David Menary's New Book The River & The Railroad

My Canadian journalist "cousin" David Menary - we're connected through family history research: many of our mob went from Ireland to Ontario in the 19th century - had a second historical novel launched on April 10. It's called The River and The Railroad.

You can read about it here.

Things Canadian always interest me. I spent part of 1981 and all of 1982 living on the Niagara Peninsula with my family and lecturing in Hamilton, Ontario, at Mohawk College of the Arts and Technology. Long before that, as a single guy I'd worked in the old E B Eddy Paper Mills (gone now) at Ottawa and across the river on the Quebec side, in Hull. One recollection from those days was the general dislike my French-Canadian co-workers had for les anglais, meaning Anglo-Canadians; but they were OK with me as a Scot. Hooray. This was at a  period of strong political movement in favour of a separate Quebec. Not dead yet, I guess.

Other highlights: a great week at the iconic Banff Springs Hotel and the snow skiing; Calgary, Alberta; beautiful Vancouver and its nearby Grouse Mountain; canoeing in Algonquin Wilderness Park (especially the wolves howling at night in the surrounding hills, when I felt sure they were saying, "Hey fellas, that's breakfast down there in those little tent things").  Also the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, where I got to meet the playwright Arthur Miller when he read some of his early and unpublished poetry. And I didn't even think to ask him about his recent divorce from Marilyn Monroe. Damn. Well, really, who would be so crass? Right?

A lot of what I have learnt about Canada comes from the wonderful books of Farley Mowat, a national treasure revered by Canadians. In his nineties and still with us, author of about 50+ books. Most people have heard of Never Cry Wolf, or seen the movie. A personal favourite of mine is The Grey Seas Under (based on the ship's log of a WWII Atlantic deep-sea salvage tug.) And Mowat's book (1999) which has most changed my thinking is The Alban Quest: it re-writes early trans-Atlantic history and proves as lies the rubbish taught in Scandinavian schools about "the Vikings being first to discover Iceland and North America". They didn't. The Albans did (the pre-Celts whom the Romans had called Picts.) Subject for a blog entry soon!

First Crop Circle in England for 2010

The year's first crop formation (incorrectly but popularly referred to as "crop circle") appeared on May 5th in an unripe canola crop near Old Sarum, southern Wiltshire.

The indefatigable Stuart Dike has documented the phenomenon for over twenty years. His collaborators include Lucy Pringle and Olivier Morel who took the photographs on this web page. The photographers typically use ultralight aircraft to get to and view the formations as soon as possible after a ground report comes in. The images are copyrighted to the owners who publish them to the website which I have linked to, above. The full archive of images invites a subscription membership.

Stuart writes the following description of this Year's First:

Herewith the first crop circle of 2010. It is in oil seed rape (canola) and measures approx: 180 foot diameter.  It is a circle containing six arcs intercepted by a small circle surrounded by a larger circle. A lozenge shape lies alongside the sixth arc with seven circles lying in an arc below.  It lies below the ancient Hill Fort Old Sarum in Hampshire.  Sadly due to the fact that it lies in Boscombe Military Air space it is also directly below the helicopter low flight approach zone. The images were therefore taken from 2000 feet and also the crop is not yet in full bloom so the imprint is poor.

The first week in May we witness the first English Crop Circle in southern Wiltshire. The area around Old Sarum is certainly not an active part of the countryside for the phenomenon. In fact it has only witnessed a few events of the last two decades, which makes this ‘Curtain Opener’ to the 2010 season quite a surprise. Many of the researchers and followers of the Crop Circle Connector website were probably expecting the Avebury area to ‘take the prize’ for the first official Crop Circle in 2010.  Perhaps this is the start of a migration for the Circle makers?   Only time will tell!

The last time a crop circle appeared close to Old Sarum was 5th June 1992 and 1st August 2006

Here's that  link again. Enjoy.

Any thoughts on the phenomenon yourself? You might have noticed that our mainstream media either ignore or try to ridicule it, despite the attention given by significant numbers of serious non-looney researchers. Interesting, eh? 

Ishi Re-visited

A general site on native north American cultures is here:
Native Americans 

Today I'm posting an article I wrote for my older blog - it's still there for now - and it tells in brief the story of Ishi "the last Yahi", although that label deserves re-appraisal.  Read the article to find out!

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Ishi of the Yahi Yana Nation

The man called Ishi died 25 March 1916 in his rooms at the Anthropology Museum, California University. He was around 50. Tuberculosis killed him. For almost 100 years Ishi has mostly been referred to as "The last of the Yahi", the term used in 1979 as title of Heizer and Kroeber's book of assembled documents on his life and death.

