tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22826118649972994802024-03-20T09:18:55.773+00:00Landscape, self and othersJenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-81479927704906801672021-01-18T20:45:00.002+00:002021-01-18T21:06:40.313+00:00Impressions: A summer's day at Kilmartin...<p> (The follow-up, when I went into the chambered cairn at Nether Largie South.)</p><p style="text-align: center;">A summer's day -</p><p style="text-align: center;"> the air warm, late afternoon with the sun in the west,</p><p style="text-align: center;">looking into the tomb.</p><p style="text-align: center;">In,</p><p style="text-align: center;">and down.</p><p>Then seated: cool, cold on the stones striking into my bones, a relief from the heat of the late afternoon, then becoming colder, and then I no longer was aware of the cold of the stone. I chanted a song that had come to me some months before, which seemed to fit. Over and over, then silence, and waiting.</p><p>Eyes closed, I waited, then with open eyes studied the walls, the stacked stones, the large stone slabs of the base, the capstones. Some present-day constructions of meaning were evident in the scratched graffiti, some older than others, though.</p><p>In the stillness I waited, and my song still echoed. Still, and silence, and my eyes were closed again, my heart rate increased, a waiting of anticipation.</p><p>Thoughts, impressions, voices.</p><p>Hazy, with a memory of dissolution, of burnt bone, of merging into the others, into the walls, into the floor.</p><p>The community was here, and I was of them, looking out over the valley and awaiting something -- what? Fragments of my poem from the mound surfaced, though these people were far older than their descendants of whom I'd spoken then.</p><p>But I did not know, then, where I had waited for words to come, waited for rebirth, waited for those who would uncover walls and floor, let the light into this place that with my eyes shut or even open had become so dark, despite the sunlight that streamed behind me, to warm my back and counter the effect of that so-cold stone: a warmth that I no longer needed, absorbed into this community, part of these presences that permeated walls, roof and floor.</p><p>I understood that there were sounds in the silence, voices, whispers, and I was part of the sound...</p><p>.. I felt my body trembling as my awareness shifted again, pulling free of the clustering ghosts. No longer one of many but now seeing, or sensing, one who waited, born of earth and sunlight... and I heard my voice singing the song that sends the seeress on her journey, as I made my petition and waited, and spoke again without spoken words, hearing the words in reply, attempting to tug the strands of wyrd, with no thought for what, perhaps, I 'should' have asked.</p><p>And listening, as I was given to understand that my words/thoughts/images were now part of the pattern, part of the understanding that emanated from this place...</p><p>...and I was now a separate being, and asked again, this time of my own projects and where they should go...</p><p>... until suddenly the guardian was before me, and a sound pulled me back, back, the knocking of one pebble against another as I surfaced, dazed, opened eyes, felt the cold of the stone, the heat of the sun, heard the wind moving outside and realized the stillness in the tomb, and saw ... the denim-clad legs of a person who descended into the tomb, and stopped as he saw my backpack and camera bag placed just inside the entrance for precisely this eventuality, as a marker that someone was within.</p><p>I stood up, not wanting to have the silence of the stone seat breached, and said 'hello'. He looked in, seemed a little embarrassed, commented that it was interesting, and left... I paced slowly up, and back, and started to hum, letting the sound echo and resonate, then resumed my seat, asking the guardian to take me back, felt my awareness whirling and was again there,</p><p style="text-align: center;">with one who smiled,</p><p style="text-align: center;">for this there were no words, but knowledge yet</p><p style="text-align: center;">of what I must do;</p><p style="text-align: center;">being</p><p style="text-align: center;">and ecstasy,</p><p style="text-align: center;">one-ness and completion</p><p style="text-align: center;">infinite, unbounded, yet</p><p style="text-align: center;">held</p><p style="text-align: center;">in time and place</p><p style="text-align: center;">distilled, this moment,</p><p style="text-align: center;">now.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">...until some time later, I saw again the many faces, changing more swiftly now, and the guardian, and then felt the warming sunlight on my back, in time to be aware once again of sound, a quiet chinking of stones.</span></p><p>The three backpackers sitting patiently outside, when I went to the opening and spoke, said 'take your time, we can wait'. But I had done what I had come to do, and so left, with a glance of thanks around the walls, and climbed out, with a smile, not looking back as I made my way down the stones of the cairn, and along the little path and so out, reverting again to a recorder, photographer, as I passed the other cairns of the linear cemetery; later in their building, interesting, but not, today, for me.</p><div><div style="text-align: center;">© copyright J Blain 1999</div><div style="text-align: center;">all rights reserved</div></div>Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-50793444924670329922021-01-18T17:50:00.005+00:002021-01-18T17:50:57.099+00:00On being a visitor in the countryside<p>Today I was reminded of a couple of articles I'd posted long, long ago on a long-defunct website; and having found that I'd (also long ago) rescued them to my computer, though I'd re-post them here. These were written in 1999... At that time I was living in Canada, but took an extended 'holiday' back home. So, there are two stories, very different from each other, both from my 'pilgrimage' to the Kilmartin valley in Argyll.</p><p style="text-align: left;">First, the 'Dog Story'!</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">This is what the title <span style="color: #38761d;"><b>'On being a visitor in the countryside'</b></span> belongs to.</h3><p>I had an interesting trip to the UK this month (July 1999). However, this item is about the most ridiculous occurrence that I met. It intersected with my life in strange ways, being a factor impelling me into one of the most intense and powerful experiences I've had. But that's another story. Here is the ridiculous part, occasioned apparently by someone else's inability to exercise courtesy, or read signs.</p><p>The Kilmartin Glen, in Argyll, is sheep and cattle country. Beautiful, lush, grazing. Sheep country brings with it some rules, particularly where it's also a tourist area where people go to see 'the monuments', and usually spend about 5 minutes per attraction as they whiz round. One rule is written on numerous signs: keep the dog on a very short leash.</p><p>Loose dogs in sheep country are bad news, especially when lambs are young. Even the best, well-mannered, thoroughly polite and charming city-bred dog is likely to react to sheep and lambs: either they're for herding, they're for play, or they're prey. Any of these reactions, for the sheep and the farmers, is really bad news.</p><p>On my last day in Kilmartin, having spent the day on foot on back roads and track, looking at the very substantial amount of interesting material that was to be found, I headed back for the environs of Kilmartin itself, the vicinity of the Temple Wood circles. I planned to visit the strange 'X' formation, the Nether Largie Standing Stones, across the side road from Temple Wood, and nearby the chambered cairn at Nether Largie South. I thought of doing some meditation at the stones. The chambered cairn was calling to me, had been calling since I arrived in the glen, but at this time I was resisting. I got a lift from Kilmartin to the Temple Wood turn-off, walked up the side road, went through the gate to the little lane between fields that led to the stone 'X', and once more read the notices: keep dogs on a short leash; this is sheep country. Along the lane, through another gate, and here was the stone formation. I walked around, camera handy, and then...</p><p>There was a dog. Bounding up to me, not sure whether to be friendly. A large, golden dog. (I'm not good at dog breeds, but it was lovely. Golden retriever?) </p><p>At first I was merely irritated: can't the owners read? This isn't a local dog. Besides, how can I sit by the stones and meditate with a dog bouncing around? As the dog bounded closer, I took a deep breath and -- how do I explain this? -- became my fylgia. The dog stopped short, looked at me, whined slightly, and acted submissive. Fine, except that I had instantly become its pack leader. It then followed me, rather subdued and well behaved now, and keeping a little distance even when it got in the way, as I went around the stones, took my photos, gave up on the meditation plan, and wondered where the hel these owners were. Then the impact of the signs kicked in. This was a loose dog in sheep country. I could see no people. There did seem to be a car, down by the main road, down another little lane like the one I'd entered by, but no signs of people there.</p><p>So, OK, the responsibility for this dog was now on me. There was a farmhouse nearly, on the side-road that I'd come in from, opposite the little path to the chambered cairn. I started heading for there, managing on the way to shut the dog in the lane, where I could continue to see it as I headed for the farmhouse. Just before I reached the gate, a young man came out of it on a bicycle, I waved and he waved and stopped.</p><p>'Hello,' said I. 'I was down by the stones -- there's a loose dog there, and I can't find the owners. I was coming to let someone know.'</p><p>'A dog.' He said. (This wasn't a question.)</p><p>'A dog,' said I. 'And no sign of anyone. It's in the lane just now, I shut it in.'</p><p>'Right,' he said, 'Thanks!' and headed off on his bike. I in turn headed for the chambered cairn, and stood by it, watching the show.</p><p>He stopped at the lane, opened the gate and took firm hold of the dog's collar. At this point, some people finally materialised from the other direction: the owners, at last. He took the dog to them, and I could see the gestures even if I couldn't hear the words, pointing to the signs, pointing to the sheep. People and dog headed off.</p><p>I took some photographs of the outside of the cairn, put away the camera, stood a few minutes letting myself become one with the surroundings, the scenery, the landscape: then took a deep breath, and clambered down into the tomb...</p><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Copyright © J Blain, 1999.<br />All rights reserved.</div><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-38149325364922410202020-12-05T16:42:00.006+00:002020-12-05T17:08:17.094+00:00Gardening in the winter<p style="text-align: left;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is something immensely pleasurable and satisfying about doing garden work in December. Probably because you can't do it every day as it's dependent on what is happening weather-wise, and even on a good-weather day there are few hours in which to do it - and it becomes a valued treat and is never a chore. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today after two days of snow and rain the garden was moist, muddy, but good to work in; so I dug a hole, then evicted a Mahonia with some attendant bulbs from one of last year's 'winter pots' and re-homed it at the back of the garden, as planned a year ago, cutting back the climbers in that area; the whiles being scolded by a blackbird who considered that whole area, probably rightly, hers. Then, I planted the last of this year's new bulbs into various areas, particularly the little 'woodland' bit that I've been developing this year. These were mostly wild hyacinths ('bluebells' if you're English) and some daffodils which promise to be very fine when they bloom in the spring. Then, a few remaining daffodil bulbs went into a pot, and I'll see in the spring where they might go into the ground. Finally, a little bit of pruning </span><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">of a hydrangea,</span><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to prevent wind-rock, and a little more on roses...</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">I got a bit muddy, and enjoyed this just as much as when I was a child, a long time ago, digging holes in the garden of my parents' house!</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">My garden has a strange shape, because of the way that the 'new build' area, bordering on woodland, was developed in the 1990s. As a result, it's bigger than the standard 'new build' patch of ground, and so has what I think of as a 'secret' area, through an arch that I put in several years ago with the area through the archway not visible from the house. The arch has clematis and honeysuckle growing over it, or at least they're meant to grow over it although the honeysuckle has its own way of growing everywhere else! B</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">luetits and coal tits enjoy this secret area, and were flying into its trees and from there to the bird feeders in the 'main' part, during all the time I was working there.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;">After sunset, I walked around with a cup of coffee, looking at the plants which are still growing, still flowering, and those which give their winter flowers and scents. The Viburnum bodnantense scents the pathway through the garden leading to that secret area. Next year's buds are very visible on shrubs and trees. As the twilight deepens - it's pretty dark as I write this - I am rejoicing in my winter garden.</p>Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-19960375648426391442020-06-21T20:21:00.002+01:002020-06-21T20:58:47.616+01:00Walking the old railway line<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkWWHOY9Q0sOWoJWuyHgBaZp5qhAjhlAKoIPQCiOELh8cDvRhdwsGQOu8neSUiUEGkCuq_V4j4ISCrMejWfJoQJi8tY2V-pR-sBj8NigMEOa7lR4cOau_JpVNzB8gzCEfHlJLP1w-Y8zE/s1600/IMG_3820.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkWWHOY9Q0sOWoJWuyHgBaZp5qhAjhlAKoIPQCiOELh8cDvRhdwsGQOu8neSUiUEGkCuq_V4j4ISCrMejWfJoQJi8tY2V-pR-sBj8NigMEOa7lR4cOau_JpVNzB8gzCEfHlJLP1w-Y8zE/s400/IMG_3820.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The path, nearing the crossing with the North Dronley road.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Part of the route of the Dundee to Newtyle railway...</i></span> </h2>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span><font size="2"> </font><font face="inherit"> has been turned into a path for walkers, cyclists and horse-riders, and this is where I went walking this morning. </font></span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The <i>Old Meigle Rail Path </i>runs from Rosemill to North Dronley (and there’s a further path on to Dronley Woods), and I joined it at a small carpark, part-way along the path, reached from the Dronley Road going north from Birkhill. From there, I walked towards North Dronley, though only as far as to where the path crosses the North Dronley road as the skies were darkinging, rain was threatening, and indeed it was a rather wet woman who returned to the carpark. But it’s a walk I’ll do again, going further next time; a walk through farmed fields, along a path lined with wildflowers, small shrubs and trees, hearing the sounds of summer, yellowhammers, blackbirds, blackcaps and other songsters and this day of Solstice.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">(Technically, the moment of solstice was yesterday at 22.55; so last night was the ‘shortest night’ and both yesterday and today I'll think of as jointly the ‘longest days’. In point of fact it will be several days before the day becomes measurably or noticeably shorter… )</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">However: about half-way along my eye was caught by a particular yellow flower which was only vaguely familiar, and to the phone came out of my pocket. Next time, I’ll take more photos from the outset. The carpark itself had, unfortunately, some litter - why do people make litter in these places? - but from just a few yards along the path there was no more. I’ll put on field boots next time, though, rather than today’s walking sandals, as there’s need to avoid what’s left by the horses that clearly are ridden this way quite often. My sandals had to do quite a bit of side-stepping.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">I had the path almost to myself today, though - there was one runner, and on the way back two cyclists, all of whom just kept going so that it was I who had to step into the grass at the side of the path - another reason for boots next time! They did, however, say ‘thank you’.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">So, photos, starting with the plant which first caught my eye, and ending with a view of the path and a little piece of the birdsong.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfB15bh1F15LVHrhFdtV5w49w9aXZrZafGFTOg25W3UxsHeeplH6lU9VjhgdZ3fx6kTQgtUxDsmAf_Ej87BeUBC_heGa_aJFbUpad3JrDgCf_0KTBP9kk-ka_5khI_DIcQHFgYk091QBQ/s1600/IMG_3810.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfB15bh1F15LVHrhFdtV5w49w9aXZrZafGFTOg25W3UxsHeeplH6lU9VjhgdZ3fx6kTQgtUxDsmAf_Ej87BeUBC_heGa_aJFbUpad3JrDgCf_0KTBP9kk-ka_5khI_DIcQHFgYk091QBQ/s320/IMG_3810.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #151719; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">John-(or Jack)-go-to-bed-at-noon, aka Goatsbeard,</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #151719; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> Meadow Salsify, </span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">and a few other things.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #151719; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> I'm sure there must be a local Angus name for it...