Fire and ICE. And the chaos of the modern world.

Recently I commented that the blossom trees seemed to be flowering early this year. Well, here’s something else. Last night it was reported that a huge moorland fire broke out not far from here, on Scout Moor, between Ramsbottom and Whitworth. Big enough to be seen from Rochdale and parts of Oldham.

That’s not the first local fire this year. Saturday was a beautiful day, warm and sunny. Uppermill was crowded with what a friend of mine refers to a “grockles”: people who are not local, who have come to browse the charity shops, the secondhand book shops, the assorted tat shops (clothes, jewellery, ornaments, souvenirs), and of course to sample the numerous cafes. A few miles further along is Dovestone reservoir, a local beauty shop, probably also crowded. Late in the afternoon Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service were called to a 'small fire' near to the reservoir, a fire which was suspected to have been started by a barbecue found discarded at the scene.

So it would seem that the fire season has also begun early. A week of fine sunny weather brings out the urge to go to an out of doors place and have a barbecue … and then in some cases leave the portable barbecue behind to cause whatever havoc it likes.

However, it rained in the night, for the first time in a week. I ran round the village in the drizzle this morning. Hopefully the rain will damp any remaining fire and damp the enthusiasm of those who like to make fire on the open air.

It’s unusual for me to be grateful for rain. After all, it’s taken the better part of a week for the footpaths to dry up and the muddy puddles to shrink.  But the moors around here are basically peat bogs. People used to dig up dried peat to burn on their kitchen stoves. If it catches fire (or is set alight deliberately) it can smoulder below the surface for days. Just another bit of chaos in the world.

And, of course, the chaos continues in the wider world. We talk hopefully about the so-called ceasefire in Gaza and then Inread about the death of Abed Elrahman Hamdouna, a volunteer ambulance driver in northern Gaza.

Abed Elrahman Hamdouna, a 31-year-old father of two, was killed in a reported drone strike west of Gaza City two weeks ago, as he was on his way to a family Ramadan iftar, to break fast with his brothers. He wasn’t doing anything remotely military; he was just on his way to celebrate with his brothers. 

Here are some statistics: 

• Since the ceasefire was announced on 10 October last year, Israel has killed 677 and injured a further 1,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. 
• Israeli strikes in Gaza have averaged about 10 a day across the territory over the past five months.

That’s not what a ceasefire should look like. 

And here’s a link to an article about a doctor treating migrants who are injured trying to get into the USA from Mexico

And, going in the other direction, here’s a link to an article about a ‘self-deportee’, a young man of Mexican origin but who lived in Los Angeles from being only a few months old. Now 38, he has grown tired of worrying that ICE might come and find him. So he has gone of his own volition to a country whose language should be his own but which he speaks haltingly because English has become his first language: a mother tongue which has turned out to be the tongue of a wicked stepmother. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Some thoughts about pets versus children.

Our daughter and her smallest offspring, while out walking near their house, quite often come across a rather fine long-haired cat, a cat who looks as though he should be an indoors cat, definitely not a cat on the razzle, roaming the streets. They know his name, Leo, and where he lives, quite some distance from where they usually come across him. As a rule they take him home. Sometimes there is someone to take him in. Sometimes they have to leave him in his garden. The children would like to kidnap him and take him home to live at their house. 

Our daughter has almost always had a pet of some kind since she left childhood behind. She blames this apparent obsession on having pets on me, because we never had a pet when she was small, apart that is from the goldfish that a friend’s parent bought her for her birthday one year. That parent took an autonomous decision that our daughter needed a pet, in the belief that all children need a pet. She could have consulted me beforehand! Our daughter wanted a dog - and has had several - so that her children would grow up with no fear of dogs, a fear she had as a child. Some of that fear I put down to her reading the Wolves of Willoughby Chase is a children's by Joan Aiken rather than her not having had a dog of her own as a child. Her aim to accustom her children to having dogs around was mostly successful, except that the last dog was rather aggressive, especially towards the vacuum cleaner which he regarded as an enemy, and was so bouncy that he scared the wits out of one of the children and in the end had to be rehoused. 

She is currently pet-less but under constant pressure from the small people to get a cat! They are inspired in this by their acquaintance with Smokey and Buttons, their older cousin’s two cats.

