Atlantic Hurricane Season Echoes Pacific Cyclone in GUAM/MARIANA Is. Heralding Earth’s Hottest Summer Yet

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Easter Week Chocolate Honey-Bunnies Recall Ancient Traditions, Excite Children to Search for Hidden Gems

EASTER WEEK CHOCOLATE HONEY-BUNNIES RECALL ANCIENT TRADITIONS, EXCITE CHILDREN TO SEARCH FOR HIDDEN GEMS

First Wednesday MUSE-Induced Shoutout/Connection to All Creative Writer/Scribblers [Insecure or otherwise] to Exit Your Cave and Say Happy Easter Bunnytime

Hidden in Antique Easter Eggs, Concealed as Marshmallow Egg-Hunts in Grass & Shrubbery, Ancient Rites Tempt Next Generation to Learn About their Past; Prepare them for a Future feeling more included/involved in their own Destiny

Many cultures celebrate this time of year—R.C./Christian biblical “Holy Week” between last weekend-Palm Sunday-and Easter (next) weekend. Ukrainians create amazing Easter eggs, top pic above; and Russian jeweler Gustav Fabergé in St. Petersburg, Russia, manufactured his bejeweled masterpieces, top lower left, in 1842.

Palm Sunday marks Jesus of Nazareth’s entry into Jerusalem celebrated by people laying coconut palm fronds ahead on his path, out of respect for his teachings and sacred lifestyle.

In Biblical context a lot happened this week after Palm Sunday—including Herod’s ordering his death by crucifixion with his interment-Good Friday-and his disciples’ revelation on discovering his empty tomb after three days & nights-Easter weekend—Good Friday through Easter Monday. Jewish Passover also marks Christ’s Jewish roots & the passing of Angels over his grave.

Orthodox Christian church aka Constantinople, Turkey and Crimea celebrate Easter one week later.

Interestingly, the Christian cross (upright) is used almost universally now as a talisman or as jewelry by believers & non-Xtians alike.

The St. Andrew’s cross, left, (crucifixion sideways, festival November 30th) is 2023 years later still used as emblem of the Scots, whose flag is blue with white cross overlay. Saints Peter & Paul share a June 29th festival; Peter requesting to be crucified upside down, but Paul, as a Roman citizen, could not have a similar request granted and was beheaded.

While dedicated Christians were observing Lent over the last month, (immediately after Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Carnival, 2/21/23) it is used as a time of fasting, and dedication to others.

Muslims (Saudi Arabia, Middle-East, UAR, Dubai & Persian Gulf) have celebrated a month of prayer, with gift-giving, generosity, and care for others during their annual fast of Ramadan, March 23-April 21, 2023. Breaking that fast on Eid-al-Fitr, April 21/22 is also beginning of the next new moon cycle.

April’s Full Pink (Paschal) Moon occurs tonight, April 5th, 2023-or 12:37a.m. EST (New York) tomorrow, to be precise. Its other cultural names are Frog Moon, Breaking Ice Moon, Sugar Maker Moon and the Broken Snowshoe Moon, according to various native cultures in continental U.S.A. Its derivation “Pink” is from ‘moss pink’ flower of ground phlox. Ice refs are self-explanatory.

After heavy snowfall February/March in the Rockies, & High Sierra, inland states felt the chill in unusual locations like Las Vegas, NV, Arizona and inland and coastal California.

Traffic snarls common in Alaska happened in multiple highway collisions in Los Angeles, San Francisco and northern New Mexico. Flooding from snowmelt is still being cleared.

While Mississippi, Arkansas & Georgia are among 11 states suffering multiple disasters-with whole towns wiped out by tornado, top l. pix- unseasonal ice-storms have also hit Louisiana, Texas and Nevada.

Spring can often bring the first California forest fires. Not this year. Coastal, peninsular & inland California, normally free from extreme weather, has suffered a lot of damage. Power outages, freezing storms, snow and ice followed by sudden melt and subsequent flooding have dogged the Golden State since January.

Where snowmelt areas have been blessed with a river close by, like here on Hwy 299 Trinity Co. between Redding and the coast, floodwaters have been quickly channeled downstream. Earth movement here at Southfork, Trinity River, collapsed overhanging cliffs causing havoc on the Highway below. County road clearance vehicles have had a tough time maintaining a single traffic lane to the coast.

El Niño-Combination-La Niña Dumfounds Pacific Meteorologists Trying to Explain Heavy Rains

Much of the extreme weather in coastal California and parts of Oregon and Washington has been caused by a series of extreme La Niña high-alternating-low pressure systems formed in the sub-equatorial region of the Pacific South of the Hawai’ian Island Chain. Normally a winter onslaught of this kind is benign, flits through and releases winter rain to coastal U.S. and is replaced by balmy weather in spring as the Trade winds return to caress the islands. Trades bring super surfing weather, not dangerously high swells.

This year has been different.

A combination of La Niña and El Niño interchange, constant since late December, has confused expert weather forecasters and senior meteorologists at National Weather Service and Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu. Trade winds—starting usually around spring equinox—have been late and erratic.

La Niña is a natural temporary cooling of parts of the Pacific Ocean that affects weather worldwide. This year’s La Niña is over, but has dampened global average temperatures from breaking records, while El Niño inevitably turbocharges temperatures into setting record highs.

El Niño years are typically those with above-average number of tropical cyclones in the Central Pacific. The record year was 2015. “That was a strong El Niño year,” says Genki Kino, meteorologist for the National Weather Service & Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu. “That year there were 16 tropical cyclones in the Central Pacific, but none of them impacted land.”

Hurricane season is June through November in Hawai’i—just as in the Bahamas it’s end-June thru September.

“June—too soon.

“July—Stand by.

August—Come it must,

September—Remember,

October—All over.” Bahamian hurricane rhyme

According to Kino, El Niño winters are different from El Niño summers, with winters typically drier in the islands, and lighter winds but larger surf. La Niña years are usually windier, rainier and with smaller surf. But when the low pressure systems hit the continental U.S., they have basically the opposite effect on New England than they have on Hawai’i.

La Niñas bringing heavier droughts and wildfires to the Western U.S. are usually more damaging and expensive than El Niños.

“That’s the weirdest thing,” says Kino. ” El Niño years are normally the ones the Western U.S. gets big snowfall and all the storms. But they’ve been getting that this year. It doesn’t really match any of our climate signals-that they should be getting record snow-pack in a La Niña winter.

Usually the American Midwestern corn belt is more damaged by La Niña than El Niño. But if it plays through, this year could have a beneficial effect on farmers in continental U.S., if not European agriculture as well.

The weather anomaly—a constant stream of strong low-pressure systems, felt as far as the Greenland ice pack, has even swooped on Scotland’s Northern Isles, where Aberdeen-Shetland run by North Sea Ferries, rt. has been battered by unprecedented storms and high seas creating excitement aboard a normally uneventful quiet voyage.

Nature has certainly got the upper hand.

Pacific Traditions Share Ancestral Knowledge, Handing Down Ancient Stories to Next Generations

Some islands in the Pacific share similar legends like the one about goddess Hina, her son Maui and several of her daughters- Hina Ke Ahi, Hina Ke Kai, Hina Mahuia, and Hina Kuluua. Each name marks a peculiar “mana” or divine gift which Hina, the mother, bestowed upon her daughters. Her eldest daughter, Hina Ke Ahi was goddess of the home fires and like all Hina goddesses, she had power over procreation, so she was thought of as the procreative fire—or spark of life. Maui gives his name to the island.

The Hawai’ian version of the story begins with a famine—with the drying up of springs and watercourses.

A sickness spread among the people and their crops until too few were able to cultivate the land or go fishing. Hina Ke Ahi saw and heard their anguished prayers & was saddened. She called all people able to walk and commanded them to build a large imu—underground oven—on a volcanic slope of Halai Hill, part of Mauna Kea above Hilo on the Wai’au stream beside Rainbow Falls.

Ghosts of the Hilo Hills

Goddess Hina’s home was in a cave behind Rainbow Falls on the Halai Hill. She gave the hill Halai to Hina Ke Ahi and the hill Puu Honu to Hina Kuluua (goddess of water, seas & rain) for their families and dependents.

Hina’s daughters enjoyed abundance and had rich pastures for their children. But at last the days were like fire and the sky had no rain in it.

Taro planted on the hillsides died; bananas and sugar cane and sweet potatoes withered and the fruit on the trees was blasted. The people were faint from hunger, and the shadow of death was over the land.

Hina Ke Ahi pitied her suffering friends, determined to provide food for them; so commanded them & her people labored at her command.

They went to the banks of the river Wai’au-bed of an ancient lava stream, over which no water was flowing; the famished laborers toiled, gathering and carrying back whatever wood they could find. They climbed the mountain side to great koa and ohia forests, gathering burdens of fuel according to the wishes of their chiefess.

Their sorcerers planted charms along the way, uttering incantations to ward off danger of failure. Priests offered sacrifices and prayers for safe return of the burden-bearers. After many days a great quantity of wood ordered by the goddess was piled up on the side of Halai Hill.

They started digging out the hill and making a great imu cooking oven and preparing it with stones and wood. Large quantities of wood were thrown into it. Stones chosen for retaining heat were gathered and the fires were kindled.

When the stones were hot, Hina Ke Ahi directed the people to arrange the imu in proper order for cooking ingredients for a great feast—a place made for sweet potatoes, another for taro, one for pigs, pic.2 boar below, and another for dogs. Ritual of preparing food for cooking was carried out, but no real food was laid on the stones.

Then the goddess told them to make a place in the imu for a human sacrifice.

Human sacrifices were frequently offered by Hawai’ians even after the days of Captain Cook, pic.l.Brit. Colonial influence in Hawai’ian flag, c.f. pic 4. state flag w/Kahili and canoe oars. A dead body was supposed to be acceptable to the gods when a chief’s house was built, when a chief’s new canoe was to be made or when temple walls were to be erected or victories celebrated.

In quiet despair the workers obeyed Hina Ke Ahi and prepared for sacrifice, not knowing if it might be one of them.

“O my people. Where are you? Will you obey and do as I command? This imu is my imu. I shall lie down on its bed of burning stones. I shall sleep under its cover. But deeply cover me or I may perish. Quickly throw the dirt over my body. Fear not the fire. Watch for three days. A woman will stand by the imu. Obey her will.”

Hina Ke Ahi was very beautiful, but she was also very kind. Her eyes flashed light like fire as she stepped into the great pit and lay down on the burning coals. A great smoke arose and gathered over the imu. The men toiled rapidly, placing mats of straw over their chiefess and throwing dirt back into the oven until it was thoroughly covered and smoke quenched.

Then they waited for the strange, mysterious thing which must follow—the sacrifice of their divine chiefess.

