Coals to Newcastle or what? Yes I am talking about the deal with Australia, do we really need more meat in this country in the form of cattle and sheep? Cross farmer on Farming Today was venting his anger on the trade deal this government has made with Australia, pushing out the better environmental standards that British farmers have.
Then surprise, surprise, the Liberal Democrats have won a seat over the Conservatives in Buckinghamshire. These things do happen of course, unexpected political party wins and it is very British to vote for a different party when we see the need to give the presiding government a jump start into reality.
Not so good news, ageing is a built in genetic fault, this made me laugh because it is such an obvious fact, we are just living longer of course because of better resources.
Then there is that rare wild orchid, extinct in this country, but has been found on a London roof, 15 specimens have been found.
 |
| Rising like a phoenix |
Jennie remembered the Neolithic young child laid on a swan's wing in death the other week, and it brought to mind the poem by Gary Snyder...
Under the Hills near the Moravia River
She lay there midst
Mammoth, reindeer, and wolf bones;
Diadem of fox teeth round her brow
Ocher under her hips
26,640 plus or minus 110 years before "now".
Burnt reindeer-pelvis bone bits
in her mouth,
Bones of two men lying by her side,
one each side.
I am listening to Underland by Robert Macfarlane at the moment and he begins in the first chapter with wonderful words about the Neolithic hand prints found inside caves. How the ochre is blown gently from the hand to reveal the print on the cave wall. How far we have come and yet hardly at all, us humans ;) Care and love in the Neanderthal period, you know those people that were different from us, though, I will whisper this quietly, we all have some Neanderthal in us.
Snyder got it wrong, they were in fact three males that lay there you can read about it here, but even so, the ceremony of burial strikes one as so civilised.
Paleolithic Art Masterpieces - Chauvet Cave.
Werner Herzog's - Cave of Forgotten Dreams video is no longer free but somehow he managed to capture the exhilarating experience of the Chauvet Cave with its vast art works that leave you humbled by their vivid representation.
The Dolni Veronice burials are interesting. It is difficult to infer with any precision the meaning of the placement of the bodies, although being slung in face-down still implies a lack of respect.
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed the piece on the Chauvet Cave - it took me back 25 years to lectures on Palaeolithic Art.
Wonderful news about the extinct-in-Britain orchid which now has hopefully a very safe colony on the top of that building. Apparently its seeds could have come with one of those Saraha dust storms that turns our cars red on occasion.
2013 we went to the British Museum to see the Ice Age Exhibition, the carvings were beautiful and then sat through the film as well. To be honest it stops you in your tracks the humanity of it all, 30,000 years ago, people as similar today as us.
DeleteWhen asked by a Conservative minister who was defending Boris Johnson's 'trade deal' with Australia who she would do trade deals with given the chance, an opposition person said, 'Europe, of course.' All of this was predicted right at the beginning of the Brexit campaign and there is so much more damage to be done in the coming years. I bloody hate this excuse for a government.
ReplyDeleteBrexit is as if someone pulled the rug out from underneath the feet of all the people who make an honest living in this country. Luckily people are enterprising and will change with time, but as for the people who pulled the rug, they should bring the stocks back in for them. Bumbling Boris and his airy-fairy lies should be the first.
ReplyDelete