Heron-watching. And famous people watching.

When I’m out and about I quite often see a heron, or THE heron as we tend to refer to him, assuming it is always the same one. We also call him Mr Heron and recently the smallest grandson has taken to calling him Herry. He’s often to be spotted in or around one of the millponds.

He likes to stand on the weir under the bridge in the village centre. 

Lately we’ve seen him perched on the railings of a small bridge, close to the weir, a bridge leading to a house on the other side of the river. 

And last week we saw him perched on the wooden fencing of the verandah of that very house.

We have joked about his maybe preferring to stand on the railings rather than get feet wet. Yesterday we were able to get really close to him as he perched on the small bridge - clearly a heron who knows no fear.

We went on our way and commented to a nodding acquaintance coming in the opposite direction that she should look out for him. She told us that recently she had seen the people who live close to the bridge feeding the heron with small fish! Apparently the occupants of the houses on both sides of the river, including those whose verandah the heron stands on, take it in turns to feed him twice a day. That would explain his willingness to let people get close to him. It must be easier than standing on the stones of the weir hoping to catch a fish for himself.

The person who told us this tale speculated that maybe the people who feed the heron do so to prevent him from eating ducklings. For I have been told on several,occasions that they are partial to baby ducklings. One of my acquaintances even told me, in tones of disgust, that they don’t really eat whole duckling but just disembowel them and eat their vital organs! 

You could go off herons with their rather cruel-looking beaks! They look a little like a throw-back to an earlier bit of natural history. And yet they are quite majestic.mWhen they take flight you can almost see the direct line to the pterodactyl! 

We also look out for deer when we are out and about but they are much more elusive. 

I came across this article  about right-wingers in the USA who are convinced that Barack and Michelle Obama are on the brink of divorce! It’s strange how so many people become obsessed with the lives of the rich and famous. 

Followers of musicians and singers on Facebook are constantly posting photos of their idols. They must spend great lengths of time trawling through the internet for photos of Bruce Springsteen as a child, as a schoolboy, as a teenager, looking romantically at Patti Scialfa or looking admiringly at his daughter. Somehow they find photos of the children and grandchildren of Roy Orbison. Surely they should just be listening to the music! 

It’s always gone on, I suppose. Biographers have told us all sorts of details,about the life of Shakespeare and how he left his second best bed to Anne Hathaway, despite leaving her in Stratford with the children while he beetled of to London to be a playwright. Now this article suggests that they had it wrong and that in fact she moved to London with him. All those experts may have to change their minds! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Some thoughts about spring. And themed tourism.

The bluebells in my garden are flourishing nicely. The aquilegia, which soon will fill my front garden with a mass of pink, purple and white flowers, are just beginning to bloom. There are poppies on the way and soon there will be buttercups. Some people regard these last two as weeds, as they do dandelions, but I rather like my wild garden. There is even a bit of honesty. However in the bluebell woods, along the rather pompously names Forest Path, the bluebells are still rather sparse. We went for a second look the other day. 

I’ve just had a lift home from Oldham town centre with a friend. As we drove past the now rather faded daffodils along the roadside, she commented that the daffodils in her garden have not flowered yet. Spring is a bit crazy this year. It must be the changeable weather that does it. You notice it in people’s clothing too. Columnist Emma Beddington commented on this the other day:

“I was dressed – in my opinion correctly – for the meteorological conditions (cold, windy, non-negligible threat of rain) in a woolly hat, jumper and padded jacket, a classic Yorkshire springtime combo. But a man heading towards me walking his dog apparently had a wholly different take: he was wearing a singlet, shorts and flip-flops. We glanced at each other in mutual incomprehension, then walked on.”

I keep having that same experience as I walk along in a warmish jacket, hat and gloves and see women with bare arms, men in shorts and t-shirts, and young girls dressed for the beach. We’re no longer Yorkshire here but we used to be before they altered all the boundaries. We shluld respect the weather conditions. 

