tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48550125072253878612024-03-14T06:59:14.218-07:00Susanna Helen's BlogMy online Commonplace Book:
Poetry, miscellanea and musings on lifeSusanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.comBlogger74125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-84026730569720828962019-05-31T15:51:00.002-07:002019-05-31T23:40:58.910-07:00Bewildering <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On Sunday I will be 60 and I’m feeling a sense of bewilderment around that.</span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> It’s a strange time. I’m full of anxiety, fear, immobility, paralysis: about my life, about our political and existential crises, about the survival of our planet. A<span style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">nd at the same time I’m wondering about this ‘bewilderment’, </span>what it might mean to ‘be wildered’.</span></span></div>
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<span style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the beach today I found a stranded guillemot and was advised by the RSPB to help it back into the sea. As I held its beating body in my hands I felt its mysterious aliveness, felt again my yearning to know and to be known to ‘the wild’.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: small;">I wanted to know what was right, what was needed. I wanted to know the unknowable. I don’t know if I did the right thing, I don’t know how injured the guillemot was, whether it will survive. I have to accept this not knowing, to become able to bear it. I have to </span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">learn how to live in this painful place of knowing so much and at the same time knowing nothing</span><span style="font-size: small;">. </span></span></div>
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-7000315697347408402019-03-26T09:01:00.000-07:002019-03-26T09:01:05.889-07:00Let's Revoke and Rethink<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This week we have a breathing space and a unique opportunity to rethink the future of our country. Thanks to the Wightman case, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2018-12/cp180191en.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1553701537239000&usg=AFQjCNF610plCWIFsnUN5AzsoPG1gtnJGQ" href="https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2018-12/cp180191en.pdf" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">the UK can unilaterally Revoke Article 50</a>. This option is now rapidly gaining ground. It was mentioned as the preferred option of many who attended Saturday's historic march of over a million people to Parliament. An online Petition calling for revocation has now reached over 5.4 million signatures. Last week it was only 28,000. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/241584&source=gmail&ust=1553701537239000&usg=AFQjCNGR1l8vIMlp4ULXs61zEK-eOKkeNQ" href="https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/241584" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Please sign the petition</a>- and tell your friends. colleagues, family, neighbours, shopkeepers, fellow commuters, everyone you know to do the same. Let Parliament know the strength of our commitment to safeguarding our rights, freedoms, security and economy.</div>
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Whatever you may have heard, the high number of petition signatures is not a fake. You cannot sign multiple times and there is a verification process to ensure only those entitled to sign are doing so. The Petitions Committee is working hard to ensure they can cope with the high volume of traffic on the site. You may have to wait for a while to receive the verification email: until you have verified you have not signed - check your spam filter, be patient, and make sure you have genuinely signed. </div>
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/241584&source=gmail&ust=1553701537239000&usg=AFQjCNGR1l8vIMlp4ULXs61zEK-eOKkeNQ" href="https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/241584" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">When you have signed</a>, write to <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.writetothem.com/?gclid%3DEAIaIQobChMImZ7nlY2d4QIVVp3VCh1EYgR3EAAYASAAEgLmCfD_BwE&source=gmail&ust=1553701537239000&usg=AFQjCNFh_LuLkSbA0SUwvybhPrdPCuGcFg" href="https://www.writetothem.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMImZ7nlY2d4QIVVp3VCh1EYgR3EAAYASAAEgLmCfD_BwE" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">your MP</a> and tell them. There are breakdowns of signature by constituency so this is a powerful message to our representatives. </div>
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It is not undemocratic or seeking to overturn the will of the people to<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/241584&source=gmail&ust=1553701537239000&usg=AFQjCNGR1l8vIMlp4ULXs61zEK-eOKkeNQ" href="https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/241584" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"> ask for revocation and a rethink</a>. In June 2016, 37% of the electorate thought that they wanted to leave the European Union. We can speculate about the many reasons for that vote. But the options now have changed. We have Theresa May's deal that no-one wants and has been rejected by Parliament twice. We have the very real threat of No Deal, which some MPs are disgracefully promoting despite the government’s own assessments of the harm this would do to our country. In three years we’ve gone from a fake promise of sunlit uplands to preparation for food and medicine ‘serous shortage protocols’. Business is already suffering, threatening our jobs and prosperity.</div>
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Since June 2016, we have also seen the election of Donald Trump, the rapid rise of far right populism here and abroad, the suggestion of improper influence in the referendum campaign and the Electoral Commission's confirmation that there was overspending by Vote Leave. We have seen death threats to anyone wanting to question our direction of travel. Remain voters have been called citizens of nowhere. Our judges have been called enemies of the people. In June 2017, we had a General Election when the Prime Minister lost her majority - a clear rejection of her 'red lines' for a Hard Brexit. She now relies on the unrepresentative DUP to decide not only the future of Northern Ireland, that voted to stay, but of the whole UK. The wishes of Scotland and the views of all those who voted Remain have been sidelined. There's a real threat to the Good Friday agreement and our fellow EU27 citizens and Britons living in the EU27 have been left in limbo for over 1000 days. The government has been held in contempt of Parliament. Until late last week we didn't know whether we were going to crash out of the EU this Friday!</div>
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Still Theresa May will not compromise. This situation is not due to intransigence by the other EU countries but of the Prime Minister's own red lines. With her signature lack of consultation, she has designated herself as the only arbiter of what Leave voters wanted. What an unbelievable state of affairs: a British Prime Minister who finds Parliament 'indulgent' and who is taking away her own citizens’ freedom of movement. But her deal is not wanted by either ‘side’ - it can only pass now if strong-arm party tactics prevail over MPs voting in the national interest. We must demand now, this week, that they put a stop to this and vote to Revoke Article 50 while we decide where to go next. </div>
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Please <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/241584&source=gmail&ust=1553701537239000&usg=AFQjCNGR1l8vIMlp4ULXs61zEK-eOKkeNQ" href="https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/241584" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">sign the petition</a> today, tell <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.writetothem.com/?gclid%3DEAIaIQobChMImZ7nlY2d4QIVVp3VCh1EYgR3EAAYASAAEgLmCfD_BwE&source=gmail&ust=1553701537239000&usg=AFQjCNFh_LuLkSbA0SUwvybhPrdPCuGcFg" href="https://www.writetothem.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMImZ7nlY2d4QIVVp3VCh1EYgR3EAAYASAAEgLmCfD_BwE" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">your MP</a>, and ask everyone you know, however they voted, to do the same. Please share this as widely as you can. Let's Revoke, Rethink, and rebuild our country.</div>
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-29153727227369185012016-10-11T09:38:00.000-07:002016-10-11T09:38:23.009-07:00A letter to my MP 10 October 2016<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Dear Andrew,<br />
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Back in July, when I wrote to you following the referendum outcome, you said: "<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">As we work for the best possible relationship with the EU, I will welcome as ever your thoughts and ideas." I am taking the opportunity to do that but I would also like to ask you for your thoughts and ideas about the point we have now reached. </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">It has been a bruising few months for our country, for our economy, for our civil and political life, and for our constitution.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">We now have a new PM and Cabinet pursuing a vastly different agenda from the one campaigned on only 18 months ago. It has been left to a group of concerned citizens with crowd-funding support to challenge the government's assertion that it can use the royal prerogative to trigger Article 50. The Government says that its 'Brexit' strategy must be kept secret and is resisting all attempts for there to be a democratic debate about the terms on which we negotiate. There is every indication that we will be pursuing a so-called 'Hard Brexit', which will be a disaster. This is 'dangerous overreach': it goes way beyond what may or may not have been mandated by the EU Referendum, leaving aside all the lies and disinformation that led up to it. It does not bode well for our country or for any future good relationship with the EU. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">I am still unpersuaded that leaving the EU will address any of the concerns expressed by Leave voters. The clear indications are that it will be bad for all of us. I am shocked that even holding these views is now considered to be somehow 'unBritish' and 'anti-democratic'. I am very, very concerned about this direction of travel and in particular about Mrs May's apparent desire to step aside from the international human rights' frameworks. </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Many people who voted Remain now say that they feel embarrassed by our country and afraid of where we are heading. </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">It also shocks me that virtually no politicians have had a word for the '48%', other than to say that we must help to make 'Brexit' happen and help make it 'a success' (whatever that means). But even if we wanted to 'get behind it' what is there to get behind? It seems what is meant is that we must 'put up and shut up' while our economy nosedives, our rights are removed and and </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">so-called 'foreigners' are </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">scapegoated. To describe these as 'dissenting' views and then seek to</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> silence and oppress their expression</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> is a </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">very dangerous polemic.That it is coming from our Prime Minister is frankly scary. The Government is disregarding its own definition of 'fundamental British values': Democracy, Individual Liberty, Rule of Law and Tolerance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">In my view we still need Parliamentary involvement in the decision when or whether to trigger Article 50, a vote on the nature of the deal if we really are so foolish as to pursue leaving the EU, and proper scrutiny of the Government's proposed Great Repeal Bill, which will </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">'put up for grabs' any number of our</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> rights and protections. As an MP you have a duty to act in the national interest as well as represent the interests of your constituents. We need some reassurances and some sign that Parliament is going to step up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">I look forward to hearing your view of this situation and what will you be doing to hold the Government properly to account.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Kind regards,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Susanna</span></div>
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-33164478676989209842016-08-31T11:47:00.001-07:002016-08-31T11:47:32.274-07:00Two months later - time to press Parliament to step up and oppose leaving the EU<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Two months on, the news about the fallout from the ill-conceived referendum on leaving the European Union continues to be grim. The Government seems determined to press on with "Brexit". The opposition parties (outside of the SNP) are in disarray and, apart from a few honourable MPs like David Lammy, are peddling the line that we have to accept the referendum result. Our politicians seem to be in denial that a constitutional crisis is looming. No-one seems willing to step up for the "Remoaners"!</div>
