To extend that little, tiny, itty-bitty, etc., and to find a better quality of life for my older self, one free of GMO foods, chlorine-bathed chickens and high fructose corn syrup, I looked across the pond at Merrie Olde England where I already had family and friends. In fact my eldest son, Delton, married a Brit, produced two grandsons for me, and has now lived here for decades.
Delton recently embraced his Aquarianism by selling his home in York to move aboard a now-trendy narrow boat. As an Aquarian myself, I am very proud of him for that decision.
You can find his blog about this move at https://deltonblog.wordpress.c
Even though I have spent most of my life in the United States and have the accent to prove it, I also now have my British Passport, all thanks to "me Da" (and all his family before him) being born a Geordie in the Northumbrian village of Tynemouth. In deference to my budget, however, I have settled in the North Yorkshire village of Carlin How where the natives all talk enough like my Dad for me to follow most conversations quite well. I am now living, after all, just down the coast a bit from Tynemouth.
The industrial little village of Carlin How gets a bit of a bad rep in these parts, but my money goes much further here than if I lived in a more posh town. And in Carlin How I've met many absolutely wonderful people, many of them at the community centre where I now serve on the committee (board).
I had all the committee members there laughing last week when I told them three of my American friends are planning trips over here this September, making Carlin How England's newest American tourist destination.
I was able to get an affordable allotment garden space, although it is currently a bit of an embarrassment as I've only had a pot garden in recent years (gardening in pots, not raising marijuana) and I had badly underestimated my ability to now do the grunt work necessary to whip my plot into shape.
In fairness, however, my garden space was in dire condition when I took it on, having muscular nettles, thistles and teasels taller than me (doesn't take much), but I've done what I can there and things will be much better next year when I'm younger.
My daughter, Georgia, will be either visiting or living here come spring and either way she has promised to give me a hand in the garden. Since she is now the gardener I was back in the day, I foresee a dazzling future for my still virtually untamed British wilderness.
To view Georgia's gardening prowess, see her blog at http://needsmustyardfarmer.blo
My allotment did give me a bumper crop of brambles this year (or briars, as I continually call them, to the bafflement of my allotment neighbors) with absolutely no effort on my part. Brambles produce delicious juicy blackberries that make into delicious fruit cobblers, crumbles and pies. As a plus, the bees and butterflies snack at the bramble flowers. No complaints from any of us creatures for the free groceries.
Speaking of groceries, I find the foods here far superior in both quality and flavor to those I left behind me in America, so if any of you Brits reading this hear of any politician promoting the import of GMO foods as part of Brexit, stop them!
(I am serious about this. Stop them. Use force if necessary!)
Gary, my butcher in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, gets me the health-giving bits from my childhood that I haven't been able to buy in the states for years. All those delicious grizzly bits end up tinned as pet food over there. From Gary I can still buy heart, tongue, kidneys, tripe, black pudding, trotters, and some bits I won't name because - sad to say - younger Brits are less and less inclined to eat "healthy." Many even make horrified faces when I talk about my food choices. Their loss!
Having driven hundreds and thousands of American miles over my lifetime I'm absolutely thrilled to now not own a car. I have a bus pass that lets me ride - free (because I am old) - anywhere in England. Reliable public transportation and a valuable service for the elderly. What a great concept!
And Carlin How has wonderful bus service, although I complain about it along with everyone else while we wait for the next bus. I do try to fit in.
I love British "telly," too, especially the humorous political shows like "Mock the Week" and "The Last Leg," even though I probably only bring enough frame of reference to understand about half the jokes.
I find many of the serious political programs pretty funny, too. There's just something about the British turn of phrase that cracks me up. But it's wonderful to hear politicians from all parties speaking in an articulate and sometimes even courteous manner when they disagree. Very refreshing. I can remember when America was like that.
In the time I've been living here I've only had only one moment of any concern. I happened when I sensed a shadow pass my window as I sat reading on my couch one morning. Glancing up, I saw a county worker wearing a dripping canister on his back, spraying along the base of my terrace house!
I bounced up and out the front door to stop him (no doubt frightening the poor man more than a bit in the process), but I was too late. My very few green little weeds - all blooming with tiny flowers - had just been put on the path to dead and brown. I checked with the county that very day and learned what I had feared, that my house had been hit with "a very weak solution" of glyphosate.
Weak or not, glyphosate - sold under the trade name Roundup - is just plain bad news. Because it is the weed killer of choice in the states, Americans have ten times as much residual glyphosate in their systems as Europeans or Brits do, but if you think the National Health Service has problems now - just wait till the problems from glyphosate hit in force!
A British friend just back from California said attorneys on television seeking big money court cases are now advertising for people harmed by glyphosate to contact them. Since cases like these brought Big Tobacco to its knees a few years back, learning of these class action suits against glyphosate has thrilled me!
Research shows glyphosate behind the epidemic of children's autism and also the cause in the huge rise in numbers of asthma and allergy sufferers. It's particularly hard on children's developing nervous systems, especially when they are little fetus people supposedly protected within their mother's bodies.
Yet with my own glyphosate-gummed eyes I have seen Roundup sprayed across playgrounds and around the local school here in Carlin How and across children's play areas in several states in America. And farmers are big offenders as they use glyphosate to keep thousands of acres of crops clear of weeds. In light of research on the dangers to us all from the "agricultural drift" of such poisons, it's past time to rethink allowing that use.
By the way, Belgium has just banned the use of glyphosate anywhere in that country. Let's hear a minimum of three cheers for Belgium!!!
Why we don't just spray our urban weeds with vinegar and salt instead of poison baffles me. It does just as good a job - in some cases a better job - and it isn't going to hurt us. Have a look here:
https://www.everydaycheapskate.com/home-and-family/hands-down-the-best-way-to-kill-weeds-and-its-not-roundup/
We could also just mow our weedy urban areas or bend our backs and pull up the offenders instead of putting our children and grandchildren in harm's way - not to mention the devastation caused by glyphosate on bees frogs, toads, newts, and up through the entire wildlife food chain.
In England, however, we need to be careful of those now endangered hedgehogs with our strimmers. I recently learned only one in three Brits has ever even seen a hedgehog, given they are now as endangered as tigers due to loss of habitat, becoming roadkill on ever busier highways, and because of the generous poisoning of slugs, their preferred food.
Remember DDT? I do. In fact my generation still carries residual DDT in our bodies and we also have the highest incidence of breast cancer of any tested group. Heaven only knows what the legacy from this latest batch of toxic chemicals will be, but so far test research shows it won't be good.
But I digress.
I always digress.
If you continue to read this blog in future you'll just have to get used to it.
The bottom line is, I love being back in England. I love my Yorkshire adventures. And I look forward to a Carlin How life for as many years as I can "Keep on Keep'n on" as Americans of a certain age (mine) are prone to say.
End of blog one ...
but here's a p.s.:
If you want a treat, find yourself a copy of the book by Yorkshire author John Nicholson called "The Meat Fix - how a lifetime of healthy eating nearly killed me!" Parts of it are laugh-out-loud hilarious and all of it is informative. It was published in 2012 in London by a company with a great name, Biteback Publishing Ltd. I got those terrific librarians in the nearby village of Loftus' library to find it for me, but now - bibliomaniac that I am - I'll have to buy a copy for my home library. Don't miss it. It's a great read!
