"Or the eagle glance Of science, could call back thy history lost"

 

I have written so much about Silbury, that this enigmatic monument too goodness knows what, remains inside me as a teller (or should that be the tiller?) of my life.  It was the place that I stopped at on my way to settle in Wales and decided to stop at the town of Calne and buy a house there instead.  I studied archaeology, married the lecturer and made journey's from Bath to walk my dog there.  But always taking in the prehistoric landscape that lay so closely underfoot.  Avebury stones, East and West Kennet long barrows, the Ridgeway with its round barrows, some of them Roman.  I marvelled at lives that had gone before me.  Then of course I met Paul there outside the Red Lion pub, I suppose it was a date.  He said something cheeky about the sun hat I was wearing. 

The hat, which at this very moment, I have been searching for to take on our trip to Surrey.  We are having a hot Bank Holiday  this weekend.  So a train journey down to London, poor Andrew had to travel to London for a meeting yesterday but will be back tonight to do the same journey again.  We are also meeting Lillie in London who is also coming but she will be camping out in the garden.

But as I went through the blogs I have written about Silbury I came across a poem, written by 12 year old Emmeline Fisher, she was the second cousin of Wordsworth.  It was found inside Silbury 150 years later.  I remember at the time when Silbury was being restored by the firm Skanska, the villagers in Avebury wanted to put into the hill a similar time capsule.  But it was refused by the archaeologists because it could have caused damage in the future.

As a note, Druidism was rife in the Victorian age, it covered all the prehistoric archaeological stuff with plenty of fanciful stories. The Roman writers, including Tacitus, have a lot to answer for when they subdued the natives of this country;)

Hidden poem by Wordsworth’s niece published | OurDailyRead

Bones of our wild forefathers

O forgive,
If now we pierce the chambers of your rest,
And open your dark pillows to the eye
Of the irreverent Day!
Hark, as we move,
Runs no stern whisper through the narrow vault?
Flickers no shape across our torch-light pale,
With backward beckoning arm?
No, all is still.
O that it were not!
O that sound or sign,
Vision, or legend, or the eagle glance
Of science, could call back thy history lost,
Green Pyramid of the plains, from far-ebbed Time!
O that the winds which kiss thy flowery turf
Could utter how they first beheld thee rise;
When in his toil the jealous Savage paused,
Drew deep his chest, pushed back his yellow hair,
And scanned the growing hill with reverent gaze,
-Or haply, how they gave their fitful pipe**
To join the chant prolonged o'er warriors cold
. -Or how the Druid's mystic robe they swelled;
Or from thy blackened brow on wailing wing
The solemn sacrificial ashes bore,
To strew them where now smiles the yellow corn,
Or where the peasant treads the Churchward***path

Emmeline Fisher

Edit. There is actually another poem written by an American girl in the 19th century in similar vein about Avebury.  Her ancestor was Oliver Cope, a tailor of Awbury (as it was then called).  Oliver Cope was a dissenter who took his family in the 17th Century to America  they settled and a dynasty was born.  I have written about it here.  The girl was called Mary S, Cope, the date 1886.

20th May 2026 - links

 Some links:  When there was no handy paper or vellum to write on around, people drew on rocks.  Patiently picking at the rock till their truth was revealed.  I wonder what it says about the human race? A need to be remembered or a need to create.    The Smell of Water – Dark and True and Tender is the North

When AI went wrong.  There is a reasonable fear about the introduction of this many headed monster, and a rather succinct, but very long, essay notes the fact that American students are beginning to see that AI is not going to find them jobs in the future.  So in some colleges when the subject is brought up, especially at the point when they receive their degrees they boo loudly the speakers who are in favour of IA.  There is a funny video at the end of this link, when AI forgets a host of student names and there is a great flap on the stage as they rearrange for those forgotten.  They go on  to name the students who have obtained their degrees successfully, in the usual manner of a queue.

Superintelligent AI: An Extinction Risk to Humanity | ControlAI  Well interestingly enough that link doesn't go back to the original article in my email, but I shall leave it there.  Perhaps AI is worrying about itself ;)

We are in that political stage at the moment when upstarts (Streeting and Burnham) are trying to pull down the present incumbent of our government, the Prime Minister, Starmer,  A helpful Labour MP has stepped down in his constituency of Makerfield to allow Manchester's mayor Andy Burnham to stand. This by the way leaves the Green Party in a quandary, if they field a candidate, would it break up the vote allowing Reform Party to get in. 