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Although it can all feel rather hopeless, I am firmly of the view that be we must not give up and must not become dispirited. As Parliament reconvenes, here are a few suggestions for things we can still do:</div>
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1. Write to your MP to ensure s/he is taking part in the Parliamentary debate on 5 September and, if your constituency voted to Remain, will speak in favour of staying in the EU. This debate has been called following 4 million signatures requesting a second referendum. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/131215</div>
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2. Go to http://www.nobrexit.uk/roadmap/ for a great summary of suggested actions, including joining <a href="http://www.britainforeurope.eu/">Britain for Europe</a> and supporting the various legal challenges that are around.</div>
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3. Sign https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/133540 - this petition asks for Parliament to decide whether we remain in the EU, something the government is currently, shamefully, resisting.</div>
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4. You may also want to consider joining More United: <span style="background-color: white;">http://www.moreunited.uk/join</span></div>
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Although the Remain Campaign has re-launched as Open Britain, supporting this group is not recommended as it has accepted the result of the referendum - <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-latest-news-open-britain-remain-campaign-relaunches-second-referendum-a7213911.html">See this article in the Independent</a>. It is a shame that so many talented politicians have chosen this route and let down Remain Voters in this way.</div>
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And after all that, we just have to watch this space and pray for good outcomes despite the current situation.</div>
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-32584770759549838532016-07-26T14:07:00.002-07:002016-07-26T14:12:25.586-07:00One month later - further thoughts on the EU Referendum result and why I still oppose its implementation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A month ago, on 26 June 2016, I posted my thoughts and feelings immediately after the outcome of the EU Referendum on 23 June. I said that this was <a href="http://susannahelensblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/eu-referendum-time-for-serenity-or-for.html">a time for courage not serene acceptance</a>. Like many 'Remainers', I hadn't wanted this vote in the first place and feared this would be the outcome. (For some of the reasons why, read <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n15/john-lanchester/brexit-blues">this brilliant analysis</a> by John Laurenson,) A month later, how is it all looking? Have I come to terms with the vote and accepted all it will mean? That is apparently the British (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-uk-leaves-the-eu-36868752">Katie Razzall</a>) and the sane (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36723220">Mark Mardell</a>) response. "<i>We are leaving the EU, we must get on with it and work together to make it happen</i>" seems to be the line. Well, I accept that the vote has happened and that this has been the outcome. But does that mean I accept we now have "Brexit"? Not at all. I am British and I am sane and I think what is happening to my country is destructive and mad. I can't, and I won't, let up on trying to stop that madness. Here are 3 of the reasons why, and 5 practical steps for anyone who still feels the same way and wants to do something about it.<br />
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<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>We are a Parliamentary, not a direct democracy</b> - Parliament dumped this decision onto us. I believe everyone who voted in the referendum did their best to answer the question posed based on their life experience. However, this was an advisory referendum and is not legally binding. There was very little fact or rational argument at the heart of either campaign. There was no plan for the future.It was not a General Election yet it seems to have been treated as such. Despite what we are being told, there is no strong mandate to leave the EU. Take a look at this brilliant short film by Andy Knott: <a href="https://sayyes2europe.eu/2016/07/13/brexit-mandate-what-brexit-mandate-by-andy-knott/">"Brexit mandate, what Brexit mandate?"</a>. </li>
<li><b>The "UK" did not vote to leave the EU </b>- important constituent parts of the United Kingdom did not vote to leave and their voices have a right to be heard. Forcing "Brexit" onto the people of Gibraltar, Northern Ireland and Scotland is morally unacceptable. In Scotland, <a href="http://news.scotland.gov.uk/Speeches-Briefings/Scotland-in-EU-2772.aspx">Nicola Sturgeon</a> has been outstanding within her remit (and ultimate desire for independence). But no-one is speaking up for Remainers elsewhere. It is not just Leave campaigners who disgracefully ran away after the result (and then got shamelessly rewarded by positions in the newly arranged British government). Remain politicians have also abandoned ship and there is currently no effective opposition. Remainers must let our politicians know that we have not gone away. </li>
<li><b>Leaving the EU is not in our best interests </b> - this is more and more apparent every day. Our economy is plummeting, our rights and environmental protections are threatened. None of the problems that people who voted to leave the EU want to see fixed (even when we utterly reject the xenophobia and racism) will be fixed by leaving it, not least because the vote was not primarily about the EU in any meaningful sense. However we voted, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/25/theresa-may-is-preparing-a-brexit-fudge-which-will-disappoint-ev/">we are likely to be dissatisfied </a>whether we have a 'hard' or a 'soft' "Brexit". There are no good scenarios for Britain arising from it. This is a political failure that will be hugely costly for us all and will haunt us for years, if not decades. Life is not binary. We pay our politicians to deal with the nuance and the subtlety, and to act in our best interests. We have seen precious little of that before or after this referendum. Some say that because the Government, most politicians and most of the media have accepted the outcome, so must we. But we do not and we should not. </li>
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<b>Practical steps you might want to take</b></div>
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<li><b>Demand that Parliament takes back responsibility. Ask your MP t</b>o:</li>
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<li>Support <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/edm/2016-17/243">Early Day Motion 243</a> asking Parliament to agree to a second referendum on the terms of an UK-EU exit package or on the UK remaining in the EU. (Shamefully, only 17 MPs have so far supported this despite Parliament supposedly being 2/3 in favour of Remain. @DavidLammy has been a real star. Where are the rest?)</li>
<li>Ensure that there is a Parliamentary vote on whether to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and write in support of the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36700350">legal case</a> to ensure that such a vote takes place (to be heard in October)</li>
<li>Attend the debate on the petition "<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.8px; line-height: 19.84px;">EU Referendum Rules triggering a 2nd EU Referendum" <span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">at Westminster Hall on 5 September at 4.30pm </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">and put points on your behalf as a Remainer. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">You can also attend yourself.</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px; line-height: 19.84px;"> </span>(</span>This petition asked for a retrospective change to the EU Referendum Act to hold another referendum if the remain or leave vote was less that 60% based on a turnout of less than 75%. This was never going to happen - although most certainly Parliament should have included some such protection - and the petition itself has already been rejected by the government. However, because over 4 million people signed it, it will be debated.)</li>
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<li><b>Sign and gather support for <a href="https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/151413">a new petition</a> asking for a delay in invoking Article 50</b> until the impact on the UK is reviewed </li>
<li><b>Support </b> <a class="ProfileHeaderCard-screennameLink u-linkComplex js-nav" href="https://twitter.com/TheNewEuropean" style="background: rgb(245, 248, 250); color: #8899a6; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none !important;"><span style="background: rgb(245 , 248 , 250); color: #8899a6; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">@</span></span><span class="u-linkComplex-target" style="background: rgb(245 , 248 , 250); color: #8899a6; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;">TheNewEuropean</span></a>, the new newspaper for the 48% and post pictures of your favourite places in Europe on the hashtag <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">#myeurope (Recommended - very therapeutic)</span></li>
<li><b>Join <a href="http://www.moreunited.uk/join">More United</a> </b> the new movement for British politics and look out for pro-EU events and other initiatives via <a href="http://moveforeurope.com/">Move for Europe</a> and <a class="ProfileHeaderCard-screennameLink u-linkComplex js-nav" href="https://twitter.com/RemaininEU" style="background: rgb(245, 248, 250); color: #8899a6; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none !important;"><span style="background: rgb(245 , 248 , 250); color: #8899a6; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">@</span></span><span class="u-linkComplex-target" style="background: rgb(245 , 248 , 250); color: #8899a6; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;">RemaininEU</span></a> and elsewhere on social media</li>
<li><b>Challenge anyone anywhere who says that we are now "post-Brexit"</b> or have already left the EU, or that the UK voted to do so, including, shamefully, the BBC.</li>
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-40888211284868693462016-06-26T10:50:00.002-07:002016-07-26T01:57:13.065-07:00EU Referendum - A time for Serenity or for Courage?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">courage to change the things I can, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">and wisdom to know the difference." </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 22.4px;">Reinhold Niebuhr's famous prayer has been on my mind today.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">I</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">n the wake of Thursday's devastating result, should we now </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">shrug our shoulders, say </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">'that's democracy'</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">serenely accept the outcome of the EU referendum? When I look at all that blue on the map of England and Wales I am tempted to feel hopeless and ready to despair. I woke up on Friday feeling as if war had been declared, as if everything I had worked hard for all my life had gone and that my country had been taken away. I felt unnerved and destabilised as markets crashed, as I spoke to people in tears and shock, and I felt scared, aware that something very nasty has been unleashed </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">in our society</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">. Nothing that has happened since has reassured me or reduced my sense of grief and bereavement.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 22.4px;">I don't feel ready for serene acceptance. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 22.4px;">I'm not yet prepared to accept that leaving the EU is the right outcome for the UK.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 22.4px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 22.4px;">I think this is a time for courage.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 22.4px;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">During the Referendum campaign, with our two main political parties in disarray, no-one made </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a really strong case for all the positive benefits of being in the EU, notably for many of the areas with a majority in favour of leaving. A lot of people felt confused and that they didn't know the full facts. Many people who voted to leave don't seem to have understood the full implications of what they were doing. Nearly all of the promises made to them have been broken already or exposed as blatant lies.Some Leave voters are already expressing regrets. Others are engaging in racist criminal behaviour and stirring up a climate of hatred that has been festering for some time but now appears to have had the lid taken off. Our British reputation for tolerance, inclusion and openness (such as it was) may have been permanently tarnished. A recession has likely been triggered in the UK, if not globally.