Going back

 Dear reader,

I thought this was a funny story.  President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana said that he was demanding that Germany took 20.000 elephants and let them loose in Berlin.  This was because Botswana has been angered by reports that Berlin is considering banning the import of hunting trophies from protected species.   If this happened a ban would harm its economy and exacerbate issues with burgeoning elephant populations. 

Can you imagine 20.000 elephants roaming around Hyde Park if they were sent to Britain as threatened by Namibia?

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56 million years ago elephant species originated in Africa and remained there for the next 3 million years.   20 million years ago, elephant ancestors spread across the land bridges from Africa to Europe to Asia.

Calves are the centre of attention in their family groups and rely on their mothers for as long as three years.  Elephants can live up to 70 years in the wild.  They communicate by touch, sight, smell and sound; elephants use infra sound and seismic communications over long distance.

Given their tremendous size and strength, and because they gather in groups, elephants have few predators to worry about.  Lions, hyenas and crocodiles may attempt to prey on young or sick elephants.  They are renowned for their memory, intelligence and sociability and, as with humans, these traits make them particularly vulnerable to stress and to trauma and its longer-term psychological consequences.  

Finally elephants hate bees, and they do cry.  They bury their dead and pay tribute to the bodies and bones.

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From Gilbert White  April 8th  1770 in Hampshire

'No birds sing, and no insects appear during this wintry, sharp season.'

From Dorothy Wordsworth  April 9th 1798 in Somerset

'Walked to Stowey, a fine air going, but very hot in returning.  The sloe in blossom, the hawthorn green, the larches in the park changed from black to green in two or three days.'

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Going Back

 

The old farmhouse,

surrounded by

rhododendron bushes,

was a funny old place,

full of twists and turns

passages and panelled rooms,

a large sunny kitchen

with green lino floor,

a dark larder

full of hams and baskets of eggs,

while dogs slept in the small

drying room where it was warm.

 

There was a ghost, of course,

a smuggler killed fighting another

over a brandy run aborted.

I felt it, twice,

a middle of the night experience, ice cold, terrifying.

My dog wouldn't go in there,

just growled.

 

Tadpoles were caught in the streams,

ponies were ridden over the forest,

lots of apple crumble,

toad in the hole, beef stews,

and dumplings eaten

picnics on the lawn,

squirrels watching, watching....

a cosy family house

the children's home.

 

But now?

Years later it is reformed.  It is a

mansion.  Rebuilt with mega money.

All the farmyard magic gone,

the sun that used to filter

through dusty windows,

the back door with never a key,

the old farmhouse destroyed,

no longer a home but a fort.

A prison. Cameras everywhere

watching watching......

 

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With very best wishes, Patricia