What is my news, well like the magpie I pick up shiny, glittering things along the way. A voice from Germany speaks here they are aligned with the 'Grans of Europe' in fighting the right wing bias which is, not only taking over America but also Europe. His seriousness is heartwarming. Suddenly it reminds me of Alistair Cooke's 'Letter From America' that I often listened to, a calm measured, reassuring voice.
What else? The Marsh family, English but slightly American in their way. They take the old songs and give them new words, naive but charming. How many idealised images of America have we had destroyed by the present situation. Here the Minnesota song is sung to that haunting tune of long ago 'San Francisco'
Yesterday I went onto the Gutenberg Project site to read Edward Thomas's 'South Country' and fell under the spell of its prose, an England that was still wedded to small farms and country yokels, just like his poem 'Lob'. Times were indeed different to today, Audible makes you pay, the Amazon behemoth cuts through our societies with a ruthless appetite but the Gutenberg Project is free.
Edit: Just to record that the Drax train broke down in Walsden with non working brakes. So my daughter's train to Manchester was cancelled, she sat on an unmoving train for an hour, till they were told it was cancelled. Apparently the Drax train, moving fuel to the Drax power plant. The train has 24 railway wagons and each wagon has a brake. I can hear the trains moving again.
I enjoyed Alistair Cooke's Letter from America too. Sorry you have had a dizzy spell. I was reminded of my mortality when I had that 6 week virus, and it depressed me too as I had a glimpse of how it would be when my health did take that inevitable turn for the worse . . .
ReplyDeleteTurning to Edward Thomas on a grey January day is a good notion. I love his prose as it is as eloquent as his wonderful poetry.
Well I suppose I can cope with my sight slowly fading out but the fainting dizziness is more worrying Jennie. Edward Thomas was a great writer, I know he is a favourite of yours as well. It was funny he went off to war, he didn't have to go, middle aged with a family but still.
DeleteLetter from America was broadcast here on Sunday early evening, and I never missed it. How would Alistair describe what is happening now?
ReplyDeleteThe Marsh Family are brilliant, as was the German bloke.
You took a turn! Alarming. After losing my former blog, I back mine up monthly now. It isn't difficult.
Just have to find how to back-up and will do it. The Marsh family are great, watching the children grow-up is also one of the happenings as well, they have been going a few years now.
DeleteReading the name Drax reminded me that in the 1860's my relatives had a farm there. The nephews used to travel from Mansfield to help them with the harvest. I wonder what they would think of it now!
ReplyDeleteHi, I wrote about the wood pellets which come from Canada here.https://northstoke.blogspot.com/2024/03/playing-trains.html. So yes it would be very changed. It is a funny name Drax isn't it, but it could have a couple of meanings I see.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing those videos. They're great. I went to YouTube so I could "like" them.
ReplyDeleteHope your dizziness doesn't come back. I know that being so sick for so many weeks at the beginning of this year has made me feel old and weak. Hoping to bounce back but it seems to take awhile.
Take care of yourself, Thelma.
I think the weather doesn't help the 'bounce back' Ellen, we just have to look forward to spring. Glad you enjoyed the videos, YouTube has a lot to offer.
ReplyDeleteAlastair Cooke was a voice of reason, much like Mark Tully, who died very recently.
ReplyDeleteI often wonder with all the rush of media nowadays Janice that calm, slow, reassuring voices will become lost.
DeleteI hope you get your fainting dizziness checked out.
ReplyDeleteI don't very often go to the doctor's these days Debby. I have a slight problem with my blood pressure, and I think I went low (which is unusual, I am normally fairly high).
DeleteWell I hope the dizziness is nothing major -- as you said above, maybe blood pressure. We have a book of Alistair Cooke's broadcasts from America in our school library. I'm sure the kids have no idea who Alistair Cooke was! He used to host "Masterpiece Theatre" on our public broadcasting stations in the USA -- often British dramas. PBS is a bit like our BBC, and Trump is bent on destroying it.
ReplyDeleteThink Trump maybe on the way out. Suing for 50 billion for someone who made public his tax returns is hardly going to go down well with the voters. It would be so good to go back to the quieter days of Alistair Cooke on a Sunday evening, telling us that all was well in America.
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