Skip to main content
Category

Blogs

A Prayer for Mankind

By Blogs

I was approached by Anne Yarwood in June 2016 with an idea of conveying the suffering and injustice taking place in Israel and Jerusalem in a play, which Anne felt my drama skills could portray.
My experience playing the young Arab lady in ‘Take Two’ was an eye opener for me to the extent of injustice and suffering these people were going through. I felt the character was alive in me, speaking out to the audience her message of ending the pain and suffering of her and her people, and she was reaching out to the audience to spread the word of peace and to seek help for her people.
I felt my body was acting as a vessel to carry out the voice of many people who are crying out for help from the world. I felt chosen to use my acting skills to project out the spirit of this young lady and many more in her position.
The whole play was a big prayer to the world for world peace.

Kirti Dhanoa

Read More

Comforting

By Blogs

Amidst urgent advocacy, practical and emotional support for us all, when stricken…There’s the snuggle- into -a -woolly -jumper COMFORT. Sugary cake, birthday candles, watching Detectives on telly …reaching out for a “last” choccy. And HUGS.

I used to think signing off a note with “HUGS” was naff. No longer! Being enfolded, is what us children need. THERE’s so much bloody misery around !!!

One reason I’m resilient, I believe is because as a tiny child, I was hugged. Sat on my Father’s scraggy little knees, enfolded by his large hands or on my Mother’s knee; snuggling my head on her billowing breast. Held….

Now I’m 84. My friends and I “enfold” many a wonder and an horror. More and more, I love the bodily comfort of HUGS. D’you agree, dear Readers ?

See ‘Poems to hold on to’ by Diamond Twigg & Sophie Hannah –  HERE

 

Photo acknowledgement: Wonderopolis

Read More

In Praise of Engineers

By Blogs

Theopholous Isambard Kingdom Brunel is the name we’ve given the brown spider, come to hang over the kitchen table. Two brilliant Engineers.

Theopholous first wove a web attached by guy ropes to the curtain on the left and lamp to the right. THEN the lamp was moved. Next day, web gone! Woven back again by this evening.

( Thoughts of Mr. Brunel & the Great Eastern iron ship…. AND the New Forth Bridge Engineers)

Problem is …..no passing food. Does Amazon sell dried v. small flies , on line?

We are worried !!!!

Recommended: Deborah Cadbury ‘Seven Wonders of the Industrial World’ plus accompanying DVD -recreates the stories of the most brilliant pioneers of the Industrial Age – Bell Rock Light House, Brooklyn Bridge, the London Sewers HERE

Isambard Kingdom Brunel – Wikipedia HERE 

Photo acknowledgement –  michael podger on Unsplash

Read More

You Can Do It !

By Blogs

Listing Stories of friends’ achievements in the Ascot, Windsor, Slough, Bracknell, Reading areas of Berkshire UK, currently and as legacies from the 1980s –

Bill Carey Craft Workshop, WEB Bus education, Play Centre Old Magistrate Court, Light House Peace Yurt, ‘Take Two’ Palestine- Israeli play, Play reading group, Wordsmiths writers’ group, Festival of the Dark, Windsor Homeless project, PARITY: equal rights for men & women, Scar healing in Sarajevo, Windsor International One Act Play competition, ASCENT Environment Network & Festival, Quiet Garden retreat at 30, Granny Kettle Wood: high court action to preserve trees, Wildlife in Ascot, Save Heatherwood Hospital, DOCS: Defend Our Community Services, ‘How Come We Didn’t Know?’ exhibition NHS privatisation, Community access to Ascot Races, The ‘Just Walk’ to Palestine, Surrey Swans: Gender fluidity group, Collections for CALM: male suicide, The Circle Works at 30, Values & Visions Foundation, Wells for India at 30, Mindfulness classes, INSECT ARMAGGEDON

Cobra uses information & communication technologies to help local communities document & promote their own solutions to sustainability challenges & inspire others locally, nationally, internationally – Watch inspirational video: self- reliance & sustainability HERE 

 

Read More

Lying there just looking at the Moon

By Blogs

I’ve spent ages this week thinking about a text to echo the photograph of Moon & Water. Several poems unearthed but inadequate for my Moon feelings.

