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Posts filed under 'Handmade Jewelry'
Good at naming things?
Naming things is an underestimated skill. Naming products is a part of the brand, part of the story, which is also on the market. While I want to give as much information in the title as possible, "Cat's eye brick stitch pear shapes with Swarovski Crystal Necklace" is a mouthful. A shorter title like, "Crystal Cat's Eye Necklace," could describe any number of other items. Both options are boring.
My bartender pals make it look so easy when they name cocktails. I feel like I had the hardest time naming my new favorite necklace. I had to crowd source. Kind of a fun social experiment to see how many did, didn't, and in-between (meaning suggesting word association might help) make suggestions. Here's what I got from the exercise:
Poire (French for pear)
Winter is Coming
Golden Leaves
Cersei's Jewels
Endless Sunset
Galactic Disco (Haha! Thanks, Mrs. Partner)
Why did I settle on Alice? I made the majority of this necklace while watching Once Upon a Time, and while Alice in Wonderland does not figure prominently, there is activity in Wonderland with the Mad Hatter and Queen of Hearts. Really, the use of cat's eye cabochon made me zero in on the Cheshire Cat and Dinah. Alice likes cats, and so do I. So… yep.
So, are you good at naming things? What's your process?
The month of purple
Amethyst is the birthstone of February. I failed in my new years goals to make anything amethyst or purple, but I did donate platelets and get a purple pressure bandage. (Public Service Message: go donate blood! Make your appointment today at your local blood bank. Give blood three times a year!)
I took a break from a Mucha-style headdress to do some sewing. It's been tough getting out from behind my sewing machine; I have been in the zone! Since January, I have made three vests, three reversible bow ties, two reversible berets, one reversible suspenders, altered one brazier (you know, a bra), and made my own appliqué (post coming shortly) while watching Star Wars Clone Wars on Netflix (in the correct order). I have plans next to alter two dresses, a pair of silk boxers, and make my first neck tie, but I thought I would give the machine a break.
Other exciting things have kept me from making new purple jewelry, such as Cider Con 2017 in Chicago, kicking the cold I developed after Cider Con, a baby shower, a singing gig with In the Groove, an Oscar's viewing party (I don't really care much about the Oscars, but it is a dress-up party), and an unpredictable work schedule to offset the time I missed. I did make a nail-enamel-flower comb/headdress that turned out awesome of the Oscar party… I'll put it on the store soon.
Meanwhile, I do already have purply items on my Etsy and in my store. I should start on March with aquamarine before doing anything else.
Holiday Goal Achieved
Yup, I did it. Thirty products have been added to Etsy and MaggieMakesIt.com since Black Friday. Clearly, it's good to have goals. It might even be good time to set goals for next year. A series of manageable goals may keep the creative energy flowing.
- One new item a week (that's 4-5 a month, so we'll round it to 50 products a year–there might be a few weeks when I travel). I think that seems like a reasonable number, which means I won't feel the need to add so many products during the holidays as I did this year. I give myself permission to get ahead some weeks, and double up weeks should I fall behind. Why not start now before the end of the year? That means a bonus product before the gifting season is over!
- A birthstone item every month.
- One sewing project every month. I still have a bunch of vests to make.
Well, I think that's probably enough. I still have to make time for my job and Two Broads, after all.
Now for this week's new items: I have been working on an ambitious project most of the week, so as Saturday rolled around I panicked because I didn't have anything new yet. I managed to revamp a few older items just in time. The following is a series of before and after shots.
This is where I ran out of large leaves to add to the clusters. I had to switch to tiny, tiny leaves on the pink and white necklace that follows.
I think those tiny, tiny leaves would be adorable on earrings like the ones below, too. Maybe for next time. Stay tuned.
Headstart on January and Prohibition Celebration
Garnet. The great thing about garnet is: 1, it's red– I just love red; 2, red is a great color for this holiday season; and 3, it is January's birthstone and January is right around the corner. Remember, I said I wanted to do more with birthstones in the future?
The creative bug bit me this weekend and I've been working with garnet I bought at the beginning of MaggieMakesIt. I pulled apart a few items that were too simple to be interesting, and the result has been a more Modern Art flavor. The necklace below looks freeform without actually being freeform. It's very ordered, in fact: 22 identical pieces are joined in a chain with a modified, longer 23rd piece joining the chains in the middle front. I think it's my new favorite piece. I have also made several earring options to wear with it, or on their own. Stay tuned for more garnet items, as I still have some carved leaves and briolettes to add to this garnet collection.
Today is the anniversary to the end of Prohibition, so it's time to dress up like it's 1933 and let the bubbly flow. (Please drink responsibly, everybody.) The time period of Prohibition coincides with the Art Deco movement of the 1920s and 1930s, and this is one of my favorite time periods. The Fremont Theater, while it was opened in 1942, still rocks the Art Deco style Architect S. Charles Lee did so well. I modified the motif on the marquee into a headband below. While I'm really pleased with the way the piece turned out, I was disappointed with the way it looked pointing backwards, like a 1950s kerchief on a cleaning housewife. Even moving it down to the side didn't look quite right. Last week, I had this epiphany to point forward instead, and now it totally works for me. I also want to add a few loops to the back so it can also be worn as a necklace.
You may have noticed I let a few things expire on Etsy, but everything is still available at MaggieMakesIt.com. As you can see, I am continuing to deliver on my promise to add new products before the holidays. Stay tuned for five new items next week, and if time allows, I may be able to add a bonus five more products the week of Christmas. We have 19 days to go for Xmas and Chanukah; keep that in mind while you are thinking about your orders.
Fulfilling those goals and holiday jams
I added five more products to Maggiemakesit.com and Etsy this morning. That's 20 of the 30 promised by the week of Christmas. Of course, don't forget with the volume of packages being sent over the holidays, you'll have to be early to make sure your gift or holiday party accessory will arrive on time. Priority mail is fast, but still subject to holiday delays.
In other news, I'm making holiday gifts. I broadcast jams and fruit butters to my family and friends. It's an item made with love and you can do so much with it; toast/waffles/biscuits, ice cream, meat glaze, brie-accompaniment, oatmeal-flavoring… Today, Apple Cider Butter with Orange, and next week I'll make apricot and peach. I have loads in the freezer from this summer.
Applying to be a featured Brand
As promised, five more products for Cyber Monday on MaggieMakesIt.com and Etsy. Fifteen more to go until Christmas. Between now and then, there is the End of Prohibition Party to prepare for. I've got some new hair adornments in development.
In other news, I'm applying to get on StorEnvy's featured brands list. It feels a bit like the college essays, but with less existential crisis so I'm able to have fun with it. I'm turning it into a mock interview. They've also asked for some pictures of my brand (workspace, projects– you know, stuff that's part of my "story"). Might change the pictures around, and find some more professional ones. Please enjoy my mock interview!