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This was not a General Election. The EU referendum is not legally binding. It is advisory. The advice is that we are a deeply divided nation who need clear and calm leadership and an end to deprivation and austerity. The advice is that all of our capital cities and 2 of the 4 countries of the UK do not want to leave the EU and that doing so is likely to lead to the break up of the United Kingdom. The advice is that only 37.8% of the electorate voted to leave, less than 27% of the total population, and that the young people who voted, and who will be most affected in the long term, overwhelming want to remain. We did not even allow 16 to 17 year-olds a say. The advice is that although 17.4 million people want to leave, 16.1 million don't. A difference of 1.3 million people out of a total population of 65 million is not a sufficient margin to break up our United Kingdom, wreck our economy, risk our security, throw away our rights and destroy our environment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Please write to David Cameron and to your MP asking them to oppose the invocation of Article 50 and to vote against it in Parliament. Please write to your MEPs, EU ministers and office holders asking them to help us not to make this foolish mistake. And above all please continue to show love, tolerance and compassion towards all our fellow citizens, Leave or Remain, EU or non-EU. We are all one.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We can still step back from this. It will not be easy and it will take courage. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 22.4px;">My prayer today is that I will have the courage to continue to say to my fellow countrymen and women who voted Leave that I think they are wrong; that I will have the courage to call on our politicians to be courageous in helping us to think again; and that I will have the courage to reach out to others and invite them to believe that they too can have </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 22.4px;">the courage to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 22.4px;">change things. Time alone will tell if this courage was also wisdom.</span><br />
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-57464428809767696912015-07-06T03:42:00.000-07:002015-07-06T03:42:20.295-07:00Centre Court<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here is a piece I wrote back in July 2003 when Martina Navratiliova <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/wimbledon_2003/3049972.stm">won her 20th Wimbledon title</a> with victory in the mixed doubles. It seems I was reading <a href="http://www.kingsolver.com/books/excerpts/high-tide-in-tucson.html">Barbara Kingsolver's High Tide in Tucson</a> at the time, hence the apology, although I can't remember now if it refers to a particular essay in that brilliant collection. It seems appropriate to post this during Wimbledon fortnight and to celebrate the US decision to legalise same sex marriage. Now if they could only bring back serve and volley lawn tennis...<br />
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CENTRE COURT<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(with apologies to Barbara Kingsolver)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m sitting in my friend
Anne’s living-room, wearing my favourite faded black denim jeans and shiny new
tan Cowboy boots. To fully admire these my feet are up on Anne’s glass-topped
coffee-table. We are scoffing peanuts, swigging back Molson beer and watching
the game on TV.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the game is not the World
Series or even the Superbowl, although no doubt many otherwise well-adjusted
mid-life women could justifiably spend their time on either. The game we are
giving up our Sunday afternoon for is being beamed by satellite over five or
six thousand miles, from the sedate manicured grass lawns of the All England
Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, UK. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">None but diehard fans of this
august institution set amid leafy London suburbs now recalls that tennis was
once the Young Turk, invading the sacred lawns of SW19 with gut-strung rackets
swinging fiercely against the cylinder-shaped wooden croquet clubs known as
mallets. These days Wimbledon is internationally famous, one of the four Grand
Slam tournaments that all tennis players dream of winning but few attain. The
only one, now, that is played on grass, where the skills and tactics of
serve-and-volley are barely mastered by modern players. But still they come,
Young Turks and old, to try their hand on grass that has surely been cut with
nail scissors.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On court is Martina
Navratilova, definitely an old Turk. Nine times Ladies’ Singles Champion and
holder of ten further titles in doubles and mixed doubles. Her partner, a
smiling, round-faced Indian man called Leander Paes, was born the first year
that Navratilova played at Wimbledon, in 1973. Then she was a mousy-haired, sixteen-year-old
chubby Czech. Five years later when she won Wimbledon for the first time, beating
super-cool, elegant Chrissie Evert in a three-set thriller, she was stateless,
a defector, her parents huddling round a TV set near the East German border to
watch their daughter’s triumph. Now the Berlin Wall is a distant memory and Navratilova
is one of us, a US citizen, lithe, lean and lissom with tinted blonde locks. In
crisp shorts her presence on the court is eager and efficient, like a well-bred
greyhound, her competitive instincts undimmed. She wears her forty-six years
lightly, like a plastic raincoat that can be discarded when the sun shines. Martina
Hingis, the tennis champion who was named after her, has recently retired, aged
twenty-two. Her two opponents today, Rodionova and Ram, Russian and Israeli
respectively, are both more than half her age.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is evening sunlight on
Centre Court, midday in Tucson. As Anne and I settle in there is no sign that
the crowd are about to drift away to car or Underground Station, even though
the media-dubbed ‘business end’ of the tournament, the Men’s Singles Final,
finished nearly three hours ago. They know, as we do, that a piece of history
is about to unfold, served up by a middle-aged woman with a pink triangle in
her racket.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 1979 it was Navratilova
who helped her then doubles partner, Billie-Jean King, to win her record-breaking
twentieth Wimbledon title. The previous record-holder, Elizabeth Ryan, had
prophetically died the night before. We fervently hope Billie-Jean, on the
verge of her sixtieth birthday, won’t do the same as Martina lobs and volleys
her way to equalling that record.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They are our heroes; two sporting
women who have surpassed all expectations of our sex, pioneers of fitness, diet
and dedication. But above all they have been true to themselves. Living their
personal relationships in the spotlight of public attention and judgment they
have let their tennis speak, not their lesbianism. Whatever that is. Women who
love women, and life, and tennis.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Two sets, two more beers. As
the sun descends over South-East England, Anne and I stand and cheer, raising
our glasses to a legend, a modern goddess achieving her dream.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-3082003875375481852015-06-09T02:35:00.000-07:002015-06-09T02:35:14.783-07:00On Reading: Pastures of the Blue Crane by H. F. Brinsmead<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6dqDhpeN-WgF7Z13FNYaq52aMHMl7tM3nCMJt-dQ_Hl18EIqgDeZDkbS4FLmQmfJ8a9PIa37HwVVc1liRQLz5FHPFOY3aPlbd19IMZTuuR1oxEXbziccNTmUqDlv1VW9aftHz0-7tfiGY/s1600/Front+Cover.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/AVvXsEg6dqDhpeN-WgF7Z13FNYaq52aMHMl7tM3nCMJt-dQ_Hl18EIqgDeZDkbS4FLmQmfJ8a9PIa37HwVVc1liRQLz5FHPFOY3aPlbd19IMZTuuR1oxEXbziccNTmUqDlv1VW9aftHz0-7tfiGY/s320/Front+Cover.JPG" width="320" /></a>I am grateful to have reacquired recently a copy of this novel,
by the Australian author and environmentalist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesba_Fay_Brinsmead">Hesba Fay Brinsmead</a> (1922 –
2003). The copy I had as a child got chewed up by the family dog and for ages all I could remember about the book was this beautiful cover and that it had a heroine called Ryl. <i>Pastures of the Blue Crane </i>was
first published in 1964; this Oxford University Press edition was produced in
1970. It is Brinsmead’s most well-known work and was made into a television
series for the Australian Broadcasting Company in 1969.</div>
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The novel opens in a Melbourne summer (November). Sixteen-year-old
Amaryllis Jane Merewether, known as Ryl, is leaving school. She believes she is
all alone in the world. Her mother is mysteriously absent and her father has
long ago abandoned her into the care of his lawyer, who has acted as her guardian
and placed her in a series of boarding schools. No demure heroine, Ryl is
“calculating, self-centred… and yet not without flashes of charm”. Through “the
judicious habit of present-giving” she
has won invites from school fellows so that she doesn’t have to remain at
school during the holidays. Now her lawyer-guardian tells Ryl that her father has died
and that she has jointly inherited his substantial estate with her previously
unknown grandfather, Dusty. They meet for the first time in the lawyer’s office
and at first sight seem an ill-suited pair. Their crusty relationship is
explored as they find themselves co-owners of a farm called Bundoora in
Murwillumbah, North New South Wales. It turns out that this is the place where
Dusty was born and raised. On her first morning Ryl is woken by the sun and
looks out to see the glittering landscape:
a ‘fanciful’ pasture of rosy pink grass crested with silver and within
it a ‘fanciful’ bird – the blue crane. Dusty and Ryl have very different ideas about what to do
with their property - and about spending the money they have inherited. Through her encounters with this remote
community, and ultimately her shared battle with Dusty to preserve their home, Ryl
finds love, friendship, family, and her future career path, as well as
discovering the truth about her parentage.
The novel’s treatment of themes related to age, race, gender and the
secret shame of families is somewhat antiquated now but must have been both
fresh and daring at the time. <i>Pastures of the Blue Crane</i> is a well-crafted
‘coming-of-age’ novel , which casts a fascinating light on aspects of life in 1960s
Australia.</div>
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-45060173285801151362015-04-27T11:36:00.000-07:002015-04-27T11:39:52.833-07:00Blackbird's Prayer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Blackbird's Prayer</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
If you were to ask the blackbird<br />
why she is fervently picking up sticks<br />
from my garden this April morning<br />
I doubt that she would answer<br />
other than to say: <i>And so it is,</i><br />
<i>for blackbirds</i>.<br />
<br />
Susanna Reece</div>
Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-5054268446498667752015-04-08T10:07:00.000-07:002015-04-08T10:07:13.823-07:00Shetland Remembers: 8 April 1940<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Blackboard recording events on the night of 8 April 1940</td></tr>
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Fascinating talk this afternoon up at the <a href="http://www.sumburghhead.com/events">Sumburgh Head Lighthouse and Visitor Centre</a> by archaeologist Chris Dyer, on the anniversary of the averting of a Luftwaffe air raid on Scapa Flow. The Centre has recreated the Radar Hut that detected the incoming enemy aircraft and has lots of artefacts and photographs telling the story of the scientists and military personnel who made this possible. Chris has also discovered letters sent to the Admiralty and the Northern Lighthouse Board by the Lighthouse Keeper, who was concerned about the 'militarisation' of the site and threats to civilians. The Luftwaffe raid has been described as an attempt at a British 'Pearl Harbor'. The prevention of the raid was undoubtedly due to the careful monitoring on Shetland and was an important event for Britain's defences in the early years of World War II. To celebrate the anniversary, there was also an amateur radio station set-up, complete with old radio magazines and a replica Enigma machine.<br />