 Brave men, it could mean the ending of careers, should Burnham stop in his successful role as Mayor of Manchester to throw his hat in the ring for Prime minister? Alistair Stewart soothes one's brow ;) Burnham, Streeting & the Fight to Be Prime Minister, and who would want the job anyway ??

My algorithms read me as a person who love golden retrievers and their funny ways, so in actual fact somewhere in the future the golden dog might be ruling us with their gentle, kind ways, you never know.

Gandalph the Great

Rewilding

 Illegal plants in Ireland;  As we have almost passed the season of the wild bluebell in the woods.  It is interesting to note that the Spanish bluebell is declared illegal in Ireland because of the damage it could do if the plant interbreeds with our wild and beautiful bluebell.  I once saw these cultivated plants thrown quite casually in the woods in garden rubbish.  This, of course, is how the problem takes place.  I am not quite sure whether we have the same rule in England.  The other illegal plants that should not be on sale and were  mentioned were Cherry Laurel, rhododendron ponticum and Hottentot fig, out of a list of 34 species.

I have been watching Rewilding programmes, and it is quite fascinating to see how animals, and plants of course, change the nature of their environment and there are people out there, luckily with enough money to devote their land to experimenting with rewilding.  We often interfere with how the rivers and streams run in our country, culverting them into long straight ditches or dykes.  A beaver will teach you differently as they busily work away on building their dams.  Something similar happens when you allow water from a hill to make its own way down, creating winding pathways of water.  It is this gentle flow, especially through the land at the bottom that slows the carrying away of the pesticides in the rivers that we throw on the land.

One of the schemes that I have followed over the years is the Langholm Moor Initiative in Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland.  This moor was put on the market and the local people from the town of Langholm decided to buy it.  This was a tremendous effort on their part, 5000 acres, now I believe 10,000 acres, at several million pounds.  But they raised the money  and the land now belongs to the community.  And such things as the large plantations of evergreen timber planted by the Forestry are being cut down.

We were in this area a few years back, going to see the Buddhist temple Samye Linge that lies in the valley there.  There were two stone circles we wanted to see and Paul was taking some books to give to the monks.  Even now my heart quickens at the thought of the lush countryside in this Southern part of Scotland, I even fancied living there but truly it was a long way to the towns.  And sadly I am not religious either ;) but as I have followed the Samye Linge social media it is surprising to see how many people attend the courses there and of course the influence it has on the people around who may have moved to the area because of the Buddhist temple.

16th May 2026

 Travelling and all that goes with it.  We all off for a couple of days down to Chittingford soon.  But my Senior Rail card had expired the first of this month.  I had to get another one because Andrew had got my ticket minus whatever I get off my card.

So my daughter tried, for at least 3/4 of an hour to get, drum roll, one that would go on my phone (there is no other choice).  We succeeded in the end after a palaver about passwords.  But trying to find stuff on my phone is hideous and somehow when I am out the screen darkens and I can hardly see.  But I notice this morning that I have a receipt for payment of my annual ticket, so I shall print that off and carry that as well.

My other problem was I needed to renew my passport as it had expired.  So I went to the photo booth at Morrisons took my photo and the b***** Passport Office have refused it.  Yes I do look a bit washed out (and cross) in the photo, almost as if I am fading away already.  But they have rejected it because of the light (not my fault) and being recognised by the airport staff.  We are going to try at home, but honestly why are we being forced to do everything on the computer.

My small camera arrived yesterday, it is not much bigger than a phone, but mercifully the instructions on the camera are so simple, and after I had worked out where the micro memory card goes it will be in use.  I had to ask Andrew yesterday why is buying a memory card so difficult, why am I offered a host of cards with gobbledy-gook written all over them.

A Holly Blue

Chelsea Garden Show will be with us soon, on the radio this morning was someone who was advocating for more awareness of insects in the garden and having a stand at the show - so should you be going she may have interesting information.  But one of my favourite nature Youtube videos is The Mindful Narrowboat, towards the end she was watching spittlebugs or Froghoppers jump.  Her deep interest in the natural world around her is rather special.  

She was a head teacher once which may explain everything. The froghoppers can be caught at about 13 minutes in if you don't want to watch the hassle of getting your clothes washed.  But it is really lovely to watch the landscape drift by as she films it from the boat.