Ishi was a native American whose reclusive people, the Yahi, had lived in remote wooded hills and gullies of northern California, east of the Sacramento River in the foothills of the Cascade Range. 10,000ft volcanic Mount Lassen was the eastern boundary of Yahi lands. To the immediate north were their Yana relatives; west were the Wintun; south-east the Maidu; still further south - Shoshone. The Yahi had remained hunters and gatherers.

We will never know Ishi's personal names. The word ishi in the Yahi dialect simply meant a full-grown man. Anthropologists Professor Alfred Kroeber and Thomas Waterman, knowing this much of native name taboo, never pressed him to reveal name-magic, and in over four years, living and working at the Museum demonstrating his people's traditional crafts, the Yahi man never volunteered it. So, just "Ishi" he became. Why was he so special?

On 29 August 1911, ill and emaciated, Ishi had been found in a state of collapse near the small mining town of Oroville, forty miles south of his tribal land and by grim irony at the corral of a slaughterhouse. The rest of his small band had fallen to starvation and influenza after years hiding in the hills. Much later, when he and the university researchers who befriended him were able to communicate somewhat freely, Ishi said he had expected to be killed. Theodora Kroeber in her book Ishi in Two Worlds, quotes her late husband's writings: "He knew the white man only as murderers of his people."

Studies in the 1990s, in part linked to legislation requiring the repatriation of native American remains from museum collections to the descendants, turned up a couple of new things about Ishi. His arrowhead-making skill (from obsidian flakes) has been shown to match not the type found in the archaeology of Yahi lands but rather that of different groups, which would indicate he had learned from incomers to the Yahi. Was Ishi himself of mixed heritage? The jury is still out on that. Could DNA evidence help?

As for repatriation of his cremated ashes, at first the Smithsonian (in 1999) "did not know he had living relatives" - but relationship was claimed by clans among the Yana. Ishi's remains were returned 10 August 2000 to be re-buried at an undisclosed location.

The loss of Ishi's tribe through deliberate killings and finally by disease could qualify as genocide. Documented massacres occurred, for example in 1865. The Civil War (1861-'65) meant that the Government saw other needs as more pressing than to protect small native American tribes from rifle-toting vigilantes styling themselves "Indian hunters", in effect guns for hire. The tragedy of the Yahi Yana played out with Ishi's death in 1916.
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Let me know what you think about Ishi's story. I first knew of it by reading Theodora Kroeber's book Ishi in two worlds: a documentary history, documenting her late husband's work. There is a more recent compilation doco on DVD, Ishi the Last Yahi (the same title Heizer and Kroeber had used in their collaboration). There is also the feature film The Last of His Tribe based on the true events, with Jon Voight in the role of Professor Kroeber and Graham Greene as Ishi.

The best handy information is at Wikipedia.

Edit Shmedit. The dog Sam, again.

So I skipped a concert rehearsal this morning to do a four hour edit job from the UK; a five thousand word piece on a sort-of theological topic without too many of those pesky footnotes. I'm thinking it must be the godly influence of yesterday's post, linking to Owen Waters' web pages. I had some e-exchanges with Owen back when he was still single and spending time in Cornwall, England, visiting towns that I remembered such as Helston and Mullion Cove. Then he went home to California where he wed the girl of his dreams and started publishing books online. So it goes.


Anyhow, the afternoon's concert at Minlaton went nicely although our numbers seem to be 'way down at the moment because of this and that. The audience numbers on the other hand were up, probably because the dratted dog Sam put in an appearance and stole the show even though he had no scripted lines. What a ham. If he wasn't the size of a large white mouse I'd be tempted to challenge him to a paw wrestle. Second thoughts, he might win ... so that's another good idea gone out the window.

Introducing the thought-provoking Mr Owen Waters

G'day. Owen Waters is a lucid writer on what I'd call Modern Metaphysics. Much of his contemporary writing is free on line. A friend was kind enough to give me his book The Shift, too, in a hard-copy edition. Owen Waters also sends out a free on line newsletter. Here, below, you can take a look at his latest newsletter article to which I am happy to give a recommendation. Seems of interest, regardless of where you stand on these sorts of spiritual or philosophical ideas.
                                 

This is what Waters writes this month:                      

Your True Inner Nature
by Owen Waters

Sooner or later every man and woman wakes up to the fact that they are divine beings. Despite the appearance that we are physical in nature and that reality is filtered through the perceptions of our physical brains, there is much more to each human being than their physical aspect.

Above your physical brain is your mind, which is a field of consciousness. Within that field of consciousness, you exist as an aspect of the divine source from which you came.