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As well as the twentieth century military history, Chris talked about the archaeological features that show the use of the land at Sumburgh as an Iron Age Fort, evidence that this has long been a site of strategic importance.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Radar detection at Sumburgh Head</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">British propaganda poster</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Replica Enigma machine<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVM-L5Ss_IX1_v-zXMi-HBmUXUuic7dCevtoDM2XoYrZP4KSK1m0us4OYa2AzX5Qb1kEpzQJSuh6aV_UtBdmqMR-_1Fuzodk_0nRODfut9YL2ZdERFH6Gluuiq5zOETEi9-0BUn8h19xk0/s1600/IMG_5455.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVM-L5Ss_IX1_v-zXMi-HBmUXUuic7dCevtoDM2XoYrZP4KSK1m0us4OYa2AzX5Qb1kEpzQJSuh6aV_UtBdmqMR-_1Fuzodk_0nRODfut9YL2ZdERFH6Gluuiq5zOETEi9-0BUn8h19xk0/s1600/IMG_5455.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: center;">1930s radio magazines<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view from Sumburgh Head</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPXSMHlUfhg4BCy-ZRLyxDeoA9Eokm7mz3UzR82r02IlKhfqqu5NZOCKM2vgr7_UR7Bjf0LCCkW_iQPrsPBAIxd6eOo3VUy9ZNTREcD2C2H2ZDhj4eOGmPtfk1eoYPLzQQVr3q4wzzBo6Y/s1600/IMG_5464.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPXSMHlUfhg4BCy-ZRLyxDeoA9Eokm7mz3UzR82r02IlKhfqqu5NZOCKM2vgr7_UR7Bjf0LCCkW_iQPrsPBAIxd6eOo3VUy9ZNTREcD2C2H2ZDhj4eOGmPtfk1eoYPLzQQVr3q4wzzBo6Y/s1600/IMG_5464.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_hardened_field_defences_of_World_War_II#Allan_Williams_Turret">Allan Williams Turret, Toab, Shetland</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shetland Flag flying at Sumburgh</td></tr>
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-20707035246874451652015-04-05T07:15:00.002-07:002015-04-05T07:15:49.780-07:00Easter Day: Arising<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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What does it mean, this resurrection story? Early in the morning it is the women who go to the tomb only to find that their Beloved is no longer there. When they give witness to having seen the Risen One, they are not believed. Yet gradually the men too are able to see. But what, or who, are they seeing? In <i>Seeking the Risen Christa</i>, Nicola Slee writes of her own experience of Easter Day spent with a group of women, one of whom says: "Jesus died as a Palestinian, Jewish man. Christ rises to be God with us in many different forms..." Perhaps in all forms. Including the Risen Christa. At the local airport here on Shetland there is a book exchange - today I found there a copy of <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/291448.The_Barefoot_Indian">The Barefoot Indian, the making of a messiahress</a> by Julia Heywood. It spoke to me on this day of arising, an invitation to greet the Risen Christa within as well as without. In the church calendar, today marks the start of 50 days to celebrate the risen life. This is not just the life that Jesus stepped into through becoming Christ; rather it is the life in which we are all invited to participate. What will it mean for us to arise, to know the grave, bear our scars, acknowledge our own suffering and that of others; and yet remain hopeful, offering and seeking healing for ourselves and others, coming back out into the world with compassion, caring, gentleness, kindness and courage? "Alleluia, I greet the Risen Christa in you!"<br />
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-58242030740176699432015-04-04T07:48:00.000-07:002015-04-04T07:59:38.420-07:00Great Saturday<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Saturday">Holy Saturday</a> between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is one of the strangest and perhaps the most forgotten day in the church year. What is this day, how should we spend it? The One whom we have loved and known has gone and will not return. The only certainty we have is that finality. We are grief-stricken, bone-tired, fearful, perhaps even terrified. <a href="http://www.queens.ac.uk/about/staff/tutorial-staff/dr-nicola-slee/">Nicola Slee</a> calls this day 'the feminist gap': a time of 'shedding one reality in order to discover something new'. Her poem The Christa of Holy Saturday describes powerfully those times when we don't want to get up, would rather stay asleep, weep, rest, remain undisturbed. The late great John O'Donohue's last book <a href="http://www.johnodonohue.com/benedictus">Benedictus</a>, also has a wonderful poem<i> </i>called 'for the interim time', where he writes of those times in life when the path behind us has disappeared without any clear way marked ahead. Here, at this mid-point in the Easter Triduum there is an opportunity to remain deeply with our sense of loss and uncertainty, not knowing what is going to happen next or how long we will have to stay here, bereaved and vulnerable. We may be without hope, fearful that it will always be like this now. Or we may be waiting for the new with a sense of curiosity but without any idea of what it will be. Here we must rest and wait. We do not know what deep transitions and transformations may be at work behind the tomb's sealed door.<br />
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-57314969821894478882015-04-03T10:19:00.001-07:002015-04-03T10:42:34.337-07:00Good Friday - Scatness Stations<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://susannahelensblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/on-reading-gift-of-stones-by-jim-crace.html">Scatness </a>is a very special peninsula near to where I stay in Southern Shetland,with Iron Age buildings of unknown purport at the tip. My aim today was to take a meditative walk there, stopping at various points to create an alternative Stations of the Cross.<br />
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The underlying theme (in part following <a href="http://www.spckpublishing.co.uk/shop/seeking-the-risen-christa/">Nicola Slee's book <i>Seeking the Risen Christa</i></a>) was to think about the Cross as the Tree of Life, responding to the natural world around me. Apart from Station III, which is as found, I created the five stations by gathering materials from nearby and placing them as felt right to me. Instead of offering my own interpretation of these, I leave you to respond in whatever way is of value to you. Blessed Be She!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvu2v-EPMWvrkH5PGnczAgjp9lKe-5cy5k_VIIu2soqQIGr88MVgeCYr16x6lxw02HSw3LMjmz7qWkW0t2EcSLtCfZUGdZTotKLo43dCvYJmEUZLvrkGwJfBfExSn04Xw80zuFzPIRQDYp/s1600/IMG_5376.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvu2v-EPMWvrkH5PGnczAgjp9lKe-5cy5k_VIIu2soqQIGr88MVgeCYr16x6lxw02HSw3LMjmz7qWkW0t2EcSLtCfZUGdZTotKLo43dCvYJmEUZLvrkGwJfBfExSn04Xw80zuFzPIRQDYp/s1600/IMG_5376.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Station I</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Station II</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Station III</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Station IV</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglcRoWmr6mvm4DvxCI9_D0FqBJ39CEysbyKl_TlWQMHsOqzqQBGkOMky7a0X4UoLSYHCh46Ytm4BJZrn4iCuJFaQ_uiSzK-ue12CkKDwE7ie8knrrukK0PljdQoIptPtpv2OpepHtAxQd9/s1600/IMG_5389.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglcRoWmr6mvm4DvxCI9_D0FqBJ39CEysbyKl_TlWQMHsOqzqQBGkOMky7a0X4UoLSYHCh46Ytm4BJZrn4iCuJFaQ_uiSzK-ue12CkKDwE7ie8knrrukK0PljdQoIptPtpv2OpepHtAxQd9/s1600/IMG_5389.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Station IV</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Station V</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6rZyuwhzYkvuV6bg7nlHFinkavNYbp1_lc8pYnGlESd8yXfX-uPBmfhW-yku66rqFkqsUE2nzjxJFx94xF-ew_InN9ylarEY69mX69ulrhxYxEfC_4iBj_fsWph3IRMFG33T9G9d3c1Bi/s1600/IMG_5406.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6rZyuwhzYkvuV6bg7nlHFinkavNYbp1_lc8pYnGlESd8yXfX-uPBmfhW-yku66rqFkqsUE2nzjxJFx94xF-ew_InN9ylarEY69mX69ulrhxYxEfC_4iBj_fsWph3IRMFG33T9G9d3c1Bi/s1600/IMG_5406.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Station V</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7AAQxmIWgZVu3MUwF3Hkc-Ktdq6IiEVCGsQKztx-s2m2cIrMMd2-fkgf1dZvo_z35jSjA4wjV5ueXsdU7tTcPqDolwFb9DLCwwLBYeFqJ19dsP9tJbDTJRxW_Wr9qPGvyoRExXdf8RVrL/s1600/IMG_5411.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7AAQxmIWgZVu3MUwF3Hkc-Ktdq6IiEVCGsQKztx-s2m2cIrMMd2-fkgf1dZvo_z35jSjA4wjV5ueXsdU7tTcPqDolwFb9DLCwwLBYeFqJ19dsP9tJbDTJRxW_Wr9qPGvyoRExXdf8RVrL/s1600/IMG_5411.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Station V</span></td></tr>
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-60824025047842750622015-04-02T06:54:00.000-07:002015-04-02T06:54:53.410-07:00MaundyThursday<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<b>Not the Last Supper</b><br />
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I want to believe they were there<br />
before as they were after<br />
sharing the Passover meal.<br />
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After all, his table fellowship<br />
wasn't known for its exclusions:<br />
prostitutes, publicans, sinners.<br />
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And so often they are there<br />
without being named, or named only<br />
as an afterthought: c<i>ertain women.</i><br />
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But perhaps this time it was purely<br />
a male affair: lessons in betrayal,<br />
sacrifice, and how to be a servant.<br />
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Things that the women already knew.<br />
<br />
Did they huddle together wondering<br />
what on earth was going on upstairs?<br />
A farewell supper but not the last.<br />
<br />
Perhaps their exclusion served better<br />
to mark the change: the Risen One<br />
will be revealed first to a woman.<br />
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The next time they gather here<br />
they will all be together.<br />
Everything will be different. <br />
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<b>Susanna Reece</b><br />
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-30175050321742114282015-04-01T09:37:00.001-07:002015-04-01T09:37:44.806-07:00St Mary of Egypt<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Today is the feast day of St Mary of Egypt (also celebrated on 2nd and 3rd April in some traditions). She is known as the patron saint of penitents. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_of_Egypt">Most of what we know about her</a> comes from the life written by St Sophronius in the 7th century. The dates of her own life are disputed, although she possibly lived to a very great age.<br />
It is said that when Mary was 12 years old she ran away to the city of Alexandria and lived there for seventeen years in the grip of sexual obsession, keeping herself through a mixture of begging and spinning flax.<br />
At the age of 29 she travelled to Jerusalem, paying for her passage by selling her body to pilgrims travelling there for the Great Feasts of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Mary too tried to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre but felt barred by an unseen force. She interpreted this as being caused by the 'dissolute' life she was living and felt filled with remorse. This led to a conversion experience. After venerating an icon of the Virgin Mary, Mary was able to enter the church and venerate a relic of the true cross.She returned to the icon to give thanks and heard a voice saying "If you cross the Jordan, you will receive glorious rest." She followed this voice and was baptised and then retired to the desert where she lived as a hermit until her death perhaps as much as 70 years later.<br />
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I have always been fascinated by Mary, even though so little is known about her. What led her to leave her home at such a young age and become a street child in Alexandria? Was it her sense of adventure or was there something more sinister going on that she felt compelled to leave behind? She appears to have blamed herself for her 'shameful' lifestyle and sexual 'misconduct'. She certainly seems to have got caught up in an unhealthy dependence on sex as a way of coping with her situation. As recent events have shown, even today society remains ready to see sexually exploited young girls as the ones at fault, responsible for what happens to them, rather than holding to account those who exploit them. This seems to be very deep-rooted in the collective psyche and we are still early learners in understanding what is needed to address our blindness and lack of care.<br />
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At the same time, twelve step programmes suggest that the way to recovery from any addiction is to take personal responsibility and surrender to a higher power. Another way of looking at Mary's conversion experience is to see it as the ultimate 'wake-up call', a manifestation of her inner Wisdom that the way she had been living was ultimately self-destructive. For me, Mary's act of penitence can be seen as a heartfelt Yes to the Divine, a decision to choose a better way, responding to the call of One who offers unconditional love and understanding. Her life experience still speaks to me powerfully today, perhaps especially in our extroverted world which so often seems to undervalue silence, solitude and stillness. I too seek 'glorious rest', appreciating times when I can become a hermit for a while, although grateful that it doesn't require me to live alone in the desert for 70 years!<br />
