BOOK REVIEW - FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD BY THOMAS HARDY

Book Review          Far from the Madding Crowd

Author                    Thomas Hardy

Afterword               Ian Ousby

Engravings             Agnes Miller Parker

Publisher                The Reader’s Digest Association Limited, London 

It feels good to have a pristine book in the hand; one that doesn't even feel it's been read! We inherited it and it is beautiful. 

Thomas Hardy, I have heard, uses words in excess of what is required. I have gone along with this, with reservations, and then I opened this book. I read a mix of literature but it is a long time since I have read a ‘classic’. 

It's been included in a local book club year list and it was in the house. I Iike words and the way they move along the line. I wanted to read it for what it is. There is much beauty in everything that Hardy writes. He paints an actual picture for the reader and thinking about his descriptions of the time he was writing he makes the rural life so visual for us. I could empathise with so much throughout the chapters. I loved it and the words we don't hear much of today. 

Enough of the literature. There is reality in this story. The emphasis in the hard rural life with little comfort and the vagaries of surviving. Then the sharp contrast with class; people of standing and the others who are forced to accept servitude. It is also a love story that moves in and around the characters.

By getting away from the frenzy of the city he wanted to go far from the ‘madding crowd’ and created a compelling rural novel in doing so. 

The Afterword by Ian Ousby, of seven pages, is interesting and should be read. The engravings added to the atmosphere of the book. 

What next? We have Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway and Josephine Tey’s, The Man in the Queue. There is much to enjoy.

LEGAL JUSTICE UPDATE

 FROM LEGAL JUSTICE

Here are several pieces of good news to end the week.

 

  1. Heather burning restrictions in England: if you were one of our many supporters who signed our e-action (with Hen Harrier Action and RSPB) last August you will have been pleased with the measures brought in before Christmas to license moorland management in Scotland and today brings long-overdue movement from DEFRA in England. Today's announcement isn't perfect, we need to read it carefully, but it is bringing in significant change and reform to moorland burning practices over a very wide area of upland England from Yorkshire to Lancashire and from Derbyshire to Northumberland. If you participated in our e-action you helped bring that about. Thank you.

 

 2. Badger petition: our e-petition has passed 91,000 signatures and is heading very rapidly for 100,000 which should generate a Westminster Hall parliamentary debate. 

 

 3. Wales, gamebirds and general licences: we have heard from the Welsh government that they are planning to introduce restrictions on gamebird releases next year. Wild Justice will be involved in those discussions. We are also going to meet NRW to discuss their next steps on general licences.

 

 4. Gamebird releases, England: following our successful legal challenge over gamebird releases DEFRA will issue a consultation in early February. We have been involved in discussions about this. We will be encouraging our supporters to respond to the consultation through a future newsletter a few days after the consultation is launched.

 

5. General licences, England:  changes to the system that have been brought in followig the Wild Justice legal challenge are beginning to bite. See this blog about how Natural England is beginning to clamp down on casual killing of birds

JUST A SHORT NOTE FOR A SUNNY MORNING OUT NEAR EL HONDO

The winds have turned around from bloody cold to warm. Temperatures have jumped up from single figures and even to a high of 27 by mid-afternoon. It's shorts and T shirt weather in the sun!

Got to get out there again the bird movements won't wait for me and so, on Thursday 28th January we headed towards San Felipe Neri via Dolores as our initial target was Palm Farm Road.

And until things change we have to do our birding on our own as we consider not to travel to Gran  Alicant to meet Bryan, although we would like to.

It was not the most productive of mornings and in many ways it was quiet. But never mind you have to take it as it comes. San Felipe was basking in sun and the lagoons are full of water. On a raised bit eight Common Snipe Agachadiza Común basked, but no Jack this time. It didn't matter for we enjoyed the sun’s heat, the birds including a male Teal - Cerceta Común and Purple Swamphens - Calamon. Prior to that we did the usual routes with nothing exceptional.

The beginning was the best with Michelle spotting a flying Raptor and when it flew across the front of the the car it was our first male Hen Harrier - Aguilucho Pálido for sometime. We know they are out there, but you have to be in the right place at the right time. Then nearby, close to where Bryan and I had seen them, four Common Cranes - Grulla Común in a field, then flying and then landing further away. These were Michelle's first sighting of this species since seeing them one spring in Poland. We knew they were out there too.

The season is changing although clumps of brown grass remain, but now there are green shoots. We will still have to be careful as it is almost full lockdown here until mid-February. Hopefully we can get out for the main migration. Almond blossom has appeared too.

Just two photos from this morning. A very obliging Southern Grey Shrike - Alcaudón Real and a Common Snipe.

And thanks to Winter Watch we are getting a ‘fix’ on wildlife to keep us going.  

FOR US TO REMEMBER ON HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY 2021

 THE HARPS OF BIRKENAU

          (a fragment)

..wheels speed along the track

rushing toward the victory of crime,

transporting, transporting, people to gas,

people to a cremator, people to a petrol-sprayed pyre.