Apples

The subject of apples, on which  I have written many words. But I shall go on doing so because the fate of the cottage garden that grew the famous Bramley cooking apple is still in the hands of being sold and the tree is slowly dying.

Roots of resilience: the experts working to bolster apples against the climate crisis | US news | The Guardian

Apples are a common fruit, they sit in the fruit part of the supermarket, glistening with goodness knows what and we buy without thinking of where they are grown.  

I collected apple trees in the Bath garden, I loved the blossom time and then the appearance of the first early apples, in this case a Russian White Transparent, a good cooking apple.  I bought them on M9 rootstock so that they were a sensible size, not like the giants in the old childhood garden, in which we would climb and sit.

Abundancy

So the above article intrigued me, the sudden mood changes of the weather in California had seriously disrupted the life cycle of their apple orchards, and they were trying to develop hardier types of apple stock root.

Every gardener knows as we stand on the threshold of summer in the May month the worry and anticipation of whether the weather will change and we shall have snow or frost.  Killing those tender  plants that are making their appearance.

 

Developing new rooting stock takes time, a lifetime sometimes, and as we approach this new world of climate change perhaps we should take more notice of what is happening to our food stocks.  According to The Country Shell Book of Alphabets, written by Geoffrey Grigson, apples were even eaten by the Neolithic people........

Less particular about soil, then plum or cherry, more reliable in yield than pear trees, apple trees in blossom around a village are so characteristic that it may be recalled that apples were eaten by the neolithic people, the first farmers and herdsmen of England, who visited the Causeway camp or moot on Windmill Hill outside Avebury, in Wiltshire, 4000 and more years ago. Pips were found on pottery, possibly from native crabs, which would have been sour in the neolithic no less than a modern mouth, but perhaps from the sweet fruits of Malus sylvestris Ssp mitis. which the Windmill people could have bought with them from overseas. This sub-species native of south-east Europe and south-west Asia, is the parent of garden apple, and may have been grown already in neolithic Europe.. Apples were held to be revivifying and rejuvenating, and there are stories to that effect from the Irish and Norse mythology, as well as from the Near East. Loki, for instance, stole the apples which the goddess Ithunn kept for the gods to eat when they grew old, and gave them to the giants. The gods withered and wrinkled with age, and Loki was forced to get the apples back. ..Most of the exquisite blossoms around the church towers and spires turn to a very dull fruit..

And do not forget the wild crab apple, not an eating apple but it will produce a clear sweet/sour jelly to put on your toast.

Crab apple tree

13th May 2026

Stuffing mushrooms, or something similar.  That quote is simply 'there is more to life than stuffing a mushroom'.  Well yesterday watching a person make sourdough bread in a video, I had the same train of thought.  In the first proving, you had to go back three times every 30 minutes and knead the dough, then of course it had to rise in the pot, preferably for eight hours.  You might be starving by this point but don't worry it will be beautifully baked tomorrow.

Well as I kneaded some dough early this morning, Andrew on his way to swimming pointed out that there was an ugly looking crow sitting on the fence outside.  I often talk to my crow and he was asking for breakfast of course, so sorted some old bread for him and noted we have a new arrival, my namesake, the magpie.  Though of course he could be just around this time of year for eggs but the crows weren't telling him off.

The news this morning: well I am not listening to Today, they are p****** themselves over who is going to be the next prime minister, and Starmer has stuck his heels in.  Could be because of the King's speech which will roll out the Labour government's intentions today.  The speeches King Charles III made in America were beautiful.  He is very good with words, I was not surprised it was so well received but he has written articles in my magazine 'Resurgence' and he can turn a fine phrase.

My camera has sold and I must now look for a simple 'instant' one for our trip to Chiddingford soon and the garden. I should have started earlier with photography with my eyesight going west, trying to set a large camera on the right lines is beyond my scope now.

Vote Green or vote for ......gardeners

A gardener who with his wife bought a semi-detached house with a quarry at the bottom of the garden full of old farm machinery and turned it into a 'Jungle garden'.  Here is Jack drinking water, not Prosecco, but this is called Prosecco Terrace.  My daughter is deep in thought listening to the birds which are being identified by the Merlin app on her phone.

  Edit: "Hats off Strangers"  It is all there the magnificent idiocy of the State Opening of Parliament.  You cannot but be impressed by this Medieval sumptuous extravagance  of gold and gilt.  Trump eat your heart out;) I still haven't got to The Speech yet.  Only read this morning that people were wondering whether the King was going to endorse Starmer.  But no worries, when the crown makes an appearance nothing stops the show.