</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #151719; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Botanical name is <i>Tragopogon pratensis</i>.</span></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAozxh38g9L1yv6Gf2wcIL_7sTfuzJVBs8b1_W2kSrgkAOz7JHqsR7Vnqhcs_SDMPcMtpgHgvO_abIhLh_mgxUCKLv6lHrJEBlb8rIDt3fcuoLYGphJoViwN60P1CbE6060cpd4hod4pk/s1600/IMG_3812.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAozxh38g9L1yv6Gf2wcIL_7sTfuzJVBs8b1_W2kSrgkAOz7JHqsR7Vnqhcs_SDMPcMtpgHgvO_abIhLh_mgxUCKLv6lHrJEBlb8rIDt3fcuoLYGphJoViwN60P1CbE6060cpd4hod4pk/s320/IMG_3812.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #151719; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: xx-small; text-align: left;">Another image of the same flower.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3mqvhxKE5SoBuLMUFO4cWjVnSTFSGf7e6bg5IYTF2mpySgGE0JChzdviDrLZLID0aED0IHAVUunVUnY0ee9V4ZTpDuk6y3qsDtkW1DBrxywqibxEXqRS0pQQna7iDZrFGgP0_UrwkiNw/s1600/IMG_3813.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3mqvhxKE5SoBuLMUFO4cWjVnSTFSGf7e6bg5IYTF2mpySgGE0JChzdviDrLZLID0aED0IHAVUunVUnY0ee9V4ZTpDuk6y3qsDtkW1DBrxywqibxEXqRS0pQQna7iDZrFGgP0_UrwkiNw/s320/IMG_3813.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #151719; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: xx-small;">Prickly Sow Thistle,<i> Sonchus asper</i>.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDneO2BKp-tKamctLQlvVv948YIo-rOz-oz9hLz_yoNhpUdy7Mzv3k1XvNkD6O_mVeGWPwl1HaOYjLFXpQSoZ1Ipl3_BKImSXTUx1H6XduFHc01VWiGV5KyirFdGk064GRbvX_9RfJ0VA/s1600/IMG_3814.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDneO2BKp-tKamctLQlvVv948YIo-rOz-oz9hLz_yoNhpUdy7Mzv3k1XvNkD6O_mVeGWPwl1HaOYjLFXpQSoZ1Ipl3_BKImSXTUx1H6XduFHc01VWiGV5KyirFdGk064GRbvX_9RfJ0VA/s320/IMG_3814.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #151719; font-family: "helvetica neue"; text-align: right;"><span style="background-color: white;">One which I do have to haul out of the garden, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;">though it’s really impossible to control it fully: </span></span><i style="color: #151719; font-family: "helvetica neue"; text-align: right;">Aegopodium podagraria</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #151719; font-family: "helvetica neue"; text-align: right;">.</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQyCJv55s9AI06TuX50SB6SW7nl8Dgw3-Hzug_FuMixKMDRS0gSEBWUbOI7KgNkqF8quvQUZB7JrYnQ5DsJcISiG9jMItcMZg7kOqQplBa5HAXXHejhcZ-jzPSgDFPy_MHSOMKFerJuxk/s1600/IMG_3815.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQyCJv55s9AI06TuX50SB6SW7nl8Dgw3-Hzug_FuMixKMDRS0gSEBWUbOI7KgNkqF8quvQUZB7JrYnQ5DsJcISiG9jMItcMZg7kOqQplBa5HAXXHejhcZ-jzPSgDFPy_MHSOMKFerJuxk/s320/IMG_3815.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #151719; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: xx-small; text-align: left;">Ox-eye daisies.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZjSri0fcOjg_BBlw-nfs12ehaCxKSBmKZ-f_J2YQXBrKkGEXO9FSpJBvOrVUErfvG-n_XJf_R5O2_VX-2Tq-39Fd1RS4fWETqNMk39zpxWuWwJi9I9QajfhHKmAUDFh3THFZhS6PFeck/s1600/IMG_3817.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZjSri0fcOjg_BBlw-nfs12ehaCxKSBmKZ-f_J2YQXBrKkGEXO9FSpJBvOrVUErfvG-n_XJf_R5O2_VX-2Tq-39Fd1RS4fWETqNMk39zpxWuWwJi9I9QajfhHKmAUDFh3THFZhS6PFeck/s400/IMG_3817.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #151719; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;">Common Hogweed, aka Cow Parsnip, with more Sow-thistle</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #151719; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"> (and a few other</span> things). Please don't ever confuse </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #151719; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Common Hogweed (<i>Heracleum sphondylium</i>) </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #151719; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;">with its much bigger nasty cousin!</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVQdXqteYsxtOtBFS1jU5J6wFWwGOdqU4xsq2JeP7xjA69xXHauddgvgFK3gelbdMs9ydqGOQt-ztLh7GBB5R32UWaFR9WDJnU8Lkfz0a84rC-4az0tfmb3w-I1zOTUC7RVveu1PdwAd8/s1600/IMG_3818.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVQdXqteYsxtOtBFS1jU5J6wFWwGOdqU4xsq2JeP7xjA69xXHauddgvgFK3gelbdMs9ydqGOQt-ztLh7GBB5R32UWaFR9WDJnU8Lkfz0a84rC-4az0tfmb3w-I1zOTUC7RVveu1PdwAd8/s400/IMG_3818.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #151719; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: xx-small;">At the entrance to a field... quite an assortment of things here, <br />
including a Knapweed (not yet flowering), more Hogweed,<br />
Clover, grasses and the Trefoil. <br />
(At least it looks like Birdsfoot Trefoil but I didn't look at the leaves, <br />
and these are not clear enough in the photo. Could be Meadow Vetchling.)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGHaMo5Nd8bLTqYJMHzsC7bZT_s5UR0IpFKSac5EA6zH4WAUhJW0fQGRXjAAwJNYyj1Sm4N-gVpYu-J7U2biLB-3MicSDaCt9T0JzSYXMZT97_oztBtXCoHRdzeDsKvfR_ZIQ3GLI3p5U/s1600/IMG_3819.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGHaMo5Nd8bLTqYJMHzsC7bZT_s5UR0IpFKSac5EA6zH4WAUhJW0fQGRXjAAwJNYyj1Sm4N-gVpYu-J7U2biLB-3MicSDaCt9T0JzSYXMZT97_oztBtXCoHRdzeDsKvfR_ZIQ3GLI3p5U/s320/IMG_3819.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #151719; font-family: "helvetica neue";"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">And finally for the wildflowers, Nipplewort, Lapsana communis. <br />
This seeds itself freely around, but it's not so often I see the flowers <br />
as I spend a good bit of 'weeding' time hauling it from the<br />
garden. On a wildflower path, though, is where it belongs.</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">A</span>s I walked on, the most wonderful birdsong rose from the trees on the left of the path - the trees you can see in that first image at the top of the page. So here is a little of it:<br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dweWZCqSw0VkhuM2ubrshY0tf5jNE6LDC7x9wuX7G87wSd6fNVN5P5hnV2QGAxSGUH2c_g-Nxbur0ymv6PaxA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;">On the way home, I picked up a loaf of bread and some sausages at Grewar’s Farm Shop. Lunch was good! </span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
</span></div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-36832837192177366252020-06-15T22:31:00.001+01:002020-06-16T14:09:17.692+01:00George Kinloch, and his Dundee statue<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
Here in Dundee we have a problem. It relates to George Kinloch of Kinloch, known as ‘the Radical Laird’, reformer and briefly the first MP for Dundee. <span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">He was first politically involved with issues of the Dundee harbour, around 1814, though he may have expressed reformer sentiments from at least 1808. From there, he seems to have become increasingly political, with particular attention always to Dundee and to the developments of the mill-workers there, until his death in 1833.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">He’s known for getting himself arraigned on a ‘sedition’ case - because he spoke at demonstrations, particularly one after the Peterloo debacle, and supported universal (i.e. at that time meaning male) suffrage. He escaped the so-called ‘justice’ which would have sent him to Botany Bay, taking refuge in France before he was enabled to return to Britain (only to hear of the death of one of his daughters). </span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">But eventually, after campaigns started to change the ways in which, well, some people thought about other people, he became elected in 1833, after the first Reform Act, as MP for the newly-formed constituency of Dundee, defeating his (also Whig) rival. His speech for his Dundee electors specified his opposition and hatred of slavery. </span>In 1872, long after his death and after long years of debate and opposition, a statue was erected to him in Albert Square, beside the Public Library, aka Albert Institute.</div>
<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">So, what’s the problem? It lies in the family’s history: his father’s brother, John Kinloch, had become an owner of a plantation in Jamaica. Then John died, without a ‘legitimate’ heir of his body, though with several (four, I think) children of ‘mixed race’. So John’s heir was his brother, George Oliphant Kinloch, who arranged (remotely, from Scotland) for schooling for the children, and would be receiving reports from Jamaica about the plantation and its earnings. He signed at least one manumission document, but I don’t have any evidence for the context of this. And then George Oliphant Kinloch also died. So what happened to the estate?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />
Well, it would be ‘in trust’ for the heir of George Oliphant Kinloch, whose first son was named John - and that son died in 1789: so George, the aforesaid reformer, second son and still a minor, became the ‘owner’ in name of the estate (and of course also of the Scottish estate of Kinloch, bought by his father from a cousin earlier, his father having sold another small Scottish estate in order to buy it… this is complicated…). Young George spent some time in France, in the early 1790s, and so learnt about the early, and idealistic, years of the French Revolution and the reasons for this. When he came of age (1796) and started to deal with the accounts for that Jamaican plantation, what did he think? We don’t know. He didn’t leave a memoir, and while there are some letters from him and to him, these date from a later time.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">What we do know is that by 1804 the Jamaican estate, ‘Grange’, had been sold, apparently to the person who had been in correspondence with George Oliphant Kinloch earlier.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">So. Yes, George Kinloch of Kinloch, Scottish reformer, was for a few years in his 20s an owner of a Jamaican plantation worked by slaves. He may have ‘profited’ by the sale of the plantation. What he thought of it, we don’t know. What we do know is that at the time of his election as the first MP for Dundee, he professed a hatred of all slavery, and in particular of ‘negro slavery’; his phrasing of that time, not mine!</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Please do not deface his statue!</span></div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-18031022703610373182019-08-03T22:14:00.000+01:002019-08-03T22:15:42.916+01:00Children of the Dundee PoorI've been doing some more work on my family history, both here in Dundee and elsewhere in Scotland. And as it does relate somewhat to the landscape of Angus, I'll post here a piece I wrote several years ago on Thomas Lynch, his family, and his being 'farmed out' as a young child to Auchterhouse as an orphan child from Dundee. There is some new information that relates to this piece - particularly two elder siblings, Duncan born 1819 and John born 1821, in Port Glasgow, for whom I've both 'paper trails' and DNA evidence - but this is the original piece of writing from 2011.<br />
<br />
I may add more later!<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Seeking ancestors: Children of the Dundee Poor</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
© J Blain 2011</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
On a day in 1834 or early 35, four children were taken from Dundee to Auchterhouse in the Sidlaws. This was not a day trip for them: boarding out children was a way in which Dundee dealt with the problem of its orphaned poor. These four bore the Irish name of Lynch, still an unusual name at that time in Dundee. History has confused their origins; the father was Michael, or perhaps James, Lynch and the mother Margaret Haggart, or Haray, or Haughey. Perhaps, though it’s unlikely, they were even from two families not one. This is the story of the children, and it is also the story of their finding, based only in a mystery-man in my own family, a ‘Thomas Lynch’ for whom the only clues were in later census records giving a birth around 1831 in Dundee.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
Death records, much later, of three of these children do exist. Thomas’s, five decades later in Glasgow, gives his parents as Michael Lynch, weaver, and Margaret McTaggart. Those of George and James, in Dundee, name the parents as James Lynch and Margaret Haggart, an interesting similarity of sound. James’s record says his father was a coal carter, likely resulting from confusion with James’s own occupation, while George’s death and marriage record show no occupation for his father. Perhaps, given the circumstances, nobody really knew.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
But I am ahead of my tale. The children sent into the Angus countryside were James, aged around eleven in 1834 and possibly ‘boarded’ only very briefly before being placed in service on a farm or possibly placed directly into service, George, then around 6, Thomas, around 4, and a baby, Ann. Exactly when they went isn’t known. An entry in the Dundee Kirk Session minutes for 7<sup>th</sup>November 1834 states, ‘Messrs Fergusson & Kyd to attend to the case of Lynch family’, so that they were by then in care of the parish. Dundee death records show a Michael Linch, from Drogheda, dying from fever in the infirmary, buried in the Howff on 30th May 1834, though there is also a James Lynch, born in County Cavan, aged 40 dying of consumption in September 1835. There are records of baptism in St Andrew’s Roman Catholic Church, for James Linch, in 1823, son of Michael Linch and Margaret Harvy or Haray, and for Thomas Lynch, born in July 1830 but not baptised until January 1831, to Michael Lynch and Margaret Haghey. Alas, for childen named George and Ann no birth or baptism records are evident. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
What however makes these children traceable is that the 1820s were seeing only the beginning of Irish immigration to Dundee, so that the Lynch children are among the earliest Dundee births to families with Irish names. Consistently from the 1851 census onwards they appear as born in Dundee, and James, George and Thomas are shown in the 1841 census as born within Angus, though there is a small glitch for Ann in the 1841 census where she is said to have been born outside the county, though in Scotland, not Ireland.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
Lists of the Dundee poor exist for some years in the 1830s, as small printed brochures, bound into volumes and available in the Dundee Central Library’s local history area, including sections on ‘The Board of Children’ for poor orphan children sent out with a sum paid for their keep. In these records, in 1835 and 36, George and Thomas are boarded, along with other children, with Andrew Scott in Bonnettown of Auchterhouse – today’s Bonnyton. Ann is there too, but in a different household, that of John Scott, with a monthly amount of fourteen shillings paid for her keep, whereas George and Thomas rate only the standard eight shillings. James is not boarded. By 1837, George has been ‘struck off the list or put to service during the year’, the standard phrase when children are no longer supported by Dundee parish, and Ann has been moved to the Dundee household of Robert Moncur in the Hawkhill, at the standard eight shilling rate. Only Thomas remains in Bonnettown of Auchterhouse. In 1838 and 1839 records Thomas is in Kirkton of Auchterhouse with a Mrs Chrichton, while Ann remains in the Hawkhill, and finally in 1841 census records Thomas is the oldest boarded child of several with grocer’s widow Charlotte Chrichton and her daughter Betsy, and Ann remains in Dundee with Robert Moncur.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
In 1841, also, a James Lynch reappears as a farm servant at Carlungie in Monikie parish, and George is in Tealing, a male servant aged approximately 13 on a farm run by David Bell. Two younger boys there are identified as ‘orphans’, presumably boarded. Ten years later in the 1851 census – still clearly identifiable by that ‘Dundee’ birth – James is in Dundee, and married, George in Panbride, both farm labourers. Thomas is now also an agricultural labourer, in Westmuir by Kirriemuir, and married to Euphemia Low, a weaver there.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
It isn’t clear when these children were sent out to the countryside, and even whether they all arrived at one time. The Lists of Poor in Dundee for 1833-4 have no mention of them, tallying with the 1834 Kirk Session minute that puts two elders in charge of the Lynch family ‘case’. How directly the children were taken to Auchterhouse isn't given, so that we know only that they arrived there before the end of the year of 1st February 1834 to 25th February 1835. They might have been housed in Dundee for a while before being taken to Auchterhouse. The appearance of James as a farm labourer, though, suggests that he too was ‘farmed out’, arriving in 1835 if not the year before.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
But what did happen to these four children, traceable through censuses and records of marriages, subsequent births, and deaths? James married Margaret Laing in 1850, and moved into Dundee before 1861, becoming a market gardener in Blackscroft, then a carter of coals and seemingly developing a small business in this trade. His children included Anne, Helen, Robert, James, George and Margaret, with Robert and Helen named for his wife’s parents. He eventually declined in health and became an inmate in Dundee’s West Poor House poor house, dying there of cardiac failure in 1904 aged in his 80s. Margaret Laing had predeceased him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
George, now a ploughman at Claypots, married Agnes Osler, a domestic servant in West Ferry, born in Murroes, in 1857 and in 1861 they are living in Cotton Road in Dundee with George a ploughman, later moving to 3 Crescent Street. They had children Margaret, Alexander and William, but George is not in the household with Agnes and the children in the 1871 and 1881 censuses. He may have been on a ship, having changed his occupation, as there is a George Lynch in the 1881 census on the Dundee ship <i>Beryl</i>, then in Aarhus harbour, with occupation ‘fireman’ which would be stoker. George died in 1890, at 3 Crescent Street, survived by his widow Agnes, the death reported by his son Alexander.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
