1 October: Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park was established on this date in 1890, making it the third national park in the USA. 10 things you might not know about it: 

1. The word Yosemite means “killer” in the Miwok language and referred to a tribe that used to live there but were driven out by the Mariposa Battalion. The indigenous people called the area "Ahwahnee" which means "big mouth".
2. The first champion of the region was one John Muir, originally from Scotland but living in Wisconsin. He first visited in 1868 and wrote about it: “No temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite.” The articles he wrote helped raise awareness of the area and contributed to the eventual establishment of Yosemite National Park.
3. One of the things the park is famous for is its waterfalls. At 2,425 feet, Yosemite Falls is one of tallest in the world, but is actually made up of three separate falls – Upper Yosemite Fall, the middle cascades and Lower Yosemite Fall.
4. Horsetail Fall sometimes gets caught by the setting Sun so that it appears like a ribbon of Fire down the side of the cliff. Mid to late February is the time to go if you want to see it. Another amazing sight happens in spring and early summer when there’s a full moon – rainbows at night.

5. A waterfall of fire was once one of the park’s top tourist attractions.

    Beginning in the early 1870s, James McCauley, who owned a hotel on Glacier Point, used to kick the burning embers of the campfires over the cliff at the end of the evening. Visitors liked the shower of fire so much they began to pay McCauley to continue the practice. In the early 1900s after hearing guests reminisce about it, David Curry started doing it again. It continued until the National Park Service ended it in 1968.
6. More than 400 species of animal live in the park. One is the rare Sierra Nevada red Fox, which was spotted for the first time in nearly 100 years on a wildlife camera.
7. The park is also home to some amazing plants, in particular the giant sequoia trees which are the largest living things on Earth. The oldest of these trees in the park is called Grizzly Giant.
8. Most people visit in the summer but there are winter sports on offer, too. These are mainly due to the fact the park put in a bid for the Winter Olympics in 1932, the only national park ever to do so. Toboggan runs, a large Ice skating rink and a small Ski jump were built, but the park lost out to Lake Placid. However, the infrastructure was there now to create a winter sports destination.
9. It’s the place to go if you’re into rock climbing. In fact, it’s said to be the birthplace of climbing as a sport. The highest point is Mount Lyell. Other well known summits are Half Dome and El Capitan.
10. Yosemite’s most luxurious hotel once served as a military hospital. In 1943, the U.S. Navy leased the Ahwahnee Hotel and converted it into a military hospital. Doctors hoped the park’s tranquillity and scenery would soothe shell-shocked patients, but it didn’t quite work out like that. The towering cliffs caused claustrophobia, and the park’s isolation meant patients got bored and dwelt on their disturbed thoughts. Hospital administrators converted the facility into a general physical rehabilitation unit instead.

 

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book

30 September: Chewing Gum Day

Chewing Gum Day Celebrates the birthday of William Wrigley, Jr. Here are 10 things you might not know about chewing gum:

1. People have been chewing gum for at least 6,000 years. Gum that old, with teeth marks, was found in Finland. It was made from Birch bark tar. The ancient Greeks chewed gum made from the resin of the mastic tree. Both these substances have antiseptic properties, so it’s thought early people chewed it to keep their mouths healthy. The Greeks called their gum "mastiche" which comes from the Greek word meaning "gnashing of teeth".
2. Modern gum was developed in the USA after settlers observed Native Americans chewing tree resin. Around 1850 a gum made from paraffin wax was developed and soon exceeded the spruce gum in popularity. Chewers would periodically dip the gum in a bowl of powdered sugar to keep it sweet.
3. William Semple filed an early patent on chewing gum, patent number 98,304, on December 28, 1869. The popularity of chewing gum soared during prohibition, when people needed to hide the fact they’d been drinking on the sly. “It takes your breath away!” declared one advertising slogan.
4. Chewing gum has a virtually indefinite shelf life because of its low moisture content and non-reactive nature. It may, over time, lose its flavour or become brittle, but it will never be unsafe to use. Hence in many countries, it isn’t legally required to have an expiry date.
5. Chewing gum burns around 11 calories per hour.
6. Benefits of chewing gum include improving alertness, concentration and memory and reducing tension. Chewing gum can help with some common problems – it can help reduce crying when cutting Onions and helps prevent ear popping when flying. The latter is because chewing gum makes people salivate which in turn means swallowing more, which helps balance the pressure. Doctors have found that chewing gum aids recovery after intestinal surgery. It gets the gastric juices flowing without the patient having to eat anything.
7. The first ever item to be bought using a Bar code was a pack of chewing gum, in 1974.
8. A major problem with chewing gum is that humans, messy pups that they are, don’t take their litter home but just dump it wherever they are when they’ve finished chewing. Chewing gum litter is the second most common type of litter, after cigarettes. In 2000 a study on Oxford Street, one of London's busiest shopping streets, showed a quarter of a million blobs of chewing gum were stuck to its pavement. It costs Westminster council over £100,000 a year to remove chewing gum from its streets. In Rome, 15,000 pieces of chewed gum are discarded every day and the removal of each piece costs the city one euro. Singapore’s solution to the problem has been to ban the stuff completely. Possessing chewing gum there can get you a heavy fine of more than $6,000 unless you have a prescription for it.
9. A London artist called Ben Wilson paints chewing gum that has been discarded on pavements. He says "I like to make something special out of something that people find disgusting". British designer Anna Bullus has made a business out of recycling chewing gum into plastic products like shoe soles, rubber boots, mugs, Pencils, Frisbees, door stops, and containers for collecting used gum.
10. Over 3 million packs of chewing gum are made every day in Britain. Most of it comes from a factory in Plymouth, Devon. In the US, the total amount of chewing gum sold in a year would make a single stick 3.5 million miles long. That’s long enough to reach the Moon and back seven times or to circle the earth’s equator 150 times.

