text:
A Bridge for the World
Path of Peace
The Kingdom of Jerusalem, Israel, Palestine, and the Third Temple
Jerusalem can or will be the fully recognized capital of three nations:
Israel, Palestine and the Kingdom of Jerusalem
Peace be unto you,
My purpose of drafting this letter and submitting this Peace Proposal is to present an accommodating solution to the continuing conflict in the Middle East; as I see it, there will be no true peace in the world until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved. This is one of the most important issues of our time and the first step to a world that can accept long-lasting peace.
I am not a scholar or a philosopher, I do not belong to a particular religious faith, nor do I represent a particular political party in my beliefs; what I am is just one human being that respects the rights of all human beings to live in peace and to prosper. I have no enemies and I court no friends. There is not an agenda to my Proposal, merely a suggestion for a path to peace. Something must be done, or we, as the human race, will surely face further wars and conflict as it pertains to these issues.
Beginning with the issue of Jerusalem, archaeology indicates that the city was first inhabited during the 4th millenium BC, near the only perennial stream there, the Gihon. The first evidence of an urban settlement, in the shape of fortification walls, dates from the 18th century BC, roughly corresponding to the Middle Bronze Age. It is also at this time, that Jerusalem is mentioned in the Egyptian "execration" texts when the Egyptians ruled Canaan.
During its vast history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. Jerusalem is also a holy city to the three major Abrahamic religions—Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Despite having an area of only 0.9 square kilometres (0.35 sq mi), the city is home to many sites of tremendous religious importance, including the Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Based on these facts, no single faith or people can claim the right to total control of the city; and as we know, it is imperative that Jerusalem be the capital to both Israel and Palestine. So, I purpose a new country called the Kingdom of Jerusalem. This is also in agreement with the recommendations of the UN General Assembly, as it pertains to the city of Jerusalem, in which Jerusalem would be placed under a special international regime, a corpus separatum; further, this recommendation is in accordance with United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194, published on December 11, 1948.
The new Kingdom of Jerusalem will consist of the territory now known as the West Bank, including all of eastern Jerusalem. The Kingdom of Jerusalem agrees to accept all religions, equally, including, but not limited to, Christianity, Islam and Judaism; and does not have any ties to the former latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, which lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291. By beginning a new country, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, there is real possibility for peace in this holiest of cities.
In this document, I also purpose the creation of a new Palestinian state, an independent country that reserves all rights afforded other free countries. Palestine will consist of the Gaza Strip and land in the Sinai; and if Jerusalem is chosen as their capital, an open (Palestinian) thorough way from the Gaza Strip to Jerusalem. The Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip can trace their ancestry back to the Philistines, which derives from the attested Illyrian locality Palaeste, whose inhabitants would have been called Palaestīnī; the Palestinian people first appeared in the southern coastal area of Canaan (Gaza) at the beginning of the Iron Age (circa 1175 BC). This is Palestinian land and should be under the complete authority of Palestinians.
I also propose the building of the Third Temple on the Temple Mount. First and foremost, it is explicitly agreed by all parties, that no harm will be done to the Dome of the Rock, the Dome of Ascension, the Dome of the Chain, or the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, Israel and Palestine will agree to this building, as architecturally described in the Book of Ezekiel. The Dome of the Tablets or Dome of the Spirits stands directly over the original site of the Holy of Holies in Solomon's temple; this location is over 100 yards north of the Dome of the Rock. The Third Temple will stand facing east, built in a straight line towards the now sealed Eastern Gate; when completed an easement of 150 feet will exist between the buildings.
Lastly, in my proposal, I objectively try to resolve some of the ongoing issues that have continued to derive major conflicts; such as, the Golan Heights, the Blue Line, the islands of the Strait of Tiran and activities that are considered to be terrorism.
To come to peace, it is evident that all parties must compromise to some extent, but all parties should benefit, as well. Compromise has always been at the heart of true peace and I hope by presenting these ideas, there will be a new transformation and all countries will elevate their views in this matter. Surely, we all can live on this planet peacefully.
Thank you for your time and consideration. May God bless all the people of the
Middle East.
– Michael Ruark
The Kingdom of Jerusalem
The territory now known as the West Bank will become the sovereign Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, the current West Bank, will be established with borders identified by the Green Line; the Green Line refers to the demarcation lines set out in the 1949 Armistice Agreements and in agreement with United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 (S/RES/242), adopted on November 22, 1967, in Chapter VI of the UN Charter.
In agreement with the recommendations of the UN General Assembly, as it pertains to the city of Jerusalem, Jerusalem will be placed under a special international regime, a corpus separatum (the Kingdom of Jerusalem), and in order to preserve the peace, given the unique spiritual and religious interests in the city (and territory) among the world's three great monotheistic religions: "in view of its association with three world religions" to be "accorded special and separate treatment".
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194, published on December 11, 1948, established a United Nations Conciliation Commission and reaffirmed these statements. United Nations General Assembly Resolution 303 confirmed the decision to place Jerusalem under a permanent international regime according to the provisions of General Assembly Resolution 181(II).
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula is the least densely populated area in the entire Middle East; the Shamal Sina (North Sinai) and Ganub Sina (South Sinai) consist of 23,000 square miles; approximately 100,000 people live in South Sinai and 400,000 live in North Sinai; with a population density of a little over 20 people per square mile. Being on the frontier between Africa and the Middle East makes the Sinai an ideal location for Islamist militant factions; the desert peninsula has been plagued with lawlessness since Hosni Mubarak's fall in February 2011.
I propose that the lawlessness is due in large part to the population density; the lack of people in the Sinai is having a detrimental effect. Given this fact, among others, I propose making portions of the Sinai, the country of Palestine. Sinai is the only territory that could be easily opened to the Gaza Strip and to Palestinian authority. It is understood by all, that unless the Palestinians and the Israelis have more land, there will always be conflict; so I believe that these conflicts can be solved by utilizing the vast area of the Sinai. Also, the Kingdom of Jerusalem is only possible, if both Palestine and Israel acquire more land. So, I propose that the Sinai be split between Palestine and Israel, with the northern-most section being Palestine and the southern-most section being Israel.
It is imperative that Egypt be given the best chance for survival for their new democracy; Sinai can be very instrumental in accomplishing the most immediate economic growth, in the form of increased levels of aid from the US and renewed commerce interests with Israel. Also, Israel and Palestine will agree that Egypt will still retain all mineral rights in the Sinai; and Egypt will still maintain a governorate buffer zone for the uninterrupted passage of all commerce through the Suez Canal.
Palestine borders will include the Gaza Strip and proceed south from Rafah (following the former North Sinai Governorate border) to Nitzana, near the Path of Peace; proceeding in a straight line to Nekhelo; then a straight line on to Abu Rudeis; going north from Abu Rudeis along the Gulf of Suez; following the borders of the Suez, Ismailia and Port Said Governorates. Palestine can choose the location of their capital in the former North Sinai Governorate, such as Al Arish, or they can choose Jerusalem as their capital.
If Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine, a free and open Palestinian thorough way will be built from the Gaza Strip to Jerusalem. Portions of the study, The Arc: A Formal Structure for a Palestinian State, as submitted by the RAND Corporation in 2005, will be completed. The Arc is an innovative transportation system along which people and goods will flow. The Arc would link the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City and the Gaza Airport, to the entire Kingdom of Jerusalem; travel from the Gaza airport to Jerusalem will take about an hour and from Gaza to Jenin, in the north, about 90 minutes.
Temple Mount
The Kingdom of Jerusalem, Israel and Palestine will agree to the building of the Third Temple. The Third Temple, or Ezekiel's Temple, as architecturally described in the Book of Ezekiel, will be built next to the Dome of the Rock, as it stands currently on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (Figure 1). This agreement is with the explicit understanding, by all nations, that no harm will ever come to the Dome of the Rock, the Dome of Ascension, the Dome of the Chain, or to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Third Temple will be built 100 yards (322 feet) north of the Dome of the Rock and straight opposite the Eastern Gate. There is exactly enough room for the temple to be built, with the Holy of Holies directly over the Dome of the Tablets or the Dome of the Spirits.
The Third Temple will face eastward toward the now sealed Golden Gate and the Mount of Olives. An acceptable easement, with a clearance of at least 150 feet, will exist between the Dome of the Rock and the Third Temple. The Dome of the Tablets or Dome of the Spirits stands unobtrusively due west of the Golden Gate; it stands over the original site of the Holy of Holies in Solomon's temple. Projecting lines from the rock markings of the temple foundation, located the spot where the Holy of Holies would have been and it coincides exactly to the Dome of the Spirits or the Dome of the Tablets.
In Agreement,
1. The Kingdom of Jerusalem will consist of all the territory, now known, as the West Bank; all individuals who choose to continue to live in this area must become citizens of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Kingdom of Jerusalem does fully agree to accept all religions, including, but not limited to, Christianity, Islam and Judaism; and to grant full access to all religious sites. The duly elected government will include a full representation of Fatah; elections to be expedited, to support a democracy.
2. East Jerusalem will be the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem; western Jerusalem will be the recognized capital of Israel.
3. US will agree to aid the Kingdom of Jerusalem in an amount equal to or greater than 20% of the aid it provides to Israel.
4. Israel will agree to fully aid in the economic development of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the duly elected government.
5. Egypt will agree to release all territorial claims to the North and South Sinai Governorates (least densely populated area).