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-73499044713167682462015-01-01T08:13:00.001-08:002015-01-01T08:21:33.417-08:00On Reading (and Watching): E. F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was my Dad who first mentioned <a href="http://literature.proquestlearning.com/quick/printItemById.do?ItemID=bio40038%20pqllit_ref_lib&Print=yes">E F Benson's</a> wonderful books to me. "If you ever come across a book called Miss Mapp," he said, "grab it." As I was just moving to a new job in a new town I had access to a new library and, by one of life's nice moments of synchronicity, it had a copy. This was the early eighties and I think the books must have been long out of print but around that time they were re-published by Black Swan in six jolly paperbacks. (They made a great Christmas present for my Dad!) Tom Holt wrote a couple of sequels and a very new Channel 4 did an excellent TV adaptation of the last 3 books by Gerald Savory. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Benson wrote his Mapp and Lucia series between 1920 and 1939 and they were hugely popular at the time. Original readers such as Noel Coward, Gertrude Lawrence and the poet W. H. Auden, famously said they "would pay anything for Lucia books". Miss Elizabeth Mapp and Mrs Emmeline Lucas were at first in two entirely separate spheres, each dominating their own small worlds of Tilling (based on Rye in Sussex) and Riseholme (based on the Cotswolds village of Broadway) respectively. The comic potential of bringing them together and giving each a new and more formidable foe is achieved in book four of the series, Mapp and Lucia, and the subsequent two. Apparently readers wrote to Benson begging him to allow Miss Mapp to win at least one round over Lucia but he never did. I think Gerald Savory paid homage to this in one scene he created for the Channel 4 series which was not in the original books: Mapp, played by Prunella Scales, and now married to Major Benjy, has a typically 'poisoned sweet' go at Lucia, played by Geraldine McEwan, on the eve of her marriage to her long-standing friend, the effeminate Georgie Pillson. As she leaves Mallards House (once her home and now Lucia's) she twirls her handbag in triumph. It's a nice touch (perhaps also a coded reference to then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher?). I regularly watch my DVDs of this series and I recently re-read all six of the books, so you can definitely say that I'm a Benson fan!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now the BBC has offered a new adaptation, with a screenplay by Steve Pemberton. Given the popularity of the 1984 Channel 4 version it was important that Pemberton felt a sense of creative freedom from the constraints of that success. He certainly takes a lot more liberties with the stories and plot-lines than Savory did but that could work if the essence of the thing is captured. Savory left quite a bit out but those who knew the books could spot the various ways he hinted at these points without it interfering with the re-telling. Pemberton's version has received good reviews - both Michael Pilgrim in the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/11316522/mapp-and-lucia-episode-one-review.html">Telegraph </a>and Julia Raeside in the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/jan/01/mapp-and-lucia-review-richardson-chancellor">Guardian </a>like it. Raeside makes a valid point about not keeping either the books or the previous adaptation under glass. As a self-confessed fan of Savory's screening, I was aware of my prejudices and tried to keep an open mind. I'm sure there was room for a good, fresh adaptation; sadly this wasn't it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is really nothing to like in Pemberton's Tilling, apart from the genuine Rye location. I wonder what a viewer coming to the series with no prior knowledge would make of it all. The main problem is that it just isn't funny. All Benson's subtlety and charm have been squeezed out and replaced with a kind of <i>grand-guignol</i>. There's an over-reliance on contorted facial expressions, with incessant music playing over the dialogue, which has little of Benson's sparkling wit. It's as if we are being asked, do you get it yet, do you get it? Well, frankly, no. Pemberton's changes, while not necessarily inconsistent with the characters, seemed mostly unnecessary and underplayed the brilliance of the words, situations and characters Benson actually did create. <span style="line-height: 115%;">There was a good switch in Episode 1 when Lucia performs a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>tableau</i> of Elizabeth
I (as she had in Riseholme) at her Garden Fete in Elizabeth Mapp's home Mallards, which she is renting, rather than
the more accurate Britannia; this allows for a nice moment when Mapp thinks
that the cries of 'Elizabeth' are for her. I think Benson might well have
appreciated this. </span>However, we then have Episode 2 almost entirely taken up with a story about an Indian Guru who turns out to be a London chef. It's a good story but it occurs in Queen Lucia, a book set in Riseholme with other characters. It seems strange to twist the plot so much to include this story when there is so much going on in "Tilling proper". It surely can't be just to introduce Georgie Pillson's two rather grotesque sisters, who never appear in Tilling in the books and seemed more like characters from Pemberton's earlier success, the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0184135/" style="font-style: italic;">League of Gentleman</a>?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjU5GJQ-UCtjbZ8DQO3SsUPEmwZTNf5uCGg-PqZdqwSqgdVUzngPS0gdHVgPPNzW6QMfuWWw3EYn0Jm-CXzJLSJAQUV5709UAFOMQB6Cg528AVnXL0J90frbZHyv8QzWJut2-S1ohURO2h/s1600/Queen+Lucia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjU5GJQ-UCtjbZ8DQO3SsUPEmwZTNf5uCGg-PqZdqwSqgdVUzngPS0gdHVgPPNzW6QMfuWWw3EYn0Jm-CXzJLSJAQUV5709UAFOMQB6Cg528AVnXL0J90frbZHyv8QzWJut2-S1ohURO2h/s1600/Queen+Lucia.jpg" height="200" width="122" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5BB03d3u5EZJrgUheJTivj_gxQ0BpfNWUixFnGPyymJcWQl3tgybnGu2IRhlEQQQ_OxldgrPwABLQZ9KkEkoWJ1ZxBZjEp96dK9lyZ-NYGdq-ZyCDN6UcHQSZ80EBtJUpfTBHqjjJFX16/s1600/Lucia+in+London.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5BB03d3u5EZJrgUheJTivj_gxQ0BpfNWUixFnGPyymJcWQl3tgybnGu2IRhlEQQQ_OxldgrPwABLQZ9KkEkoWJ1ZxBZjEp96dK9lyZ-NYGdq-ZyCDN6UcHQSZ80EBtJUpfTBHqjjJFX16/s1600/Lucia+in+London.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB5F3jt8gv_R4wKN7KuohdyZqIgWxbFEKYc74oF_UqlPijCHSMl6nG-h05ztly27HZ-0DwHo411tOkFijZ6SadJGaLktdnxbC0CI5QTcBddvOaWg_1LFP4v7TICj9Kth8eD1i__9Z_evFA/s1600/Trouble+for+Lucia.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB5F3jt8gv_R4wKN7KuohdyZqIgWxbFEKYc74oF_UqlPijCHSMl6nG-h05ztly27HZ-0DwHo411tOkFijZ6SadJGaLktdnxbC0CI5QTcBddvOaWg_1LFP4v7TICj9Kth8eD1i__9Z_evFA/s1600/Trouble+for+Lucia.JPG" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In general, the cast were also a real letdown. One review said that the players all looked like they wanted to be there but I disagree. It didn't look like they were enjoying themselves at all, or if they were, it wasn't due to anything to do with Benson. Neither Miranda Richardson as Mapp nor Anna Chancellor as Lucia seem to have really got stuck into the essence of their characters' motivations and purposes, partly because Pemberton has ditched the progressive nature of Benson's narrative and muddies them around in ever-decreasing circles. I think Richardson is trying to be appropriately nasty and Chancellor to convey Lucia's insecurities but lingering shots of knotted eyebrows and protruding teeth don't really cut it. On the plus side, it was good to have the vicar's wife back, Mrs Evie Bartlett (missing in the Channel 4 adaptation), nicely played by Poppy Miller. Mark Gatiss as Major Benjy and Nicholas Woodeson as Mr Wyse also showed potential,but weren't really allowed to fly. Pemberton's casting of himself as an uber-insipid Georgie Pillson was uninspired. The fact that he has left out significant characters and plot-lines, such as those involving Lucia's purchase of Grebe and its subsequent exchange for Mapp's home Mallards, the opera diva Olga Braceley and a certain Cotswolds' recipe for Lobster, suggests he is hoping to come back for a second go. Let's hope not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Too much Pemberton, too much <i>League of Gentleman, </i>not enough Benson: what a disappointment the BBC's new Mapp and Lucia has turned out to be. I won't be downloading Episode 3. You'd be much better off reading the original books. Indeed, I strongly encourage you to do so. </span></div>
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-60594138342253140272014-01-01T05:10:00.002-08:002014-01-01T05:26:47.277-08:00Rumi sums it up<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #222222;">Things are
such,</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #222222;">that
someone lifting a cup, or watching the rain,</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #222222;">petting a
dog,</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #222222;">or
singing, just singing-</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #222222;">could be
doing as much for this universe</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #222222;">as anyone.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi">Rumi</a></span></div>
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Rumi is such a fantastic poet, an in-depth cartographer of the human psyche. I've been sitting with this particular poem for several months now and find it hugely comforting. To illustrate it here are some pictures from time spent on Shetland and Fair Isle. Wishing all who read this a very Happy New Year.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi"></a></span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-16042958447603194682013-06-27T02:43:00.000-07:002013-06-27T02:43:36.355-07:00Summer Haikus<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Not quite sure what happened in May, but here are a few summer haikus for June. They were written a while ago, of course, as we haven't seen much summer so far this year...<br />
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Along the <st1:place w:st="on">Isis</st1:place></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
punts make their lazy way to</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Folly</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype></st1:place> and tea.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
II</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hot summer days when</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
peacock butterflies gather</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
on the buddleia.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
III</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At Mortehoe we stop</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
for ice-cream and to caress</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the ginger church cat.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
IV</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Long hot summer days.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The weather breaks on the day</div>
the exams finish.<br />
<br />
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<br /></div>
Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-8133556471485609412013-04-30T11:27:00.001-07:002013-04-30T11:27:37.285-07:00In Davy Jones’ Locker<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDjf8oS31yxQGCHeftVFHYw0f3xfyMvZeN3XSBs1_n_E9TM4M72bS21KuXn52t7TN7Rr7SjmEYVzmZ_z6QvBNeM8s3k6Utvan8wr-Mm3nVqChnD2_BGxxI_6iEY3S1_9rBvHOsQgbrY2t2/s1600/June+2007+009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDjf8oS31yxQGCHeftVFHYw0f3xfyMvZeN3XSBs1_n_E9TM4M72bS21KuXn52t7TN7Rr7SjmEYVzmZ_z6QvBNeM8s3k6Utvan8wr-Mm3nVqChnD2_BGxxI_6iEY3S1_9rBvHOsQgbrY2t2/s320/June+2007+009.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">In
Davy Jones’ locker is:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">a
tray of mint juleps,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">a
bunch of bright tulips,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">a
meerschaum pipe<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">and
an octopus;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">coracles
used by the saints,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">one
or two missing persons,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">decayed,
a conch-shell horn,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">an
armchair, frayed,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">and
a trombone;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">five
thousand gold ducats,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">a
plate of Spanish doubloons,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">an
oyster or two <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">and
a poltroon;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Ovaltine
cans,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">three
fly-by-nights,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">twelve
anti-macassars<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">and
sixty-five different<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">varieties
of seaweed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Jones'_Locker">Davy Jones's locker</a> is a euphemism for the resting place for sailors drowned at sea and their possessions.</span></div>
</div>
Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-91396342277545595162013-03-30T10:38:00.000-07:002013-03-30T10:38:01.566-07:00On Reading: The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen by Graham Greene<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="line-height: 200%;">Actually it’s only the girl for
whom they are invisible. Eight of them, having a fish supper in a 1960s English
restaurant, bowing and smiling and occasionally conversing in </span><i style="line-height: 200%;">their incomprehensible tongue</i><span style="line-height: 200%;">, and she
hardly notices them.</span> <span style="line-height: 200%;">She has a good reason, of course.