Halai hill trembled and earthquakes shook the land. The great heat in the fire of the imu withered what little life was still left from the famine.

Meanwhile Hina Ke Ahi was carrying out her plan for securing aid for her people. She could not be injured by the heat as she was goddess of fire. Waves of heat raged around her as she sank down through the stones into subterranean paths of the spirit world.

Legend says she first made her appearance in the form of a gushing stream which would always supply the need of her adherents.

The second day passed. Hina Ke Ahi was still journeying underground, but by now she came to the surface as a pool named Moe Waa (canoe sleep) much nearer the sea. The third day came and she caused a great spring of sweet water to burst forth from the sea shore in the very path of the ocean surf. This was named Auauwai.

Here she washed away all traces of her journey through the deep earth. It brought the last of a series of earthquakes and the appearance of new water springs. The people waited, feeling some more wonderful event must follow these remarkable three days.

Soon a woman stood by the imu, commanding the laborers to dig away the dirt and remove the mats. When this was done, the hungry people found a very great abundance of food, enough to supply their want until the food plants should have time to ripen in the fields, and the days of the famine should be over.

The joy of the people was great when they knew that their chiefess had escaped death and would still dwell among them in comfort. Many were the songs sung and stories told about the great famine and the success of the goddess of fire.

Emerging From Our Ancestral Cave to Greet a New Spring

So, Writers/Creative authors out there—wasn’t it worth it? You too [Insecure] Writers? As dwellers in our own secret writer’s caves, isn’t it inspiring to learn about other secret caves in our ancient past? There’s more to come.

As part of our usual First Wednesday blog for writers [Insecure or otherwise], we take this timeout to celebrate the forthcoming Merrie Monarch Festival—a week-long celebration of events in April featuring an internationally acclaimed hula dance competition, an invitational Hawai’ian arts fair, hula shows, and a grand parade through Hilo town.

The Merrie Monarch himself, pictured above Hula dancers, last pic; stands opposite the entrance to popular Richardson’s beach of golden sands, turtles & gentle surf on Hilo’s Bayshore Drive.

Hawai’ians celebrate their famed Merrie Monarch Festival week of April 19-26 in downtown Hilo, HI. This great hula-dance festival includes ancient tradition coupled with up-to-date dance and costume competitions which will spill into the streets of the little town. Unlike big-city Honolulu on Oahu island, Hilo on Big Island maintains a comfortable size with access to golden sand beaches as well as volcanic outcrops where turtles hide & visitors stab their feet on lava in attempts to follow. But it’s basically a kindly friendly little town -and the above Legend relates solely to her.

Such a legend! Townspeople are proud of their roots, visitor-friendly and known for their gentle hospitality. Aloha! Enjoy! ©2023MarianCYoungblood

Oriental Year of Water Wabbit aka March Hare Brings False Spring, Ice Balls, Massive Snowfall in Unexpected Places

ORIENTAL YEAR OF WATER WABBIT aka MARCH HARE BRINGS FALSE SPRING, ICE BALLS, MASSIVE SNOWFALL in UNEXPECTED PLACES

FIRST WEDNESDAY TUNE-IN FROM DEEP INSIDE MOUNTAIN WRITERS’ CAVE for[?INSECURE] CREATIVE, SCRIBBLERS to WITNESS UNUSUALLY HIGH TEMPS & SUNSHINE in SOUTHERN PARTS of ‘REAL WORLD’

GOLF BUFFS CELEBRATE @PGA HONDA CLASSIC PALM SPRINGS, FLA in 80ºF, w/BAHAMAS, PUERTO RICO, CARIBBEAN vs. SAN FRANCISCO, LAS VEGAS, SHASTA’s SNOW & ICE BALLS

HONDA Classic golf tournament just ended at the hugely complicated PGA golf course in Palm Springs, Fla, with a final playoff between champion Chris Kirk & challenger Eric Cole, Kirk winning by a triumphant birdie on water/bunker-enclosed 18th green.

Rubber Duckies Join the Throng Aboard new s.s. Scarlet Lady

More than a decade ago, ocean studies conducted by major New England ocean research state-funded institutions discovered that “rubber duckies“, below rt. were being unwittingly transported around the globe, following natural current fluctuations & boosted by tropical and Arctic storms. While a concentration of these tiny plastic toys gathered naturally in Central Pacific’s Great ‘Pacific Garbage Patch’, others found their way to Alaska, Pennsylvania, Trinidad, CA & even the Magellan Straits & Chile’s Cape Horn.

Virgin Cruise ship, top rt. s.s. Scarlet Lady has joined Richard Branson’s family of human transportation to unusual places-space, airline jets & deep sea adventures with ocean voyages to Caribbean, Florida Keys, Bahamian Cays, and Leeward Islands, & soon Puerto Rico in essentially British style cruises: the Scarlet Lady takes only adult passengers; although a little bird succeeded in hiding mini “rubber-duckies” under passengers’ dining room chairs & in cabins (for charity) before they sailed on last adventure.

During Mardi Gras Carnival in NOLA, the ‘Big Easy’, and Brazil last month, there were all versions of duckies, although it took return to semi-normalcy for our fave creatures to feature—Valentine’s Day duckies, rt, 2nd top & middle rt. reigning supreme.

Ocean-fishing begins to surge now, with the waxing March moon encouraging fishermen—particularly Pacific islanders-to join their fellows in catch-to-eat swordfish & Ahi-(popular member of tuna family), while Ocean tourism by local Hawai’ian Tourist Board yachts is bringing in early whale-spotters. Humpbacks, monk seal pups, even shark babies are being born in seasonal balmy waters—Hilo Bay, Big Island, HI air temp 80ºF; water temp 76ºF.

Even if no mythical hippocampus sea monsters have been seen drawing god Poseidon/Neptune’s chariot—as in Fishbourne Roman Palace mosaic floor, above bottom rt., indeed gentle giant Mama humpbacks have been spotted giving birth to babies in balmy waters off Kailua-Kona on Hawai’i’s leeward coast. Right now volunteer preservationists are diligent in removing all discarded fish-netting gear & plastic debris from these waters. Even sharks, stranded in unusually high spring tides have been carefully assisted by the volunteers (wearing protective dive suits) back into the Bay. Baby monk seals caressed in sand by Mama are also being monitored,

Thankfully, we are seeing the last of February’s month of high winds and rainfall—two feet in places, up to 7inches per day Hilo coast, associated with high surf & wintry showers over Mauna Kea mountain top, 29,000ft from ocean floor—which coated the telescope array (ELT, extra large telescope) with a dusting of white snow. It had a surreal edge to it, particularly on Virgo full moon night February 19th.

March full “Worm” moon next Tuesday March 7th, will be followed by new moon March 21st, coinciding with Spring Equinox and the beginning of Ramadan. In the old pre-Xtian calendar Equinox falls precisely six weeks after Feast of Bridei/Brigid, aka Candlemas, February 2nd.

Clocks spring forward on March 12th, 2023 (Daylight Saving time in U.S.A.), while British clocks change later month 3/26/23.

Ancient pre-Celtic Deities Based on Babylonian/Greek/Carthaginian Model copied into Roman Pantheon

In the ancient pre-Xtian Calendar, based on Roman/Greek/Babylonian mythology, we [Europeans] still calculate Palm Sunday, Easter & even Islamic Ramadan/ Jewish Rosh Hashanah around solstices & equinoxes. e.g. Candlemas, Feb.2nd, Feast of Bride/ ancient Brigantia falls precisely six weeks after winter solstice; six weeks before Spring Equinox; with one exception—Easter in R.C, Anglican & Presbyterian Churches varies from Orthodox Church by one week.

This clearly wasn’t an issue to the pantheon aka atheist gods of myth; as theirs was a realm “above”/beyond the human sphere, where “God was killable”. Pantheon=place where gods dwell. So, when Zeus/Helios at first reigned within the pantheon [below 3rd l.] he drove his chariot drawn by horses of his creation around the sky in the day, resting at night in the arms of Nyx, Nut in Egyptian pantheon. When Zeus took on the rôle of sole sun god & Hades [the place/underworld] became incarnate as god of night, he delegated the job of ocean protector and father of (sea)horses to Poseidon/Neptune, pic below bottom l. & top rt. who not only birthed equine offspring, but was in charge of earthquakes-[earth-shaker] Sculpture below rt. Poseidon stands at Melenara harbour entrance Gran Canaria; Canary Islands, on Atlantic Ocean side of entrance to the Mediterranean Sea.

His trident symbolizes triple rôle as god/protector of ocean-and ocean-going vessels, sailors and fishermen-earthquakes and horses.

Nymph Scylla, above rt, (in myth sister of Carybdis, the whirlpool), because she was hated by Zeus’ wife Hera-putative reason:her ex-marital lover preferred Scylla to her-was forever doomed to cause the death of fishermen/sailors, therefore the antithesis of a protector, in contrast to Poseidon/Neptune, their guardian god, (adjacent pic w/sea bubbles) whom she loved.

Before Hades was given dominion over the underworld, Poseidon was seen as its ruler: logical, as Ocean and (underground) Earth Shaker. At that time he was married to Demeter, with Persephone as their daughter. When Zeus took over that godhead, in Bronze Age Mycenaean Greek pantheon, Hera, his wife who hated Scylla, bottom r. above, changed her from delicate inspirational nymph -Muse to forever land-bound beauty, so that passing sailors and fishing craft would be inspired/transfixed by her earth-bound loveliness and not see their ship being drawn into the whirlpool of her sister Carybdis in the waters ahead of them.

Homer’s Odyssey describes her fatal attraction in some detail, as a warning to sailors and fishermen throughout the ages.

Traditional belief that planet Earth goes through a transformation in spring, summer and fall/winter, personified in female form by Greek, Babylonian & Roman triad of goddesses Persephone, Demeter, Hecate/Ceres. Earlier Babylonian/Greek goddesses seem to fit the classical image of that female triad: maiden, mother & crone better than their Roman counterparts Artemis/Diana & Selene/ Luna.

Muse-nymph Scylla, above rt. however, never ages, never experiences winter, never becomes the crone.

Archaeologists in 2000 discovered the tomb of Babylonian GILGAMESH aka Nimrod, rt. the first anti-Christ of the Bible (Old Testament).

The U.S, under excuse of going to war, collected the body, looted the museum, stealing 5000-year old Babylonian tablets describing how to ‘raise a god from the dead’.

Cold war antics do not go away. They are just superceded by modern politics.

RAF Nimrod, jet aircraft pictured here on take-off from R.A.F. Lossiemouth airbase—still operational—on Moray Firth coast, near mouth of River Spey.

It lies adjacent to Gordonstoun School, (private), and 7thC Pictish stronghold Duffus Castle & estate.

