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Post by shades on Nov 1, 2019 3:49:06 GMT
Ettrick Forest in November by Sir Walter Scott November's sky is chill and drear, November's leaf is red and sear: Late, gazing down the steepy linn, That hems our little garden in, Low in its dark and narrow glen You scarce the rivulet might ken, So thick the tangled greenwood grew, So feeble trill'd the streamlet through: Now, murmuring hoarse, and frequent seen Through bush and brier, no longer green, An angry brook, it sweeps the glade, Brawls over rock and wild cascade, And, foaming brown with doubled speed, Hurries its waters to the Tweed. No longer Autumn's glowing red Upon our Forest hills is shed; No more beneath the evening beam Fair Tweed reflects their purple gleam; Away hath pass'd the heather-bell That bloom'd so rich on Needpathfell; Sallow his brow; and russet bare Are now the sister-heights of Yair. The sheep, before the pinching heaven, To shelter'd dale and down are driven, Where yet some faded herbage pines, And yet a watery sunbeam shines: In meek despondency they eye The wither'd sward and wintry sky, And far beneath their summer hill, Stray sadly by Glenkinnon's rill: The shepherd shifts his mantle's fold, And wraps him closer from the cold; His dogs no merry circles wheel, But shivering follow at his heel; A cowering glance they often cast, As deeper moans the gathering blast.
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Post by 3piggles on Nov 1, 2019 20:17:06 GMT
Happy November, everyone The US Celebrates Veterans Day on the 11th, honoring the armistice ending WWI, in 1918. It's sometimes called Observance Day. This year, our Thanksgiving falls on November 28, meaning we get a short Christmas shopping season, less than a month. Black Friday shopping will be on the 29th, and whatever the Monday online tech shopping day is called will be on December 2. Since that only gives stores less than 3.5 weeks to get all of their Christmas sales, I expect to see Christmas stuff in the stores in about a week, if not sooner! A cold front came through last night, with some heavy rain and winds, so most of the leaves are on the ground. Nice to have a lot of evergreen trees around us, as we still get color, and they hold snow beautifully. Windy and cold today. Much better representation of November in New Hamsphire, than the 71F it was when we went to bed last night, about 11 p.m. Love the poem, Shades, and one of these days, I'll manage to look up all the words I didn't understand. I wish the old poems come with a translator Beautiful area
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Post by Bean on Nov 2, 2019 19:00:02 GMT
Bravo Shades! A poem this time too, I like it. I've never been to Ettrick, but the poem really made me think of Jedburgh, another town in the Scottish Borders close to the Tweed that we visited in a few years ago.
We've been out shopping in the last few days and the Christmas stuff is out in force here! It's all a bit silly really.
(I did actually buy an advent candle, as I saw a really nice one and always leave it too late and end up with slim pickings, but I'm sure you won't mention it when I'm complaining about Christmas being too commercial, and the festive period being far too long?!)
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Post by 3piggles on Nov 2, 2019 23:12:19 GMT
It's a lost cause for you, this year. Our Thanksgiving is so late in November, there are only about 3.5 weeks left for shopping. Stores probably have everything out already, not that Halloween has passed. Remove those decorations, etc., and get the next ones out.
I know what advent is, but what does an advent candle do, burn one day's worth at a time?
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Post by Bean on Nov 3, 2019 8:27:54 GMT
That's right, so something like this. We usually had one when I was growing up, and I like the ceremony of lighting it each day (not that I often get a turn as the kids like doing it!). Anyway, I see what you're doing here - tricking me into talking about Christmas! We had many of our Bonfire Night celebrations here last night (it's on Tuesday). We didn't head out to see any fireworks - the kids don't seem too fussed about it anymore, and having just got home from a few days away, we weren't going to try to persuade them as we just wanted to collapse on the sofa! Also, it was awful weather yesterday - very rainy. I hope the people who did make it out still had a great time.