Then last night in bed, I turned my head towards the three large windows, to my left. The house is over 100 years old. Black painted wooden eaves hunch over the window. Beyond, an 100 year Lawsonian pine. Here a Tawny Owl calls at dusk or dawn.

And THERE WAS THE MOON. Beaming, BEAMING white light into  my room. At 3 o’clock it had moved to the third window. At 5am it was out of sight.

All the writing and images in this edition of TIA, tell of human interventions with WATER. The musing you’re reading now, dwells on the miracle of water and miraculous tides drawn to bulge, by the miraculous Moon.

For more info – Moonconnection.com 

Read More

Take Insects Seriously and Wonder at them !

By Blogs

DAMSEL FLIES AWAITING TAKE-OFF

Of the species Odonata, Damsel flies and the larger Dragon flies are amongst the most beautiful and spectacular insects.Amongst the most ancient creatures, millions of years ago they were some of the largest flying invertebrates ever.

Now, once emerged from water they live but a few weeks, if that.

Prof. Dave Goulson, University Sussex alerts us to the alarming evidence that insect populations world wide, are in RAPID DECLINE. ” if we lose the insects, then everything is going to collapse”: an ecological ARMAGEDDON.

Photo Acknowledgement  – Daily Telegraph

Read More

Awe at Wonderments – Hubble’s Messier 5

By Blogs

 

Hubble’s Messier 5 was catalogued by the 18th century astronomer. It contains 100,000 stars or more, bound by gravity into a region around 165 light years in diameter. Astronomers honour star-dust.

In our Story, across the page, we tell of the artist Antonia Rolls. She paints and speaks with men and women, during their last days on this planet. She honours star-dust.

http://www.star.ucl.ac.uk/~apod/apod/ap171104.html

Acknowledgement – NASA

Read More

The Man Who Planted Trees

By Blogs

Twenty some years ago David Milarch hovered above the bed, looking down at his motionless body. Years of alcoholism had booted him out of his life. An inexplicable cosmic commandment would return him to it. His improbable charge? To clone the world’s champion trees – the giants that had survived millennia and would be unvanquished by climate change. Experts said it couldn’t be done. Fast-forward to today, and Milarch is now the keeper of a Noah’s Ark filled with the genetics for repopulating the world’s most ancient trees. Founder of the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive he is on a mission to restore the lungs of the planet — a mission that now reaches close to 300 million people each year.

You can read or listen to the full version of the interview by Daily Good with David –  here. 

Acknowledgement – Contribution from Brian, a fellow environmental campaigner.

Photo – Daily Good

Read More

Treasure …. in piles of poo !

By Blogs

I usually look up and around when I am walking.  This day I didn’t and what caught my eye were a couple of dollops of horse manure…with treasure.

Treasure that had sprung to life from what one could have regarded as an ‘end product’. Who knows where it started and all the facets of the constituents of the manure.

It was far from over…  in fact, it was the start of new life…searching for light and winding fragile stalks chaotically.

I thought it was beautiful and a sign of hope that when there are piles of shit…there are also possibilities of new growth and undiscovered beauty.

I could so easily have missed it.

Acknowledgement – Christina Searle, a new Blog contributer ( see Story – Steve Searle and Gallery – HERE )

Read More

Awe & Wonderment ; Western Australia

By Blogs

Today the Blog gazes across far distant time. What strange world is this ? Earth.

In the foreground are the PINNACLES. Unusual rock spires in Namburg National Park, Western Australia. They are made from ancient sea shells (limestone); the topic of research.

Research into human existence in this part of earth at earliest archeological sites reveals that there was an Aboriginal presence 40 – 60,000 years ago; the oldest continuous culture on earth.

A culture whose hall mark is ONENESS WITH NATURE; within a belief system where nature & landscape are sacred. Aboriginal oral tradition is built upon a belief in the DREAMTIME: the reality of Dreaming.

Ref –  UCL: Astronomy Picture of the Day 10/10/17 – HERE

–  Australia Indigenous art – HERE

Read More