In The Garden….Books In Books - Part Two….. We Are Being Warned…..
by Bernie Bell - 09:01 on 14 February 2024
In The Garden….
We’re finally getting round to clearing some of the winter dead stuff away and things are emerging that I’d forgotten about. I’ve placed glass paper-weights in various flower pots and beds - this one emerged to shine in the sun….
And – a stash of snail shells emerged….
They were near to a flat piece of rock, so has a Thrush been busy or did they just gather under the Monbretia leaves and expire?
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Books In Books - Part Two….
I’m continuing to read ‘Waterlog’ by Roger Deakin. Poor eye-sight can be a positive when reading something good - I can’t read much at a time before my eyes get tired - so a ‘good read’ gets rationed and lasts longer.
Chapter 12 – ‘The Red River’ - Roger Deakin is swimming and walking in Cornwall, with its creeks and bays – reminded me of ‘Frenchman’s Creek’ by Daphne du Maurier. I have a fantasy of this being made into a film with Aiden Turner as The Frenchman – he’d be perfect.
Reading this chapter also reminded me of our holiday in Cornwall years ago, which was wonder-full from start to finish – including some excellent archaeology….
https://theorkneynews.scot/2022/04/06/a-bit-of-cornish-archaeology/
When we went to Men An Tol we did something which, at the time, seemed inexplicable. Usually we go round things/through things three times clockwise - for some reason we each went through Men An Tol, through the hole, three times anti-clockwise. I’m glad I did so then, as I wouldn’t be able to that now, with the bad back an‘ all. After we’d done so we realised that we’d gone anti-clockwise and thought – Oh shit, that’s the wrong way to do it. Then, years later, I read that traditionally folk went through, passed babies through etc Men An Tol - anti-clockwise! We‘d got it right - instinctively?
Roger Deakin then considers the human enjoyment of and affinity with water, mentioning Sir Alister Hardy’s aquatic theory of human evolution, which was later developed by Elaine Morgan – I quote from ‘Waterlog’…
“…they believed we spent ten million years of the Pliocene era of world drought evolving into uprightness as semi-aquatic waders and swimmers in the sea shallows and on the beaches of Africa. We went through a sea change to become what we are, and our subsequent life on dry land is a relatively recent, short-lived affair.”
I thought of ‘Galapagos’ by Kurt Vonnegut….
https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/04/20/galapagos-by-kurt-vonnegut-a-tale-for-our-times/
….in which humanity reverses the process to become furry, seal-like creatures.
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We Are Being Warned…..
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