6. Israel and Palestine will agree that all oil and natural gas reserves in the Sinai Peninsula will remain the property of Egypt.
7. US will agree to continue the existing annual levels of Foreign Military Financing to Egypt; honor the commitment of economic aid of $1 billion in support of the democracy; and will agree to resume annual economic aid to levels of 1998.
8. In promotion of the Egypt-Israel peace accords, Israel will agree to buy all the oil and natural gas produced in the Sinai. Israel agrees to purchase these resources at 10% above the market rate; and will commit to the immediate economic development of Egypt, including the importation of Egyptian products, and the sharing of technologies and food resources.
9. Egypt will agree to fair elections; policies to protect freedom of expression, association, religion and due process of law.
10. Palestine borders will include the Gaza Strip and proceed south from Rafah (following the former North Sinai Governorate border) to Nitzana, near the Path of Peace; proceeding in a straight line to Nekhelo; then a straight line on to Abu Rudeis; going north from Abu Rudeis along the Gulf of Suez; following the borders of the Suez, Ismailia and Port Said Governorates.
11. Palestine will establish their capital, either, in the former North Sinai Governorate, such as Al 'Arish, or in Jerusalem.
12. If Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine, it is agreed that US and Israel will build a wide and open thorough way between the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem; this project will fall under the direct supervision of Palestine. The roadway will run from Rafah, passing through Israel (unchecked under/over passes for Israel), entering the Kingdom of Jerusalem at or around Meitar, proceed north to Jerusalem. From Rafah to Jerusalem, the roadway will be part of Palestine and the Kingdom of Jerusalem; from Jerusalem north to Jenin, the roadway will only be part of the Kingdom of Jerusalem (i.e., The Arc – Rand Corp 2005)
13. Palestine will be divided proportionately to all the Palestinian people which choose to live in Palestine; including any and all refugees, the existing Bedouin population of the Sinai, and any other people that chose to remain living in Palestine.
14. Palestine will be governed by Hamas; Hamas and Israel agree to cease all construed terrorist activities, Hamas agrees to recognize Israel; US will remove Hamas from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations; free and fair elections will continue.
15. Palestine will agree to release any territorial claim to the former West Bank, allotted in the UN Partition Plan of 1948.
16. US will agree to aid Palestine in an amount equal to or greater than 20% of the aid it provides to Israel, initial major contributions are to be utilized in the repartition efforts of the Palestinian people, to Palestine or the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
17. US will agree to assist Palestine in the immediate establishment of the most effective economic and agricultural growth. Palestine will be seen as a developing country, country of strategic importance to the US, and a country recovering from war.
18. The southern portion of the Sinai Peninsula will be part of Israel. The border with Palestine will include the Gaza Strip and then proceed south from Rafah (following the former North Sinai Governorate border) to Nitzana, near the Path of Peace; then proceed in a straight line to Nekhelo; then a straight line on to Abu Rudeis. At Abu Rudeis, the border of Israel will turn south and proceed along the Gulf of Suez and then turn north along the Gulf of Aqaba to the existing border with Jordan.
19. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, Israel and Palestine will agree to the building of the Third Temple, as architecturally described in the Book of Ezekiel. The Third Temple will be built at least 100 meters (322 feet) north of the existing Dome of the Rock; with explicit understanding, from all nations, that no harm will ever come to the Dome of the Rock, the Dome of Ascension, the Dome of the Chain, the Al-Aqua Mosque; established free-passages from Old City Quarters to each of the religious sites.
20. Israel and Lebanon will agree that their border will begin at the Hasbani River and follow the Blue Line, a border demarcation line published by the United Nations on June 7, 2000. Hezbollah and Israel will agree to peaceful co-existence.
21. Israel and Syria will agree that their border will begin at the Hasbani River, from the Lebanon border, to the Jordan River tributary, through the Nahal Qallil to the Jordan River, dividing the Sea of Galilee evenly, and then continuing to follow the Jordan River to the existing border between Israel and Jordan; agreement will apply to any duly elected government in Syria.
22. Israel and Syria will agree that all water rights from the Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee will be divided evenly.
23. Jordan will agree to fully compensate Palestinian refugees that repatriate to Palestine, for any existing assets in Jordan.
24. Saudi Arabia will agree to release all territory rights to Tiran Island; this will be part of Israel, securing the Straits of Tiran.
25. Israel will agree to abandon all occupation of Sanafir Island; this is part of Saudi Arabia; and to secure the Straits of Tiran.
26. US will agree to raise economic aid to Jordon, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria; an overall 15% increase in economic aid.
27. Egypt, Kingdom of Jerusalem, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and Syria will fully agree to a peaceful co-existence under these terms, given full support of the US and fully sponsored by any nation or other elected body or party.
A previous (failed) proposal mentioning a new state (separate area)
The Elon Peace Plan (now "The Israeli Initiative", formerly "The Right Road to Peace") is a plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict originally proposed in 2002 by Rabbi Binyamin Elon, who was the Israeli tourism minister at the time he put forward the proposal. The plan advocates the formal annexation of West Bank and Gaza by Israel, and, originally, the Palestinians becoming citizens of a new Palestinian state in Jordan. Elon and Moledet (Elon's party and the chief supporter of this plan) proposed that "Israel, the United States and the international community will allocate resources for the completion of the exchange of populations that began in 1948 and the full rehabilitation of the refugees and their absorption and naturalization in various countries".
Seeing as it concerned the transfer of Palestinians to this hypothetical designated state without their consent, and that Jordan was far from enthusiastic to allocate its own territory for the sake of a Palestinian state (having reneged on its claim to the West Bank and taken away citizenship of the Palestinians living there in 1988), this idea came to be seen as irrelevant by the majority of Israelis and Palestinians. Elon continued to advance his plan, including a 2004 visit to Jordan for this purpose, but did not manage to win substantial support for it.
General public support for Elon and his plan has been ambiguous. The National Union received 5.5% support on the Israeli legislative election of 2003 (which went up to 7.14% in the 2006 election after the party's merger with the National Religious Party); a survey conducted by Mutagim in January 2005 showed that public support for the relocation of Palestinians outside of Israel, a tenet of Elon's original proposal, was about equal to the support of Ariel Sharon's then soon-to-be-executed unilateral disengagement plan.
Path of Peace
The Kingdom of Jerusalem will be the territory currently known as the West Bank.
Palestine will consist of the Gaza Strip, portions of the former North and South Sinai Governorates, and if they choose, a capital in Jerusalem, with a free Palestinian passage from Rafah to Jerusalem.
The Third Temple will be built next to the Dome of the Rock.
Additional Thoughts
The Sinai Peninsula had already been taken by Israel (1967).
The Temple Mount has always been exactly prepared for the two temples.
A Bridge for the World
The Sinai Peninsula has been and will continue to be the land bridge for all peoples of Africa and Asia.
Prior Correspondence:
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 emailed file: A Bridge for the World – Peace Plan to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: the Whitehouse, US State Department and to the Vice President of the United States.
Friday, September 25, 2009 emailed file: A Bridge for the World – Peace Plan to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (rev.2): the Whitehouse: whitehouse.gov; US State Department: state.gov; Vice President of the US: whitehouse.gov/administration/vice_president_biden; Clinton Global Initiative – clintonglobalinitiative.org; Jimmy Carter Library and Museum – jimmycarterlibrary.gov
Friday, December 11, 2009 emailed file: A Bridge for the World – Peace Plan to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (rev.3): United Nations: email@example.com; State of Israel: Ministry of Foreign Affairs: firstname.lastname@example.com; Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan: firstname.lastname@example.com; Republic of Lebanon (Embassy): email@example.com; Palestine National Authority: firstname.lastname@example.com; Council of Foreign Affairs: email@example.com (on behalf of Hamas and Hezbollah); Sinai Bedouin population: firstname.lastname@example.com
Sunday, December 13, 2009 emailed file: A Bridge for the World – Peace Plan to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (rev.3): The Arab Republic of Egypt: email@example.com; Syrian Arab Republic: firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com; Palestine National Authority: firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com
Tuesday, February 01, 2011 emailed file: A Bridge for the World – Peace Plan to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (rev.4): firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com, email@example.com, email@example.com; email@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com; email@example.com; email@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com; email@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com
Wednesday, February 27, 2013 emailed file: A Bridge for the World – Peace Plan to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (rev.5): United States – firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com; Palestine National Authority: email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com; Palestinian Economic Council for Development & Reconstruction (PECDAR) – firstname.lastname@example.com email@example.com; Arab Republic of Egypt – email@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com; Republic of Lebanon – email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com; State of Israel – email@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com; email@example.com; The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan – firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com; Syrian Arab Republic – firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com; Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – email@example.com; Sinai Bedouin population – firstname.lastname@example.com; Council of Foreign Affairs: email@example.com (on behalf of Hamas and Hezbollah); United Nations – email@example.com; United Nations Human Rights – email@example.com; United Nations Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories (UNSCO) – email@example.com; International Court of Justice – firstname.lastname@example.com; Amnesty International – firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com; Human Rights Watch – email@example.com; Americans for Peace Now – firstname.lastname@example.com; Adalah – firstname.lastname@example.com; B'Tselem – firstname.lastname@example.com; BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights – email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com; The Arab Association of Human Rights – firstname.lastname@example.com; Right to Enter – firstname.lastname@example.com; Jerusalem Center for Social & Economic Rights (JCSER) – firstname.lastname@example.com; Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) – email@example.com; Rabbis for Human Rights – email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com; Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies (RCHRS) – firstname.lastname@example.com; Institute for Middle East Understanding – email@example.com; Ma'an News Agency (MNA) – email@example.com; Palestine Note – email@example.com; Al Jazeera English – firstname.lastname@example.com; Foreign Policy – firstname.lastname@example.com; Haaretz – firstname.lastname@example.com; The Jerusalem Post – firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com; Mondoweiss – firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com; The Jewish Daily Forward – email@example.com; Tikkun – firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com; Israel Broadcasting Authority – firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com; Clinton Global Initiative – email@example.com ; The Carter Center – email@example.com
Path of Peace, Nitzanei Sinai
by Dany Karavan
© Copyright 2013 All rights reserved.