See also: Bubble gum

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book

29 September: Horus

In Ancient Egyptian astrology, the sign for people born between today and 27 October (or April 20 – May 7, August 12 – 19 according to an alternative system) is Horus. 10 things you might not know about the Egyptian god Horus:

1. The name Horus is Greek. In Ancient Egypt he was known as “Heru” which means “the distant one” or “the one on high”.
2. He is usually pictured as a man with the head of a falcon wearing a Red and White crown.
3. Horus was revered as the god of kingship (he was the guardian spirit of the pharaoh), the Sky, hunting, war, and the patron of young men.
4. His origin story is as follows: he is the son of Osiris and Isis. His mother’s brother, Set, murdered Osiris and dismembered him. Isis managed to collect together all her husband’s body parts except his penis which had been eaten by a Catfish. Undeterred, Isis used her magic to make him a new penis so she could get pregnant. Knowing Set would be out to get her child, she fled to the Nile Delta marshlands to hide.
5. Horus and Set were continually at odds with one another. Horus was the patron of Lower Egypt and Set of Upper Egypt and they battled to control the whole country. Eventually the gods sided with Horus allowing him to win. Hence Horus became revered as a god of war.
6. According to some myths, Horus was the sky and the Sun was his right eye and the Moon his left, which meant the storytellers had to explain why the sun is so much brighter than the moon. They said that Set gouged out Horus’s left eye. Set didn’t come out of it unscathed, however – he lost one of his testicles in the fight.
7. The Eye of Horus became a symbol of protection. Amulets were made to protect the pharaoh both in life and in death. The symbol, also known as wadjet, was painted on the bows of boats by sailors to ensure a safe passage.
8. Another tale from the Horus/Set conflict involves Isis, who had the chance once to kill Set but loyalty to him as her brother won out and she didn’t do it. Horus was so angry with her for letting Set live that he cut her head off. Isis, however, wasn’t deterred by this either and simply grew a new head, that of a cow. This may be why in some myths, Hathor is said to be the mother of Horus.
9. In other myths, Hathor was his wife. Horus fathered four sons – Qebehsenuef (hawk head), Hapy (baboon head), Duamutef (jackal head) and Imsety (human-head). They were protected by powerful female deities and became important figures in the mummification process. The organs removed from a corpse were placed in jars made in the shapes of the four sons of Horus.
10. Horus was also known as Horus the Elder, Horus the Child, Horus the Uniter, Heru, Hor, Harendotes (Horus the Avenger), Harsomtus, and the Lord of the Two Lands. When the Greeks conquered Egypt under Alexander the Great, they made Horus into one of their own gods, Harpocrates meaning "Horus the Child"). He would be pictured as a naked boy with a finger in his mouth sitting on a lotus with his mother.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book

28 September: Papaya

September is National papaya month. 10 things you might not know about papaya:

