Godstone

Lee phoned at twelve and gave me a garbled account of why he hadn’t turned up, something about “hedging all morning,”and of Michael Pugh visiting in the afternoon. He was going to the library to take out books on the ‘psychic photographs’ of Ted Serios, who claims to be able to use the power of his mind to register images on photographic paper. Wilson mentions him in The Occult and regards his claims with agnosticism.

I began reading the sequel to The Occult.

Robert turned up at two p.m. for the evening match as he wasn’t at school because of NAS/UWT strike action. He’s reading T.H. White’s The Godstone and the Blackymore, about White’s search for the godstone, an early Christian relic which the people of Inishkea Islands in Western Eire dressed up in clothes and worshipped, right up until the 1920s. It was reputed to have magical properties and the ability to influence rainfall etc., but was smashed up and thrown into the sea by a priest. The islands were evacuated in 1927.

Robert insisted on reading various passages from the book out loud to me. He and Carol are planning to go there in the summer.

Easterby Athletic lost to Portleigh at Cardigan Park. They went ahead but typically eased up and let Portleigh get two goals.