The research described in this document is in the public interest and was supported by information gathered from various sources. The opinions expressed in this document are strictly of the author.


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Our members put on a successful AFOL display at the Angelika Film Center in Manhattan for the NYC premiere of "A LEGO Brickumentary"! Parents and kids stopped by to check out New York City-themed MOCs by NYCLUG members Lyn, Donald, Sid and Don, who gave out free "Brickumentary" posters and postcards, and answered questions about the film! Our MOCs included Don's George Washington Bridge, Lyn's Citibike stand and Brazilian Trio Electrico, Donald's joyriding motorcyclist and Sid's Bricklyn Bridge. A Saturday morning into afternoon well-spent! (more…)
Through the looking glass: NYCLUG's permanent installation at the Rock Ctr. LEGO Store
Every tourist who has ever been to New York has probably looked through a pair of these: mounted binoculars, often seen at landmarks such as the Empire State Building. (more…)
NYCLUG's final Showcase Windows
Beginning this year, the LUG Showcase Windows at your local LEGO Brand Retail store will switch from a monthly display to a permanent one… (more…)
Our new Community windows!
It's been a busy few weeks for NYCLUG, which continues to grow in both members and LEGO displays. (more…)
NYCLUG, meet HILUG
It was a quick conference of AFOLs to be sure, but hopefully worth the wait as Charles Dunlap (r.) from the Hawaii LUG stopped by the LEGO Brand Retail store at Rockefeller Center last week. (more…)
LEGO previews the reboot of storied Bionicle line at New York Comic Con
In 2001, Lego first released their legendary Bionicle line of highly articulated, mask-wearing robot creatures, complete with transparent colored eye stalks, piston-packed elements, and lots and lots of ball joints.
NYCLUG Gets Sneak Peek at the New LEGO Flagship Store in New York City
On Sept. 24, NYCLUG members were treated to a special preview of the new LEGO Brand Retail store in Manhattan's Flatiron District — and it's like no other LEGO store around! (more…)
NYCLUG'S Latest Display at the Rockefeller Center LEGO Store
Last month, members of NYCLUG installed their latest MOCs for the Community window at the Rockefeller Center LEGO Store — and met with their newest members! (more…)
NYCLUG LEGO News #009
In this (long-delayed) edition: a really, really big Tumbler; a bus stop made out of LEGO; and what's washing up on the shores of the U.K.? (more…)
NYCLUG LEGO News #008
In this edition, a new documentary on AFOLs will bow at the Tribeca Film Festival; LEGO formally announces the new Simpsons minifigs; and a Mindstorms team solves a Rubik's cube in mind-numbingly record time.

subset: commoncrawl


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I've recently developed a soft spot for our bovine friends, so I'd like to avoid buying leather jackets in the future. The obvious alternative is so-called pleather, which is made from plastic. But if I buy a cruelty-free pleather jacket, am I negating my good intentions by screwing the environment? I shudder to think how much oil it takes to make a fake-leather trenchcoat.
This is the sort of question that maddens eco-skeptics, who are fond of pointing out that every manufactured product has an unavoidable environmental cost. If you can't accept that fact, the argument goes, then you're free to become a hunter-gatherer in the Australian Outback; otherwise, stop fretting and enjoy the warm, affordable jackets that your great-great-great-grandparents could have only dreamed of.
In terms of the specific dilemma you propose, the skeptics are right in one respect: Both leather and pleather are far from green. That doesn't mean, however, that you should give in to apathy when it comes to jacket materials. No, you're not going to single-handedly squelch global warming by making the right choice here. But as the Lantern contended long ago, personal choices do matter—dirty industries become cleaner only in response to consumer demand.
You're correct that pleather is essentially made of oil. The jacket material that attracts the lion's share of environmentalist ire is polyvinyl chloride, better known as PVC. Greenpeace loathes the stuff, calling it "the most damaging plastic on the planet." The organization claims that PVC production releases dioxins and persistent organic pollutants, and worries about further toxic emissions when rubbished PVC is burned in garbage incinerators. (The vinyl industry strongly disagrees with this morbid assessment; the Lantern's own take is that while the industry has certainly made improvements, PVC remains a worrying source of dioxins in particular.)
Greenpeace reserves a bit less ire for a second type of pleather, composed of polyurethane. While toxicity isn't as much of an issue with polyurethane, the versatile substance is still made from fossil fuels, which means that plenty of carbon dioxide is emitted during production. According to the Association of Plastics Manufacturers in Europe, producing a pound of polyurethane foam emits 3.7 pounds of CO2. (That makes the process slightly less green than burning a gallon of gas.)
There are greenhouse-gas emissions associated with the production of genuine leather, too, largely in the form of cow-generated methane. The real downside to leather is pollution, specifically stemming from the use of chromium in the tanning process. About 95 percent of the world's tanneries still use hexavalent chromium, a potent carcinogen. Too often, tanneries simply dispose of their chromium effluent in nearby streams; that water, in turn, is either consumed directly or used to irrigate farms, causing long-term health consequences for thousands of people.
Chromium-free tanning alternatives, like tree bark, present their own problems: The waste from "vegetable tanning" can also be toxic, as it often contains lethal bacteria. Vegetable tanning can also take several months, whereas the same effect can be achieved with chromium in under a week. As a result, tanneries in the lightly regulated developing world almost always opt for chromium. Some trade agreements, such as a recent pact between Japan and Thailand, include stipulations that manufacturers follow environmental standards. But enforcement is always a challenge, especially when it may result in higher retail prices.
So, where does all that gloomy information leave you, dear consumer? If your conscience truly won't let you don leather, then look for a polyurethane pleather rather than one made from PVC. But you should also hold out hope that chemists accelerate their efforts to create polyurethane from vegetable oils.
The cruelty issue aside, however, some leather jackets may be the greener choice at present, provided they were produced in a green manner—for example, in tanneries outfitted with chromium recovery facilities or in ones that use enzymes in lieu of chemicals for pretreatment. Look for leather goods produced by companies and tanners that have signed on to the Leather Working Group, which is auditing the industry's environmental practices. You can also keep tabs on technological developments in the industry, such as the growing vogue for turning scrap leather into passable garments.
Above all, how about hitting the local vintage shop? Or, if you must go new, don't be a total cheapskate. A quality leather or pleather jacket will last for years, if not decades, making it well worth the investment in the long run. That lesson that applies not only to clothing, but to cars, appliances, and electronic goods, too. Sometimes the greenest choice isn't the product that labels itself as such, but the one you won't have to replace a dozen times over.
Is there an environmental quandary that's been keeping you up at night? Send it to firstname.lastname@example.com, and check this space every Tuesday.


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This week's Sunday Sevens, (devised by Natalie at Threads and bobbins), comes mostly from the Lake District where I've had a wonderful few days away with David.
B&B: Yet again we stayed at Hermiston Guesthouse in Braithwaite for our two night stay. We were given the very comfortable Latrigg double room!
Birthday: This third 'Lakes holiday' of 2017 was a birthday treat. Phil and Helen, the proprietors of the guest house, gifted me a bottle of bucks fizz to celebrate!
Wild Swimming: Of course I planned some wild swims alongside our many walks. I spent a wonderful impromptu 20 minute swim at Buttermere! The water temperature was about 12° but in the sunshine it felt much warmer. However the shakes on shore afterwards were some of the worst I've experienced. It was hard to drink my hot cup of coffee!
#walk1000miles: Even though I have completed the walk 1000 miles challenge, I am still counting my mileage. David and I walked a good seven miles around Haweswater where there are gates made for giants!
On returning home, among the post was my completers medal! Yay!! 😀
Derwent Water: Of course no visit to Keswick would have been complete without visiting the shores of Derwent Water. I think this picture of the Borrowdale end of the lake is among the best I've taken.
Tux: Unfortunately on our arrival home, we were dismayed to have had yet another death in the aviary. Poor Tux, who was our eldest owl finch, was found at the bottom of the cage. We have buried her in the yarden with her partner Troy (who died earlier this year).
I'll finish this post with a photo of the beautiful flowers David bought me for my birthday!
That was my week, how was yours?
Thanks for reading,
Christine x


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bamboo floors
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December is St. Ignatius Month
God bless us all with health and happiness this season and always. This month throughout our Archdiocese parishes will be adorned in red as members of The Order of St. Ignatius of Antioch don their membership crosses suspended by a red ribbon, a symbol of the blood which the Martyr Ignatius shed for Christ. The Cross and ribbon remind us that sacrificial giving is our obligation as an Antiochian Orthodox Christian.
