tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57436592223730610922024-03-19T01:04:46.947-07:00OonahverseThis is the blog of Oonah V Joslin, writer and Editor at The Linnet's Wings.Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.comBlogger470125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-59000128756276681102023-12-21T04:40:00.000-08:002023-12-21T04:40:57.556-08:00A Christmas Poem for 2023<p> </p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Patterns
of Christmas Past</span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, serif;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">How
life is stretched now, seven decades deep.</span></span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, serif;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">All
those glittering cards scattered through time,</span></span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, serif;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">shards
of people past who rest now asleep,</span></span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, serif;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">memories
needle sharp, picked out in pine</span></span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, serif;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that
pierce the past and make the future weep.</span></span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, serif;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There
is a santa claus in every year,</span></span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, serif;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">his
sack packed full of bitter, sour and sweet,</span></span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e06666;"><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">who
brings this rueful smile, that happy tear, </span></span></span></span></span></span></strong>
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, serif;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">baubles
we lost, traditions that we keep</span></span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, serif;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">alive.
The Christmas jumpers that we wear</span></span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, serif;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">remind
us our good shepherds watched their sheep</span></span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, serif;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
looked in proudly from the frosty air</span></span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, serif;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
wished us warm and snuggly in our wraps,</span></span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e06666;"><a name="__DdeLink__1341_2589434503"></a>
<strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hand
knitted, stitched in plain and purl, with care.</span></span></span></span></span></span></strong></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #f4cccc; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>Oonah
V Joslin ©2023 </i></span></span></span></span></span></strong>
</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #f4cccc; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></strong></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #f4cccc; font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVd36Zcqp3LGR7f0Gxx7WY6cOO7rGL4a-8ehp34PxcWJC3dl-igv7nlkl9SUpC6duwN0CmL3GLkJ24clOp0asI3f7nIO6eWjvy01gDOW5MEYJzprpb7YAULrqj8NE5-uV_AFhkFUzUdoL8-Gw6z-vlE5ssEtdxJuTV44M5094Py0nuJvt1OJPh24kz55s/s1819/img014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1819" data-original-width="1063" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVd36Zcqp3LGR7f0Gxx7WY6cOO7rGL4a-8ehp34PxcWJC3dl-igv7nlkl9SUpC6duwN0CmL3GLkJ24clOp0asI3f7nIO6eWjvy01gDOW5MEYJzprpb7YAULrqj8NE5-uV_AFhkFUzUdoL8-Gw6z-vlE5ssEtdxJuTV44M5094Py0nuJvt1OJPh24kz55s/s320/img014.jpg" width="187" /></a></span></span></strong></div><strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #f4cccc; font-size: small;"><br /><i><br /></i></span></span></strong><p></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-7096392704382183892023-12-16T10:11:00.000-08:002023-12-16T10:11:59.480-08:00On Angel's Wings<p class="western" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">On Angels’ Wings</span></b></p><p class="western" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #d9d2e9;">first published in Static Movement</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ffd966;">
Gabriel floated on a favourite cloud, knitting with silver needles.
He found it quite therapeutic, though it was also part of the job.
When he’d finished knitting his wings, it would be time to call
time.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ffd966;">
It wasn’t entirely up to him when that would be. He couldn’t knit
his wings any faster than he could get hold of the materials, and the
yarn was spun on Earth. Mankind had started spinning yarns long ago
when they’d refused the gift of innocence and needed to cover-up.
Since then they’d rejected many of the best gifts on offer,
preferring the packaging. They had discarded reason in favour of
woolly thinking and had substituted vanity for truth, sex for love,
fragrance for freshness.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ffd966;">
One day Gabriel would take flight on wings of innocence, reason,
truth, responsibility -- the off-cuts of ingratitude – all the
stuff man threw away. These unwanted things would bear everything to
its destiny. Heaven wastes nothing.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ffd966;">
In the beginning there had barely been enough to knit with, but
recently supply had exceeded demand. Increasingly, human beings
seemed only to value things that brought intense sensation or
immediate gratification. They no longer cherished a moment for
itself. Packaging was paramount.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ffd966;">
So Gabriel’s wings grew and shone ever more brightly day by day.
They glowed white with all virtue – light and pure as the air that
had been displaced by pollution. His golden threads came from the
tones of sunsets never contemplated and fruits not forbidden but left
uneaten: pleasures spurned. Soft grey tones were woven from dove’s
breast, beneath which beat sacrifice and freedom now disdained in
equal measure. Magnesium bright, his needles clacked and scattered
light for all to see but so few looked to heaven any more and that
was up to them.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ffd966;">
Soon he would don his ceremonial wings and place the golden trumpet
to his lips and shatter time. He would pull on the little superstring
by his feet and all would unravel and return to the light.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffd966;">The Archangel admired his new wings. He passed no judgments. The
choice was not his to make. If a DIY universe is put in the hands of
those who will not follow the maker’s instructions, the outcome is
perhaps inevitable. </span></p><p><span style="color: #ffd966;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ffd966;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDpJObWoadC0Es6ZOYcVyscLpBdfwT6hsrNTUyIlzurFin6wTC2Tyoi0Dm-bkCg0SVVfOAhaBMuCxm_2AS6o1giccXi97h16_WxC13XX_g3WayDCdV_cI-kD8PJkSqIETP_pRMZVaIxXU-bM7WTeZVI9kGfYB5G_fIjbk-alEcq023YVcV_GMdQN9Ffe8" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="253" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDpJObWoadC0Es6ZOYcVyscLpBdfwT6hsrNTUyIlzurFin6wTC2Tyoi0Dm-bkCg0SVVfOAhaBMuCxm_2AS6o1giccXi97h16_WxC13XX_g3WayDCdV_cI-kD8PJkSqIETP_pRMZVaIxXU-bM7WTeZVI9kGfYB5G_fIjbk-alEcq023YVcV_GMdQN9Ffe8=w226-h161" width="226" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #ffd966;"><br /><br /></span><p></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-76729488187587020592023-10-31T03:15:00.001-07:002023-10-31T03:15:21.795-07:00Halloween Greetings<p><br /></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a name="__DdeLink__932_262211129"></a>
<span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;">
</span>
</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><a name="__DdeLink__1297_231041673"></a>
Paws for Thought</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><br />
</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">I
wish I could sleep
</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">as a
cat sleeps</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">all
soft and paws</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">the
whole being
</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">an
entity of pause</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">I
wish I could sleep
</p><p class="western" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">like
that – like a cat.</p><p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdryF4JgcoCvDahpXfr2q9mJ2wh80xqlbKWEjitgyG9SBbG6KS75cGrQerVXOQG8_HRljsbHlrPaclp0KvzuK1q7UQdwlz0cSArI_fxMZgYR8oK4yDlSjt_lRFHYMMeDVXO76fUCM1xcWlEOrwQRNLPlWIWch4kz_ncOJERgeN7LfksA18zyw40JkGOKI" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="320" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdryF4JgcoCvDahpXfr2q9mJ2wh80xqlbKWEjitgyG9SBbG6KS75cGrQerVXOQG8_HRljsbHlrPaclp0KvzuK1q7UQdwlz0cSArI_fxMZgYR8oK4yDlSjt_lRFHYMMeDVXO76fUCM1xcWlEOrwQRNLPlWIWch4kz_ncOJERgeN7LfksA18zyw40JkGOKI" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-79625229357137642932023-02-02T09:29:00.000-08:002023-02-02T09:29:25.214-08:00February 2023: Catching the Wind at Candlemas<p><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">My year never begins in January, remembered as the month in which my father died. This January my eldest sister Annabelle passed away too. Noel's half brother also passed on the same day. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">Annabelle was 17 when I was born, very pretty and she wore such lovley clothes! Clothes were elegant in the late fifties. I just about remember her wedding or at least my mother trying to keep me from disrupting it too much. I was only 3 after all! She was a very supportive big sister and on many occasions more of a mother figure to us 3 youngest siblings. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpF5tSo-UUe3CaB5UPrsYAB2kwiej2euFnj25HHGL2zOyQnNvshoJ82JfYt90wD_N5-hXYOcV0nDsNkMBbc1bRfs4B8_ZAcJRHhUUVGsQEQztcLEoNrkz1RSRyPxKtaVJomTRWUUK141AWPTXOi_G30zeTnt_AFX6uMKWoS82PvwXdtbdn851zmr7S/s3953/img009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2816" data-original-width="3953" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpF5tSo-UUe3CaB5UPrsYAB2kwiej2euFnj25HHGL2zOyQnNvshoJ82JfYt90wD_N5-hXYOcV0nDsNkMBbc1bRfs4B8_ZAcJRHhUUVGsQEQztcLEoNrkz1RSRyPxKtaVJomTRWUUK141AWPTXOi_G30zeTnt_AFX6uMKWoS82PvwXdtbdn851zmr7S/s320/img009.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #fff2cc;">Annbelle and Hubert on their wedding day with my Grandparents</span></div><span style="color: #f9cb9c;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">My Grandmother died 45 yrs ago on 11th Feb. I know this because I had just left Ballymena to take my first teaching post in Cardiff when I received the news. In the photo you can just see Margaret, the bridesmaid and Esme was the little flower girl.</span></p><p><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">I didn't think of it as a great adventure. </span><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">I was terrified really! Never lived in a city before! But I met up with Noel and we had our first date later that month and we never looked back.</span><span style="color: #f9cb9c;"> </span><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">February is a welcome friend. It brings with it snowdrops and crocuses, if we are lucky, even daffs, and it's light until 5pm. I greet it with a smile of relief. It's not that Winter is over but it is </span><i style="color: #f9cb9c;">beginning to be over</i><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">. The yellow jasmine that has been in bloom since November, is now losing it's flowers and the nithering north winds pull at them, as if to set them free. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">February always feels like being set free. The sun just about warms our bones. So as I remember my sister, I'll heed the warmth and feel thankful and hopeful and share with you this little poem which really wrote itself from observation, (those are mostly the best poems!!!) and is therefore one of my favourites.</span></p><p><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">In February 1992 we made the first move towards living in Northumberland. I did regard that as an adventure! </span></p><p><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">February is a time of new starts and who knows, after the covid doldrums of the past couple of years, m</span><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">aybe I can once more catch the wind.</span></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<strong><span style="color: #fcff01;">Catching the Wind</span></strong></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;"> </span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">Dainty,
yellow jasmine flower,</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;"> </span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">
tiny fairy skirt,</span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">twisting
in the twilight air,</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">
quite the little flirt.</span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">Toying
are you with the dark;</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">
finished with the day?</span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">Darting
this way, flutt’ring that;</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">
can’t you get away?</span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">Star-struck
in the gloom of dusk;</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">
I see how you’re pinned;</span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">Caught
there on a spider-line,</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">
a lure to catch the wind.</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></p>
<p align="right" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #fff2cc;">First published by The Shine Journal 2007</span></i></p>
<p align="right" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #fff2cc;"><a name="__DdeLink__29_1807120602"></a>
<i>Subsequently published in The Linnet’s Wings</i></span></p><br /><p></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-74288598923193813332022-12-30T06:12:00.000-08:002022-12-30T06:12:40.161-08:00Goodbye to 2022<p><span style="color: #ead1dc;">I haven't written very much this year, or sent much for publication but I will leave this little memoire from childhood to round off the year and wish you all a Happy and Healthful 2023.</span></p><p></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e06666;"><b><a name="__DdeLink__78_4050698809"></a>
A resurrection in raspberries.</b></span></p><p></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ea9999;">As we spilled out of the town hall, ears
tingling with carols, jollity followed us, trinkled along wet streets
and trickled in rainbow hues down slushy gutters. Friends, strangers,
even old enemies it seemed, greeted one another with Christmas cheer.</span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ea9999;">Church Street, criss-crossed in multi-coloured
bulbs, glowed with pride, its shops festooned with holly wreaths.