Maker Spotlight by Cat Edward of SLO Business Times
I got to sit down with one-woman-show Maggie Przybylski of MaggieMakesIt.com on a moody day in November to get to know her and her creative drive. We sat down in a coffee shop while the sky alternated between showers and sun. She has two vintage rings that belonged to her great grandmother on her left ring finger, a watch with rectangular face and kitty background on her left wrist, a hand beaded necklace and matching earrings and a simple string with Maori bone carving.
Me: How did you get involved making jewelry?
Maggie: I got a few kits before my teens, and I used to make macrame friendship bracelets in grade school. Really, seriously I got into jewelry while in college. I got a job as a gift shop clerk at the Mission in downtown San Luis Obispo. In addition to the normal retail, I was asked to dust/sweep/clean fingerprints off glass in the museum, respond to 4th grade mission project mail, and make rosaries. I'm not even Catholic, but I got really good at rosaries and what patron saint metal you should buy to sell your house or find your car keys.
Me: How long have you been making jewelry? When did you have the job at the Mission?
Maggie: Well, I wouldn't count the mission days. I'd count when my then partner, now wife, wanted to build a website. She saw I was skilled making the rosary beads and encouraged me to take it further. That was 2005, after I graduated college. I've been developing my style ever since, collecting new techniques and practicing them. I made all the products, took and edited all the pictures while Mrs. MaggieMakesIt kept the website code up to date until the software developers abandoned that store platform. That is how she found StorEnvy and here I am.
Me: What was your first tool?
Maggie: Of course, rosary pliers. They have the needle nose and also a cutting tool. I love the two-in-one tool. I take them with me everywhere in case I, or anyone, has a jump ring stretch and their jewelry fall off. Then I can give it a fix right away.
Me: That is so handy. I fell like I should buy some pliers now. What other tools do you have?
Maggie: I have a metal punch, a mallet, a ball peen hammer, a tiny anvil, and a metal square to bang on. Uh, five sets of different types of pliers. Needles, soldering torch, rulers, glues, shears, clamps… Um… I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things.
Me: That is quite a list. Tell me what inspires you.
Maggie: Oh, how much time do we have?
Me: Uh…
Maggie: Well, I'll try give you the summary. I love museums. Those pioneers of art continue to inspire shapes and colors. I especially love the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements, because one of my favorite childhood memories is of going to see the Oakland Ballet with my mum and dad at the Paramount Theater. The Egyptian motifs there got me obsessed with antiquity, and ancient Egyptian art in particular. [She reflexively pulls on her earrings, a scarab with hand beaded bird wings).
I have crafty friends that show me what their working on, too, and I like to riff off some of their ideas. For example, I have a friend that sews all his own bow ties and makes them reversible, more versatile, and now I absolutely want to bead a few bow ties. I should put bolo ties on my list as well.
Oh, and vintage! I love fashion especially from the 1910s to 1950s, so I make things that fit those time periods, as well. It's also fun to see how later those motifs get incorporated back into current fashion.
Me: Do you have a favorite technique?
Maggie: I am in love with all the stitches you can do with seed beads. I have seen and aspire to make the most elaborate and beautiful things, like Jamie Cloud Eakin and Melanie Potter. Of course, those are things you can pretty much just wear a black dress with, and that's all you need– your whole wardrobe could be one black dress–okay, two black dresses, so you have something to wear when the other is in the wash.
Me: Haha! Very practical.
Maggie: Yes. But I also sew dresses, and design costumes ( I love Halloween), so there is also a place for more reserved items, really simple one string beaded type things. I've tried Kumihimo, and can't wait to get back to it. Wire wrapping is great for making filigree. I must have spent an entire week making nail enamel flowers. Soutache braid is next on my list to try.
Me: What is the biggest project you've ever done?
Maggie: Hmm. The biggest or one that took the longest?
Me: Why don't you tell me both?
Maggie: Okay. I'd say my two biggest sewing projects were the canvas cover to complete our geodesic dome/Burning Man house, and my late-Victorian-era dress, complete with bustle. For jewelry, I have three biggies. I made a very elaborate mask for Mardi Gras one year. A beautiful appliqué or headband thing inspired by the motif of the Fremont Theater marquee. I also did an Egyptian style bead net dress like one I saw in a museum, I think LACMA, the King Tut exhibit when it passed through. I think that one took me the longest.
Me: Well, Maggie, I want to thank you for taking the time to chat with me today. I look forward to seeing your new creations.
Maggie: Thank you so much for this opportunity. It's been my pleasure.
Disclaimer: Cat Edwards is a nom de plume, and SLO Business Times is a fictional publication.
New Collection on my StorEnvy
Great news, everyone! I have added a new collection to my StorEnvy marketplace highlighting fascinators, hair clips that feature jewels, flowers, netting, and feathers, usually with a vintage styling.
Also, with Mrs. Partner's help, we took down the old website so now my StorEnvy Storefront will dominate the webs.
AND I added those five new products I promised, so check them out. M'k, well , I confess some of them are from the old site that hadn't made the transition yet. But hey, they are new to Etsy and StorEnvy. And they are quite delightful, so please enjoy.


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This portable Camp Stove will give you the same reliable cooking performance that put Sterno on the map. The compact kit includes most everything you need to heat your meals while camping, tailgating, at picnics and more. Kit includes a cup, utensil, corrosion-resistant frame and wind-shield panels, which all nest inside the pan for convenient carry. For use with Sterno green canned heat (sold separately).
Order today!

subset: commoncrawl


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604: Beauty Standards/
I'm working on watching my 4th Taiwanese soap opera on Hulu. So far I've sampled Office Girls, Skip Beat, PS Man and Zhong Wu Yen. The last is definitely my favorite. Like Office Girls and PS Man it features a love triangle between the protagonist and two very rich men, like Office Girls she doesn't realize that the one I suspect she'll end up with is rich and also like Office Girls he is impressively immature. What makes it cool is that while in Office Girls she's supposed to look ordinary and in PS Man she's a bad dresser, in Zhong Wu Yen she is supposed to be genuinely ugly with a huge florescent pink birth mark covering most of one side of her face. Also, Mr. Rich and immature in this story has the excuse of having been emotionally stunted by the loss of his mother when he was ten and has as many endearing qualities of being childish, like brutally honest and earnest, as he does the bad ones. It also has a much better balance of interesting plot and budding romance. Plus, the protagonist and love interest deliver a baby goat together. A baby goat! What more could you want from a hammy drama?


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NH Hotels Group said that it was on track to achieve its Ebitda target of EUR250 in 2017/2018, up from its previous target of EUR200m
The news came as former chairman Charles Mobus wrote a letter on behalf of HNA Group expressing its deep concern over the new management contract between NH Hotel and Hesperia.
In an update on the company's strategic plan, NH Hotels said that it expected its Ebitda target to
be achieved via the ramp up from capex investments this year in Benelux and Central Europe and a higher contribution from the organic growth plan. It added that its deleveraging was also progressing, with plans to reach 3.0-3.5time net fdebt/Ebitda by the end of 2017.
The company saw a EUR76m reduction in net debt in the first nine months of 2016 due to favourable cash generation in the period, with capex being financed with non core asset disposals – transactions amounting to EUR125m have so far been closed reaching 90% of the sales target.