Should you wish to go to the point when the King and Queen arrive it is near 46 minutes.  This when the royal couple are seated, the gold rod is raised and then the black rod knocks on the door three times, this is the beginning of the speech.

11th May 2028

Some how it sums it all up.

 

So May weather is already playing up.  It is going to be cold, especially if the wind is from the North-East. The travelling duo are back tomorrow from Germany, Andrew 's cousin lives there.  He will be pleased to know that all three G/P members of our ward got in.  One of them had knocked on the door the other day to thank him for voting and also we had GP stickers up.  It's over already and they are beginning to fight on the chat boxes,

Will Starmer go I wonder or by bringing two old stalwarts from way back, George Brown and Harriet Harman make a difference.  Not sure, I think Starmer and his government just forgot what the Labour Party is there for, it is called socialism and being there for all the people.  But it is all over thank goodness.

Trailing through photos, fingers always stopping at flowers, I come across Stanton Drew stone circle, I think it is the third largest in the country.  It was not far from Bath and I would go with Moss to wander amongst the stones and say hello to the 'Lion stone'.  The three stones in the pub, the Druid Arms, are not a Cove triangle but in fact has been recently identified as part of  a long barrow.

Each photo tells it tale, the misty green of the Bath downs where once a battle between the Royalists and the Roundheads took place.  The calm sluggish Chelmer Navigational river with the absolute grace of trees reaching down to the water and the sweet smell of cow parsley as you walked along, and the flowering hawthorn, the greatest of hedging in this country, reminding you that years ago the children would eat the sprouting leaves as they budded.  Try it;)

Stanton Drew:  A visit with Paul

History garnered

Turbulence

Take heart, read the Daily Pasture.  It wasn't all bad the council elections.  It was just the British people making sure the Labour Party got punished for not exactly carrying out their proposals.  The two party system is being broken up and that is not as bad as we think.  The Greens did not do too bad either, we have seven on our council, and yes the Reform Party has the majority now on the Council, but there is a good spill of other parties in the mix.  Just ordinary people doing a job.

  Yes of course there is the horror that is Farage looming over us, Trumpian, he is a fright of leering smile and teeth.  But no worries he drinks beer just like the rest of you boys and has a canny way of getting his way with money.  One warning! don't go down his path of crypto currency, he is only out there to fleece you.

So national emergencies cleared up what else is happening? Trump is stuck down the hole with the Strait of Hormuz.  It reminds me of my cat Maxi many years ago who would grab the soft fleshy skin of my Labrador's jaw and Kim would  stand uneasily still, impasse, not sure what to do as the cat tormented him. Kim 0, Maxi 1. 

Did I hear the rumour that ammunition, maybe rockets and drones as well, are being used up to quickly in the theatre of war.  'Theatre of War' what a splendid way to describe the nastiness of war!

Also read an article about producing organic ammonia.  Ammonia is used in the production of artificial nitrogen fertiliser and most of the world's crops rely on it.  So the production of organic ammonia in this world of Climate change would be helpful, but unfortunately it doesn't help the artificial fertiliser that is stranded in the Strait.  And to which everyone is promising us food shortages.

8th May 2026 - Todmorden

 What to start with this morning.  It was a toss up between the Co-op Art Nouveau in Todmorden, or the golden 'blondie' canine beauties called retrievers.  And yes it won't be the local council results because they haven't come through yet.

Whilst we were sitting in the meeting the other day, we wondered why such large windows.  Well it was to let in the light of course.  This room would have held meetings, books and educational classes.  There is a book out, I might ask for it as a Xmas present because it is expensive but gives details.  It is written by Lynn Pearson - England's Co-operative Movement: An Architectural History.  The Co-op started in Toad Lane, in Rochdale (1844)? and burgeoned from there.  It seems that the Tod Co-op was a drapery shop  from 1909 to 1910, you can just imagine the display of clothes in the windows. 

 

Across the road is the library, again built by the Co-op for the people of Tod.  It was built in 1897, and cash has not been spared for it is elegant late Victorian facade.

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Smear Campaigns

I forgot.  Zack Polanski has been through a dreadful smear campaign by various organisations and people.  Yesterday i was so cross about a Nick Robinson interview of Polanski on the Today programme, that I wrote an email to the programme castigating Robinson and threatening to stop my licence fee. (yes my threats are small;) Well I read on my F/B page this morning Harry Gallagher's contribution, so to  I am going to quote it....

