Acair Fearann

Where did 2015 go?

Not where I expected it, for sure.  One year ago I was writing for a paper, plotting out a whole set of articles.  That folded with remarkable speed in late January.  May that not happen this year! (And yes, I know, that book still isn’t written)

I certainly didn’t expect to be working with the current group of people, all but one of whom I’d never met before 2015. Furthermore, a group that includes several people whose opinions I value more than anyone I have ever worked with before.*

What will next year bring? Well, at least for the next few months a continuation of that work with that group of people. But I’ll try not to think about the future too much.

Today has enough in it, the woods are as beautiful as always. And what seas will come, will come.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4egb2gpIg4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acxnmaVTlZA

*For those of you who know me, that is saying something. It isn’t in fact something I’ve encountered before. At least not in a consistent ‘across the board’ fashion.

Comments Off on Here’s to 2016

I spent a bit of the morning writing up a project priority list for one of my employers, which list leans rather hard towards the pragmatic side. Reflecting on it, I once again came to the conclusion that it is probably a very good thing I am not in academia.  Because my approach to history is definitely not in-keeping. I hit a quote once, something along the lines: ‘if the only thing a civilization left was some broken pottery, than it can’t have been a very important civilization’  In today’s academia where cultural relativism rules, that isn’t just a heretical idea, it is flat out devil worship.*

On a personal, spiritual level, I believe that all lives are of interest, of worth, to God and are equal before Him. But…. I am not God!  So priorities.  To take one of the nastier potsherd arguments: is Thomas Jefferson historically more important than Thomas Jefferson’s slave or are they equally important to history?  They are, theologically, equally important; but for the study of history, I’m always going to say that Thomas Jefferson is the more important.  It is lovely to have the leisure to study the less important and laudable to have the interest to do so.  But, if I have to choose, then I have to rank them.  And I do have to choose. So does the person paying me.  Which, of course, is why I also have to be able to explain the rationale for the choice.**

*Though devil worship, of course, one would have to hasten to add, is perfectly acceptable multiculturalism.

** Now if my bosses agree with the list…. I Hate emails that go ‘Thanks for this. We will discuss.’!!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlCt4FLf9C0

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The hills are laced with fog, that rising towards the dawn does not settle. But as the dream of a day forgotten is half remembered in age, so the hills are half seen. That we see them but only partially arouses an interest beyond that which the light of noon brings. The vastness of the world is seen clearest when it is partially shadowed by its own complexity

There, half baked paradoxes for the morning! Off to contemplate my office!

Comments Off on Winter fog

Shortest day of the year and all that….

Though with the feeling that winter is just about to get cranked up, the sun’s movement seems a little bit ‘off’ .  I know, it does it every year! Still the long range forecast is depressing, it looks like this is going to be an icy winter.

So something to look forward to instead.

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Winter showed up last night.  It is remarkable how fast the ground can freeze.  It isn’t solid yet, but the first hard freeze, where the ground is hard and any footprint or mark from the day before is preserved, unchanging, in a frozen state. This is different from a killing frost or even an early cold snap.  The ground is drier, colder, somehow.  It will thaw again, according to the forecast; but from now to spring the plants are truly dormant and just waiting.

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‘earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone…’

One does wonder if Rossetti was visiting Yorkshire or the Lowlands when she wrote it.  Because, English Decembers do not lend themselves to iron or stone.  Mud rather.  Which is a good deal less poetic!

This occasioned by contemplating today’s scene and my horse’s ever expanding mudscape, thanks to the very English December we are having.

Still, it is in its own way a lovely day, the fog in the woods and the chickadees just starting up down in the pines. No complaints.  (besides, I’ll take almost anything over ice)

Comments Off on In the bleak mid winter

After a wild and wet night (fifties and rain in December?), watching the clouds break at dawn here.  They are just going pink now with the promise of the day.  The best part of dawn though: a pair of hawks arising from the still dark pines and spiraling up into the light, before stooping down and racing off with the wind towards the valley.

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http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/scots-commuter-s-hilarious-take-on-forth-road-bridge-diversions-1-3970614

You have to read the whole thing!

Comments Off on :) Good humour!