Even the Brother Archie’s plate glass window bristled with festive
sprigs among the Stanley knives, glass baubles glinting out among
saws and planes. All was a-sparkle of splintery tinsel and fairy
lights. Outside grocery shops, recently cut trees awaited another
incarnation, an indoor, scented life among the tangerines and
puddings.</span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #ea9999;">As light faded to a glimmer, a single gap in
the commerce reined in all sound. The old churchyard lowered black,
sucking the celebration from the street. In there was full of people
so long dead, they were deaf to Christmas bustle and their dark
absence made the lights seem all unreal. I quickened my pace past
those wrought iron gates where no tomorrow ever comes. And soon
enough the town centre dwindled to narrower streets and darker lanes,
and I felt suddenly alone and hurried homeward all happed up in hope.</span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ea9999;">But I knew life would return to that
dank place of runkled graves and dilapidated stones, whose
illustrious names, time had all but erased.
When the sun was once more at its height, a little taste of heaven
would spring up out of decay. We’d walk there, and our eager
little hands would reach in through the black surround of the old
grave by the crumbling tower, and we’d fill our Sunday hats with
soft, ripe fruits, and buy ice cream on the way home, to share the
biggest, sweetest raspberries you’ve ever seen. Though, it might
have scunnered some to know where we came by them, sure, the grave is
silent and we didn’t have to tell. Year after year, this miracle
occurred. I never knew his name, our benefactor, but I have never
forgot the lessons in hope his grave taught:</span></p><p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ea9999;">True light shines brightest in the darkest times.
</span></p><p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ea9999;">
The greatest gifts are always freely given and received.
</span></p><p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ea9999;">
Each day we live’s a little taste of heaven.</span></p><p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ea9999;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ea9999;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEitjsUUkAlolxlUe1-i6pcBfSHEtuq95sGsbWeDaBNfNiQlclnMK1wHAZxrLDwWxhbIb4aVOMWUuCtBXIS2tayODHD6Hic0SHidH7PrrdWwWODtpoRQ0tz3xKOPdRkBucg9tNtjtsqlVIELUHQ14-1aL1Zbj2qpwKZHAFGlzzAcV7rE3q2EHY0VNm3E" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="474" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEitjsUUkAlolxlUe1-i6pcBfSHEtuq95sGsbWeDaBNfNiQlclnMK1wHAZxrLDwWxhbIb4aVOMWUuCtBXIS2tayODHD6Hic0SHidH7PrrdWwWODtpoRQ0tz3xKOPdRkBucg9tNtjtsqlVIELUHQ14-1aL1Zbj2qpwKZHAFGlzzAcV7rE3q2EHY0VNm3E" width="240" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #ea9999;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #ffe599;">Oonah V Joslin 2022</span></i></span></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-21755629712963150712022-11-08T05:50:00.000-08:002022-11-08T05:50:19.582-08:00Visiting the War Graves -- 8th November 2022<p>It is always our privilege to visit the grave of our friend Wojtek Jacobson's brother Andrej at this time of year and so once again we took a walk through the war graves at St Mary's Churchyard on this Autumn day and left a little tribute in remembrance and with thanks for friendships and to those who, like Andrej died far from home. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMSkRqeFg0E-EQVypdKv2JwUdsuGE3xXT30AhmRozxQk4P6MKBcJfeV3CVkG3jtalr7vn73jY8NxmVwMZXRvveTdajHhekm6h9LrOEvuVxnGbuV0e0hF_6qLvKH0GJ_EiaQQdXuwI5w3u4Dy-j6KhFqG6ipkQKvueQ4TJisKg4x5q_dv-uWk7FhGKQ/s4896/DSC06785.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3672" data-original-width="4896" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMSkRqeFg0E-EQVypdKv2JwUdsuGE3xXT30AhmRozxQk4P6MKBcJfeV3CVkG3jtalr7vn73jY8NxmVwMZXRvveTdajHhekm6h9LrOEvuVxnGbuV0e0hF_6qLvKH0GJ_EiaQQdXuwI5w3u4Dy-j6KhFqG6ipkQKvueQ4TJisKg4x5q_dv-uWk7FhGKQ/s320/DSC06785.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGBYdDRXSkyUIzAKMe6v_Trv_DL6nwSEe5B5DpMvdfjmHWKNx9k_h8LhjCKF8He_BhvH7oh-jFrotWcbOQIM41KQepsOtWhVTjsxfoJDLEc9hoSnateNRb9fwnlY66ljGYtpt2OqmJhNByV73AjrCb2qhNkjAEg9xY87Ac-uyZU7a3lshc9bCf1V7-/s4896/DSC06787.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3672" data-original-width="4896" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGBYdDRXSkyUIzAKMe6v_Trv_DL6nwSEe5B5DpMvdfjmHWKNx9k_h8LhjCKF8He_BhvH7oh-jFrotWcbOQIM41KQepsOtWhVTjsxfoJDLEc9hoSnateNRb9fwnlY66ljGYtpt2OqmJhNByV73AjrCb2qhNkjAEg9xY87Ac-uyZU7a3lshc9bCf1V7-/s320/DSC06787.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzEVyE8Tzfzy6qRorwXZutB_jRscJz_T7Fef3Gx1tiX5EEofEyS-yoAyjj6GPd23hSBnKK9CNzwokvMEmnbft4rzMlk_KpLDtY754xSgBeNxim22DRmK1LHfaKCbvPP-VplsEUy0BALYZxN1hkFxt0VCcy4y7kyW07BUa6QRWLjTMGzSuVhxi01vZU/s4896/DSC06788.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3672" data-original-width="4896" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzEVyE8Tzfzy6qRorwXZutB_jRscJz_T7Fef3Gx1tiX5EEofEyS-yoAyjj6GPd23hSBnKK9CNzwokvMEmnbft4rzMlk_KpLDtY754xSgBeNxim22DRmK1LHfaKCbvPP-VplsEUy0BALYZxN1hkFxt0VCcy4y7kyW07BUa6QRWLjTMGzSuVhxi01vZU/s320/DSC06788.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>There was evidence that the November service on the first Sunday had taken place, in the little candle that had been placed there. Pity it's plastic I thought... But then my own poppy was plastic too. </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #e06666;">Note to self -- must do better.</span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><p><br /></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-11357022054046114902022-07-25T07:12:00.000-07:002022-07-25T07:12:25.677-07:00July 2022 -- Not quite a 'fluffy kitten' story but it's close <p><span style="color: #ead1dc;">We saw a whippet the other day at Newbiggin by the Sea disappear into a hole he'd dug in the sand and it kinda reminded me of this story which I humbly offer to anyone who would like the hell outa here!!!</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">Mungo’s Hole</span></b></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c;"><a name="__DdeLink__101_7955602481"></a>
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A
dull Winter’s day on a familiar windy beach is not the place one
thinks of for the spectacular to occur. And certainly Joe had no
expectations of the day; porridge for breakfast, sandwich for lunch
walking the dog, the usual Monday leftovers bubbled and squeaked. He
reflected on the down side of being a dog owner as he got blown along
the beach in a northerly gale.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Mungo
ran ahead, stopped and began digging in his favourite spot. It was a
mystery to Joe why he did this but, if it kept him happy. Joe sat on
a rock and dug his gloved hands deep into his pockets. It was
starting to sleet.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span><em><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Why
hadn’t anything exciting ever happened to him? </span></span></span></span></span></em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><em><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">What
happened about that millionaire lifestyle, glamorous girlfriends,
fast car? </span></span></span></span></span></em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><em><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Where
was his dream job, his winning ticket?</span></span></span></span></span></em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><em><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">How
had his life collapsed into this – retirement nothing?</span></span></span></span></span></em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><em><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Bloody
dog. Bloody January. Bloody wind.</span></span></span></span></span></em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">After
what he considered sufficient digging time, he got up, pulled his
hood over his woollen hat, happed his long scarf closer around him
and prepared to turn into the razor sharp, sand-blasting wind for the
trudge back, and he whistled for Mungo to follow him. Only Mungo had
disappeared completely in the sand.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">“</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Mun-go!”
the last syllable climbed into the wind and was whipped away by
whatever universal forces. “Mungo!” he barked sharply.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Nothing
for it then, but go fetch him and put him on the leash. But when he
got to where Mungo was – Mungo wasn’t.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There
was a hole. A huge hole. A
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">bigger-than-Mungo-could’ve-dug-in-a-lifetime</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
hole, but no Mungo.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">“</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Mungo?”
Joe peered into the hole.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There
was no sign of the dog and the depths of the hole looked bright,
bright and bottomless. Unfathomable.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Joe
wandered up and down the beach, the dunes, the rocks, calling,
whistling, calling. Eventually he went back and looked down the
bright hole and sat a while at the edge with his feet dangling over
the side, wondering whether to commit. But the tide was turning and
where the hole was, would soon be covered by the sea, and he had to
do something.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Who
do you phone about a bright hole and a disappeared Staffordshire
terrier?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">“</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Can
you take us to exactly where this hole is, sir?” asked the
police.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">“</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Are
you quite sure your dog was still in there?” asked the fire
service.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">“</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Is
it a hazard to the public at large?” asked the environmental
agency.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Yes,
yes and yes. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #f9cb9c;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #f9cb9c;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">As
they questioned, the tide was encroaching.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">By
the time they all met up at the hole, the sea was streaming into it
like a huge waterfall with rainbows forming at it’s top, lifting
spray high into the air. They cordoned it off. The hole was
investigated, as far as it could be investigated. It was indeed
bright when the tide was out and seemingly bottomless, and that was
that until some days later and the phone call came. Soon after, the
press arrived at Joe’s door, cameras, flash photography, the lot –
and Joe was still in his pyjamas. This was not the moment of fame he
had envisaged.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">“</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">New
Zealand, yes.” FLASH! “Apparently some fishermen.” FLASH! “Yes,
I’ll be flying to Dunedin as soon as I” FLASH! “No – he was
just digging. He likes digging.” FLASH! “Of course. Tremendously
exciting.” FLASH!</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Joe
was all over the news – in his pyjamas. The headlines didn’t
mention Joe, however.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">MUNGO’S
JOURNEY THROUGH THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH</span></span></span></span></span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Cornwall
to New Zealand in a flash! </span></span></span></span></span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">HOLEY
MOLEY – Dog Gone Amazing.</span></span></span></span></span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">After
that the phone didn’t stop ringing. Morning TV. Chat shows. Radio
interviews. Dog food companies – they all wanted a piece of the
action – offered to pay his fare to New Zealand, first class of
course, for an exclusive photo shot of the reunion. Joe turned a lot
of them down – unless there was mention of money of course. And
after all, he had to conserve his energy for a very long
trip!</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Mungo,
in the meantime, a little confused but no worse for the wear, was
being utterly spoiled by his hosts and </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><em><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he</span></span></span></span></span></span></em><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">didn’t
turn down any offers. He had mysteriously appeared atop a water spout
south of South Island, was rescued by some fishermen who took him to
Dunedin where he became</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><em><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></em><em><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
centre</span></span></span></span></span></span></em><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">of
attention. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #f9cb9c;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #f9cb9c;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
water spout appeared with tidal regularity and, now the hole was of
real interest to science, the entire beach was cordoned off. There
was even talk of militarising PROJECT MUNGO as it was now called.