Until last year, whenever Granddaughter Number Two came home for a visit from university one of the first things she wanted to do was visit a certain local cafe where they served chocolate Guinness cake, in her opinion the best chocolate cake anywhere. Then the cafe closed down. She has been seeking an alternative source of most excellent chocolate cake ever since, to no avail! I read today about a fashion for “bakery tourism”. Apparently people travel long distances to specific destinations mainly so that they can sample the best croissants, the best pain au chocolat and other such delicacies. Some cycle long distances, which they feel justifies their indulging in sugary treats. Others, however, simply travel by car, bus, plane, train and queue up outside bakeries! How odd!

I suppose it takes all sorts!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Death of a good pope. Religious leaders. Religious/historical justification for bad actions.

Pope Francis died this morning. If you must have religious leaders, he seems to have been a good one. And maybe even those of us who are not particularly religious still need there to be religious leaders in the world, in some cases to shock us with how bad they can be and in others, like Francis, to give an example to the world of how life should be lived. I suppose we could see them as philosophers. And Pope Francis kept going right to the end, allowing the American Vice-President to have an audience, and carrying out papal duties from his wheelchair. Maybe it’s somehow fitting he died at a significant time on the Christian calendar. 

MP Zarah Sultana had this to say: 

“Pope Francis used his final public address to call for a ceasefire in Gaza: “Unarmed civilians are subjected to bombings and shootings. It is terrorism.”

Even in hospital, he checked in daily on Gaza’s Christian community.

The world has lost a brave voice for peace and justice.”

And MP Jeremy Corbyn said this:

“Pope Francis dedicated his life to the marginalised, displaced and dispossessed.

A rare voice for humanity, he spent his final days on this earth calling for peace.

Let his enduring legacy — of empathy, courage and kindness — inspire us to build a more humane world for all.”

Meanwhile, the world seems to get more intolerant and narrow-minded. Germany is reported to be deporting foreign students who take part in pro-Palestine activities. I read this morning about two German girls on a sort of round them world trip who were arrested when the arrived in Hawaii, because of some problem regarding how long they planned to stay. In what seems to have become typical US immigration in the treatment of “suspicious” tourists with no prior convictions they were handcuffed, strip searched, locked up and eventually deported back to Germany. We are no better here in the UK. Here’s a link to an article about a British-Palestinian academic arrested at Heathrow airport -  no, not arrested but “detained”, which meant he didn’t have access to a lawyer and was legally obliged to give the authorities the passwords for his various electronic devices. You can almost feel the walls moving inwards! 

And here’s something from Michael Rosen, reminding us that the bad stuff has been going on for quite a while - 

“Just in case anyone forgets or loses sight of what kind of ambition the Israel ambassador to the UK had more than 10 years ago, I'm posting this from wiki. For some reason, journalists and politicians don't seem to want to understand or know that whatever the Israeli govt says now about why they are doing what they are doing, there was and is an underlying purpose. Here it is:

In 2013, Hotovely rejected Palestinian statehood aspirations, supporting a Greater Israel spanning over the entire land of current Israel, along with the Palestinian territories. She later reiterated her position in a speech to Israeli diplomats on 22 May 2015, rejecting criticism from the international community regarding the West Bank settlement policies and saying that Israel has tried too hard to appease the world, and must stand up for itself. She said: “We need to return to the basic truth of our rights to this country.” She added: “This land is ours. All of it is ours. We did not come here to apologise for that.” She has also stated that she will make every effort to achieve global recognition of the West Bank settlements, as well as asserting that Israel owes no apologies for its policies in the Holy Land towards the Palestinians. She justified her position as she referenced religious tests to back her belief that the Israeli-occupied West Bank belongs to the Jewish people.”

Tzipura "Tzipi" Hotovely, by the way is an Israeli diplomat and former politician who serves as the current Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom. She served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Minister of Settlement Affairs, and as a member of the Knesset for the Likud party. 

There you go! 

Life goes on, stay safe and well, everyone!

A bright Easter Sunday. Chocolate eggs. Some thoughts on education, what it is for, and non-attendance.

