Connections….. From ‘Emergence’ Magazine…
by Bernie Bell - 09:03 on 30 May 2023
Connections…..
We were walking on the beach at the Bay of Skaill and got talking with a couple here on holiday from Formby, Lancashire. Formby, for me, triggers a memory of one of my Mum’s favourites – George Formby……
https://www.google.com/search?q=george+formby+youtube
The couple we were talking with told us a tale…..
George Orwell wrote a novel – ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Wigan_Pier ..but Wigan doesn’t have a pier – as such.
There are the remains of what were structures for transferring coal to boats. The tale goes that a local kidder told a visitor that one of them was Wigan Pier – and a myth was born!
Did George Orwell then unknowingly perpetuate the myth?
Or does the 'road' to Wigan Pier follow the coal from the mine to the boat - and the lives of the workers along the way - which is what George Orwell was wrting about?
Our informant is a member of the Wigan Archaeology Society, which I ‘Googled’…and found…
https://www.wiganarchsoc.co.uk/content/Projects/WiganPier.htm
The Wigan connection, for me, is Wigan Casino in the early ‘70’s when the ‘skin‘ girls from school used to go there to all-nighters and dance themselves silly to Northern Soul…
Memories…connections….
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While I was visiting the Wigan Archaeology Society site I saw this notice of a talk coming up in June…..
“June 7th :
Alison Burns -
"Footprints in the Sand - Prehistoric Landscapes of the Formby and Sefton Coastline"
Looks very interesting – if you’re in the area. I wonder will Alison Burns include this - see link in ‘The Marks We Leave’…
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=15942
Humans leave all kinds of ‘footprints’….
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16152
https://theorkneynews.scot/2020/02/24/changing-places/
https://theorkneynews.scot/2020/01/28/making-our-mark/
https://theorkneynews.scot/2019/02/07/the-brodgar-graffiti-project-sunday-3rd-feb-2019/
I could really take off on this – I think I’ll stop now!
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From ‘Emergence’ Magazine…
by Bear Guerra
“The saguaro can be understood as free of the earth, like human beings…” —Jane H. Hill and Ofelia Zepeda."
“In the Sonoran Desert, Saguaro have long been treated as family members. From a young age, Tohono O’odham children are taught not to throw rocks at or otherwise harm these tall, many-limbed beings—they’re seen as people, respected members of the community. Each year, they share an abundance of gifts: broad bodies for shade, white blossoms that attract pollinating bats, pulpy red fruit for sustenance, and finally, at the end of their 150-year lifespan, they offer their ribs as material for building homes. Today, this desert keystone species is threatened: young Saguaro are vulnerable to prolonged drought and weather extremes, as well as to the destructive wildfires that invasive buffelgrass has introduced into the landscape. But like the peoples who live among them, Saguaro have honed their resilience through centuries of life in the desert, and ecologists are hopeful they can be leaders, and not just victims, in our changing climate.
Bear Guerra, a Tucson-based environmental photographer, has been spending time with Saguaro and photographing them since he moved to the area a few years ago. In this series of portraits, he captures the strength, longevity, and diversity of these rooted beings, illuminating their enduring presence.“
by Boyce Upholt
“Imagine a world where the mountains and glaciers, trees and waterways and animals—everything comprising our living, breathing planet—had as much a right to exist, legally, as humans. In this narrated essay, author Boyce Upholt travels to meet with the O’odham peoples of the Sonoran Desert, who have long revered the Saguaro cactus as a being with personhood. As Saguaro are bulldozed to make way for a segment of the US-Mexico border wall through Organ Pipe Cactus National Park, existing legal protections for the cactus come up against human-centric and extractive attitudes towards the Earth. Talking with elders from the Tohono O’odham Nation who are acting on behalf of the rooted beings of the desert, Boyce wonders how our Earth might transform if we recognized the dignity of all life”.
Available on
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Here’s one I made earlier….. https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/04/20/galapagos-by-kurt-vonnegut-a-tale-for-our-times/
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