According to financial forecasts </span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #f9cb9c;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">“<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">This
could be one of the most exciting transport systems ever discovered.”</span></i></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #f9cb9c;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It
was a potential goldmine. People were already buying tickets to be
first through Mungo’s Hole. And maybe there were other such places
worldwide just waiting to be discovered.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">As
he packed, Joe was thinking how he could have done without all this
excitement at his age, let alone having to traipse all the way round
the world. Well, whatever happened, from now on Mungo was staying on
the lead. No more digging.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><em><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Bloody
media! Bloody dog!</span></span></span></span></span></em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Still,
there was a bright side. At least it was Summer in New Zealand. He
hoped it wouldn’t be too hot. He wondered what sort of food they
ate there? Maybe he’d like it. Maybe they’d stay!</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Joe
got to thinking on the long flight. How strange, a day with so little
going for it, can turn from a familiar walk on a windy beach, to a
conduit to the other side of the world. To have unearthed something
so mysterious, something so undefined, was a miracle but perhaps not
the miracle it seemed. Joe found he didn’t want fame, money, fast
cars or women. And if this was excitement he wasn’t in any danger
of liking that either. No. He just wanted Mungo back.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span>
</span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #f9cb9c;"><br />
</span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #f9cb9c;"><br />
</span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-size: small;">The
End</span></span></p><p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg1rxYFXTke5Ufy1FJbmTOlfTtaDwDYK8UgHJ492-YivP3N1W3JO5joNZsLsEtOBBx0dBff7JFNEkaNUodE3gjYPm3MBMgL_n22BIlBbD4zmweMlFLvbuRkP8k0FZTBWAKFYlNykXU2VYZXTLU2ci_iMlsNKRo4-gkERIGh0r8zLMK2Ck9cKkeg6AAk" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="110" data-original-width="239" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg1rxYFXTke5Ufy1FJbmTOlfTtaDwDYK8UgHJ492-YivP3N1W3JO5joNZsLsEtOBBx0dBff7JFNEkaNUodE3gjYPm3MBMgL_n22BIlBbD4zmweMlFLvbuRkP8k0FZTBWAKFYlNykXU2VYZXTLU2ci_iMlsNKRo4-gkERIGh0r8zLMK2Ck9cKkeg6AAk" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><br /></span></span><p></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-73215945815376926682022-05-13T04:16:00.003-07:002022-05-13T04:16:17.193-07:00Friday 13th May 1977 -- Friday 13th May 2022 -- Lucky for some<p>Yes, folks it's 45 years to the day since Noel and I first said hello. In Portrush. Very close to here, where I was living in the upstairs flat at the time as a student. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXeeygCquXDwfj119wHanE0z8efKQ-CI8_HZ5h8fdh5ScFF-R2q7TLUw6tWSFBQvd0Qc8uxfAN8m7Zcc8A4i4j6WYUCUC9kCJPhQ4QhCEjdB4-v6aaU60RCYRdaGkyeyo2lqx7o0ZYh2FZNPf4i0uUtIPtiSlUtgnTGfOyZQd3i0KHk8P1Yw80LmiO/s2048/no%2054.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXeeygCquXDwfj119wHanE0z8efKQ-CI8_HZ5h8fdh5ScFF-R2q7TLUw6tWSFBQvd0Qc8uxfAN8m7Zcc8A4i4j6WYUCUC9kCJPhQ4QhCEjdB4-v6aaU60RCYRdaGkyeyo2lqx7o0ZYh2FZNPf4i0uUtIPtiSlUtgnTGfOyZQd3i0KHk8P1Yw80LmiO/s320/no%2054.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">54 Causeway Street</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>He'd come to visit a mutual friend and had a terrible journey from Belfast in the midst of the final day of a loyalist strike! None of the buses were running and the entire province was very tense. By the time he got to us, he was totally frazzled and not a little scared plus a wee bit sea-sick so I said he could sleep on the living-room floor.</p><p> At first this didn't seem, from his point of view, the momentous meeting it was. From my point of view, I took one look at him and thought, "I'm going to marry him." Now for person who doesn't believe in romance, that is a momentous thing! And it didn't take many conversations to confirm my certainty that this was, indeed THE ONE.</p><p>There were quite a few obstacles in the way but without planning it all, I ended up with a job in Cardiff and by the following 13th May, we were, as we used to say in those days, 'an item'. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">We've hardly stopped talking since. Never a cross word! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhwxjxpfRfQE7w98h6ggrISmQVEaRn0m2KRVRa1DueBQ-RCPuwas6-HXLtGTeVTVn3JBNsaFY51jF6HYYzENShjzOGgrOWA8PL2uNqhSjG3lieHiV3zTGRPZVM7TKjHTICE_grBFcsnvXC2yLFLP_uMx9egaJFT0AOY_3cuBvQx-Hl2O0AQI4DJmM3N" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="157" data-original-width="157" height="54" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhwxjxpfRfQE7w98h6ggrISmQVEaRn0m2KRVRa1DueBQ-RCPuwas6-HXLtGTeVTVn3JBNsaFY51jF6HYYzENShjzOGgrOWA8PL2uNqhSjG3lieHiV3zTGRPZVM7TKjHTICE_grBFcsnvXC2yLFLP_uMx9egaJFT0AOY_3cuBvQx-Hl2O0AQI4DJmM3N=w54-h54" width="54" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">We've bought Champers to celebrate and we'll probably babble all the way through the bubbles! </div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"></blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">Always remember</span><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large; text-align: center;">Looks fade but a good conversation can last forever.</span></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-60268736839043556742022-04-23T04:47:00.000-07:002022-04-23T04:47:19.213-07:00St George's Day Poem: George and the Gateshead Worme<p>Character Colours: Please read it aloud using character colours as a guide to voice changes.</p><p>Narrator <span style="color: #04ff00;">Worme</span> <span style="color: red;">Thane</span> <span style="color: #2b00fe;">George</span> <span style="color: #ff00fe;">Maiden </span>(<i>Hiss and Boo) on cards held up for audience</i></p><p><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 700;"><span style="color: red;">George and the Gateshead Worme – by Oonah V Joslin 2016</span></span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There was a worm lived in Gateshead<br />in the once-upon-long-ago<br />with vicious scales and big long nails<br />a fiery wake that wreaked of death<br />he carried plague on his foul breath<br />for he had come up from the SOUTH <i>(boo)</i><br />at least that’s how the legend goes.</p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I’ll eat you all. I’ll ssscorch your town.</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I’ll burn your buildingsss to the ground.</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I’ll make you plead and beg and weep</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">unlesss you bring me sheepsss</span> <span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">to eat.</span> <i>(hiss)</i></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">People complied, what could they do?<br />‘Til one day all the sheep were gone.<br />The Worme demanded calves and hogs<br />horses and asses, cats and dogs,<br />fowl by the dozen – since they’re small<br />he downed them whole – feathers and all<br />and when the livestock was all gone<br />there was a meeting in the toon.</p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I’ll eat you all. I’ll ssscorch your fieldsss</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I’ll burn your cropsss to cindersss. I’ll</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">make the river bubble and boil</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">unlesss you bring me girlsss and boysss.</span> <i>(hiss)</i></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The squire stood there and the thane in<br />fine threads with haughty demeanour<br />they’d had turtle doves for breakfast<br />roast swan and peacocks for dinner<br />tomorrow they’d have guinea-fowl.<br />They weren’t getting any thinner! <i>(boo)</i></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We have been forced to make a deal</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">in these wretched and austere times</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">with the Worme of Gateshead, people. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>(boo)</i></span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: black; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And the Squire wrung his noble hands.</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Though it pains us as it pains you</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">to give in to this vile bully,</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">we have been forced to make this deal.</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You must understand this fully.</span> <i>(boo)</i></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">From this day we must deliver</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">a child a week to The Worme’s lair </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>(hiss)</i></span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We’ll draw lots for the sacrifice.</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Indeed! I think that’s very fair!</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And though the towns folk booed and hissed<br />the Thane and squire didn’t hear<br />for they were spirited away<br />by henchmen – and partook of beer<br />before going their separate ways<br />to their out-of-town fortresses.<br />The first lot fell on gypsy folk<br />who cursed the Worme that it might choke.</p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Now and again The Worme came down<br />just to intimidate the town<br />swooping and snooping, breathing flame<br />and he observed the squire and thane<br />feasting together in the tower<br />and the squire’s daughter, plump, well fed,<br />was slurping broth and chomping bread.</p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Do you really think you can cheat</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">a dragon with sssuch ssscrawny meat?</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thessse ssskinny children of the poor</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">are but a morsssel. I want more.</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sssquire, I will have the best you’ve got</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and to your daughter fallsss that lot!</span> <i>(hiss)</i></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The squire now wrung his hands for real<br />he knew there could be no appeal.</p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sir George (Huzzah!) was travelling from the south<br />he was a brave and fearless youth<br />a knight whose armour shone with truth<br />he’d heard tell of this Gateshead Worme <i>(hiss)</i><br />and thought that it could do no harm<br />to offer succour to the town<br />since they were suckers anyway…</p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Good Knight, as Squire I beg, won’t you</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">save us from this most evil Worme?</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: blue; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I’ll think about it – here’s the price</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: blue; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">you all must pray to Jesus Christ.</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">He’s eaten all our cheeses too!</span><br />The thane was not the brightest coin.<br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: blue; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I mean if you become Christians (what dorks!)</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: blue; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I’ll save your daughter and your town.</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">No problem! Anything you say.</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But it’ll have to be today</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">to save my beautiful daughter</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">from inevitable slaughter.</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: red; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">She’s up there now you see. Hurry!</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Young George leapt on his faithful steed<br />with his trusty sword Ascalon<br />and to Gateshead he rode with speed<br />to find the poisonous dragon.<br />He glittered in the noonday sun<br />his hilt with garnets shone and gold.<br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #3366ff; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I will smite thee, O Worme!</span> he cried. <i>(Huzzah!)</i></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Worme replied, <span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Oooo Aren’t you bold!</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Nothing will keep me from my catch</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I’m just about to do my worssst</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">maybe you’d care to ssstay and watch?</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #99cc00; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">or maybe I should cook you firssst!</span> <i>(hiss)</i></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The dragon’s fiery breath surged forth.<br />The maiden gave a screech of fear. <i>(weak cartoonish screech for HELP)</i><br />George thrust his sword into its heart.<br />Down from his blade a droplet fell.<br />Up from the ground grew a red rose.</p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: magenta; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You saved my life</span> the maiden swooned,<br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: magenta; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">you are my hero. You’re a saint.</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: blue; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">When I get out of this armour</span><br /><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: blue; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">lass, I think you’ll find – that I aint!