 Easter Sunday. Chocolate eggs will have been given out all over the place. There are three sitting in my kitchen, for the three youngest grandchildren. The oldest of those is really too old now to be expecting Easter eggs but I overheard him asking his mother what kind of egg she was getting for him. So I’ve set a new rule: anyone over 21 is too old for a chocolate egg. He’s about to be 20, so maybe this will be his last egg! 

We continue to have mostly dry weather. Today is sunny but cold, warm in the sunshine in sheltered spots but with a bitter cold wind. We’ve had some rain but not enough for the mud puddles to re-establish themselves on the bridle paths where I run. One of the neighbours is sitting in the garden in the sunshine, wrapped in a fluffy dressing gown and wearing a safari-style sunhat, one of those with a wide brim and a piece hanging down the back to protect your neck. A curious choice of clothing! 

Here is a new bit of vocabulary, new to me anyway: the “manosphere” as in: 

“Several women told the Observer their partners had been sucked into the manosphere - the name given to parts of the internet that circulate misogynist content – or consumed far-right material online.”

And teachers are reportedly noting more violent attitudes and language towards girls and even towards female members of staff from boys at school. We used to think that teaching boys and girls together would go some way towards eradicating such attitudes but any good influence from co-education seems to be contradicted by what boys see online and on social networks. Somehow we need to educate both boys and girls to be more tolerant and kind to each other. And tomstand up for themselves and for what is right.

Eva Wiseman was writing about education and what schools should be for in today’s Guardian. One of the friends she spoke to told her:

“They should learn about their bodies and how to communicate pain. They should learn how to feed themselves, to cook, to grow food. They should learn history and art and, instead of maths, how to understand money and budgets.” 

All true but we do need to teach mathematics and the sciences. Even though, as Phil commented in conversation with the younger members of the family the other day, Pythagorus’ theorem (the square of the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) of a right angle triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides) has never actually been of much practical use to him. But if we don’t teach maths and sciences, introducing each new cohort into the ideas, where will the great mathematicians and scientists of the future come from?

Eve Wiseman’s friend’s daughter is refusing to go to school. The friend told Eva Wiseman that the thing she really grieves, with her daughter staying home, is not that they might fail their exams or miss the chance to learn a language, but, the chance to discover what they really love and, she said, to “Learn how to live.” If you are not introduced to new ideas, how do you find out that might interest you. Education isn’t just for getting a qualification. 

Apparently the terms used for refusal to go to school is now  “emotionally based school non-attendance”. When one of our granddaughters went through it, they called it “school refusal’, without reference to emotion. Eva Wiseman comments that it used to be called “truancy”, which to my mind suggests something different. “Playing truant”, or “wagging* as it is sometimes called, implies going and doing something else instead of going to school, a positive choice: going on an adventure with friends, going train-spotting or simply meeting a bunch of friend on the recreation ground (the rec), as parks were called in my childhood. Just plain refusing to go to school and staying in your bedroom is something else again, a modern affliction, exacerbated it seems by the covid lockdown. I don’t think there is an easy answer to the problem. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone! 

Football fans. Easter traditions old and new. AI stuff.

Out running this morning, I stopped to pass the time of day with one of my nodding-acquaintance dog-walkers. He told me he was going to Liverpool today to watch Everton play for the last time at Goodison Park, before moving to a new stadium. He was quite emotional about it. That’s football fans for you. 

He was going with his 90 year old sister, an Everton fan for 80 years, he told me. His wife was not going with him. She would be busy decorating the local church ready for tomorrow, Easter Sunday. We don’t do big processions with statues of saints but apparently the church still needs decorating. I’ve seen numerous photos of emotional, tearful Spaniards watching statues emerge from churches. At the moment, though, my favourite photo is this one of two penitentes from Bilbao.

The Morris dancers were out and about yesterday. I didn’t see them dance but I did see them congregating outside the White Lion pub in the village. I expect they’ll be busy somewhere today and on Monday.

I read that the latest thing is to decorate your house for Easter with carrot- or rabbit-shaped fairy lights and to put up and decorate an Easter tree. And of course you have to give presents, not just chocolate eggs. It has been dubbed Eastermas. One lot of market research tells us that 3.4 million Britons will spend £50 each on Easter gifts this year. 