Neighbours to W: Findhorn intentional spiritual community, Burghead Scotland’s largest Pictish stronghold

Duffus House, previously leased boys’ boarding house attached to G House on school grounds, has returned to private ownership, now operates as a holiday venue entertainment centre for visitors to Morayshire’s North Coast, ABD Scotland.

Enter the Slippery Slope of Politics as Humans Decipher Code from the Stars—or from Rival Regimes

Hacking isn’t anything new. I became a victim of the dreaded hack in late autumn last year, making it impossible to continue writing this, my beloved blog—a fave occupation next to novel-writing; tree-planting—necessitating a three-month hiatus [+deep self-questioning & doubt of my abilities as a writer—guess you could call that truly Insecure], partly rescued by “reality”, a period of enforced confinement in hospital for a hereditary diabetes-related condition, and addressing the ‘real’ prospects of recovery in a [Telosian eternal, I know, I know] body which was in ‘real world’ terms past its sell-by date! i.e. fledgling octogenarian.

Fave trees of ancient vintage-top of page 2nd row: sacred ash, last remaining one of four planted 1752 as church boundary marker Bourtie kirkyard, ABD to delineate division between kirk burial ground (full of Pictish remnant stones) & ‘outsiders’/non-believers who had to settle for burial in ‘annexe’! And companion in age—though worlds apart—Prairie Creek State Park, N of Orick, CA off Old State Hwy & present Hwy-1 UCal/Arcata/Eureka: ‘Corkscrew’ Redwood [Sequoia sempervirens] first-growth i.e. 2000yr old with twisting trunk in characteristic counter-clockwise motion.

It became clear to me that the world of hackers—now being adopted en masse by powerful regimes around the world as a political ruse to familiarize themselves with the prospect of world domination by bot [as opposed to domination by tank, military force, or clever television manipulation of innocent masses] operates with cleverness at the most innocent level, [my persuasive lady who wanted my site/personal info was a mid-life crisean from Lancashire, N.England, working hard to support a family after a lifetime of poverty]. It is also being commandeered by top officials in hugely powerful regimes in both hemispheres of the globe, neither admitting their stealth or outright theft to one another.

‘Cold War’ was a term used c. 1990-2000 to describe an uneasy agreement among war-capable nations not to use their weapons. The expression has raised its head again, as political heads in U.S. imply unconfirmed reports of certain nuclear-capable countries in the Eastern bloc readying their arsenals for ‘potential’ deployment. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has backed his Chinese allies in promising aid—nuclear-capable implied—along with military force if needed. While neighbour (U.S. Ally) S. Korea, Seoul press releases have emphasized both neighbor countries’ poverty-stricken masses’ need to return to traditional (organic, hand-tooled) farming. Food scarcity has become a shared world issue.

American teens-proficient in body-camera/portable phone culture-have taken up the litany to help poor nations—especially crucial right now with thousands of earthquake fatalities & lucky survivors/refugees from recent Turkish disaster—to donate free food.

This younger generation has been storming the White House environs & midtown New York with signs & blocking traffic.

As a footnote to the recent mid-February 2023 President Biden (much-televised, but unofficial) visit to Warsaw, Poland, combined w/Ukrainian leader & Euro NATO member nations’ meetings, U.S. White House supremo promised $500million in (military) ‘aid’ to Kyiv. Teens/children supporting nursing & hospital staff on strike in U.S. mainland agree this sum would pay for rescue food & care packages for the poor, aged care-home residents and homeless within mainland U.S. for the next three years.

39th President Jimmy Carter, 95, recently committed to receiving care treatment at home, would certainly agree.

In order to add weight to White House speculations, U.S. political spokespersons in the D.C. capital have allowed television cameras to reproduce their claim that a variant of the pandemic Covid virus was caused by an accidental leak from a medical laboratory in China. Absolutely no evidence of the validity of this so-called ‘received information’ has been given.

It adds to the nuance of lying by a White House official to an already festering issue of anti-China sentiment.

Oblivious to Needy Millions within Continental U.S.A, White House Focuses on 2024 Election

Meanwhile, as of yesterday, Feb.28th, 2023, the White House has given all Federal Agencies 30 days to purge Chinese-owned video-snippet sharing app TikTok, pic above (on millions of private phones) from all U.S.Government-issued devices, setting a deadline to comply with a ban ordered by U.S. Congress—ordered end-January by Texas governor/Austin agents & removed the app. The ban does not apply to businesses within the U.S. (that have no association with the government) or to private individuals.

With my fairly poor excuse that I never quite got the hang of Tiktok anyway—or SnapChat for that matter; I’m a traditionalist & Tweet-person at heart—Elon Musk eat yours out! ❤ with occasional fanciful flights into Instagram—when I’m not being hacked!

Great Britain has not issued any statement on the subject.

Meanwhile Biden seems more concerned with his own image vis-à-vis rivals to his status in 2024 election, as both D.Trump & newcomer Marianne Williamson, who believes in politics of ‘Love inspired by Spirituality’ through ‘Eyes of the Heart’, have a lot of support & promise fairness & equality in federal spending. We wait to see if that might downplay any nuclear arms race.

Writing—and Nature-Watching—a Healthier & Happier Solution to All Ills

Farmers—in particular Organic agri-buffs who use natural companion planting to foster good relationship between plant offspring—remembering Findhorn founder & Angel-chat lady Dorothy Maclean who chatted her sweet peas (below) into producing a more abundant crop—her 1960s’ residence blue caravan at the Park, rt—have always had the edge over those who mow their lawns into oblivion or plant in weed-free rows as means to a quick harvest. Weed killer a no-no!

I have always been one of the former, with addition of hundreds of free-range henny-pukes 2add free manure to an already abundant pasture. See jungle fowl below.

Tree-related p.s.Trees-for-Life started @ Findhorn as a woodland charity, creating its own forest-environment ethos, now centred in Glenfeshie. INV, Scotland

Dorothy, caravan above, in the first garden she planted at the ‘Park’, Findhorn’s perennially thriving growing plot, now peopled with other structures, spoke daily to the sweet pea fairy, left. She was told by the entity’s non-corporeal essence that its cousin, the gloriously edible pea loved humans so much it wanted to thrive.

Peas have always been my fave veg. As a child growing up (in Aberdeenshire) within a hugely productive [organic] garden available to me, I used to pick & stuff my apron with them, climb up the tower of our Victorian granite house & munch [& meditate] overlooking vast-undeveloped-green rolling fields.

As an adult in my own (also granite) house, there was an 18thC walled garden. It welcomed my simple ways, making horticulture a delight. I grew both sweet peas & peas on trellises—wouldn’t you guess, they thrived.

Where I live now-a mid-Pacific ex-pat with gratitude for Hawai’ian warm temperatures to caress my bones-most people grow their own food aka organic. Gardens & woodland [+supermarket parking lots & harbour entrances] are domain of ‘jungle fowl’ who roam freely. You’re lucky to find a nest, as eggs are clearly organic. Go Jungle Fowl!

It is good to hear that Chinese and Polish, Russian and Pakistani agencies are encouraging the innate ability of their country’s poor to grow their own food as a partial solution to modern-day crises—political or otherwise. Poor people, imho, have always known how to make their backyards productive.

So, with the sound of local Hawai’ian froggy-croaks by green shiny tiny Coqui amphibian babes in my earphone-enhanced ears, & the blatant ego-preening swish of cockerel feathers & crowing to his hareem as he gloriously struts outside my hospital window, may I add greetings & good luck to all gardeners, writers young & old. Keep flying the flag of truth, cos lying never wins. We have places to go [in our heart & minds], ppl to influence [truth & light, joy & laughter aka Telosian delight]. And keep that pen and/or Computah working like a Fire-the-Grid expert that you are; and noli illegitimati carborundum don’t let the b–tards grind Udown. ©2023 Marian C. Youngblood

U.S. Groundhog Day, pre-Celtic Candlemas Focus on International Rewilding/Reuse of Old Farmland w/Solar Assist

U.S. GROUNDHOG DAY, PRE-CELTIC CANDLEMAS FOCUS ON INTERNATIONAL REWILDING/REUSE OF OLD FARMLAND w/SOLAR ASSIST

First Wednesday Creative (& Insecure) Writing Celebration of Indo-Euro-Brit Support for Rewilding Old Spaces w/Solar Panel Technology

Getting Carried Away by their own Animal Festivities

Americans do seem to take Groundhog Day a little too literally sometimes—Pres. Biden’s staff getting rather more worked up about holding the poor animal (ground squirrel/marmot) on high for the cameras this year, rather than low for the (poor beast’s fodder) grass & wood-fiber—beaver cousin pictured below top left). And it is the magical creature’s flat-tailed beaver cousin, that Europeans (bar a few Scots purists) think will save the Day—or at least some of our blessed days in the immediate future of the planet and for all of us grateful inhabitants—if we’re spared!

In U.S.A., February 2nd is usually reserved as a fixed date for the miracle animal’s so-called peep out of his underground hideaway—very similar to us obscure writers, hidden away in our Muse-bower or whatever serves to give us undisturbed solitude with our keyboard—before he theoretically pronounces the weather forecast for the coming month [traditional six week gap]. This year’s Candlemas-Beaver-Groundhog Day got a little complicated by Chinese New Year’s being celebrated early with the beloved #Wabbit—aka Hare—coinciding with the last week in January 2023—so they can celebrate a candle-on-water floating ceremony; but the end results appear to come together as February—ancient Candlemas—begins.

Candlemas, as we learn repeatedly from our ancestors, is traditional Feast Day of Bride; Bridei; old British Brigantia; Forest Maiden & Earth Mother—identifying with Ancient Egyptian ISIS [‘Eset’], above far rt., Egyptian Queen of Heaven & Mother of the World. As Patron of all women, she has in recent years (with feminism rising) become world icon for International Women’s Day. It’s crazy in the Shetland Isles as they, too, are celebrating Up-Hellya amid gale-force winds!

It’s Brazil & S.American Carnival time also—traditionally an end to winter with street parades taking over every town.

Chinese New Year tradition—in nations like S.Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, mainland China, Burma & Philippines include a prayer-float from shore towards the open ocean, pictured left.

Hawai’i, particularly in winter months, is dominated by an increase in numbers on the southern route of migrating Whales—most vivid & entrancing, the Humpback whales, who often give birth in these tropical waters before returning to their northern grounds in the Salish Sea(B.C.) to overwinter.

Mid-Pacific technology appears already to be able to outstrip Western thinking—perhaps increased hours of sunlight have something to do with it—a Hawai’ian farming project, given Local Government funding & support, are offering farmland acreage on Oahu, HI, complete with installed solar panel-covered roofs—like glasshouses w/built-in sun—so their solar panel technology will be used to maximum, gathering rays while simultaneously covering useful greenhouses.