</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23.4px; margin: 0px 0px 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Being well travelled I suppose<br />there’s always dragons to be killed.<br />The story goes George plucked the rose.<br />Saints are allowed some – latitude<br />for it’s well known – Maids everywhere<br />have ways of showing – gratitude. <i>(One last HUZZAH! From all the readers)</i></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-35856881258108092752022-04-13T10:01:00.004-07:002022-04-13T10:01:44.653-07:00April 2022 -- Thirty Years Ago... Moving Times<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpjHLLtyrgcQs5wRqylXV-siDbCbiyd8GaiC3_XJCKXVrxenzR6lP7DhWIk9VhlKjP5_DW63uXjmo1vLOLvYGexayu7JPm3bJi4GADDo8ySr0SEUuBJHnWEgkLCJ62hcDDo-CHoruWvmgb3G9NrNk-CeuSe3Qkj55UEs9mDY8re0IiyIu6aaJKMna7/s1278/Photo006.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1133" data-original-width="1278" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpjHLLtyrgcQs5wRqylXV-siDbCbiyd8GaiC3_XJCKXVrxenzR6lP7DhWIk9VhlKjP5_DW63uXjmo1vLOLvYGexayu7JPm3bJi4GADDo8ySr0SEUuBJHnWEgkLCJ62hcDDo-CHoruWvmgb3G9NrNk-CeuSe3Qkj55UEs9mDY8re0IiyIu6aaJKMna7/s320/Photo006.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Me at 38</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="color: #d5a6bd;">It's hard to believe it was <b>30 years ago on Apr 14th</b> since I moved to Northumberland. It was the second big move of my life. The first was from N. Ireland to Cardiff, 14 years previously, with only a trunk and a suitcase to take up a new job.</span><p></p><p><span style="color: #d5a6bd;">Noel had been here since February and I was left to work my contract out and pack up the house. It was a lonely time, eased by the kindness of good friends like Alun and Mary Norman. Luckily I had a bit of help from Krissy Kirby (Smith) on that final day. It would have been grim had nobody else been there. </span></p><p><span style="color: #d5a6bd;">As it was, Pickford's loaded all our belongings of 14 years, into the van, I hoovered, locked the door of our house in Port Talbot and left to spend my last evening in Wales, in Swansea, with family. The next morning carrying only an overnight bag, I took the National Coach to Newcastle via Birmingham and Noel met me some eight hours later at Gallowgate bus station. It was Eastertime so we had to wait a week for the keys to our new pad in the grounds of St Mary's Hospital, Morpeth and for our stuff to be delivered. It didn't really matter as long as we were back together! </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLGw82agLxzYOr5a3u_lIujhg_ASnqxhSOf3rq7jKEQ43y4IC52MRumlnc1uLHyH9qdph0TWIplx2XzBCaw93LDFYH9DglU3JUCyHkI9gSWJxgrze5KUd6PKYIAI3QNnhjtIuGIeVlURPHtaZ2pJI1pU7LYq80OT9cgdZSIqpSQqluutwe5Kug2Uy1/s1217/Photo002.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1161" data-original-width="1217" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLGw82agLxzYOr5a3u_lIujhg_ASnqxhSOf3rq7jKEQ43y4IC52MRumlnc1uLHyH9qdph0TWIplx2XzBCaw93LDFYH9DglU3JUCyHkI9gSWJxgrze5KUd6PKYIAI3QNnhjtIuGIeVlURPHtaZ2pJI1pU7LYq80OT9cgdZSIqpSQqluutwe5Kug2Uy1/s320/Photo002.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><span style="color: #d5a6bd;">It was a lovely house in the grounds of a Psychiatric Hospital, surrounded by trees, red squirrels and rabbits, views right over the Northumberland countryside to the south, lots of fresh air -- just right for the stress I'd been under. It no longer exists because it was demolished when the hospital closed, but we both remember 2 Southview fondly.</span></p><p><span style="color: #d5a6bd;">And looking back on things now, I couldn't be happier with the turns my life took. I don't suppose I count as Northumbrian yet but most of the time I feel at home and I have now lived longer in Morpeth than anywhere else in all my life. That has to count for something. In any case, we have little intention of ever moving again. It inspired a story though and some good 'moving tips' actually if you would care to follow the link below.</span></p><p><span style="color: #d5a6bd;"> STORY: <a href="https://everydayfiction.com/moving-times-by-oonah-v-joslin/">Moving Times</a></span></p><p><span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: medium;">It is a hard enough thing to leave a place voluntarily, to have time to do it, to have another place to go and to know the people you love are safe. Let's spare a thought this Easter for those millions of refugees who have had to leave everything behind, including people they love, in a war zone. I can't imagine how that must feel.</span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>.</p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-33242688564752540202022-04-08T09:10:00.003-07:002022-04-08T09:11:56.805-07:00April 2022 -- Palm Sunday -- Andrej Jedlina Jacobson<p><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> We don't necessarily go to St. Mary's Churchyard on Palm Sunday because it's so busy that day but this week we made our visit to Andrew's grave in advance. </span></p><p><span style="color: #ffe599;">The war graves are always beautifully kept and the aspect is pleasant. The trees that blew over in storm Arwen have been removed and if anything it has opened the cemetry up to more light. Rabbits were chasing across the paths when we were there -- a lovely sight!</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBBHud_YeECVV_FLrHZ0u5wGnqH2a6VokqUSnqt8CoTBk2UOq0i9QlPhShCAB1fPeRbBMpIwTjQZWUnK9n7jIq27ZigwrzMQZ2o8m8bwOfyJQb4qMRus_lvqK01liA6-5lqT_0Il5fdXkCB-q8jdemIuhpixlOXvI8BXeFsUv2RFkaK2QOki1H7grV/s4896/DSC06369.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3672" data-original-width="4896" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBBHud_YeECVV_FLrHZ0u5wGnqH2a6VokqUSnqt8CoTBk2UOq0i9QlPhShCAB1fPeRbBMpIwTjQZWUnK9n7jIq27ZigwrzMQZ2o8m8bwOfyJQb4qMRus_lvqK01liA6-5lqT_0Il5fdXkCB-q8jdemIuhpixlOXvI8BXeFsUv2RFkaK2QOki1H7grV/s320/DSC06369.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4a8u7DkRLXioyqz0ObUqpTZxxuVHDr3cYd1LYsdBJgPs4rC1R48t_2S4jeiRTCDs9hMLHoPjY9Si12y1rSPiT6OCS_x5j0o5pJh19osXsmRLlXcHzP5KAY-zHdCIneMwJ3JFeyex-kFCo4HLjtQZLxEQbSHIX47UR1eHWBKlSUxc5DKIE2qRREgI8/s4896/DSC06367.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3672" data-original-width="4896" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4a8u7DkRLXioyqz0ObUqpTZxxuVHDr3cYd1LYsdBJgPs4rC1R48t_2S4jeiRTCDs9hMLHoPjY9Si12y1rSPiT6OCS_x5j0o5pJh19osXsmRLlXcHzP5KAY-zHdCIneMwJ3JFeyex-kFCo4HLjtQZLxEQbSHIX47UR1eHWBKlSUxc5DKIE2qRREgI8/w200-h150/DSC06367.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhhJl3SLn396Gd5PksXChFF7i32xSxHWZ3kdrhvbAlvTSiKBFcT3eK0rxK_q119aQQPotK3ln1hKXViq-hWDNQuOhBSGcybPHdVtGUNGwn0mj1i_I9tU3W7pBG8H3rpBETvauHWaOMD5L0DNvV_Lg89dOnWS3wLIk44u1RHMbuhpH-im8Qm7hH-P2/s4896/DSC06366.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3672" data-original-width="4896" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhhJl3SLn396Gd5PksXChFF7i32xSxHWZ3kdrhvbAlvTSiKBFcT3eK0rxK_q119aQQPotK3ln1hKXViq-hWDNQuOhBSGcybPHdVtGUNGwn0mj1i_I9tU3W7pBG8H3rpBETvauHWaOMD5L0DNvV_Lg89dOnWS3wLIk44u1RHMbuhpH-im8Qm7hH-P2/s320/DSC06366.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">I believe Andrej Jedlina Jacobson, brother of my friend, master</span> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/5743659222373061092/4214171020853149498">Yachtsman Woytek</a>, <span style="color: #ffe599;">would have been 100 this year. I can't remember the date though. I would love to know it. He was only 24 when he died of TB in Morpeth Cottage Hospital. He wanted to be a doctor like his father and he was a keen artist too.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgWz0zHKJHTq-8o_P2A-bvObCIdXrGP80zvZHPMss93iGARhtyQOuxwvwQwIHmhjKQDJYBsQHcdiyal02Hhb-v9gXoc7p3E5DaVQvPh6juTqbwBrq_jt4O9ul-TfEYmT9X6rmVKPlxUWa_eYDtE03XLKfE5jh-hhOOyfFNYhvPlyMTQMz0hOR_U5356" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="224" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgWz0zHKJHTq-8o_P2A-bvObCIdXrGP80zvZHPMss93iGARhtyQOuxwvwQwIHmhjKQDJYBsQHcdiyal02Hhb-v9gXoc7p3E5DaVQvPh6juTqbwBrq_jt4O9ul-TfEYmT9X6rmVKPlxUWa_eYDtE03XLKfE5jh-hhOOyfFNYhvPlyMTQMz0hOR_U5356" width="180" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Their brother Ebbig is buried in Glasgow. Their father is buried in London. Their mother was a survivor of Ravensbruck. I think of them all when I stand there at the grave. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">I think of <i>all the families</i> affected by war. It is so very sad. And on this occasion too, I thought of all the young men in the field of war in Ukraine and those who have been forced to leave, people they love and the land they love, and seek refuge among strangers.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">I pray for an end to war and that all my friends everywhere will have a peaceful Easter.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-78399340669796913822022-03-31T06:24:00.000-07:002022-03-31T06:24:04.739-07:00My Sister's Diamond Wedding<p><span style="color: #ead1dc;"><b> </b></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: x-large;"><b>I
Remember You</b></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ead1dc; font-size: large;"><span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">31</span></i></span><sup><span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">st</span></i></span></sup><span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">
March 1962</span></i></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #ead1dc; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: large;"><span>Well,
I remember </span><span><i>being
in the way</i></span><span>
all morning! Being in the way and with all these people around. I’m
sure I didn’t really know who half of them were! I remember getting
all dressed up in my little blue nylon dress, I think there was a
bolero involved, lacy gloves, silky soft ankle socks with a double
blue stripe round the top and </span><span><i>darling</i></span><span>
pearlised shoes with a button on the side. I was very chuffed with
those. Of course there was the compulsory hat, with elastic to go
round your chin, ostensibly so it wouldn’t blow off, but I think
hat-elastic was actually a form of torture!</span></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: large;"><span>Plus
I had to sit beside Mammy – and keep still – and behave in
church. Where were the sweets? I don’t remember any sweets! Keeping
still was only </span><span><i>bearable</i></span><span>
with sweets!!</span></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAdVuuZTauJWA7aMm0OVbEu8qLXjA-xkIk970jXD6EBVlv4eYj-dnzh-hx8xqz3MT02j9lMk2gNhrzPUQkWAutXknFqdn0Hx9UNqfm1ngDDFYDVnWkntMjBj_ZhIl1b-9ATsct8ZRWK_Q74q8Fn6kQZJq4RuTsU7K4e1YBkZf7wC7HSmV5VLTcHFTz/s513/559185_3183459543869_1187156031_2466054_2030408041_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="513" data-original-width="419" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAdVuuZTauJWA7aMm0OVbEu8qLXjA-xkIk970jXD6EBVlv4eYj-dnzh-hx8xqz3MT02j9lMk2gNhrzPUQkWAutXknFqdn0Hx9UNqfm1ngDDFYDVnWkntMjBj_ZhIl1b-9ATsct8ZRWK_Q74q8Fn6kQZJq4RuTsU7K4e1YBkZf7wC7HSmV5VLTcHFTz/s320/559185_3183459543869_1187156031_2466054_2030408041_n.jpg" width="261" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The dress</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ead1dc; font-size: large;"><span>After
the ceremony, which took aeons by the way, there were photos. Lots
and lots of photos! I think they must have used </span><span><i>an
entire roll</i></span><span>
– cameras in those days required rolls. Margaret of course, looked
very beautiful. Her dress was a gorgeous cloud of lacy white
wonderfulness! Bouquet bigger than her head! Raymond looked
impossibly tall and handsome in his uniform.</span></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsWYAvQtt8Di1VNglXRX2QqQI1_mh_F73e-mvzTVTX7p4gxqpGEcHGcGMel8bngQwXH3WdbZiw1ROnJc9DzQ2glTZBzcmfUXsTrYe8bZeWkMfK_P8b3erJ4I7gmFyzBzELbnce_Lk-eWjOk_9GvljHYDrTSoHZiWhymifgevSt8aYd_i5k0ISF7pWu/s480/564207_3183455183760_1187156031_2466052_1078640281_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsWYAvQtt8Di1VNglXRX2QqQI1_mh_F73e-mvzTVTX7p4gxqpGEcHGcGMel8bngQwXH3WdbZiw1ROnJc9DzQ2glTZBzcmfUXsTrYe8bZeWkMfK_P8b3erJ4I7gmFyzBzELbnce_Lk-eWjOk_9GvljHYDrTSoHZiWhymifgevSt8aYd_i5k0ISF7pWu/s320/564207_3183455183760_1187156031_2466052_1078640281_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our nephew Robin who was four at the time<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="color: #ead1dc; font-size: large;"><br />
</span><p></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: large;"><span>Later
I remember waiting, on the pavement outside Davison’s Cafe – we
waited – and waited -- </span><span><i>and
waited</i></span><span>,
and an icy wind blew from the direction of Church Street, straight up
our nylon dresses. That wind wasn’t taking prisoners! My knees were
bluer than my dress. A few flakes of snow began to fall on our straw
hats. Our pearl shoes froze to the pavement and I heartily wished I
was wearing my school vest, liberty bodice, cotton blouse, chunky
knitted cardy, blazer, box pleat skirt, blue bobby socks and
industrial strength navy knickers. They knew how to dress you for
school in those days! Weddings were a different matter. I tell you,
if there </span><span><i>was
a bolero involved</i></span><span>,
it didn’t earn its keep.</span></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-vhPoFpRP8oV1hsMSmpsoIwqoQRXXGwUv06hO3n5ipKNmNejLEqiKeXtJT7uubkOh1nP1c-2vur4Wn6UY-B_yZK3KmugCd9FDKC6lLxoC5fyNiPg1VgmdYZ6PJjDHHXrqanvxm-t4gONmyKRTmI05rKwtKkjLp_koVcLVGLtrkHJTEqcAzqemsp4w/s513/m&r.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="513" data-original-width="354" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-vhPoFpRP8oV1hsMSmpsoIwqoQRXXGwUv06hO3n5ipKNmNejLEqiKeXtJT7uubkOh1nP1c-2vur4Wn6UY-B_yZK3KmugCd9FDKC6lLxoC5fyNiPg1VgmdYZ6PJjDHHXrqanvxm-t4gONmyKRTmI05rKwtKkjLp_koVcLVGLtrkHJTEqcAzqemsp4w/s320/m&r.jpg" width="221" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Signing the Register</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="color: #ead1dc; font-size: large;"><br />
</span><p></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ead1dc; font-size: large;"><a name="__DdeLink__55_3175773752"></a>
<span>At
last, when the door opened, we still had to wait – for the bride
and groom to arrive and go in first, as is tradition. Traditions are
very over-rated if you ask me! </span>
