpse Of Her Death In A Former Life. Penny experienced a time shift or perhaps she simply stepped into a bygone age. See what you think.

"I had an experience in my late 20's or early 30's that made me wonder about time shifts or place and time bleed-throughs.

I lived in a New Jersey town for 20+ years, but one afternoon on a busy corner of Broad Street, I stepped off the sidewalk and onto the road. Just like that I appeared to be in another era of that town, perhaps the 1800s or early 1900s.

Everything looked a little hazy and my view was a bit narrow, not being able to see too far on either side. And the weather was still warm, the sun as bright as before. Only now the road was cobblestones (exactly as they used to be in the 19th century I found out later) and to my right was a horse-drawn carriage. By then I was standing petrified and confused in the middle of the road. The carriage was approaching, the horse braying, and I could hear the traffic of horses hooves and footfalls. Behind me and before me, the area (not clearly remembered) was as busy (crowded) as normal reality had been moments before.

Then just as soon as it began, I was back in normal reality, nearly mid road and totally confused. The whole thing didn't appear to take more than half a minute. The 'visit' was a normal feeling, even a bit more heightened. Then the same 'visit' occurred about a year or so later, exactly as before - same spot, again, as I stepped off the road. I saw the same past time scene.

It might be worth mentioning that I seldom get confused in crowds. That it happened twice in the same spot, surely must point to something having happened there once upon a time. That time stamp on that spot - if not regarding my having lived there decades ago - might be picking up on a moment in the life of another woman from an bygone era . . . ."

~ Penny

I wonder if Penny simply stepped into a past time or was this a reminiscence of her own previous life? Memories must all be locked away somewhere in our souls if we believe in reincarnation. The problem is that most of us never find the key to unlock these other life times.

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Tuesday, May 22

The Clapper Bridge Where The Devil Sunbathes

Tarr Steps

I'm back to my travels again for today's post: The Tarr Steps in Somerset England. This is an ancient clapper bridge that the Devil built - yes, the Devil himself, well that's how the story goes.

The Devil
After building the bridge the Devil wanted to use this for sunbathing, which I'm sure he's entitled to do, but this caused a bit of a problem for the local people who simply wanted to get to the other side of the river. Should the locals just go across anyway?

The local parson sent a cat over the bridge but poor pussy was vaporised into as a puff of smoke. The Devil said that he forbid any mortal soul to cross, anyone who tried would be punished with death - which is a pretty severe penalty to say the least.

The local parson tried to reason with the Devil but the Devil swore and intimidated the preacher man. This was no ordinary parson though he gave as good as he got and stood up to the the evil one.

The Devil must have been impressed because he conceded to allow people to pass over the bridge but one stipulation was made. No one must cross when the Devil wants to sunbathe on the bridge.

So be warned if you should venture to Tarr Steps in the sunshine, just in case the Devil is getting a tan.

Tarr Steps Somerset

Tarr Steps is said to be over 1000 years old, going back to the Bronze Age though some will say it's not quite that age. But, whatever, it's the oldest 'clapper bridge' in the UK. The name comes from the Latin 'claperius' which means 'a pile of stones' and this is really what the bridge is. There are massive natural stones resting on one another. The top slabs weigh in at something like one to two tons. The largest is over eight feet long and five feet wide. The bridge is about 55 yards (50m) across the river.

Tarr Steps Exmoor

Of course there are some 4x4s who don't bother with the bridge and drive straight through the river, fortunately it wasn't too high on that particular day.

car driving through the river by Tarr Steps

Before reaching Tarr Steps we had been on another part of Exmoor looking for the wild ponies which roam free and luckily caught a few sightings.

Wild ponies on Exmoor Somerset

We also found a wonderful old inn, the Royal Oak, on Exmoor for lunch.


All in all it was a great day. Exmoor is a wonderful area, providing the weather is okay.

To see the photos in a larger size click on any photo. Photos: © Mike Perry.

Other Somerset and Exmoor Posts:
Dunster And A Reminder Of Carefree Days
The Holy Well That Saved a Saints Head
The Lucky Lessons Learnt In Somerset

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Monday, May 21

The Cumberland Alien And The Men In Black

The Cumberland spaceman or alien

I was reading about the Cumberland Spaceman (also known as the Cumberland alien and the Solway Spaceman). This is a photo of a supposed spaceman, alien or whatever, but what interested me was that the so called 'Men In Black' paid the photographer a visit. This is the description:

"A month after taking the photo a well-spoken person called at the place of work of the photographer who said he was there to 'investigate these things.'

The man had a colleague with him and arrived in a big, black, shiny Jaguar car. They were wearing smart black suits and bowler hats. They behaved oddly, referring to one another by numbers and not using names.

Although their origin was unclear the photographer came to believe that they were from a government department and he could not understand the subterfuge.

The men drove the photographer to the area where the photo was taken and asked many questions. They were keen to know about the behaviour of animals and the weather and asked over and over about the 'spaceman'.