Never put politics on blogs?

 that the problem of antisemitism in their movements has been deliberately exaggerated by their enemies for political gain. taken from Tension and dissent: inside the Green party’s antisemitism struggle | Green party | The Guardian

I am about to jump into the fire with very little capital behind me, but my need to see things from both sides is paramount to my soul.  Yesterday I signed up to the Green Party, it took a week to work out of course but as the hostilities mounted up  against Zack Polanski my anger started to form.

The GP has many faults, notwithstanding their long and lengthy debates or discussions about everything.

"the background of the party’s near-continual and often tortuously decentralised process of developing policy"

  Many of them are sincere people and your neighbours and friends.  They want a better world for both the planet and the people, so the so called red/green nature of their cause, the socialism/environmentalism has  a somewhat uneasy feel, I think even in the party itself, a juxtaposition of unease.  In fact what happens in the established parties that fight to govern us is exactly the same.

This of course reflects the whole seething mass of people that live on this Earth, they don't all think the same way sadly, but then we would appear like robots so that is a good thing.  There is dissent, there are a lot of causes brought to the table.  Above all there is the pick, pick nastiness of the people who think otherwise.  And who, I may say, probably have just as many faults as everyone else.

Zack probably has many faults, his training as an actor helps his style of performance and I really think the other parties are very jealous that he has such appeal amongst the people ;)  

He is Jewish, shall I venture down this road strewn with the dead of both Israelis and Palestine.  Yes I was totally appalled by October 7th but I am also appalled by the death of civilians in Palestine.  And, as a rider here, I think Netanyahu should be taken before the courts of Nuremberg and sentenced for his warring. 

On my blog I keep a reminder of the death of the little Palestinian girl Hind, it  would have been her birthday yesterday, someone wrote a poem for her.  For me she represents all the children that have been killed in the needless wars in Israel, Palestine and Ukraine.

This is what is bringing the protest crowds on the streets, they are not some evil minded mobs but young and old, Jewish and Muslim people trying to get this senseless slaughter of other human beings stopped.

Taken from Face Book because this is the real issue, and not the political nit picking we so often find in our media and social outlets. xxx

Baobab trees -Adansonia or the Upside Down Tree

 Wiki Entry taken by Ferdinand Reus

 Baobob Tree taken from Wikipedia and winner of many prize photo competitions - Bernard Gagnon

Isn't it magnificent, yesterday my wallpaper was the Avenue of Baobabs in Madagascar.  Strangely alien, the gold sleek bark and a flurry of branches at the top.  Like the camel it has to store its water and so the great trunk is the water tank. 

It is the Africa Tree of Life and reminded me of a song that was once a favourite.

 

'Shakin The Tree' sung by Peter Gabriel and Youssou N'Dour a Senegalese singer.  A young naive Peter Gabriel and another favourite, Youssou.  It is wonderful that the thing we call a brain connects facts together so sweetly.  Trees of Life are part of our cultural history as well as in our churches.  Anyway you will find the great baobob tree in their background, a rather fat untidy tree but then the storms of life gets us all whether tree or human.

Now I shall go back and find more Youssou songs on the net, my CDs of the music need some sort of attachment to my computer I suppose, I rather miss playing them.  My son recorded most of them for me and I haven't really worked out Spotify but then why should  I?

So has their time come?

 

In the communal space that is called 'Kindness Cafe'  Hannah Spencer made an unexpected appearance.  The Greens had decided to make a play for nine other wards in Calderdale for the council votes this week and so had arranged a meeting a couple of days before.

She is really a 'slip of a girl' still flying high on a win.  Probably going to upset some apple carts in Westminster, she reckons they hate her anyway.  Is she 'fragrant' Cro, I don't know didn't get close enough to sniff;).

If, when the history books are written, will they make note that an uprising of Green fellowship started up in the Grim North.  Did the ghost ancestors of weavers in the 19th century rise up in the chests of the people attending Hannah's lightening visit.

The meeting rooms of the large Northern towns were full of the proletariat who spoke up in the 19th century, are we now seeing the same with the chant 'tax the rich'?  Yes governments are breaking down  in the forms we see today across the world.  People are taking to the streets and marching once again for  the cash to be laid out a bit more fairly.  For justice and an end to the cruelty of war.  Changing times indeed.