Next year is not expected to see any radical deviation from the strategy, but a "continuation of recent trends", which would include further consolidation of revpar strategy to further increases in ADR, of between 4% and 5% (75% of revpar growth is expected through ADR), cost savings and selected renovations. Forty per cent of the Ebitda growth expected next year is forecast to come from hotels refurbished this year, taking the company to between EUR220m, to EUR225m.
Next year will see refurbishments mainly concentrated in Italy – including a key hotel in Rome funded by the owner and New York, where refurbishment is assumed due to a leaseback scenario.
The new targets came as the company's shareholders continued their public battle. NH has agreed a deal with 9.27% shareholder Hesperia to revise management of 28 of its hotels. A penalty payment of EUR31m will terminate existing contracts on the properties. The fresh agreement will have a nine year term, and be on better terms to those previously applied in a 2009 agreement. Urban hotels included in the deal will be rebranded to NH formats.
In a statement to the National Securities Market Commission, NH said that in the first year there would be one payment of EUR11m, followed by two of EUR10m at yearly intervals.
Hesperia acted alongside NH shareholder Oceanwood Capital to take control of the NH board earlier this year, using the rationale that that there was a conflict of interest with HNA Group board members, amid concerns that they would push a merger with Rezidor Hotel Group, should HNA acquire it as a result of its deal to buy Carlson Hotels.
This latest deal was described in the letter from Mobus as "a sweetheart contract that rewards [Hesperia owner Jose Antonio] Castro for his support of [Alfredo] Fernandez and Oceanwood".
It added that, for more than a year, NH Hotel's previous CEO Federico Gonzalez had attempted to negotiate a management contract with Castro that would provide EUR24m of capital for required investments to the 24 hotels, to be paid over a period of three years. In return, Hesperia would have been obligated to have NH Hotel manage the hotels under a long-term management contract.
The terms included protections which guaranteed that: the cash payments to Hesperia were used to renovate the hotels, "not to service Castro's substantial outstanding debt which comes due in December 2017"; Castro could not terminate the management contracts before NH Hotel recouped its EUR24m payment to Hesperia through appropriate and financially secure termination penalties; Castro did not receive an accelerated lump-sum payment at the expense of NH Hotel's non-Hesperia shareholders through a less stringent early termination provision upon a change of control (such as a transaction with HNA) and restricted Castro's ability to receive payments from NH Hotel and then terminate or default on the contract in order to "sell" it to a new third-party, thereby profiting the same management contract twice.
The letter added that, by repeatedly rejecting these terms, "Castro created an impasse with NH Hotel's previous board that could only be solved by taking insurgent action to reconstitute the board and empower a more amenable chair, Alfredo Fernandez".
Mobus also said that he understood that "virtually all" of Castro's assets, including his NH stock and any real estate holdings, were already pledged to Banco Santander which owns the loan coming due in December 2017.
He reiterated calls for a formal search for a new CEO and concluded: "To put it bluntly: The process of reconciling the interests of HNA and the non-HNA shareholders cannot begin until the corporate governance problem at NH Hotel is solved".
HA Perspective [by Katherine Doggrell]: Observers of the situation at NH Hotels Group, and those who would write letters on the matter, have long looked to Castro's debt as one of the motivators for the current animosity between the players and something which HNA Group would have sought to resolve before making a move on the rest of the company's shares.
Mobus pointed out that Castro apparently recently released 50% of his NH Hotel shares to Santander in order to cover part of his debt repayment. With the value of his remaining stake in NH Hotel falling along with NH Hotel's share price, he is becoming neutralised.
The company's planned Ebitda growth is predicated on 1% to 1.5% GDP growth in the EU, in line with the current EC thoughts. At this short range, the situation in the UK seems to be in a holding pattern ahead of plans to fire the starter gun on Brexit in March and, even if the French go the way of Marine Le Pen, it is not likely to have an immediate impact. President-elect Trump, of course, remains a wild card. The current view from the West is that this is his entrenched position and will not change for four years.
Messy clarity is starting to appear at the Spanish group.


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A huge steel warehouse in the town close to where i live. It was very strange to be in this huge building with nothing in it at all, also very quiet too.
building distance house silence steel surreal ware warehouse
I like this shot has a very emtpy feeling to it. Its like you can just feel the silence. Nice work.
What a stunning place, and so well photographed.
Yes, the silence is deafening in this work. Onecan almost hear the drops of water falling fromthe ceiling and splashing in the puddles below.Well constructed and beautifully timed for the light.
some great shots here in your portfolio mister :]how do you get access to places like this anyway?!? there's several buildings of a similar nature here in norwich but can't seem to get anywhere near 'em!
Nudge open a few doors, climb a few fences. Unfortunately, good places for shoots aren't always the easiest to find. And if they were, everybody would be going there. So I'd say, don't be afraid to trespass. If you get caught, the most they can do is tell you to leave. Go for it, i want to see these buildings you speak of….
Such a great place and fabulous image!
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Governor Charlie Crist proposed property-tax relief Tuesday of about $2 Billion in the first year for homeowners, landlords and business.
Those savings are estimated to increase to $4.7 Billion annually in five years.
Crist said "This money's going to the people. They've had it taken from them and taken from them and taken from them, whether by insurance premiums or property taxes."
Our Fort Myers Real Estate blog's purpose is to inform, answer questions, and take comments. Fort Myers Homes and Condos are going up in price.
Prices rising and home inventory decreasing
It is impossible to predict a bottom in the real estate market. The following article in the Fort Myers News Press is encouraging.
News Press 1/26/2007. December median home price $262,500, up from $258,600 in November. This is two months in a row of price increases. In another sign the slide may be almost over, the number of homes on the market decreased for a second month.
News Press 1/26/2007. December median home price $262,500, up from $258,600 in November. This is two months in a row of price increases. In another sign the slide may be almost over, the number of homes on the market decreased for a second month.
Property Taxes State's Next Target
Fort Myers News Press January 25, 2007
With insurance checked off the to-do list, Florida lawmakers are turning to another issue that's enraging the electorate - soaring property taxes.
Easing property tax increases is part of a larger plan on which Gov. Charlie Crist and many lawmakers campaigned last fall to ease the spiraling costs of owning a home.
"Property in our state has exponentially increased in its value, so I think that is very doable (lowering taxes) and something we will be able to achieve".
With insurance checked off the to-do list, Florida lawmakers are turning to another issue that's enraging the electorate - soaring property taxes.
Easing property tax increases is part of a larger plan on which Gov. Charlie Crist and many lawmakers campaigned last fall to ease the spiraling costs of owning a home.
"Property in our state has exponentially increased in its value, so I think that is very doable (lowering taxes) and something we will be able to achieve".
Lower Real Estate Prices Prompt Lee County Schools
On January 9th, the Lee County School District bought 16.3 acres on Gunnery Road in Lehigh Acres for $3.4 Million. Minutes later, school board members authorized spending $6.1 million for 101.8 acres on another future school site off Joel Boulevard in Lehigh Acres.