When the photographer explained there was no spaceman present when he took the photo - the 'spaceman' simply appeared on his picture, as per the photo above - the Men In Black marched off. They got into their car and drove away leaving the photographer stranded five miles from home."


If we go back to the beginning, the Cumberland Spaceman photo was taken back in 1964 but I got interested in the case when I came across a YouTube video (at bottom of this post) from a BBC video. It's pretty old but it includes an interview with the photographer.

This is the Cumberland Spaceman story:

On Sunday, May 24 1964 fireman Jim Templeton went to Burgh Marsh on the Solway Firth in the UK. With him was his wife and two young daughters, including five year old Elizabeth who wanted to be photographed wearing her new dress.

Jim was a keen photographer and positioned Elizabeth on a grassy bank holding a bunch of flowers she had picked. Her mother and sister watched while the pictures were taken.

There was nobody else around but they did notice how the cows and sheep, found on the marsh, were behaving strangely. They were all huddled together as if a storm was imminent - but the sky was clear and remained so.

The family returned home and the roll of film was taken in the normal way to be processed.

The photos were all fine except for one where there was slightly distorted upper form of someone wearing, what looked like, an astronaut's suit. This figure appeared to be floating behind Elizabeth's head.

The photo got some publicity locally but no one could offer an explanation as to what the strange figure was. The police took a look and concluded it had to have been a real man - perhaps a streaker! - who had briefly strayed into shot as the photo was being snapped. Jim's wife just laughed at this idea as she was pretty sure she would have noticed a naked man.

The picture was shown in the local paper and the whole incident would have probably died a death but, even without the Internet, the story reached Australia. This is where it gets even more interesting.

In the 1960s the UK was producing missiles in the Cumberland area and these were tested at Woomera in Australia. This was a launch site of a particular missile named the Blue Streak.

It appears that on May 23 1964 the Blue Streak was to be launched at Woomera. This had to be aborted when security cameras caught, what seemed to be, two men in white spacesuits walking around the launchpad. When the area was searched these men could not be found or seen anywhere. But ...

... this all happened at roughly the same time as Jim Templeton snapped the picture of his daughter and the 'spaceman'.

A technician from Woomera actually contacted Jim and told him the spacemen, who he had seen, were identical to the one on Jim's photo.

The question is: Could the two incidents possibly be linked?

The video I mentioned earlier follows. As you will see, some of the details of this whole episode appears to be have been covered up - or conveniently lost - by the UK Ministry of Defence





Further UFO Posts:
UFO Seen By Sports Journalist Plus 8 Other UFO Sightings
Photos Of The UFO Clouds
How President Eisenhower Met A UFO Alien

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Sunday, May 20

It's National Tell A Lie Day

National Tell A Lie Day horse

Yes, you've heard it from the horses mouth, today is National Tell A Lie Day.

Horse who told lies

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Saturday, May 19

Dunster And A Reminder Of Carefree Days

Dunster castle Dunster Somerset

While we were away on our break Karin and I visited Dunster in Somerset, a small historical town dating back to around 700 AD. As we approached the town the first thing we saw was the castle as in the photo above.

"Ah," we both thought, "this rings a bell."

It was then we realised that we had visited this place 30+ years ago before we were married. We slept in the car park - in my old VW Beetle car. We didn't have much money at the time so stayed in a few small bed and breakfast places until the cash ran out - and it ran out in Dunster!

The photo below shows where we parked my VW - behind the top hedge to the left of the photo.. In those days the parking was free and we made up a meal on a single burner stove. Happy carefree days!

Dunster car park

The town of Dunster is over 500 years old and hasn't changed much. The castle dominates the main street and the buildings are pretty much the same.

Dunster town and castle Somerset England

It's virtually identical to this etching from 1810 ...

Etching of Dunster in 1810

... at the forefront is the Yarn Market built in 1609 for the sale of local broadcloth and homespuns and it's still pretty much as per the etching.

Yarn Market Dunster Somerset

Dunster is jam packed with history from the chocolate box style thatched cottages ...

Thatched Cottages in Dunster

to the 15th-century Gallox Bridge which was used by pack animals to cross the River Avill.

Gallox Bridge Dunster

There's the old nunnery ....

Nunnery at Dunster, Somerset

... and the tithe barn where 10% of local farmers crops and stock were stored and passed to the Benedictine Priory. This was from around 1000 AD. In 1535 King Henry VIII wanted to know how rich the churches were and it is shown on record that the net annual income of the Dunster Tithe Barn at that time was £37.4s.8p (£37:23).

Tithe Barn Dunster Somerset

Also, of course, is the church - the Priory Church of St George which is predominantly 15th century with evidence of 12th and 13th century work.

Priory Church of St George, Dunster, Somerset

After viewing all of this, and much more besides, we'd had enough of history so we lunched in a restaurant and then went on a 5 mile circular forest walk from Dunster to find England's tallest tree - but that'll do for today's post!

Click on photos to see larger size. Photos: © Mike Perry

Other Somerset Posts:
The Lucky Lessons Learnt In Somerset
The Holy Well That Saved a Saints Head

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