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Post by 3piggles on Nov 3, 2019 16:13:41 GMT
I think it's great that there are options for celebrating holidays. There were things we did when daughter was young, that she now does with Peanut, but there was a long gap when she wasn't interested in doing that anymore, and neither were we. Glad you had a nice, relaxing bonfire night celebration, especially with the lousy weather. Trick or treat was postponed in a lot of places, because Thursday night was supposed to be really rainy. Daughter said she's glad her town didn't cancel it, as Thursday night turned out to be hot, in the 70s F, a light wind, and no rain. Probably a better night than the ones those town chose for the postponement. We saw some pics of bone fire night celebrations. Nice, if you have the right setting Ooh, I like the Advent candle. I made Advent stockings, mini stockings, for daughter, when she was young. I'd put a small treat in each one. A scratch ticket, a quarter, things like that. She got to check a stocking each night. She said she wished she could do that with her daughter, but with her working shifts, and the house not having one good place to hang them all, she couldn't. She did take the stockings, just never got to use them. After last months almost 6 inches of rain, and the winds that came through on Friday, we have a lot of skeletal trees. There are some that really hold on, bushes that keep their leaves longer than any of the trees, so there is still some color, but mostly skeletons. I think that's to make us want it to snow, so we get to look at something else We'll brining in the Fall decorations after Thanksgiving, in lieu of the next holidays decorations
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Post by Bean on Nov 4, 2019 7:28:23 GMT
Remind me what the next holiday is?!
We missed Halloween here, so I don't know if we got many trick or treaters. We've certainly had enough rain to put many people off doing anything outdoors though - several of our rivers are looking pretty close to bursting their banks, and with more rain forecast, it's a bit worrying.
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Post by amber89 on Nov 4, 2019 8:52:57 GMT
Oh, that Thanksgiving talk reminded me on my Canadian friend and his Thanksgiving dinner that he did once. Absolutely delicious turkey, with gravy and all. Since we were around 20 of us, we had small portions and some had to eat of the couch or on the floor. But, it was more important the atmosphere and being around friends. Here in Germany and Austria we have "Martinigansl Zeit" in November. The tradition says that St. Martin hid in a geese pen to escape capture, but the geese started making noise. So St. Martin was captured and killed (for being a christian), so as punishment every year for the feast of St. Martin people eat goose. You put it in the oven with apples/oranges/chesnuts and serve it with red cabbage and bread dumplings. Now the goose time is extended to around the whole month of November. We used to do such a dinner for our friends, but i think that this year we will skip it. It's one day of work and we don't particularly have the time for it. Which is a pity, since it might be my last Autumn in Vienna. I think that this year again we will do our own advent candles. We will buy a bunch of fir branches, some cinnamon bark and we dry our own orange slices and we do a nice wreath. In Germany and Austria there are 4 candles. The first one is lit 4 Sundays before Christmas (which this year is 1st of December) and then a new one every Sunday. I will also need to start preparing the Advent calendar for hubby...chocolates will be this year. We don't have this traditions in Romania (neither the candles nor the calendar) and i think that none of the Orthodox countries have them. Unfortunately my father is too obtuse to allow it. He doesn't accept anything that is not Orthodox. My mom would love it and both her and my brother enjoyed it when they were here last Christmas.
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Post by 3piggles on Nov 4, 2019 22:18:58 GMT
I think it's so sad when someone is so bound to a religion, they can't accept or enjoy anything from any other religion or culture I'm glad your mom got to enjoy Christmas with you last year, and have some fun. The Thanksgiving in Canada sounds like a lot of fun Their Thanks giving is in October, and ours is in November. We have to get through Veterans Day/Observance Day, first. That's next Monday. Then we can start planning for Thanksgiving. Our neighbors are getting their houses decorated for next month, as once it gets really cold, and snows, it's a major problem getting the decorations up. They'll stay up until the snow thaws enough to get them back down, though sometimes that's January. The Advent candle photo you posted, Amber, looks lovely. I'm sure making one will be nice, and might set a new tradition for you The holiday music, decorations and everything else are already in the stores. It's no longer about the holiday, but about selling as much as possible. Kind of sad, but with so many brick and mortar stores closing, in the US, I think this will become the norm. Sales for every imaginable reason, all the time.
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Post by Bean on Nov 5, 2019 9:44:27 GMT
It is sad that it seems to be more about a money-making opportunity than anything else for some. We try to have as many fun traditions as we can that don't just involve buying stuff and tune out the endless push on stuff you should be buying (Christmas Eve boxes are getting big over here - you buy special pyjamas, books and sweet treats etc to keep your darlings occupied the evening before the big day!).
I acquired a floral wreath from a funeral (they were just going to chuck them out otherwise, and it seemed like a waste!), and plan to re-use the base/ oasis next month - we have a a potted fir and plenty of holly in berry in the garden. I'll have to get some more tips from you Amber, you sound much more artistic than me! I love the idea of it being filled with lovely aromas.
The Martinigansl Zeit sounds fun, even if the origin is a bit odd (isn't it always with these festive celebrations!). I'm glad you've had the experience of it, even if you can't do it this year. I've never eaten goose.
