They’re Back…..Remember Remember…. An Alternative Approach To Garden Gnomes….A Stunner….
by Bernie Bell - 07:40 on 11 October 2022
They’re Back…
It’s that time of year again – early morning or evening we hear ‘pop pop pop’ which means that the hunters are back. I’ve previously written of how I view this situation….. https://theorkneynews.scot/2020/12/06/a-response-to-the-dumping-of-carcasses-on-an-orkney-beach/
We recently went to Lochside Viewpoint https://theorkneynews.scot/2018/11/16/lochside-viewpoint-exactly-what-it-says-it-is/ to sit and eat our sandwiches after a walk and there were three Goose carcasses by the car park.
There were beautiful views - Swedish Whitebeam trees covered in Autumn berries - and…..three Goose carcasses.
Could be caused by Avian ‘Flu, but it is an all too common occurrence for the hunters to kill, or maim, and leave the carcasses where they fall.
‘Nuff said.
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Remember Remember….
This is going way back, to second year at Secondary School. We were about 12/13 years old. There was a girl called Catherine in our class. She was just a girl – quiet - just – Catherine. She had a best friend, Josephine.
Then it was Bonfire Night. Catherine didn’t come in to school. We were told that she’d had an accident with fireworks and was in hospital. She didn’t come back to school for months and months, and when she did, she wasn’t the same.
Not just physically – her face was scarred and it took a while for her hair to look right again – but also – she wasn’t herself.
She had been quiet before, but after the firework accident, she was….withdrawn. She kind-of……wasn’t there.
And she was frightened of everything. The least little thing made her jump.
She came back to school, and functioned, but she was never the same again. That may seem like a trite way to put it, but it’s true. That’s how it was, how she was. She was never the same again. She never went back to being Catherine.
And Josephine lost her best friend.
This is a story about fireworks.
And it’s true.
If fireworks didn’t exist, a lot of harm could be avoided. And, really, when it comes down to it, what would we be losing?
Think on…..
https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/11/05/hedgehogs-and-bonfires/
https://theorkneynews.scot/2020/11/01/fireworks-a-timely-reminder/
PS....
Something you can do to help...
https://www.rspca.org.uk/getinvolved/campaign/fireworks
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An Alternative Approach To Garden Gnomes….
I saw this…. .https://twitter.com/OrkneyPolice/status/1579141172861149187. It’s come to something when this is happening in Orkney – and ironic that the statue is of Buddha.
What do they plan to do with what they steal? We’re on a small island, so I wouldn’t have thought there would be much scope for a ‘black market’ in stolen goods? I suppose there are car boot sales - but, again, it’s a small place – folk are likely to recognize stolen items.
Years ago, when we lived near Stroud, I had lots of plant pots out the back of our house. A woman came by from ‘Stroud in Bloom’ asking would I want to take part. I didn’t - because I do what I do because I like to do it and folk might enjoy seeing the plants as they walked by – ‘Stroud in Bloom’ would mean all kinds of rules and regulations and restrictions and limitations – not my idea of gardening! And…well….I couldn’t be arsed!
The woman asked was I not worried about my “lovely” plant pots being stolen as that kind of thing happened regularly round there. I said no - that I put them out there - if they got stolen, they got stolen. I wasn’t prepared to not do something which was pleasing to myself and to those passing by because of the possibility of some little so-and-so passing by and - being a little so-and-so. I don’t, and won’t, live like that.
Not a single one ever got stolen! We got burgled in that house - but I suppose that’s a different matter!
Before that, before I left home, I knew a lad called Norman who told of how his Mum’s garden gnomes were being stolen. At the time Norman was working in a concrete factory - so he made some big, square bases for the remaining gnomes and buried them so that you could see the Gnome, but not the base. The buggers didn’t steal them anymore - hopefully they strained something trying though!
If you know who these particular little buggers are – you know what to do.
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A Stunner…
This piece of writing is a stunner. Steve Drury makes connections and highlights wrongs which are not often considered……a seriously excellent piece, as you can probably tell by the title……
https://earthlogs.org/2022/10/10/amber-palaeontologists-and-a-military-dictatorship/
I’m wondering what the conditions will be like for the workers in those mines? That regime consider some ethnic groups to be less than human – slave labour?
And the profits from the mines will be funding the military regime.
This situation really needs close scrutiny and action by the governments and people of the rest of the world.
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Here’s one I made earlier….. https://theorkneynews.scot/2018/11/20/a-little-bit-of-orkney-history-that-i-hadnt-known-before/
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