British Weather Used to Max for Windpower

As a Scots ex-Pat—grateful for no longer having to endure the rigours of the wintry North Coast [Aberdeenshire, Banffshire, Moray Firth], I’m proud to see, not only restoration of my personal tree glade outside my walled garden, pic top rt. but the continued appreciation of the stand of hazel, wild & domestic cherry (gean; morello; pear & alder, bottom 2nd l.) to supplement plum, birch & previous century’s copper beech. Foregound Redwood [Sequoiadendron Giganteum] planted to celebrate the birth of my son there adjacent to/obscuring the two-century-old Douglas Fir [Pseudotsuga Menziesii; gifted by David Douglas as a seedling to the then Minister in residence in 1827 at the Old Manse who was designate Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Edinburgh, at that time. Scots pine aka Caledonian Pine abound.

It is also truly amazing—and fairly Scots in nature—to know that the little kirk below the Manse in the farmland of the Kirkton continues to celebrate a Sunday service once every two weeks!

Nevertheless, weather & human nature being relatively constant—although increasingly wild conditions appear to be taking hold, the winds of the North are being harnessed—following a lead by radical innovator Burnett of Williamston family, led by daughter ‘boss’, with their Culsalmond/Colpy windfarm. Now wind & wave harnessing is occurring through the Glens of Foudland as far as Maggieknockater in the Buchan peninsula to electric generator power centers in the Black Isle, Cromarty; reaching into Sinclair territory in the Far North.

Bejeweled Whale-centred Dreamcatcher holds all bad nightmares at bay

Easter Island Facial Traits Show Influence on Other Pacific Island Residents

Many Europeans may not notice, but there is a noted characteristic in Hawai’ian, and other mid-Pacific island residents like French Frigate Shoals, Guam, resulting in a less-circular “Caucasian” round-headed appearance, and more flat-backed, almost sheared-off shape for which Easter Island’s gods, below—and presumably their ancient resident population—were known. It is remarkable that the Hawai’ian Royal House, headed by King Kamakameha whose statue stands in downtown Hilo, HI overlooking Lilli’ewa Bay, (bottom rt.) took pride in this trait.

Last of the Royal Hawai’ian line, Queen Lilliuokalani, died last week, aged 90. Her hand-sculpted coffin made of local koa wood is currently lying in state in the Royal Palace, Honolulu. She was the daughter of Queen Lydia Kamakameha (1838-1917) who was the ultimate sovereign of the Islands and who lived during the annexation of Hawai’i by the United States in 1898.

Hawai’ians are not only proud of their facial characteristics and unique Pacific heritage, but on special occasions—during hula dance festivals or fire & light ceremonies, they dress with leis (orchid garlands w/mix of tropical blossoms-frangipani, plumeria, hibiscus-in their hair) usually tied in a “topknot”, shown above left. Easter Island topknots were a feature of all the gods aligned on the island’s shore. They were carefully chosen from local volcanic rock, sculpted into the topknot shape.

Many are now lost.

Hawai’ians are not only expert hula dance performers—using hip movement which Europeans take years to learn. But their body shape—maybe considered large to Britiish eyes—in particular with current mountain-climbing madness gripping a (mostly male) muscle-bound population.

Body movement, however, reveals a supple quality within waist & hip gyration that Caucasians are hard-pressed to emulate. It takes years to learn.

Access 2 balmy ocean temperatures have a lot to offer, & many Hawai’ians bathe once or twice daily in local pool. Pictured here rt. within a literal stone’s throw of downtown Hilo, is fave Lilli’ewa Bay. Its easy shallow sandy beach makes it popular not just with locals, but w/Oldies visiting who may have found volcanic black rocks difficult to negotiate elsewhere!

It’s also the single most sought-after go-to pool for that Pacific anomalous practice of Doolah-tending: South Seas (Bali, initially) assist within water to help young mothers prepare for giving birth.

Hawai’ian Paradise Wins Hands Down, Despite Weather Woes

Bottom Line:when all else is said, locals may complain about the weather; Californians about drought alternating with hurricane disruption; New Zealander Kiwis about people raiding their carefully-guarded environmentally-protected reefs, but it’s relative.

Pele—Hawai’ian goddess of fire & ice—continues to reside atop the Mauna, pic above l, holding the world’s largest telescope array [extra-large telescope, ELT] in her sacred grasp, while anchoring her watery toes 29,000ft into the Pacific Ocean’s deepest trench below. She is revered from ocean fringe to Mariana Trench; from coastal California—earthquake roadblock above top rt.—to Bali, Indonesia, Fiji and beyond. Like the Phoenix, ISIS, Egyptian Queen of Heaven, pic top far rt. she may fade but will never die. Even the world telescope symposium atop her sunset summit, above l., keeps touch with local Hawai’ian ‘guardians’ adhering to their policy of no unnecessary disturbance/development at her summit.

It is sacred ground, after all.

Meanwhile, despite record dry rock-bottom water supply (not) in drought-ridden No.Cal (pic 3 above rt.), organic rewilders and other gardening/planting enthusiasts continue to allow the ground around the sacred mountain and its new farmland project in Oahu to prosper—as it will even more when planned solar-panel-roofed greenhouses are erected.

And what about the workers?!

Yes:we writers, IWSGers, NaNoWriMo-ers, Muse-driven regular bloggers, insecure or otherwise, are fortunate to have such a neighborly friendly heritage right on our doorstep. Whether we’re groundhog fans or not, whether we’re just monthly First Wednesday bloggers with a leaf of fresh mint or homegrown lettuce to chew on [lucky us]; let’s agree we are a fortunate lot.

Some people never get past the comic section in their local newspaper—confusingly, Hawai’i’s own is Bahamian (Herald-Tribune) in reverse:Tribune-Herald! See what happens when you let the fritillary (above bottom rt.) out of the chrysalis!

And meantime in authentic Hawai’ian lingo, may I again wish all Hau’oli Makahiki Hou! Happy New Year. Keep on writing!

©2023 Marian C. Youngblood

Social Media Meets its Match—Hackers with Pretend Money Worming Their Way into People’s Hearts

With great sadness I preface this blog with news that Her Majesty the Queen, 96, has died at Balmoral Castle on the Royal Estate, Aberdeenshire. We send sincere condolences and support/love to the Royal Family.

Not certain if as a Brit ex-pat, currently living mid-Pacific, I should announce her death as a post- or ante-script to IWSG & First Wednesday, but a series of unprecedented events this week led me to miss this month’s deadline by 2 days {GMT-1 day PDT}.

My Angelic choir clearly approved/sent spiritual help support my request 2recover from mental & physical violation. Not only did Source aka the Universe send power outage-cum-rainstorm couple hours Weds. evening, but my computah wouldn’t load the blog. Death announcement arrives as the date/midnight changes to zero-day+1 Hence delay, date confusion—didn’t backdate to correct-so here goes Writing Addicts Pic rt. © NewYorker Monarch sits on 11thC Stone of Destiny.

SOCIAL MEDIA MEETS ITS MATCH—HACKERS WITH PRETEND MONEY WORMING THEIR WAY INTO PEOPLE’S HEARTS

FIRST WEDNESDAY BLOG—TIME FOR CREATIVE WRITERS, ARTISTS, MUSICIANS—INSECURE OR OTHERWISE—TO RISE OUT OF OUR DUSTY WRITING CAVERN INTO THE LIGHT OF DAY TO CHRONICLE/COMMENT ON HUMANITY’S SEPTEMBER FOLLIES—BEFORE THE FALL

Hack-Attack: new fearsome enemy on the home front that nobody thought would last

Human memory bank-especially in a child’s 1st, happy, protected, familiar territory with beloved toys, dollies, baby names-rulez!

"I'm gonna buy a paper doll that I can call my own / A doll that other fellas cannot steal / And then those flirty flirty guys / With their flirty flirty eyes / Will have to flirt with dollies that are real" John Mayer

As the Old World [double-entendre] gets demolished around us to make way for the New—below left Cahuenga cut-off where SoCA’s Hollywood “superhighway” (no longer exists) used to link northern end of San Fernando Valley Hwy with downtown Los Angeles Civic Center. Demolished too are downtown Alhambra district Japan and Chinatown, with loss of beloved restaurants like The Far East Café. Korean food trucks replace.

As fuel prices soar, superhighways aren’t getting the traffic. Windfarms and environmentalists rulez.

A ‘stay-at-home work-from-home’ preference shown by majority of employees during our enforced two-year isolation period—using video meetings instead—has begun to rub off on businesses around the globe, with outdoor walks, recreational gardening and a work-at-home-ethic becoming the norm. Remarkably, Saudi desert’s THE LINE, recreational ‘outdoor living’—a feature of old hippie times—is likely to catch on with the new wave—nouvelle vague—of iGen/Generation-Z of youngsters finding joy, pleasure and fulfillment in simple pursuits.

This shorthand version of ‘happiness’ is the wavelength accomplished hackers beam in on. But it’s the oldies—but goodies with a kindly trusting heart—who get spammed.

Decline… and Fall—Call Center Consciousness

There are many spaces between Earth and Heaven and in between are The Doors

misquote Wm.B.Yeats by Jim Morrison & The Doors

In the ‘Fifties when Baby Boomers were ‘in’, English-speaking nations commissioned call centers in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Pakistan using [cough] “English-speaking” local labour at a fraction of cost of a similar outfit at home in the West. They died pre-internet revolution, with onset of mobile phones, but seem to have raised their head again in this latest phone-related scandal.

In the ‘Sixties and ‘Seventies, nobody gave a thought to such strange remote telephone exchanges. An antiquated (but cheap) method of communication did survive the noughties’ boom. But now, surprise surprise, not only is the hacking empire privy to your personal information, but it has resuscitated the old call-center theme—this time in Nigeria, South Africa and Midlands England.

To a veteran ex-pat Brit with octogenarian comfort zone, a Manchester accent even in text—dahling—is a whole lot less intimidating than a voice on the line in broken accent telling you to hang up already.

The little lady from Manchester—so short of breath you can hear her gasping between texts—but so inner circle—in the know about it all—she has time and patience to chat (text)with an oldie—usually a safe bet as we Booomers & beyond less likely to baulk at bottom line when the money chat comes up.

iGens & Millennials are decidedly wary creatures; have little time for subjects that need a long-winded explanation. Often the shortest answer—no—can take Boomers and vintage grannies a very long time to unearth from their verbal repertoire. So they/we say yes instead and then wonder why our friendly social media accounts no longer belong to us.

Cleverly, the technique works in the hackers’ favour: soc.med. sites like Pinterest and Facebook aren’t equipped to handle breakdown. Restoring isn’t an option, either—your site no longer belongs to you. One has to start all over at the beginning; ask to join Insta, send a new photo—the newbie approach.