It seems there are an estimayed 13 million dogs in the UK, many owned by Dinkwad couples. Dinkwad stands for “double income, no kids, with a dog”, in other words couples who have decided not to have children but get a dog and treat it as if it were the child they have decided not to have. The owner of such a child substitute, a golden retriever, said about herself and her husband and the dog: “We are deeply obsessed with him. He turned two last year and we had a little birthday party for him – we had party hats and got him a dog-safe cake and a little outfit: a little vest with a bow tie.” Well, okay, each to their own! Personally I think dogs don’t really need fancy outfits or bows in their hair, but that’s probably just me. (I feel the same, by the way, about doting parents who put fancy headbands on their practically hairless baby so that you can tell it is really a little girl, a very girly girl!)

Some might think having a dog is a good substitute from the financial point of view. After all, nursery fees for a small child can be extremely expensive! Similarly afterschool care! But vets’ fees are quite extortionate and if you take into account those fancy outfits and specialist dog food, it may be a false economy. Mostly though, I suppose that dogs don’t turn into stroppy teenagers who argue with their parents.

Dogs are even coming into political campaigns: “In a race that is expected to come down to a few thousand votes, every last one counts – including, for the candidates seeking to become the next mayor of Paris, those of the French capital’s disgruntled dog owners.

Both favourites in Sunday’s second-round vote, the leftwing frontrunner Emmanuel Grégoire and the former conservative culture minister, Rachida Dati, have promised an array of canine-friendly measures if they win – and for good reason.

In the last city council elections, in 2020, about 57,000 votes separated the winner, outgoing Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, from her closest rival, Dati. This year’s race is expected to be tighter still and Paris has more than 100,000 dogs.

“That’s, what, something like 170,000 votes,” said Loïc Amiot of Paris Condition Canine, an umbrella group of 10 dog-owners’ associations in the capital that has published a manifesto demanding better treatment for the city’s dogs.”

The world is full of mildly crazy people!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Celebrating Nowruz.

Friday was the Spring equinox. That crept up on us almost unnoticed. The days will get longer and the nights will get shorter. The sun will rise a little earlier each day, assuming it actually rises and doesn’t hide behind thick clouds. Today it’s hiding behind the clouds. So it goes.

The Spring equinox marks the start of the Persian (Iranian) new year - spring, a time of renewal, hope, and new beginnings. They call it Nowruz – also celebrated across central Asia, parts of the Caucasus and among Kurds throughout the Middle East. Here’s a link to an article about Iranians who are determined to celebrate Nowruz despite the war going on in their country.

I was interested to read that part of the celebration can involve jumping over small bonfires lit on the roads, a ritual meant to symbolically cast off misfortune before welcoming the new year. One part of the celebration of the feast of San Juan (Saint John the Baptist) in Spain on June 24th, Summer solstice, involves jumping over bonfires, also signifying good fortune for the coming year but sometimes it seems revealing the identity of the person you will marry. Fire is of itself somehow magical - healing but also harming if not properly controlled. 

 

Food too is always an important part of celebrations of all kinds and Nowruz has Haft Seen, the traditional table set with seven symbolic items representing wishes such as renewal or prosperity for the year ahead. A friend and former colleague of mine posted on Facebook a photo of her family’s Nowruz table

with this accompanying text:

“Into the light we go … ☀️🌸☀️🌸 Happy Nowruz / Persian New Year celebrated on the Spring Equinox. No word from family in Iran this year due to communication blackout. A couple of WhatsApp messages from last week,  just, “We are OK’, simple but heartfelt and very happily received. Our Haft-Sin table has an🍏 for health & beauty, a🪞for self-reflection; & clarity, 🧄 for health & protection from evil (of course!), a🕯️for enlightenment; 🪙 for prosperity & wealth, 🎏 for life & movement, vinegar for patience, wisdom & aging, & most importantly sumac for sunrise, light, and the triumph of good over evil: 🌅🧡❤️💜”

Because she always uses her maiden name I had forgotten that her husband is Iranian. It must be a hard time for families like hers just now. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Pictures on banknotes! Patriotic indignation! How long can banknotes survive anyway?

How often do you look at the money in your purse or wallet? Does the face on the coin or the figure on the banknote matter to you? There are changes afoot or so it seems. Native British wildlife will feature on the next set of £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes, but it has yet to be decided which creatures will feature on our currency. Various creatures have been nominated:

Chris Packham, who relates very well to wild life, has nominated the red fox. “Foxes are bold, successful and one of the most frequently encountered wild animals in cities, towns and countryside. They are our most successful predator. For centuries they’ve withstood all the utter nonsense we chuck at them, and keep chucking at them.”

