\"Maybe this year\", I said to myself. \u00a0\"Maybe this is the year I go \u2013 before it's too late in every sense.\" \u00a0Well, the nearest I got\u00a0was the 1436 from Paddington to Castle Cary last Thursday. \u00a0It was a Festival Special crammed with rucksacks, bed rolls, guitars, and slim, well-to-do young(ish) people in a positive mood.<\/p>\n
I found a seat in the quiet coach which remained so apart from some gentle strumming and vocal murmuration. \u00a0It was very good to share the train with such a happy band \u2013 even if they were utterly unrepresentative of the youth of the land: there was no austerity on show here. \u00a0The hardest part of the journey was getting off (before Castle Cary). \u00a0This was not because of some sudden urge to stay to the end; I had, after all, no festival ticket, and I was hardly dressed for the weekend. \u00a0Rather it was negotiating the half-abandoned luggage and bodies on the floor in order to get to\u00a0the door.<\/p>\n
I'd been in London for an even more positive occasion: the 70th birthday bash of the Soil Association. \u00a0This was a splendid event in every sense celebrating the first 70 years of the revolutionary movement to restore the integrity of the earth. \u00a0There were some positive young people here too, and the lunch was fantastic. \u00a0I may say more about the party\u00a0at some later point, but for now, here's how Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall provided\u00a0words of future encouragement:<\/p>\n
Sylvia Plath's\u00a0MUSHROOMS<\/p>\n
Overnight, very
\nWhitely, discreetly,
\nVery quietly<\/p>\n
Our toes, our noses
\nTake hold on the loam,
\nAcquire the air.<\/p>\n
Nobody sees us,
\nStops us, betrays us;
\nThe small grains make room.<\/p>\n
Soft fists insist on
\nHeaving the needles,
\nThe leafy bedding,<\/p>\n
Even the paving.
\nOur hammers, our rams,
\nEarless and eyeless,<\/p>\n
Perfectly voiceless,
\nWiden the crannies,
\nShoulder through holes. We<\/p>\n
Diet on water,
\nOn crumbs of shadow,
\nBland-mannered, asking<\/p>\n
Little or nothing.
\nSo many of us!
\nSo many of us!<\/p>\n
We are shelves, we are
\nTables, we are meek,
\nWe are edible,<\/p>\n
Nudgers and shovers
\nIn spite of ourselves.
\nOur kind multiplies:<\/p>\n
We shall by morning
\nInherit the earth.
\nOur foot's in the door.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\"Maybe this year\", I said to myself. \u00a0\"Maybe this is the year I go \u2013 before it's too late in every sense.\" \u00a0Well, the nearest I got\u00a0was the 1436 from Paddington to Castle Cary last Thursday. \u00a0It was a Festival...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}