Farewell To Stromness…….Chitting Tatties…..From ‘Wild Justice’….
by Bernie Bell - 08:46 on 20 March 2024
Farewell To Stromness
My chum Bartholomew Barker plans to visit Orkney this summer – which reminded me of this poem which came from his previous visit here…
Farewell To Stromness
The wind blew into Stromness from Hoy Sound
as if urging me to stay. From the deck,
I watched a gull hover over the ferry.
She’d twitch a feather here, a muscle there,
no exertion, no panic, as if suspended
in a mobile over the cradle of a fisherman’s child.
Instead of recalling my time at Skara Brae
or the Ring of Brodgar, I was hypnotized
by this bird’s deft demonstration of unthinking.
She swam in a relentless river of air
without plan or concern, unlike me—
checking clocks and worrying timetables.
As the boat coughed out into the roiling quicksilver
of the North Sea, I looked back at the stones
of Stromness and realized some part of me remained.
************************************************************
Chitting Tatties…..
From the sublime – to the ridiculous…
Mike is going to set his tatties chitting today – which prompted this….
Tattie Chitting
Tittie Chatter
Set her tatties chitting
Her tatties chitting
Tittie Chatter set
If Titty Chatter set her tatties chitting
Where’s the chittied tatties
Tittie Chatter set?
McB March ‘23
Try saying that when you’ve had a few!
We were wondering why it’s referred to as ‘chitting’? We thought of ‘chit of a girl’, then a chit referring to a note/piece of paper – thought….they are small things – what’s wanted is just the small shoots, not for the tatties to grow great long shoots before they go into the ground.
That was our reasoning – and we realised that both our reference words are very old fashioned – very much from the past – as, I should imagine, is making up tongue-twisters!
While I was typing this, Mike looked up the word 'chit' in a good old-fashioned dictionary - one in which you turn the pages - to find that 'chit' turns out to be from the Sanskrit 'citra' meaning 'marked'.
Then I ‘Googled’ and found this…..
https://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A50669896
Words are trixy things.
PS
Mike maintained that 'Titty' is an abbreviation of the name Letitia - I disagreed, but went for it for comedic effect. He's now looked it up and .... Titty with a 'y' is a diminutive of Letitia.
In 'Swallows & Amazons' by Arthur Ransome, there's a character named Titty which, in later editons, was changed to Kitty! It's Chicken Licken all over again.
I think Chicken Licken has a sound theme, and sometimes I lend my copy to people who have a tendency to fret unnecessarily. My copy is very old and falling to bits, so I tried to get a new one. They've changed the story. The story has been changed so that it doesn't have what could be seen as an 'upsetting' or 'sad' ending - no lesson to be learnt there then.
The 'Watchdogs' are Oh so careful, while Society goes to hell in a hat-box.
********************************************************************
From ‘Wild Justice’….
“Good morning! This newsletter discusses your answers to our questions, new findings on lead shot, more questions, a heads-up on Badger culls, an appeal in an Edinburgh court and a challenge in the English courts.
What you told us: we asked you, in our newsletter before last, whether you would like to do more for Wild Justice. Many of you said 'Yes, please' and your interest covered such options as making observations out in the countryside and sitting at a computer and responding to government consultations.
You also told us that you are keen on our work on raptor persecution, river quality and Badgers. That's reassuring and we take that to mean that you, 35,000 newsletter subscribers (and even more readers), would, as a group, be happy for Wild Justice to tackle a wide range of issues provided we pick the right ones and have an impact.
We're giving this more thought, and may need to ask you more questions, but your responses are very encouraging - thank you! We're keen to help you to raise your voices for wildlife and the environment in a variety of ways, and not just through sending us your money (although we do depend on your donations to do our work).
Lead ammunition: Wild Justice contributed in a small way to the ongoing study of the shot used by shooters as determined by analysis of shotgun pellets in Pheasants bought as game meat on the open market. The shooting industry said that they would phase out the use of toxic lead ammunition in five years - after four years they've hardly made much difference - click here for details. It's a good job that so many of you responded to the lead ammunition consultation back in December because a voluntary approach just isn't working. We need government to act.
We have collected samples of game meat for lead analysis this year. We've already had some results back from the laboratory, but not all of them, so it may be a while before we can tell you our findings. But you'll hear it here, in this newsletter, first.
More questions: the Wildlife Trusts have launched a questionnaire which we think is really good. It's called The Great Big Nature Survey - click here. It will take you about 10 minutes to complete and it's quite fun. Where it asks which charities you support feel free to add 'Wild Justice' - we aren't a charity, we're a not-for-profit company, but we count for these purposes.
Badger culls: the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has issued a consultation on a ramped up Badger cull in England. This contradicts previous Defra announcements of a planned decrease in culling. What can you believe?
In our recent questionnaire you told us not only that Badger culling was an issue about which you feel strongly, but also that many of you are prepared to respond to government consultations if given some guidance by us. Well, Defra's consultation on Badger culling provides an opportunity to speak up for Badgers. The consultation is here - click here - and it is a bit scary, but we'll read it carefully and come back to you with suggestions after Easter. The closing date is 22 April.
Good luck! to STRAW (Save the Trees of Armada Way) Plymouth: Wild Justice supported the judicial review of Plymouth City Council's plans to remove trees from the city centre with a £2,500 contribution to legal costs and some publicity. That case is heard today and tomorrow in the Royal Courts of Justice in London - click here. You can turn up in person if you wish but the court seating is limited and the benches are hard so it may not be the most enticing prospect. If only the court sessions were available to watch through live streaming... (see below for a case which you can watch from Scotland tomorrow).
Good luck! to Open Seas: Wild Justice supported a successful legal challenge, by Open Seas, of the Scottish government's failure to regulate damaging dredging for scallops; we contributed some advice and £10,000 towards legal costs. The judicial review was heard in May 2023 - click here - and the successful outcome was announced in July. But the result has been appealed and the appeal takes place tomorrow in the Court of Sessions. We send best wishes to Open Seas and we'll be checking in to the live streaming of the hearing which should be available from 10:30 tomorrow, Wednesday, through to the close of proceedings some time in the afternoon (with a break for lunch). You can get a feel for how such matters are handled in court by watching the live stream - click here.
If you like what we do, please consider making a donation to our work through PayPal, bank transfer or a cheque in the post - see details here.
That's it for now!
Thank you,
Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).”
Add your comment