Ann, the youngest, had a somewhat different set of experiences. In 1851 she was a general servant in the household of brewer Thomas Kerr and his sisters Margaret and Mary, in the Hawkhill, along with three apprentices, a clerk and a drayman. However by 1861 she was lodging with embroideress Jean Christie in the Nethergate, her occupation given as servant, and with an infant daughter Mary. The child’s birth was recorded in 1860 as ‘illegitimate’ with her name given as Marian Jane Paterson Lynch, leading to speculation that the father’s name may have been Paterson. Ann then disappears from records, with no death or marriage found – but Mary is in the 1871 and 1881 censuses, at 3 Crescent Street, as ‘niece’ in the household of Agnes Osler or Lynch. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
Then Mary, too, disappears from records, possibly marrying or emigrating.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
Thomas’s tale is the most complex and leads beyond the scope of this article. He married Euphemia Low in 1850, but though a child, James, was born in Kirriemuir in 1851, the marriage did not last. (Euphemia Low outlived the Lynch brothers, dying in Kirriemuir in 1818.) Thomas left her in the early 1850s, and reappeared in Glasgow records in 1868. His story therefore leads elsewhere, as does that of the infant James who would eventually become a farmer in Colorado – tales for another day.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
But the question remains: Why were the four Lynch children sent out, in 1834 or 35, to the Angus countryside? Dundee had an association which gave care to orphans (funds always permitting), a charity developed from 1815, opening its orphanage in 1821, supported by subscription, collection and in particular by bequests. But the efforts of the charity were aimed at the ‘industrious poor’ and several specific records suggest that a child’s admission to the Dundee Orphans Institution was dependant also on their father being ‘of the parish’, presumably of the ‘right’ religion rather than only living there, on the children’s perceived ‘fitness’ or ability to benefit, on an initial petition with recommendations by two notable people of the town, and also on their state of health. There are implicit social class assumptions here – and possibly of ethnicity, as very few children of Irish names appear in the ledger, excepting a James Keough and a Rose Ann Lynch admitted in 1857 and 61. The births of James and Thomas Lynch are recorded in the Catholic register, but Thomas’s baptism is a whole six months after his birth, and records of baptisms of George and Ann were apparently not made or have not survived. Did these children qualify neither for the Orphans Institution nor for provision from the growing Catholic community?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
Apparently not – so they became a charge on the parish, and were sent to the countryside, with (unlike many children of the orphanage) no possibilities of apprenticeship to a trade.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
The pursuit of family history can involve many types of records, not only the most obvious ones of the censuses, and births, marriages and deaths. This article – and the discovery of the four Lynch children – was made possible by the lists of Dundee poor. In these lists, details are sparse. The ledger of pupils of the Dundee Orphan Institution (vol2, 1821-1892) is rich and detailed, a wonderful resource for family historians and for all those interested in the story of Dundee, giving details of parents’ names, occupations, even places of birth, names of those recommending children to the Charity, and notes on how children came to leave, apprenticeships or wages paid. From comments we know that Margaret Ann Dickson ‘Went to learn to be a tailoress with J S Smith Reform Street’, that Catherine Adam ‘Went out to America with her Aunt’, that Thomas Kermoth was ‘Engaged to Messrs Paxton & Sinclair, Coffee & Tea dealers 7 Reform St for 3 years’ and even what happened to this child after that period. But these children’s fathers’ trades were jeweller, engraver, shipmaster, wright, with only an occasional labourer, such as the father of Rose Ann Lynch admitted in 1861. For the children of the immigrant Irish, in these early years, the orphanage does not seem to have been an option. For children who developed some sort of problem, the orphanage committee requested that the Kirk Session ‘relieve them’ of the child – as in the case of Alexander Scott who developed ringworm.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
The Lynch children clearly did not qualify and so, alas, their records are sparse. Family historians often search for ‘facts’ perceived as ‘truth’. But truths are what people make them. Even in the ‘factual’ records there is room for dispute and there are problems in searching: for instance, the burial record for Michael Linch, in the Howff on 30<sup>th</sup>May 1834, is recorded in the online Howff burials as on 30<sup>th</sup>June, and was indexed in the Scotland’s People website as Michael Smith, so that finding him required some effort and some lateral thinking. The death records for James, George and Thomas – giving different names for the father – may indicate that none of them have good information, or might still indicate that Thomas wasn’t related to the others. And records don’t hold the full story. There is need for imagination to interpret the records, to fill in the gaps – in the knowledge that we may never really ‘know’ much about our forebears, and that the speculation of uncertainty, while informed by history, remains with us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<b>Useful resources:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 14.2pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
Lists of Poor in Dundee available at the Family History Centre, Dundee Central Library, Wellgate</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 14.2pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
Dundee Kirk session minutes, viewed at Dundee City Archives</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 14.2pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
Minute Books of the Dundee Orphans Institution, ditto</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 14.2pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
The Dundee Orphan Institution Pupils Ledger, 1821-92 ditto</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 14.2pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
Old Parochial Records, available from Scotland’s People at http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ as scans, and from film reels available to view at Tay Valley Family History Society and at Dundee Central Library</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 14.2pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
Statutory Records, available from Scotland’s People at <a href="http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/" style="color: purple;">http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 14.2pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
Census records, available from Scotland’s People and from microfilm at Tay Valley and at Dundee Central Library, and via transcriptions on the Ancestry.co.uk website</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 14.2pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
Burial records for the Howff burial ground, Dundee, available from Scotland’s People, accessed also through the online material at http://www.fdca.org.uk/FDCAHowffInfo.html and from microfilm at Tay Valley and at Dundee Central Library</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-35627293027284318732019-07-02T20:32:00.000+01:002019-07-02T20:32:11.504+01:00Silly quiz - regnal names in Britain<div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">I haven’t posted here for far too long...</span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-kerning: none;">So (given the media's continuing insistence on 'royals') here’s a bit of fun, a rather silly quiz for any readers. It’s about ‘regnal’ names and numbers. Three questions;</span></div>
<ol>
<li style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Given that since the <i>Union of the Crowns</i>,1603, Scotland and England have shared a monarch, how many monarchs since that time would have the same ‘regnal number’ in both countries, who share names of previous monarchs? (naming, please)</span></li>
<br />
<li style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Since the <i>Union of the Crowns</i>, how many names of monarchs did not occur previously as names of rulers in either country (in other words, they’re strictly post -Union names)? And what were these names? There are only a very few… </span></li>
<br />
<li style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">And, what names of monarchs are found <b>only</b> in Scotland or <b>only</b> in England before the <i>Union of the Crowns</i>? (Please, take this from around the year 1000, or there would be far too many…)</span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Any answers? - you can post here, or on my FB status to which I'll forward this.</span>Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-23388068845094292812016-10-31T19:53:00.001+00:002016-10-31T23:25:28.664+00:00Now follows the Dark Time... for Samhuinn, a poem from ten years ago<b><span style="font-size: large;">Samhuinn / Winternights</span></b><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Now
follows the dark time,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">grey
stones, night’s chill falling,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">owls,
flower-faced, calling<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">winter
and old friends<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
wind gathers, rustling<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">dry
dead flowers from heather,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">rattling
broom-seeds; shifting<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">now,
between the worlds, wait,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">between
year and season,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">between
known and unknown,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">turnings,
change, year’s end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Harvest
made, we gather,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">shape
and sort, assemble<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">sift
tales of our season<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">spun
from joy or sadness<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">crafting
song and legend <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">stories
to attend<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">On
the cairn, leaves new-spread, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">new-dead,
over long-dead<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">bones
in barrow bearing<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">stories
of the years past<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">living
tales and sped<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Our
deeds, their rememberings,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">merging
here, our beings,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">self
or legend; lives turn,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">seed
to earth our year’s work<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">wait
the new year’s growing,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">join
our hopes ahead<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So,
now, comes the wanderer,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">worlds-walking,
by barrow,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">stone,
or stream, or city<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">hearing
song and story<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">hoarding
deed and meaning<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">words
that lie in wyrd<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: cambria; font-size: x-small;">(© J Blain, 2005)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: cambria; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria";"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-70925584019480393492016-04-01T22:39:00.003+01:002016-04-05T20:45:20.721+01:00Dundee, for my father: rememberings from around four years old<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5NK5-h-NCw4NQyDAySjqwKWzkEZpgi6OTUwTzT7ZUa4kRNkczPGfhiWuVja0BghZ4g02fxSwL2SuxXy_oa1K2TKnwOmr0g7jRehuCO1O7Tj8N7C_zs5HsLugOQWa2-wVgpfLVoMwXZIE/s1600/Wm+Blain+1946.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5NK5-h-NCw4NQyDAySjqwKWzkEZpgi6OTUwTzT7ZUa4kRNkczPGfhiWuVja0BghZ4g02fxSwL2SuxXy_oa1K2TKnwOmr0g7jRehuCO1O7Tj8N7C_zs5HsLugOQWa2-wVgpfLVoMwXZIE/s320/Wm+Blain+1946.jpeg" title="Wm Blain, 1946" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We walked, those times in my remembering, into</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the town, a mile or so, a slow walk</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
for a young child tripping on sandalled feet,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
stones going into the shoes;</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and the dust in Princes Street blew into my eyes, </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so a hankie was needed, and sometimes spit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But then, the toun, the streets, and you would say</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
how the Seagait and the Murraygait cam aboot</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and the Cowgate wi the coos coming intae the toun</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
frae Angus to merkat; then the city square, </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Boots' corner and Monck's lodging, with the old toun,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the kirks, the steeple, Overgait, and scents of foods</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and people, and smoke too, and gaun doun the hill tae</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
docks, the arch, with swing bridge and the walking</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
among salt breezes, with stories of the harbour.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the Fifie, oh the Fifie! and the trip for a day</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and the lifebelts, rings that so teased imagining;</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
going there and back, and the engine's sound,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
beside that bridge of fear and exaltation,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
with joy of the return, tired and expectant</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
of a bus ride home.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Or maybe into Tally Street's hotel, </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
'Imperial', they called it, friends who ran it;</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
by Barrack Street and through the ghoulful Howff</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
to where you, my Dad, worked - with a wondrous door,<br />
and <i>that lift </i>that the small child marvelled at; then<br />
by statues at
the Albert Institute</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and by the school that I would go to,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
when I was bigger.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Trying to not sleep on the bus,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stumbling up the street to home,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
home, home, home,</div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sleep.<br />
<br /></div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-49315940687982325872015-09-08T23:04:00.000+01:002015-09-09T00:08:53.405+01:00Explorations in AngusI was writing some pieces for an online course I'm teaching for Cherry Hill Seminary, and developed a photo-essay from a trip out into the Angus countryside on Saturday. So I'll attempt to post it here too. Alas I can't just post the pdf, apparently!<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last Saturday I<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>drove out towards the Sidlaw Hills, a few scant miles from my house on
the outskirts of Dundee. My purposes were vague, only to explore a couple of
places I had not seen, possibly investigate one of the local stone circles, and
have a gentle walk in the wild.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Balkello Community Woodland is a good place to explore. As
summer draws to its close and autumn nears, rowans are laden with berries and
the trees display their varying shades of green, with the richness of oak and
alder against the darker spruce and pine. A good place to wander: and as I
reached the north side of the woodland, the hills beyond - Balkello and
Auchterhouse - caught the afternoon light.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxrjXaF7F5xCS0b1wtzF7K5Ih0lKXdJnbgyGbr0GCfBz2iJHXLE4K2ZxB5zFCI0WYwIlcUs_-UoxGwELCu1tRO74dZCNLcYfPQMzzmE4fUN7ztgMtu1rC35dNWhGmvPlQInqNHsDuwtM8/s1600/Angus+insights1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxrjXaF7F5xCS0b1wtzF7K5Ih0lKXdJnbgyGbr0GCfBz2iJHXLE4K2ZxB5zFCI0WYwIlcUs_-UoxGwELCu1tRO74dZCNLcYfPQMzzmE4fUN7ztgMtu1rC35dNWhGmvPlQInqNHsDuwtM8/s400/Angus+insights1.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The derivation of 'Sidlaw' is not clear. 'Law' is a hill (so
'Sidlaw Hills' is Sid-Hill-Hills). The first part, though, is more difficult.