He protests that foxhunting still goes on, despite legislation.

“Putting animals on banknotes needs to promote conversations and get us thinking about the way we value and treat wildlife. It is an opportunity to throw some light on the species that are struggling rather than celebrating our favourite hedgehogs, barn owls and red squirrels. The red fox is the perfect candidate.”

Naturalist Lucy Lapwing nominates the less photogenic toad. “There is something very relatable about the not-giving-a-fuck attitude of a toad. They have one of the worst flight responses in nature because they are so confident of their bufotoxin, a poisonous defence mechanism which is in their skin and unique to a toad.”

I think my favourite is the beaver, nominated by rewilder Isabella Tree. “Other than humans and elephants, beavers are the most significant keystone species on the planet. They change landscapes and provide the most extraordinary public benefits: preventing flooding, cleaning rivers, helping store water in drought and also bringing back wildlife. Five hundred years ago, beavers created watery kingdoms heaving with life, and now they’ve been reintroduced to England they are restoring that magical biodiversity.”

With a name like Tree I suppose it’s understandable that she should run a rewilding project. She tells us, “Beavers are also adorable. The beavers at rewilded Knepp have created an amazing hub of life. It’s so endearing when we see them on trail-cams grooming each other and being so busy and conscientious, building incredible dams and lodges. One chewed down a webcam post and put it in their beaver dam.”

That sounds like an enterprising beaver!

The wannabe patriots in the media (or perhaps I should say the “wannabe-seen as patriots) are kicking up a bit of stink because famous people like Winston Churchill and Jane Austin are going to be replaced with wildlife. But in the end money is just money. Surely the illustration is only of interest if you are a collector. I was trying, without success, to remember which South American country found that people were hanging on to a certain banknote, instead of spending it, just because they found it so pleasing to look at. Apparently varying the image on bank notes makes it harder for counterfeiters to forge them. Yes, I can see that. 

But as I see more and more people paying for stuff, even small items costing less than a pound, with a card or increasingly via an app on their phone, the matter of whose image is on our banknotes will surely become academic as only cranks like me will continue to use them. And as for me, I really don’t care which person or animal is featured on my folding money! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

The interconnecteness of everything. Small world syndrome. Some animals. Religion and politics.

 I used to work with someone who talked a lot about the interconnectedness of things. This morning I came across another example of that interconnectedness. Here it is. Towards the end of last year a good old friend of mine suddenly died. Today, as Ramadan comes to an end, her Muslim daughter-in-law posted something on Facebook about how much in her life has changed since last Eid al Ftr, including a moving tribute to my friend. In the comments on her post I saw one from a former colleague of mine, expressing how much she misses that same old friend. Small world syndrome strikes again. How did these two people know each other?

It turns out that they knew each other through the organisation Growing Old Disgracefully. I had guessed correctly. Two bits of my life coincided - the interconnectedness of everything!

Recently I think I commented on a possum who made his home in the soft toys on sale in an airport in Tasmania. Well, here’s another animal out of place: a wild boar who found his way into a supermarket in Berlin.

.”After the boar slipped in through the sliding glass doors, shop staff made a quick exit – but not before calling the zoo and the police, who arrived armed with tranquilliser guns and riot shields. Thankfully, the boar stayed in a subdued state, overwhelmed by consumer choice, and the team were able to persuade it out by “constructing a path using wooden pallets”. A police spokesperson added that “the wild boar then returned to the forest, which we assume it came from””

Ever since I first read Astérix I have had a sort of fondness for wild boar. The wild boarlets (piglets?) are especially appealing.

I know from Spanish friends what a nuisance the can be in real,life and consequently I am quite happy just to see them in pictures. They can be quite large and aggressive so I am pleased they don’t live near me.

Here are some raccoons living at the Artisanal Fisherman’s Wharf eating pet food left by tourists in Acajutla, El Salvador.

And just because I think they are amazing, here are some storks building one of their untidy nests.

I’m a great believer in recycling. Here’s a link to an article about a carpet fitter in Los Angeles who found the Oscars’ red carpet in a skip and decided to recycle it into her own living room. Fair enough!