But what I do know that it was a well attended meeting - 60 plus - young and old, Fedora hats and all and she was received enthusiastically and clapped into place.  She has a great burden on her shoulders, from newbie plasterer and plumber she must take the banner of the Green Party and head, with Zac Polanski of course, to carve out a much kinder country.

I note here by the way that there is a witch hunt out on Zac, he is Jewish as well, so you would think the right wing media could get their bloody ducks in a row!

Who do I get cross about, well for a start all those people playing the money markets without one miserly thought as to how the rest of the world is doing. 

There is this woman who lives in Dubai and owns 60 houses back in England which she rents out.  These rentiers are having to learn that throwing people out on the streets is not an option.

Yes that one is for my grandson Ben, who had a flurry of worry last week when that woman, through her agency asked them to leave, the upcoming Rent Bill which arrived on Monday saw to that.  Ben and his fellow lodgers, two I think, though one was leaving, are paying somewhere around £4000 a month rent, yes she keeps increasing it.  They can stay as long as another lodger is found.

Reminds you of George Orwell's  'The Road to Wigan's Pier.' doesn't it?

  

Only a green member could have a good Chihuahua tucked under his arm.  Not a very good photo, but no worries, I am selling my complicated Bridge camera and getting an instant camera soon....

Section 21

 

3rd May - Dawn Chorus International Day

 I had a bit of a downer yesterday.  Thought about giving up my blog because I seem to live so much in the past.  But then Sunday arrived;)  I love Sunday it is supposed to be a place of quietness, when for a moment you can forget about the worries of life.  Also, it is the day people have to listen out for the dawn chorus - International Dawn Chorus Day on the first Sunday in May, which is today.  I heard a few birds but the starlings haven't come back to raise some fledglings under the roof.

There was a small discussion yesterday about the male bird always being recorded but not the females.  Shock, horror, no one ever thought that their birdsong might be different.  Or, which is more to the point, cared.  Shame, the subjugation of the female even extends to birds....... Listen and see if you can tell the difference!

In town yesterday there was Morris dancing and various events but I did not go, tend to panic around crowds.  But people so want the normal events of life to happen and not the daily litany of troubles around the world, that one wonders WHY doesn't the human race create a paradise on this Earth.  I am playing the sound track as I type and hear my favourite bird the curlew's sweet song.  Reminding me of the North Yorkshire Moors. 

Once I caught the cuckoo 'cuckooing' in Blakes Wood.

And then there is always Pete Seeger - Green Grass to remember, somewhat wryly of course.  'From Way up Here'

1st May 2026

We need rain ;)  the farmers in the East are complaining about the lack of rain for growing crops, Farming is feeling the pinch at the moment, what with nitrogen being held up at the Strait of Hormuz.  We of course  will not suffer as much as the poorer countries in the world, someone on the radio said there would be billions of missed meals.  Think on that before you start wars.  

It is beautifully sunny outside, a crisp cold feel to the air, and of course it is May Day, time to dance in the summer and whirl round a May Pole.  Though a lot of that isn't done now - times move on!

Borrowed photo

Fire will be lit on the Hill of Uisneach, the mythical sacred centre of Ireland.  Bealtine will be celebrated for the month of May.  It is, according to sacred myth, the burial place of the Earth Goddess Eriu and also the Sun God Lugh. It is the Axis Mundi  of Ireland and a place, if you are Irish, you can escape from the modern world.

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 I have just watched Senator Sara Jacobs, a young Jewish woman in California take down Peter Hegseth, Secretary of Defense and she refused to be shouted down by him, that was the wonderful bit, every time he intervened she slapped him down.  Probably you will not be able to find the video, as far as You Tube is concerned, it has been taken down, but somewhere out there in America is a woman fighting for her community and it gave hope, as did King Charles lll heroic and softly spoken use of our English language pulled Trump so gently down, he didn't even feel the bump.  When this wretched man finally departs, will America be able to recover though?  

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On May Day, which is today, we should rejoice in the natural world and take a pledge to preserve as much of it as we can, now who was the bear that did exactly that? Smokey Bear, I think the following quote comes from Gary Snyder,

And he will protect those who love the woods and rivers, Gods and animals, hobos and madmen, prisoners and sick people, musicians, playful women, and hopeful children:

Formalities

 Mission accomplished, he departed the chamber with handshakes and smiles. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown but, thanks to some canny speechwriting and a book of quotations, the king had hopefully made his point without triggering a fiery tirade from the mad monarch on Truth Social.  The Guardian .  

