Bank Holiday Monday, 27th October 2008

It has been one of those lovely cold, crisp autumn days today. We decided to give the brambling a rest as it's so wet up there. Maybe a couple of days dryish weather will see it less bog like.

Instead, we managed to cut up most of the wood from the large ash trees we'd previously felled, which took some time. Buster left us about 1pm, came back for his tea, then went off again, but not for long! At least now it gets dark earlier he comes home earlier too.

We're taking him to the vets again tomorrow to see whether his 'bits' are large enough to chop off. Sounds so cruel, but necessary if we're not to have many more dogs around this area.

We've decided to turn the old compost toilet building, which is a sturdy, wooden shed on breeze blocks, into a chicken hutch. We keep talking about having chickens but the old hutch is in the orchard, too far away for us to keep a close eye on them. The other shed is at the side of the allotment and there's plenty of ground for them to 'free range', even in an enclosure. Home grown eggs, how splendid!

We watched 'Strictly Come Dancing', the results show. Good fun and Mark the swimmer went out. He really was a hopeless dancer so it was time he went.

Later on I watched a film about an Aborigine family. Can you believe up until 1970, the government 'protector', Neville (the devil) used to remove 'half caste' children from their parents and send them to a centre where they were 'civilised' then they were sent to white families. Often their fate was to be a slave to these families and a mistress for the husband. Unbelievable.

These 2 sisters and their cousin were taken but the older girl Molly, led them the 9 days walk back to their home. The cousin didn't make it, but the 2 sisters did. Then they hid in the desert to avoid further capture. Eventually, Molly married and had 2 children (half caste of course - or mixed race as we would call them now), both girls. She and her husband and children were again taken to the centre, but again escaped and went home. When her youngest was 3, that little girl was also removed and she never saw her again. How barbaric the English were.

Coincidentally, today on the news we heard about an African woman who had been sold as a slave, had 2 children by her 'master' and has managed to sue her government for not protecting her and has received £12,000 in compensation. Good for her. Apparently there are still thousands of woman in the same position, in slavery. It's so shocking.

On a lighter note, I found an old mini photo album yesterday and Jim scanned the photos for me. This is me, aged 20 and one month with my daughter, K (DK) aged one month old. The man holding her is Ken, my first husband, also father to Jason, my big son. I look about 12!




















































The photos are in black and white of course but I remember that babygro as being yellow with white cuffs. I am wearing my blue school blouse. Says it all!