Tag Archives: survival

Poetry, Uncategorized, Winter

Winter Night. (a poem)

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This ought to have been published in the winter, but I didn’t get round to it, so I’m publishing it today. Anyway, it’s still technically winter! Hope you enjoy it.

full-moon-1337690_1280

Snow covers the ice-hard ground
And ponds and lakes are frozen.
All is muffled, every sound.
The birds are silent in the trees,
No moths or butterflies or bees
Just snowflakes by the dozen.

The moon is full and her pale light
Shines gently through the flakes.
But creatures shiver through the night.
The icy wind makes branches quiver
And every living thing to shiver
In trees and hills and lakes.

Across the field there trots a fox.
An owl flies by on silent wings.
On the frozen lake, some ducks.
As snow falls gently on them all,
And cattle low within their stall
We are waiting for the spring.

I welcome all your comments, so please add yours.

Uncategorized

Comment on pollution reduction

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We are constantly being told about what we are doing to our world. We are told about all the carbon dioxide we are adding to the air and what it is doing to the climate.
We are also told about methane from grazing animals and how  that is also a greenhouse gas.
In this post, I want to bring some things to your attention that we aren’t told about in so many words.

 Hydrogen cars. A good thing aren’t they? They are not polluting are they? After all, the hydrogen just burns to water.

Let’s consider this. Water is a greenhouse gas. This we are not told, but why should we need to be? We all know that on a cloudy night the temperature stays higher, but if it’s clear, it’s likely to be cold.

 If the world is warming, as it seems to be, on average, there is more energy in the system. More energy, more air movements. I have noticed that there seem to be more windy days than there used to be. anyone else noticed? I’ve not got any statistics, just my own observations. Are hurricanes not stronger than they used to be?

 Fossil fuels are finite. They take millions of years to form, yet we are burning them as if they will last for ever. Every person who is old enough to hold a driving license now has to have their own car. Next door to me, until recently, there was a family of six. Six cars were parked outside every day. Their drive would only hold three. Parking in the rest of the street is not easy without blocking someone in. It was a problem.
Should we really be using it to burn? Here are a few things made from oil that we’ll probably have to do without when the oil has gone.
1. plastics (Think of all the things made of plastic you use every day.)
2. cosmetics
3. food colourings
4. paint
5. shoe polish
6. nylon
7. paint
8. ink
9. medicines
10. Vaseline
11. tyres
12. Asphalt
13. insect repellant
14. fertiliser
15. shampoo
There are thousands of products made from oil, yet we burn it willy-nilly.

 I could continue with many more, but I just want to finish with what I consider the most worrying thing, but one that is never mentioned. Oxygen levels.
When things burn they use oxygen. That is something everyone who has been to school knows. We are burning oil and releasing the carbon dioxide trapped in there. At the same time, we are using up oxygen.
This I did do some research about. It seems that at the time of the dinosaurs, the oxygen level was around 33%. When we learn about oxygen content of the atmosphere in school, we learn it’s around 21%. However, it is declining, and declining faster than it did before. There are 150 areas in the sea that are dead zones. So little oxygen that no life can survive, and in some cities the oxygen level is down to 17%
Why is this not a topic for discussion? Why are we only told to think about carbon dioxide and climate change? Is this not potentially more serious? maybe it won’t be a problem for us, or our children, but in the future, perhaps the very existence of humanity might be in danger.

Here’s a website you might like to visit to find out more.

http://disinfo.com/2013/01/atmospheric-oxygen-levels-are-dropping-faster-than-atmospheric-carbon-levels-are-rising/

Please leave a comment on this blog in the space below.

I would just like to tell you that the next installment of Asphodel’s back story will be on March 14th as Debbie Manber Kupfer is visiting my blog on the 7th, so rather than leave it for another month, I’ve substituted if for one of my grammar posts. 

Thanks for reading.

Poetry, Uncategorized

I Am Earth. A Poem

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earth-1881932_1280

I am Earth.
I am your mother.
I gave you birth.

I gave you a nest.
A wonderful home
On which you can rest.

I gave you food .
Plenty to eat.
You waste all that’s good.

I gave you the seas
And forests and hills,
But you chop down the trees.

You think you’re so cool,
But you pollute the air
By the burning of fuel.

You heat up the air
And care not a jot
For the poor polar bear.

Animals die
Because of your greed.
You hear not their cry.

I teemed with life,
Both great and small.
Yet extinction is rife

Like a cancer you spread
Throughout the whole world.
It won’t end till you’re dead.

But I’ll make you pay
For all you have done.
You’ll be sorry one day.

I’ll shiver my skin.
Your buildings will fall
And bury your kin.

The land I will flood
By raising the seas
And drown all in mud.

My mountains so high
Will belch forth their flames
And you will all die.

I am Earth.
I am your mother.
I gave you birth.

BUT I WILL DESTROY YOU.

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Comments on a disturbing blog post I read recently.

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I’ve just read a disturbing post from soulfultroubadourdotcom. It deals with the case of two boys who were badly beaten for wanting to leave the church. So badly beaten, in fact, that one of them died. I think most people would consider this a dreadful crime. Unfortunately, the people whod did this must have felt they were fully justified.

This is what’s scary. These people thought, and I suppose continue to think, they were fully justified in what they did. This did not happen in Syria, or Iraq, or Libya or any of those countries that we think of as being barbaric, but in the USA. These people were not extremist Muslims, but Fundamental Christians.

By what right they think they have to call themselves Christian I really do not know. Nothing they did is what I understand to be following the teachings of Christ. These extremist ‘Christians’ are just as bad as the extremist ‘Muslims’, and yet we in the west seem to ignore them.

OK, they don’t go round bombing people (yet), thinking you can force people into believing as you do, but are they really much better? Beating young men because they don’t like the message you are preaching is just as bad in my eyes.

Extremism is dangerous, whether it’s religious or political, whether Muslim of Christian, Right or Left. People ignore these folk because they call themselves Christian, and that is the religion of the west. Of us, even if we are non-believers.

So we tar all Muslims with the same brush. They are all wicked people who chop of the heads of non-Muslims, but we ignore those Christians who think to force people to their religion by other acts of brutality.

Jesus said (Matthew 7:5) How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

I have written a poem about hypocrisy. I’ll post it later next month, possibly.

 

I would love to hear what you think about this. If you would like more details, go to https://soulfultroubadourdotcom.wordpress.com/2016/10/

novel

My review of Winter’s Captive by June Bourgo

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georgia

 Blurb

Recently separated from a cheating husband, a pregnant Georgia leaves her home to spend a month with a childhood friend in Yukon Territory. Her stay takes an abrupt turn when she is kidnapped by bank robbers. She escapes into a vast area of north western British Columbia, known as ‘the last frontier’. Against all odds, Georgia is forced to make decisions to endure the cold, harsh winter. Will she make the right choices to not only ensure her survival but that of her unborn child?

 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The character of Georgia captured me and I followed her every move with interest. I enjoyed watching her grow as she faced her ordeal in the wilderness.

Her husband left her pregnant and after a terrifying ordeal, Georgia finds herself faced with an even more terrifying experience—giving birth alone in the wilderness. She finds the strength to survive through a surprising means and grows both spiritually and emotionally.

This is not the kind of book I usually read, but I found that it is one of those books that you want to keep reading to know what happens next, but don’t want to finish. I am glad to se that June V. Bourgo is writing more books about Georgia. I am anxious to see how she continues her spiritual and emotional growth.

This book has a lot to teach its readers about spirituality, and I have learned a lot from reading it.

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