Insurance-rate drop done deal !
Fort Myers News-Press. 1/23/07. Insurance-rate drop done deal! For customers of state created Citizens Property Insurance, the average savings could be about 18%. The measure would reverse a recent 21 percent rate increase and cancel a 56% increase that was schedule for this year.
Existing Homes Sales to Trend Upward in 2007
Existing-home sales are expected to rise gradually in 2007 from current levels, with annual totals slightly lower than 2006, while new-home sales will continue to slide, according to the latest forecast by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. David Lereah, NAR's chief economist, says market conditions will vary around the country next year."Roughly three-quarters of the country will experience a sluggish expansion in 2007, while other areas should continue to contract for at least part of the year," he says. "Most of the correction in home prices is behind us, but general gains in value next year will be modest by historical standards."For Buyers, a Window of Opportunity"Buyers, especially first-time buyers, with the combined benefits of seller flexibility and an unexpected drop in mortgage interest rates, have a window of opportunity," he adds. "These conditions will persist in many areas until early spring when inventory supplies are likely to become more balanced." Existing-home sales for 2006, finishing the third-best year on record, are projected at 6.47 million, a decline of 8.6 percent from 2005. For 2007, sales expected to rise steadily to an annual total of 6.40 million, which would be 1 percent lower than this year's total. "By the fourth quarter of 2007, existing-home sales will be 4.6 percent higher than the current quarter," Lereah says.Builders Slow New-Home ConstructionNew-home sales in 2006 are expected to fall 17.7 percent to 1.06 million, the fourth highest total on record, before sliding an additional 9.4 percent in 2007 to 957,000. Much of the contraction in the new housing market results from cuts in builder construction to support pricing for current inventories. In addition, high construction costs in many areas are taking a bite out of potential profits. Total housing starts for 2006 are likely to drop 12.3 percent to 1.82 million units, with another 15.1 percent decline in 2007 to 1.54 million.Mortgage Rates Seen Rising to 6.7%The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is forecast to gradually increase to 6.7 percent by the fourth quarter of 2007. Last week, Freddie Mac reported the 30-year fixed rate dropped to 6.11 percent.The national median existing-home price for all of 2006 is projected to rise 1.4 percent to $222,600, with another 1.0 percent gain next year to $224,700. The median new-home price should ease by 0.5 percent to $239,700 this year, and then rise by 0.8 percent in 2007 to $241,700."Keep in mind that overall home prices were still appreciating at double digit rates in the first quarter of this year — prices in this buyer's market are temporarily a little below a year ago when we were in a strong seller's market," Lereah says. "This correction is one of the factors drawing buyers into the current market, but most sellers are still seeing very healthy long-term gains."Unemployment, Inflation ForecastsThe unemployment rate is expected to be 4.8 percent in 2007, after averaging an estimated 4.6 percent this year. Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, is forecast to be 3.4 percent for 2006 and 2.3 percent in 2007, while growth in the U.S. gross domestic product is likely to be 3.3 percent for all of this year and 2.3 percent in 2007. Inflation-adjusted disposable personal income is projected to grow 2.6 percent for 2006 and 3.5 percent next year.Reprinted from REALTOR® Magazine [December, 2006] with permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Copyright 2006. All rights reserved.
Analysts, U.S. builders believe worst of housing slump is over
Bloomberg News Service - "The worst of the drag on the economy from construction is behind us," says Chris Varvares, President of St.. Louis based Macroeconomic Advisors, LL. As a result he says growth should pick up to an annual rate of more than 3 percent in the second quarter from 2 1/4 percent in the current quarter.
Top home sale prices for 2006
Top 4 Lee County home sales for 2006. $5.35 Million 16590 Captiva Drive. $5.1 Million 5063 Joewood Drive, Sanibel. $4.9 million 17004Treviso Way, Bonita Springs. $4.5 million 16910 Captiva Drive.
Lee County sees Hot Tourism Season
Lee County's tourist-drawning barrier islands are expected to host more tourists this season than since 2004. "Our web site activity and request for visitor guides is way up. Airlines we've been talking to are filling up", said D.T. Minich, executive director of Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau.
"For sale" glut slowed home building in '06
Lee county's pace of construction slowed last year as a huge inventory of unsold housed piled up - but it still was the strongest on record except 2005 according to the Fort Myers News Press.
Fort Myers River District in state of transition
News Press December 31, 2006. Now that the market for high rise condominiums is no longer investor and speculator driver, 2007 and beyond will be transitional years for the city until more real end users provide the backbone of sustainable growth. This is important because the revitalization of the Fort Myers River District depends on new residents, not speculators.
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Onward To Victory D Montaignes Essays
When Michel de Montaigne retired to his family estate in 1572, aged 38, he tells us that he wanted to write his famous Essays as a distraction for his idle mind. He neither wanted nor expected people beyond his circle of friends to be too interested.
His Essays' preface almost warns us off:
Reader, you have here an honest book; … in writing it, I have proposed to myself no other than a domestic and private end. I have had no consideration at all either to your service or to my glory … Thus, reader, I myself am the matter of my book: there's no reason that you should employ your leisure upon so frivolous and vain a subject. Therefore farewell.
The ensuing, free-ranging essays, although steeped in classical poetry, history and philosophy, are unquestionably something new in the history of Western thought. They were almost scandalous for their day.
No one before Montaigne in the Western canon had thought to devote pages to subjects as diverse and seemingly insignificant as "Of Smells", "Of the Custom of Wearing Clothes", "Of Posting" (letters, that is), "Of Thumbs" or "Of Sleep" — let alone reflections on the unruliness of the male appendage, a subject which repeatedly concerned him.
French philosopher Jacques Rancière has recently argued that modernism began with the opening up of the mundane, private and ordinary to artistic treatment. Modern art no longer restricts its subject matters to classical myths, biblical tales, the battles and dealings of Princes and prelates.
If Rancière is right, it could be said that Montaigne's 107 Essays, each between several hundred words and (in one case) several hundred pages, came close to inventing modernism in the late 16th century.
Montaigne frequently apologises for writing so much about himself. He is only a second rate politician and one-time Mayor of Bourdeaux, after all. With an almost Socratic irony, he tells us most about his own habits of writing in the essays titled "Of Presumption", "Of Giving the Lie", "Of Vanity", and "Of Repentance".
But the message of this latter essay is, quite simply, that non, je ne regrette rien, as a more recent French icon sang:
Were I to live my life over again, I should live it just as I have lived it; I neither complain of the past, nor do I fear the future; and if I am not much deceived, I am the same within that I am without … I have seen the grass, the blossom, and the fruit, and now see the withering; happily, however, because naturally.
Montaigne's persistence in assembling his extraordinary dossier of stories, arguments, asides and observations on nearly everything under the sun (from how to parley with an enemy to whether women should be so demure in matters of sex, has been celebrated by admirers in nearly every generation.