Meantime—every day since—my poor iPhone jumps and splutters, beeps and cajoles me from mine- no-longer Insta account telling me fifty-two messages from the hacker to all of my followers. Some of my followers still think it’s me. And until I have the strength to initiate a new account, I’m unable to correct that. Thankfully some (young, bright minds) figured it out & challenged the chat-monkey.

Monsieur Musk Plunges into Twitterdom

Most brilliant of all events, however, unfolding in this cyber-saga of crazies, and because I managed to (sortof) get my Twitter page up and running again, albeit with no files or explanation to friends: I asked Elon Musk to look into security risk and hacking potential of his new acquisition.

True to his image as Humanity’s Saviour, not only did the dear billionaire listen, actually read my text, give it some thought, respond! and follow up but my stats on that day hit the ceiling. Bless you M.Musk

Warning to oldies who get targeted: at first it feels friendly, ‘why not help her? I’m old, what harm can it do?’ Loads. Don’t mean losing friends. I mean losing one’s mind. Constant texting-even when I didn’t reply- sent me to cloud cuckoo-land. More below.

I believe in Musk. I believe he will actually make the change which wraps all this garbage up into a spaceball and flings it into orbit to join all the other spacejunk circling ever circling out there till it falls…

In 40% of hacking cases, the target is older, newcomer-friendly, artistic, feels socially responsible to help humanity and therefore, almost invariably will respond to the long-reaching arm of a complete stranger asking intimate personal questions with a view to “helping out”.

Generation Gap Plus Factor—More Oldie+Goodie Vibe

The older the target, the greater likelihood of receiving off-the-wall personal questions amicably. This sole fact of difference in age producing a different response on a thorny subject has been a miracle catalyst in the whole “false-coin” issue. Hackers already know who the best targets are: they’ve usually well beyond middle years. They’ve had their life. It’s okay to help another out, especially if they’re only just past the starting gate.

One pill makes you larger / And one pill makes you small / And the ones that Mother gave you / Don’t do anything at all
Go ask Alice when she’s ten feet tall

And if you go chasing [White] Rabbits / And you know you’re gpin’ to fall ——— Tell them a hookah-smokin’ caterpillar / Has given you the call

When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead / And the White Knight is talking backwards / And the Red Queen’s lost her head / Remember what the dormouse said:

Feed your head / Feed your head

courtesy Gracie Slick 1967 & Jefferson Airplane/Starship White Rabbit

‘Advice from a Caterpillar’ from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll illustration by Arthur Rackham d. Sept. 6th 1867-1939 (71) via his dau. Mrs B. Edwards

‘Sixties: Biggest, Most, Best, Weirdest—all the Superlatives

Sample text (below right) received by new Insta ‘followers’, with emphasis on revealing your own pet project, so that #superfriendly lady hacker from Birmingham or Wolverhampton can encourage a ‘sale’

If you were assured a sum of 50 thousand [take your pick, Euro, Yen, Roubles], how would you spend the money?

• New car
• New house
• Cruise liner vacation abroad
• Help relatives
• None of the above

I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality by not dying

Woody Allen

Music holds the space as underlying influence in all 20thC generations. The earlier the group, the more likely are they to be controlled by addiction of choice. Twenties and Thirties: booze, including illegal venues. Forties: war-restricted, but booze and cigarettes. Fifties & early ‘Sixties: heroin, cocaine, opium. Late ‘Sixties: everything including hard drugs, heroin, cocaine, synthetic and natural coca, ayahuasca, methamphetamine, opiate morphine, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) & recreational ganja.

Closing the StarGate: Full Harvest Moon ends Twin Flame Month

So what do the ‘Sixties and 21stC 2022 Full Harvest Moon post-8/8-Lionsgate Twin-Flame month have in common?

For several generations of moviegoers/big screen watchers, film production invariably features as a growing-up medium. Less so is the attitude of Millennials, 16-year old Gen-Zs and 20-year old iGens to anything that smacks of Media, television news, man-made hype. They are, as a rule, only interested in one person aka self.

This generational trait surfaces in art, film, media presence, social interaction, text and creative identity.

Google the first of the bigtime internet-friendly outfits has warned Google Chrome users of the security risk posed by “friendly” hackers.

Twitter, as we’ve seen above, is responding to the threat with appropriate action.

Writing All the Way to the End

For us (Insecure) Creative types, writing fills the gap between empty memory Muse-infused hippie cabin in Redwood country and 21st Century internet wobble from a system of bots who will control our cyber-future.

Stargates are familiar. We’ve all been here before. As all the best ‘Fifties & ‘Sixties beat generation know, Reggae and Boyband Dance Moves are just playful repeats of an age-old message. This one’s REALLY the last time round, this time. Maya gate-keepers confirm.

p.s. Rainstorms over Pacific and gates of Balmoral; yet HM managed to hold an audience with new Tory PM Liz Truss to form a goverment, before she died Weds/early Thurs—like her daddy Geo.VI— in her sleep. Royal Family members William, Charlotte & George had flown north from Norfolk to Ballater and Balmoral on Monday, to be by her side as she rested on advice of doctors. She asked Tory appointee Liz Truss in her official capacity as Monarch to form a government Tuesday. Died peacefully in early hours of Wednesday a.m.

Ticking all the boxes, Your Majesty. Stay cool, Ma’am. We love you.

Like Her Majesty, tapping her riding crop with an impatient dig at the Almighty B4 the Pearly Gates: Open the Door brother: Immortality here we come.

Or words to that effect. Writers write. Bloggers blog. Gardeners plant gardens and the rest is in the hands of Fate. Go ask Alice. She knowz. ©2022 Marian C. Youngblood

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Maypole Dancing for Beginners—Tripping the Light Fantastic

MAYPOLE DANCING FOR BEGINNERS—TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

INSECURE WRITERS’ FIRST WEDNESDAY LEAP FROM DARK WO/MAN-CAVE INTO THE LIGHT

Leaping out of Dark Writers’ Cave into Dazzling Light Takes Guts

Bealtainn, Celtic quarter day of the ancient pre-Christian calendar, brings out all the suppressed joy held inside all winter, screaming it into the daylight, sunshine’s warm glow, encouraging us to leave all negativity and pessimistic thoughts behind (down there in our man/woman writers‘ cave and brave the reality of a world struggling to love itself, despite restricted activity and anti-diluvian healthcare system.

Maypole dancing—like Morris dancing—is Saxon English in origin rather than sprung from a native Celtic/Scots/Pictish Irish celebration of summer—quarter day Bealtainn/Beltane exactly divides the ancient year into four, with cross-quarter days every six weeks—

Weaving, like maypole dancing, entwines threads seamlessly from different origins

Ancient archetypes, top, not altogether helpful during astral fireworks in May skies; focus solar & lunar conjunction clusters of Jupiter/Uranus Venus/Mars in Taurus with Pisces bringing up every watery emotion

Images, top, bring archaic belief to life—except for last, recent find in Turkey: wine-god Dionysus, decapitated, drowning floundering in his own filth, blood-stained or worse—anti-booze ad par excellence. Others, from Vatican lookalike flower-of-life orb to amygdala, pineal gland/brain cortex held by our primeval/ancestral dragon self, l. to simple ride on hippocampus, rt, forerunner to seahorse and/or unicorn; top mid rt. classic show of devotion by (Phrygian-capped) Ganymede, synchronously cup-bearer to the gods—offering to Zeus who appears as the Great Eagle—and as one of Jupiter’s main satellites in a Galileo universe, 1560s.

Northern Fishing Villages Last to Keep Fire-Festival Tradition

Rural Banffshire and the Pictish North Coast have vastly different traditions of their own—ranging from the precursor to Nevada’s Burning Man—Bealltainn ‘Burn the Witches #Bonefire’ (May 2nd) Lammas Fire (Aug.1) & famously, Burghead’s Clavie Burning still has a hold in fishing communities all along the Moray coast—Burghead one of few remaining to uphold fire festival tradition. Superstition holds firm in Buckie in particular, with its 32 churches. Until WWII all the northern ports held bonfire rituals four times a year. Stonehaven’s Swinging Fireballs is a relic of Hallowe’en, but held now on Hogmanay.

According to the Rev. Gregor, In some districts fires were kindled on May 2nd, O.S., called bonefires. It was believed that on that evening and night, witches were abroad in all their force, casting ill on cattle and stealing cow’s milk. To counteract their evil power branches of rowan tree and woodbine were hung over byre doors, with fires kindled by every farmer and cottar. Old thatch, straw, furze (gorse), broom clippings gathered into a central ‘bonefire’ were set alight moments after sunset. Some continually fed the fire, while others pick up flaming mass with pitchforks and poles and run hither and thither through the smoke or dancing round the fire shouting ‘Fire! Blaze an’ burn the Witches’.

In some villages (1881)a large round cake made of oat or barley-meal was rolled through the ashes. “When all was burned up, the ashes were celebrated and scattered far and wide, and all continued until quite dark to run through the ashes crying ‘Fire! fire! burn the witches’.” Gregor

Vestiges of such a strong tradition remain—every port on Aberdeen’s North Coast used to celebrate.

Distributing fire altar gifts from the Doorie, Clavie King Dan Ralph is one of few remaining Burghead residents who remembers when all northern fishing ports celebrated, with ‘pieces’ of burning Clavie barrel given to important local residents (publican, harbor master) on Clavie Crew’s ritual circling of the town.

By the Fireside—Peat Smoke & Storytelling—Centre of the Hoos

“At one corner of the hearth sat the father, and at the other the mother. Between the two, family group might extend to a servant or two, for all were on a footing of equality; the servant being a neighbour’s son or daughter of exactly the same rank and means.

“All were busy. One of the women might be knitting, another making/mending an article of dress.

“Of the men, one might be making candles from bog-fir—cleavin can’les—another manufacturing wood harrow-tynes, a third sewing brogues, and a fourth weaving a pair of mittens. [cleek]

“Family evenings usually included one or more neighbours spending time at the fireside, sharing supper together from the communal cooking pot—this was called geein them a forenicht. On these occasions, young women brought their spinning wheels on their shoulders and their wool or flax under arm. It was not unusual for three or four spinning wheels to be going at once, skilful fingers busy at the stent, with each spinner vying with the other who would be first to complete.” Rev. W. Gregor, 1881

Tales of Supernatural Draw Children in Around the Hearth

He continues. “When the children’s school-books were laid aside, and they’d finished their homework, it was time for song and story and ballad to begin. For most part stories were of fairies and their doings, water-kelpies, ghosts, of witches and their deeds, of compacts with the Devil, and what befell those who made such compacts; of men skilled in black airt, and strange things they were able to do.