</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ead1dc; font-size: large;">From
upstairs wafted the irresistible aroma of good vegetable soup –
warm, comforting, yummy vegetable soup! Torture I tell you!! But in
the end we got in, and got fed, and all was bliss for both the wedded
and the hungry.</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR3c2XYgf4PF-od1cmWUaxAibgtxIhUnkl6FTu3H8Y-FM9cHSjy_nnqX0ViIZTXiQvZ8XDVYtmE7tEaVU7Ca-wsbTNdWe_gjRHAPPjXj4Uam8shbMsJZszZZm08XNqWRZB0MDTDbCZzIF-vtaTR8YZXiqMFKbVQU5bEOQBIHtco5tRqk-Cx_bvRMDj/s720/margaret's%20wedding%201.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR3c2XYgf4PF-od1cmWUaxAibgtxIhUnkl6FTu3H8Y-FM9cHSjy_nnqX0ViIZTXiQvZ8XDVYtmE7tEaVU7Ca-wsbTNdWe_gjRHAPPjXj4Uam8shbMsJZszZZm08XNqWRZB0MDTDbCZzIF-vtaTR8YZXiqMFKbVQU5bEOQBIHtco5tRqk-Cx_bvRMDj/s320/margaret's%20wedding%201.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aunt Georgie Bell, Mrs Hinks, Mammy, Christine, me and Esme. <br />Uncle Sammy gave the bride away.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="color: #ead1dc; font-size: large;"><br />
</span><p></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: large;"><span>I
remember 31</span><sup><span>st</span></sup><span>
March 1962. I was seven. And Frank Ifield’s ‘I Remember You’,
is the song I associate with Margaret and Ray. But most of all I
remember that delicious smell that wafted down, </span><span><i>as
if from heaven above</i></span><span>
to the poor souls below, in their elasticated hats, with their wee
frozen legs.</span></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #ead1dc; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ead1dc; font-size: large;"><span>They
do say, “Give me a child ‘til he is seven….” Well can I vouch
for it; it’s true! I haven’t changed that much in all these
decades. Given the choice between moments of high romance and
vegetable soup, I’ll still take the soup </span><span><i>any
day</i></span><span>!</span></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0vMT4csZnjcieGQHYQswRSyD4BCldYKVNWJYAwp_ZqtlQTrzTKP3R4JOgPc-M51lmueLoEP-1--9QHOmbMA28F1qnRjeJI30oOKTAkHEJ_Qsc-wsfCLwtp8NNrQVvPd3nPv_e7Huo48e2zVwmZtqKWyTYYzLL2cUq-8IBHruTnySWh8TUdqSO1ZAM/s459/margaret's%20weddinga.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="459" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0vMT4csZnjcieGQHYQswRSyD4BCldYKVNWJYAwp_ZqtlQTrzTKP3R4JOgPc-M51lmueLoEP-1--9QHOmbMA28F1qnRjeJI30oOKTAkHEJ_Qsc-wsfCLwtp8NNrQVvPd3nPv_e7Huo48e2zVwmZtqKWyTYYzLL2cUq-8IBHruTnySWh8TUdqSO1ZAM/w400-h274/margaret's%20weddinga.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All the close family</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #ead1dc; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Margaret
and Ray, </span></span></p><p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ead1dc; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Congratulations on your 60 years together.</span></span></p>
<p align="right" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-42141710208531494982022-03-20T08:23:00.000-07:002022-03-20T08:23:26.848-07:00The Voyages of Wojciech Jacobson: Tales of Tall Ships and World TripsI had a lovely surprise! A book of maritime memoires by my friend Wojtek arrived in the post. <div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjDa6YtJOutKpzS3I-AXk2eQv7NoHLKjuzDUAk4Z8xUv9TKjHxUfJE9Q_eT_Gf1vR6pUXcX-jkTVI05mSFdKEvUVaA1thh1GhZF7HvQvX9726XH5qJaOgQnlUBcQ8CTOJIIjGzBNWMp3sDfBH0G0vJz7yz6DZnqHyQwSKoEdmHvkJaV0bzpNo_5nFSt=s3132" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3132" data-original-width="2838" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjDa6YtJOutKpzS3I-AXk2eQv7NoHLKjuzDUAk4Z8xUv9TKjHxUfJE9Q_eT_Gf1vR6pUXcX-jkTVI05mSFdKEvUVaA1thh1GhZF7HvQvX9726XH5qJaOgQnlUBcQ8CTOJIIjGzBNWMp3sDfBH0G0vJz7yz6DZnqHyQwSKoEdmHvkJaV0bzpNo_5nFSt=s320" width="290" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>It's in Polish and I don't read Polish but I am already deriving much pleasue and information from it's pages: dates, voyages, pictures of wonderful ships. What a life to have led.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiKmZoPyKMf1HrJLkKz8mnEaISPdEQbvuZ9UBMGHmj6_JNHgYmakBU-cHw6v1BBGh1xmvRH7JDRs7kEOfPhIJviyrqAdgcBbzf2TBxThEYAlfLUCCKydLQZ8-EOSHTOWqYP2Mf7BF2QK014fmxz-kUtXwBCiuV8wr7SlP7zIDW6Y1fcymHTV5TvFyRB=s4375" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3549" data-original-width="4375" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiKmZoPyKMf1HrJLkKz8mnEaISPdEQbvuZ9UBMGHmj6_JNHgYmakBU-cHw6v1BBGh1xmvRH7JDRs7kEOfPhIJviyrqAdgcBbzf2TBxThEYAlfLUCCKydLQZ8-EOSHTOWqYP2Mf7BF2QK014fmxz-kUtXwBCiuV8wr7SlP7zIDW6Y1fcymHTV5TvFyRB=w400-h325" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>There's a lovely photo of his mother who spent time in a Nazi Concentration Camp in WWII. There are lots of photos of Wojtek when he was a young man, even from before I was born! And some of his friend Ludomir whose story I am familiar with, having helped a little with a previous book about their voyages together. Wojtek very kindly included my poem <a href="http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue298/ludeks_dawn.html">Ludek's Dawn </a>which was published in Bewildering Stories which I wrote for a photograph he took </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgCxtCJOCAPc6BLuvZxtEfBcTZ0DOLugcastZSfuvw6EPrH9wHDy3Q4l_GDOAfPV70nBVinTexfFKrgu3jNiZatWwlodESA1gBc-I4Nqk7H0FFCfkAM-F_5HIHukUCEzAd3QDx6fREC_x6GsO1BXYMprfwD5sHwOtl7_wP1BYCARaE3taZL4sKVtfY_=s3712" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3538" data-original-width="3712" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgCxtCJOCAPc6BLuvZxtEfBcTZ0DOLugcastZSfuvw6EPrH9wHDy3Q4l_GDOAfPV70nBVinTexfFKrgu3jNiZatWwlodESA1gBc-I4Nqk7H0FFCfkAM-F_5HIHukUCEzAd3QDx6fREC_x6GsO1BXYMprfwD5sHwOtl7_wP1BYCARaE3taZL4sKVtfY_=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEifPQWc3SM2Yk33IxVfr5jHbGubgC9QEyfrK9EBGoc01jA37Rw6luuM2NOTwy1Wc41lKrb7Tik-p5IOcMwjRuLTzIc1ImvrQRN7NCdhriG2L1zXBKRqhNv_ay5-CAhirOeQi0u-iggFWqpNddlAgsNQE6xefGu0kxzzYkj0eFKwBTVet4HA4yVV4uRd=s3927" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3643" data-original-width="3927" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEifPQWc3SM2Yk33IxVfr5jHbGubgC9QEyfrK9EBGoc01jA37Rw6luuM2NOTwy1Wc41lKrb7Tik-p5IOcMwjRuLTzIc1ImvrQRN7NCdhriG2L1zXBKRqhNv_ay5-CAhirOeQi0u-iggFWqpNddlAgsNQE6xefGu0kxzzYkj0eFKwBTVet4HA4yVV4uRd=w320-h276" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Wojchiech is a Master Yachtsman and Tall Ships' First Officer. His long association and service for the Yacht Club earned him the award of <a href="https://oovj.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/ambassador-wojciech-jacobson/">Ambassador of SZECZECIN</a> a few years ago. Amongst the sailing fraternity he is a legend. </div><div><br /></div><div><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"> You Tube Links to see Capt Jacobson in Interview include:</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u>https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojciech_Jacobson</u></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHbeMOkOsFg</u></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eIGgPTIiaI</u></span></span></p></div><div><br /></div><div>It is strange how a chance encounter at a bus station can lead to a friendship that endures for (so far) 22 years I am just so thrilled<i> and humbled </i>to have a place in this incredible man's wonderful life journey!</div><div><br /></div><div>Thank you so much Wojtek, for the book and for your enduring friendship.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-58385533835528533282022-02-14T03:29:00.004-08:002022-02-14T06:54:29.692-08:00Valentine's Day<p> </p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e06666;">Meeting
my </span><span style="color: #f4cccc;">FATE</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="color: #e06666; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">F</span><span style="color: #e06666;">irst
meeting</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">A</span><span style="color: #e06666;">
sense of certainty</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">T</span><span style="color: #e06666;">his
is the one</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #ea9999;">E</span><span style="color: #e06666;">verything
I know tells me so</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="color: #e06666; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">F</span><span style="color: #e06666;">orced
to move for a job</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">A</span><span style="color: #e06666;">pplying
far and wide I find myself</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">T</span><span style="color: #e06666;">ravelling
to Cardiff</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">E</span><span style="color: #e06666;">ver
so alone except for that first meeting</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="color: #e06666; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">F</span><span style="color: #e06666;">ebruary
18</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span lang="zxx" style="color: #e06666;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><sup><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">th</span></span></span></span></span></sup></span></span><span lang="zxx" style="color: #e06666;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
is the date</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">A</span><span style="color: #e06666;">
blizzard of such intensity </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">T</span><span style="color: #e06666;">rains
and buses cancelled, we get a taxi out</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">E</span><span style="color: #e06666;">verybody's
stranded but it's </span><span style="color: #f4cccc;">FATE</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="color: #e06666; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">F</span><span style="color: #e06666;">our
decades on</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">A</span><span style="color: #e06666;">
lifetime together</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">T</span><span style="color: #e06666;">his
is still the one</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><a name="__DdeLink__233_1749742944"></a>
<span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">E</span><span style="color: #e06666;">very
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span lang="zxx" style="color: #e06666;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">blizzard</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span lang="zxx" style="color: #e06666;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
a bonus</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjK1Wqsp39cDG88uVWdwFgIOAhz6qUbGee4S1r0pNvYtm4WKZXvbSJoBWTk8XPdBKCOweHPWAuN-Pj1oM_spCVoKBco247phRPFeJ7hou4mN9LUrw0kWh4F6QF68-SZaV_ANwDWKseOkZjMlK4ScaqUYPLejsjWXQ_K_w677-3ZgbQLNW8jMNl3I9m8" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="540" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjK1Wqsp39cDG88uVWdwFgIOAhz6qUbGee4S1r0pNvYtm4WKZXvbSJoBWTk8XPdBKCOweHPWAuN-Pj1oM_spCVoKBco247phRPFeJ7hou4mN9LUrw0kWh4F6QF68-SZaV_ANwDWKseOkZjMlK4ScaqUYPLejsjWXQ_K_w677-3ZgbQLNW8jMNl3I9m8" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="color: #e06666; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><p></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-1134471227509791962022-01-04T10:21:00.000-08:002022-01-04T10:21:02.368-08:00Hello 2022 -- a word from The Wasp and the Wood Pigeon<p><span style="color: #d9d2e9;">I've had enough Christmas now. To tell the truth I'd had enough Christmas in mid-December but you have to go right through it to the end and then out the other side so it seems, to get to here, and here I am. </span></p><p><span style="color: #d9d2e9;">Took the tree down on 1st! There was tinsel sparkling in the sunshine and splintering light onto the wall and I thought "That's just not right!" It looked false -- fake -- tinselly. It looked TINSELLY! There's something unsettlingly tacky about tinsel touched by sunlight, don't you think? It's something akin <i>seeing through a ghost</i>! Suddenly you think, Hey, Christmas -- you're not REAL! You're just a big fat con we do every year to make Winter seem less Wintry when there was nothing wrong with Winter to begin with! </span></p><p><span style="color: #d9d2e9;">Same day I saw a wasp flitting outside the door and thought 'You're way too early, mate!' And just today (4th) a woodpigeon was cooing for all it was worth looking for some love. I wished things would settle into some good old fashioned cohesive pattern.</span></p><p><span style="color: #d9d2e9;">I ate a mince pie and it was so sweet I nearly spat it out. No more fancy stuff, I thought. No more sweets and spices, no more tree. I felt like George Bailey... I want to live again... I want to live again!</span></p><p><span style="color: #d9d2e9;">So today we went for a walk at the seaside and I bought cornish pasty and stotties from the corner bakery. You know...I think maybe the wasp and wood pigeon had it right all along. Get with 2022, they said. Get with the flow of nature. </span></p><p><span style="color: #d9d2e9;">Time to ditch the past -- it's so last year!</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEifCogITKCrRSMXn4Z1rW6VilDtFuuC5ycoawFY4aK7Mk9Isz2dV9hKhrBEPrzmsWJW7MuElbQyv-eLPvHck67KgAmodt-TfwZw1d-k19xfzomnLWEpXwLWu3i2BwbEd94Or4hvkInYXeWvwC7d2rWS71rPXAJyFj0nUaytCTgtfz-il9rIij7jR3uP=s9002" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="9002" data-original-width="5744" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEifCogITKCrRSMXn4Z1rW6VilDtFuuC5ycoawFY4aK7Mk9Isz2dV9hKhrBEPrzmsWJW7MuElbQyv-eLPvHck67KgAmodt-TfwZw1d-k19xfzomnLWEpXwLWu3i2BwbEd94Or4hvkInYXeWvwC7d2rWS71rPXAJyFj0nUaytCTgtfz-il9rIij7jR3uP=w127-h200" width="127" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #d9d2e9;"><br /></span><p></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-71734790286214779682021-12-23T06:41:00.003-08:002021-12-23T06:54:23.436-08:00Happy Christmas -- 23rd December 2021<p><span style="color: #8e7cc3;">It's a funny old time of year, Christmas. I'm never sure I liked it all that much. Always prefered Hallowe'en when you didn't have to pretend so much. Maybe it's just easier to be afraid than happy! Christmas has too much riding on one day. The pressure to enjoy it makes me nervous. I've never been a 'special occasions' kind of person. I like life to stay on an even keel and count myself lucky that for the most part, it does. We're LUCKY!</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><b>Gently, gently</b></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><br />
