What's so good about the Jones's anyway?

The primal urge

What a week.

I’d love to follow that up with a really profound experience but I can’t. What I can say is that this wee publication is at 100 subscribers and I am de-e-elighted. Thank you thank you thank you.

But more than that, more you say?! Yes more, you are all so brilliant, I’m found a really cool community of people. Honestly, it’s my favourite virtual place to hang out these days and considering I don’t have any actual places to hang out, it officially makes it my favourite hang out space.

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Ta-Da List

I often promise myself to write a weekly ta-da list and it only ever lasts a week or so, mainly because there usually doesn’t feel like much ta-da is happening, but after last week’s post, I thought I’d give it another go.

• Did an exercise session all on my own. My PT had to cancel the session as she was too busy with her sister’s wedding (I did warn her) but she sent me through a workout and I only went and bloody did it anyway. Not hench yet.

• Remembered 4 things at Kiki’s check up appointment, off the top of my head. Helped by Erik running through it 3 times before I went in! In your face brain fog 🔥

• Emptied 8 BIG bags and one box of clothes and started going through them, Stacey Solomon style. I’d like to say Marie Kondo style, but anyone who’s know me for more than 3 seconds knows that I could never achieve that level of calm and neatness.

• Finally booked the flights to LHR as we’re heading to Kent in a few weeks to see the fam & celebrate my brother’s 50th.

• Did I mention 100 subscribers? 💃🏻

• Making people laugh at my inappropriate joke about men and … size at book club. We were discussing Shackleton by Ranulph Fiennes and the Shackleton - Scott relationship. I just couldn’t help myself. Thankfully, no-one seemed offended.

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Shackleton in review

The overall conclusion was of awe and wonder. Awe that so many people survived the Antarctic expeditions and wonder at what drove them to do it in the first place and why after one expedition they would ever ever want to go back.

I really enjoyed Fiennes style of writing, it made Shackleton’s story more relatable. Polar exploration is pretty niche, so dumming it down a bit really helped. For me his own experiences and how he wove that into the Shackleton’s story helped me to understand it better and appreciate what all the men went through. Although some book clubbers felt he wanged on a bit too much about his own accomplishments. They are a braggy lot, but then they did do a lot.

There’s a lot to going on in Shackleton but here are my 4 takeaways:

1. Shackleton, like most explorers, was a narcissist, but he was also conman. Not a fan.

2. Why couldn’t Scott & Shackleton both show a little more humility? Probably because of point 1. If they’d been able to work together they could have achieved great things.

3. How, HOW, did the little James Caird boat get 6 of them safely from Elephant Island to South Georgia during an Antarctic winter?

4. And most importantly, what is Lady Emily Shackleton’s story? It’s one we’ll never really know. Yet another casualty of the patriarchal system that ignores the women who lift men up.

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Why is it always about keeping up with the Jones’s

You may remember that last week I headed off on a little research trip to a few of the Neolithic sites on Mainland.

Mainland is the biggest island in Orkney, so whenever I say Mainland (capital M) I am referring to the place with Kirkwall and Stromness and not mainland UK, which always has a lowercase m. With over 70 islands making up Orkney, we can’t call the big island Orkney, it would be too confusing. And while we’re on the subject, it’s NEVER ‘The Orkneys’ it’s the Orkney Islands or just Orkney. I made that mistake once, never again.

It’s easy to romanticise history and even easier with pre-history because what we know is largely presumed from the evidence that still exists standing around us (standing stones and cairns) or that which has been discovered and processed by archeologists. While people in the Neolithic era must have been able to communicate - just look at the complexity of their buildings and communities and the stretch of their culture - we already knew that the Ring of Brodgar and Standing Stones of Stenness are 500 years older than Stonehenge, meaning the trend started here in Orkney, there is no evidence to suggest that they used written communication.

Side note, did you see the news about the Stonehenge Altar Stone? They now know it came from NE Scotland and perhaps even Orkney.

Swoah.

So in my naive little mind, I’d translated this Neolithic culture to mean small village communities, strong story telling and a simpler way of life but Sigurd, archaeologist and Ness of Brodgar guide extraordinaire told a different story. It goes something like this:

1. Group 1 build a brilliant building, all beautiful and clever, used for ceremonies, gatherings, feasts etc.

2. Group 2 build a bigger one next door.

3. Group 3 send a few of the men off to mainland Scotland or Ireland. They come back with new ideas and build something better.

4. Groups 1 and 2 partly dismantle their buildings, cover it over with midden* and build something bigger and better and more ornate on the same site as their original buildings.

*Midden is a blanket archaeological term that refers to rubbish, debris or other by-products of human activity. Ness of Brodgar

And so it goes on, making the Ness of Brodgar site a building site, with groups forever dismantling and rebuilding. Then because they re-build on partly dismantled buildings back filled with midden, it wasn’t long before they started subsiding and falling down.

So this site I’d dreamily built up in my head, this ceremonial, peaceful, respectful part of the community was essentially a dick swinging contest on a stinking building site. Kind of takes the romance out of it doesn’t it? Well, that’s what came to my mind as Sigurd as was talking.

Skara Brae & the sea; house at Skara Brae; me in Unstan Chambered Cairn; 1891 graffiti; Ness of Brodgar dig site; me at Ness; my feet, grass blowing in the breeze & the Loch of Stenness

This did get me to thinking about stories and individual interpretation. My interpretation took me to a quintessential suburban scenario, a comedic one, with a cul-de-sac full of curtain twitchers, like Hyacinth Bucket. Who’s car has the most horsepower, who’s kid is better at flute, who’s paddling pool is bigger. Others may have gone down a more reverential route.

As an ‘evolutionist’ (is that a thing), it makes sense to me. It’s survival of the fittest, you need to make yourself the biggest and the best so that you’re group won’t be broken up, so your women folk won’t leave for what looks like better fish and grain.

All in all it was a hugely successful trip and has further opened up a story I had in mind of a woman in Neolithic Orkney, enabling me to have a deeper understanding of what that might have looked like. As I sat there away from the crowds for a few minutes, looking out over the loch, the human diggers tinkering away behind me, I could feel myself there. Something is shifting and I hope it lasts.

Next stop is the Orkney Museum, which will probably need several visits, oh and books of course! You can never have too many books right?

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Next week I’m looking forward to a tomato glut, which is way more exciting than a courgette glut, but still, I’m always open to recipes. So please hit me up, bonus points to anyone who gives me tomato & courgette recipes.

As always, thanks for reading and for coming along on this ride with me.

Take care and enjoy the glimmers.

Han 🌱

The week in sub-stats

• Subscribers: 100 (↑22 - removed 2 duff accounts, an extra of mine + yaho.co.uk)

• Followers: 196 (↑38)

• Pledges: 2 (↑1)

Last post: 55%↑ open rate; 163↑ views; 13↑ likes; 28↑ comments; 2 new subs

Subs this week came from the app, threads, Instagram and Substack recommends which makes my heart go boom boom boom 💚