Some say that 'Sid' means 'seat', and indeed one of the hills is named 'The
King's Seat'. Others have names that come from older languages or blend two, as
indeed 'Sidlaw' may do: Dunsinane, Auchterhouse, Balkello, Balluderan and Craigowl.
The last of these is from Creag gobhal, 'forked hill', despite its name having
meaning in English also. But an alternative derivation of Sidlaw is from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sidhe</i>, the 'fairy folk', the hidden people,
by which the Sidlaws would be the Hills of the Sidhe.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think I prefer that derivation, though it may owe more to
hope than to linguistic analysis.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Balkello woodland is young, and managed by the Forestry
Commission: the trees were planted only in the 1990s, to create a community
place which contrasts with the farmlands around and uplands beyond. It lies to
the north of the road which connects the villages of Auchterhouse and Tealing.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJarfCBZfi7kJxh-RAzBoVTw6MP9PrCnk_9GpcSaDyY4_zlt73e-KcW-rR109S5nJ0ZbBt6MlL_0DFqqvERToBVBwdQuna7ka49zxNphoUxfcvmkx5sRGlEshMgddKyv33cRNcmnGHpSI/s1600/Angus+insights2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJarfCBZfi7kJxh-RAzBoVTw6MP9PrCnk_9GpcSaDyY4_zlt73e-KcW-rR109S5nJ0ZbBt6MlL_0DFqqvERToBVBwdQuna7ka49zxNphoUxfcvmkx5sRGlEshMgddKyv33cRNcmnGHpSI/s400/Angus+insights2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just south of the road is a standing stone, the Balkello Stone,
which will be a visit for another day. However, I'd hoped to catch site of a
circle nearby at Balkemback, and find the Pictish carved stone known as
Martin's Stane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The field in which the circle sits was occupied by many
cows, and would have required climbing over several barbed wire fences: again,
not for this day as the afternoon was wearing on. Views from the roadside,
though, showed the heather coming into its own on the hills behind, and the
plain beyond stretching to the coast - a landscape farmed for thousands of
years, by people who left their marks on the land, clearing fields, creating
cairns, erecting stones to mark places that, perhaps, called especially to
them, building roundhouses and digging souterains, carving on rock and boulder,
building houses of stone and later of brick, then churches for each group of
villages as those became parishes. This landscape is not 'wild', even on the
heights of the Sidlaws, but changed in the interaction of humans and others
through millennia.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Z3ym4Y7g7Lk1vL2KwxbzZIQrhNz6FtywisIBOpcJPIUehZdYatCaeIyXVDSKzhl0GJC_C_5-pkM0kF6-6Q4MAlAm9wKbI3xd14oN6bSY1-dVyhBFeyDnsdHUKcy7NZ9YDkK8olSbCxw/s1600/Angus+insights+Balkemback2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Z3ym4Y7g7Lk1vL2KwxbzZIQrhNz6FtywisIBOpcJPIUehZdYatCaeIyXVDSKzhl0GJC_C_5-pkM0kF6-6Q4MAlAm9wKbI3xd14oN6bSY1-dVyhBFeyDnsdHUKcy7NZ9YDkK8olSbCxw/s320/Angus+insights+Balkemback2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1m9skmda9foe8WvOPY9e2LvkjjnBYSEnOanhyphenhyphenLXEUcCV62HJgNHRMpS2p3jQa3NSlTUPUPjDgSQYhhGlwgRz9c9sFeSpynCijKxRuvhyy7r29eRh-0MgIGNP5AFRmQ3ynlWMSFuIhjYg/s1600/Angus+insights+Balkemback1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1m9skmda9foe8WvOPY9e2LvkjjnBYSEnOanhyphenhyphenLXEUcCV62HJgNHRMpS2p3jQa3NSlTUPUPjDgSQYhhGlwgRz9c9sFeSpynCijKxRuvhyy7r29eRh-0MgIGNP5AFRmQ3ynlWMSFuIhjYg/s320/Angus+insights+Balkemback1.jpg" style="text-align: center;" width="320" /></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiV-UQn25AHkNwcsuC9LwSxR4EoLfhMBM-CrnzBuzBFj0rMdZewdaH7f28csTxAw7Yw-f1Fm-K4ODrieJF2z-nREOlQri_5Qj4ng0jIkPpjH4-lmQvVJfr0uN84oqQr-_LMuz2G7gCcgc/s1600/Angus+insights+Balkemback3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiV-UQn25AHkNwcsuC9LwSxR4EoLfhMBM-CrnzBuzBFj0rMdZewdaH7f28csTxAw7Yw-f1Fm-K4ODrieJF2z-nREOlQri_5Qj4ng0jIkPpjH4-lmQvVJfr0uN84oqQr-_LMuz2G7gCcgc/s320/Angus+insights+Balkemback3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Finally, I headed for Martin's Stane, on my way home to
Dundee. Some information on this Pictish carved stone is at <a href="http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/record/rcahms/31864/balluderon-st-martins-stone/rcahms">http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/record/rcahms/31864/balluderon-st-martins-stone/rcahms</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Alas, it was broken long ago, so that only part of the stone
remains, with figures of a horse though the rider is no longer present, with,
below, another rider and horse and a pair of 'Pictish symbols' one of which has
been said locally to be a 'dragon'. Local folklore has therefore created its
own meanings for this stone, linked to place names towards Dundee, but what it
commemorated, or its inscription as 'sacred', may never be known. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The stone, minutes from Balkemback and Balluderan, is in a
field which on my visit held glowing golden barley, waist-high or even higher,
waiting for harvest. There was a narrow trackway across the field, on which I
walked with care for the barley, which let me come close enough to photograph
such of the images as could be seen through the waving grass around the stone
and the barley between it and me. Again, this calls for a visit once the crop
is harvested.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Dk0sz-YBDphKZrKZ7ivlGzGFCF6-C5K-j1J6-jIDUyDvNe-CHdEd56GhBAAgIOOJNw5TChV7PAhPCUjOdyRXbxIz8sQyVFSh-3u3E4sbyRToKtsEy0dP7F81-YUFw5j-Q6osoYRd0WU/s1600/Angus+insights3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Dk0sz-YBDphKZrKZ7ivlGzGFCF6-C5K-j1J6-jIDUyDvNe-CHdEd56GhBAAgIOOJNw5TChV7PAhPCUjOdyRXbxIz8sQyVFSh-3u3E4sbyRToKtsEy0dP7F81-YUFw5j-Q6osoYRd0WU/s320/Angus+insights3.jpg" width="320" /></a>And so, the final images here are of that field and the waving barley, farmer's gold, with the stone visible through its protective railings. That I could not approach closely did not, on this visit, matter: the ripeness of the barley was, for today, enough.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL6nABllD3y7XaH_V18kIoX2PsbqiHYz7RvTiZA5sV4Q3Rh5b-C27WLy0agVylUXGwOH4xkWHPMcedK93SPH7-eAQQxsLinX0yuRGAEzZH18__p7DwWZ5VGVuSrzUtONFfNJY3zspw3YE/s320/Angus+insights4.jpg" width="320" /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg84n1eQtzGJRjdaR2XNMLMBUfKg7RR-kUILiJUizIHTk8TB4z80723mwSyfKv5RuenZsfVGhVPRzMqNwG9OyRBvmATa9TptUNwF3VX-x69t5bNOHtG42M3DUA_CWgDeJV_fYLzc8HuCpU/s1600/Angus+insights5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg84n1eQtzGJRjdaR2XNMLMBUfKg7RR-kUILiJUizIHTk8TB4z80723mwSyfKv5RuenZsfVGhVPRzMqNwG9OyRBvmATa9TptUNwF3VX-x69t5bNOHtG42M3DUA_CWgDeJV_fYLzc8HuCpU/s640/Angus+insights5.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-30837995709813298332015-08-06T21:33:00.000+01:002015-08-06T21:37:49.724+01:00On Petrushka and 'illegal' migrants<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
This evening I turned over to BBC4
without knowing what was on - and was delighted to find Stravinsky's <i>Petrushka</i>
being played in a Proms concert.
And then I browsed through a bit of my email, while listening, to find a
statement by Tim Farron on the Calais situation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
And they were so much in tune. For
those who don't know it, <i>Petrushka</i> is the story of three marionettes, at a
Russian town's fair, manipulated by the puppet owner, and performing under his
rule for the entertainment of the assembled people at the fair. And the people
have their own lives and things to do, their dance, their joys, and take no notice of the puppets.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
But the puppets have their own
lives, offstage or out of sight of the crowd, and there are tensions between
them, ending when one kills another. Petrushka, mortally wounded, breaks from
his booth, attempts to take agency and runs out into the fairground, the town
square, and with his dying movements accuses those who have not known of the
puppets' situation, effectively that of slaves of the puppetmaster; and his
death - the death of one whom the crowd thought of as not a person - troubles
them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
So then to Tim Farron's piece: the
central message of which is while we do need to 'police' boundaries and work on
security issues, the situation of those caught within this dreadful system of politics,
seeking freedom or new futures and issues of trafficking needs our attention in
other ways. I will add that we do seriously need to take on board the
predicaments of the people attempting to transport goods, and those who depend
on this trade (particularly important for Scottish seafood transporters who are
hit very hard by the situation). How do we balance this, somehow, with the
need to think of those breaking free of the camps as both victims of the
'puppetmasters' of their initial trafficking, and people attempting to take
agency and do whatever they can to draw our attention, the attention of those
sitting comfortably in our British homes, to what drives them to assay these
difficult and dangerous ploys?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
Farron said that 'While the
Government is focussing on building bigger fences and bolstering security, we
cannot ignore the humanitarian crisis. Tear gas and dogs will never solve the
problems that these people are facing, and we should not turn a blind eye to
their suffering.' </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
Indeed: and a photo accompanying
his text showed a sign on the side of a makeshift tent, 'We are not dangerous,
we are in danger.' But I'd put his message more blatantly - that the solutions,
if there can be 'solutions', to the queues of lorries and the people dying on
the Mediterranean, the Calais camps and the problems of lorry drivers, have to
be in tune. We have to take our share of migrants to Europe, and in particular
we have to open doors as and how we can, to help with this crisis; at the same
time as exploring what the possibilities are in North Africa and Syria, and
what we might do that recognises the ordinary people and the everyday,
dreadful, things that they are facing there. And to take on board at least some of the
historical reasons for these fearful situations.</div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
This doesn't mean that we should blame
the West for all the problems of North Africa and the Middle East. It does mean
that we need to see ourselves as part of an interconnected system, with what we
do and have done affecting other people's lives there; to acknowledge
responsibility for some actions and some mistakes, and to think about what
kinds of connectedness we can help create, and who we might connect with; and
in the meantime to recognise what privilege we have and to extend that hand of
help to others who, because of a specific situation at this specific time, have it not.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-71159678373056007772014-11-30T18:26:00.000+00:002014-11-30T18:44:02.858+00:00Winternights<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Dundee, in the last week of November. I was coming across the bridge at just the right time to see the wonderful sunset and its reflection - and that of the city and the hills - in the so-still water of the Firth of Tay. This was begun three nights ago, when a possible frost was forecast, and completed just now.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A finger-nipping chill is in the air,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and in the earth, as I dig, even now</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
to plant and seek to grow, for hopes of sping.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Though days continue mild, their warmth now fades,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and soon dark gathers, evening deeps to show</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
how near we are to solstice.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And daily flocks of chaffinches now gather,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
forgetting their rivalries of summer</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
for winter friendships here.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At night, again, my candles blaze, to mark</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
a time between the times, a time so late,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
a time when winter hovers on her dark brink</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and darkness holds the calling owls, who greet</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the winter’s chill, the driving rain,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the last wind-fallen leaves.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet today, with winds moderate, then stilling, </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
it seems December pauses on the threshold </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
as marigolds unfurl their still-bright petals</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
to drink the sun that gives life to their brilliance,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and stubbled fields and hills hold promised beauty, </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the bare trees limned by low-slanting sunlight;<br />
when evening chill returns, a gold-red sunset,<br />
glowing, is mirrored in stillness of the firth.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(© J Blain 2014 - still draft of course.)</div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-50284411557477511992014-11-27T18:59:00.001+00:002014-11-27T19:19:12.593+00:00NOT HOME RULE: The Smith Commission and the Lib Dems' need for critical perspective<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<b>Well, I am disappointed.</b> Very disappointed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
Not,
though, so much with the Smith Commission’s report (which you can read in full
online at <a href="https://www.smith-commission.scot/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/The_Smith_Commission_Report-1.pdf">https://www.smith-commission.scot/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/The_Smith_Commission_Report-1.pdf</a>).
