‘Celestial Odyssey’ …..From ‘Emergence’ Magazine…. The Cairns & Swandro Book of Rhymes…….
by Bernie Bell - 10:14 on 05 September 2023
‘Celestial Odyssey’ from the OIS……..
From 7 September until 13 September
"Start your journey at St Magnus Cathedral
Join us on the Orkney Celestial Odyssey during this year’s Science Festival! It’s a Solar System Journey through Neolithic Skies – and an opportunity to explore the landscape below.
It starts from the Sun in St Magnus Cathedral. The planets of the Solar System are laid out across Kirkwall, in proportion to the size of the Sun, with Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, in the Cathedral itself. After seeing the Sun, with its seething fiery surface, the next step is to find Mercury. And when you do you will be able to discover more about the planet in its hot bright position – and also to find the clue for the next planet.
Outside the Cathedral, going outwards across Kirkwall, are Venus, Mars, and all the various planets of the Solar System. Each planetary location is in a well-known shop or venue, with a letter of the alphabet there for you to collect, starting with the Sun and Mercury. When you have gathered up all the letters, you arrange them to form three words – and complete the entry form.
Take part by Wednesday 13th Sept 2023 for a chance to win some excellent prizes! The prizes include:
- A £20 voucher from The Daily Scoop
- Some Orkney goodies from Judith Glue
- A 2-in-1 Globe (worth £40) from Grooves Toys
Submit your answer by filling out the form.
As you go through your celestial journey, we would love to see where you have been, so please feel free to tag us on social media and we will share it with our network.”
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From ‘Emergence’ Magazine….
by Stephanie Krzywonos
“Antarctica-as-she, a microcosm of Earth-as-she, has the power to shake us out of complacency, with this important twist: Antarctica is not your mother.”
“When humans first set sight on Antarctica in 1820, the continent already had 34 million years of history embedded in its layers. But through the gaze of the pioneering white males who visited her over the course of two hundred years, she appeared a pure white slate ready to be inscribed with their projections. She was a wild and vengeful temptress, or she was a pale and virginal “sleeping princess” waiting to be discovered and tamed—a proving ground for masculinity. Today, she is treated as a measuring stick for climate breakdown, more often a symbol of what’s being lost than a present, living entity.
In this week’s essay, Stephanie Kryzwonos combs through the canon of heroic narratives set in Antarctica, which almost entirely exclude women and instead project tropes of femininity onto the ice itself. After seven seasons working at McMurdo, Antarctica’s largest research station, Stephanie has come to know the power and majesty of Antarctica on its own terms, as a living place with agency. What would it mean, Stephanie asks, to move away from a sense of Antarctica as an inert landscape to be conquered, charted, or merely mined for information—and toward an aligned, reciprocal relationship with her? Can we treat Antarctica as a woman on her own terms?
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The Cairns & Swandro Book of Rhymes….
Not so many as for The Ness…but still… a reminder….
The Cairns – Sleeps
Our Dancing Floor is covered
The Well of Wishes – sealed.
Our place, so long neglected
Is starting to be Healed.
We’ll sleep - in Dreamtime
The winter weather through.
Next year – Sometime -
They will return.
And then, we’ll wake
Our place will wake
To youth and light.
Red hair, dark hair
Gleam of light on bronze,
Beads, and benediction of burnished bowl.
We’ll dance again
Weave new life
For the land.
They are Us
And We are They.
Namaste
BB
’Tis The Season To Be Brochy
‘Tis the season to be Brochy
Falalalala – lalalala
Tho’ those places can be rocky
Falalalala – lalalala
Broch of Gurness and Dun Carloway
Falalalala – lalalala
Some are near and some are faraway
Falalalala – lalalala
Some are balanced on a cliff
Falalalala – lalalala
Can’t help wondering – Oh! – what if?
Falalalala – lalalala
Broch of Burrougston, and of Borwick
Falalalala – lalalala
With their walls so very thick
Falalalala – lalalala
Some of them, you could almost live in
Falalalala – lalalala
Mousa Broch and Clikkimin
Falalalala – lalalala
Carn Liath, near Dunrobbin’
Falalalala – lalalala
What that Laird did, sets me sobbin’
Falalalala – lalalala
Ending on an Orkney note
Falalalala – lalalala
I know which broch gets my vote
Falalalala – lalalala -laaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
BB
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16370
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The Swandro Stone
A stone
With a hand-print
An in-advertent handprint.
There are handprints, placed,
On stones, on walls
In Ochre
And Carbon.
And the Swandro Stone
Has a carbon hand-print
Placed, yet not placed.
Through the hand-prints
We connect.
BB
The Digging Days of Swandro
(To the tune of ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ – kind of)
On a certain day at Swandro
The diggers found….
A fuuuuuurnace
On other days at Swandro
They also found…….
Queeernstones….
And some bits of
A tiny little pig
On blingy days at Swandro
The diggers found
A broonze ring…
Sooome beads…
Toggle and round…
And yer’ actual ….
La Tene style…
Brooch
Other finds at Swandro
On other days ….
A saddle quern
A wee pot with lid
A spindle whorl
And some mysterious
Spiky bone thingiiiiiiies
BB
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Here’s one I made earlier…… https://theorkneynews.scot/2022/02/14/building-an-ark-from-acts-of-random-kindness/
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