1. The papaya, or pawpaw, is the fruit of the Carica papaya tree, technically a large berry.
2. It’s not known for sure where the tree originated, but it’s believed to be native to south Mexico and Central America. Today, it grows in the Caribbean Islands, Florida, Hawaii, India, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and several countries in Africa.
3. The papaya tree can grow from seed to a fruit bearing tree in less than 18 months. The trees are small and sparsely branched usually with a single stem growing from 5 to 10 meters (16 to 33 feet) tall, with leaves just growing at the top.
4. When the fruit is ripe it will have deep Yellow or Pink flesh and be as soft as a ripe avocado. Inside, the seeds are Black and about the size of Peas. The seeds are edible and in some parts of the world, are used as a substitute for peppercorns.
5. Green, unripe fruit can be cooked in curries or stews. While in some parts of south east Asia the green fruit is eaten raw, it’s not usually advisable as the raw fruit contains latex and can be poisonous, or cause an allergic reaction in some people.
6. The fruit also contains an enzyme called papain, which is used for medicinal purposes in the tropical regions where it grows. It is used to treat cuts, skin irritations and burns. When Harrison Ford ruptured a disc while filming Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, he was treated with papain injections. Papain can also be used to tenderise meat and is an ingredient in many meat tenderisers on sale in the shops.
7. There are 43 calories in 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of Papayas. The fruit is also an excellent source of beta-carotene (which the human body can turn into vitamin A), flavonoids, Vitamin C, vitamin B (folate and pantothenic acid), fibre, Potassium, Copper and magnesium.
8. Papaya is said to aid digestion and boost the immune system and has been used as a remedy for toothache. The leaves can be made into tea which in some parts of the world is used as a remedy for malaria (the mechanism is not understood, however, and has not been scientifically proven). It is even thought to fight cancer.
9. In some parts of the world papaya is used as a contraceptive. There is some scientific evidence that unripe papaya acts as a natural contraceptive and if eaten in large amounts can induce abortion.
10. Christopher Columbus called papaya the “fruit of the Angels”.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book

27 September: Justice

Since the current zodiac sign is that of Libra, which has the symbol of the scales of justice, here are 10 quotes on the subject of justice:

1. Nobody gets justice. People only get good luck or bad luck. Orson Welles
2. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Martin Luther King
3. Truth never damages a cause that’s just. Mahatma Gandhi
4. Justice delayed is justice denied. William E Gladstone
5. Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. Benjamin Franklin
6. It is essential that justice be done, and it is equally vital that justice not be confused with revenge, for the two are wholly different. Oscar Arias
7. There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. Elie Wiesel
8. Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical. Blaise Pascal
9. Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. Nelson Mandela
10. Man is unjust, but God is just; and finally justice triumphs. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book

26 September: Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov was born on this date in 1849. He’s best known for classical conditioning and the Pavlovian response, famously ringing a bell and then giving a Dog food, and finding that eventually it will salivate at the sound of a bell alone. Here are some things you might not know about him:

1. Pavlov was born in Ryazan, Russia and was the eldest of eleven children. He learned to read by the time he was seven but didn’t go to school until he was 11 because he fell off a wall as a child and was badly injured.
2. His father was a Russian Orthodox priest and initially, Pavlov intended to follow in his footsteps and enrolled at a seminary. However, he left there to go to university in St Petersburg and study the sciences. One of his teachers was Dmitri Mendeleev, who devised the Periodic Table.
3. While his most famous experiment made him well known in the field of psychology, his field of study was actually physiology, in particular the digestive system. He won a Nobel prize in 1904 and was the first Russian Nobel laureate. However, it wasn’t for classical conditioning. It was for performing an operation on a dog so he could observe its digestive system in action.
4. There’s some doubt as to whether he ever used bells in his conditioning experiments at all. His writings mention electric shocks, whistles, metronomes, tuning forks, and a range of visual stimuli rather than bells.
5. Even the term “conditioned response” wasn’t the term Pavlov used. He called it the “conditional response” but when his work was translated from the original Russian, a mistranslation gave us the word we use today.
6. He married Seraphima, known as Sara for short, in 1881. At that time, scientists in Russia weren’t paid very much so they often had to live apart as they couldn’t afford a place of their own. Often the friends they stayed with could only accommodate one of them. They had four children which survived to adulthood. All four had names beginning with V – Vladimir, Victor, Vsevolod, and Vera. A fifth child, Mirchik, had died as an infant.
7. To make money, Pavlov used to sell one of the products of his work – canine gastric juice. He got one of his assistants to collect it and sold thousands of containers of it as a cure for indigestion.
8. He had an anger management problem. Ever since he was a child, his mood could suddenly change and he’d have an angry outburst. Sadly, he often took his bad moods out on the poor dogs in his lab. Pavlov himself described his angry outbursts as “morbid, spontaneous paroxysms.”
9. A scientist to the last, he asked one of his students to sit by his bed as he was dying of pneumonia at the age of 86, and record the process of his dying.
10. He has an Asteroid (1007 Pawlowia), and a crater on the Moon named after him.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book