Smoke floats, thick foul smoke…

People burn people here.

And on luminous poles

stretch wires shine.

These are the harps of Brzezinka,

harps of Birkenau

Berkenau 1944

Sofia Grochowalska-Abramovich

               1902-1998

ANNIVERSARY OF THE MEETING TO DISCUSS THE FINAL SOLUTION, BERLIN, 1942

20th January

Striding out and not a glance at anyone; focuses on what will happen. Repeats to herself the imminent  conversation with these despised non-people.  The liars who continue to perpetrate a false myth. 

The meeting place came into view. Metal railings create the boundary between suburban pavement and pristine front garden.  The partly open gate welcomes the invitees who are guided by the anniversary and the lights on both sides of the path to a double fronted Georgian house. The two rooms, brightly illuminated, indicate with clarity that their world is on show. The tightly pruned rose bushes seem severe in the glow.  Two tightly clipped topiary trees illustrate the owner’s symbols of peace. 

The music comes and goes on each opening of the door as new arrivals enter.  Mozart plays as the guests move around, glasses in hands.  There's an eclectic mix inside as though a bus has disgorged it’s passengers.  The common denominator is grey hair and black clothing. It looks, and is, a sombre affair as if an outdoor celebration is dampened by a thunder storm.

Preparations complete, full of confidence and a brisk walk takes her swiftly to the front door.  Black dress cut just below the knee for respectability is only partly hidden by the open, flapping shiny black coat. She could be one of them.  Conversation stops as her presence is noticed and they gather around her in silence.  Far too brazen to be cowed; she stands stock still as the gathering parts a little.  Faces him, jaw juts out and yields not an inch, and stares at him.  

They know each other.  Both have done their research and he is aware of her politics and the propaganda that she spouts.  It is reprehensible to him, her beliefs.

He’s gigantic for a Jew, and without any warning a fist connects with her firm jawline and her head glances off the low table on the way down before she folds into the floor.

Unconscious for now, but senses movement.  Jolts, lurches, rumbles and there are hard, cold  wet, boards underneath her.  A pungent smell of urine, vomit and other odious human fluid soaks her clothes.  The living moan, whine, jostle to find warmth as wheels rattle to the rhythm  of the death march.  Days seemingly pass and then the wagon stops and the door bangs open.  In her silent world lips move and then she is outside crawling in snow.  She stares upwards to see the black smoke rising.  The stench of the bodies around her now being supplanted by a sickly smell.  

She wakes up and spews.  White clad arms support her.  Everywhere now is white, clean and the only smell is that of a hospital.  Someone says ‘you were brought in unconscious.  Do you know what happened?’  It’s all distant as though unreal.  She doesn’t answer and stares at the whiteness of the sheets. Whiteness for purity. She still believes that the Holocaust did not happen, but now there is a doubt.

 

WE SAW THE BIG ONE!

 A bright sunny morning, a little wind, but still cool for us. Information shared is always useful and looking at the recent photos of Águila Moteada we came into the Parque Naturel de Hondo via Dolores. Eventually entering Palm Farm Road we put up a Snipe. Once on the straight road Michelle saw this elusive big bird. There was a rectangular area of ‘Petticoat’ Palms and then it flew out and away. Just a quick sighting and no photo. I didn't get enough to see if it was’sat-tagged’. Two Common Buzzards called and then flew from the same area.

We moved on and kept looking and checking for Common Cranes too and hopefully a flooded field. No luck there!

Then by the smelly farm the domestic Guinea Fowl were out on the road. Next time we will get a photo as their plumage and posture deserves it. Opposite, a pylon a Booted Eagle that was not bothered by our presence. All photos from the car of course.

QUICK VISIT TO EL HONDO

 Following on from Tuesday’s trip out with Bryan and in receipt of his photos and after a good look at them Michelle decided she wanted to see her first Jack Snipe. So we zoomed out of bed and zapped down the AP7 and went straight for the lagoon near the information centre. And there it was, virtually in the same place, probing in the mud and with a Little Stint. The brightness made it difficult for Michelle but it was a first for her and a record shot to prove it.

I scoped the lagoon and in the distance a small group of Northern Shovelers - Cuchara Común caught my eye. Resting by them was a Snipe - Agachadiza Comúm, a Purple Swamphen - Calamon and Teal - Cerceta Común. What a lovely little collection! And a Chiff was there too.

Purple Swamphen

On the strung ropes keeping the common people from our priceless birds, an on-show Serin - Verdicillo. What a stunner. 

Serin

We tried Santa Águada but on the way a flooded field. You can't pass one without looking and there among numerous Glossy Ibis - Morito Común, hundreds of White Wagtails - Lavandero Blanco (they are everywhere) a couple of Wood Sandpipers - Andarrios Bastardo and a Greenshank - Archibebe Claro. 

Greenshank

Wood Sandpiper 

What a morning. It was a shirt sleeve one with beautiful sun and only a light breeze. What a change from last week.