Within a decade of his death, his Essays had left their mark on Bacon and Shakespeare. He was a hero to the enlighteners Montesquieu and Diderot. Voltaire celebrated Montaigne - a man educated only by his own reading, his father and his childhood tutors – as "the least methodical of all philosophers, but the wisest and most amiable". Nietzsche claimed that the very existence of Montaigne's Essays added to the joy of living in this world.
More recently, Sarah Bakewell's charming engagement with Montaigne, How to Live or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer (2010) made the best-sellers' lists. Even today's initiatives in teaching philosophy in schools can look back to Montaigne (and his "On the Education of Children") as a patron saint or sage.
So what are these Essays, which Montaigne protested were indistinguishable from their author? ("My book and I go hand in hand together").
It's a good question.
Anyone who tries to read the Essays systematically soon finds themselves overwhelmed by the sheer wealth of examples, anecdotes, digressions and curios Montaigne assembles for our delectation, often without more than the hint of a reason why.
To open the book is to venture into a world in which fortune consistently defies expectations; our senses are as uncertain as our understanding is prone to error; opposites turn out very often to be conjoined ("the most universal quality is diversity"); even vice can lead to virtue. Many titles seem to have no direct relation to their contents. Nearly everything our author says in one place is qualified, if not overturned, elsewhere.
Without pretending to untangle all of the knots of this "book with a wild and desultory plan", let me tug here on a couple of Montaigne's threads to invite and assist new readers to find their own way.
Philosophy (and writing) as a way of life
Some scholars argued that Montaigne began writing his essays as a want-to-be Stoic, hardening himself against the horrors of the French civil and religious wars, and his grief at the loss of his best friend Étienne de La Boétie through dysentery.
Certainly, for Montaigne, as for ancient thinkers led by his favourites, Plutarch and the Roman Stoic Seneca, philosophy was not solely about constructing theoretical systems, writing books and articles. It was what one more recent admirer of Montaigne has called "a way of life".
Montaigne has little time for forms of pedantry that value learning as a means to insulate scholars from the world, rather than opening out onto it. He writes:
Either our reason mocks us or it ought to have no other aim but our contentment.
We are great fools. 'He has passed over his life in idleness,' we say: 'I have done nothing today.' What? have you not lived? that is not only the fundamental, but the most illustrious of all your occupations.
One feature of the Essays is, accordingly, Montaigne's fascination with the daily doings of men like Socrates and Cato the Younger; two of those figures revered amongst the ancients as wise men or "sages".
Their wisdom, he suggests, was chiefly evident in the lives they led (neither wrote a thing). In particular, it was proven by the nobility each showed in facing their deaths. Socrates consented serenely to taking hemlock, having been sentenced unjustly to death by the Athenians. Cato stabbed himself to death after having meditated upon Socrates' example, in order not to cede to Julius Caesar's coup d'état.
To achieve such "philosophic" constancy, Montaigne saw, requires a good deal more than book learning. Indeed, everything about our passions and, above all, our imagination, speaks against achieving that perfect tranquillity the classical thinkers saw as the highest philosophical goal.
We discharge our hopes and fears, very often, on the wrong objects, Montaigne notes, in an observation that anticipates the thinking of Freud and modern psychology. Always, these emotions dwell on things we cannot presently change. Sometimes, they inhibit our ability to see and deal in a supple way with the changing demands of life.
Philosophy, in this classical view, involves a retraining of our ways of thinking, seeing and being in the world. Montaigne's earlier essay "To philosophise is to learn how to die" is perhaps the clearest exemplar of his indebtedness to this ancient idea of philosophy.
Yet there is a strong sense in which all of the Essays are a form of what one 20th century author has dubbed "self-writing": an ethical exercise to "strengthen and enlighten" Montaigne's own judgement, as much as that of we readers:
And though nobody should read me, have I wasted time in entertaining myself so many idle hours in so pleasing and useful thoughts? … I have no more made my book than my book has made me: it is a book consubstantial with the author, of a peculiar design, a parcel of my life …
As for the seeming disorder of the product, and Montaigne's frequent claims that he is playing the fool, this is arguably one more feature of the Essays that reflects his Socratic irony. Montaigne wants to leave us with some work to do and scope to find our own paths through the labyrinth of his thoughts, or alternatively, to bobble about on their diverting surfaces.
A free-thinking sceptic
Yet Montaigne's Essays, for all of their classicism and their idiosyncracies, are rightly numbered as one of the founding texts of modern thought. Their author keeps his own prerogatives, even as he bows deferentially before the altars of ancient heroes like Socrates, Cato, Alexander the Great or the Theban general Epaminondas.
There is a good deal of the Christian, Augustinian legacy in Montaigne's makeup. And of all the philosophers, he most frequently echoes ancient sceptics like Pyrrho or Carneades who argued that we can know almost nothing with certainty. This is especially true concerning the "ultimate questions" the Catholics and Huguenots of Montaigne's day were bloodily contesting.
Writing in a time of cruel sectarian violence, Montaigne is unconvinced by the ageless claim that having a dogmatic faith is necessary or especially effective in assisting people to love their neighbours:
Between ourselves, I have ever observed supercelestial opinions and subterranean manners to be of singular accord …
This scepticism applies as much to the pagan ideal of a perfected philosophical sage as it does to theological speculations.
Socrates' constancy before death, Montaigne concludes, was simply too demanding for most people, almost superhuman. As for Cato's proud suicide, Montaigne takes liberty to doubt whether it was as much the product of Stoic tranquility, as of a singular turn of mind that could take pleasure in such extreme virtue.
Indeed when it comes to his essays "Of Moderation" or "Of Virtue", Montaigne quietly breaks the ancient mold. Instead of celebrating the feats of the world's Catos or Alexanders, here he lists example after example of people moved by their sense of transcendent self-righteousness to acts of murderous or suicidal excess.
Even virtue can become vicious, these essays imply, unless we know how to moderate our own presumptions.
Of cannibals and cruelties
If there is one form of argument Montaigne uses most often, it is the sceptical argument drawing on the disagreement amongst even the wisest authorities.
If human beings could know if, say, the soul was immortal, with or without the body, or dissolved when we die … then the wisest people would all have come to the same conclusions by now, the argument goes. Yet even the "most knowing" authorities disagree about such things, Montaigne delights in showing us.
The existence of such "an infinite confusion" of opinions and customs ceases to be the problem, for Montaigne. It points the way to a new kind of solution, and could in fact enlighten us.
Documenting such manifold differences between customs and opinions is, for him, an education in humility:
Manners and opinions contrary to mine do not so much displease as instruct me; nor so much make me proud as they humble me.
His essay "Of Cannibals" for instance, presents all of the different aspects of American Indian culture, as known to Montaigne through travellers' reports then filtering back into Europe. For the most part, he finds these "savages'" society ethically equal, if not far superior, to that of war-torn France's — a perspective that Voltaire and Rousseau would echo nearly 200 years later.
We are horrified at the prospect of eating our ancestors. Yet Montaigne imagines that from the Indians' perspective, Western practices of cremating our deceased, or burying their bodies to be devoured by the worms must seem every bit as callous.