“As tale succeeded tale, and the big peat fire began to fade, younger members crept nearer and nearer to the older ones and after a little, seated themselves on their knees or between them and the fire, with eyes now fearfully turned to the doors, now to the chimney, now to a corner whence issued the smallest noise, and now to the next, in dread of seeing some of the uncanny brood. Often stories were mixed in with history, oftentimes the wars between England and Scotland, but the Supernatural beings always won.”

The Folk-Lore of the NORTH-EAST OF SCOTLAND by the Reverend Walter Gregor, M.A. published for the FOLK-LORE SOCIETY, London Paternoster Row, E.C. 1881

Highland Hospitality—Roaring Nineties’ Déjà Vu of PotLuck

Central firepit with hanging chain for kettle cauldron

Peat fire in central fireplace room for spinning wheel

120 year gap: fires and fire festivals then & now—hearth centre of the home, above, photos 1860 courtesy Theodora Fitzgibbon’s ‘A Taste of Scotland Traditional Scots Recipes’, 1971

Aberdeen and Northeast Scotland isn’t known just for its whisky and shortbread. The North Coast has a long tradition of smoking/drying fish: Speldings—Sandend, Portsoy, Buckie haddock, herring, trout, ling cod, even potted salmon in the Blootoon, Peterheid.

600ft Tor of Troup-Gamrie Mohr Immune to Norse, Foodie Heaven

Eentie teentie tippenny bun The Cat geed oot tae get some fun To get some fun played on a drum Eentie teentie tippenny bun—festival rhyme, Banff

Eetum peetum penny pump A’a the ladies in a lump Sax or saiven in a clew, A’ made wi’ candy glue

Fraserburgh Rhyming slang, Party Games mnemonics

Think Bannocks, Forfar Bridies, Mutton pies, Aiberdeenshire is famous for Butteries—the buttery rowie: breakfast-lunch #bap (bun) snack of roll oozing butter. Cullen, Banffshire where Scots king Culen died 967, has Cullen skink, ice cream! intact railway viaduct, pink beaches from extruded Old Red Sandstone while Portsoy and MacDuff boast their secret ocean treasure of fresh ling cod, lobster, shrimp and crab available at dockside. Other locations like 600ft, Gamrie Mohr to Tor of Troup teeter high over waves on an open coastline which dissuaded Viking intrusion. St.John’s kirk, and neighbouring Findlater castle are perfect examples of the Buchan coastline’s built-in immunity to attack. St.John’s North sea-facing stone wall, built c.1100, featured Norse skulls from the ‘Bloody Pits’ (‘Bleedy Pots’) battlefield above Gamrie-Crovie beach where a foolish longship anchored without a familiar Fjord (c.f. Argyll, Western Isles coast) to ‘cloak’ its approach. Similarly at Sandend, 16thC Findlater castle perches eye-to-eye with gannets and puffin over sheer drop cliff below, its ‘local’ kirk at Fordyce another 8thC Fite kirk (fite=white aka built of stone not sod, see King Nechtan) is dedicated to St.Talorcan. Like all 8thC Fite kirks—it has the mark of early monastic peripatetic teaching, following a line of stone-built kirks from Tyrie to Strichen and from Old Deer to Old Rayne.

Sandend, still famous for its smokies (dried haddock), smoked salmon, kippers—and surfing—is part of mediaeval landholdings of Fordyce castle, itself a stone’s throw away from Roman-occupied Deskford, where the famed (near-unique) Pictish carnyx battle horn lay buried after battle, c. 420 A.D.

Foodwise, Banff & Buchan were originally geared for oats: oatcakes, Skirlie and Atholl Brose (all use oatmeal). Neeps n’ tatties, too: basic soup broth. Stovies are potatoes fried open fire. And barley (bear) from ancient strain makes the best whisky. Try Caledonian Creme.* *Be prepared: there’s a lot of whisky about: Atholl brose and Caledonian cream specials are loaded with it.

‘After the Galantine of Venison’—post lunch drawing room Mar Lodge, 1885 ©Wm.Aird

Frighten Away Ghosts by Playing Party Games, Rhymes

I saw a doo flee ower the dam, Wi’ silver wings an’ golden ban; She leukit east, she leukit west, She leukit fahr tae light on best. She lightit on a bank o’ san’ Tae see the cocks o’ Cumberlan’ Fite puddin’ black trout—Ye’re Oot’

Rev. Walter Gregor Folklore 1881 collection of party rhymes and garden hide-and-seek games, counting conundrums, nonsense rhymes, many lost to current generation, see below

As I gaed up the Brindy Hill* I met my faither—he geed wull He hid jewels, he hid rings; He’d a cat wi’ ten tails He’d a ship wi’ sivven sails He’d a haimmer dreeve nails. Up Jack, doon Tam; Blaw the bellows, aul’ man. *Brindy, Cothiemuir wood, Alford

Mr Smith’s a very good man; He teaches his scholars noo an’ than. An’ fin he’s deen he taks a dance Up t’London doon t’France He wears a green beaver wi’ a snoot Tarry Diddle— ye’re oot!

Cottar hand-weaving kashie, left, to carry peat from bog’s drying dykes after casting

similar traditional Pacific hand weave hats, baskets neck gear in ‘maypole’ weave, top

Eerinnges, oranges, twa fer a penny Ah’m a guid scholar fer coontin’ sae many—Portsoy

Eerie, aaree, Biscuit Mary, Pim, Pam, Pot—Portsoy

Eetum fer peetum, the King cam tae meet ‘m, An’ dang John Hamilton doon—Tyrie

As I gaed up the aipple tree, A’ the aipples stack tae me; Fite puddin’ black trout, I choose you oot fer a dirty dish clout—party game counter, choosing a partner, Portsoy

Een, twa, three, fower, five, sax, sieven A’a them fisher dodds widna win t’ haven

Anti-fishing joke rhyme told by fishermen of the Broch (Fraserburgh) against themselves, 1880s

Writerly Advice or Just Common Sense

No critique: but current iGens, Tween-tiger/tigresses, GenZ, even Millennials are far more interested in possible NorthCoast sources for fresh lobster, wild salmon, Sandend speldings or Deveron troot than how those precious fishing villages survived, nay now thrive, despite decades of neglect. Same goes for the Doric language. Unless our genetic curiosity prevails, what hope is there for us country quines?

Nevertheless our joint hereditary conditioning—see previous post on Scythian-Scots Irish connection, echoed by Walter Gregor—digs deeply into a [Caucasian] genetic ability to adapt to whatever Mother Nature throws at us. Plus a deeply-embedded love of fire and celebration by flame in all its guises. Burning the old allows us entry into the new. As writerly occupants of subterranean Wo/Man Cave dwellings—who’ve really had a long winter—we can surely agree now’s a great time for renewal.

Happy month of May, a rare celestial all-planets direct, conjunction and… May the 4th be with You. ©2022 Marian Cameron Youngblood

WildCats, Wolves Call Ancient Caledonia Home

WILDCATS, WOLVES CALL ANCIENT CALEDONIA HOME

First Wednesday March Hares—aka Insecure Scribes & Weather-Wordsmiths—Emerge from STORMY Subterranean Hideaway

Today Good Hare Day

Uplands are unique spaces for nature, climate & people but they are in crisis. Years of harmful land management practices has pushed nature to the fringes of these wild spaces across Scotland. If we are to tackle the climate and nature emergency, Scots govt. take action at scale and pace to protect these landscapes and species which call them home— RSPB Jas. Silvey

Mountain Hare Chas.Frederick Tunnicliffe 1937

Hares March in First Year of Protection by Scots Government

Today marks the one-year anniversary of protected status for one of Scotland’s most elusive but ancient animals—the mountain hare.

Protection was brought in for the species because of RSPB concerns of declining population and that illegal culls were seriously impacting the species’ conservation status. These concerns were expressed over many years that annual, unregulated culls carried out across many intensively-managed grouse moors were having a devastating impact on the hare population.

RSPB used different data to come to same conclusion: that mountain hares had declined, most apparent from late 1990s in areas of the hill country predominantly managed for grouse shooting.

This evidence was used by Scottish Government to report to the EU that conservation status of mountain hares was “unfavourable” and was the catalyst for protection introduced March 2021.

Future Wolf Bear Beaver Highland Coos/Aurochs’ Mixed Reception

Experimental projects in Cumbria, and the Lake District in vicinity of Roman Hard Knott Pass fort show signs of beaver settling in nicely. A west-coast entrepreneur tries convincing hard-line foraging farmers that heilan’ coos are not so much cattle as genetically extinct Aurochs with gentler grazing habits.

No agency south or north of the Border has introduced actual wolf cubs, though talk continues.

Many look to Highland Fault line 30-year old new growth at Glenfeshie by original charity Trees for Life as an example of what volunteer and donated workforce can do long term in Invernessshire. Caledonian Canal catchment drains off forest understorey waterways, beloved of beaver—and oysters. Scots Pine, aspen, birch and hawthorn foster lichen and berries attracting pine marten and red squirrel.

Early Spring Highlights Grouse Moor Activity

Easter is considered ‘late’ this year 2022, tradition holds never until after Feast Day of Bride maiden of Spring.

Calendar calculation ‘old style’ holds to ancient rhyme centred around February 2nd Candlemas in both pre-Xtian and Roman Orthodox Catholic church—if new moon occurs AFTER that date. New moon 2/1/2022 [February 1st], aka too early for traditional count; so wait until new moon March, aka 3/1.

Calendar switches—on schedule—re-arranging run-up to Easter in apparently flawless fluid fashion: Fat Tuesday #MardiGras Pancake stuff-yourself day before deprivation fasting of Lent, Ash Wednesday, personal 40-days in solitary.

Pride of Leopards Three Castles & Cast-Iron Cat Colonnade

Northeast Scotland has traditionally been dominated by Aberdeen with North Sea ocean connections. It built ships for the Baltic run.

Victorian Union Street—linked by iconic cat-bedecked Union Bridge, above—bankcrupted the City.

Its architectural grand plan constructed white Rubislaw granite buildings to flank upper (Music Hall Doric/Ionic columns) and lower Union Street (Jamieson & Carry, Boots & Woolworth’s Emporium, above lower left). Bridge Street descends behind trams to Joint Station, lower level, and The Green.

This elevated superstorey ran over LNER & LMS Railway lines, over former Den Burn—now Union Terrace Gardens, top far rt. perspective toward H.M. Theatre and Wallace Statue—with tunnel access from the harbour. Stretching from ultra-conservative granite Queen’s Road/Albyn Place, Union Street’s mile-long double-decker ‘overpass’ leads its tentacles underground to joint granite foundations (Uptown Baths, Crown St.P.O., Langstane; Tivoli Theatre, the Green, Belmont Street and the Aberdeen Art Gallery. Terminus: Castlegait, Town House, Tolbooth, and Lodge Walk—police HQ—to St.Nicholas).

