We have snowdrops in the garden. The snowdrop patch is well established, even though the flowers themselves are amazingly small. Up the hill in Dobcross they usually have bigger snowdrops than we do. Perhaps theirs are foreign, imported snowdrops. Ours survived having a skip dumped on them when we first bought the house and substantial renovation work was going on. They just bounced back afterwards - nature at its most resilient!
The fact that the snowdrops are opening up is often a sign that it’s going to snow. As a rule they begin to open and then spend some time hibernating. As a new storm is forecast, Storm Chandry apparently, maybe the snow will arrive.
January is plodding along to a rather gloomy end. Here’s a photo to prove it. Serendipity works and yesterday I managed to post photos on a blog I wrote some days ago. We’ll see whether the trick still works today.
In the USA they are having huge protests against ICE. Here’s post I pinched from someone’s social media:
“BBC News why are you failing to report on the mass protests against ICE across the US that are taking place right now? Instead you reported vile nonsense from Trump. There is a huge peaceful outpouring of protest, but you have nothing on your 10 o’clock news. Not good enough. Let me help; here’s Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Boston, San Diego and Washington DC to get you started.”
It’s odd how art can sometimes kind of foretell the future. It’s not just The Handmaid’s Tale. There is an episode of The Wire where a high school teacher tries to help one of his very underprivileged pupils overcome life’s difficulties by letting him use the school’s shower facilities and helping him get his clothes washed. He’s pretty much fighting a one-man battle and the pupil concerned is gradually drawn into the drug-selling culture of his community. I was reminded of this when I came across this article. This time it is in England!
Here’s a sample:
“Schools are regularly referring homeless children to food banks, driving them to classes and washing their clothes, according to research.
A survey conducted by the housing charity Shelter and NASUWT, also known as the Teachers’ Union, asked 11,000 teachers about their experiences of working with children living in temporary accommodation.
There are now a record 175,025 children in temporary housing in England, according to the most recent government figures. Many families affected are living in B&Bs, hostels and overcrowded flats.”
How did we get to that situation?
Now for something about terminology.
We used to talk about “yuppies” (young, urban professionals), a prosperous class of upwardly mobile, status-chasing people working in major cities. Now it seems we should talk about the white-collar “Henrys” (high-earning, not rich yet) – a cohort near-identical in demographic, profession and status-obsession, but who are now apparently the overlooked, and the hard-done-by, of our current political settlement.
In South Korea it seems they have a cohort now known as “Young 40s”, people who have reached the age of 40 and are being mocked as they try to hold on to their youth. They are a bit offended at being laughed at. “I’m just buying and wearing things I’ve liked for a long time, now that I can afford them,” one said of his skate gear and Air Jordans. “Why is this something to be attacked for?” Another felt self-conscious in interactions with younger colleagues: “I try to keep conversations focused on work or career concerns.” I must say, I have often wondered at quite grown-up young men who insist on skateboarding; isn’t it a teenager activity.
Then there is the SAHS group - SAHS for “stay-at-home-sons”, 20 - 34- year old men who still live in their parents’ home. There are more of them than daughters who still live home, which might explain why there are no references to SAHD: “stay-at-home-daughters”. As regards the SAHS there is merchandise. Somebody is making money out of this.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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