And while we are at it, Montaigne adds that consuming people after they are dead seems a good deal less cruel and inhumane than torturing folk we don't even know are guilty of any crime whilst they are still alive …
A gay and sociable wisdom
"So what is left then?", the reader might ask, as Montaigne undermines one presumption after another, and piles up exceptions like they had become the only rule.
A very great deal, is the answer. With metaphysics, theology, and the feats of godlike sages all under a "suspension of judgment", we become witnesses as we read the Essays to a key document in the modern revaluation and valorization of everyday life.
There is, for instance, Montaigne's scandalously demotic habit of interlacing words, stories and actions from his neighbours, the local peasants (and peasant women) with examples from the greats of Christian and pagan history. As he writes:
I have known in my time a hundred artisans, a hundred labourers, wiser and more happy than the rectors of the university, and whom I had much rather have resembled.
By the end of the Essays, Montaigne has begun openly to suggest that, if tranquillity, constancy, bravery, and honour are the goals the wise hold up for us, they can all be seen in much greater abundance amongst the salt of the earth than amongst the rich and famous:
I propose a life ordinary and without lustre: 'tis all one … To enter a breach, conduct an embassy, govern a people, are actions of renown; to … laugh, sell, pay, love, hate, and gently and justly converse with our own families and with ourselves … not to give our selves the lie, that is rarer, more difficult and less remarkable …
And so we arrive with these last Essays at a sentiment better known today from another philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, the author of A Gay Science (1882) .
Montaigne's closing essays repeat the avowal that: "I love a gay and civil wisdom …." But in contrast to his later Germanic admirer, the music here is less Wagner or Beethoven than it is Mozart (as it were), and Montaigne's spirit much less agonised than gently serene.
It was Voltaire, again, who said that life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think. Montaigne adopts and admires the comic perspective. As he writes in "Of Experience":
It is not of much use to go upon stilts, for, when upon stilts, we must still walk with our legs; and when seated upon the most elevated throne in the world, we are still perched on our own bums.
The Essays (French: Essais, pronounced [esɛ]) of Michel de Montaigne are contained in three books and 107 chapters of varying length. Montaigne's stated design in writing, publishing and revising the Essays over the period from approximately 1570 to 1592 was to record "some traits of my character and of my humours." The Essays were first published in 1580 and cover a wide range of topics.[1]
Montaigne wrote in a rather crafted rhetoric designed to intrigue and involve the reader, sometimes appearing to move in a stream-of-thought from topic to topic and at other times employing a structured style that gives more emphasis to the didactic nature of his work. His arguments are often supported with quotations from Ancient Greek, Latin and Italian texts such as De rerum natura by Lucretius[2] and the works of Plutarch.
Montaigne's stated goal in his book is to describe himself with utter frankness and honesty ("bonne foi"). The insight into human nature provided by his essays, for which they are so widely read, is merely a bi-product of his introspection.Though the implications of his essays were profound and far-reaching, he did not intend, nor suspect his work to garner much attention outside of his inner circle[3], prefacing his essays with, "I am myself the matter of this book; you would be unreasonable to suspend your leisure on so frivolous and vain a subject [4]."
Montaigne's essay topics spanned the entire spectrum of the profound to the trivial, with titles ranging from "Of Sadness and Sorrow" and "Of Conscience" to "Of Smells" and "Of Posting" (referring to posting letters). Montaigne wrote at a time preceded by Catholic and Protestant ideological tension. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, protestant authors consistently attempted to subvert Church doctrine with their own reason and scholarship. Consequently, Catholic scholars embraced skepticism as a means to discredit all reason and scholarship and accept Church doctrine through faith alone[5]. Montaigne never found certainty in any of his inquiries into the nature of man and things, despite his best efforts and many attempts[5]. He mistrusted the certainty of both human reason and experience. He reasoned that while man is finite, truth is infinite; thus, human capacity is naturally inhibited in grasping reality in its fullness or with certainty[5]. Though he did believe in the existence of absolute truth, an attribute which distinguishes him from a pure skeptic, he believed that such truth could only be arrived at by man through divine revelation, leaving us in the dark on most matters[5]. He finds the great variety and volatility of human nature to be its most basic features, which resonates to the Renaissance thought about the fragility of humans. According to the scholar Paul Oskar Kristeller, "the writers of the period were keenly aware of the miseries and ills of our earthly existence". A representative quote is "I have never seen a greater monster or miracle than myself."
He opposed European colonization of the Americas, deploring the suffering it brought upon the natives.
Citing the case of Martin Guerre as an example, he believes that humans cannot attain certainty. His skepticism is best expressed in the long essay "An Apology for Raymond Sebond" (Book 2, Chapter 12) which has frequently been published separately. We cannot trust our reasoning because thoughts just occur to us: we don't truly control them. We do not have good reasons to consider ourselves superior to the animals. He is highly skeptical of confessions obtained under torture, pointing out that such confessions can be made up by the suspect just to escape the torture he is subjected to. In the middle of the section normally entitled "Man's Knowledge Cannot Make Him Good," he wrote that his motto was "What do I know?". The essay on Sebond defended Christianity. Montaigne also eloquently employed many references and quotes from classical Greek and Roman, i.e. non-Christian authors, especially the atomistLucretius.
Montaigne considered marriage necessary for the raising of children, but disliked the strong feelings of romantic love as being detrimental to freedom. One of his quotations is "Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside desperate to get out."
In education, he favored concrete examples and experience over the teaching of abstract knowledge that is expected to be accepted uncritically. Montaigne's essay "On the Education of Children" is dedicated to Diana of Foix.
English journalist and politician J. M. Robertson argued that Montaigne's essays had a profound influence on the plays of William Shakespeare, citing their similarities in language, themes and structures[6].
The remarkable modernity of thought apparent in Montaigne's essays, coupled with their sustained popularity, made them arguably the most prominent work in French philosophy until the Enlightenment. Their influence over French education and culture is still strong. The official portrait of former French president François Mitterrand pictured him facing the camera, holding an open copy of the Essays in his hands.[7]
Montaigne heavily edited Essays at various points in his life. Sometimes he would insert just one word, while at other times he would insert whole passages. Many editions mark this with letters as follows:
- A: passages written 1571–1580, published 1580
- B: passages written 1580–1588, published 1588
- C: passages written 1588–1592, published 1595 (posthumously)[8][9]
A copy of the fifth edition of the Essais with Montaigne's own "C" additions in his own hand exists, preserved at the Municipal Library of Bordeaux (known to editors as the "Bordeaux Copy").[10] This edition gives modern editors a text dramatically indicative of Montaigne's final intentions (as opposed to the multitude of Renaissance works for which no autograph exists). Analyzing the differences and additions between editions show how Montaigne's thoughts evolved over time. Remarkably, he does not seem to remove previous writings, even when they conflict with his newer views.