Long ago, you inserted yourself into the human experience. In those days, nothing was yet physical and being human meant being a specialized personality with the freewill to explore consciousness in greater detail than previously.

Later, physical experience was sought as it made the experience of being a rational, freewill-driven, unique personality all the more interesting. At that point, being physical meant living in a lighter density than today’s version of physical existence.

The experience of being physical was so fascinating that, like youngsters excited about a new thrill ride at a funfair, we said, “How about if we try it with the lights out?” And, so, the lights went out.

Today, we are immersed deeper than ever in the human experience of being physical. This includes being apparently cut off from the normal information flow that comes with higher consciousness and we’re here to find the answer that lies somewhere out there in the gloom. Or, is it somewhere inside instead of somewhere out there?

Being mostly disconnected from the inner light means that we don’t have an inbuilt awareness of our oneness with the universe. We have to earn that realization through dedicated meditation. We don’t have always-on telepathic ability to exchange thoughts and feelings with other life forms. Conscious telepathy takes patience and practice. We aren’t attuned with conditions in nature like animals are. When an earthquake jolt is imminent or a tsunami is headed our way, wild animals suddenly head for the hills and we’re left wondering why our pets are getting agitated.

As humans today, what we do have is self-awareness, intellect, and freedom of choice. Within this mysterious maze of the thrill ride of being human with the inner lights turned off, there is a treasure to be found. That treasure is the realization that the light was there all the time, yet hidden from sight.

When you first find the spiritual light within, it begins to beckon you forward into the realms of more light. Then, you are firmly on the path of spiritual discovery. You are heading back along the pathway to the level of consciousness from which you came before the thrill ride began.

Remember, your brain is not your mind and your mind is not your real personality. Your immortal soul is your real personality and it is functioning through the filter of who you became in this particular lifetime.

Attune yourself with your soul consciousness every day and you will always be able make the right choices in life. When you sense the essence of your true personality, you will also sense which of the options that lie before you resonate best with your inner guidance. This attunement with the right options and their real potential is the secret to gaining the most from your experience of life as a human being.

                                       *************************

This is Owen Waters' website:  http://www.infinitebeing.com
Catch you later,
Will

Zoomania

OK ... more zoo pix, but be warned, there ain't no panda. THAT famous pair are at the city zoo in Adelaide by the banks of the Torrens. Monarto is the Zoo's country cousin, vastly bigger in land size at a thousand hectares (10 square kilometres).


These pictures are from the same visit when I did the tour and happy-snapped my way around (by bus). However, the meerkat enclosure is right next to the visitor centre and you can get up close  -  if not actually personal.

I have to check that the giraffes haven't gone away. Yep, Still there.






  Then came the African wild dogs...

That's the family of African painted wild dogs - I think that's what they are called -  snuggled down in the grass. They are saying, "Buzz off, buster," or something to that effect.


And the lions didn't even wait to say THAT much.  My potential career as wildlife photographer has gone bung before it even got started.

BUT at least there remained the extremely interesting miniature Siberian wild horses, the species Przewalski's Horse, which I believe are the closest living relatives to the ancestors of modern horses. Monarto's herd is not large - but definitely more than the two seen in my photo.

More on Monarto Zoo

Of Mice and Fish ... and giraffes

Our district is in the throes of a mini-plague of mice. A modest excess, perhaps. Not a real plague. Tales (tails?) of the latter speak of the sight of swarms of these messy and destructive animals crossing roads like a moving carpet, or if disturbed in a shed scattering in every direction. In our homes they are especially unwelcome. My plague manifests as a resident mouse roaming the house until caught, replaced almost immediately by its successor. An Edithburgh friend trapped seven in just over two hours one Friday evening. I know - I was there!


Last night I finally caught the mouse-winner of this season's award for Most Persistent And Annoying. So far. Its successor has already shown traces of intention to bid for the title. But Graham M. says the coming colder weather will knock down the numbers: he had called to present me with welcome fish fillets from Hardwicke Bay. I mean, the fish were happily swimming in Hardwicke Bay until he caught and filleted them. Damn. You know what I mean. Anyway, he and his better half are now off for a camping trip (!) in the Grampians, in Victoria - well, you knew that - and say that they will spend time thereafter in Mount Gambier visiting a daughter's family.


Provided they survive the camping, of course. Why can't they just do like they usually do and go on 4-wheel drive expeditions across remote burning deserts? Huh?


I suppose I should be glad that my problem isn't a plague of, say, giraffes.

 

I took these photos on a visit to Monarto open-range zoo, 12km west of Murray Bridge. http://www.zoossa.com.au/monarto-zoo

I like this image of the large creature's head. He inspected me at close range. Nope, I was not on stilts, but on the partly enclosed viewing platform.