</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">had
to be</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">before
you went to Big School</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><br />
</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">...leading
question</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #ff00fe;">Do
you still believe in…</span></i></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">Hint
well taken.</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">All
lingering doubt dispelled.</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><i>Not
really. </i>
</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">Thus
the spell was broken
</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #ff00fe;"><br />
</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">but
not to worry yet because</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">whether
you believed or not</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">there
would still be
</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">something
from Mr Claus</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">to
keep the myth alive
</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">for
younger siblings</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">not
as mature as you not as
</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">grown
up.</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #ff00fe;"><br />
</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">You
were part of the secret now</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><a name="__DdeLink__0_501051064"></a>
the great conspiracy.</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">You
knew of course that Jesus was still real.</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">But
the magic had gone.</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">The
child inside had died
</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">and
the adult struggled
on.</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><p><span style="color: #8e7cc3;">If I could give you all something for Christmas, it would be Peace on Earth, Goodwill to all and just enough </span><span style="color: #ff00fe;">MAGIC </span><span style="color: #8e7cc3;">to fill your heart with </span><span style="color: #ff00fe;">JOY</span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4GxJZ2cXS6vkhkhlrmE3NOD-pgHCSsMud1pzbUlZEeDals0vgtYSvQZpMmZ00C-5JvpEkFQBybAvDqMuCEKDenEeK5FpZd6YKyafUIZcBcZH310vOWxNdUFBgvC-4nictVNNg_C3eySY/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="236" height="88" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4GxJZ2cXS6vkhkhlrmE3NOD-pgHCSsMud1pzbUlZEeDals0vgtYSvQZpMmZ00C-5JvpEkFQBybAvDqMuCEKDenEeK5FpZd6YKyafUIZcBcZH310vOWxNdUFBgvC-4nictVNNg_C3eySY/w73-h88/image.png" width="73" /></a></span></div><span><br /><span style="color: #ff00fe;">I can give all of you an </span><a href="https://issuu.com/thelinnetswingspublishing/docs/issueuploadrob?fbclid=IwAR2zJmnVX0nQJUmZLxJWIe5p1npxKdje6NvXMokJ-8SBD8dHqQ3vhbfyRK0"><span style="color: #f1c232;">ONLINE version of our Canzonette</span></a><span style="color: #ff00fe;"> which I know you will LOVE!</span><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe;">To all our friends and Family </span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe;">May 2022 be Kind.</span></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-61913987282593548082021-10-31T04:39:00.000-07:002021-10-31T04:39:01.176-07:00A Whole Heap of Horror -- Secret Worlds<p><i><span style="color: #d9ead3;"> <span style="font-size: medium;">Never stop looking for the magic, folks! </span></span></i></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #e69138; font-size: medium;"><b>Secret Worlds</b></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">Granny
could see ultraviolet light. It happened after she had her cataracts
removed. When we walked the dog, she’d tell me all about the
shimmering, purple-white rainbows that splashed clouds of blue mist
all over the park every time it rained. She’d admire a bed of blue
and white flowers where I saw only yellow and point out the exact
direction of sunlight even on the cloudiest day.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“There
are secret worlds all around us, Shayla. Ever wonder what a duck’s
world’s like?”
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">I
always loved that about Granny. There was always more than met the
eye.
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“Ducks
can probably see the glint of weed without the glare of the water.”
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">Granny’s
skin was milky thin, so you could see the veins through it and her
fingers were that bony, her hand looked like an x-ray.
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“Caesar,
Sit!” Caesar sat. “Caesar sees the world with his nose, don’t
you boy?” He was snuffling at her pocket for a biscuit.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“How
do you know the secret worlds are there, Granny?”</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“Oh,
you have to be looking for them. I have the gift,” she said
proudly. “I see auras.”</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“Horrors,
Granny?”</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“No
auras -- colours around people that signify something about them.”</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“Have
you ever seen a ghost, Granny?”</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“No
but it’s not too late. You never know what you’ll see in a
lifetime. I never imagined I’d see computers and space walks but I
have and now there’s this strange light... Another gift.”
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“But
that’s science, Granny isn’t it. And science is different from
auras.”</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“There
are more things in heaven and earth than ever <i>we</i> can see,
Shayla,” she said.
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">My
mother disapproved of Granny. “She’s an auld woman, Shayla and
she’s half blind. What she thinks she can see is beyond me. Pay no
heed to it.”</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">I
told Granny what she said, of course.
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“Do
I have colours around me, Granny?”
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“Yes,
Shayla brown with warm flecks – like match heads sparking about in
rich chocolate – that’s you; all fun and curiosity. Your mother’s
blue and cream and far too caught up with things in general – but
she’s right about one thing.”</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“What?”</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“What
I can see <i>is</i> beyond her. It’s beyond most people. Never
forget that Shayla – always believe in your own vision and keep
your eyes skinned for those other worlds or you’ll never see them.
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">Granny
always harked back to when she was a girl; counting with pounds,
shillings and pence, no central heating, no colour T.V.
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“The
past’s a kind of secret world too, unless it’s your own of course
– and the future... In fact no two people see things in quite the
same way.”</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">I
have a grand daughter now -- Sinead. I tell her about cash -- before
the mega-crash, power lines that criss-crossed the countryside,
petrol cars, keyboards you had to type on. I can see ultraviolet any
time, by just putting on my visor. I worked all my life as a
micro-biologist. Secret worlds… But that was science.
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“Grandma
Shayla, I made you a present.”</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“Oh
that’s lovely Sinead. Thank you. Is this me?” I see it’s an
orange crayon person with brown fuzzy patches around the edge.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“Yes.
And that’s me.”</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">A
little pink person is holding my hand.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“And
who’s this?” I ask.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“That’s
the old lady who visits you,” she says.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">The
lady is white, has huge eyes and is surrounded by a violet glow. “Is
she here now?” I ask.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">“No
Grandma. She’s not here today but she visits all the time… and
she has a dog that comes with her.”</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #e69138;">Seems
Granny did have a gift and she passed it to Sinead. So many
advancements, yet so many secret worlds: I’d almost stopped looking
for them.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #c27ba0;"><i>“Secret
Worlds” ©2011 Oonah V Joslin. Not previously published.</i></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IUdSmByhJk8/YX6AKenqBPI/AAAAAAAACi4/AUm3Nziv9gEuQGeLT1ka_TS3-58r7ohCwCNcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="648" height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IUdSmByhJk8/YX6AKenqBPI/AAAAAAAACi4/AUm3Nziv9gEuQGeLT1ka_TS3-58r7ohCwCNcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="240" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><br /><p></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-41644692615809436222021-10-30T02:43:00.004-07:002021-10-30T02:43:55.456-07:00A Whole Heap of Horror -- Too Old for Hallowe'en<p><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;">The True Horror!</span></b></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
just gave Hallowe’en away.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
gave it to the kids next door;</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
ghosts, the lanterns, tinsel bats,</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
candles, ice-trays and place mats.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">My
grim reaper curtain’s no longer mine,</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">my
pumpkin, ghost and spider chain.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Getting
too old to put it all up just to take it down again.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">My
knees complain about the strain!</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Time
to face the truth with horror.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">That
whiskered old witch in the mirror</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">is
really me!</span></p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Ui2VapYcrbo/YX0Tu-z4qUI/AAAAAAAACiw/J9fGEG3tnGYdjoSB3GrOOtKuo0G8JL8twCNcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="198" height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Ui2VapYcrbo/YX0Tu-z4qUI/AAAAAAAACiw/J9fGEG3tnGYdjoSB3GrOOtKuo0G8JL8twCNcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="187" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br /></span><p></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-73717317757001899352021-10-28T09:27:00.000-07:002021-10-29T09:43:55.473-07:00A Whole Heap of Horror -- A Simple Case of Misdiagnosis<p> </p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>A simple Case of </b><b>Misdiagnosis</b></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The
raybot moved around him and flashed repeatedly.</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">“Done,”
said the cold voice and Mr Zee exited the room.
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">“You
say you’ve been in some pain and thought you’d broken a bone?”</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">“That’s
correct, Doctor.”</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">“Mmmm.
Curious. You have no bones, Mr Zee.”</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">“Everybody
has bones.”</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The
doctor turned the screen round. “See for yourself.”</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The
screen showed a classic robotic framework.</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Mr
Zee looked at it incredulously. “There must be some mistake,
surely.”</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">“The
raybot scanner is our very latest diagnostic tool, Mr Zee. It can
detect problems at the microcellular level. Only you don’t seem to
have any cellular level.”</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">“But
grew up just like any normal kid on the block.”</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">“You
may contain <i>memories</i> of growing up as a normal boy but this
machine tells us very conclusively that you are an android, Mr Zee.
As far as I can tell you’ve never done any ‘growing’ since your
initial activation.”</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Zee
looked shattered. “But...”</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">“You
really didn’t know?”</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Zee
put his head in his hands.
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">“We
can get you some counselling and proper maintenance for your
systems.”</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Zee
remained silent.</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">“I’ll
write you a referral to the A I Department, shall I? They’re very
good and they may have a copy of your records. Have you sorted in no
time. They can probably deal with the imaginary pain too.”</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i>Imaginary
pain?</i> Zee sat motionless, trying to take it in. Up until that
day, he’d never felt any pain at all. Perhaps...</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">“Well,
I can’t really do much more -- under the circumstances.”</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">“Yes
Doctor. I understand. Thank you for your time.”</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">“I’ll
be in contact about...” began the Doctor but Mr Zee had already
left.</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The
Doctor recognised Zee’s face in the headlines the next morning.