The Essays[edit]
English translations[edit]
- John Florio (1603)
- Charles Cotton (1685–6)
- Later edited by William Carew Hazlitt (1877)
- George B. Ives (1925)
- E.J. Trechmann (1927)
- Jacob Zeitlin (1934–6)
- Donald M. Frame (1957–8)
- J.M. Cohen (1958)
- M.A. Screech (1991)
See also[edit]
External links[edit]
- ^Montaigne, Michel de (1580). Essais de messire Michel de Montaigne,... livre premier et second (I ed.). impr. de S. Millanges (Bourdeaus). Retrieved 1 June 2017 – via Gallica.
- ^"Titi Lucretii Cari De rerum natura libri sex (Montaigne.1.4.4)". Cambridge Digital Library. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
- ^"Guide to the Classics: Michel de Montaigne's Essay". Observer. 2016-11-15. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
- ^Kritzman, Lawrence. The Fabulous Imagination: On Montaigne's Essays. Columbia University Press.
- ^ abcdScreech, Michael (1983). Montaigne & Melancholy: The Wisdom of the Essays. Penguin Books. pp. 1–5.
- ^Robertson, John (1909). Montaigne and Shakespeare: And Other Essays on Cognate Questions. University of California. pp. 65–79.
- ^Mitterrand.org
- ^Montaigne, Michel de. The Complete Essays. Trans. M. A. Screech. London: Penguin, 2003 (1987), p. 1284
- ^Les Essais (1595 text), Jean Céard, Denis Bjaï, Bénédicte Boudou, Isabelle Pantin, Hachette, Pochothèque, 2001, Livre de Poche, 2002.
- ^Montaigne, Michel de (1588). Essais de Michel seigneur de Montaigne. Cinquiesme edition, augmentée d'un troisiesme livre et de six cens additions aux deux premiers (5 ed.). A Paris, Chez Abel L'Angelier, au premier pillier de la grand Salle du Palais. Avec privilege du Roy. Retrieved 1 June 2017 – via Gallica.


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Help me with Marketing
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About Gopi estate:
Gopi estate is a 'Real Estate Developer' which undertakes infrastructure projects as well. its mission is to develop homes for people of all standard of living. During our project, we work side-by-side with our customers, marketing heads, engineers and technical team to provide satisfaction to our clients which they search in their new home.
We have projects at Shirdi as well as Shahpur, where we have plots, bungalows, flats, rowhouses, hotel & resort etc.
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Job description:
• The person is supposed to make marketing strategies that can attract clients.
• He/she is to inform the clients about our ongoing or future projects. If the client has been convinced to invest money in buying the plot along with the construction of bungalow on either of our sites at Shirdi or Shahpur, the further detailed information will be provided by our engineers or our technical team to the clients.
• commission of 2% of profit will be given for the respective project only after registration is done by the customer.
• A person is required to provide us with more than 5 clients within 3 months . He/She bringing the client is required to be present for the first meeting with the client.
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Burn Fat with Coconut Oil
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Burn belly fat with coconut oil?
Sounds Insane right? Well just keep reading this article because I am not talking nonsense and there has been much research on the benefits of coconut oil and how it can help you lose that belly fat.
Let me start by informing you that the person who said that spot reduction is not possible, he is right in most of the cases but it is possible to burn belly fat with coconut oil. So if you want to target the abdominal fat, I recommend you to continue reading this article. I will also post an article on fasting, intermittent fasting and warrior diet. Those articles will be equally helpful to prioritize belly fat.
Some of you might know that all the oils are almost 100% fat. You are right there but a calorie is not always a calorie similarly fats are not always the same type of fat. If you want to know what coconut oil does inside your body then click here to download the PDF document by Mary G. Enig. The effects of coconut oil have been explained in detail (read only if you are a geek like me).
How does coconut oil help us burn more fat?
- Virgin coconut oil suppresses those hunger cravings which make you overeat. It makes you feel fuller for a longer time. Hence, by the end of the day, you end up consuming fewer calories. (I have observed this effect of coconut oil myself).
- Our body metabolizes the fat in coconut oil differently than the fat in other food sources. Coconut oil contains medium chain triglycerides instead of long-chain triglycerides. Even olive oil fails in this aspect because olive oil contains long chain fatty acids.
- According to some researchers, coconut oil is said to have thermogenic effects on us. This means that it raises our metabolism a bit which helps us burn more fat.
- If you have type 2 diabetes then coconut oil can help you a lot by reducing your carbohydrates craving.
- It has also been observed that the fat burning effects of coconut oil are seen majorly in the abdominal area which can spot reduce belly fat.
How to burn belly fat with coconut oil?
- After breakfast, drink black coffee mixed with 1-2 teaspoon of coconut oil.
- You can also drink this coffee before the workout.
- How I use coconut oil:- Whenever I go on the ketogenic diet I add coconut oil after every meal to increase ketones in my bloodstream. This motivates my body to use fat as its primary energy resource. Plus, whenever I want to do the warrior diet, I add turmeric and coconut oil to my last meal.
Coconut oil has many other health benefits too which I will cover in another article. Try adding virgin coconut oil to your diet because after getting refined, many benefits are stripped away from it. I will post a link to the product which I use.


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Oh my goodness, I've watched this video at least once a day, since it went up on YouTube. A practically perfect song, Stay Close is the first single of Subiza, the forthcoming album from Delorean out June 8th. I am doing my best to wait patiently.
California Highway 1
There are a multitude of reasons why I need to move back to California, but weekend scenic roadtrips are towards the top of the list. When I lived outside Los Angeles I drove up the coast to Oregon, and I drove out to Death Valley. Now I read the California travel section of the LA Times constantly to fuel my daydreams. This particular article details a roadtrip on Highway 1 out to Yosemite. Of course, my devotion to National Parks only makes me pine for this trip even more.
The Way Out
The Books have been one of my all-time favorite bands ever since I first heard The Lemon of Pink. The lack of new music from them in recent years has left a small hole in my soul. This week they finally published date, label, and title details for a new album. The Way Out will be released sometime this July on Temporary Residence. HOLY SWEET POTATO YES!!! The official proclamation was posted on The Books' blog, and includes some promisingly illuminating details. This could be their most groundbreaking work to date.
Wilkinson Residence
Designed in 1997 and constructed in 2004, the Wilkinson Residence in Portland, Oregon looks like a tree house for adults with impeccable taste and serious aesthetic fixations. The architect for the project was Robert Harvey Oshatz, and more photos of the house are available on his website. Apparently the client, who had very similar interests to me, wanted the design to be inspired from nature and music. I love how the house grows out of a steep slope up to the canopy, and the lines of the structure remind me of sound waves.
Lost States
This week All Things Considered featured a book by Michael J. Trinklein entitled Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That Never Made It. As an avid follower of Americana with a love of history outside the confines of standard textbooks, this immediately had my attention. After the main article is a lengthy excerpt from the book, interesting stuff. There's the better known stories of the Mormons attempting to found their own state, and then there's the more obscure, like the great tale of Lost Dakota.