OK, I’d have much liked it to go further, but knew this was unlikely – the
time-frame, aside from anything else, militated against true ‘home rule’
proposals. There were compromises, many of them, and not too surprisingly
today’s proposals were probably most in tune with the Tory submissions. So the report, in what it says, is just about meeting (my) expectations, indeed maybe even meeting some hopes a little better than I’d feared.
It might even – just might – be another stage on the way to some kind of
federal situation. Britain needs to change and this may move things on.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
My disappointment, therefore, is
not so much with the report – it’s with the comments that followed it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, I thought that John Swinney’s
immediate comments were a bit too negative – he, after all, was one of the
people presumably agreeing to this. He could have made it more evident that he
did welcome what was proposed – his short welcome appeared a grudging one,
followed as it was by all that was wrong… even while largely agreeing with him
I found the timing misplaced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nicola Sturgeon’s comments in the Scottish Parliament were rather more
welcoming – she made the same points, but made them rather better and I respect
that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, Swinney’s comments
gather only a minor quibble from me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
What I find wrong, yes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>wrong</b></i>, indeed <i><b>very wrong</b></i>, is the response of my old ‘home’
party – the Scottish Liberal Democrats, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">whom
I had been thinking to rejoin</b>. That’s been pushed aside yet again. Michael
Moore presumably does know that these proposals are not ‘home rule’ and should
not have used that term, but his ‘welcoming’ comments were somewhat measured.
Alistair Carmichael has promised to see them through, and I respect him for
this. But the ‘welcome’ of Willie Rennie, online at <a href="http://www.scotlibdems.org.uk/more_powers_for_scotland">http://www.scotlibdems.org.uk/more_powers_for_scotland</a>
is ridiculous. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
I mean that. Ridiculous. Laughable. The comments are laughable
for people with no knowledge of the Liberal long-standing commitment to
federalism, who’ll see Rennie’s claim that ‘we argued for these Home Rule powers’ as irrelevant –
and also laughable, in a very sad way, for people who do know of that
long-standing commitment and see this claim and 'welcome' as a serious backsliding, and as a serious inability to take any kind of critical view of what's going on here. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
The STV news tonight had a comment
from Bernard Ponsonby that 'Some traditional Liberals may well say that "home
rule" amounts to a whole load more powers than is on offer'. Just so. Indeed
this is very far from a federal or even a ‘quasi-federal’ solution, whatever
that might have meant. Do we laugh or cry?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
So why could not the Scottish Liberal
Democrats be honest?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why can
they not say,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘We have a
long-standing commitment to a Federal Britain. We know this is not Home Rule.
Nevertheless, we pushed for such powers as could be got at this time. We much
welcome the result, and it may be a stepping stone to a true British
Federalism. We certainly hope so and will continue to work for such a
solution.’</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
Had they said that – or something
like it – they would now have had a rejoined member. As it is, I’m back to
weighing up my political options, feeling more disgruntled than ever – and not
because of the Smith report.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-15060389267942680422014-11-22T21:19:00.002+00:002014-11-22T21:21:31.085+00:00Of English students and Scottish history...<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
This past week I was invited by my
previous university (Sheffield Hallam) to meet with some colleagues in
Edinburgh and there give a lecture to their second-year undergraduate students. <span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">(They had secured funding for a sociological field trip and picked Edinburgh
as a good place to go to.) So I took up their offer. </span><!--EndFragment--> They had a room booked in the top of the Museum of Scotland, and I
had two hours to give the students some sense of ‘Scottishness’, the Scottish
Diaspora and so forth.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
So, I used a good part of the time
in an attempt to give them some sense of Scotland’s history, that it wasn’t all
‘tartan’ and that we had culture, heritage, civilisation, and some moves
towards ‘equality’ before that last became fashionable elsewhere.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
I think my task was made very much
easier by the tour of the National Portrait Gallery that students were given in
the morning, before my talk. I caught up with them there and heard part of what
they were given by Gallery staff – being shown portraits of men and women of the
mediaeval and early modern periods, and the ‘age of progress’, with only a
small group of tartan-clad chiefs and a discussion of Walter Scott’s
organisation of Georgy-Porgy’s visit in his very expensive ‘highland dress’.
Hooray for the tour guide I heard! She saved me at least ten minutes of a talk that was
otherwise going to be too long… (and still was too long – I needed to skip over
some of the sociological content of what ‘diaspora Scots’ had said to me about
what this land means to them, but the students will now have the slides which
have quotations in and I hope will now read these).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
But the ‘Highlandism’ which is the
commonest set of ideas about Scotland is still very entrenched, among much of
the diaspora and among not only English students, but many Scots. And it has
several sides. On the one hand is the romanticism of misty isles, rocky glens
and heroic chief and warriors; on another, though, the view of such as ‘barbarous’
and so discountable. Well, I did give the students one ‘Highlander’ from
history, whom they may have seen also in the Portrait Gallery, not dressed in
tartan and certainly not waving a claymore; Adhamh MacFhearghais or Ferguson of
Raith, born at Logierait in 1723, first a pupil in the local parish school,
eventually Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh, past chaplain to the
Black Watch, writer who, while himself Christian, worked to develop a science
of humanity… you’ll know him better as Adam Ferguson, the ‘father of sociology’.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br />
I do hope the students enjoyed
their trip, and that they will now have a sense of Scotland as a complex
country which is different from their own, but not so different as to be beyond
their comprehension. One of my colleagues, in the short question session at the
end of my talk, gave me a lovely opportunity to say what kind of political situation
I’d like to see post-referendum… but that’s for discussion now another day.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-33782201917609269862014-10-31T20:39:00.000+00:002016-01-12T17:48:30.053+00:00Samhain nightThis was from tonight's thought on the year's turning, and seeing a crow high on a tree in the late evening's dusk, just before the pink-footed geese and greylags flew over.<br />
<br />
<i>Turns the Year, Turns the Wheel:</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Dusk lengthens, and the wind-whirled birling leaves</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>fall faster now, as days draw in apace.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>An evening crow sits high upon her tree</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>to watch and call throughout the gathering dark.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Days remain mild yet, autumn so warm, </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>denying Samhain’s scents, with roses flowering,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>and colours blending summer days and dusk:</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Deep pink of cosmos, gold of fallen leaves.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>A hedgehog grunts through heaped leaves, rustling spines,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>goldfinches chime night greetings to their charm</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>and great skeins fly, in dusk, almost unseen,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>their sounds upon the night winds bourne, to herald</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>winter’s coming, harbingers of cold.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>This night, our candles flame and bonfires blaze,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>a light before the dark, remembrance yet</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>of spring, of youth, of glowing summer light</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>as we turn to the dark of sleep, of dreams,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>dormancy, reflection, visions past </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>and future, inward seeking for each promise</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>of memory and hope: </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i> and so we know</i></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>that at midwinter, light will come again.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
©J Blain 2014</div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-86025954391767792582014-10-08T20:54:00.000+01:002014-10-08T21:09:04.277+01:00Reflecting on the Liberal Democrat conference and the referendum<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
Yes I watched this on telly (the conference). No, I
didn’t see all of it – not all was on telly (including I’m told a ‘Scottish’
component on the first day which seems to have gone rather well but was private
not public) and not all that was on telly was at times when I could watch. But I’m pulled in several directions by
the pieces that I did see.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
First, the Liberal Democrats are
NICE. They had strongly voiced and strongly voted-on things that do matter to
people, often desperately. These weren’t necessarily, though, strongly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">worded</i> – they were nicely worded,
sometimes almost denying the passion that was voiced by some of the speakers.
But at the end of the day, are these what people remember?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
Second, the Liberal Democrats
claim to have taken over the old Liberal policies of Home Rule – some Liberals
(or Lib-Dems) articulated, again with passion, the need for a proper and fair
distribution of ‘powers’ (whatever that means) to the four quarters of the
universe – sorry, of the UK. And some, a few, made a strong case that the
‘powers’ for Scotland should not be conditional on those for other places which
have not just undergone what we did. Indeed, today’s ‘emergency resolution’
made this plain – but again, few of the speakers really took this up, although
those who did, did so very strongly. They were Scottish.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
Third: I didn’t only vote ‘Yes’ but
I campaigned for ‘Yes’. I did so for several reasons, both practical and
emotional, but in particular that a strong Yes vote and indeed a Yes victory
would give a lead into a CONFEDERAL system. What we had at stake, as one
leading journalist’s opinion suggested, was ‘Indy Lite’. We didn’t get it (more
senses than one here). What we have now is a system with ‘some powers’ devolved
and a promise of ‘some more’ in the pipeline. Maybe.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
I would like to have something
along the lines suggested by Michael Moore, for the issue to be what ‘powers’ –
let us say, sensibly, ‘areas’ - need to be ‘reserved’ – all others to be vested
in the national*, or let's say regional or local areas as appropriate. And this gives me
pause. What party or what people do express this idea? Not the SNP – though I
support them in many ways – because there is need for powers to be local and
not centralised: The centralisation which we are currently seeing in Scotland is
not my vision.<br />
<br />
(*Just for clarification, 'national' here means Scottish, or Welsh, or even English.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
And so, I continue to be
conflicted, between Scotland as an independent state – which Scotland well
could be – and Scotland as part of a United Kingdom which is compassionate,
moderate and has more pulling power as a world power. But let’s revise that –
UK as compassionate? I don’t currently see that, not at least to its own
citizens. Similarly with moderation – how do we moderate between the new poor,
the old poor, and the state which makes rules, drawing lines on a conceptual or
economic map, that today seem to deny citizenship where it is most needed. I am
thinking here to the numbers who registered for the referendum, who had
previously not registered to vote, because they may not have considered that
their vote mattered or that they were even counted as people, as humans, as
political, social and hence voting beings within our land of Scotland.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
As for the political world power –
I will refrain from comment for now.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
One thing does remain. Why, in all
this flood of ‘we are doing this’ from the Lib Dems at their Glasgow conference
– and yes, the venue is important – has nobody acknowledged that among the
‘45%’ of ‘Yes’ voters were almost 40% of previously-identified Lib-Dem voters?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we so unworthy of acknowledgment?
