The Leaf

The rustling noise woke me up. It was very early in the morning. I saw the sunrise for first time.

What a beautiful phenomenon! I was hanging up fairly high and there were a lot of similar creatures around me.

The noise that woke me up was a conversation. All of us, we have lots to
say. Roaring and rustling we talked to each other.
Sometimes we sang, sometimes it was wild screams.

All of us are similar, but we are not the same. When we are singing,
we are telling the story. We are the leaves. The aged oak is our father.
He is almost 1000 years old. He knows a lot about the world around him.
About worms that live in his roots, about animals that are eating his acorns, about birds that live in his branches.

The nightingale is the best singer of all, he rocks us to sleep.
Autumn came, the falling of the leaves, the birds flew away. Some animals went to sleep, some of them changed colour. It is about time to say goodbye. I just danced in the wind…

The Internet

The internet is probably the easiest way to communicate with friends or the world that has been invented by man to date.
It is a simple and fun way to
communicate or find information with anyone or about anything. It is a free services that can be used
anywhere in the world. So let your fingers do the clicking, e mail
someone today.

Tim


I would strongly recommend anyone to use the internet as it is a brilliant way to communicate with the outside world.
There are so many things you can use it for, like buying and selling goods or just browsing the net or talking to your friends.

A Hally

How time goes by

It seems like only yesterday that we played as kids on the hills overlooking out town. I remember when the snow would fall and we would slide down the slopes on plastic fertilizer bags that we would get from the local farmer.

There would be at least 15 to 20 kids all going down the same path,that we would have made in the snow. Then there were the thrill seekers who had got their hands on the bonnet of an old Morris Minor and would slid down the hill at break neck speed.

Three of four could sit on the bonnet at any one time. I remember going down with two other lads and as we slid down the hill, we started to gather speed. I and one other bailed out half way down and as we watched the bonnet go through the ditch at the end of the hill and into the next field, we thought the other would be killed. We watched in amazement as he picked himself up and proceeded to pull the bonnet up the hill for another go (crazy fool)

Then when the summer holidays would come the fun would start on the river bank. Back then, the summers seemed to be hotter than now and some-how lasted longer. I remember my mother used to say to us, “Get out from under me feet and don’t come home ‘til teatime” and off we would go to the river. As teenagers we would jump from the bridge into the waters below and swim to the bank. The bridge was about 30ft high; it was very frightening to jump.

The first time I jumped it took me about 10 minutes to get up the nerve to let go of the bars of the bridge and as I fell my life flashed before me and hundreds of thoughts would go through my mind like will the water hurt when I hit it, will it be deep enough or will I hit the bottom, all this and lots more.

It’s amazing how fast the mind works in the few seconds that you are falling, then you hit the water and go under and it seems like an eternity until you break the surface again. You would then have to swim to the bank of the river, your heart racing and the adrenalin rushing around in your blood stream. Back on to the bridge to jump again this time there is no fear or doubt and you just jump.

They were happy times and thinking back we really had very little. I mean, monetarily but we were rich in other ways. We had our friends and community, we had neighbours who cared and looked out for all of us.

It seemed that society has lost the sense of community today. We live in a material world and some of us don’t even know who is living along side of us.
Bring back the old days!

Anon

Its a funny little life

Life can be a bit funny at times, well not ha ha funny. When you think things are going well and you’re feeling some way happy, bang your little bubble is burst and your world is turned upside down. Well that’s the way my life is at the moment. It was hard enough having to start all over again when my marriage broke down. I had built a lovely big house for my family and then I ended up almost homeless. I’m not feeling sorry for myself or sorry that I built the house, but it just shows how life can go.
Then I started building another new house over a year ago. I was happy thinking of what it would be like when it was finished. Little did I know the way things were going to turn out, well that’s life. I don’t think I will get the chance to see it finished, but hey what the hell, up and on from here on in I hope. I had to move again.
I looked at a lovely house by the sea on Friday. Oh what a view, the upstairs bedroom is looking out on the sea and the light house, it’s just lovely I can’t wait. I never wanted to move away from where I lived because it was near to my family, even though I didn’t get to see my kids that much I was still near them.
I think peace of mind is more important than where you live or the house you live in. if you can’t sleep at night because of a threat made by someone, and worry about every noise you hear then I think it’s time to go. I will miss my kids. I was never too far away from them in all the years, that I will find hard. Thinking back over the last five years it was just about survival not living. So out of a bad situation I got to move to a lovely house, with a view to die for and living near my friends. So yes, you can say it’s a funny little life.

Anon.

