Positive Letters ... inspirational stories ...: March 2026

Monday, 23 March 2026

Crinoids … St Cuthbert Beads …

Stepping on eggshells … or walking on the beach with sharp, stony pebbles … both would make us jump around trying to find a more comfortable place from which to enjoy the seashore …

"So-called
St Cuthbert's beads"

I remember a holiday I had with my father years ago up on the Northumberland coast, when we visited the tidal Holy Island of Lindisfarne – an important centre of Celtic Christianity, including St Cuthbert (c 634 – 687AD), and later the Venerable Bede (c 672 - 735AD) …

Falsies from years ago!

I don't know how many have seen the fossilised false teeth set that hit the airwaves recently … actually some crinoids ossified as the planet evolved about half a billion years ago … entitled the 'smiling fossil' see link below …

Lindisfarne - Holy Island

Crinoids, marine invertebrates, can still appear … but these fossilised ones tend to be found from the Triassic era (c 250 million years ago to 200 million years ago) ...

Crinoid Stem

I realised the crinoid find … false teeth from the triassic era … rather quaint - which gave me, and continues to give me, a laugh …

Explanation of a Crinoid - via Lumen

Amazing what can be found millions of years later … protected in a layer of sediment the skeletal remains compacted, turn to rock …

One of the pinnules - before
the crinoids separate away

... the bones are dissolved by water seeping through the rock, while the minerals in the water replace the bone, leaving a rock replica of the original bone called a fossil …

As described within image

...then over geological time these replica bones become displaced leaving us with the so called “St Cuthbert's Beads' from the Jurassic era…

Triassic flora and fauna

Strange but true … false teeth idea and all?!

Happy Spring finally, though we're in for a few chilly days …

Smiling False Teeth fossil

Lumen - c/o Wiki

Crinoid - c/o Wiki

National History Museum - discover the triassic period

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Monday, 16 March 2026

Mothering Sunday … “Altar of Nonn” …

The village Altarnun, Cornwall, is named after Saint Nonna, mother of the Welsh patron saint: St David, who had moved to Cornwall in AD 527.

The village of Altarnun

I've been thinking about the servants, who would have to get the morning chores finished on Mothering Sunday …

... but at some point would be released to see their own mother often gathering violets on the way as a small token of their love ...

Bodmin Moor - the area known as
'Rough Tor'

... the images conjured up in my mind were of perhaps a peasant child struggling across the moors, against the biting wind and odd squally shower, to see their mother on their annual day off …

...yesterday Mothering Sunday – a day of honouring mother churches, as celebrated in the Middle Ages – is fading from many people's views of life … recorded though in literature – which I couldn't find - I'm sure one of the Bronte's wrote something?!

Violets

However here it is thought that Shakespeare's King of the Fairies, Oberon, might have given the Fairy Queen a bouquet of violets … as depicted in Act 2, Scene 1 from A Midsummer Night's Dream:

"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.”

The UK, Ireland and some Commonwealth countries celebrate this observance per the Church calendar … on the fourth Sunday in Lent – no doubt we will, as usual, also succumb to the American secular Mother's Day observation … on the second Sunday in May.

Nodding Violet -
Violet odorata

I'm feeling my way back in … I think the NHS (hospital) has faded into the background … and now Spring is about here … I can comfortably get on … as I hope you all can …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Sunday, 8 March 2026

World Book Day … and International Women's Day …

The aspect of reading and its benefits are being encouraged for all … be it for the little ones, or for those older, perhaps even silver ones, who've not explored what's out in the written world …

Oracy is a word I hadn't come across … meaning the oral equivalent of literacy and numeracy … numbers can defeat many too!!

The National Literacy Trust empowers people to achieve literacy skills that'll be needed to succeed in life.

One book to start with (I've more … I'm back!) … I've just read Julia Gray's 'I, Ada' about Ada Lovelace, Byron's daughter.

Julia Gray writes as though she's Ada … bringing her story to life, yet sensibly adding snippets to bring the story more to our attention … as we know relatively little about Ada …

Ada - portrait by Margaret
Sarah Carpenter (1836)

... at the end in the author's note Gray talks about 'imagine out' from what is known or can be found on a subject … then round out those notes … which Gray describes as some kind of middle plane between fiction and non-fiction where books like I, Ada must sit...

... Gray goes on to say that whatever topic she's been researching there will always be questions that can only be answered by imagining out as to what might have happened … enlightening the reader a little more about the subject to hand …

I found this imagining aspect really quite insightful … and, oh yes!, it's a great read … about the mathematician, who envisaged the analytical engine … Ada Lovelace is often considered the first computer programmer.

Illustration from Sydney Padua's
graphic novel

2015 celebrated Ada's bicentenary … when I'm sure I came across Sydney Padua's webcomic and graphic novel 'The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage' abbreviated in a newspaper … bemused and hooked me …

I believe I'm on the way to being back … and am feeling distinctly easier … so here's to the future. Books galore and Women galore on the way to you in the coming months …

Ada - the computer programming language is named for her ... all two hundred years later ...

Ada (programming language) ...

Literacy Trust organisation ... World Book Day ... and skills ...

Not Your Typical Role Model from the 18th century - an overview on Sydney Padua's graphic artist's take on Ada Lovelace ... an overview by Dr Hannah Fry - who is Cambridge University's Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics ... utterly fascinating (only 1.15 clip's viewing) ...

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories