Wednesday 23 October 2013

Courtesy Visit from the Giants Part 2

Continuing from Courtesy Visit from the Giants Part 1.
The Hypogeum
The day after, I remembered about a curious incident that happened in Malta in 1939.  It was documented in National Geographic but no one knows what really happened.
A curious book bought from someone documenting the event of Miss Lois Jessup
There is an account that in the 1940s a British embassy worker, Miss Lois Jessup, went on a tour of the Hypogeum and persuaded a guide to let her explore a 3 ft. square "burial chamber" next to the floor of the lowest room in the last [3rd] sub-level. 

She claims that after squeezing through this chamber she came into a large room; where she was standing there was a large cliff with a steep drop and the floor of the cavern could not be seen. 
Across the cavern there was a small ledge with an opening in the wall. According to Ms. Jessup, a number of "humanoid beings" that were covered in white hair and hunched over came out of this opening. 
They raised their palms in her direction and a large gust of wind filled the cavern, extinguishing the light of her candle. She then claimed that she felt something brush past her. 

When she went back to the Hypogeum on another occasion, she was told no such tour guide had ever worked on the site.

Sometime after Miss Jessup's first visit, a group of school children and their teacher visited the Hypogeum on an outing and entered the same burial chamber, which then collapsed while they were inside. 
Search parties could not conduct a thorough search for the children or their teacher due to the cave-in. 
The parents of the children claimed that, for weeks, they could hear the voices of their young children coming from under the ground in several parts of the island.
According to National Geographic's Ancient X-Files there are no local newspaper reports or accounts from residents about the missing children, making it more likely this was an invented story.
It was asserted that for weeks afterwards the wailing and screaming of children was heard underground in different parts of the island, but no one could locate the sources of the cries.

Click this link to read more:
Malta Temples
Hypogeum


Disclaimer: 
I don't own the pictures above.

Monday 21 October 2013

Courtesy Visit from the Giants Part 1


It was a quiet summer night, soft, silvery light from the full moon graced my room. 
I sat in meditation, as usual and was soon drifting within, so calm and serene. 
This night’s meditation, however, was to be a short one. 
I felt heaviness in the room, as if being watched by invisible beings, was not scary at all but weird in a way. 
I felt shadows moving in my room and I was sure could even hear their invisible ethereal footsteps. 
I opened my eyes after some time, all was quiet, the moonlight still there softly lighting my room, all was quiet except for the heavy air.
I felt these presences as if they were giants of some sort…but I was not scared at all.

I became aware that my apartment block stands very near a very ancient megalithic temple and burial caves. 
I couldn't help but smile at the fantasy of the thought… 

Thursday 3 October 2013

Pebbles On The Sand


I love to meditate by the sea, sometimes I share my thoughts and longings with it too.

I remember once i decided to go and walk on the beach, it was early summer. 
I walked by the edge where the sand was moist so that I would leave my footprints and every now and then I look back and look at the pattern.

There were young children playing, building sand castles and gathering tiny pebbles to embellish their constructions.  Their enthusiastic laughter  mingled with cries from the seagulls, they were so happy.
I stopped to feel the rising sun on my shoulders and the soft breeze and also to smell the sea. Tiny waves were kissing my toes as if they were extended fingers of the sea inviting me to play with them. 
I picked up a pebble on the sand and it seemed it knew my hand.  The rhythm of my breathing matched the rhythm of the incoming waves...I felt one with the sea and the pebble and the sun. 
It was all a song of creation...a song of Being-ness. 
I bent down and wrote on the soft sand, "I am in love with you" as if talking to the sea.
Like a little child, I skimmed the pebble on the sea, like an acknowledgment to the sea...or was it a way of communicating with it?
After some time, oblivious of the passing time, I noticed the waves gaining more momentum...due to the rising sun, I suppose.  
When I came back from my pleasant reverie, I noticed that the waves have crumbled the castles and that now my writing on the sand said only, "I am...". I could not help but smile, looked at the sea and sent a loving imaginary hug. 
I turned back to return home...all my footprints were erased by the sea.  I felt so much love that my eyes watered and a tear drop fell in the sea, carried away by the waves mingling with the ocean. 
Yes, I am one...always, am one with the Source. 

Tuesday 1 October 2013

FREE: Pattern- Two Tone Brimmed Beanie



For crown measurement 60cm (XL)

Materials:
- Bamboo Yarn (70% cotton, 30% bamboo yarn) 3 skeins of 50gr each (2 main colour, 1 contrasting colour)
- Crochet hook size 3mm
- Patience

Measure:
- Crown diameter
- Drop height to bottom of ear
- Desired brim width

Stitches needed:
- Chain = ch
- Single Crochet (on the magic ring if not doing chain for the first row) = sc
- Slip Stitch = ss
- Double Crochet = dc
- Front Post Double Crochet = fpdc
- Back Post Double Crochet = bpdc

Method:
- I followed "Basic Double Crochet hat with instructions on how to make a hat a great fit every time" (on her page, scroll down for free pdf file Bobwilson123)/ "Basic Beanie" (youtube video) for the crown, with a bit of modification.
Instead of chaining and joining the chain to form a circle at the beginning, I made a magic circle ("Crochet Geek" on youtube has an excellent library of these basic crochet technique) and made the needed stitches for the first row.
Here I made:
Row 1: 12 sc on the magic circle, ss to first stitch, 1 sc, ch 1 (instead of ch 3, do not count as stitch)
Row 2: increase row, 2 dc on each sc (total 24 dc), ss, 1 sc, ch 1
Row 3: *1 dc on first stitch, 2 dc on second stitch* repeat *to* (total 36 dc), ss, 1sc, ch 1
Row 4: *1 dc on first stitch, 1 dc on second stitch, 2 dc on third stitch* repeat *to*(total 48 dc), ss, 1sc, ch 1
Row 5: *1dc on first stitch, 1 dc on second stitch, 1 dc on third stitch, 2 dc on fourth stitch* repeat *to* (total 60 dc), ss, 1sc, ch 1
I continued the increasing pattern until Row 15 (total 180 dc), after ss, 1sc, ch 1, I start the cross stitch pattern.  This stitch pattern will only work with even numbered stitches.

- The pattern I used was the "Cross Stitch Hat" (on her page, scroll down for free pdf file Bobwilson123)/ "Cross Stitch Hat" (youtube video).
Here I made the cross stitch pattern from Row 16 to Row 31.
Since this is for the side of the head, no increase is made within this section, you should still end up with the same number of stitches you started with after you stop the increase round, i.e. I ended up with 180 stitches.

- The contrasting colour is added after you do the first fpdc at the start of the brim row.
Row 32: *main colour fpdc on first stitch, ss to join contrasting colour fpdc on second stitch* repeat *to*, take both yarn when ss, 1sc, ch 1
Row 33: *main colour bpdc on first stitch, contrasting colour bpdc on second stitch* repeat *to*, take both yarn when ss, 1sc, ch 1
I did 4 sets of repeat Row 32 to Row 33, do as many as you wish, depending on how wide you want the brim.

This is an extra large beanie and I used a fairly thin ply yarn hence the many rows and stitches.  If you are using an chunkier yarn, e.g. 8 ply onwards, you only need fewer stitches and rows.  The first row (the magic ring row) may only need 6 to 10 stitches.

Feel free to use this pattern but please refer it back to my url site.

Have fun :)