Thank god we have a long history of kings, wars and nefarious ministers to fall back on for support.

And let us hope that the king and his queen gets back safely to England.  That photo above, proper English tea, sandwiches and scones with cream and jam, did it make a difference?  Did our slightly eccentric king make peace between our country and the US.  We'll see.

Funnily enough I have just been reading a Newscientist article on how  chimpanzees violent rupture hints at evolutionary roots of war. Well that explains something, not sure what though. 

Bless him. Trump I'm talking about this time, trying so hard to be nice to a 'real' king, did Melanie pour the tea, we, after all, know that the hostess is in charge of the teapot.  A rather unworthy thought did escape me though did they use Meghan Markle's jam on the scones that I saw advertised some time back, or was that a step too far, in reconciliation between a son and his father.  But I bet Camilla asked the age old question we always think of when faced with a scone, cream or jam first!

How to read history

 The magpie holds up her collection of words for the day:  Just read a lovely essay from Paul Knight's words on the 'Turn of the Season, the local awakening of our valley.  The curlews are back and though the weather still shows the extremes of temperature life streams back.  You will note, if you read the words that is, the local meetings at chapels or mills, not necessarily for religion but for the welcoming back of the season and the old tradition of 'mummers'.

I have a problem with this part of Yorkshire, I loved North Yorkshire, its bucolic quietness suited my frame of mind.  Towns such as Helmsley, Kirkbymoorside and Pickering were far removed from protest marches.  I will not ever get used to large towns being so near with their complexity of transport and people rushing around.  But so be it.  At least Knight frames a landscape he loves and writes about with such skill.

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Marina Hyde, who has a tongue like a whiplash and is a favourite writer of mine describing Henry 6th compared to Trump.  Taken from the Guardian

For now, perhaps we are living through the ideal conditions for an American break with Rome. When the English pulled the trigger on the Reformation, of course, they were ruled by a sociopathic malignant narcissist, who emptied his pram of toys when Rome didn’t sign up to his obsession of the hour. He was also extremely given to kleptocracy, and couldn’t really see a policy position without reconfiguring it as a material benefit to himself. I dunno: something feels familiar, I just can’t put my finger on it.

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Has anyone come across Jay Vail, an American who I think lives in London, his observations on the English way of life, I can only probably give you a F/B link, but his quiet satire and understanding are  good.

24th April 2026

It is not actually raining at the moment but this little gem would set anyone up for meditation.  Is anyone getting the recurring advert about Tai-Chi exercises which start every Monday and obviously are the best thing out for elders, and at only 7 minutes long do not strain the body too much.  That is the sales talk by the way.

My next link is to someone called Paul Kingsnorth, he writes through his Substack articles under the title of The Abbey of Misrule.  In fact at the moment he is writing a book on 'Wild Saints'  Now I am not sure which saint he covers whether the Catholic tranche or my own favourite the Celtic school but he is an interesting writer and in the link you will find  his essay, called  'Once and Future Saint - Three prophecies for England'.

The martyrdom of St. Edmunds  killed by the Vikings. Wall painting to be found at St. Peter and St. Paul church in Pickering

  

In the prophecies are two kings, Edmund and Edward, the third is a prophecy that until we return to venerate the saints only then will ''real England'  come back into being.  I will say little on that, as a country we have turned secular and I think it will hardly change.

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Wall painting of St. George slaying the Dragon at Pickering Church in North Yorkshire

But it brings me round to our times at the moment.  On Saturday there was a protest meeting from the right wing factions in Manchester, I think there was a gathering of one yesterday as well, as my daughter said that the men heading down the street to the pub in full St. George paraphernalia looked scary.  And she advised a young black lad not to go in there.

The video of what actually happened on Saturday for St. George's day will tell you the story.  There was of course a counter march against it but the police were out in full force and it seemed to have gone off fairly peaceful.

St.George, who never actually set foot in this country, is being used as a symbol of hate, and I would say to all those people who desperately want to go back to what they see as better times, I shall call you the 'Back to 1958' people it won't happen when thuggery gets on the streets.

Also note, the Jesus cross carried in the video, I cannot believe we are following the American religious crusade masquerading  the steady march of Fascism that is taking place.

22nd April 2026

Spring comes with such a rush.  Suddenly tiny violets with their heart-shaped leaves cover the ground.  The Wind Anemones star the ground with their whiteness and then, roll drum, the marvellous sheen of blue called the bluebell slides through the woodlands in that moment when the trees are slowly unfolding their leaves to the full glory of summer.  You see we have to have that dappled, half cold, half warm sunlight on the bluebells to understand their magic.