In celebration of St. Ignatius Sunday, which falls this year on December 20, members of The Order in each parish will wear their crosses and pins, act as greeters, read the Epistle, take up the collection, help with the Communion line, give a homily, host the coffee hour for their parish that day. It is hoped that members will speak with those in their parish unfamiliar with The Order and explain the good works that are accomplished through membership.
Click here for resources. And if you can't find what you are looking for, e-mail email@example.com.


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Losing My Collection
Two days ago while I was parked in downtown Durham for a show at a local bar when my car was broken into and my laptop was stolen, so I'm writing this from a friend's laptop. While this loss is distressing on a number of levels, it has been interesting to realize that the greatest feeling of loss is for my collection of MP3s. It has been approximately a 10 year project amassing my DJ collection of swing tunes and the amount of work that was just stolen in my cheap laptop is hitting me pretty hard.
My collection has been with me through 4 homes, 3 laptops, 3 cars, a radical career change, and a half dozen or more romantic relationships. I can remember when I first decided to convert my collection to MP3 and after ripping everything at a lower quality, chose to start over and spend my free time for an entire week patiently sitting at my desktop transferring CD after CD in and out of the drive, hitting rip MP3s, and waiting to start the next disc. Since then, I've spent countless hours acquiring music, ripping CDs, tapping out BPMs, and cataloging, tagging, and organizing my collection. As much as I found the process tedious at times (and honestly, I think I had only managed to keep up with rating and tagging about 20-30% of my collection), I am realizing that it also created a bond that I didn't fully recognize until now.
It has been a bit of a High Fidelity moment for me to realize how much of a role my music collection has played in my life. If I hadn't jumped into collecting music when I started, I'm not sure Rob Moreland would have ever asked me to start DJing so many years back. When I was a year into dance and starry-eyed about Paul and Sharon's dancing and teaching, my music collection was a way to connect with that and Sharon was the first DJ I emulated in style and collecting. This lead to Chris Owens dubbing me "Bluesberry Muffin" when I DJ'd which lead to a great number of formative conversations about energy and drive in music. Then there are forays into tango, getting deeper into vintage music, etc. etc. I can effectively trace the 11 years of my dancing (even my burned out year) through my music collection.
And it's not just a matter of my music mirroring my DJ trajectory, it has also driven my dancing. As I found music I liked, I felt driven to learn to dance to it too. It drove my dancing into trying to make my movements sharper or softer, helped me figure out pulse, and has recently been driving me to play with Charleston again. My music (and a few excellent historians) have inspired me to learn more about the musicians who do these incredible recordings which in turn inspired me to start running RDU Rent Party dances with Laura Windley and to love just sitting and watching musicians play when I'm not dancing. My music has shaped not just my movements, but where I have gone as a person.
In the last 2 days as I've shared my distress, a great number of DJs have offered to help by giving me music. As much as I appreciate the support, it's interesting to note how wrong it feels to think about accepting that help. As much as I don't relish the thought of re-ripping all the CDs I still have, that ritual seems like an important piece of rebuilding. And the thought of DJing off someone else's music seems akin to taking a friend's girlfriend to prom. And while it's nice to know I have the sort of friends who would make that offer, it occurs to me in a very visceral way that if I DJ with someone else's music, then it's no longer telling my story with my words (or songs, as it were).
At this point, I'm adjusting to the idea that I'll have to redo all this work, that it won't ever be the same, but I can rediscover myself and my music again. I'll plan better for backups and keep one in a separate place, get a chance to rethink how I organize things, and get to play things I may not have played in 8-10 years. It's a great loss in some ways, but it is also an opportunity to try new things and see what from my past fits me and what I have moved on from. And it seems appropriate to end on a quote from High Fidelity:
Books, records, films — these things matter. Call me shallow but it's the fuckin' truth


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The Supreme Court released an important decision on electronic privacy in the workplace today, which I've embedded below.
In the case of City of Ontario, California v. Quon, the court unanimously upheld a 1987 decision that recognized the workplace privacy rights of government employees.
"The case involved the use of text pagers issued to officers by the city police department," said Jim Dempsey, the Center for Democracy and Technology's vice president for public policy.
"When one officer consistently went over the allotted limit on messages, his supervisors obtained stored text messages from the service provider and found that many were personal, not work-related. The officer claimed that the search violated the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court held that the police department's actions were reasonable, and thus did not violate the constitutional rights of the police officer.
"What is significant about the Supreme Court's opinion is what did not happen," said Dempsey. "Faced with an opportunity to curtail workplace privacy (or electronic privacy generally), the Court noted, applying a 1987 precedent, that government employees generally retain their Fourth Amendment privacy rights, and it assumed that government employees may have a reasonable expectation of privacy even in communications they send during work hours on employer-issued devices.
The case could have had very far-reaching implications because of the way in which work-related and personal communications have become so interwoven, in both the government and the private sectors, as employers expect workers to be always available by cell phone, text and email. The Court recognized this trend, but declined to set any new rules."
The New York Times also has published analysis of the ruling," Justices Allow Search of Workplace Pagers."
"This ended up as a workplace privacy case for government employees," said Dempsey. "The message to government employers is that the courts will continue to scrutinize employers' actions for reasonableness, so supervisors have to be careful. Unless a 'no privacy' policy is clear and consistently applied, an employer should assume that employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy and should proceed carefully, with a good reason and a narrow search, before examining employee emails, texts or Internet usage."
The Supreme Court opinion is online at http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-1332.pdf.
CDT and other privacy advocates filed an amicus brief, cited by the Court in its opinion, urging the Court to tread carefully and avoid casting any doubt on the privacy of new communications technologies. PDF: http://www.cdt.org/files/pdfs/08-1332_bsac_Electronic%20Frontier_Foundation_et_al.pdf.


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#Buddhist #meditation Mini-#Retreat at Home: Report from the Homefront
May 27 – May 30, 2016, all-day, four-day mini-retreat at home: YIPPEE! Did it! First one since my TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury)/concussion/broken nose/hurt eyes in April, 2014; first one in St. Louis. [I called it a "mini" retreat because I usually did at least three weeks' and up to 11 weeks' retreat, prior to this.]
I offer this post as a description and explanation for newbies and the curious, but I do not discuss the details of my practice with anyone but my teacher and fellow practitioners.
A typical meditation schedule consists of Tüns (meditation/practice sessions) segmented by meals, breaks, exercise, sleep and personal hygiene time. When we do individual retreats, often we set our own schedules. I modeled this summer's mini-retreat schedule mostly on the same schedules I followed while on individual retreats at the main meditation center (Rigdzin Ling in northern California), and at my residences in Silver City, New Mexico, and Santa Rosa, Sebastopol and Hayward, California, 1999 – 2014.
Home Mini-Retreat Schedule 2016
3:30 – 4:15 AM— Wake up, ablutions, etc.
4:15 – 5:30 AM— First Tün (meditation/practice session)
5:30 – 6 AM— Breakfast
6 – 10:30 AM— Second Tün (with two ten-minute breaks)
10:30 – 11 AM— Lunch
11 AM – 12 PM— Third Tün
12 – 1 PM— Nap (during first third, usually; see below). Otherwise, Fourth Tün
1 – 3 PM— Exercise (swimming/driving to and from) with moving meditation for 35 minutes while swimming
3 – 5 PM— Fourth/Fifth Tün
5 – 5:30 PM— Dinner
5:30 – 8 PM– Fifth/Sixth Tün (with one ten-minute break)
Total meditation time: about 11-12 hours/day, so about 40 hours (I ended before dinner on May 30).
When I was fortunate enough to be at RZL, I often sat on a cliff overlooking a pond, river and mountains in the distance, above the main buildings of the center. For other types of practices, meditators prefer or must be indoors or even in a cave or place of complete isolation and darkness for most of the time.
Many people doing the dzogchen Tibetan Vajrayana practice of awareness (rigpa) meditation, trek chöd, as I do, prefer to sit where we have an unbroken view of the sky.
NOT what my home retreat looked like at all, this year
There aren't many cliffs and sky views near where I now live, in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, and I didn't want to spend a lot of time driving to a spot at which there would be no food, no bathroom, no easy place for this mostly injured body to sit, and no place to swim. Hence, a home retreat. I could almost see the sky, sometimes. I could see trees, bushes, a street and parking lot. Didn't matter at all. I wasn't involved with any of it. We keep our eyes open for this type of meditation, but with a "soft focus," not paying particular attention to anything while noticing everything.
Where I did most of my sitting practice: on the living room couch, learning against these cushions on the left, looking out the glass doors of the patio/deck to the right.
WHAT WE DO and DO NOT DO:
We also hear, smell, feel everything. We are not "checked out," if we are practicing successfully. We are fully awake while doing our practice, sitting in oneness—in awareness (rigpa, Tibetan)—as often as we are able. We return to this awareness every time our attention wanders. That is the practice of trek chöd (Tibetan), in the simplest terms.
For this type of meditation practice, in retreat, practitioners usually don't recite mantras, pray (except at the beginning and end of each retreat or even each Tün, if we want), use our malas (Tibetan prayer beads on a string, predecessor of the Catholic's rosary), chant, visualize, play ritual instruments, enact stories, light incense, fill/offer water bowls, open our shrines or speak. Our practice is stripped-down to sitting and breathing.