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">“Threw
himself from a bridge railway apparently,” said the Doctor. “But
it doesn’t make sense. It says here he broke every bone in his
body.”
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a name="__DdeLink__2_2327809091"></a>
The x-ray machine chuckled.</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;">@ Oonah V Joslin 2020</span></p><p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-oKll4DcCU0k/YXrPZHKkNNI/AAAAAAAACio/QLJW2uao69gXw3dyFHljTxsW4Qxq3VR6gCNcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="216" data-original-width="233" height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-oKll4DcCU0k/YXrPZHKkNNI/AAAAAAAACio/QLJW2uao69gXw3dyFHljTxsW4Qxq3VR6gCNcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="259" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><br /><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a name="__DdeLink__105_5090153321"></a>
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-18720390667189551452021-04-20T09:47:00.003-07:002021-04-20T09:47:32.366-07:00How We Learned to Shut Our Own Mouths -- Poems by Kathleen Cassen Mickelson<p>
Back in the days of Every Day Poets, Kathleen submitted some poems. We liked
them a lot. We took them. Eventually we invited her to become part of the editorial team.
After five years working together, EDP folded. Connie and she moved on to Gyroscope Review
and I moved to The Linnet's Wings but we stayed in touch, we remain friends.
Now I am so glad to see Kathleen's first Chapbook come to fruition from
Gyroscope Press with a lovely cover by Kath's son, artist, Shawn Dalsen.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u2zgny0K2pg/YH8DM2B9WfI/AAAAAAAACgI/PSZnrH2KbVc6BKp2FM1VYC2b31mTXASjwCNcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="500" height="166" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u2zgny0K2pg/YH8DM2B9WfI/AAAAAAAACgI/PSZnrH2KbVc6BKp2FM1VYC2b31mTXASjwCNcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-Learned-Shut-Our-Mouths/dp/1736782002">How We Learned to Shut Our Own Mouths</a> follows the seasons through a very
difficult lock-down year. It is honest and brave, poignant and humourous and,
like its author, it is gentle and kind. Kathleen is a person who chooses to
love, chooses to hope, chooses to
</p>
<p><i>welcome the clarity that our fear keeps obcured</i></p>
<p>That's not an easy choice. We see that play out in the many moments within these poems, tiny personal, precious
moments of crystal clear insight and realisation that there is always a choice to be made of
gratitude perhaps because </p><p><i>our miracles feel endless</i> </p><p><i>even as our time grows short</i></p>
<p>This book does what Kathleen's poetry does best. It reminds us that the world
constantly changes around us, that we can't smell it or predict it and that it is up to us to keep ourselves grounded within that change. Of course that's difficult to do but then you can always <i>Cook Your Way out of a Funk </i>or <i>Tuck some gentle things away</i> to hang onto and this book suggests lots of ways you can do that. There's <i>ordinary magic</i> to be found in the book and some extraordinary and very profound insights. </p><p>I highly recommend it to you. </p><p>I do have a favourite poem but I won't tell you what it is because I know you will find a favourite too, a poem to hang onto. A poem that helps.</p>
<p><br /></p>
Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-74539419364193916942021-03-06T05:22:00.000-08:002021-03-06T05:22:08.186-08:00Mostly March -- beware them Ides<p><span style="color: #f4cccc;">A year into lockdowns we have vaccines and some hope at last. We had our first vaccine this week. Astra Zenica. We didn't really care which vaccine we got. All these vaccines are the result of <i>unsung</i> people working tirelessly. Their very existence is a triumph. It's better than landing on Mars. It's a pity to see petty political arguments over them. It's a pity to see superstition and stupidity trying to supplant science but we're human, we must accept.</span></p><p><span style="color: #d9ead3; font-family: times;"><i>I know that in these 3 photos the seasons look as if they are going backwards but that is just a reflection of the variation in microclimate between the 3 gardens. Belsay is a quarry garden. Wallington is a walled garden. Howick is a woodland garden very close to the North Sea Coast.</i></span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GxJ0IgrQUFI/YEJDs9bA5UI/AAAAAAAACfU/Z7nHZhisVmkEbkt92k3Sbu5DvI6NhTargCNcBGAsYHQ/s4896/DSC04403.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3672" data-original-width="4896" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GxJ0IgrQUFI/YEJDs9bA5UI/AAAAAAAACfU/Z7nHZhisVmkEbkt92k3Sbu5DvI6NhTargCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/DSC04403.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">January - Belsay</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lLQRlU5YuyE/YEJEXX1v5zI/AAAAAAAACfc/oUIkXaZw6Eo41rxslMQDX6R4-_HzWX8xgCNcBGAsYHQ/s4896/DSC04520.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3672" data-original-width="4896" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lLQRlU5YuyE/YEJEXX1v5zI/AAAAAAAACfc/oUIkXaZw6Eo41rxslMQDX6R4-_HzWX8xgCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/DSC04520.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">February - Wallington</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yHsw4vzsPxY/YEJEuO9QXRI/AAAAAAAACfk/T70n61rUQQglsUHRWLAANP51ihrwhxgMACNcBGAsYHQ/s4896/DSC04577.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3672" data-original-width="4896" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yHsw4vzsPxY/YEJEuO9QXRI/AAAAAAAACfk/T70n61rUQQglsUHRWLAANP51ihrwhxgMACNcBGAsYHQ/w200-h150/DSC04577.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">March 6th 2020</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><i><span style="color: #b6d7a8;">A year ago today we were at Howick Hall doing one of our lovely walks that I miss so much.</span></i><p></p><p><span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Last March we didn't really quite know what was about to hit us and a good thing too! </span><i style="text-align: center;"><span><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.</span> </span></i><span style="color: #cfe2f3;">I am lucky. As a child I hated having to go to school day after day -- all those other kids. For me it's bliss to wake up on a cold morning, look out the window, crawl back into bed and turn over. My default mode is <i>not very social</i> but this year, even on my scale of unsociable, takes the biscuit -- takes the biscuit, crushes it up and throws it to the winds! And we count ourselves lucky in that it's been such a nightmare for so very many people, loved ones lost, health lost, livelihoods lost, time together lost, opportunities lost. For front line staff their lives have turned into a disaster movie. It must be awful.</span></p><p><span style="color: #d9d2e9;">Reality has changed. Maybe our dreams have changed too. Even my nightmares have changed. </span></p><p><span style="color: #d9d2e9;">Last night I dreamt we went to the theatre to see a ballet. Every other row of seats had gone. People were seated in family groups. At the interval there was a hard sell sponsorship raffle for the theatre. We were in the back row and the seats reclined right back so I lay back, fell asleep and missed the entire first act. At the second interval, just before the Bingo set started, we sneaked out like criminals so we could a taxi home rather than taking a bus. The streets were cordoned with yellow tape denoting one way systems but Northumberland St was pretty empty. We met a friend who had an german shepherd dog dressed in doggy PPE right down to a little snout mask, so I wasn't allowed pet it. I wanted to go for an Indian meal but realised all the restaurants were closed.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: medium;">Last March, was that <i>really</i> only a year ago?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">Saint David's Day I made Welsh Cakes. St Patrick's Day we'll have a dram of Bushmills. We have no plans to come out of lockdown. We won't be going on holiday any time soon. We might get back to Belsay or Wallington or Howick later this year. W</span><span style="color: #f4cccc;">e <i>have vaccines and some hope at last</i>. </span><span style="color: #f9cb9c;">Life goes on but perhaps not as we know it.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-33427400867367169792021-01-24T16:15:00.000-08:002021-01-24T16:15:22.041-08:00January -- Burn's Night an a' that!<p><span style="color: #fce5cd;">Oh indeed, I have my haggis at the ready. I have my neeps and tatties and my whiskey cake or shortbread and raspberries (yet to be decided). I have a couple, well a few, okay I have <i>a lot</i> of fine malts tae sample including a very nice Speyside sent at Christmas by Jim and Kathleen, Glen Morangie a Crabbies and Bushmills 10 yr Malt. </span></p><p><span style="color: #fce5cd;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #fce5cd;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UdtzT3cEWeg/YA4NXKfiKPI/AAAAAAAACeo/qUVUBZa3clkRx7lc3Uvf_wYsfVJIoOjRwCNcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="68" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UdtzT3cEWeg/YA4NXKfiKPI/AAAAAAAACeo/qUVUBZa3clkRx7lc3Uvf_wYsfVJIoOjRwCNcBGAsYHQ/w103-h68/image.png" width="103" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #fce5cd;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #fce5cd;">Burns was my mother's favourite poet and she had a bust of him in the china cabinet. The lowland Scots dialect wasnae a great stretch in Ballymena! We were really more Scots than Irish -- Dalriadans, as I always like to say. We were the folk of the Stone of Scone, the people of the olden kingdoms of the north when the seas were connections, not barriers to trade. When the sea was the easy way to travel.</span></p><p><span style="color: #fce5cd;">So I regard Burn's Night as my tradition too, though I never had haggis as a child but this was because my mother could not stand even the smell of lamb! She'd have frowned a bit on the whiskey too even if we could have afforded whiskey. But I love lamb and I like a wee dram and almost despite her <i>encouragement</i>, I still write poems. So I'll address the haggis and enjoy the tasting and here's the story: </span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ffa400;"><b><a name="__DdeLink__0_1752967620"></a>Quare advise tae a buddin' poet</b></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #ffa400;">Betimes
as a wean I’d help Mammy tae dust.<br />
The Bust, eight inches high
aye sat in the corner o' the cabinet<br />
but I wasn’t allowed tae
touch it.<br />
<br />
He was that young an’ fair and looked tae be
made o' honeycomb<br />
so I asked, Mammy, Is that yella man?<br />
Naw
yella man’s fer eaten.<br />
<br />
Thon’s Rabbie Burns, mammy
explained, the greatest Scottish poet ever lived.<br />
My luv is like
a red, red rose, A Man’s a man fer a’ that, Ye Banks and
Braes,<br />
To a mouse and Auld Lang Syne’s a wheen o’ what he
wrote.<br />
<br />
We’d learned Ye Banks and Braes in school. I was
impressed.<br />
I want to be a poet, I confessed, when I grow
up.<br />
Aye, yer arse in parsley! she aimed a bussock at my
behind,<br />
<br />
You’ll ha'tae up yer ideas a bit, she
said.<br />
Poetry’s not a payin’ job and anyway, Mammy lot a
hoogh gie fit tae burst,<br />
remember that ye ha'tae grow up
first!</span></p><p>First Published in <a href="https://issuu.com/amosgreig/docs/anu67">A New Ulster Apr 2018</a></p><p></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #76a5af;">This was published at the same time and seems more relevant than ever in these day when Ulster's status is in great doubt. </span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #d0e0e3;">
Belonging</span></b></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #d0e0e3;">I
have the voice of no country. I don’t<br />
know that my native land
was ever real;<br />
a place of fractures, born of volcanoes,<br />
rifts
in its rocks that never truly heal.<br />
Even the old kingdom was
united<br />
more by a turbulence of sea than land.<br />
But the
blood, the blood was real between us,<br />
these days depicted (Pict)
by the red hand.<br />
We were the Dal Riata. We were Scots.<br />
Feth
aye, we were! Fought over and fought back,<br />
triumphed in defeat
because Iona<br />
was our own and the Stone of Destiny<br />
belonged
to us and spread our culture far.<br />
And yes, that blood was thick
and bloody real<br />
between us, Aethelfrith, and the Ui Neills.<br />
Yet
we were not planted as in new soil,<br />
but flowed here on the tides
of history,<br />
left and returned through many centuries.<br />
Who
will inflict a future on us next?<br />
In global politics we have no
friends.<br />
But though I have no country and no voice,<br />
I'll
remain Dalriadan to the end.</span></p><br /><p></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-38796780576272911162021-01-18T04:36:00.001-08:002021-01-18T05:14:31.885-08:00January -- The Ides of<p><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: medium;">I've been feeling a bit trapped this past week. The cold and icy conditions have meant that I haven't been out for a walk. There's no point in risking a fall when hospitals are so overstretched. Right? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #d9d2e9;">And we seem to have a mouse! We can hear it periodically scratching about in the roof space which is all insulation. It can't get into the rooms from there as far as we know; a</span><span style="color: #d9d2e9;">t least it hasn't made an appearance thus far.</span><span style="color: #d9d2e9;"> We think it's made a little run for itself in and out. It may be a little uncomfortable up there because we have those electrical current deterents that make a nasty noise through all the wiring. We have traps at the ready just in case and are seeking some professional advice. I can't say I blame mousey with it being so cold. It wants in and I want out. Today we had a visit from the mouse man and he has confirmed a run in the attic. He found some nibbled paper up there. He was a lovely man! He asked how we were and we said fine -- no symptoms and he said <i>'I mean mentally. How are you coping?'</i> I felt like saying we were as mad as ever. </span><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><span>B</span><span>ut hey HOW NICE!</span></span><span style="color: #d9d2e9;"> He'll be back in two weeks to make sure they're gone and we're alright. That will be the 1st February 😁</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #d9ead3;">In the garden there's little activity. A sudden</span><a href="http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue375/flight_starlings.html"> Flight of Starlings</a> <span style="color: #d9ead3;">rushed across the other day. I think the sparrow hawk had taken one of them. I could hear squeakings and alarm calls for about 5 minutes after the cerfuffle. This is the way of nature. We all survive as we can.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #ffe599; font-size: medium;">But the Sun is rising in the sky (or rather we are tilting ever more towards it in our yearly journey) and today for the first time it gave us some warmth through the kitchen door. It also showed up that the glass is very dirty. </span></p><p><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-size: medium;">Apart from some political limericks I haven't been writing much. I can't get my head into that space. But I'm not a professional writer and so I don't worry much. If it comes it comes, if it doesn't I'll have to clean the windows of that sliding door instead.</span></p><p><br /></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
January.
