Bernie's Blog

There were two pieces in the Pier Arts Centre Christmas Exhibition which I didn’t fully pay attention to at the time – but have been thinking about since.

The first drawing relates to what Sertraline does to your heart – closes it off – stops you feeling. The second is what Sertraline does to your mind – clogs it up – stops you thinking.

This happened years ago when I was on a strong anti-depressant – I was zonked – told the doctor - she said that was the idea – I needed to stop for a while. I needed a bridge from despair to levelling off – a bridge over the chasm. And that was what happened – I came out of that particular episode – have had others since.

Recently, I have been tempted to go to the doctor and ask for anti-depressants to stop me thinking. But – I fight the impulse, work with Anita…

https://www.souldesignwithanita.com/?fbclid=IwAR3ci81TL7AacoMQkTTKLPi3nNmzV_4VjwMJhf0FpTTPuK-DaiWqNPVCagE

……with myself, and Mike helps me as he helps himself and I help him through this hard time, with its ups and downs.

I am often tempted – but haven’t succumbed to temptation. Seeing the drawings in the PAC yesterday brought it all to the fore much more strongly. I’ll only try anti-depressants if I absolutely have to.

If I could take something which would stop the disturbing thoughts, but still let me think clearly - I would. Failing that – it’s up to me to work with and through this.

I wish I could remember the name of the artist who did the drawings – but, as I say, I didn’t register their strength of meaning at the time.

That’s what art does – sometimes hits you straight away, sometimes it needs to filter through.

Whoever did those drawings must have experienced that way of being - and I sympathise and wish them well.

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From ‘Unbound’….

“THE DECADE IN TORY: AN INVENTORY OF IDIOCY FROM THE COALITION TO COVID

Russell Jones

The Sunday Times bestseller

‘A wickedly funny, furious, fast-paced romp through a decade of governmental failures’

Rosie Holt, actor and comedian

‘Substantial, meticulous, depressing, hilarious, rude … like flipping through a grotesque highlights album of the country’s downfall’

Dominic Minghella, director of #takebackBritain

In 2020 the United Kingdom reached a bewildering milestone: ten successive years of Conservative rule. In that decade there were three prime ministers, each in turn described as the worst leader we ever had; ministerial resignations by the hundred; and an unrelenting stream of ineffectual, divisive bum-slurry oozing from 10 Downing Street.

The Decade in Tory is an inglorious, rollicking and entirely true account of ten years of demonstrable lies, relentless incompetence, serial corruption, abuse of power, dereliction of duty and hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths. With his signature scathing wit, Russell Jones breaks down the government’s interminable failures year by year, covering everything from David Cameron’s pledge to tackle inequality – which reduced UK life expectancy for the first time since 1841 – through to Boris Johnson’s calamitous response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It will leave you gasping and wondering: how could things get any worse?

GET YOUR COPY

LEGENDS OF THE LEAF

Jane Perron

Have you ever wondered why the leaves of the Swiss cheese plant have holes? How aloe vera came to be harnessed as a medicinal powerhouse? Or why – despite your best efforts – you can’t keep your Venus flytrap alive?

You are not alone: houseplant expert Jane Perrone has asked herself those very questions, and in Legends of the Leaf she digs deep beneath the surface to reveal the answers. By exploring how they grow in the wild, and the ways they are understood and used by the people who live among them, we can learn almost everything we need to know about our cherished houseplants.

Along the way, she unearths their hidden histories and the journeys they’ve taken to become prized possessions in our homes: from the Kentia palms which stood either side of Queen Victoria’s coffin as she lay in state; to the dark history of the leopard lily, once exploited for its toxic properties; to English ivy, which provided fishermen with a source of bait.

Each houseplant history in this beautifully illustrated collection is accompanied by a detailed care guide and hard-won practical advice, but it is only by understanding their roots that we can truly unlock the secrets to helping plants thrive.

Jane Perrone is the host of houseplant podcast On The Ledge and a freelance journalist. She writes a column on houseplants for Gardens Illustrated magazine and contributes regularly to other publications, including the Guardian and the Financial Times.

GET YOUR COPY

I COULD READ THE SKY

Timothy O'Grady, Steven Pyke

‘Think about a tune … the unsayable, the invisible, the longing in music. Here is a book of tunes without musical notes … It wrings the heart’

John Berger

‘A masterpiece’

Robert Mcfarlane

‘O’Grady does not just respond to Pyke’s stark, beautiful photographs: he gives voice to thousands’

Louise Kennedy

‘The experience of Irish emigration uniquely and powerfully illuminated’

Mark Knopfler

An old man lies alone and sleepless in London. Before dawn he is taken by an image from his childhood in the West of Ireland, and begins to remember a migrant’s life. Haunted by the faces and the land he left behind, he calls forth the bars and boxing booths of England, the potato fields and building sites, the music he played and the woman he loved.

Timothy O’Grady’s tender, vivid prose and Steve Pyke’s starkly beautiful photographs combine to make a unique work of fiction, an act of remembering suffused with loss, defiance and an unforgettable loveliness. An Irish life with echoes of the lives of unregarded migrant workers everywhere. Since it was first published in 1997, I Could Read the Sky has achieved the status of a classic.

About the audiobook:

This is a unique audiobook combining the author's reading with a score created by fiddler Martin Hayes, one of Ireland's greatest traditional musicians. This is a book about exile with music acting as one of the migrant's psychic anchors to what he left behind in Ireland. Music is a theme and a recurrent presence in the book and is now brought to vivid life by Martin Hayes in this audiobook.

GET YOUR COPY

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When they were young, in the 1930’s, my Dad and his brother used to come over to Britain from Ireland to work the season as itinerant farm workers – living off the land. Sometimes the farmer would let them sleep in the barn and the farmer’s wife would feed them - sometimes they slept where they could and ate what they could find – including hedgehogs which they would wrap in mud and cook in the embers of the fire – needs must.

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Here’s one I made earlier… https://theorkneynews.scot/2020/07/08/vegeburgers/

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