Perhaps two. She is dining with her look-alike fiancé, </span><i style="line-height: 200%;">two miniatures hanging side by side</i><span style="line-height: 200%;">. And she has just been given a
£500 advance for her first novel. She imagines life in St Tropez, the boyfriend
writing as well. He thinks the family’s wine trade offers more stability. </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">Greene’s narrator/self is shocked
to learn that she is one of his own profession. </span><i style="line-height: 200%;">She deserved better of life</i><span style="line-height: 200%;">, he thinks, and wants to warn her that
a first novel called </span><i style="line-height: 200%;">The Chelsea Set</i><span style="line-height: 200%;">
is no basis for her plans. Writing will get harder not easier and perhaps her
publisher is a liar. </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">With breathtaking economy of words
and simplicity of setting, in just four pages Greene skilfully creates three
disparate characters, gradually unpicking the lovers’ relationship and the
writer’s disillusioned life. Conversation and</span><span style="line-height: 200%;">
</span><span style="line-height: 200%;">thoughts bounce between the bobbing, smiling invisible gentlemen like a
ball in a squash court, only occasionally interrupted by a flurry of Japanese.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div>
Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-50674156381241467802013-02-25T03:05:00.001-08:002013-02-25T03:05:39.012-08:00February in Norfolk<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The
mist swirls in at Holkham, gulls cry up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">A
curlew calls, a plover turns up stones.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Among
the dunes I find a set of bones,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">a
piece of glass, a shell shaped like a cup.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">A
row of beach huts painted pink and green<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">leads
to a shoreline dense with razor shells.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">A
flock of twite and shorelark swoops and swells,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I
shake sand from a starfish bright and clean.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We
climb to the gazebo stair by stair,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">look
down on woods where snowdrops pool and splash.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">With
snap of wings and bright vermilion flash,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">the
redshank’s warning pipe disturbs the air.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">At
dusk a topaz barn owl hunts for prey,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">its
face a ghostly mask of Pierrot white.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Across
the salt marsh, as it soars in flight,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">we
give our silent thanks for such a day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Susanna Reece</span></div>
</div>
Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-11870129494459273982013-02-02T02:03:00.000-08:002014-05-15T09:58:52.607-07:00Candlemas Poems<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>February 2nd</b><br />
<br />
A mass of crocus candles<br />
purple and yellow flames<br />
set alight at dawn with<br />
a lingering deep caress<br />
from the Creator.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>The Holding Cross</b><br />
<br />
The wooden cross fits<br />
in my hand like a corkscrew<br />
opening up wine.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-10475079275297076342013-01-04T10:15:00.002-08:002013-01-04T10:15:22.832-08:00On Reading: Puffin Books 3 - the Lost Tribes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQWC3RwXHUIhyphenhyphenp5clS7D3gUOqQa1Lg8X_q_atljV8r4QCgxqa1jFH1YFu4RHytKbPR0z024riaXHBbiwXKKnUgXLoSxgxZIh_BnWKY9M62nyvGh9UFfDr6i9TsQGTAgV0AgCXgDXcE-Cu3/s1600/IMG_2527.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/AVvXsEhQWC3RwXHUIhyphenhyphenp5clS7D3gUOqQa1Lg8X_q_atljV8r4QCgxqa1jFH1YFu4RHytKbPR0z024riaXHBbiwXKKnUgXLoSxgxZIh_BnWKY9M62nyvGh9UFfDr6i9TsQGTAgV0AgCXgDXcE-Cu3/s320/IMG_2527.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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In the early 1960s Puffin Books published a number of books focussing on Native Americans and their traditions and practices. By then, of course, the genocidal devastation that had been dealt to the Indian tribes of North America since the arrival of the 'White Man' in the fifteenth century was almost complete and it was far too late to turn back the tide. Two of the books described here are based on true stories about children, a boy and a girl respectively, who were the last members of their tribes. The names of these tribes were once legion, and it is the names that are often all that is left - in places such as Biloxi, Cheyenne, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Miami, Missouri, Omaha, Susquehanna) or in the name of a recreational vehicle (Winnebago), which is an horrific appropriation when you come to think about it. This tragic history is well described in all its horror in Jon E. Lewis's book, the <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mammoth-Book-Native-Americans-Inhabitants/dp/1841195936">Mammoth Book of Native Americans</a>, which I am currently reading. But Lewis endeavours to be even-handed and he also includes writings that demonstrate the wisdom and spirituality of native peoples. This is the focus of these Puffin books, too.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNalslR2gPddNG3XYGwzRx-vx8iO_ubY6KBibMSCSf-nL0W33y4rdRjTD8GjzV35xamKwoVmgNJ86YVF0VYZqg1CI9QZAwmKY9Q9iLh41RB_0r21EyMS1PFEegyMOQB7qQ7eRqV6x_j7rz/s1600/IMG_3787.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/AVvXsEgNalslR2gPddNG3XYGwzRx-vx8iO_ubY6KBibMSCSf-nL0W33y4rdRjTD8GjzV35xamKwoVmgNJ86YVF0VYZqg1CI9QZAwmKY9Q9iLh41RB_0r21EyMS1PFEegyMOQB7qQ7eRqV6x_j7rz/s320/IMG_3787.JPG" width="320" /></a><i>Ishi, Last of his Tribe</i> is a non-fiction book about the man (which is what <i>Ishi</i> means) who was literally the last member of the Yahi people of the Yana tribe of northern California. His ancestors were wiped out by gold prospectors in the 1860s but for a time, he and his sister, parents and grandparents managed to survive. When Ishi was found alone in 1911 his memories were recorded through the intervention of staff at the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology of the University of California. The Museum Curator was Alfred Kroeber and his wife Theodora Kroeber is the author of this book. (An interesting side note is that the Kroebers are the parents of the author <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin">Ursula Le Guin</a>.) Although this is a desperately sad book to read, it is also hauntingly beautiful. As the introduction says, "Everything Ishi did and knew belonged to a tradition which had been built up over thousands of years... Life was grim and sad for them in many ways, and it became more so as the years passed. But they could still find happiness in each other, in the trees, hills, animals and birds which they loved, and in following the way of their ancestors... It's a story of tragic destruction but one which leaves us grateful that we've been able to preserve some knowledge of the Yana, and with the hope that something of their wisdom may have come down to us too." There is more information about the true story of Ishi <a href="http://history.library.ucsf.edu/ishi.html">here</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishi">here</a>. A film of his story was also made in 1992 and can be watched free on-line <a href="http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/ishi_the_last_yahi">here</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq1S3lqRlctnF30QscF2FwePa_0EQnsQHTA8xTndAZ3YgQuFMtPBFpusUa1cPBLSa-69Kb8PorNtF2P7E4cvGnvOhnem4jSWP2e-SFI9oT_XQjaSJFrSK-XaTH0d3hAaZ9jtL_hQhax4gM/s1600/IMG_3789.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/AVvXsEjq1S3lqRlctnF30QscF2FwePa_0EQnsQHTA8xTndAZ3YgQuFMtPBFpusUa1cPBLSa-69Kb8PorNtF2P7E4cvGnvOhnem4jSWP2e-SFI9oT_XQjaSJFrSK-XaTH0d3hAaZ9jtL_hQhax4gM/s320/IMG_3789.JPG" width="320" /></a><i>Island of the Blue Dolphins</i> by Scott O'Dell is a novel about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juana_Maria">Lost (or Lone) Woman of San Nicolas</a>, who survived alone on an island off the coast of California for eighteen years. The story contains fascinating detail of how one resourceful human female preserved her life using the traditional knowledge of her people, the close connection she was able to establish with her environment, and her companionship with a wild dog; even though these same dogs had killed her brother. A film of this novel, which won the Newbery Award for Children's Literature in 1960, was made in 1964.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkcZw0C-PQftbsOILoky7_bVOeFr3qTerZYD5mQd27MtjDSgFTKcLYUEVvmK9f_YJldlw-4iryC-SkFdPLYXMJaBEq9fYEoM9rshuDnbvbm_SADTeZ8rLeO8rAvBtzvakA3X1vIeT5eDeU/s1600/IMG_3788.