The entire retreat is usually conducted in strict silence, which means that we make no eye contact when we do encounter people and we do no talking, writing, reading, or any other communicating (when necessary, we use "functional speech" only). We put away and turn off all cell phones, computers, communication or writing/reading/viewing devices of all kinds. We don't write letters or answer the phone unless we are in a longer retreat during which we must communicate with family, friends, colleagues, neighbors occasionally to reassure them we are all right or respond to something urgent.
When we are fortunate (and/or wealthy), we have someone to "serve" our retreat: they shop for, prepare and serve our meals, sometimes even cleaning up for us, leaving us free to meditate for more time each day. That is part of the wonderful service that active meditation centers often provide retreatants. Sometimes, though, during non-busy times, when I was at the center, I still had to cook and clean up after my own meals, but I didn't have to shop.
For home retreats, I have to do it all myself. I manage that by cooking a great big pot of soup and another big amount of something I can dole out each day for my two main meals and then have something small (a bowl of cereal, e.g.) for dinner.
Eating lightly at night is important for me, anyway. During a sitting and silent retreat like this, unlike the more active ones, our appetites get smaller and smaller as the retreat progresses, so we need less food.
It is important to make a firm commitment to one's retreat by scheduling the entire period in advance and sticking to it. It is also important to make a daily schedule and adhere to it. Many also maintain/take a vow of celibacy to maintain during retreat (no sex or sex acts); some do not.
We all abstain from intoxicants (recreational drugs, alcohol) during retreat. If we have taken Layperson's Buddhist Vows (or Five Main Precepts), as I have, we also never get intoxicated/inebriated. I don't drink or use drugs, anyway, but for many meditators, retreat boundaries include that they refrain from engaging in the use of these substances during retreat.
Even if we get sick, someone dies, and/or there are other seemingly significant events that occur, we strive not to break our retreat commitments. Unless it is to save our own or someone else's life or involves getting medical care to restore our health so that we can practice better afterwards.
It is important to let our friends, family and neighbors know, especially if we are doing a home retreat, that we won't be answering phones or responding to texts or emails, for example, during these times/these days so they don't worry. That way, we prevent someone from getting "wrong view" about meditation/meditators (e.g., not understanding our commitment, they think we are rude, unkind, insensitive, unless we communicate to explain).
We do not waver from this commitment or break our silence for any reason. These commitments and guidelines are called "retreat boundaries." At the risk of generating "static" and negativity for our next potential retreat, we do not leave the grounds of a closed retreat (the "cloister") or end our retreat prematurely. Some teachers give dire warnings about practitioners' breaking boundaries that will result in creating negative future retreat karma, but I don't like responding to threats. I maintain commitments because I want to do it.
Making and keeping these commitments strengthen the practitioner's practice foundation and create/maintain a strong "container" for successful meditation practice. I feel good when I keep my chosen boundaries.
This time (or for any other home retreats), I did not have a completely strict, cloistered retreat: just isn't possible. I drive to and from the pool, shop on the the first day for food and cook when necessary (more often on longer retreats). I also responded to a few communications from people who didn't know I was in retreat and/or to reschedule things I had forgotten to reschedule. But, mostly, I did keep the strict retreat boundaries and commitments.
Buddhist teachers talk about the entire retreat's span of time as being divided roughly into three parts: "getting in," "being in" and "rising out."
"Getting in" is the first third. During this, we acclimate to being on retreat, letting go (sometimes slowly, sometimes more readily) of our daily concerns, activities, personae, thoughts, obligations and settling in to the schedule.
We always "open" our retreat with setting our intention and reaffirming our motivation and with gratitude, with prayers and thanks to our teachers. Usually, other directions are given to us in advance by our teachers.
Sometimes, we make offerings and/or have a ritual feast and prayers (tsog). Sometimes we continue our daily practices for the first day or so. Sometimes we do some preparatory readings (from teachings, notes, books) to remind us of the practice we are about to engage in and how to approach it.
Frequently, a lot of tiredness manifests early in this first third. If so, it is recommended that we nap a lot, recovering from the stress and strife of our usual lives' demands. The peace, quiet and low-key nature of retreat bring us to a recognition of how exhausted and depleted we have gotten. Extra sleep is then necessary to restore ourselves and to be able to practice better for the rest of the retreat.
The middle third is "being in." By then, accustomed to the schedule, needing fewer or no naps, we are ready and eager to practice for each Tün. We know what we are doing, we are glad to be doing it, it's working as well as it will. Depending upon how long this period is and how quickly we are able to dive in, we can get very deeply immersed or only partially, but this is the main part of our retreat's practice time. Whatever signs of accomplishment we may get usually begin to show up in this portion.
The last third is "rising out." Sometimes gradually, sometimes more quickly, our minds and bodies begin to leave the depths and rise to the surface, preparing us for returning to our daily lives. For longer retreats, we spend part of this time still in retreat and the last part of it again in practices of formal gratitude. We "close" on the last day with offerings and/or a ritual feast and prayers (tsog), and dedicate the merit (the blessings and benefits of our practice) to all beings.
For the last day/hours or so, we are actually not still in retreat, exactly, but beginning to engage again in the more "ordinary living" aspects (whatever we haven't been doing and must return to, such as driving, doing laundry, talking/communicating again).
We often don't realize how deeply we are "in" until we begin to "rise out." When we have been in a strict retreat for more than a few days, this gradual "return to duties" is very important for safety and acclimating to ordinary life. Otherwise, we can get into serious trouble or even accidents if we go back too suddenly to our busy, complicated home lives and schedules.
We usually meet with our teachers during or after our retreats (when we are so lucky as to be able to do that), to "offer our retreat experience" to the Lama by telling him/her about our experiences, insights, possible signs of accomplishment and/or knowledge acquired/applied successfully. We also bring questions, problems, concerns and "stuckness" that occurred during our retreat to this same meeting (or whenever we next meet) so that we may request guidance and answers from our teachers.
Usually during these meetings or subsequent ones, we get instructions, guidance for the next period of our practice, assignments/options for reading and/or attending live or video teachings. We might even schedule our next retreat(s).
I didn't get to meet with my teacher at the end of this retreat, but I did see him for a private interview just last month, so I feel very blessed.
Tibetan Buddhists stress the importance of meditating under the guidance of and with instruction from a qualified meditation teacher. I completely agree with this. It is not sufficient to talk with other meditators, read books, listen to teachings on video or audiotapes or in person and then put ourselves into retreat and get ourselves out and go back to our lives.
Without a teacher who is more experienced and qualified to teach and guide us to listen to our experiences and direct our practice, we are certainly running the risk of there being a lot we will miss, misunderstand, misinterpret or just plain get wrong.
There are many qualified teachers in many parts of the world, now. I have put live links to some of them, above, when listing my teachers or main center. There are listings of some centers in Buddhist magazines, websites and other places online.
If you are not lucky enough to have found a teacher with whom you work well or you don't live close enough to any teachers or centers who host visiting teachers, keep looking/trying. It is well worth the effort.
Where are the Buddhists Around Here?
There are several centers who host qualified teachers in the St. Louis area and throughout the Midwest, of all Buddhist traditions. Very close to where I now live is a Tibetan Buddhist practice group that includes some people who have met some of my own teachers and who use some of the same practice texts that I do. There are two others groups that are "cousins" to my lineages/practices and some of those people have also met some of my teachers and share some practices with mine. Khentrul Lodrö T'hayé Rinpoche's main center, Katag Chöling, is about a six-hour drive from here, in Arkansas. These are listed, below:
—Blue Lotus Dharma Center somewhat eclectic, mixed Tibetan Vajrayana and Chan (Chinese Zen) practices Blue Lotus Dharma Center
—Do Ngak Chöling Tibetan Nyingma Vajrayana Buddhism http://dongakcholing.org/
—Katag Chöling Khentrul Lodrö T'hayé Rinpoche's main center, https://katogcholing.com
—Kagyu Droden Kunchab—Saint Louis, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, http://www.kdkstl.org
I am beyond-words grateful to my teachers.
My beloved Buddhist teacher, Lama Padma Drimed Norbu (Lama Drimed), about 2012
Whatever I was able to accomplish from this mini-retreat or any other part of my practice was entirely due to the blessings, teachings, support and care from my dear teachers, particularly Lama Drimed and the late H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche (photos above and below), as well as my mom (in whose home I now live), other Lamas, especially Lama Shenphen Drolma and Khentrul Lodrö T'hayé Rinpoche, and sangha (spiritual community of fellow practitioners scattered now around the world) of meditating sisters and brothers: THANKS to you all!
the late His Eminence Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, my first empowering lama and my teacher's teacher, about 2001, and his Yangshi (designated and recognized reincarnation), about 2013
I dedicate the merit (benefits) of my retreat to all beings.


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I just ate a giant dinner largely composed of…roast potatoes. I feel so sleepy as a result that I can't even describe how sleepy I feel, only repeat ineffectually that I feel so sleepy. Apologies if the following bloggery isn't all that flash.
As I write there's only a handful of hours left till the All Whites will play Paraguay at the FIFA world cup, oh my. The game's at 2am and I'm hoping those potatoes will let me get some decent sleep beforehand. There's this swirling uprising of coverage in the media in New Zealand at the moment and I just hope that, in the likely situation of us losing, there's no "Black Friday" type headlines tomorrow. Because seriously. Let's keep sight of things. It's exciting that we're there at all, we managed to stop the reigning champions from winning, and we've never, ever got this far before in football. I don't even really like sports AT ALL and this is really exciting.