25 September: Monmouthshire Day

Ten things you didn't know about the county of Monmouthshire in Wales:

1. Monmouthshire, also known as the County of Monmouth or Sir Fynwy in Welsh, is one of thirteen historic counties of Wales and a former administrative county.
2. The name derives from 'Monnow-mouth'. Monnow was the anglicised name for the river, Mynwy, which may originally have meant "fast-flowing", was anglicised as Monnow.
3. A pedestrian bridge crossing this river is the only Norman fortified bridge remaining in Britain.
4. For several hundred years there was some confusion as to whether the county was part of England or Wales. The Laws in Wales Act 1542 left Monmouthshire out of the list of counties in Wales. Since Wales and England had become one kingdom, in practical terms, it didn’t make a lot of difference, but acts of Parliament would refer to "Wales and Monmouthshire". It wasn’t until 1974 that the Local Government Act clarified matters and placed Monmouthshire firmly in Wales.
5. Queen recorded parts of Bohemian Rhapsody in a Monmouthshire studio. Rockfield studios was also where Oasis recorded (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? In 1995.
6. The largest town is Abergavenny. It is is 6 miles from the English border and is often referred to as the “Gateway to Wales.”
7. The county town is Monmouth, meaning "town on the Monnow". The Welsh name for the town is Trefynwy. It is situated where the River Monnow meets the River Wye and is less than 2 miles from the border with England. Monmouth was named one of the best places to live in Wales in 2017.
8. Tourism contributes £245 million to the Monmouthshire economy. Approximately 2.28 million people visit each year and about 10% of the workforce are employed in the tourist industry. One reason for this is that the Brecon Beacons National Park is located here.
9. One of the things you can see in Brecon Beacons is Sugar Loaf Hill, probably so called because it looks like a sugar loaf. The original Welsh name of the hill is Mynydd Pen-y-fâl. which means 'mountain of the head/top of the peak/summit' from mynydd, pen and bâl’. The highest point is Chwarel y Fan at 2,228 feet.
10. King Henry V was born in Monmouthshire.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book

24 September: F. Scott Fitzgerald quotes

Today is the birthday of F Scott Fitzgerald, whose most famous novel is The Great Gatsby. Here are some words of wisdom from him:

1. Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.
2. Whenever you feel like criticizing any one...just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.
3. Here's to alcohol, the rose coloured glasses of life.
4. There are all kinds of love in this world but never the same love twice.
5. Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.
6. It takes two to make an accident.
7. It was always the becoming he dreamed of, never the being.
8. New friends can often have a better time together than old friends.
9. Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes.
10. Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind.

See also: facts about F Scott Fitzgerald.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book

23 September: Libra star sign

The current zodiac sign is Libra. 10 facts about this star sign:

1. Libra is Latin for weighing scales, the symbol of the sign. The scales are based on the Scales of Justice held by Themis, the Greek personification of divine law and her Roman equivalent, Justitia. The modern figure of Lady Justice, as seen atop London’s central criminal court, the Old Bailey, is based on this goddess.
2. Libra is the only sign of the zodiac not represented by a living creature or person.
3. The constellation of Libra is a fairly faint one with no first magnitude stars. At least three of the stars within the constellation are known to have planets. The planets around the star Gliese 581 are thought to be suitable planets for life.
4. The Babylonians also saw this constellation as representing scales and justice. In their case the deity associated with the concept was male, the god Shamash. They also saw it as the claws of the scorpion, as did astronomers in ancient Greece. In ancient Egypt, they saw the constellation as a boat.
5. As well as justice, the sign represents balance – because the days and nights are of equal length while the sun passes through Libra. The heat of summer has passed but winter has not yet arrived, so there’s a balance of temperature at this time of year, too, neither too hot nor too cold.
6. Libra is an air sign and its ruling planet is Venus.
7. Birthstones for those born under this sign are Opal, coral, emerald, Jasper and lapis lazuli. Its colours are Blue and Brown, its metal Copper and its flowers Rose and Violet.
8. In the human body, Libra rules the kidneys and lower back. It also governs justice, balance, law enforcement, sensuality, overindulgence, indecisiveness and procrastination.
9. Famous people born under this sign include John Lennon, Hugh Jackman, Eminem, Julie Andrews, Kate Winslet, Michael Douglas and Christopher Reeve.
10. Librans are said to be charming and sociable and able to compromise. They are able to see things from another’s point of view and the bigger picture. The down side of this is that they can be indecisive, with a tendency to weigh their options carefully before taking action. They are logical, elegant, stylish and love beautiful things. They may also have a sweet tooth.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book