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkcZw0C-PQftbsOILoky7_bVOeFr3qTerZYD5mQd27MtjDSgFTKcLYUEVvmK9f_YJldlw-4iryC-SkFdPLYXMJaBEq9fYEoM9rshuDnbvbm_SADTeZ8rLeO8rAvBtzvakA3X1vIeT5eDeU/s320/IMG_3788.JPG" width="320" /></a><i>Antelope Singer</i> by <a href="http://library.du.edu/dupedia/ruth-murray-underhill">Ruth M. Underhill</a> is a novel about an encounter between a white boy, Tad Hunt, on the wagon train to California and a sick <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paiute_people">Paiute</a> boy, Nummer, who has been left behind by his family. Nummer helps Tad's family to survive the winter, eventually rediscovering his own family who share their food and some of their traditions with the Hunts. Underhill was an anthropologist and lived on Indian reservations for many years. Her novel confronts the prejudice, distrust and bad feeling between the two peoples then shows how respectful encounter can bring a new understanding. And, as is common in children's novels of this period, it is the two boys who show the adults the way, mainly because they haven't fully learned the prejudice and mistrust in the first place. (As the song from the musical South Pacific goes, you've got to be carefully taught to fear and hate*.) At the end of the book, Tad's Pa says " 'If I was writing advice to pioneers like some fellows do, I'd tell every last one of them to spend a winter with Indians before tackling the wilderness. Half the trouble and starvation they go through now just wouldn't happen. And they wouldn't need to take half the stuff they do. They could learn to make most things out of sticks and stones.' 'They <i>could</i>,' Ma said. 'Anyway, I'm glad I've learned.' " It is the boys Tad and Nummer who have taught the adults a new way. When it comes for the time for the two families to part: "They all stood silent. Tad understood now why Indians didn't say good-bye. It would be only a fluff of words. The two groups stood looking at each other. Between their hearts went the thoughts they had no language to express. <i>You have done much for us. Now our lives will be different. We thank you. We thank you. We will never forget."</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2oJh10DXfqUMQYrFIx-axNDWU6UxQkIl4f5SBP3YyF7Sqtjkz5Qk_XbTPIJ6XHPjDoe_-ErhSmYX1H_lPxiJiSfd0pO-1y-CszZMpvpdC_WgOw0diiyAYbKzUOtb0tF0mXc_ngdr3W3I3/s1600/IMG_3790.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/AVvXsEg2oJh10DXfqUMQYrFIx-axNDWU6UxQkIl4f5SBP3YyF7Sqtjkz5Qk_XbTPIJ6XHPjDoe_-ErhSmYX1H_lPxiJiSfd0pO-1y-CszZMpvpdC_WgOw0diiyAYbKzUOtb0tF0mXc_ngdr3W3I3/s320/IMG_3790.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
One final book I'd like to mention, is <i>The Incredible Journey </i>by Sheila Burnford. This was not published by Puffin Books but it is of the same vintage as the others, 1960, and was also made into a popular film by Disney in 1963. The film is now much more famous than the book but running through the original words of Burnford's tale about three animals who travel thousands of miles to return to their home is a deep love and knowledge of the North American wilderness. At one point the animals are desperately hungry when they come across an Indian camp fire where they receive food and kindness.<br />
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Burnford devotes nearly a whole chapter to this scene of 'warmth and brightness', where "The scent on the evening breeze was a fragrant compound of roasting rice, wild-duck stew and wood smoke." As the animals depart, "Only the woman who had first befriended (the old white dog) called out softly, in the tongue of her people, a farewell to the traveller... That night they became immortal, had they know or cared, for the ancient woman had recognized the old dog at once by his colour and companion: he was the White Dog of the Ojibways, the virtuous White Dog of Omen, whose appearance heralds either disaster or good fortune. The Spirits had sent him, hungry and wounded, to test tribal hospitality...He had been made welcome, fed and succoured: the omen would prove fortunate." It is disappointing that this scene did not make it into the movie.<br />
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It would be easy to criticise these books for being somewhat nostalgic for a lost world when it was safely too late to reverse the trend. But it is to be hoped that they contributed at least in part to bringing an awareness of the wisdom of these traditions to a generation of children growing up in the 1960s and 1970s in order that, like the families in <i>The Antelope Singer, </i>we too will never forget.<br />
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*<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">You've got to be taught</span><br />
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To hate and fear,<br />You've got to be taught<br />From year to year,<br />It's got to be drummed<br />In your dear little ear<br />You've got to be carefully taught.</div>
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You've got to be taught to be afraid<br />Of people whose eyes are oddly made,<br />And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,<br />You've got to be carefully taught.</div>
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You've got to be taught before it's too late,<br />Before you are six or seven or eight,<br />To hate all the people your relatives hate,<br />You've got to be carefully taught!</div>
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-9094797065580440022012-12-24T08:43:00.004-08:002012-12-24T08:43:54.566-08:00Why are we waiting?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9IhQE5oPcPfYHVYBTUg8hSO2oqmjxV-NUPr2pKE-0fZ3lZgReLqmT_6INTy9QGuCMLg_a_nftnq64KHIiPOSrY3KFY-k9jfYqFqvXrcehT35s4MPUARS_fPcSw2bvUX_CToR6dpFyNsQK/s1600/IMG_3560.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/AVvXsEj9IhQE5oPcPfYHVYBTUg8hSO2oqmjxV-NUPr2pKE-0fZ3lZgReLqmT_6INTy9QGuCMLg_a_nftnq64KHIiPOSrY3KFY-k9jfYqFqvXrcehT35s4MPUARS_fPcSw2bvUX_CToR6dpFyNsQK/s320/IMG_3560.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #555544; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And so the world didn't end on Friday, although a lot of people have felt the power of this year's Winter Solstice as a time of alignment, transition and transformation. It seems like every generation of human beings has some notion that theirs will be the last, that an apocalyptic event will occur or a rescuing Messiah will come to signal the end-time. None of us really know when or whether that will happen and in the meantime we have to deal with the world as it is. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #555544; line-height: 18px;">I've blogged </span><a href="http://susannareeceknits.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/knitted-advent.html" style="line-height: 18px;">before</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #555544; line-height: 18px;"> about the way in which Advent can get pushed out by the run-up to Christmas, just as the days from Christmas to the start of the New Year can get lost as an in-between time, the dog days of a year that it has already passed its Best Before date. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #555544; line-height: 18px;">And yet this is an important beginning time. For some it is the start of the church year, and for all of us it is an opportunity to "open to new light from whatever source it may come", as the </span><a href="http://qfp.quakerweb.org.uk/qfp1-02.html" style="line-height: 18px;">Quaker Advices and Queries</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #555544; line-height: 18px;"> have it. I always like to remember that Christmas <u>starts</u> on December 25 (or January 7 in the Orthodox church tradition) and continues until the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany_(holiday)">Epiphany</a>, or Twelfth Night, twelve days later. The Christmas Carol, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Days_of_Christmas_(song)">The Twelve Days of Christmas</a>, is an example of this tradition. In our house we mark it by exchanging gifts of DVDs from Boxing Day until January 6 (they take up less space than partridges, geese, swans, milkmaids and drummers etc and are somewhat cheaper!). </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #555544; line-height: 17.962963104248047px;">O</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #555544; line-height: 17.962963104248047px;">f course a lot of us have questions about the traditional Christmas story and whether it has meaning for us in the modern world. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #555544; line-height: 17.981481552124023px;">Maybe these days more of us are merely continuing</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #555544; line-height: 17.962963104248047px;"> earlier Pagan traditions of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule" style="line-height: 17.962963104248047px;">Yule</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #555544; line-height: 17.962963104248047px;"> and other festivals associated with the solstice and the seasons the natural world. </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #555544;"><span style="line-height: 17.94444465637207px;">And yet for me, the rhythms of the Church calendar also remain relevant, because it is here that we can encounter the call to personal transformation and growth. Although it is good that people no longer feel that they have to attend church out of dutiful dull observance, as human beings we nevertheless have spiritual health needs. It is in meeting these that we find meaning in our lives, as Victor Frankl famously showed in his book <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man's_Search_for_Meaning">Man's Search for Meaning</a>. </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #555544;"><span style="line-height: 17.94444465637207px;">I don't want a life-denying and ultimately unhealthy secularism to triumph. There are many who really need to hear the message of how deeply they are held by a loving and abundant God, or whatever other words we might use for this: Light, Source, Spirit, the Divine, Other, perhaps just a sense of a Higher Self beyond our personal Ego. But for this to happen within the current manifestations of the Christian church, it must find ways to put its house in order. </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #555544;"><span style="line-height: 17.94444465637207px;">In this time of waiting for the light of the Christ-child there is an opportunity for the church too to have a new beginning. </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #555544;"><span style="line-height: 17.94444465637207px;">Here are my three Christmas wishes for a waiting world: a real humility and </span><span style="line-height: 17.925926208496094px;">penitential</span><span style="line-height: 17.94444465637207px;"> action to bring justice for all church victims of child abuse</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #555544; line-height: 17.94444465637207px;">; a recognition that spiritual marriage can encompass gay couples; and a final turning away from the deep-seated misogyny that keeps women out of the priesthood. The world cannot understand why we are waiting. I'm not sure that the babe about to arrive in the manger will either.</span></span><br />