Speaking of really exciting…cake!
My aunty Lynn gave me Alyson Gofton's book Flavours as a birthday present a few years back. I'm not sure where I stand on Alyson Gofton but this book would swing anyone in her favour – it's packed full of innovative but not terrifying recipes, most of which sound incredibly delicious and are a good call to action to rifle through your spice rack and get to grips with how a particular flavouring agent can perk up a meal. The last time I made this recipe for Palm Sugar and Lime Banana Loaf was in 2004 (specifically, for Mum's high school reunion lunch, if I remember right…?) and I can't understand why it has taken me so long to return to it, since it's really, really good. If you think banana cakes are the most obvious thing in the history of obvious things that are cakes, well, think again.
You know how sometimes you make those "cleaning out the fridge" kind of dinners that can never really be replicated because they use up all the bits and half-eaten pieces sitting round on your shelves hoping to be asked to dance? This cake, strangely enough, ended up being a similar exercise. Browning, speckled bananas in the fruit bowl, palm sugar I overenthusiastically bought by the bucketload, that large boxful of limes.
Palm Sugar and Lime Banana Loaf
Bear in mind there is no harder substance on earth than palm sugar. I'm pretty sure palm sugar could penetrate diamonds. The only way I can deal with it is by using a serrated Victorinox knife and scraping/shaving away at it till it's a pile of gritty golden rubble.
150g soft butter
1/2 cup crushed palm sugar (roughly one circular lump)
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed, ripe banana
Grated rind of 2 limes
2 and 1/4 cups self-raising flour
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons lime juice
Set oven to 180 C and line a loaf tin with baking paper. Beat together the butter and sugars till light and creamy, add the eggs and lime rind. Fold in the bananas, flour, and liquids. It will be a very stiff dough, almost scone-like. Turn it into the loaf tin, and bake for 45 mins to an hour. When cool, drizzle over an icing made from about 1 cup icing sugar and the juice of a lime or two.
Don't be fooled by the nothing-muchness of the icing – it really pulls the loaf cake together, mobilising all the flavours with its sticky tanginess. This is a moist, dense and easily sliced loaf, and while the palm sugar doesn't exactly get all up in your face, its delicate fudge-like flavour along with the added lime make this a gently out of the ordinary delicious thing to bake. I photographed it this morning before work (grabbing one of the 'artistic' slices for a sneaky breakfast treat) and when I got home there was only a slender-ish chunk of loaf left sheepishly on the bench, as if it was trying to look bigger than it really was. I took it as a compliment.
Incidentally, it's kind of fun reading over Flavours which is only all of seven years old, and seeing hints that basil pesto can be bought at the supermarket and avocado oil now being "available in two scented varieties." Hee. How far we've come…well as far as pesto is concerned, anyway.
I guess I find out next week some time how the whole CLEO/Wonder Women thing went down. Voting closes tomorrow, Friday 25 June (which is, I guess, Thursday 24 June for all you international readers above the equator). I sort of feel like I've wrung dry everything I can from this, but if by chance you haven't voted for me yet and would like to, firstly read why here and then email email@example.com with WONDER WOMEN in the subject line and "Voting for blogger: Laura Vincent" in the body of the email. Whatever happens, a mega-enormous thank you to everyone that did vote for me – and you can most definitely call on me to vote for you for anything in return.
Title via: Look, it's a skit/interlude from M.I.A's mad awesome album Arular, and I'm really usually not into skits clogging things up but this is so weirdly catchy that I'll find "ba…na…naaaa" popping into my head when I least expect it.
Music lately:
Karen Elson's The Ghost Who Walks, from the album of the same name. I love this album! It seems to hark back vaguely to 'another time' and is rich and full of melodies and warm, pretty Gillian Welch-ish harmonies. (Mum and Dad – I bet you'd love this one.) How lucky is Karen Elson – incredibly beautiful, married to Jack White, and luckiest of all, she can sing.
Big Boi's new single Shutterbug, I just can't get enough of it right now. It's silkier than a silkworm, and the melody behind it reminds me of Grandmaster Flash's The Message, but in a good way. I've always enjoyed Outkast's take on hip hop and it's cool that they're just as capable of working as separate entities as they are together. This song is a diamond, and the man knows how to use the line "cut a rug" properly.
Next time: By the time "next time" shuffles along, we'll know what the outcome of the All Whites' game was, we'll probably know whether or not I caused my own out-of-nowhere result with the Cleo/Palmolive Wonder Women thing, and…I will have a giant pavlova to share with you (well, words about a giant pavlova, but these words will allow you to make one for yourself and then share it with absolutely no-one at all, if you like).


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Immaculately choreographed, pruned stems of Rosa mulliganii against the sky, The White Garden, Sissinghurst.
Effervescent – also beautifully choreographed, obviously – Burns Night Haggis Dinner in Peckham given by Jake Tilson, Jeff Lee and their daughter Hannah Tlison (above).
The Top Courtyard, Sissinghurst Castle, the walls laced with the curving stems of pruned roses.
I am standing at the entrance to Sissinghurst Castle barely able to keep myself away from leaping over the box hedge and forensically examining the wall ahead of me. It is almost the last day of January. The glowing end-of-winter Burns night festivities are over and after a freezing couple of weeks – down to -7ºC here in Kent – the weather has become milder and there is a feeling that things in the garden are beginning to get on their way. I am with Sissinghurst Head Gardener, Troy Scott Smith, who bends down gently to point out the emerging shoots of peonies – for now just tiny dashes of carmine red against velvet brown soil. He is describing how it feels to be in the garden at this time of year "There is something nice about a quiet spell. I think gardens that are open to the public need it. There is something wholesome about that full cycle, the contrast with the extravagance of spring and summer".
Troy has generously agreed to show me the garden in winter and knows I am dead keen to start with the roses.
The entrance to Sissinghurst Castle, Rosa 'Alister Stella Gray' against the brick wall.
To the right of a brick arch there is an eighty year old 'Golden Rambler', Rosa 'Alister Stella Gray'. Peter Beales describes it as ' a repeat-flowering Noisette rose with cascading clusters of double, shapely flowers, yellow with 'eggy' centres paling to cream and eventually white at the edges. Highly perfumed and producing long, slightly spindly branches ideal for arches and trellises'. It is wonderful to see how carefully and cleverly the rose has been pruned for maximum coverage and softly-falling flowering. Long stems are retained and curved to form softly rounded steps and counter-steps against the wall. There are plenty of the horizontal stems (necessary for maximum flowering), but the whole system is flowing rather than rigid, as so much rose-pruning tends to end up. These gentle shapes will be entirely achievable (I tell myself) if I look hard enough at these images and use them as a guide next time I head out into the garden with my secateurs ….
I feel a little pressurised to learn that rose-pruning at Sissinghurst is almost over – indeed pruning began on October 15th! The climbing roses against the walls go first – 'for two reasons: first it is cold and windy high up, second we can clear the beds after pruning at the right time of year.' Troy uses the classic Nutscene garden twine (in green) and was so frustrated with the flimsiness/garishness of modern vine eyes that he had a mould made of an old one and now a blacksmith keeps the garden supplied with these bespoke chunky vine eyes for the 2mm wires that stretch along the brick. 'We tend to go twice round the wire and once round the stem of the rose'. Nutscene garden twine.
Troy Scott Smith's handmade vine eyes based on an old example from the garden.
When the roses have been pruned they are given fertiliser (Sissinghurst has its own recipe: 2 parts Sulphate of Potash to 1 part Kieserite), and then a layer of compost – 'compost is an underrated thing' sighs Troy – is spread at the base of the plant. Once the buds have started to break in mid March, a fortnightly spraying regime begins – it takes two gardeners two hours to get round the extensive rose collection. There is a wisdom combined with an experimental curiosity in Troy's approach which I will see again and again over the course of the morning. He will try out different combinations of traditional fungicides and Savona soap solution and regularly sprays with liquid seaweed feed or SB Plant Invigorator (which is new to me and looks impressive) too. 'We pause for the main flowering period June, July. Last year we did a little bit of an experiment where we didn't spray a number of roses for the last part of the summer'. The blackspot and rust came back with vigour but he is happy that he has tried.
SB Plant Invigorator.
Against the entrance arch the octogenarian 'Alistair Stella Gray' is not as vigorous as it used to be so instead of trying to get it to stretch over the entire arch it has been 'retreated' to one side and a new 'Alistair Stella Gray' planted on the opposite side of the arch so that the two can meet.
Ageing plants provide a constant challenge for Troy and his team throughout the garden. In the White Garden there is a famous central arbour smothered in Rosa mulligani .
Rosa mulliganii in flower.
In fact, to maintain a spectacular display of this fragrant rose (believed to be the biggest of climbing rose available in the UK), there are now three roses, the original one, a second one planted by the previous Sissinghurst Head Gardener, Alexis Datta, and now Troy has added a third rose – all trained over the iron arbour designed by Nigel Nicholson, with assistance from rose expert Graham Stuart Thomas, when the original rose was at its most vigorous. The pruning regime of the three roses remains the same with the aim of producing spare, dancing 'living lace' that stops the heart on this cold winter day and will produce an incredible frothing canopy of white in midsummer.