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren was everything a band manager ought to be. I learned about his work and career in an rock history course around when I started managing for the first time. Consequently, he was both my inspiration and idol in many ways. Not only did he have a comprehensive understanding of the business, he also understood the broader sociocultural significance of the music, and had a fine appreciation for talented creativity. Without Malcolm McLaren punk and rock would not be what they are today. This week I was very saddened to learn that on Thursday, April 8th, Malcolm McLaren died at the age of 64. He will be greatly missed, but his legacy will live on. Here are some articles from Pitchfork and Drowned In Sound in tribute.
Malcolm McLaren: R.I.P. - Lydon & Westwood pay tribute
Big Rig
Hulu is currently showing a spectacular documentary on truck drivers called Big Rig by Doug Pray. I really like that the movie is fairly free of agenda or bias. It's mostly just about documenting a subculture primarily through the oral history of the society's members. There are also some stunning shots of the American landscape. On average, I put about 30,000 miles a year on my car. I love driving across my country, and have sometimes wished I could get paid to do it. So on a personal note, it was fascinating to hear the stories of the two female truck drivers interviewed.


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David Cameron surveyed flood defences which failed so miserably at Christmas and promised desperate victims in Lancashire: "We are here for the long haul."
The Prime Minister saw for himself the work going on to repair the damage caused by Storm Eva and pledged to do all he could to avoid it happening again.
"We have spent £19m on Lancashire flood defences in the last five years," he said on a flying visit to Croston, one of the villages worst-hit by the Boxing Day deluge.
"The plan is to spend £114m in the next six years.
"A lot of that is on coastal defences. But these are all important schemes and we have to make sure we push ahead with them."
The PM's visit came more than a month after Eva wreaked havoc across the North West.
Mr Cameron pledged help from the Government to speed things up.
"We recognise people have suffered a lot. It is horrible being flooded, particularly at Christmastime and having to throw all the wet and mouldy furniture and carpets out and wait for re-plasterers to arrive and the insurance companies to pay out.
"It is a miserable thing and we will do everything we can to help.
"I was very keen to come here because obviously there were a lot of visits during the crisis period by ministers, but I wanted to come now and see the ongoing operations to try and build the resilience and put in place better flood protection and hear how that is going.
"There are always lessons to learn, but my sense is this time the Environment Agency were very quick off the mark.
"The Government's schemes to pay out money to households and businesses worked more rapidly. But there is a lot more to do."
"On the roads we have a £40m scheme for Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cumbria. We are helping with the Flood RE insurance product that comes forward from April so that people who have been flooded and who can't get insurance, can get insurance.
"We are helping with schemes for businesses and households that are paying out faster.
"We have got to think all the time what can we do to improve our resilience and improve our flood defences.
"I am committed to doing that and the money is there to spend on that.
"I think people find it frustrating when people say 'look, it's a once in 200 years event.' It does seem to be happening more often.
"I will leave it to the experts what is climate change and all the rest of it. I can just say that these events are happening more frequently.
"The public rightly expect us to take more action.
"Part of that are engineering solutions like dredging, like higher flood barriers and more protection and we need to put these things in place.
"We also need to do more to protect critical infrastructure. Again I think that has been better than on previous occasions."
MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale David Morris said: "I welcome David Cameron's visit to the worst affected area by Storm Eva and welcome his comments about the importance of Government help in the clean up operation.
"I am pleased that the Prime Minister has confirmed £40 million for road replaces across the region, part of which I have already secured to repaid Loyn Bridge in Gressingham.
"It is also great to see the Prime Minister reiterate a pledge Flood Ministers had made when I met with them for an extra £9 million for defences along the Lune from the new link road along the river to ensure that flooding on this scale can not happen again."
Lancaster and Fleetwood MP Cat Smith said: "The emergency services and military have done a sterling job in their response to the floods ensuring swift and safe rescues for those affected.
"However, the Government has failed to adequately prepare our country for the effects of climate change and the impacts that flooding has on our communities.
"The Coalition Government ignored warnings that spending on flood defences would have to increase by £10-30 million each year to maintain existing flood protection by 2030.
"Instead, the Environment Agency lost 20% of its staff and even after the emergency funding, maintenance spending fell.
"It is not enough for the Government to say the budget is "protected" after they have neglected it for so many years.
"It is time for the UK to have a complete rethink about our flood defence system including better management of river catchments, from land use in our upstream areas, to estuaries and lowland areas.
"If the Government doesn't act now, it will only be a matter of time before vulnerable communities face further turmoil."


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Creamed Spinach/
I am an advocate of 100/0 Aga cooking. Must be the overachiever in me. The 80/20 rule is so 1960's, when petro was cheap and wasting natural resources was in vogue. Let me back up a little for those not up on our hip Aga jargon. The 80/20 rule is something old school Agaheads came up with. The rule is pretty simple. Cook 80 percent of your food in the oven and 20 percent on the Boil or Simmer Plate. Limit the heat loss as much as reasonably possible. I am not reasonable. My rule, more of a goal really, is to cook everything in the oven. Goal accomplished for this dish.
Large amounts of fresh leafy greens are difficult to deal with no matter what kind of cooking appliance you have. Big pots of boiling water,stuffing in all the greens and attempting to stir the product without making a mess is not easy. No wonder most spinach recipes start by telling you to defrost the frozen cooked spinach. This technique takes advantage of the way your Aga Roasting Pan and Aga Sheet Pan fit together.
Let's see how this went down in the Aga Kitchen. Should take less than hour from fridge to table and about 10 minutes actual working time. It reheats beautifully so make it a day ahead if needed and it's real good tossed with gnocchi.
Creamed Spinach Aga Style
Gather up these ingredients.....
- 2 nice bags of fresh spinach, about a pound
- 1/2 of a medium sized onion
- 1/4 cup of olive oil or butter
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 2 nice cloves of garlic, smashed
- 1 teaspoon mustard
- grated nutmeg to taste, if possible try to find whole nutmeg and grate it using your microplaner
- good pinch of salt, kosher or sea please
Follow along with me.....
Put your Aga Roasting Pan in the Baking Oven with 1/2 cup water and the butter or olive oil
Slice your onion into thin strips. Slice along the lines on the onion, going with the grain
Toss your onion in the pan with the butter/oil and water, sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Back in the Baking Oven and set the timer for 15 minutes.
Beep beep goes the timer, add garlic and swirl around so it's evenly dispersed and fragrant. Add the spinach, cover with bak-o-glide and Aga Sheet Pan (check out picture above)
Back into the Baking Oven for 10 minutes, use your timer
Remove the cover and add the cream, mustard, pinch of salt and nutmeg. Back into the Baking Oven for uncovered for 5 minutes.
Not so photogenic when it comes out of oven but once you stir in the seasonings it cleans up nice.
I hope you give this a try. Being in the 100/0 club is pretty cool. It takes a bit longer and requires using a timer or having a strong memory and excellent sense of time. The beginning of this recipe, sweating the onion with fat and water is being done in fine dining restaurants around the world. It adapts beautifully to the gentle heat of the Aga.
Thanks for reading to the bottom , cook like you mean it, G
Look what I found on my terrace, I have no idea what it is but it seemed harmless