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Post by 3piggles on Nov 6, 2019 22:01:29 GMT
I've had goose, and liked it. It's a dark meat, so more moist and fatty than a turkey breast. I've also had a turducken, which is an interesting combo of a turkey, a duck and a chicken. Just wanted to try it. It was okay, but the different fowls don't all cook at the same rate, so some dry. Should be getting our first snow overnight tomorrow night. Probably be lucky if we get a dusting, as we're on the edge, but the mountain ski areas are going to get 3-6 inches, which is great
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Post by Bean on Nov 7, 2019 9:31:30 GMT
Turducken is such a terrible name for any food - I'd never get past the turd part! We have a similar thing (not that I've had it) but it's just called a three bird roast - or a bird in a bird in a bird!
Snow! Good news for your skiers. We've got cold enough weather for snow here, but it's just wet and rainy. The car windscreen has needed de-icing a few times.
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Post by 3piggles on Nov 7, 2019 21:40:04 GMT
Cold and rainy here, too. I guess that's the prelude to the colder, snow coming in. Hubby has a football game where our granddaughter will be cheering, Saturday at 9 a.m. Temps should be in the 20sF, so I'll prepare the big thermos with hot chocolate, thought they'll all still freeze. It's granddaughters last game for cheering, as even if the football team wins, I don't think the cheer squad goes on the out of state games. Good thing we bought the heated seat cushions. They'll come in really handy. I'm not attending. I can't move well enough that early in the morning, so he's meeting daughter and family at the field. We have a raised garden area in the front lawn, where we planted two arborvitae, and have the 4-way plant hanger with bird feeders. Only 3 feeders, which may have made a difference. I noticed the birds at the feeders, then a major gust of wind came through, and over went the whole 4-way. The birds sort of flew around for a bit, then went back to the eat at the feeders on the ground I was going to go out and try to right it, but figured, if the birds were enjoying it, I'd leave it down there
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Post by amber89 on Nov 8, 2019 9:56:28 GMT
Sure, Bean! I can upload the picture of the wreath we did 2 years ago. Yes, doing the wreath is already a tradition for us. I think that in the last 7 years, since we are together, we did our own in 5 of those years.
Also here the cold came. The last two days we had some sunshine, but today it's gloomy and windy.
This weekend Romania has presidential elections. For the first time the people living abroad can vote for 3 days, not just 1 day. The last elections were terribly organised abroad and people had to wait for long hours to cast their ballot. I am curious how this time will be, especially for the second round.
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Post by Bean on Nov 8, 2019 10:11:13 GMT
We've had such heavy rain, there are flooding problems across the county and country. The big shopping centre we called into on our way home last week was locked down last night as the surrounding areas were flooded so badly it was considered too dangerous to leave. They were having some kind of Christmas lights switch on event too, so there were quite a lot of kids without their parents (but with teachers, scout group leaders etc). It doesn't sound like a slick operation to look after those that were stranded in terms of getting them bedding and food, but most people managed to get out in the early hours of this morning.
One chap, who works at a restaurant there, found his car was submerged underwater. He could have got a taxi home, but he doesn't live close-by and was due back on shift this morning, so would have had to fork out again to get back. So he opted to make himself a bed from aprons in the storeroom and wait it out!
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Post by Bean on Nov 8, 2019 10:30:37 GMT
I missed your post, Amber. Is there a chance for meaningful change with this election, do you have hope things could potentially improve?
Looking forward to the wreath pictures. I like the sound of the dried oranges, I bet they add a lovely scent to the room.
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Post by amber89 on Nov 8, 2019 13:06:30 GMT
I read this morning abut the floods in northern England (as the newspaper put it) and the people blocked in that shopping center. I thought about you, Bean and i hope that at least in your area things are still staying dry. Hopefully the river levels will drop soon and no additional damage will happen.
It's hard to say how this will go. I suppose that a lot of people will simply vote against the Social-Democrats (PSD), which have done a lot of damage in the last 30 years. The candidate from their side is our former PM, a lady that barely speaks decent Romanian, and no other foreign languages, makes horrific logic mistakes and seems like a puppet of someone else. Every single time she opens her mouth she makes some sort of mistake. Her most famous mistakes are "We are working to diminish the democracy" and "I am fighting against a country in which all Romanians can find themselves". Her party has big problems with the corruption and they have tried over and over again to change the laws so that they can steal more without going to prison for it. In addition, they have tried to limit the votes that come from abroad (which are always against PSD). I don't know if you heard about the huge queues for the polling stations that happened the last times. People had to wait even 8h (in a bitter cold) and still were unable to cast a ballot. And the party-friendly news outlets were saying that the polling stations abroad are empty. In 2014 i had to travel to Bratislava to cast a ballot (and still had to wait more than 3h). On the 26th of May, this year i had again to wait for hours.
