Here we are facing another "calendar"! The last one got used up rather quickly, methinks. The Father usually prepared a family calendar each year, but this time he couldn't get himself together on it - even when offered the help of his firstborn. Therefore, I printed one of my own for the near and dear. It has occurred to me to share the images chosen with you, dear readers, on the first Sunday of each month - though, today, there is a bonus... This was on the cover...
It has appeared here before, in the Me-Now-Views, but it was one of my best from the year so won top billing. It represents the look and feel of West Coast Bonny Land rather well. Including the invasive rhododendrons, brought back from the Himalayas by a 'well-meaning' amateur botanist of the Victorian era.
Yet, having grown up with the shrub in nearly every garden lived in and in the surrounds of the land of my birth, I see it very much as part of the landscape. It did well here because of the similarities with its own native land and despite some major differences. Now there are cultivars and hybrids aplenty all over the globe. Which prompts one to think of migration... There is a move to rid the wild landscape of 'invader plants', not just here, but in my other homeland, Australia (lantana is one of the major nasties there). Protectors of nature everywhere see it as loving our planet to 'restore' native habitat.
In general, I am in favour of this. However, I also find that there is extremism which creeps in with this philosophy. It is mostly quite subtle but can be very blunt. It is the same sort of mentality which goes with anti-immigration sentiments towards human 're-seeding'.
What is so often forgotten - or merely glossed over - is that the majority of Western 'civilisation' came about due to migration, the slow creep in search of deeper, richer earth and abundant nutrition. Almost all of you visiting this page today can trace your roots through to a place that is nowhere near what you currently consider your native place. It would also be fair to say that, even in the softest hearts, when the new or the strange arrives on your doorstep there is a moment of 'this is my place what are you doing here?' It is a natural defence.
When we stop and look at the landscape as a whole, though, we can only marvel at the integration, the beauty which is added albeit, perhaps, at other which is lost.
Overall, we do well when boundaries are softened and mingling is permitted. Some boundaries are appropriate, commonsense must reign. Personally, I do not wish to live in a locked room. I am claustrophobic. Openness and freedom to move is my preference. As we enter 2019 in a political climate which seems to be global in its desire to pull down the shutters and close the doors (but still with the expectation of 'shaking hands' with neighbours - really? You want your cake and eat it too?!) I hold my breath and wonder...
It has appeared here before, in the Me-Now-Views, but it was one of my best from the year so won top billing. It represents the look and feel of West Coast Bonny Land rather well. Including the invasive rhododendrons, brought back from the Himalayas by a 'well-meaning' amateur botanist of the Victorian era.
Yet, having grown up with the shrub in nearly every garden lived in and in the surrounds of the land of my birth, I see it very much as part of the landscape. It did well here because of the similarities with its own native land and despite some major differences. Now there are cultivars and hybrids aplenty all over the globe. Which prompts one to think of migration... There is a move to rid the wild landscape of 'invader plants', not just here, but in my other homeland, Australia (lantana is one of the major nasties there). Protectors of nature everywhere see it as loving our planet to 'restore' native habitat.
In general, I am in favour of this. However, I also find that there is extremism which creeps in with this philosophy. It is mostly quite subtle but can be very blunt. It is the same sort of mentality which goes with anti-immigration sentiments towards human 're-seeding'.
What is so often forgotten - or merely glossed over - is that the majority of Western 'civilisation' came about due to migration, the slow creep in search of deeper, richer earth and abundant nutrition. Almost all of you visiting this page today can trace your roots through to a place that is nowhere near what you currently consider your native place. It would also be fair to say that, even in the softest hearts, when the new or the strange arrives on your doorstep there is a moment of 'this is my place what are you doing here?' It is a natural defence.
When we stop and look at the landscape as a whole, though, we can only marvel at the integration, the beauty which is added albeit, perhaps, at other which is lost.
Overall, we do well when boundaries are softened and mingling is permitted. Some boundaries are appropriate, commonsense must reign. Personally, I do not wish to live in a locked room. I am claustrophobic. Openness and freedom to move is my preference. As we enter 2019 in a political climate which seems to be global in its desire to pull down the shutters and close the doors (but still with the expectation of 'shaking hands' with neighbours - really? You want your cake and eat it too?!) I hold my breath and wonder...
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| "January"; STILL... on the snow road trail of the Cairngorms, Tomintoul. |
Ohhhh the cover is gorgeous. Rhodies do best in our Mountains. I love the color.
ReplyDeleteKudzu is an invasive plant that arrived here years ago. You cannot kill it but it will strangle the life our of trees and land. One that that will rid an area of Kudzu is Goats. They love it and will eat it into extinction.
The 2nd photo was where a famous WFT we all love posed once right?
Hugs Cecilia and I look for to 1st Sundays
Hari OM
DeleteWell spotted and remembered! Yxx
I am enjoying the January calendar picture on my kitchen wall. And yes, I agree with you about being wary of anti-immigrant extremism, be it related to plants or humans. (It has only recently occurred to me that among my group of friends I am almost unique in not having anyone from outside the UK in my ancestry, for at least three generations back. I do not in any way claim that this is anything to be proud of, it's just a fact).
ReplyDeleteNo sign of snow here in Aberdeenshire yet.
Cheers! Gail.
the cover is stunning and I LOVE LOVE the January Still. I love the glow of it, so beautiful. your words are so true, we have what THEY call invasive plants here but we love them and they were brought here some of them in the 1500 and have been here since then, the trees and plants I grew up with here in Florida most of the came from the West Indies and other places... agree with all you said today. a sad world we are in
ReplyDeleteOh rhododendrons they have a hard time growing in Nati City. And we love lantana. Here it is the wild honeysuckle that takes over everything. Remember how joyous the world was when the Berlin Wall came down that was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. The Soviet approach to controlling national movement, restricting emigration, was emulated by most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc, including East Germany. Now my President is calling for a Wall. History repeats itself because humans can not learn from history.
ReplyDeleteYour Friend
Sweet William The Scot
Climate change encourages migration, and fosters naturalization of invasive species, so insidiously. Plants once seen only in warmer states suddenly appear in our own.
ReplyDeleteI love the cover. It reminds me of the lushness of early summer. I do understand the need to curb invader plants because they can take over and edge out the native species, thereby homogenizing the world. However, I don't extend that to immigrants. After all, most of us have immigrants nearby in our family trees.
ReplyDeleteMom says Amen to all you say.
ReplyDeleteYour photo is just beautiful - a fantastic cover for the start of a new year.
Woos - Lightning, Misty, and Timber
Unfortunately I do not have your calendar up and running as yet. I wonder in what month I will be able to hang it on the kitchen wall.
ReplyDeleteAs a foreigner abroad I am always amazed by what people make of foreigners in general. I am fine. I am non threatening after all: white female. I am often not even regarded as a foreigner! Whereas somebody born and raised here, in fact third generation Brit might be considered foreign just because he's black! It's a strange world we live in, that's for sure.
I've killed my fair share of rhodies!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know you did a calendar. Silly me!
The lies coming out of the Whitehouse are appalling. When one considers how close we are, and the immigrants Canada welcomes, compared to the US. I know it is different in the UK. Just awful racism seeps north. Such ignorance.
Anyway, we know what's what. I cannot imagine being a person of colour. I try to be an ally. The same with First Nations. It's all we can do.
Truth! What the world needs now is love sweet Love. Thats the thing there is just too little of ... Burt B. said it right. Calendar? How did I miss that? namaste, janice, xx
ReplyDelete