On a more serious note, here is a link to an article about Kemi Badenoch supporting Nick Timothy’s objection to a public Ramadan prayer ceremony in Trafalgar Square. The Attorney General asks if she would object to a public prayer by a Jewish community. I wonder how she feels about the Whit Walks that take place here and in other parts of the country. 

Meanwhile in Jerusalem Muslims have been prevented from marking the end of Ramadan with prayers in the Al Aqsa mosque, closed by Israel. 

Religion and politics - always troubled bedfellows! But part of the interconnectedness of everything.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Signs of spring. Former King Jaun Carlos of Spain. And chess. And a possibly confused possum.

 It’s another fine day. Not quite as summerlike as yesterday as there is a bit more of a fresh wind but still, there is light at the end of the tunnel …

… or at any rate at the end of the old coach entrance dating back to when the pub next door was an actual coaching house and there were stables in the yard behind.

And there are signs of spring everywhere. Mind you, one of my nodding acquaintances commented this morning that it might be snowing by the weekend. Such a pessimist!

I read that Juan Carlos de Borbón y Borbón, abdicated king of Spain, disgraced former king of Spain, is tired of living in exile in Abu Dhabi and wants to return to Spain. Maybe Abu Dhabi is a bit too close to the conflict zone for comfort. Maybe he’s just feeling 88 and wants to go home. Will Spain welcome him with open arms? According to this article it’s debatable. 

I’ve always quite liked Juan Carlos, despite all the scandal about extramarital affairs and difficult family members. He was brought up in difficult times. When Franco died he chose not to follow the Franco route and changed Spain’s government completely, despite being groomed as Franco’s successor. When 23F, came along, the attempted coup in 1982, he was instrumental in calming it all down and preventing total chaos in the country. 

Now some people suggest he might have been involved in instigating the coup in the first place but Javier Cercas, a writer I appreciate, declares him to have been a defender of democracy. That’s what I always taught my A Level Spanish students anyway. 

What happens next remains to be seen. 

Still in Spain, here are some rather fine pictures from book about chess, a book made for King Alfonso X back in the thirteenth century. 

According to this article, study of ancient chess boards and pictures, mediaeval and pre-mediaeval times were much more tolerant of difference in race and colour than was thought to be the case. However, it seems that the establishment of black and white pieces as the game developed may have contributed to awareness of differences in race and skin colour. Who would have thought it. My question: is it significant that the player with the white pieces has the first move? 

I’ve never quite understood why people buy soft toys in airports but here’s a link to an article about a real live possum setting up shop,in the soft toys display in an airport in Tasmania! Enterprising little creature. Or maybe he thought the soft toys were his friends and relations.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone.

Saint Patrick. Sponsorship of artists. A good washing day. And help for happy bees.

 Well, Saint Patrick”s Day passed us by unnoticed in this house yesterday. Not that we had any intention of dressing up in green and celebrating, having no connection with Ireland whatsoever.

That doesn’t prevent quite a lot of people using the saint’s day as an excuse to go out and party. 

This morning I was reminded that the day had been and gone. And I remembered that I had a suitable cartoon about good old Saint Pat and the snakes. 

And someone passed on this joke to me:

“An Englishman, an Irishman, a Scotsman and a Welshman were riding in a hot-air balloon.

The balloon was about to crash into a mountain, so the pilot says, "We need to lose more weight to get clear. One of you has to jump."

The Scotsman says, "I do this for the glory of Scotland!" and he jumps out of the basket.

But the balloon still wasn’t high enough. "We need to lose more weight!" the pilot says.

The Welshman says, "I do this for the glory of Wales!" and he jumps out.

"We need to lose just one more person, and we’ll make it!" the pilot says.

The Irishman says, "I do this for the glory of Ireland!" — and he picks up the Englishman and throws him over the side.”

There you go!

On the subject of Ireland, here’s a link to an article about Ireland awarding a basic income to artists so that they could develop their talents. Not all striving artists received it; there was a kind of lottery to see who would get it. But it sounds like an excellent idea. 

Summer seems to have arrived here, skipping over False Spring and Actual Spring a d pushing aside Second Winter. Not only has it been a fine day to hang the washing out to dry in the garden, but said washing has dried nicely. Well, the stuff that went out first thing has dried nicely. I cannot guarantee that the last lot to go out will do as well. We shall see.

I spotted the first dandelion of 2026 in the garden this afternoon. 

Pretty soon the grass will be sprinkled with yellow stars. The bees will be happy. We must not use weedkiller or cut them down.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!