The light creeps ahead quickly early morning and even more so in the evening all these happenings just a matter of chance.  A balance between moon and sun.

Out on the street, a crocodile of children escorted by helpers went by chattering like a group of birds humming through the air.  They are on their way to the Hippodrome theatre, a charity run theatre.  Dog walkers pass, dog greeting dog, they are off to their daily walk of pee and poo, not to put too fine a point on it.

 Yesterday I learnt how to collage photographs, you can see the effort below.  I took Paul as my subject, each photo has its story.  Trouble is I have to pay for the privilege of  collaging and am just wondering if it is worth it. 

                       

Scrum

 Sometimes I get mad.  It is normally when someone gets laid out to be the fall guy as Sir Olly Robbins has just been over the 'The Mandelson Affair'.  Listening to Robbins, the poor man being grilled by the foreign affair committee yesterday, he was at a loss to see what he had done.. Sorry sweetheart someone has to take the can, and as Starmer bluster's his way through, my only reaction is,  is that it is not important.  Everyone knew Mandelson is the court jester, he was being sent out to butter up Trump, and sending a rogue to meet a rogue was not exactly what I would have done;)  But then government is always practical if not downright dishonest.

My simple question is this morning why are there so many bloody rogues to begin with?  How come Trump has not been given his marching orders just as Liz Truss and her sidekick Kwatang had been unceremoniously dumped by the Conservative party as they upended the economy of this country.  Truss had 45 days in power, the lifetime of a fresh lettuce apparently.  The time when the party began its great fall from power.

My feelings on Starmer is that he is like a slow clumsy elephant in the china shop but this bitching in parliament really has to stop and they ALL put their minds to the proper running of this country.

Edit:  Just read Owen Jones on the subject of Starmer.  Well Will he can certainly find enough adjectives to describe Starmer, obviously doesn't like him.  But Jones is an overly excited young man and given to forceful opinions.  I am quite fond of him, I see him as a son causing unrest in the home.

Something gentler later on...

Rabbit Holes

A prolific 'mother' spider plant that hides the two routers that we use. I am always scared when watering the plant that water will gush over the routers and instant silence on the two will happen.  In fact the plant doesn't look very happy. The plantlings (actually they are called spiderettes or pups) should be repotted on. 

The plant produces long specialised stems called stolons and the baby plantlets strike out from the nodes along the stolon.  In fact this rebirth is in favour of the mother plant (no cross pollination?) as the plantlings extend along the long line into soil, that is if they were in the ground, the mother plant has less to exhaust itself with.

Why am I thinking about reproduction? Must have been the talk about sexual reproduction last night on late radio,  which was about Desmond Morris's  book called The Naked Ape written in 1967.  I never read it  but remember the publicity it got, perhaps I should go back and read it.  Morris has written many books  but lived in Swindon and his girl friend at one time was, never guess who? was Diana Dors. 

 

This book has significantly influenced the understanding of human behavior in relation to animal behavior.  

Apparently  Morris went on to become a painter, fairly surrealistic and it is assumed that this painting has as the model Diana Dors.  

Girl selling flowers

You can read the Wiki here

Went off- piste there somewhat, what I was actually thinking of was the reproduction method of greenflies, I mean I know you will all be fascinated by such things ;)

"They can reproduce quickly, with many individuals developed from unfertilised eggs or parthenogenetically from female aphids.

  

"This is because in asexual reproduction, a successful genotype can spread quickly without being modified by sex or wasting resources on male offspring who will not give birth. Some species can produce both sexually and through parthenogenesis".

I fell in love with the word parthenogenetically along time ago and each year would remember it when I scrunched the blackfly and greenfly off the roses.  Sometimes I squirted the roses with Fairy liquid.  But as a balance of how livelihoods are experienced through the chain of life and how people have studied these things still gives me a sense of wonder at the intricacies of each and every aspect of life that unfolds before us, and yes I did feel guilty killing greenfly!

And just to finish look at that Longnet Stinkhorn, a fungi in Africa and see the work that is being carried out there.  Fungus or plain old mushrooms will teach us about the interconnectivity of the natural world.

Edit: Reason Desmond Morris was on the radio in the middle of the night 

 because he had died quite peacefully on Sunday night.