On the other side

Dead of winter and outside the trees stand bare,

hard and cold is the ground beneath its dusting of frost,

cold is the breeze that blows throught the leafless trees,

and chilly is the dying day as it gives way to colder night.

Yet through the tinted flower petals edged in the glass,

a world of changing colours moves before my searching gaze;

where the seasons parade in a kaleidoscope of rich hues,

where dark sluggish clouds scud against a ruddy sky, or

puffs of white cotton are blown across a firmament of blue;

where gentle ripples from a warm sea expire on shore,

or furious foaming waves crash across defiant rocks;

where soft breezes are like the gentlest of caresses

and howling winds like icicles pricking the skin;

where the dazzling globe of the sun climbs in the sky

sending its heat to earth to rouse life and hasten death.

This is our World... from this side and the other side.

Britain under Water

Giant waves, driven by gale-force winds, pound Britain’s sea defences and threaten homes along the coast.

Flood waters sweep through the town centre, past closed shops. Ducks and swans however make the most of the new-found watercourse.

A car forces a path through a water-logged street which will soon become impassable as more rain falls overnight.

A police officer wades through knee-deep flood water in rescue operations throughout the stricken area. A bridge finally collapses under mounting pressure from a fast-flowing river swollen by torrential rains. A rescue team takes to a dinghy to search for survivors and others trapped in buildings by the fast rising water level. Storm or no storm, Fido must be walked and, if the worse comes to the worst, a swim in the park is no bad thing!

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So is this violent weather the result of global warming or is it just the start of a bad winter? Is global warming the result of the greenhouse effect or is the earth going through one of its hot phases? Is mankind upsetting the earth's weather patterns and provoking violent climatic excesses that will eventually lead to disasters and catastrophes on a global scale? Time will tell.

. . . . .

But one thing's for sure, regardless of the effects of global warming, man has caused untold damage to the earth over the centuries and has wreaked destruction on his environment in a way that could not easily have been imagined. No other creature on God's earth has inflicted such deep scars on the face of our planet and produced such widespread pollution. What else do we need to make us act? Global warming and the disasters that come with it are the nails in our coffin lid that may seal our fate. And, i have to say, we will have deserved it!

Lest We Forget...

"For your tomorrow, we gave our today."

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

extract from For the Fallen

by Laurence Binyon, 1914

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow.

In Flanders fields. by John McCrae, 1915

These are just a few of the thoughts expressed about all-out war and its aftermath. About the loss of life on an unimaginable scale. And they are made all the more poignant when one considers that war is seldom if ever the outcome of the actions of a people of a country; it is nearly always the consequence of decisions taken by those on high, the politicians who run a country, the very people who survive to tell the tale after thousands or millions of the countrymen they ordered into war lie lifeless beneath the earth, the great majority of them young men and some of them still in their teens. The elderly politicians who take a country into war live to a grand old age, the young who are sent by them to the killing fields of war die before they have scarcely lived. And many thousands of them lose their lives because of the unworkable and badly-thought-out strategies of generals who, from the safety of their positions, send them out as cannon fodder, so cheaply are their lives held.

Halloween

To my mind, there is something mysterious, even magical, about Halloween - the pagan celebration that occurs on the eve of All Saints or All Hallows' Eve - whether one chooses to actively participate in it or not. And the hollowed-out Jack-O'-Lantern pumpkin that has become such a part of the festival adds to the macabre aspect of it all, indeed has perhaps become the embodiment of it!

When I was a lad, though, we in this country never celebrated Halloween, indeed most of us would not even have known what it was! No, the special occasion for us was Guy Fawkes Night on 5th November, when we made up a bonfire and set on top of it the ragged effigy of Guy Fawkes who centuries ago attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament and almost succeeded! So our celebration is actually one born of a historical event, not a supernaturally based one that Halloween is in essence.

Halloween is really something imported from the USA, as far as I am aware, and, as with a lot of other American traditions, we have adopted it as our own, although with less gusto and fervour than over there where they really take it seriously and the custom of going out trick-or-treating from house to house at night is a much more widespread practice.

But coming back to jack-o'-lantern, there's something definitely spooky about him, lit-up from the inside and grinning ghoulishly as if he has something gruesome in store for us! He almost seems to come alive and Halloween without him would just not be the same. Together with witches and haunted houses and supernatural goings-on, he now embodies the very spirit of modern Halloween.