Alexander Marshall Mackenzie’s granite 1884 Aberdeen Art Gallery, the main visual arts exhibition space in the city, beckons with a multi-coloured granite colonnade (Kemnay pink, Peterhead red) in foyer leading to its upper galleries.

17thC Provost Skene’s House & 21stC Marischal Square Street Art

In ‘granite city’ Aberdeen grandiose preparations near completion on 2022 107million-pound pedestrian park-oriented centre Marischal Square, where Scots sculptor Andy Scott (Falkirk ‘Kelpies’) will feature his steel-shard Leopard sculpture, ‘Poised’ within a glass dome enclosure on pedestrian Broad Street.

Focus of the street-wide atrium, Scott’s two-ton steel 42-foot high big cat artwork perches atop a plinth inside a ‘conservatory’ style greenhouse geared to capture light in multi fragment panes of glass.

Former 14-storey city council offices-demolished 2014-make way for white [Chinese import] granite facades of new glass-enclosed Broad St.-Marischal Square. Old Marischal College, home to @UofAbCollections became new council offices; a view of their previous ugly 1970s building brightened by closed George Street, pedestrian Belmont Street; a walk up Schoolhill to Art Gallery.

Broad St. may have lost its granite ‘cassie setts’ during development but commercial and entertainment retail properties—hotels, restaurants, a casino and art venues are available for sale and rental in 21stC attempt to balance the books. Among new residents in the complex are the DC Thompson Group, publisher of Aberdeen Press & Journal.

Marischal College, Archibald Simpson’s 1836-1844 world’s second-largest granite building* didn’t bankcrupt anyone. It holds University of Aberdeen’s fine archaeological collections from Moray, Buchan and Cairngorms. Interior leads to illuminated ceiling of Mitchell Tower. All granite.

* First in Europe-world’s largest granite buildiing is El Real Monasterio de El Escorial, Madrid.

Leopard Poised to Pounce May Know Secret Password

Leopard emblem of ‘silver city with golden sands’ has its origin in early mediaeval heraldic design, pictured top middle right, as the city’s coat-of-arms: two cats sinister/dexter support Auld Alliance slogan Bon Accord dating from 1561-68 Mary Queen of Scots’ progresses to her royal Aberdonian Moray and Buchan palaces.

The city’s long-standing stalwart of Northeast life, Leopard Magazine has published locally since it was established in 1974. Owned and published by Lindy Cheyne and Ian Hamilton for last 12 years, it has been taken under wing of University of Aberdeen. Early Leopard archives are held by the University. This writer and colleague Ann Tweedy were early contributors to historic files.

Andy Scott has created pieces for other cities including New York, Chicago and Sydney. Commissioned by Muse Developers and Aviva Investors’ board of directors to come up with a piece of public artwork for the site, he favoured the city’s preoccupation with the local cat. He spent hours chatting to Kelly’s remaining Cats on Union Bridge before plunging into steel.

Following Andy’s lead in wry humour, we [insecure scribes, emerge with Muse in tow from PersonCave preparing to pit ourselves against a spring NaNoWriMo writing workshop] might add a fictitious note: especially apt in Pictish NE Scotland (not a Gael in sight; everyone spiks the Doric derivative of a P-Celtic language, shuns the Gaelic (Gàidhlig, pronounced ‘gaa-lik’ in Highland west). ‘Unpronouncable gibberish’ to quote one extinct Aberdonian. So homegrown gaelic/garlic pun…

Andy’s Cat perches on its plinth in rarefied art environment designed to dominate its little people below. Calling it ‘Poised’ triggered the East Coast Pictish heathen in me: I saw ‘Poised’ as a foreign creature, already possessing its own spirit. It became Gael. ‘poisaed’ pron. “pussy”.

That’s not a rude American pun; that’s Brit for pussycat, Am. kitty. Gettit? Purr-purr. ‘In like a lion’ is code password. ©2022MarianYoungblood

Autumnal Wisdom: Time to Call on Ancestors for Help

AUTUMNAL WISDOM: TIME TO CALL ON ANCESTORS FOR HELP

November (Writing) Storms Wakeup Call for Humans to Gird Our Loins Before Things get Messy

It’s that time of year again. In Europe they light bonfires, set off fireworks, summon agricultural roots. It’s pre-Celtic Samhainn, after all, start of the ancient year. In Scotland children go ‘guising’ dressed like leftover scarecrows with neep lanterns and songs to sing. This converts in America to ‘trick or treating’—slightly more scary as most houses kids visit give them candy treats—by the bushel—but no fireworks. Ancestors on both continents are on standby—listening raptly—speaking in our dreams.

“Cranking up the temperature of the entire globe by around 1.2ºC on average within little more than a century is extraordinary, with the oceans alone absorbing the heat equivalent of five Hiroshima atomic bombs dropping into the water every second.” Unprecedented temperature rise in world temperature in just 100 years—since the car replaced the horse and cart—can’t go on.” Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist Texas Tech U; also chief scientist at Nature Conservancy.

Stage props for Climate Leaders: photos clockwise from top l. Colosseum in Ancient Rome; arrival via climate-controlled Airbus British PM Boris Johnson & wife Carrie cut travel costs; Romans sacrificed goose in lieu of (New World) turkey to go with their fermented grape sauce over hypocaust-heated parsnip (ketchup & fries)—pun intended—remembering the poor pedestrian Roman never knew New World pleasures of potatoes, tomatoes, had to make do with homegrown olives, peaches, Persian pomegranates) sinister-dexter-sinister-dexter #chattinLatin; PM Boris uses 2100-year-old stage to demonstrate his (lack of) historical memory as he prepared to speak up for (bottom left) endangered capercaillie aka black grouse removal from Cairngorms and Highland glens

G20 Summit Leaders Save Fuel on Travel Rome to Glasgow for COP26 Summit

Private jet used by Britain’s prime minister top rt. is an Airbus chartered from Titan Airways, producing less than half C02 emissions of RAF Voyager that PM sometimes uses for foreign travel. Round trip charter London Heathrow to Rome, to Glasgow Prestwick, return to London “cheaper than rail”, more efficient, given PM’s heavy schedule.

“One of the most carbon-efficient planes of its size in the world, producing 50% fewer C02 emissions than larger RAF Voyager sometimes used by PM. It runs on ‘special mix’ of 35% sustainable aviation fuel mixed with 65% ‘normal’ fuel—the maximum allowed. Prime Minister will off course offset all emissions.”

Downing St. British parliamentary spokesman

Throwing a coin into Rome's Trevi fountain ensures good fortune—and secret assignation to return with the same companions—Mutti knows this—don't think the others do! l.-rt. Boris Johnson, MP, M Emmanuel Macron of France, Italian host Mario Draghi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel G20 2021 Summit

Most of the world’s government leaders have been getting together in unprecedented intensity over last week. European leaders hosted their international counterparts in Rome end October; with a follow-up exceedingly more crucial rendezvous in Glasgow in Scotland’s west industrial belt for COP26 first week November 2021. Prime ministers, premiers, princes and presidents posed for photo calls, using world media as a means to get their combined message across: reduce world temperature rise to 1.2ºC/1.8ºF.

Hate to say, but some of the hi-five elbow bumping goings on between political ‘buddies’ on the climate leadership circuit are huge reminder of #cool-hip-gangsta ‘Turkey!’—stage-version:element of surprise usually part of the embrace. Turkey, left above, isn’t: he’s Scotland’s emblem of grousemoors, a black grouse male displaying red eyebrows and chortling love-call.

Hallowe’en a Broken Dream, November Remember Virtual Turkeys Yet to Come

World leaders—political, business, charitable and entertainment heads—get to speak during first week of the United Nations Glasgow conference with bureaucratic follow-up after they leave. November in West of Scotland is pretty basic. Icy Cold. Where the city’s homeless may be sheltering under the airport overpass, HRH Prince Charles, Jeff Bezos, President Biden and Frau Merkel will stay cozy in their upper-storey overheated hotel suites. HM the Queen, most sensibly, addressed the throng by video.

Perhaps of all the great-&-good worldwide who choose this time to gather together and share a single commitment—with the eyes of the world upon them—HM the Queen may be closest to keeping her word. Not one year of her life has gone by without her planting a tree or unveiling a naturalized parkland. Her royal estates are dedicated to natural growth and management. Crown lands include 135,000 acre Duchy of Cornwall—Duketh Kernow—run using ancestral ways. Following on from Malta’s Commonwealth QCC initiative in 2015, she’s proudly touting her Platinum Jubilee Queen’s Green Canopy for 2022.

And she’s 95. Rôle model par excellence. God Save the Queen. She chats with the Ancestors all the time.

It’s been said Virtual Reality acts as a substitute for real life in the many worlds inhabited by our younger generations: the so-called post-Boomer years occupied by iGens, GenXs, Millennials and now Meta-gens ❤

If all the world around is virtual—as some families have experienced in these last two tumultuous years—there may be an answer: WRITE IT DOWN!

Amid the Frivolity, Spare a Thought for NaNo Writing Marathoners

Daily journaling has been known for decades to be a self-healing mind-releasing blow-by-blow therapy. By writing each day—thoughts, feelings, encounters or just personal epiphanies—our mind-body dualistic strangers come together: communicate: and we writers feel better for it.

That’s NOT to say everyone has it in them to be a NaNoWriMo marathon junkie: writing as many words per day for 30 days as their physical body (+refrgerator pre-cooked stored camp-out food) will allow. I know. I’ve done it. But not everyone can be a runner. Sometimes it’s good just to walk. Day by day, with a little journaling to cap off the evening. p.s. blogging does this well.

After all, patron of writers, large & small, famous or insecure, Egyptian god Thoth, the Ibis-headed scribe who writes down all our deeds both good and bad and weighs them to see if we can enter the Afterlife—he is probably our best ally-Ancestor.

Writerly advice: if you ‘got’ it, enjoy it. Set off virtual fireworks in the brain: who’s to say the Ancestors aren’t enjoying the show. ©2021 Marian Youngblood

Wayback Window—Room with a Vintage View

WAYBACK WINDOW—ROOM WITH A VINTAGE VIEW

Advantages to Having #Vintage Boomers’ Writerly Perspective —First Wednesday from Beyond Time Barrier

The good writer/artist is a vehicle for truth, s/he formulates ideas which would otherwise remain vague and focuses attention upon facts which can then no longer be ignored.

Iris Murdoch 1919-1999 Existentialists and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature

SEPTEMBER Northern Hemisphere Switch to ‘Autumn’ Thinking…Planting

September wasn’t always the ninth month: its name septem means seven. Roman calculation before the Julian calendar reform in 46BC began at March equinox. Julius Caesar changed Roman lives by changing how their year went. By adding days and months (January, February), he created a mode of reckoning which survived until the Reformation. It went into Roman law two years before he died, 44BC.