Even so, the options are not really there. The current president, which is running for another term, was a big disappointment. He was extremely inactive, always reacting with a 2 days delay, always seeming like he was disturbed from his vacation. People are calling him "The ficus", because of his inactivity. He was simply there. The other candidate with some real chances is a complete newbie, from a party that appeared some 5 years ago. The party has some big internal issues and the candidate has no experience. He seems to be unable to negotiate, seems completely unprepared. So, i don't know what to do...
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Post by 3piggles on Nov 8, 2019 22:11:57 GMT
The Romanian PM sounds like Trump It does seem as if an election has to be rigged to get someone like that elected I would love to say voting is so much easier in the US, but from what I've heard, many of the southern states, which are the old Confederate states from our civil war, try to close as many voting places in all black areas, as possible. They tend to elect people who pass things to benefit the white people, and harm the black people, so to get those things approved, they try to keep the black people from voting. Do most Romanians vote, or do they figure there's no point, the government is totally corrupt anyway, and whomever the existing politicians want, will get elected? Over the last couple of decades, there has been a major movement to get people registered to vote, and to get them to the voting places to vote. One big issue was needing a street address, such as 50 Elm Street. Where the Native Americans live, there were no street names, and not numbers, so no street addresses. That made sure no Native Americans on any reservation ever got to vote. This past year, all of that changed. Not only did the roads get named and the houses get numbered, but there's a major movement to get Native Americans registered to vote, and to the voting places. I hope their votes make a difference. Getting the black people registered and voting certainly made a big difference.
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Post by amber89 on Nov 10, 2019 18:59:47 GMT
I don't think that the elections were rigged (not for the last 10 years at least), but she was put in power based on how much many she gave to her party, not based on her abilities. She didn't mean to say those things and if she would have been a better PM, they would have been just passed as temporary "brain farts". Everyone has them, i also say sometimes stupid things, due to tiredness, or changing my mind mid-sentence and so on. But it's one thing when such mistakes are occasional, is another thing when she spills some stupid thing every single time she opens her mouth.
In Romania the polls will close in 1h and so far over 45% of the eligible population voted, the lowest number since 1989, but there was no debate between the candidates and not really a campaign...it was a very silent campaign that didn't showed us anything. Usually Romanians don't vote and there are two reasons for that: the older people because during communism it didn't change a thing and the younger ones don't vote because they don't feel that any politician deserved it. All of them are lairs, thieves and corrupt.
Until a few years ago the elections used to be about who can do more rigging. The most common methods were putting dead people to vote and moving people from one village to another so that they can vote multiple times. There was no centralized way of checking who voted where and since the mayors had full control everything was possible. Now there is in place an electronic system that checks against multiple voting. A lot of people abroad don't trust the newly introduces voting by letter, because it allows rigging.
There were also two big events that changed at least the young people's opinions.
First, it was the treatment of the expats at all elections since 2014 (when our current president won his mandate). That was when the ruling party decided to close some polling stations in cities with many Romanians, and open them instead in cities far away, but with no Romanians. In this way, they were able to say that the number of polling station is the same and that it's the citizen's fault for not registering (why we don't register has some other practical reasons). The politicians were making a circus on national TV, saying that we over-react and showing footage from such remote polling stations. One guy was even asking out loud why don't people travel to Nantes, if the queues in Paris is so long (the cities are 380km apart and a train ticket is not really cheap in France). The reason why the party decided to humiliate us like that is because we cannot be bought like the Romanians at home and we usually vote against the PSD. Our votes made a difference in the 2009 presidential election, after which the PSD were even discussing taking away the voting rights for the Romanians that live abroad.
The second event that made people more involved was the fire in the Colectiv club in 2015. The fire that claimed in total 65 lives (26 on site, 38 in hospitals and 1 suicide) uncovered a deep web of corruption that spawned through various institutions (fire brigade, hospitals, mayors). On top of that the Ministry of Health was saying out loud that Romania has enough beds to treat the burned people and that the care level is top and refused to ask for international help and activate the protocols for transferring people to other hospitals in Europe. No country in the EU could manage to offer top treatment to 150 badly burned people, that's why the EU has protocols for transfer. Only after some days and after the parents of the victims started speaking out, did the country agree to start transferring some of the critical cases. The care that Romania was able to offer to the victims was below any standard. The people that died in the hospitals died due to infections, because the disinfectants were diluted to the point that they were useless, because there were no sterile rooms for the people and no breathing devices. In addition, since the hospital managers are appointed based on political affiliations, they themselves were saying out loud that the hospitals have everything what is need, even though the doctors and nurses were secretly begging for help because basic medicine was missing. People were absolutely furious and it really opened out eyes. Everyone in Bucharest knows someone that was affected by the fire. My brother could have been inside (the only reason he didn't go was because he was very tired after a day at the gym) and he did loose some friends in the fire. It affected him deeply and i also had nightmares for weeks after the fire.