The Rosa muliganii arbour in The White Garden – the stems of the rose are pruned into heartstoppingly beautiful 'Living Lace'.
Elsewhere in the garden the same looping pruning discipline prevails – against walls, next to a spur-pruned apple tree at the back of the shop, along strong wire to create a stand alone rose 'fence' and, looking particularly handsome on this grey January day, against the white clapboard building next to the café:
The Sissinghurst 'living lace' style of rose pruning against walls and fences.
In the walled Rose Garden the shrub roses are supposed to be finished by the end of the week. There is a rhythmic calm as the team (there are six full time gardeners, two part time gardeners and a number of invaluable volunteers) make their way through the space, pruning and clearing as they go, creating a low creeping world of supple crinolines and elegant towers. The crinolines are created by arching the new, flexible stems into semi-circles and training these onto hazel hoops or 'benders' in the ground.
Shrub roses, trained into Louise Bourgoi-like spider shapes, take over the Rose Garden.
The South facing Rose Garden walls are dizzy with fabulously tangled figs. It is fascinating to see, again, how crucial curves are to achieve the right sort of comfortable fullness when the figs come into leaf. Pruning the figs is a finely judged matter – it takes place as late as possible at Sissinghurst because of the tenderness of the figs. But in a warm spell the leaves break fast so when the moment comes the walls need to be tackled at speed.
The fabulously tangled wall trained figs – pruning to take place as late as possible.
As we watch the steady transformation of the taller shrub roses from stands of impenetrable shagginess to clearly defined towers with neat scalloped frames, Troy explains his plans to reintroduce an avenue of cherry trees into the Rose Garden. Despite extensive research, it is not known which cherries Vita Sackville-West originally planted so he has decided on the winter flowering cherry (Prunus subhirtella autumnalis) which she is known to have liked and which crucially has a reasonably light canopy. Obviously the moment you plant trees in a border there will be a knock-on effect on the planting beneath it … …'The only problem with the winter flowering cherry is that visitors won't really see it' he adds with a slightly anxious laugh (giving me a glimpse for a moment of the incredible number of ingredients that must be juggled for every decision made in this world famous, historic garden), but then he is reassured by the fact that the Rose Garden can be seen from the Tower and glimpsed en route to the the newly open-to-the-public South Cottage, both of which are open throughout the winter.
The transformation of a taller shrub rose.
The compact boards which are used throughout the borders during pruning to protect the heavy clay soil.
As I walk to take in the famous view from the Tower I am reminded that there is one rose in the garden which will not, of course, be pruned until just after it has flowered. The thornless evergreen rambler, Rosa banksiae 'Lutea', is one of the earliest roses to flower – it has clusters of pale lemon flowers in late spring – and at Sissinghurst it forms a delicate screen of foliage in the central arch which beckons you onwards and which will explode into a haze of yellow later in the year.
Rosa banksiae 'Lutea' against the arch that separates the Top Courtyard from the Lower Courtyard.
Once at the top of the tower it is a complete pleasure to take in the clean-edged sculptural quality of the yew hedges and the quartet of Irish yews in the garden of South Cottage. If you are ever flagging in your faith in the power of structure in the garden, head to Sissinghurst as early in the year as you can (the entire garden will be open this year from March 11th).
The clean lines of yew hedges especially seen from the Tower.
Within the garden the hedges play a shifting series of roles. Here, tight clipped yew provides ballast and guides the eye firmly into the distance:
Yew hedges guide the eye firmly into the distance.
Elsewhere the velvet green planes provide a wonderful back-drop to red winter stems or the pale silvery buds of magnolia :
Red winter stems and silvery magnolia buds against velvety green yew.
I love this glimpse of the Herb Garden with pea sticks leaning ready for action against the wooden bench which nestles so comfortably between buttresses of yew. The bleached-out, silvery-mauve aromatic plants remain soft and inviting against the vivid green backdrop.
The Herb Garden.
Not a hedge – obviously – but this mown path through the damp grass of the Orchard has a surprisingly powerful presence.
The serene Orchard path.
There is a considerable amount of important box hedging in the garden which carries the usual worries of box in the 21st century – plus particular stylistic concerns for this famous garden. Troy is tackling the situation in his characteristic surefooted and gently experimental way. In the White Garden he wants to loosen up the low box edging for a more abundant, relaxed feel – 'I think Sissinghurst became too tidy' – but at the same time has to balance the more fitting, softer aesthetic with the level of irritation the narrower paths might bring forth from demanding visitors. He is relaxed about the way the expanding hedges are looking a bit rough around the edges as they are allowed to grow. If there is an ailing section of hedge he moves box plants from elsewhere in the garden to fill the gap (he would not consider introducing new box into the garden now) and, in case the worse happens – 'I have the sad feeling we will have to take all our box out one day' – he has just brought in a load of Euonymus japonicus 'Microphyllus' (the box leaved euonymus) to trial.
Box edging in the White Garden – beginning to bulge satisfactorily.
Elsewhere in the garden the Lion Pond at the base of the old Elizabethan wall is brought alive in winter by the vibrant fresh green of some low box hedging.
The fresh green of a section of box hedging near the Lion Pond gives this area energy at the beginning of the year.
Yew and pleached lime trees are a vital and anchoring combination both at the front of the Castle and at the approach to the Lime Walk from South Cottage.
Yew hedge and pleached limes at the front of Sissinghurst Castle.
The four Irish yews in the Cottage Garden are incredibly beautiful at any time of year. In this photograph there is the wonderful extra layering of Irish yew with box drums behind and then a clipped yew hedge directly in front of a section of pleached lime. Rich layering of Irish yew, box, yew hedge and pleached lime in the Cottage Garden
The Lime Walk is famous for its immaculate avenue of trained lime trees underplanted with spring bulbs.
The Lime Walk.
But of course nothing about a garden can stand still and it takes a skilled and subtle gardener to tackle the challenges that the Lime Walk quietly but insistently poses. Troy has changed the pruning regime of the trees themselves – bringing the date forward from August to Midsummer's Day. This brings more light into the walk itself during the summer and leads to a haze of wonderful ruby growth.
Deep red new growth on the lime trees a result of midsummer pruning.
He is fond of this effect, but at the back of his mind is a slight worry that this pruning regime may perhaps be weakening the trees. At the same time the branches are becoming altogether too long and a further experiment is taking place – luckily on a shorter stretch of lime trees elsewhere in the garden – to reduce the branches considerably .
Then there are the bulb beds underneath the trees. I can see hundreds of Crocus tommasinianus shoots, but my enthusiasm is quickly checked as Troy explains that the crocus has become 'so aggressive and spread so well that it outcompetes some of the finer tulips and fritillaries'. Sections of border are being taken up each year, cleared, sterilised and then the bulbs (which are planted in mixed groups in pots to create as natural an effect as possible as quickly as possible) are sunk into the beds.
Hundreds of unwanted Crocus tommasinianus shoots in the beds of the Lime Walk.
Then there are questions of opening up the area immediately beyond the Lime Walk so that visitors can stroll down unimpeded to the lake – and how best to do this of course – and beyond the Lime Walk is the Nuttery where the underplanting is also getting out of balance (Troy remembers a lighter, more dancing tapestry of planting when he was here before in 1992-97 ). Added to this, the mostly yellow azalea border across the path is about to be replaced with a much richer palette of azaleas underplanted with brightly coloured polyanthus (which Vita had until 1973) and glamorous peonies and lilies 'It might be a bit bold in places but you don't want to be too tasteful' muses the Head Gardener with a grin.
Silhouette of pleached lime against the sky.
The Nuttery – the underplanting is under review so that the epimedium seen here for example does become too dominant.
The Azalea Bank left – about to undergo a 1970's polaroid transformation.
As well as a host of venerable garden advisors and historians, Dan Pearson comes on a voluntary basis twice a year to act as an advisor and sounding board. I can imagine that these are productive and hugely enjoyable days much appreciated even by the most thoughtful of Head Gardeners..
Before I leave the garden I make a note of the straightforward plants which are looking good even at this time of the year. The blue-grey leaved Euphorbia characias is as always looking fresh and strong – such a great architectural plant that always helps an area of the garden look well furnished and happy.
Euphorbia characias adding fullness to the spare winter border against the Elizabethan Wall.
At the entrance to South Cottage Mahonia and Helleborus foetidus look bright and fresh, especially perhaps because they are each given a good amount of space in which to shine.
Mahonia and Helleborus foetidus against the entrance to South Cottage.
One of my surprise favourites is this fine, spikey pair of Yucca gloriosa which I admit to never having used, but which looks wonderfully at home with box and rosemary at the base of this aged red wall.
Yucca glorious anchoring the entrance border.
One sneaky inclusion in this list is Rosa 'Meg' which is also growing at the entrance. It is a rose I have not grown – and which was obviously not in flower! – but which has, I discover, large, almost single, beautifully waved flowers and a delicate pink-apricot colour, with red-gold stamens. It would look wonderful in a garden with my favourite Rosa mutabilis whose flowers pass through shades of apricot yellow to coppery pink.
Rosa 'Meg'.
