Elspeth Payne on…

The Book of Taliesin is a late Middle Welsh version of the ales of Gwion Bach and Taliesin, mostly around the court of Maelgyn Gynedd.  It was written in the 1550s, the same time Henry VIII was on the throne (or maybe collected then? Middle Welsh is 12th-14th c, and Taliesin was tenth c).  […]

Today we have a Guest Riddler, known to me as Lady Tsura, guiding light of the Bright Hills Brewers Guild.  She’s a brewer (damn fine cyser, I must say).  Can you guess her riddle? I am one simple word, but I mean different things One of my meanings brings great forceful […]

The Anglo-Saxons were great riddlers.   An author I genuinely respect, Cindy Renfrow, says this is Riddle 25 from the Exeter Book, or Codex Exoniensis, a tenth century book of Anglo-Saxon poetry (translated here for our ease).  I haven’t been able to identify it using the Williamson or Krapp-Dobbie indeces of […]

 Can you answer this riddle? I am man’s treasure, taken from the woods, Cliff-sides, hill-slopes, valleys, downs; By day wings bear me in the buzzing air, Slip me under a sheltering roof-sweet craft. Soon a man bears me to a tub. Bathed, I am binder and scourge of men, bring […]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/oct/22/john-lewis-poem-gillian-clarke This poem is part of a window display at the Cardiff branch of department store John Lewis.  In the midst of our color-blazing, air-chilling autumn, when I am planning holidays and finding my sweaters, this really hit home.  Pun intended. Home by Gillian Clarke Evening, home after hours away, […]

I leave for the third annual U.S. Beer Bloggers Conference  (BBC12) on Thursday, so I thought I’d better get myself organized a bit; the way work is rocking I know I won’t have time to be sensible during the week.   There are all sorts of intriguing factors.  I’ll be sharing a room with […]

I used to teach Anatomy and Physiology – a twelve-month long, three hour a week course, half anatomy, half physiology.  A&P has a deadly reputation for difficulty and tedium that it completely deserves.  We instructors did what we could to lighten it up.  We had foot-high wooden skeletons and modelling clay; […]

I have been enchanted following the mystery of the glorious paper scupltures that magically appear around Edinburgh centers of books and stories.  Have you seen one?  First of all, no one knows who makes them, and while the artist deserves a great deal of credit, I have to hope the mystery isn’t […]

Blogpost, early 2007 I ran ten miles today.   I love my cushy U. Wisconsin at Milwaukee socks, but they’r hotsocks – they bunch and chafe a bit over time.   ow ow ow ow.   Remind me not to take them with me for the long miles, even if they do have […]

 This is a basic mead recipe from a class I taught in 2009.  Now, I could not possibly break it down this simply, but thinking like this got me started and served me reasonably well for a lot of years.  Honey: 2.5 – 4 lbs per gallon of water. Water: […]

copyright Elspeth Payne I was 26 when I wrote this, typing on an old manual typewriter in stream-of-conscious style It was amazing – we were slowly climbing out of the desert of northern New Mexico in my little red Honda when suddenly we crested a grassy green hill.  We hadn’t seen […]

Copyright Elspeth Payne Our rumbling, sawed-off school bus returned into Moab after we’d walked through Canyonlands for nearly a month.  We’d driven down from Nevada, crossing huge flat plains with rugged, sculpted boulders perched precariously above us.  We meandered through Bryce Canyon, smooth pocked hills of swirled sandstone, gaping in awe […]