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Getting
lighter.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Buds
appearing.
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Birdsong
brighter</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">penetrates
my lock-down room</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">silences
the motes of gloom</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">allowing
me in my mind’s eye</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">to
scud across the winter sky</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">momentarily
escaping.
</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Nlqh-Tn_Ftg/YAGc8tqpcwI/AAAAAAAACeI/LsIOEWRd5DQCWki59WAqjcTNfVQSudyWQCNcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="203" data-original-width="248" height="103" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Nlqh-Tn_Ftg/YAGc8tqpcwI/AAAAAAAACeI/LsIOEWRd5DQCWki59WAqjcTNfVQSudyWQCNcBGAsYHQ/w126-h103/image.png" width="126" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><br /></span><p></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-39192487953972394802021-01-11T03:26:00.001-08:002021-01-11T03:26:46.412-08:00January 2021 -- I hate January and let me tell you why -- Featuring work by Donall Dempsey<p><span style="font-size: medium;">Christmas is over. It's not that I like Christmas so very much -- no that's not it. New Year has never been <i>my thing</i>. It's just one day to the next when all's said and done. In fact every day is just one day to the next. But some days you never forget. Some days life doesn't go on! </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The 11th January 1960 was one of those days. I was 5. I'd just started school in September and that was a big deal for me. I didn't like it!! There were other kids there. Scarey kids. You had to interact. You had to compete. You had to learn all sorts of difficult things. It was the beginning of being in the bigger world and I didn't much like the bigger world!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It was a Monday like it is this year and a Monday like no other because that was the day my father died. He was 48.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EBtCACDLPwU/X_sd4YzVNzI/AAAAAAAACd8/IZqaoFJuRLIhnK1x9ZbuWoVplX49PjaZwCNcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Daddy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1246" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EBtCACDLPwU/X_sd4YzVNzI/AAAAAAAACd8/IZqaoFJuRLIhnK1x9ZbuWoVplX49PjaZwCNcBGAsYHQ/w122-h200/Daddy.jpg" width="122" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jack Kyle</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I have written lots and lots about it before and if you would like to read some of what I've written I refer you to this <a href="https://oovj.wordpress.com/2020/01/10/january-2020/">POST</a> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>But the truth is I've never maybe written so viscerally and truthfully as this in piece by fellow Irish poet Donall Dempsey who is a FaceBook friend and has kindly allowed me to share this.</span><span> <i>This</i> is what it felt like. It's how it still feels. </span><span>There are days I'm still 5 inside and </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>NO </span><span>I don't like being in the world -- Not in January -- I don't -- not today.</span></span></p><p><br /></p><p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"> <span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">BEING IN THE WORLD</span></p><p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">"I'm
scared...!" she sobs</span></p><p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">"Of what love?"
I cuddle her</span></p><p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">"Of being in
the world!"</span></p><p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">****</span></p><p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">This was when she
was only a tiny little thing in the world of long ago but her words
ring truer now in this rogue world of ours.</span></p><p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">Her granny had just
died and this all too too solid world of forever didn't seem as
forever as it had before. She no longer trusted it if a granny could
vanish...would she vanish too?</span></p><p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">She cried and
"wanted to go where ever Granny had goed!"</span></p><p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">She was looking at a
globe and asked me if she were in the world. And is Granny not in the
world any more? And when Granny finishes being dead then will she
come back? And what good is the world if Granny isn't in it. She sat
on my lap and listened to auld Jemmy the Joist reading from Finnegans
Wake with his own voice. I asked her what did she think the man was
saying and she asked "Did he lose his granny too?"</span></p><p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;"> by Donall Dempsey</span></p><p><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><div class="pybr56ya dati1w0a hv4rvrfc n851cfcs btwxx1t3 j83agx80 ll8tlv6m" style="align-items: flex-start; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 16px; padding-right: 16px; padding-top: 12px;"><div class="buofh1pr" style="flex-grow: 1; font-family: inherit;"><div class="j83agx80 cbu4d94t ew0dbk1b irj2b8pg" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: -5px; margin-top: -5px;"><div class="qzhwtbm6 knvmm38d" style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 5px;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh m9osqain hzawbc8m" color="var(--secondary-text)" dir="auto" style="display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><h2 class="gmql0nx0 l94mrbxd p1ri9a11 lzcic4wl aahdfvyu hzawbc8m" dir="auto" id="jsc_c_6t" style="color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 4px 0px 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></h2></span></div></div></div><div class="nqmvxvec j83agx80 jnigpg78 cxgpxx05 dflh9lhu sj5x9vvc scb9dxdr odw8uiq3" style="align-self: flex-start; display: flex; font-family: inherit; height: 20px; padding: 8px; width: 20px;"><div aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="menu" aria-label="Actions for this post" class="oajrlxb2 gs1a9yip g5ia77u1 mtkw9kbi tlpljxtp qensuy8j ppp5ayq2 goun2846 ccm00jje s44p3ltw mk2mc5f4 rt8b4zig n8ej3o3l agehan2d sk4xxmp2 rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 pq6dq46d mg4g778l btwxx1t3 pfnyh3mw p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x tgvbjcpo hpfvmrgz jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso l9j0dhe7 i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of du4w35lb lzcic4wl abiwlrkh p8dawk7l dwo3fsh8 pzggbiyp pkj7ub1o bqnlxs5p kkg9azqs c24pa1uk ln9iyx3p fe6kdd0r ar1oviwq l10q8mi9 sq40qgkc s8quxz6p pdjglbur" role="button" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; align-items: stretch; appearance: none; background-color: transparent; border-bottom-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-left-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-right-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-style: solid; border-top-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 0; font-family: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: none; vertical-align: bottom; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><i class="hu5pjgll m6k467ps sp_lnSB2oS2umA_2x sx_818c28" style="background-image: url("/rsrc.php/v3/yj/r/Ex7ASBOxSM2.png"); background-position: 0px -486px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 25px 1030px; display: inline-block; filter: var(--filter-secondary-icon); height: 20px; vertical-align: -0.25em; width: 20px;"><br /></i><div class="s45kfl79 emlxlaya bkmhp75w spb7xbtv i09qtzwb n7fi1qx3 b5wmifdl hzruof5a pmk7jnqg j9ispegn kr520xx4 c5ndavph art1omkt ot9fgl3s" data-visualcompletion="ignore" style="border-radius: 50%; font-family: inherit; inset: -8px; opacity: 0; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; transition-duration: var(--fds-duration-extra-extra-short-out); transition-property: opacity; transition-timing-function: var(--fds-animation-fade-out);"></div></div></div></div></div>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5743659222373061092.post-4970602699350485762020-12-31T05:22:00.000-08:002020-12-31T05:22:42.968-08:00A bunch of not quite Christmas Thoughts 2020 - 2021 -- New Year's Eve<p> </p><p><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span></p><p></p><p align="left" class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<b><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">The
Ghost of an Idea</span></span></span></span></b></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><a name="__DdeLink__2_527023467"></a>
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">“</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">This
boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all
of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his
brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.”</span></i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></i></span></span></span></span>
</span></p>
<p align="right" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Dickens</span></i></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;">“<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Sovereignty”
Boris’s beloved buzz-word, is never for the people. Sovereignty, by
definition, makes people subject to their so-called betters.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
terms of </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Brexit,
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">it
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">was
always about the ability of the rich to exploit workers without
having European laws </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hold
them back </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
crucially </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">whilst
squirrelling away money in off-shore tax havens, which Europe was
going to make them declare.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">With
Brexit, deal or no deal, </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">British
people</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">have
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">lost
all the recourse to Europe</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">an
Law</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
the protections it </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">offered
us in terms of education, fairness in the workplace, the safety net
of social services, equitable medical care, housing, pensions,
insurance, travel and much more. For ordinary people this is a
disaster. </span></span></span></span></span></span>
</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Everywhere
we see disparity. In every way our society is becoming more and more
divided. The ruling class thrives on division. </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">One
only has to look at the privileged in Eton. </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">W</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hilst
other schools struggle for funding from local businesses, which are
now often in difficulty themselves, </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Eton
offers a head start and a clear run to </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">those
wealthy enough to pay for privilege</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
under-qualified are promoted to the top whilst the intelligent poor
are kept in their place by underfunding. The last thing privilege
wants is an educated electorate. </span></span></span></span></span></span>
</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
t</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he
dead and displaced of Grenfell Tower cry out for justice. </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Windrush generation cry out for justice. The elderly and disabled
have had benefits stripped away. Many have died because of it. </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">You
may applaud Key Workers but still </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Nurses
pay does not reflect the value this lying government said it put of
their work. We have lengthening food bank queues. Unicef is having to
feed British children whilst politicians eat and drink on expenses
and at discount. All about us we see the contempt with which the
Tories hold the working people of Britain. </span></span></span></span></span></span>
</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
North South divide is widening and </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">united
kingdom</span></i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">seems</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
now a loose term of ridicule. Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland –
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">everyone</span></i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
has been abused by Westminster and even in other parts of England
there is discontent. Now young people will no longer be able to
afford to spend time abroad expanding their horizons – well unless
they have a rich daddy. </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Brexit lie</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
duped half the people </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
vot</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ing</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">against
their own interests.</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Buzz-words
like ‘Sovereignty’ and ‘Empire’ sound fine indeed but they
have at their dark heart the spectres of power and avarice. Fine
words are the weapons of subjugation. </span></span></span></span></span></span>
</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Everything
that divides us in these times of pandemic and global upheaval, when
co-operation is more vital than ever for the </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">good
of th</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">e
humanity</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
is utterly reprehensible and </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">at
this very time in history</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
we have the most </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">divisive</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
government imaginable in charge.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Brexit
will surely bring ignorance and want. Now the upper classes really do
have the upper hand once more and all I can say is</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: center; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><span style="font-weight: normal;">God
help us every one!</span></span></span></i></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span>
</span></span>
</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: center; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span></span></span></i></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mLA6jYzRr_0/X-3PkwjVKJI/AAAAAAAACds/Edt7a6IidlcesjWq6uehB_2bwSyz3TyGQCNcBGAsYHQ/s498/133981956_10157542719955918_4640498944127378753_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="498" height="198" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mLA6jYzRr_0/X-3PkwjVKJI/AAAAAAAACds/Edt7a6IidlcesjWq6uehB_2bwSyz3TyGQCNcBGAsYHQ/w200-h198/133981956_10157542719955918_4640498944127378753_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></i></span></div><span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></i></span><p></p><br /><p></p>Oonahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03017273972774480939noreply@blogger.com0