22 September: Derbyshire Day

Today is Derbyshire Day. Ten things you might not know about the English county of Derbyshire:

1. The first people known to have settled in the area were the Romans. They built a fort there and called it Derventio. Later on, in 921, King Edward the Elder founded Derby when he built a bastion against the resurgence of Vikings in the East Midlands.
2. Derbyshire covers an area of 255,071 hectares (630,366 acres) – which is nearly two per cent of England.
3. Derbyshire was the location of the first factory in England, possibly even the world – it was a silk mill known as Lombe’s Mill dating back to the 18^th century.
4. At the other extreme, perhaps, Derbyshire was also the location of England’s first public park – Derby Arboretum, which opened in 1840. Philanthropist Joseph Strutt donated the land as a thank you gesture to the local people, who’d helped him make his fortune. The park was designed by John Claudius Loudon. In 1857, it was visited by Frederick Law Olmsted, one of the designers of New York’s Central Park – and it’s thought he used some of Loudon’s ideas. The UK’s first national park, the Peak District, is also in Derbyshire.
5. As well as the city of Derby, towns in the county include Chesterfield (which has a 14^th century church with a twisted and leaning spire), Long Eaton, Ilkeston, Swadlincote, Buxton (home of Buxton mineral water), Glossop (the foundation stone of its town hall was laid on the day Queen Victoria was crowned) and Belper, which has become famous for the Belper Moo. This originated as a way to keep spirits up during the 2020 lockdown. Belper resident Jasper Ward, advertised it on social media as a means of 'fighting lockdown stress, boredom and loneliness'. At 6.30 every evening, Belper residents were encouraged to go to their doors and windows, or into their gardens, and moo like a Cow.
6. On Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday the town of Ashbourne in Derbyshire hosts a historic football game lasting two days. It’s played between 2:00 pm and lasting until 10:00 pm, between the Up'Ards and the Down'Ards (which team a person is on depends on which side of Henmore Brook they were born on). There are dozens pf people on each team and tourists have been known to join in, but scoring a goal (striking the ball three times on a millstone) is reserved for locals. It’s usually agreed in advance who will perform the honours should the ball reach the goal. There are very few rules. The game must not be played after 10pm, cemeteries and the memorial gardens are out of bounds, the ball must not be hidden in a bag or rucksack, or carried in a motorised vehicle. A further rule is that players must not commit murder or manslaughter.
7. Derbyshire's country flower is Jacob's-ladder (Polemonium caeruleum).
8. Mr Darcy’s Pemberley estate is set in Derbyshire. George Eliot's novel Adam Bede and DH Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers take place in the county, too. More recently, the TV series Peak Practice and The League of Gentlemen were filmed there.
9. Famous people from Derbyshire include Barnes Wallis, who developed the bouncing bombs during World War II, sailor Ellen MacArthur and Coronation Street actress Tracey Shaw. The video game character Lara Croft was invented at Core Design in Derby.
10. Derby’s cathedral has the second highest perpendicular church tower in England and the oldest set of ten bells in the world. One of them was cast in 1520 during the reign of Henry VIII, and is still in use almost 500 years later (it’s one of the oldest working objects in the city).

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book

21 September: Matthew Name Day

St Matthew’s day. Matthew is a given name which derives from Hebrew and means “gift of God.” – some famous Matthews:

1. Saint Matthew: tax collector and apostle.
2. Matt Damon: American actor.
3. Matt Groening: Cartoonist who created The Simpsons.
4. Matthew McConaughy: American actor.
5. Matthew Paris: English journalist and politician.
6. Matthew Perry: Canadian actor.
7. Matt Cardle: singer who won X-Factor in 2010.
8. Matthew Broderick: American actor, played the title character in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
9. Matt Smith: British actor who has played both Prince Philip and Doctor Who.
10. Captain Matthew Flinders: (1774-1814) English navigator who circumnavigated Australia.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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