His Julian calendar, widely adopted in remarkably short time within the Empire, survived in the Western world for more than 1600 years until 1582, when a correction was made [Pope Gregory XIII instigation hence ‘Gregorian calendar’ revision] to correct Julian calendar’s drift against the solar year of 365.25 days. Most of Western world adopted it, Roman catholic countries before, Protestant countries after the Reformation.

Eruptions of rebellion broke out in Scotland, when the Reformed Calendar—backed by the Reformed Church—went into effect in 1752. Bemoaning their eleven ‘missing days’ in tinkering with leap years, adding and subtracting at will, making a mockery of a lifestyle usually ruled by the Ocean, they did it their own way.

Some coastal ports of the ‘North Coast’—ocean-going villages & fishing communities in Banffshire, Buchan and along Moray Firth in Northeast Scotland—protested the loss of eleven days; maintained their own rhythm by holding their own fire festival : not at New Year but during Aul’ ‘Eel (Old Yule) in second week of January. Burghead burns the Clavie Stonehaven swings man-size fireballs around the coastal town.

Other North Coast towns (Forres, Pennan & ‘The Broch’ (Fraserburgh) also kept similar rituals up until WWII, discontinued after 1945.

Burning the Clavie on Aul’Eel, left: oak whisky barrel soaked in tar set alight and carried around the town of Burghead by Clavie King and Clavie Crew Dying firebrands then hoisted up on to Doorie on castle ramparts to burn rest of night. Clavie King Dan Ralph

Rhythm of the Seasons Guides the Human Machine

Much weight has been placed in these recent times on living a healthy life, cultivating an outdoor lifestyle—walking, hill-climbing, gardening—back-to-nature open air pursuits. With increasing use of social media, charitable rewilding groups and some landowners are committed to restoring wild spaces, with plans to reintroduce extinct species. National Trust (former Royal property) Mar Lodge, top rt. before&after rewilding 2011 & 2021.

The movement has become enormously influential: countries in the former European bloc are now proud to reveal their reintroduction of (formerly endangered)rare species like wolf, boar and marten. Pacific NW and Canadian forests are responding to replanting; with activists halting clear-cut felling of ancient woodland

Scotland’s last wolf was shot in Braemar in 1720 by a Royal.

Rewilding Restoring Forest builds on Earlier Spiritual Initiatives

Present-day Royal estate of Mar Lodge (top rt., now administered by NTS) plans to follow a lead set in the ‘Sixties by the Findhorn Foundation, in their organic garden, at a time when spin-off miracle Trees for Life treeplanter-cum-earth wizard founder, Alan Watson Featherstone was bringing ancient Caledonian pine forest (and related understorey wildlife) back in Glenfeshie, and Dundreggan, near Loch Ness. Mindful of ecosystem fragility, TFL offers instruction and accommodation to volunteers in its wilderness locations.

Trees for Life is some thirty years ahead of the (top) Mar Lodge project: Before-and-after views are invaluable in locations where locals remember the treelessness—sadly almost 70% of Cairngorms National Park is still treeless—long way to go. Next decade’s #before&after pictures should be stunning!

‘We have lost most of the larger predators in Scotland. We used to have elk, auroch (wild cattle), brown bear, wildcat, wolf and lynx. We could restore all these species—there is enough space—but we do need to do a lot of habitat restoration as I don’t thihnk there’s enough habitat for them.’ Andrew Kitchener NatMusScot

‘Britain has one of the lowest forest covers of any nation in Europe at only 13%, less than half the Euro average, 38% across EU, with an increase of only 1% in the last quarter century.

‘For Scotland, most northerly of 4 Brit.nations, expanse is proportionally higher, rising from 5% to 19% in last 100 years., Much of that forest is commercial plantations—which contributes $1.4billion to the national economy, but according to rewilders, are less biodiverse.

‘Only one-fifth of Scotland’s forests are native woodlands.’

Author/Photographer Kieran Dodds &Curator of Vertebrate Biology, NatMusScotland, Andrew Kitchener

There are advantages to being a (tick one) Boomer, oldie, vintage, organio; Wartime Land Girls worked with pick & shovel. Townsfolk work garden allotments-nothing new. Some of us even remember harvesting without machines.

Trying Harder Isn’t Enough: We Have Serious EarthCare Work to Do

We’ve been experiencing another year of highest-ever temperatures, and unprecedented snowmelt of world’s most reliable glaciers. Most alarming, however, is severe drought expectancy in five States in the SW United States, fed by the Hoover Dam and Sacramento valley’s Oroville Dam (under forced repair).

Mount Shasta, below, has no snow—first time ever. The Yurok are still insisting that Atlas-Copco remove and restore dam damage on the River Klamath. Oil pipelines have been halted in B.C. and Midwest USA.

With another year of enforced isolation upon us—but with benefit of breathing fresh air—EarthFirst movements are gaining ground. More supporters provide more resources for restoring land health. Group consciousness spreads urgency on the need to replant-rewild-restore our patch of Earth so it can look after original species, us included.

Mount Shasta, iconic source of the Klamath and Sacramento rivers. Sacred source well in downtown Shasta City, CA is dry. Successive dams report low water level or-as at Oroville-inoperative; salmon hatcheries are failing.

Sacramento basin water supplies Bay Area of San Francisco & Peninsular home to most of world’s hi-tech companies Silicon Valley.

Hoover Dam provides H20 to 5 U.S. southern states, water levels below record low.

Writers’ Cave Resolution: Keep on Keeping On

Insecure or otherwise, we writers do need help occasionally to keep our nose to the grindstone. Inspiration from such New Age visionaries as Findhorn’s founders Eileen Caddy and Dorothy Maclean who started a spiritual garden in 1968 only to see it become a world ecovillage of global influence. are invaluable in reaching our own comfort zone —albeit head-down. Some scriptorial caverns have MILES of subterranean tunnels and false passages to keep us in solitary company of our Muse. All right. Admit it. We thrive in solitary. Writing feeds the introvert scribe.

Muse speak: You may play in the sunshine; then—back in the box. Happy Kalends of September, sacred to Jupiter the Thunderer. May he see us through this dry spell and unleash his life-giving waters in time. ©2021 Marian Youngblood

Auspicious Beginnings to the New Decade—Written in the Stars

AUSPICIOUS BEGINNINGS TO THE NEW DECADE—WRITTEN IN THE STARS
Looking to the Future: 2020 Corner for Insecure Writers in all Dimensions

Glancing Briefly Backwards…

‘Diamond Ring’—old NASA-speak for moment solar orb reappears after annular eclipse December 26th 2019

The Sun provided the Indian sub-continent and all Southern Oceans with a dramatic solar eclipse on (British Raj) Boxing Day, December 26th, 2019, triggering a trend for skywatching with special protective glasses. Totality—which reached a maximum duration of four minutes in the “total zone”—attracted one million youthful observers, allowed out in school playgrounds across the Asian archipelago for the event. A solar eclipse occurs when the (new) moon passes in front of the sun’s disc. Lunar eclipse happens when Earth’s shadow passes over the moon. First of four lunar eclipses in 2020 will occur (visible Europe, Asia; not America) night of January 10th.

Solar Eclipses are often dramatic when they occur close to Winter Solstice and this event was spectacular in that the new moon happened so close to Christmas.

Last solar eclipse of the decade—December 26th path of visible totality

Quite charismatically, Captain James Cook, during one of his Pacific navigational/discovery voyages witnessed a famous annular eclipse on December 29th, 1777 between the Hawai’ian Island chain and present Guam.

…Glimpse of Future
Summer Solstice, June 21st, 2020 miraculously will provide another annular eclipse of the sun—again delighting India, Pakistan, Arabian continent and Southern Oceans. No hint in the northern hemisphere. And to complete the 2020 trio, December 14th 2020 brings a third (northern-invisible) eclipse.

There has to be a moral in there somewhere for us (northerly) Insecure Writers!

Jumping Time Zones and a British EarthShot for Humans
As the New Year and new Decade start to unfold—twenty-three hours ahead of time for us (northern) slug-laggards—and remembering that U.S. legislation bans public sale or explosion of fireworks, except on July 4th—it is fascinating to watch some of the fun & fireworks go off live—and virtually—in New Zealand, Thailand, Taipei, Pakistan, and Ceylon in good olde British style and tradition.

Earthshot Prize British Royal Initiative

Up the Khyber—HRH Prince William climbing in the Hindu Kush—2019 Royal tour of Pakistan cemented relations

“The earth is at a tipping point and we face a stark choice: either we continue as we are and irreparably damage our planet or we remember our unique power as human beings and our continual ability to lead, innovate and problem-solve”
HRH Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Earthshot Founder

Prince William’s inspiration for a new decade is world-changing. Literally. Cooperating with octogenarian broadcaster-naturalist Sir David Attenborough, the 37-year-old Prince’s initiative is to heal the planet, one annual award at a time. His Foundation is shared by his eco-planting nature-loving consort, HRH Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, who made strides last year to bring focus to human damage to our changing earth, and our duty to do something about it. Her own nature-driven remedies for mental health have been widely copied.

“The next ten years presents us with one of our greatest tests—a decade of action to repair the Earth”
HRH Prince William, Patron Earthshot Prize

Prince William’s clarion call to British, Commonwealth and international entrepreneurs, influencers, and innovators is to “remember the awe-inspiring civilizations that we (humans) have built, the life-saving technology we have created,” and that “inspired people can achieve great things.”

Clavie King & Crew hoist burning tar barrel for annual parade round Pictish fort of Burghead on Aul”Eel—old Yule 6th January—Julian calendar

He aims to build an international coalition of scientists, economists, activists, government leaders, businesspeople, philanthropists, cities, and countries worldwide.

The Prize will be run initially by The Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, with first annual awards announced in 2021. Long term plan is for it to become an independent organization.

The charitable trust has already received financial commitment and logistical support from a global coalition of philanthropists and fund-raising organizations.

Earthfirst and Nature non-profits have heralded the new initiative as a brilliant coalition of the world’s best minds.

‘In just ten years we can go from fear to hope, from disaster to discovery; from inertia to inspiration’
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)

So when all the Highland Reels, Roman Candles and Midnight countdowns have spun off into an alternative Universe and we emerge in the moment of now: 2020—it helps us (insecure but determined to be brilliant writers) to remember that we, too, have a part in contributing to our own healthy future; that one-word-at-a-time is like planting our own future forest.

Only the writer knows how rejuvenating it feels to ‘put a story to bed’. Shake out the red carpet. Roll on the new decade. And, with gratitude, let us put our best first-foot forward.

Let the new era begin.
©2020 Marian Youngblood