Do we not factor into Lib-Dem thinking? If somebody would just say – ‘We know
that the Lib Dems as a party campaigned for a ‘stay in the UK’ vote, but we are
aware that many, many of our members and supporters voted ‘Yes’ for a number of
reasons – including that they might think this as the only way to gain a sensible
and sane Federal system’ – this would mean very much to me, and I think many
others too.<br />
<br />
But in an era of agonistic expression, is this just too ‘nice’ or
even just too ‘Liberal’ to state?</div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-34610114137060240792014-09-18T22:35:00.001+01:002014-09-18T22:36:28.579+01:00Waiting<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
Waiting here, not knowing, not kenning
where we are,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
who we are, what we are, what we
have said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
Waiting is hardest.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
Tomorrow, we will know, and we
need to know then</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
that we will work together, that
we can still</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
take hands, whatever we did today,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
and that the work of thinking, of
hands and minds</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
of making this thing work</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
(whatever ‘this thing’ is)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
starts then.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
To all my friends and kin, with
hope and vision</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
I promise now, to work with you,
where I can,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
how I can, where I can.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
To create Scotland’s wealth and futures<br />
whatever these may be.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
(JB 18 September 2014, at 22.30)</div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-63446430063982082982014-09-18T20:04:00.001+01:002014-09-18T20:12:07.843+01:00Autumn evocation: A poem for the turning seasonsNot about the referendum! This was written for an event to mark the autumn equinox, this weekend. As with everything else, still draft really :)<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Turns the year, turns the wheel</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Scents linger, rose and honeysuckle</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>and perfumed herbs, now flowering,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>late summer blossoms, nectar bearing</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>as asters bloom, actea spikes now whiten,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>giving their glory to the tiring bees.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Winter skeins streak paling skies</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>calling ahent their echoing evocation.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Autumn beckons, nights lengthen, balancing days</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>as hedgehogs rustle, garnering their fuel</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>of small beasts, insect prey for winter sleep</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>And in the hedgerow, Robin sings</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>a winter song.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>And small frogs, growing, find their shelter</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>in stone cairn, or in wood-pile, as the bright</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>colours form, of fruiting apples,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>squashes, orange of pumpkins, and now, drifting,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>first leaves, brown, or redden,</i><br />
<i>or turn to glowing gold.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i>
<i>(JB, 2014)</i><br />
<i><br /></i></div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-60980865832002059652014-09-01T21:55:00.001+01:002014-09-01T22:04:11.568+01:00To my good English friends and kin<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
(Most of my English friends have shown quite a bit of support for the Scottish 'Yes' campaign. I would like to thank them - and to make a wee statement about this.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
I know that you know, when I vote for Independence,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">that this is not about you, or your hopes or aspirations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I am not against you,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I remain your friend.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I know, that you know, the visions for my country<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I know, that you know, the way we’ve been portrayed -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">the downplayed hopes, the jokes, mistaken images<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">(even the ‘best thing’ being the road to England):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I know that you did not believe these.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I welcome your support, your friendship beyond value.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And on September eighteenth, I know and will remember,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">that you think then of my country, and you may even measure<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">your hopes, your aspirations, by success of mine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And so, I look to futures still to be created,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">in knowledge that you and I will continue friendships,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">in separate countries, with still shared aspirations,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">to freedom and justice, equality of all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And we will talk, then, and share our mutual interest<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">and know we talk as equals, across a wee bit border,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">in countries each with their determination,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">with voice, with heart, with soul, with mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I know that you know, that when I vote on that day,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">my hope is for creation of something that will last,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">of something that enables reciprocal affections<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">through our so different histories, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">to learn, discuss, create -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">respecting each the other, with no predomination:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 111.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Scotland and England, each of us sovereign states.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-88445230754630692782014-08-30T15:37:00.000+01:002014-08-30T15:40:27.255+01:00It isn't the Economy (stupid)'It's the Economy, stupid', said Bill Clinton during his presidential campaign. Well, some people would like us to think that the Scottish Referendum is about 'the Economy' or more precisely about 'what's in it for me' (as shown in a ridiculously biased TV programme the other night) with in particular the misguided query 'but can we use the pound?' There is also of course a fear of sudden change and a number of people who are thinking that if we vote 'Yes', we will wake up on the 19th of September in a different county and with nothing - financial or otherwise - working.<br />
<br />
This is of course quite wrong. The 19th is when the serious work of negotiation will start - changes will be worked out by people of goodwill (and there are a lot of these around, despite the extreme polarisation shown on TV) and the detailed plans will be made for the eventual transition in 2016. This vote really is not about 'the Economy' or the currency, but the current economic situation has MADE IT POSSIBLE to imagine, vote for, plan for, implement new futures in an Independent Scotland.<br />
<br />
So, a couple of weeks back, I made a little poem that some friends have already seen. So here it is now, with a little revision. (Like everything else I write, it's still 'draft'.)<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">It’s not the economy
(stupid)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It cannot be about ‘Economy’.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The siller matters, yes, in what it shapes;</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the way we’ve gone - like others of the west -</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
creating worlds of trade and bold adventure,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
through works of skill, of measurement and making,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
of hand and brain, to make a wealthy nation,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(resourced by wind or oil or electronics)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
has caused some things to happen. That is so.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Which lends, now, possibility: A choice; </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that chance that so few other lands may take,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
a vote enabled, not compelled, but free.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that’s where we are now – where we’ve worked to be.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To take a place to stand,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
to choose, make a decision, </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
place a cross on paper, cast a vote,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so many things are possible.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Three hundred years ago, it was not so.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Scotland, bankrupt, betrayed by ‘allies’,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
one outcome only, union. The economy ruled.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But that is past, three hundred years ago.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Time and tide move, turn and change, return</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By Solway, or by Firth of Forth or Tay</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
we come to vote on who we are, today,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and who we could be, with so many, shared,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
histories we’ve made with lands abroad </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and lands so near -</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
India, France, Ireland, England, Canada -</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
we travel still, cast nets of words and wit,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
explorers of the globe, we look beyond</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
to new horizons or to weel-worn paths</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
to each shape our new meanings.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because you vote now:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
not for a government, or a budget spending,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
not for a generation, or a small line seeing,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
but for three hundred years, or more, your visioned view:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
of lives, of futures, dependent now on you.</div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-25319482140156744222014-08-18T19:56:00.000+01:002014-08-18T19:58:47.765+01:00Head, heart – or both together!<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
I used to say it was a ‘Head or Heart’ thing. I don’t think,
any more, that it is. For, not only Heart, but Head says, weighing up the
arguments – it is possible, so go, YES.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you haven’t already guessed, I’m talking about the
Scottish Referendum.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At first, I thought it was romanticism versus pragmatism,
but knew that ‘romanticism’ – the ‘heart’ bit – had for me a good grip. I
remember my father once saying, to some friends of mine very many years ago,
that I was a practical romantic, that being the ‘worst’ kind. Not worst in
terms of anything negative, worst in terms of trying to talk around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But today, having seen what I have of
both campaigns, head and heart are pulling together.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Head says, this is possible. Head says, the figures, the
economy makes it possible. Head says, check out all the figures, all the
possibilities, all the political arguments on both sides. Head says, look at
what you don’t necessarily ‘like’ – look at the debates from the right and from
the left. Look at the levels of detail given, in places you may not expect.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Heart says, the economy should not be the main reason to
vote, simply because the economy does make it possible. That’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">possible</i>, not necessarily easy. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Head and Heart together say that after a YES vote, there
will be work. Not everybody will be better off, certainly not instantly. But
the main argument for me is that having choice, having the chance of change,
having the chance to create a more equal society, opens an opportunity that has
to be taken. And that is now, for me, at least as much Head as Heart.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve just been watching the BBC news, and was rather
disgusted by the (to me) ‘No’ slant placed on Salmond’s new Declaration at Arbroath:
disgusted not just because the news was spun that way, but more because the
‘no’ campaign – as reported – is so intensely negative. Why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The parties who claim we are ‘better
together’ cannot agree, for reasons which are historical and political, on what
their vision of Scotland is. Many, alas, in these parties (south of the border)
appear to see Scotland as an irrelevance, and add-on, and this view appears
shared by much of the so-called ‘national’ broadcasting. During the time I
lived in England, the only time Scotland – one tenth of the UK population and
very considerably more of its land-mass – was mentioned in ‘national’ news was
when there was some kind of problem. At least, the referendum has changed that
somewhat. But even today, we are bombarded with ‘national’ things which turn
out to be English things; as, this week, discussion of English/Welsh/Northern
Irish A-levels results. This was in turn mostly about English students – all
this being fine and dandy (if the potential student populations of Wales and N.
Ireland agree they had fair representation?) except that one-tenth of the
university-headed population of the ‘UK’ had been doing something else, with
results already posted, which had been reported as a ‘regional news’ thing.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But back to the ‘no’ campaign. If ‘no’ predominates, what
happens then?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do not know.
However much they talk about Salmond (who is not my favourite politician, by
the way) refusing to articulate a ‘plan B’, there is no sense that I can make
out of what would happen to Scotland following a ‘no’ vote. One party – one
only – supports a Federal system, and has done so for a century or more. But it’s
too late for that. If we drift back, conceptually, to the time of the Act of Union, a Federal
Union seems to have been the favoured version within Scotland – but it did not
happen, instead of which we had an incorporating union with some caveats and
modifications – reassurances about the Scottish legal system and the Scottish
Kirk. At the time of union, a federal system might well have worked, with a
ratio of around 1:3 between the populations of Scotland and England. Even 272
years later, at the time of the 1979 Scottish Assembly referendum (at which a
Yes vote predominated but was discounted) a devolved Scottish Assembly had potential
to lead gradually to a federal system. But what followed that vote was an
increasing focus on London, the drawing off of young Scots south, the continued
depletion of our country, despite the resources that had become evident.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think that we cannot now go back. A federal system is not
a possible goal, or at least not through a ‘no’ vote. The main English parties
do not favour this, and the ‘powers’ promised need to be regarded with great
caution. After all, we have that model of the failed 1979 vote and the promises
made at that point that ‘something better’ would be proposed if we voted ‘no’
then. How long did it take! How many people did not vote because they were led
to expect that ‘something better’?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So for me, today, ‘head’ says that an independent Scotland
is possible – and that there are a range of views within the Yes campaign,
people from different positions in the political spectrum (yes, including
conservatives), who are presenting their approaches. After a YES vote they are
pledged to work together to enable and negotiate the ‘first version’ of our
Scotland. Then, an election in 2016, in which the different political stripes
argue their cases, but all based in the terms which have been negotiated after
September 18<sup>th</sup> 2014 by the joint team, we vote for who we want to
represent us in Edinburgh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
And, ‘heart’ cautions me that there are many people who do not wish to be
separated, in a ‘different country’, from their children, their siblings, their
cousins who are now in England for jobs and have their families there. I can
feel this, sympathise. But the phenomenon of ‘The Scot Abroad’ is one that has
lasted for many years and we have kin in many places – in my own case most closely
in Canada, but also in Australia and New Zealand, in South Africa and India, as
well as those now in England. So, we may need to find a way to deal with Heart,
while knowing, from financial evidence and from the lack of cohesion of ‘no’, that
Head says a resounding YES.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-74351486667217765392014-06-03T23:06:00.002+01:002014-06-05T00:21:46.809+01:00I don't know how to be 'a poet'This is one of the mysteries, to me, on how a person declares themselves to be 'X', whatever that 'X' may be. From various research findings, men are better at this than women - it may be something about learnt confidence and entitlement. Some things are more clear than others, as in having a degree in something, being employed to do something (teacher, sociologist, etc.)<br />
<br />
But anyway, this is a piece I wrote the other evening. It is a wee thing changed from the version I sent to a friend then, but not much, so is still rather 'draft'. And though it's in part about the above, it's also much about those who have expressed their meanings and now are not heard, and the fear of 'death' disturbing me ('timor mortis conturbat me') is about their, my, <b>our</b>, silencing.<br />
<br />
The friend I sent the first draft to assured me that some people do still remember Henryson, Dunbar and the others.... but do you? Who now does remember the Makars, if it is not your trade or practice to so remember them? (And for all you English friends, have you ever heard their names?)<br />
<br />
Anyway, here it is -<br />
<br />
-------<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">I don’t know how a person is
named ‘poet’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">respected even, acknowledged
in some sense,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">as giving something which
encapsulates<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">meaning, politics, humour<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- poking fun<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">as social critique, of their
own seen bent<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">creating something that then
grips <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">imaginations, feelings, knowings,
senses:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
yet words promoted, told to
us as gold.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">So what separates poetry from
myth?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">(And so much myth is poetry.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">I don’t have a degree in
poetry<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">(other things, yes, worked
for, not in that)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">so I continue, in my small
way, weaving<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">words, wit, maybe wisdom of a
kind<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">where I can, where it may be
heeded,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">to bring meaning, focus, assonance,
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">alliteration, where it
matters -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">or even rhymes -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">to tease a hearer’s response
with their own words…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">(maybe it matters not, as who
would read or speak this stuff?)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><i>Yet in this place, the echoes
fall <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><i>older hearings, voices
silenced<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><i>time and death wait for us
all -<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><i>by what (or whom) is poetry
licenced?<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><i>or is that licence so
constrained<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><i>that only they may speak who’re
trained?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">So now, I bring to mind the Makaris,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">the shapers, sounding rhyme
and words before,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">who spoke to Scotland’s
people, from their knowledge,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">their hearts, their being,
springing from the land,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">within their words of
weaving, crafting, making,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">piecing honour, spinning webs
of history<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">to lords or bishops, kings or commons, all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">I think on those who, hearing,
gave devotion<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">I echo words respecting craft
and grace…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">But who speaks for them now?
Who will recall,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Henryson, Lindsay or all else?