Of course, since then the party still did terrible things (roll back on anti-corruption progress, order a brutal police intervention against some protests this year, say horrible things about the expats), things that of course, made people even more vigilant.
I have seen an article in The Guardian about the issue with the voting rights in the US and how it is mostly affecting the black population and the Native Americans. I didn't had the energy to read the whole article, i would only get angry at such unfairness. I think that i read somewhere also that the system in the US is a bit weird. It's something like people in each state vote for a representative that afterwards votes for the president...or something like that...
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Post by 3piggles on Nov 11, 2019 22:28:41 GMT
In the US, people in each city/town vote for local leaders who handle the local budgets based on taxes on property, local laws called ordinances-such as no loud noise after 10 p.m., and dogs must have shots and be licensed), hire the local police of all levels, local firefighters of all levels, etc. Then there is the state, which is like a country. The governor is the president of the state. Each state has a constitution, as if it were a country. Each state is broken down into districts, each represented by an elected representative, and peoples state committees such as the finance committee, ethic committee, and many more, and votes on all bills presented to the legislature. There is also a state senate, again of elected officials from districts, so that as with the federal government, the largest districts have the most representation, and the smallest ones have the least. We do have one town with 59 people in it, and our largest city has over 600K people in it. Next there is the federal government, which has congress people and senators from each state, all states represented equally. So small states have one of each, and large states have one of each. They do the same thing at the national level that the representatives and senators do at the state level. However, federal laws override state laws, though it's often countered by allowing each state to implement the federal laws as they see fit. That means, when abortion became legal, which was a federal mandate, each state got to decide how they were going to implement it. The anti-abortion states have made it almost impossible for women to get abortions in those states, be limiting doctors who perform abortions from practicing in any hospitals, closing all the Planned Parenthood clinics that provided birth control, family planning and abortions, and passing laws saying the moment a fetal heartbeat is heard, abortion is banned. Technically, abortion is still legal, just impossible to get done. These are also the poorest states with the lower incomes, the most people on government assistance, and all vote republican. They also have about 87% of all prisoners serving life sentences are black, and are serving life sentences for crimes white people would only serve 5-25 years, such as theft and assault. Murder carries a sentence of 25-life, and the blacks all get life, while the whites all get 25/15 with good behavior. Racism is rampant in those states So we vote for local government, state government and federal government. If it helps, think of the EU as the United States of Europe, as that's exactly what it is. Each member country has it's own government, but being a member means agreeing to have their laws superseded by Eu law, if the EU version of the law is more strict. It's sad that the Romanian people still have so much of the old ways stifling political equality. Equally as sad is that what you described is pretty much how Trump got elected. He raised the most money, so the national republican party put all of its resources behind him, even though many of them hated him and what he stands for. He then filled all the government positions with his friends and supporters, none of whom are qualified, and many of whom have been charged with crimes, with more pending, based on the impeachment hearings. Trump has no manners, can't speak English very well, makes up his own words like 'bigly', and spews hate all over Instagram with his total inability to keep his freaking mouth shut. He'll pick on anyone about anything, just say something bad about him, and he'll overreact all over social media, news media, you name it. It's totally appalling, but at least we can be appalled by it. The poor Romanians haven't had a good, honest leader, or a good, honest campaign, so they don't even know what they might have been able to elect Using dead people to vote is nothing new, unfortunately. It happened here, too, and although it hasn't happened in well over a century, some republicans are using it as an excuse to tighten voting laws, making it harder for people to vote. Since some form of legal identification is needed, either a driver's license and birth certificate, or a passport(which is based on the birth certificate), all the generations of poor people born at home with no doctor in attendance, don't have birth certificates or driver's licenses, and certainly not passports, so they can't vote. Anyone from a really rural, back woods area where they tend to change peoples names often can't remember what their actual birth name is, so can't get a birth certificate. These people also don't have social security numbers, also based on birth certificates, so can't get any government assistance, all of which needs a social security number. It's a way to keep a certain part of the population from ever becoming successful, or ever having a vote in the laws that effect their lives.
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