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4855012507225387861.post-87271812247553867922012-11-30T12:20:00.000-08:002012-11-30T12:20:55.188-08:00A few pictures from Belgrade<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm in Belgrade for work for a few weeks. Here are some pictures...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXPD0OnFCq7QtXUbJJr-UgZIdgLc-hrem2aeNYCCya-9COwYZ8TbCn29MyX9AFbd4duVv3QqPE6TcCEkiCPkZ7V2JG6l8qfTBeOed7b40QlfmSGbasKmoopTDol1BRByoCkTP0oM_c2rJ3/s1600/IMG_3598.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXPD0OnFCq7QtXUbJJr-UgZIdgLc-hrem2aeNYCCya-9COwYZ8TbCn29MyX9AFbd4duVv3QqPE6TcCEkiCPkZ7V2JG6l8qfTBeOed7b40QlfmSGbasKmoopTDol1BRByoCkTP0oM_c2rJ3/s320/IMG_3598.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lion over-looking the Rivers Sava and Danube from Kalemegdan Fortress</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnFsJcDx47wOvYoWOrVnZODtfIcSg6MJ4NQ4b0lseZLqgoI5a7lUq8Pt8GdozmkmPFdqhpmWcGZhSfd-fJMwN_gD1ZPw0qdyMNgvttjd3ITQyTDDHSUv68TgAwXzG2ZDG0R_FWwPF91wVI/s1600/IMG_3603.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnFsJcDx47wOvYoWOrVnZODtfIcSg6MJ4NQ4b0lseZLqgoI5a7lUq8Pt8GdozmkmPFdqhpmWcGZhSfd-fJMwN_gD1ZPw0qdyMNgvttjd3ITQyTDDHSUv68TgAwXzG2ZDG0R_FWwPF91wVI/s320/IMG_3603.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Where the two rivers meet</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAFRgi-vv-6U6cABiEDAiMy_KPxrTuODxM0UzATi_tMNb2RM7UcNzy_MGDFrxDJ5GanwNvIsxTmzjemzRX6kazeto7P17GSXL_Lm6Xxl_YvHF4KUXC9NFAONwirTwgxYkbLOHqSCSHXrG6/s1600/IMG_3604.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAFRgi-vv-6U6cABiEDAiMy_KPxrTuODxM0UzATi_tMNb2RM7UcNzy_MGDFrxDJ5GanwNvIsxTmzjemzRX6kazeto7P17GSXL_Lm6Xxl_YvHF4KUXC9NFAONwirTwgxYkbLOHqSCSHXrG6/s320/IMG_3604.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Belgrade skyline</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/AVvXsEgQaOBSdpaoPCOKM6oOAxmZtHoPnKSYc_5Ua4maUst5YAHRmAnorP4K8nzv1isk0PaTssC6f8AAnoGSJa_3A1BfN7V0Mk4wi7Ji0uoTTmF5lpysQoxqKmf1W83iCa26VXLswe9axs2l894Z/s1600/IMG_3494.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQaOBSdpaoPCOKM6oOAxmZtHoPnKSYc_5Ua4maUst5YAHRmAnorP4K8nzv1isk0PaTssC6f8AAnoGSJa_3A1BfN7V0Mk4wi7Ji0uoTTmF5lpysQoxqKmf1W83iCa26VXLswe9axs2l894Z/s320/IMG_3494.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Church</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<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/AVvXsEgbfzp4lRso50kh1w1ToD-tFnwkHC8Gw35op9kAqV1reYZYWvsSH5UMFetvnW6txa2Bdp_6N4yyX6aWor9VI10JSZU0p-NpVXjI5DisYlADCcl_4kOu-xYWnnY0c4HFeaBKNd3AwSNpNyA7/s1600/IMG_3384.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbfzp4lRso50kh1w1ToD-tFnwkHC8Gw35op9kAqV1reYZYWvsSH5UMFetvnW6txa2Bdp_6N4yyX6aWor9VI10JSZU0p-NpVXjI5DisYlADCcl_4kOu-xYWnnY0c4HFeaBKNd3AwSNpNyA7/s320/IMG_3384.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Mosque</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/AVvXsEiSYpsbOLClB2gaCTp-5dwrWspqSeuF0BGsH01PPw0viCOOy8XIx9vzzwPbkz5qyQAYCfn_0mo6jdO2-rTu3L8bLR0oEUTmh-cxgmzKgY-14sMjSIJtp58HvkGSs3vUeJH1XVYGB1pSqBKi/s1600/IMG_3457.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSYpsbOLClB2gaCTp-5dwrWspqSeuF0BGsH01PPw0viCOOy8XIx9vzzwPbkz5qyQAYCfn_0mo6jdO2-rTu3L8bLR0oEUTmh-cxgmzKgY-14sMjSIJtp58HvkGSs3vUeJH1XVYGB1pSqBKi/s320/IMG_3457.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Synagogue</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjowyvwvjNjtMxBzpmw7g5Fs-1JN8p2GRAV2TA999CyQne3L4lVaiZiE7QfPFvQLvMMK0QxwzvJOpK9bF4T07yfGPNYbmuTZHnoR_AgNeSEFiwoTWoZYHnOQWAQFTqVqogwN9E_UVvLshGT/s1600/IMG_3385.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjowyvwvjNjtMxBzpmw7g5Fs-1JN8p2GRAV2TA999CyQne3L4lVaiZiE7QfPFvQLvMMK0QxwzvJOpK9bF4T07yfGPNYbmuTZHnoR_AgNeSEFiwoTWoZYHnOQWAQFTqVqogwN9E_UVvLshGT/s320/IMG_3385.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTdB7vQa_RJoDFLCbo-GjBp0BuQD5Ye_zVfou0I2dHnhlFSNhDqblUzWkL_hze5YliFpCUE3TCy1iMxkr6cJz0Q-Z7yZsGg1cMhFsNIfOZkucr1uehXS14OA9ABseoc4NSoqCR-S_opiAQ/s1600/IMG_3386.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTdB7vQa_RJoDFLCbo-GjBp0BuQD5Ye_zVfou0I2dHnhlFSNhDqblUzWkL_hze5YliFpCUE3TCy1iMxkr6cJz0Q-Z7yZsGg1cMhFsNIfOZkucr1uehXS14OA9ABseoc4NSoqCR-S_opiAQ/s320/IMG_3386.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<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/AVvXsEgT7QeEFNXEqEnhRncNvTCOndFhMzfurbzStuQX4K2PVlLL_6nxXAPu1rVCw8xno8eyxCg1bMZu-GEkexxDW411MPUZ7cdzeimhc2FoxN4FxYQiLeKMDpId-5Fdqe4i_ZTYa4b-XmqnqzGK/s1600/IMG_3441.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT7QeEFNXEqEnhRncNvTCOndFhMzfurbzStuQX4K2PVlLL_6nxXAPu1rVCw8xno8eyxCg1bMZu-GEkexxDW411MPUZ7cdzeimhc2FoxN4FxYQiLeKMDpId-5Fdqe4i_ZTYa4b-XmqnqzGK/s320/IMG_3441.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from the office</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<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/AVvXsEjduAr6O0CpQaiSXX_J7I3QNCb8bhrw4LnM2P3EAKJdn3l2hfDQ4RKBedWD1oAdIk35xIVej7AE32D7FZyBK020FuirGRyhBs8986UCfLBl87dr4ZWR0rXs3-mMS_eMZQQq88-0HRyObcLC/s1600/IMG_3442.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjduAr6O0CpQaiSXX_J7I3QNCb8bhrw4LnM2P3EAKJdn3l2hfDQ4RKBedWD1oAdIk35xIVej7AE32D7FZyBK020FuirGRyhBs8986UCfLBl87dr4ZWR0rXs3-mMS_eMZQQq88-0HRyObcLC/s320/IMG_3442.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My favourite picture in the office</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5PHW0Im7w5aBhIXk24sgZorLshailyfXoojjFaydSxrNmJSmiJFY5hqD6YetJx0fUVS3mWb4quZX-GZrtMO8THFYaKQcjCtja4mzePy9Yef8SyxPgNSnoTN9hrexP1KT-Sogmp1s22P87/s1600/IMG_3443.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5PHW0Im7w5aBhIXk24sgZorLshailyfXoojjFaydSxrNmJSmiJFY5hqD6YetJx0fUVS3mWb4quZX-GZrtMO8THFYaKQcjCtja4mzePy9Yef8SyxPgNSnoTN9hrexP1KT-Sogmp1s22P87/s320/IMG_3443.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<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/AVvXsEiX7IyPXXF3EJeaqw_tU4E23uH_rUntNDy_se-GaETrz56kV4Gfn21jyyDl1HhHc3t06GVrX3XKE_xSpWN2bn5th6L3C6zL2PuHz98xfKQHJ7sxDKORkRZouqJcRfagvupr1S8qWNmAuSyQ/s1600/IMG_3448.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX7IyPXXF3EJeaqw_tU4E23uH_rUntNDy_se-GaETrz56kV4Gfn21jyyDl1HhHc3t06GVrX3XKE_xSpWN2bn5th6L3C6zL2PuHz98xfKQHJ7sxDKORkRZouqJcRfagvupr1S8qWNmAuSyQ/s320/IMG_3448.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Why is the Serbian for hairdresser the same as the Norwegian?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<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/AVvXsEhDutKwda8jncmhfF_EQDiTMuOaIvhT1KpNpzO3RWNSWY0rMjwVsFD5N_56XDhlu-tyma5TVZHyXWfIwyrYWgZ5KOTmxKUB1KtqSmjcDs07BaEMBF9Q630CLPgAEYsW8NLyS-CyH7rzYrX4/s1600/IMG_3540.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDutKwda8jncmhfF_EQDiTMuOaIvhT1KpNpzO3RWNSWY0rMjwVsFD5N_56XDhlu-tyma5TVZHyXWfIwyrYWgZ5KOTmxKUB1KtqSmjcDs07BaEMBF9Q630CLPgAEYsW8NLyS-CyH7rzYrX4/s320/IMG_3540.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Turkish Coffee - Ottoman influence</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhda46XED1y11MKWvTGse_k0qCXbMvqNkie4lcmtczzdIGtEVBFfZYR2aGFSxWmz6jSGenCmFpGTnVlbYWHboRMx7OAZHjXQFX-N52xyM07MQANXWLIGksRLIl7XHX-z2DYTmGMLkzknwT0/s1600/IMG_3541.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhda46XED1y11MKWvTGse_k0qCXbMvqNkie4lcmtczzdIGtEVBFfZYR2aGFSxWmz6jSGenCmFpGTnVlbYWHboRMx7OAZHjXQFX-N52xyM07MQANXWLIGksRLIl7XHX-z2DYTmGMLkzknwT0/s320/IMG_3541.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<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/AVvXsEgoy7bs2fJEmTvr1qZh3QZ96kAL3j6rgLjfiLJ8MxYzjjNR1WI2y7MJPCQfFw4nFMQyLphYi4-7_xLAeNldw6gKP0dgbUkTKzy1QgFT0ZhP3krGgeFs_mNcI3Wj4jQgbBk2pYf1RzGFEVOw/s1600/IMG_3561.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoy7bs2fJEmTvr1qZh3QZ96kAL3j6rgLjfiLJ8MxYzjjNR1WI2y7MJPCQfFw4nFMQyLphYi4-7_xLAeNldw6gKP0dgbUkTKzy1QgFT0ZhP3krGgeFs_mNcI3Wj4jQgbBk2pYf1RzGFEVOw/s320/IMG_3561.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lunch spot</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<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/AVvXsEh-8SiW5mHGiQSPxGAQxZgw9ltCyqbnLqV7eZUuaFcY4Ys_p3oRS5lgnKQlYe1o_cM6DK40zVWLEGrMYQCeoG0hJIuP1z7ejhlJUc1qS9Ty1hyphenhyphenl6TB61aqgVwNZ-rEIwzB2GREwiJ-7CPvv/s1600/IMG_3575.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-8SiW5mHGiQSPxGAQxZgw9ltCyqbnLqV7eZUuaFcY4Ys_p3oRS5lgnKQlYe1o_cM6DK40zVWLEGrMYQCeoG0hJIuP1z7ejhlJUc1qS9Ty1hyphenhyphenl6TB61aqgVwNZ-rEIwzB2GREwiJ-7CPvv/s320/IMG_3575.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">US in Serbia</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/AVvXsEh9S7bXwKH0ENOZ20OpZHmBm6uhYk9sGRM-yzwp5HeE5D1TEgR32ElPD-9eQxjUKMKg_s9FYnmmyYV0yTHv-mF14iDLl3CaoFjL38Hrv-FocOhQ3jbz5A3K6XF7zkje5s5mYRLbE6hDu5_S/s1600/IMG_3594.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9S7bXwKH0ENOZ20OpZHmBm6uhYk9sGRM-yzwp5HeE5D1TEgR32ElPD-9eQxjUKMKg_s9FYnmmyYV0yTHv-mF14iDLl3CaoFjL38Hrv-FocOhQ3jbz5A3K6XF7zkje5s5mYRLbE6hDu5_S/s320/IMG_3594.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crazy Horse<br /></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><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG_Vt5DpxE2te63dV5Lytw7GOJLQfbl8R_eiz9LqLIVjx9Vk5oMuuQmEb4Blrn7kcEj_FqF4PqevWOicgKAFITMQbuZnSk8G3xv31WelxCaX6uZ-7PbzFCg8mrwWo_XcC2LdFY5dtYmSya/s1600/IMG_3590.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG_Vt5DpxE2te63dV5Lytw7GOJLQfbl8R_eiz9LqLIVjx9Vk5oMuuQmEb4Blrn7kcEj_FqF4PqevWOicgKAFITMQbuZnSk8G3xv31WelxCaX6uZ-7PbzFCg8mrwWo_XcC2LdFY5dtYmSya/s320/IMG_3590.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Not so Crazy Lion<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Susanna Reecehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15655416884271561625noreply@blogger.com0