When Dunbar wrote<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">he mourned the loss of many
gone before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Their words are not
remembered: so for us,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">words die in breathing, some
deserved, some lost:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">and as a Makar of this latter
day,</span><br />
<i>timor mortis conturbat me</i>.</div>
<br />Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-61176710052717721422014-01-03T22:07:00.000+00:002014-01-03T22:08:28.672+00:00A new venture<br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Today
I spent a couple of hours writing ‘interview’ responses for the Wild Hunt Blog
– they are now up there at </span><a href="http://wildhunt.org/2014/01/interview-with-jenny-blain-sacred-landscapes-and-seidr.html" style="font-size: 11pt;">http://wildhunt.org/2014/01/interview-with-jenny-blain-sacred-landscapes-and-seidr.html</a><span style="font-size: 11pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The reason – I’m planning to teach an
online course for Cherry Hill Seminary, starting this month. This will be on
landscape, Animism, Heathenry, delving a bit into the Eddas and into seidr.</span><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So,
something different, and yet based in the research I’ve done and my own
understandings of landscape. I would like students to start with where they
are, looking at what is around them and how they relate to that context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I won’t say more about the course here
just now though.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-80627706543603256222013-12-02T19:41:00.000+00:002013-12-02T19:45:51.217+00:00Petition to capitalise 'Paganism'Posting this here. I have signed it - I sometimes capitalise 'Pagan' and 'Paganism', sometimes don't, but that depends on the specifics of meaning intended by the author (e.g. me) and not by somebody else's house-style. So here is the petition.<br />
If you would like your name added please contact the Coalition of Scholars in Pagan Studies.<br />
<br />
---------<br />
<br />
<div class="Section1">
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 225.0pt 270.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>FROM:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 225.0pt 270.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Coalition
of Scholars in Pagan Studies<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 216.0pt 270.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>PO
Box 758, Cotati, CA 94931-0<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2282611864997299480" name="_GoBack"></a>758 USA</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 216.0pt 270.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CapitalizePagan">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CapitalizePagan</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 216.0pt 270.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><a href="mailto:CapitalizePagan@yahoogroups.com">CapitalizePagan@yahoogroups.com</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 216.0pt 270.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Contact:
Oberon Zell (<a href="mailto:Oberon@mcn.org">Oberon@mcn.org</a>) </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 27.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">TO: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 27.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Chicago Manual of Style<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 27.0pt;">
<span class="contactname"><span lang="EN-US">ATTN: </span></span><span lang="EN-US">Anita
Samen, Managing Editor<span class="contactname"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 27.0pt;">
<span class="contactname"><span lang="EN-US">The University of Chicago Press</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><br />
1427 East 60<sup>th</sup> St.<br />
Chicago, IL 60637<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 27.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">AP Stylebook<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 27.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">The
Associated Press<br />
P.O. Box 415458<br />
Boston, MA 02241-5458</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">To the
Editors of the Associated Press Stylebook</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 20.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">and
the Chicago Manual of Style: A petition<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">November 30, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">Dear Editors,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">We the undersigned are
a coalition of academic scholars and authors in the field of religious studies,
who have done research into contemporary Paganism, and written books on the
subject. </span><span lang="EN-US">Pagan studies represents a growing field in
academy and the American Academy of Religion has had “Contemporary Pagan
Studies” as part of its programming for more than a decade. <span style="color: black;">We are approaching you with a common concern.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 17.1pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">The word “Pagan” derives from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pagus,</i> the local unit of government in the Latin-speaking Roman
Empire, and thus <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pagan</i> referred to
the traditional “Old Religion” of the countryside, as opposed to Christianity,
the new religion with universal aspirations. Paganism, therefore, was by
definition pre-Christian religion. Over time, with the expansion of the Roman
Church, “pagan” became a common pejorative by Christians toward any
non-Judeo-Christian religion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">In the 19<sup>th</sup>
century, the terms <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pagan </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">paganism </i>were adopted by anthropologists
to designate the indigenous folk religions of various cultures, and by Classical
scholars and romantic poets to refer to the religions of the great ancient
pre-Christian civilizations of the Mediterranean region (as in the phrase, “pagan
splendor,” often used in reference to Classical Greece).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 17.1pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 17.1pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">Today, the terms <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pagan
</i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paganism </i>(capitalized)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>refer to alternative nature-based religions,
whose adherents claim their identity as Pagan. Pagans </span><span lang="EN-US">seek
attunement with nature and view humanity as a functional organ within the
greater organism of Mother Earth (Gaea). Contemporary Pagans<span style="color: black;"> hearken to traditional and ancient pagan cultures, myths,
and customs for inspiration and wisdom.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 17.1pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 17.1pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">Thus contemporary Paganism (sometimes referred to as “Neo-Paganism”
to distinguish it from historical pre-Christian folk traditions) should be
understood as a revival and reconstruction of ancient nature-based religions, or
religious innovation inspired by them, which is adapted for the modern world. Paganism
is also called “The Old Religion,” “Ancient Ways,” “Nature Worship,” “Earth-Centered
Spirituality,” “Natural Religion,” and “Green Religion.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 17.1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 17.1pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">The Pagan community is worldwide, with millions of
adherents in many countries. Moreover, increasing numbers of contemporary Hindus,
First Nations activists, European reconstructionists, indigenous peoples, and
other polytheists are accepting the term “Pagan” as a wide umbrella under which
they all can gather, distinct from the monotheists and secularists. They
are using it positively, not to mean “godless” or “lacking (true)
religion.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Therefore it is understandably a matter of
continuing frustration to modern self-identified Pagans that newspaper and
magazine copy editors invariably print the proper terms for their religion
(i.e., “Pagan” and “Paganism”) in lower case. Journalists who have been confronted
about this practice have replied that this is what the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">AP </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chicago Stylebooks</i>
recommend. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But names of religions—both nouns and adjectives—are
proper terms, and as such should always be capitalized:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; tab-stops: 99.0pt 166.5pt 216.0pt 265.5pt 324.0pt 378.0pt 414.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Religion:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Christianity<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Judaism<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Islam<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Buddhism<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Hinduism<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Paganism<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; tab-stops: 99.0pt 166.5pt 216.0pt 265.5pt 324.0pt 378.0pt 414.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Adherent:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Christian<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jew<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Moslem<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Buddhist<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Hindu<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Pagan<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; tab-stops: 99.0pt 166.5pt 216.0pt 265.5pt 324.0pt 378.0pt 414.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Adjective:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Christian<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jewish<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Islamic<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Buddhist<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Hindu<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Pagan<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This list could be
expanded indefinitely for every religion in the world. As you can see,
Paganism, like all faith traditions, should be capitalized.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 36.0pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">Pagan and Paganism are now the well-established chosen
self-designations and internationally-recognised nominal identifiers of a
defined religious community. The same terms are appropriately lower-case only
when they refer to ancient “pagans” since, in that context, the term does not
refer to a discrete movement or culture. In short, “Pagan” and “Paganism” now
function much as “Jew,” “Judaism,” “Christian,” and “Christianity” do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 108.0pt; margin-right: 36.0pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">(—Graham Harvey <em>Contemporary Paganism</em>, NYUP, 2<sup>nd</sup>
edition 2011)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The current journalistic convention of
printing lower case for these terms seems to have originated with the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Associated Press Stylebook</i>, first
published in 1953. However, a new era of religious pluralism has emerged
over the past sixty years. The terms “Pagan” and “Paganism” are now being
capitalized in a variety of publications, texts, documents, and references,
including religious diversity education resources such as <i>On Common Ground:
World Religions in America</i>, The Pluralism Project, Harvard University, and <i>Inmate
Religious Beliefs and Practices, Technical Reference Manual</i>, Federal Bureau
of Prisons, U.S. Department of Justice.<span style="color: black;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In order to assure greater accuracy in 21<sup>st</sup>
century journalism, we hereby petition the AP and Chicago Stylebooks to
capitalize “Pagan” and “Paganism” when speaking of the modern faiths and their
adherents in future editions.<span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">Thank you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Signatories<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<b><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="ALL" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: auto;" />
</span></u></b>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cairril Adaire (</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">founder, Our Freedom Coalition: A Pagan
Civil Rights Coalition; founder, Pagan Educational Network</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Margot Adler, M.S. (National Public
Radio; Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1982; author: <i>Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids,
Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today,</i> 1979, 1986, 1996,
2006)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Eileen
Barker, PhD, FBA, OBE (Professor Emeritus in Sociology with Special reference
to the Study of Religion at the London School of Economics; Founder and Chair
of INFORM [Information Network Focus on Religious Movements]; author of over
300 publications on the subject of minority religions)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Carol Barner-Barry, Ph.D. (Professor
Emerita, University of Maryland; author: </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Contemporary Paganism:
Minority Religions in a Majoritarian American,</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> 2005</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">5.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">David V. Barrett, Ph.D. (London School
of Economics and Political Science; British sociologist of religion who has
written widely on topics pertaining to new religious movements and western
esotericism; author: <i>The New Believers: A Survey of Sects, Cults &
Alternative Religions,</i> 2001; <i>A Brief Guide to Secret Religions</i>,
2011)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">6.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Helen Berger, Ph.D. (resident scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center, Brandeis
University; Professor Emerita of Sociology, West Chester University, PA; author:
<i>A Community of Witches: Contemporary Neo-Paganism & Witchcraft in the
United States</i>, 1999, 2013; with Evan A. Leach and
Leigh S. Shaffer, <i>Voices from the Pagan
Census: Neo-Paganism in the United States,</i> 2003; </span><em><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Witchcraft and Magic in the
New World: North America in the Twentieth Century, </span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">2005;<b> </b></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">with Douglas
Ezzy, <i>Teenage Witches: Magical Youth and
the Search for the Self</i>, 2007)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">7.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Jenny Blain, Ph.D. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(Recently retired from Sheffield Hallam University,
previously taught at Dalhousie University, Canada, and now on faculty for
Cherry Hill. Co-editor with Graham Harvey and Doug Ezzy of <i>Researching Paganisms</i>, 2004; author of <i>Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic: Ecstasy and neo-Shamanism in North European
Paganism</i>, 2002; with Robert Wallis, <i>Sacred
Sites, Contested Rites/Rights, </i>2007; also numerous articles and chapters on
Heathenry and Seidr, and on Pagan engagements with Sacred Sites.)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">8.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jon P. Bloch, Ph.D. (Professor, Sociology
Department, <span class="refname">Southern Connecticut State University;</span>
author of <i>New Spirituality, Self, and Belonging: How New Agers and
Neo-Pagans Talk About Themselves</i>, 1998)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">9.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Raymond Buckland, Ph.D., D.D. (</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">founder of </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Seax-Wica; Originator Gardnerian Wica in America; author: </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Witch Book: The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, Wicca, and Neo-Paganism</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
2002; </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft,</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> and more than 50 other titles.)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">10.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dennis D. Carpenter, Ph.D. (Associate
Professor of Psychology, University of Wisconsin; author: <i>Spiritual
Experiences, Life Changes, and Ecological Viewpoints of Contemporary Pagans; </i>co-founder,
Pagan Academic Network.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">11.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chas Clifton, M.A. (Colorado State University-Pueblo
(retired); Co-Chair of Contemporary Pagan Studies Group, American Academy of
Religion; editor: <i>The Pomegranate:</i></span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> The International Journal of Pagan Studies</span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">;</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
author: <i>Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca & Paganism in America, </i>2006; with Graham Harvey, <i>The
Paganism Reader</i>, 2004)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">12.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Vivianne Crowley, Ph.D. (</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Formerly professor
at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King’s College, University
of London, specializing in psychology of religion</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">. She is on the Council of the Pagan
Federation where she focuses on interfaith issues. She is the author of many
books on Wicca, Paganism and spiritual psychology, including <i>Wicca: A
comprehensive guide to the Old Religion in the modern world</i><span style="color: #1f497d;">.)</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">13.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Carole
Cusack, Ph.D. (Professor of Religious Studies, Chair Studies in Religion, Arts
and Social Sciences Pro-Dean, University of Sydney, Australia; co-editor, <i>Journal of Religious History</i>; co-editor, <i>International Journal for the Study of New Religions</i>; author: <i>Invented Religions,</i> 2010)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">14.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Marie
W. Dallam, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor, Honors College, University of Oklahoma;
Co-Chair, New Religious Movements Group, American Academy of Religion)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">15.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Frances Di Lauro, Ph.D. (Lecturer, Undergraduate Coordinator, Writing
Hub, School of Letters Art and Media, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The
University of Sydney, Australia)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">16.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Maureen Aisling Duffy-Boose (President
Emeritus, Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS) 2005-2010; VP
Emeritus, Pagan Pride International 2003-2013; Board Chair, Utah
Pride Interfaith Coalition 2002-2005; Founding Priestess, Four Dragons
Clann, 1734 Witchcraft, 2011)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">17.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Robert S. Ellwood, Jr., Ph.D. (</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Emeritus Professor of Religion, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">University of Southern California; author of <i>Religious & Spiritual Groups in Modern America</i>, 1974, 1988; </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Many Peoples, Many Faith</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">s, 1976; 10<sup>th</sup> edition </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">with Barbara McGraw, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2014)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">18.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Douglas Ezzy,
Ph.D. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">(</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Associate Professor of Sociology, University of
Tasmania; published extensively in academic journals and academic monographs on
contemporary Paganism, Witchcraft and religion</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">19.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Holly
Folk (Associate Professor of Liberal Studies, Western Washington University,
Bellingham, WA) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">20.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rev.
Selena Fox, M.S. (Senior Minister, Circle Sanctuary; founding editor, CIRCLE
Magazine; co-founder, Pagan Academic Network; diversity educator, U.S.