Another new discovery is the rare evergreen shrub Distylium racemosum, or Winter-hazel, which is sunning itself on the left of the central Courtyard archway with some Rosmarinus officinalis 'Sissinghurst Blue' bursting out at its feet. I have tracked it down to the wonderful Bluebell Nursery where it has a rave review 'a slow growing attractive evergreen tree from Japan… in spring attractive, small, red Hamamelis-like flowers with lurid purple stakes appear on the older branches'. One for the shopping list.
Distylium racemosum growing to the left of the Courtyard arch.
The red witch hazel like flowers of Distylium racemosum. (Photograph courtesy of Bluebell Nursery).
The oldest rose in the garden is the 'Mme Alfred Carrière' that covers the front of South Cottage. This was the first thing planted by Vita Sackville West in the entire garden and it is this rose that gets ceremoniously pruned first in the middle of October. I was charmed to discover that Vita had determinedly planted the rose before the couple had actually signed the Title Deeds for the Castle, a sort of guarantee to herself that she was going to make a garden here.
It is a move I might employ myself in some lonely country plot in the coming years. Husband, be warned.
Rosa 'Mme Alfred Carriere' against South Cottage – the oldest plant in the garden.


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Stewart ready for return at Daytona after leg injury
Daytona Beach, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - Tony Stewart is eager to get back in the race car and has no plans for a relief driver this weekend at Daytona International Speedway.
Stewart, a three-time Sprint Cup Series champion, is expected to drive his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet in Friday and Saturday's practice sessions, Saturday night's preseason race -- The Sprint Unlimited -- and Sunday's qualifying for the Daytona 500.
It will be Stewart's first time back in a race car since he suffered a broken right leg in an accident during a sprint car race last August in Oskaloosa, Iowa. He missed the final 15 races of the 2013 season.
"I'm excited about it," Stewart said during Thursday's Daytona 500 Media Day at Daytona International Speedway. "It's been a long time since August 5th. Normally, we're talking about the offseason, and it just seems like it flies by. But this has been the slowest offseason that I've ever had. I'm ready to get going again."
Stewart underwent three surgeries to repair his leg, including one where a metal rod was inserted inside his fractured tibia. He's had months of physical therapy.
"All of my therapy has been going really well, especially I would say in the last two weeks," he said. "I feel like we've made really huge gains. I don't know how we could be more prepared, honestly, than where we are right now. In a perfect scenario, everything would be healed 100 percent, and we wouldn't even be talking about it. My bone is about 65 percent healed right now."
Last month, Mark Martin drove Stewart's No. 14 car during preseason testing at Daytona. Martin also substituted for Stewart in the car in 12 of the last 13 races this past season.
Stewart is one of 18 drivers competing in The Sprint Unlimited at Daytona, which is a 75-lap, 187.5-mile race. He has won it three times.
"I feel confident enough that we're not going to have to worry about anything," Stewart said. "We've planned for everything that we think might or could go wrong. And when I say, 'go wrong,' it's not going to be anything that's going to take me out of the race car. It's a matter of trying to make everything absolutely as comfortable as possible."


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ST. PAUL, Minn.—The Minnesota Wild are finding a way to win without injured stars Zach Parise and Mikko Koivu.
Nate Prosser scored his third career goal at 2:42 of overtime, lifting the Wild over the Dallas Stars 3-2 on Saturday night.
"When you're playing the right way, it is going to be a different guy every night," Minnesota coach Mike Yeo said. "You can't have the same person going out and doing it all the time. But if every guy is doing the right thing then their turn will come."
Prosser netted the winning score for the second time in as many games. The 27-year-old defenseman sent Nino Niederreiter's rebound past Kari Lehtonen's glove for Minnesota's third victory in its last four games.
Asked if it was the biggest goal of his career, Prosser responded: "Yeah, there's not many of them, so it's pretty easy to say."
Koivu is out after he had surgery to repair a broken ankle. Parise has been sidelined by a foot injury. But the Wild (27-19-5) have won seven of nine since a six-game losing streak in December.
Erik Haula and Ryan Suter also scored for the Wild, and Darcy Kuemper stopped 33 shots in his fourth straight start. Kuemper is 4-1 in five starts since Jan. 7 in place of hurting Niklas Backstrom and Josh Harding, who is out due to complications with his multiple sclerosis.
Ryan Garbutt and Alex Chiasson scored for the slumping Stars, who have only one win in their last nine games. Lehtonen made 16 saves.
"It's disappointing," Chiasson said. "This was probably one of our best games defensively, as far as scoring chances given to the other team. It's just a little play there, and that's tough. We battled through and it would've been nice to get a win here."
Haula's first career goal put Minnesota up 1-0 at 7:11 in the first. After knocking the puck away from Erik Cole along the boards, the former University of Minnesota standout skated ahead and beat Lehtonen on the stick side.
"It took me a while to kind of get over it and chills to go away, but it was unbelievable," Haula said.
But the Wild had only three shots in the opening period, with Dallas outworking the home team on offense. Minnesota failed to get a shot off during an extended power play late in the period when Shawn Horcoff received a double minor for high-sticking.
But Kuemper's solid play in net offset Dallas' aggressive offensive play.
"We were under siege a lot of the night but there was opportunities where he came out and made a play and relieved some of that pressure," Yeo said of Kuemper. "When you see that kind of confidence, for sure your team feeds off that."
Dallas tied it at 11:57 of the second on Garbutt's 10th goal of the season. Garbutt picked up a rebound off Vernon Fiddler's shot in front of the net and knocked it in past Kuemper.
Yeo then called for a timeout to rally his team, and his players responded. Minnesota reclaimed the lead when Suter wristed a shot from the left circle through a crowd and past Lehtonen at 14:09.
Chiasson's power-play goal for Dallas tied it with just over 10 minutes to play.
The game capped the eighth annual Hockey Day Minnesota that included three high school hockey games on an outdoor rink in the Minneapolis suburb of Elk River, and the University of Minnesota men's team against Ohio State.
NOTES: Wild D Jonas Brodin left early in the third after taking a stick to the face from Dallas F Antoine Roussel. Play was halted while the arena crew scraped blood from the ice. Brodin returned to the bench in the third. … Dallas RW Valeri Nichushkin was a healthy scratch for only the second time this season. … The Wild reassigned D Jonathon Blum to Iowa of the AHL earlier in the day. … Haula's goal marked a third straight Hockey Day Minnesota game in which a Wild player scored his first career NHL goal. … The announced attendance of 19,192 was the largest of the season for Minnesota.


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With recent outbreak of a rare strain of canine influenza virus (CIV) in Chicago, animal guardians are left asking if they may catch the flu from their canine companions. The answer is a resounding no. Although viruses of this class have been known to mutate and cross species lines over time as they adopt evolutionarily,… [Read more]


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Bleach 676 see's the power in action as Ichigo uses both his Hollow and Quincy counterparts along with his own power in order to launch himself and his attacks towards Yhwach. He completely destroys the palace they're in as he mixes his Getsuga Tensho along with the power of a Cero in order to produce a Gran Rey Cero which definitely gets a crushing attack on Yhwach.
Bleach 676 begins as we see the smoke dissipate from Ichigo's transformation. Orihime looks upon it and notices the horn, to which she is reminded by the Ichigo of when he fought against Ulquiorra. She calls his name, he turns his head and smiles at her as he mentions that she should relax as this time, it's definitely still him.
Yhwach mentions that his resemblance to a hollow is striking, with his new form, it seems like it's mixed his powers together. Ichigo mentions that he is correct and that the Quincy powers he inherited from his mother, Zangetsu and the Shinigami abilities from his father which was the Hollow within him.
While they were always fighting, they've finally reached a balance which allowed his Zangetsu to get reforged that became the swords he holds. If they remain under control, then the balance will be maintained. This balance must be kept for his form to hold. Whenever he unleashes massive amounts of Shinigami powers, his Hollow side always comes out.
If he was to use his own Quincy abilities, which he did when he fought against Yhwach just now, it nudged the Quincy (Zangetsu) to be drawn out. Yhwach smiles as Ichigo jumps forward a little. Ichigo tells Orihime that she should spread out a little, to keep her rikka defending his reiatsu, as she makes herself safe.
Ichigo raises his reiatsu as he blows up the top of the palace they're in. Yhwach calls his power magnificent as he also prepares to draw his own sword. Ichigo has already approached him as he draws his sword, he holds Yhwach's back as he uses his own power and Zanpakuto against Yhwach. However, Yhwach defends against Ichigo's sword as he mentions that he must be joking if he really wants to cut him.
With such strength, he could never hope to pierce him. Ichigo is pushed upwards by Yhwach's attack. This time, we see Ichigo preparing for a Getsuga Tensho which Yhwach already predicts. Ichigo seems to be doing something different here, he raises his Zanpakuto as he begins to form something else above him.
Yhwach mentions that it doesn't seem like a conventional Getsuga Tensho, he seems to be fusing his own Hollow abilities with his Shinigami powers in this attack. Ichigo calls out "Gran Rey Cero" which translates to Flash of the Hollow King, as he unleashes his intense and incredible attack upon the body of Yhwach, He seems to have cut right through Yhwach in an effort to defeat him. Bleach 676 ends here.
A fantastic chapter if you ask me, seems like the chapter has brought us some incredibly powerful abilities from Ichigo. On top of which, the chapter felt a little short, but the pages have used two sides to create these incredible attacks, that is why it has felt a little short. Overall, its great chapter, can't wait for next week's Bleach 677, which will see what happens next with these two.