An American tradition of giving Easter baskets full of gifts is beginning to be seen here too - not in my house, I hasten to add! But then, there are also Hallowe’en ‘boo baskets’ - a collection of Halloween treats stored inside an oversized hamper, including sweets and chocolate , naturally, also mugs, candles, teddy bears and ornaments themed around the spooky season. And you could go crazy giving 1st of December boxes, Christmas Eve boxes, Valentine’s baskets and ‘burr baskets’, these last to keep you warm and happy in winter. Any traditional symbolism of different dates gets lost in commercialism and consumerism! 

Happy Easter, however you choose to celebrate it! 

Over in China they seem to be forging ahead with AI stuff. Humanoid robots have been taking part in a half-marathon. At the moment they need “handlers” running with them to make sure they operate properly and don’t fall over, so I don’t think they’re a real threat to the sporting world as yet. It is, however, a sign of progress. Will the day come when we need regulation about humanoid robots competing against humans in sporting events? Will there one day be the first humanoid robot standing for President somewhere? We shall see! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Understanding words.

 Sometimes words can blow you away. 

I’ve been out to lunch with an old friend today. We’ve not seen each other for a while. We used to meet on sunny days for a walk along the canal towpaths around here but in the lats couple of years we’ve not managed it and so we’ve met for pizza in Manchester. Today, while we waited for our pizzas to arrive, she quietly and calmly told me she has recently developed a very aggressive form of cancer. She may have only months, or maybe only weeks to live. In the meanwhile she has been turning up outside her MP’s office with a group of friends to protest agains the Gaza situation. Now she says she’s quite glad she’s not going to be around to see the world dissolve into war!

Like so many of my generation, she has seen the optimism of our youth, when we thought the world could only get better, fade away.

Here’s something from the writer Ursula L Guin:

“Socrates said, ‘The misuse of language induces evil in the soul.’ He wasn't talking about grammar. To misuse language is to use it the way politicians and advertisers do, for profit, without taking responsibility for what the words mean. Language used as a means to get power or make money goes wrong: it lies. Language used as an end in itself, to sing a poem or tell a story, goes right, goes towards the truth.

A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.”

Words are important. We need people who recognise their true worth. And there are a lot of weasel words around, spoken by weasel wordsmiths.

The US has been negotiating a minerals deal with the Ukraine, setting up a joint investment between the two countries, and recognising the  “significant financial and material support” Washington has given Kyiv. What it doesn’t clarify is whether profits from future investments will be used to “pay back” the US for previous military aid made under the Biden administration. Donald Trump says Ukraine “owes” the US at least $300bn. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says weapons deliveries were a Congress-approved grant, not a loan, and therefore do not need to be paid back. It all depends on how you understand the words spoken at the time. 

Russia is now reported to have broken a ceasefire it hasn’t actually agreed to.

Someone called Assal Rad posted on social media

“Hamas: We will release all hostages to end the war

Media: Hamas rejects cease fire

     BBC 

Hamas has formally rejected Israel’s latest ceasefire offer, saying it is prepared to immediately negotiate a deal that would see the release of all remaining hostages in return for an end to the war and the release ofPalestinian prisoners.”

There’s a lot of contradiction around.

Here’s something by Michael Rosen on understanding what is said: 

Because we are stupid

we do not realise

that when the Israeli government

says

on the one hand 

there is enough food for the people of Gaza

and on the other

that the reason why they're not letting food

into Gaza

is in order to put pressure on Hamas

that both of these two things

cannot be true

at the same time.

We don't realise this

because we are stupid.

It would also seem

as if the mass media

are stupid

because they keep telling us

these two things

as if they can both be true

at the same time.

But because we are stupid

we haven't seen the mass media

doing this.

And he also said this: 

 

“I like it that the White House (US govt) has disapproved of Hamas's rejection of Israel-US's 'peace' plan on the grounds that Hamas wanted to retain weapons. Quite right. After all, everyone in the White House and in the US govt is against the right of people to hold arms. Oh  hang on, I've got something wrong there...”

That’s all. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!