Department of Justice; author: <i>When Goddess is God</i> (1995); contributor
to <i>Religions of the World</i> (2002), <i>Encyclopedia of Women and Religion
in North America</i> (2006), <i>U.S. Army Chaplains Manual</i> (1984), other
works)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">21.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Elysia Gallo (Senior Acquisitions Editor for Witchcraft, Paganism,
and Magic at Llewellyn Worldwide; Vice President of Twin Cities Pagan Pride)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">22.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Wendy Griffin, Ph.D. (Professor Emerita and Chair of the
Department of Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies at California State
University, Long Beach; Academic Dean, Cherry Hill Seminary; </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Founding Co-chair of the Pagan Studies
Group for the American Academy of Religion; Co-editor of the Alta Mira's Pagan
Studies Series; editor: <i>Daughters of the Goddess: Studies of Healing,
identity and Empowerment</i>, 2000</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">23.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Raven
Grimassi (</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Director of the Fellowship of the Pentacle,</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
author: <i>Encyclopedia of Witchcraft</i>,
2000, and other </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">award-winning books on Pagan-related themes</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">24.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Charlotte Hardman, Ph.D. (Honorary Fellow, retired senior
lecturer, Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University; co-author: <i>Paganism Today</i> 1995; <i>Other Worlds</i> 2000)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">25.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Graham Harvey, Ph.D. (Head of Department of
Religious Studies, The Open University, UK</span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">; </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">President, British Association for the Study of Religion;</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
co-author: <i>Paganism Today, </i>1995; <i>Contemporary Paganism</i>,
1997; with Chas Clifton, <i>The Paganism Reader</i>, Routledge, 2004; </span><em><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Food, Sex and Strangers:
Understanding religion as everyday life</span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">, 2013)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">26.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Irving
Hexham, Ph.D. (Professor of Religious Studies at University of Calgary,
Alberta, Canada; author with Karla Poewe: <i>New Religions as Global Cultures</i>,
1997; <i>Understanding World Religions</i>, 2011; and many other works on new
religious movements)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">27.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ellen
Evert Hopman, M.Ed. (</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Druid Priestess</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">; </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Co-founder and Vice President for nine years, of The Henge of
Keltria Druid Order and co-founder and Co-Chief for five years of The Druid
Order of White Oak</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">;</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> author </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">with Lawrence Bond, <i>People of the Earth: The New Pagans Speak
Out</i>, 1995; with Lawrence Bond, <i>Being
a Pagan: Druids, Wiccans, and Witches Today, </i>2001; </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">and other volumes</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">28.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">L</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">ynne Hume, Ph.D. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">(Associate Professor and Research Consultant, University of
Queensland, Australia; Faculty, Cherry Hill Seminary, Bethel, VT; author of <i>Witchcraft
and Paganism in Australia</i>, 1997; <em>The Religious Life of Dress</em>,
2013; co-author, with Nevill Drury of <em>The Varieties of Magical Experience,</em>
2013)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">29.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ronald
Hutton, Ph.D. (Professor, Department of Historical Studies, Oxford University;
author: <i>Triumph of the Moon: A History of
Modern Pagan Witchcraft,</i> 2000)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">30.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Christine Hoff Kraemer, Ph.D.
(Instructor, Theology and Religious History, Cherry Hill Seminary; author of <i>Seeking the Mystery: An Introduction to
Pagan Theology, </i>2012<i> </i>and <i>Eros and Touch from a Pagan Perspective:
Divided for Love’s Sake, </i>2013)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">31.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">James
R. Lewis, Ph.D. (co-founder of the International Society for the Study of New
Religions and editor-in-chief of the Alternative Spirituality & Religion
Review (ASSR). Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tromsø in
Norway; Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Wales, Lampeter;<i>
</i>author: <i>Magical Religion & Modern Witchcraft</i>, 1996; <i>The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New
Religions,</i> 1998; <i>Peculiar Prophets: A
Biographical Dictionary of New Religions,</i> 1999; <i>Witchcraft Today: An
Encyclopedia of Wiccan and Neopagan Traditions</i>, 1999; with Murph Pizza,<i> Handbook of
Contemporary Paganism</i>; <i>The Oxford Handbook of New Religious
Movements</i>; with Jesper Petersen,<i>
Controversial New Religions;</i> <i>The Encyclopedic Sourcebook of New
Age Religions</i>; <i>Odd Gods: New Religions and the Cult Controversy;</i> <i>Legitimating
New Religions</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">32.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Scott
Lowe, Ph.D. (Professor, Philosophy and Religious Studies at University of
Wisconsin-Eau Claire; Co-General Editor, <i>Nova
Religio</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">33.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sabina
Magliocco, Ph.D. (Professor of Anthropology and Folklore at California State
University, Northridge; author: <i>Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism
in America</i>, 2004; <i>Neopagan Sacred Art
& Altars: Making Things Whole, 2001</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">34.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ven. Rev.
Patrick McCollum</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">(</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Director
of Public Chaplaincy, Cherry Hill Seminary; </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chaplaincy Liaison, American Academy of Religion</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">; </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Minority Faith Chair,</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">American Correctional Chaplains Association</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">; </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Executive Director, National Correctional
Chaplaincy Directors Association</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">; </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">President,</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Patrick McCollum Foundation</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">; </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Religion Advisor,</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">United States Commission on Civil Rights</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">;</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Recipient,</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mahatma Gandhi Award for the Advancement of
Pluralism</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">; </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">publications:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">California
Department of Corrections Wiccan Chaplains Manual</span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">,</span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1998</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">; </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Courting the
Lady</span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">,</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> 2000</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">; </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Religious
Accommodation in American Jails</span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">,</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> 2013</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">35.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">J. Gordon Melton, Ph.D. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(Institute for the
Study of American Religion; <i>The
Encyclopedia of American Religions,</i> 1991; with Isotta Poggi, author of <i>Magic,
Witchcraft, and Paganism in America: A Bibliography</i>, 2nd ed., 1992; <i>Religious Leaders of America,</i> 1999)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="a-declarative"><span lang="EN-US">36.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="a-declarative"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Brendan Myers</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
Ph.D.<span class="a-declarative"> (</span>Professor at CEGEP Heritage College,
Gatineau, QC, Canada; faculty, Cherry
Hill Seminary; author of <i>The
Earth, The Gods and The Soul - A History of Pagan Philosophy: From the Iron Age
to the 21<sup>st</sup> Century<span class="a-size-medium">,</span></i> 2013)<span class="a-declarative"> </span></span><span class="a-declarative"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">37.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">M.
Macha NightMare/Aline O'Brien (American Academy of Religion; Nature Religions
Scholars Network; Marin Interfaith Council; United Religions Initiative;
Interfaith Center of the Presidio; Association for the Study of Women and
Mythology; Biodiversity Project Spirituality Working Group. She also serves on
the Board of Directors of Cherry Hill Seminary; the Advisory Council of the
Sacred Dying Foundation; former Adjunct Faculty at Starr King School for the
Ministry. Books: <i>The Pagan Book of Living and Dying: Practical Rituals,
Prayers, Blessings, and Meditations on Crossing Over</i> (with Starhawk) 1997; <i>Witchcraft
and the Web: Weaving Pagan Tradition Online</i>, 2001; <i>Pagan Pride: Honoring
the Craft and Culture of Earth and Goddess</i>, 2004)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">38.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Joanne
Pearson, Ph.D. (co-author with Richard H. Roberts & Geoffrey Samuel of <i>Nature
Religion Today: Paganism in the Modern World</i>, 1998;<i> </i>(ed), <i>Belief Beyond
Boundaries: Wicca, Celtic Spirituality and the New Age</i>, 2002; <i>A Popular Dictionary of Paganism</i>, 2002; <i>Wicca and the Christian Heritage: Ritual Sex
and Magic</i>, 2007)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">39.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Christopher Penczak</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
(faculty member at North Eastern Institute of Whole Health; founder of the
Temple of Witchcraft, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit church; co-owner of Copper Cauldron
Publishing; author:<i> The Living Temple of Witchcraft</i>, 2008; 2009—and over two dozen other books)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">40.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Sarah M. Pike, Ph.D. (Professor of Comparative Religion,
California State University, Chico; author of </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and The
Search for Community</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, 2001; <i>New Age and <span class="spelle">Neopagan</span> Religions in America, </i>2004)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">41.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Richard H. Roberts, Ph.D. (Emeritus Professor of Religious
Studies, Lancaster University; co-author with Geoffrey Samuel & Joanne
Pearson of <i>Nature Religion Today: Paganism in the Modern World</i>, 1998)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">42.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Kathryn Rountree, Ph.D. (Professor of Anthropology, Massey
University, New Zealand; author of </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Embracing
the Witch and the Goddess: Feminist Ritual-makers in New Zealand</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
2004; <i>Crafting Contemporary Pagan
Identities in a Catholic Society</i>, 2010; <i>Archaeology
of Spiritualities</i>, 2012)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">43.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Michael Ruse</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
Ph.D. (Lucyle
T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy, Director of the Program in the History
and Philosophy of Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL;
author: <i>The Gaia Hypothesis: Science on a Pagan Planet, </i>2013)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">44.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Geoffrey Samuel, Ph.D. (</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cardiff University,
UK, as well as an honorary attachment at the University of Sydney; author: Civilized Shamans, 1993; co-author with Richard H. Roberts & Joanne Pearson of <i>Nature
Religion Today: Paganism in the Modern World</i>, 1998; <i>The Origins of Yoga and Tantra,</i> 2008; <i>Religion and the Subtle Body in Asia and the
West,</i> 2013)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">45.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Bron Taylor,
Ph.D. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; layout-grid-mode: line; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Professor
of Religion & Nature, University of Florida; Fellow, Rachel Carson Center
for Environment and Society; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München;
Editor, <i>Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture</i>;
author of <i>Encyclopedia of Religion & Nature</i>, 2005;
<i>Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future</i>, 2010;
<i>Avatar and Nature Spirituality</i>, 2013; <i>Civil Society in the Age of
Monitory Democracy</i>, 2013)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">46.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Robert
J. Wallis, Ph.D., FRAI, FSA (Professor of Visual Culture; Associate Dean, MA
Programmes, School of Communications, Arts and Social Sciences; Convenor of the
MA in Art History and Visual Culture; Richmond University, the American
International University in London; author of <i>Shamans/neo-Shamans</i>, 2003; and numerous articles on contemporary
Paganisms, neo-Shamanisms and their engagements with prehistoric archaeology in
Britain)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">47.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Linda Woodhead, M.B.E.,
D.D. (Professor of Sociology of Religion at Lancaster University, UK. She
studies </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">religious change in
modern societies, and is especially interested in how religion has changed
worldwide since the late 1980s. <span style="background: white;">Between 2007 and
2013 she was Director of the “Religion and Society” research programme in
Britain, which involved </span>240 academics from 29 different disciplines
working on 75 different projects<span style="background: white;">. Her books
include <i>Everyday Lived Islam in Europe </i>(2013), <i>A Sociology of
Religious Emotions </i>(2011), <i>Religions in the Modern World </i>(2009), <i>The
Spiritual Revolution</i> (2005) and <i>A Very Short Introduction to
Christianity</i> (2004). </span>She is a regular commentator and broadcaster on
religion and society.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">48.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Michael York, Ph.D. (</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Faculty, Cherry Hill Seminary;</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> retired </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Professor
of Cultural Astronomy and Astrology with the Bath Spa University’s Sophia
Centre; he directed the New Age and Pagan Studies Programme for the College’s
Department for the Study of Religions and co-ordinated the Bath Archive for
Contemporary Religious Affairs. He continues to direct the Amsterdam Center for
Eurindic Studies and co-direct the London-based Academy for Cultural and
Educational Studies. Author: <i>The Roman
Festival Calendar of Numa Pompilius</i>, 1986; <i>A Sociology of the New Age and Neo-pagan Movements, </i>1995; <i>The Divine versus the Asurian: An
Interpretation of Indo-European Cult and Myth,</i> 1995; <i>Pagan Theology: Paganism as a World Religion</i>, 2003; </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Historical Dictionary of New Age
Movements</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
2004</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">49.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Oberon Zell, D.D. (co-founder and
Primate, Church of All Worlds, 1962 [incorporated 1968; 501(c)(3) 1970]; co-founder,
Council of Themis, 1968; Publisher Emeritus, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Green Egg</i> magazine, 1968-ff; co-founder, Council of Earth
Religions, 1974; founder, Universal Federation of Pagans, 1990; founder, Grey
Council, 2002; founder and Headmaster, Grey School of Wizardry, 2004;
Secretary, Sonoma County Pagan Network, 2010-2013; author: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard,</i> 2004; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Companion<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for the
Apprentice Wizard,</i> 2006; with Morning Glory Zell, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Creating Circles & Ceremonies</i>, 2006)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2282611864997299480.post-35354065617397905362013-10-20T17:03:00.001+01:002013-10-20T17:22:14.336+01:00Home and abroadI've just returned home from a small trip to Cumbria, staying with friends, a journey taken to attend a conference at Preston. The conference focus was on animist understandings of landscape and I had the joy of listening to Gordon the Toad's presentation, and others one from Graham Harvey and Linda Sever, as well as sharing some of my own thoughts and words on North European Shamanism and some of the other-than-human people with whom we share landscape, homescape, space and whose time and consciousness may sometimes merge with ours.<br />
<br />
Having brought 'The Wild Geese' - Violet Jacob's poem - into the preparation for my talk, I heard the calling voices overhead and looking out saw the largest skein I've seen for years. Then on the journey down there was a flight of lapwings, with later a wonderful joining of flocks of waders merging with the swarm shifting shape in the air, crows playing with the wind, and one single swan in flight. Then rain, of course, lots of it. Today, in Cumbria, again I heard the crying geese, and the skein going over was nearly as large as the one seen before I left. The journey back was about sun and showers, and colours, the changing greens, golds, russets and rich browns of autumn, with soaring buzzards in many areas of the Borders and Lothians, though no geese.<br />
<br />
Somehow this all reminded me that this blog has been neglected - since the last addition I have moved house, town, and indeed country, going back to my 'roots', and the summer has involved amongst other pursuits starting to make a new garden, and watching the wildlife come to it from the woods behind my house. Rather than writing about places, I have been shaping my own place here, and trying to listen to the landscape and learn the patience that gardening demands, as I learn or re-learn the movement of the seasons on how this little piece of earth responds to the whole earth's turning, and the movements of air and water above and within it.Jenny Blainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594307535164059232noreply@blogger.com0