The Outside Light

The Outside Light

When I was growing up in a little fishing village, situated on the west coast of the harbour, there were always something to do and to see. We would fish among the seaweed and rock pools. I used to love the shore and would spend a lot of time there when I was not in school and there was always something new to be discovered that had been washed off a ship during a gale. In the summer we would swim every day and sometimes twice a day, it was wonderful. On the quay there was always someone who needed help to overhaul nets or bail out a boat, and I would like to help when the old men were making sails and watch as they used a sail needle and a sail maker’s palm.
When I was very young my father had a small boat with sails and when the weather was favourable he would take me out fishing. I can still remember the sound of the creaking of the mast and the flapping of the sails as the boat glided through the water. Then when I was 9 years old, my father got a 5½ horse power outboard engine which cost £98 and at a time & salmon were 1 shilling & 3 pence per pound. The sails were never used again. This made life easier for my father and it helped to get a lot more fish. But for me it meant that I had to go fishing when the weather was good or bad, and sometimes I would be very seasick and other times I would be burned with the sun and salt water, and my face would blister. At that time, there were a lot of ships using the harbour & the nets would have to be hauled in when the ships were passing, and then set out again. This had to be done very fast. It was hard work, but I liked it and I didn’t complain. Sometimes the captain of the ship would signal to my father, and he would exchange paint or rope for fresh fish, by means of rope and basket lowered from the side of the ship.
When we were fishing at night the navigating would have to be down by the lights on the shore. This was more difficult in heavy rain or fog. When the fog was really thick it was not always possible to see the ships in times, and they would come too close to our boat and sometimes cut through our nets. At times the fog was so bad we had to stay out all night ‘til the sun came up in the morning. There was always one light that shone and it seemed to be brighter than all the rest and even at times when it was not possible to see, it was a comforting thought knowing it was on. That was the light that was on the corner of our house that my mother always left on when I was out in the boat. My father did not see the point of it and though it was a waste of electricity never the less, my mother would always leave on the outside light. When the weather was stormy that was the worst time of all. On one of these occasions when I was just 11 years old and the weather was very bad for some weeks, the wind was blowing from the south east direction which caused a big swell and I was very seasick. We had just hauled in our nets and we were steaming to another location when a huge wave struck our boat, I thought that we were gone under, and then my father was nowhere to be seen, he had fallen overboard and he was in the water. Luckily the engine stopped and I was able to grab his hand. I don’t know to this day where I got the strength to help my Father back on board.


There were good times also, like when the weather was calm and we could go ashore. I could explore some isolated beach, maybe a cave and swim from the boar in the clear deep water. Sometimes sharks would come alongside but this didn’t happen very often, only in extremely good water. Sometimes my father would tell stories of his seagoing days and I learned a lot about the sea life. On Saturday there would be no fishing and I would help clean the boat and mend the nets. Then at the end of the season the boat would be hauled up on the quay and the barnacles and algae would be scraped from her bottom. Any leaking seams would be caulked with oakum and pitch, and a coat of tar would be given, then the boat would be painted and ready for the following year. In the evening I would often got to the quay and watch the nigger herring boats unload their catch. We could always get some herrings to bring home. We would roast them in the fire on a wire grill & they were lovely. Then I finally left school & the only work that was available to me was fishing. It was hard work with long hours, sometimes we caught no fish for weeks and in the winter there would be work on the pier salting and barrelling herrings. I liked this job although it was hard and very cold working on the quay all day, sometimes from five o clock in the morning. There were times when we would have to work very late at night and on these occasions we would be brought to the pub and given what was called a salmon roll, and a large bottle of Guinness. Then we would go back to work loading or unloading a ship.

I fished for many years after that and there were times when I would get work ashore, but I always ended up back fishing. Finally in the early 80’s fishing as I knew it failed and when I met my wife we moved away from the sea. With her help I managed to get full time work ashore, and now when I visit the seaside my past life is just a fading memory. At times when I see the children playing on the foreshore and hear them cry out that they have found a crab or starfish, I can only smile.

I still like to watch the fishing boats and ships as they come in and out of the harbour as I stroll along the foreshore, of just sit on a rock on a summer’s evening & listen to the water lapping on the beach. Now as I drive back home and leave the harbour lights behind, my eyes sometimes mist over when that famous poem by John Masefield, “Sea Fever” comes to mind.

I must go down to the sea again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

World Cup

World Cup 2010
This World Cup is being held in South Africa for the first time. This is the first time in all Africa. There are 32 teams made up of 8 groups of 4 teams, the top 2 teams from the group go to the last 16 and then the last 8 and so on to the final where 2 teams play for the cup on the 11TH of July.
The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930. In 1942 and 1946 it was not contested because of the Second World War. Brazil has won it 5 times, the most of any team and only seven teams have won it in total.
• Italy have won four titles
• Germany are next with three titles
• Uruguay and Argentina, with two titles each
• England and France with one title each

This World Cup should be one of the best of all time with 6 or 7 teams that can win but like all world cups you just don't know.

Poultry

Poultry

When I started with poultry I was a novice in the breeding and the science of it. But now I have learned most of what can be learned, but you learn something new every day. I still have a lot to learn about the breeds, like Leghorn, Silkie ,Wyandotte, Pekin, and many more.

In the beginning I hatched out lots of chicks, all sorts of breeds. I could not tell what breed was what until I went and bought some books that taught me how to recognise the breeds and their eggs. Understanding chicken behaviour is not as straight forward as you may think.

I now can go to any chicken fair and pick out the best chickens there. I recently went to a chicken fair and bought 3 Blue Laced Wyandottes. I liked them so much that I went back a month later and bought 4 more. I want these to be my main breed.

John

Florence Nightingale by Brendan

Florence nightingale was born on the 12/5/1810 into a very

rich, upper class well connected British Family, at Bellosguardo

In Florence Italy, and was named after her city of birth. Inspired

by a call from God in February 1837 she decided to go into nursing

to answer Gods call. Her mum and her other siblings were totally against

it. They wanted her to marry and have a family, that’s what girls were suppose to do

in that time, espically if you came from the

With the money and connections her father had, he got Florence

the job of superintendent at the institute for the care of sick

gentlewomen in upper Harley Street London. Florences

most famous contribution to nursing came during the Crimean

War. After hearing some horrific and sad stories of the conditions

that the wounded and sick were being keep in she and 38 other

nurses decided to go the to the war and help the sick and wounded

in the hospitals. History has shown us her first experience in

of the war was to say it was a disaster for her and the

men she was nursing. During her first winter deaths rates rose

in her care, in all there was a total of 4,077. Ten

times more soldiers died from illnesses such as Typhus, Typhoid,

Cholera and Dysentery than battle wounds.

Florence had to work very hard to educated herself in the art of science

and nursing, in spite of opposition from some family members and

close friends, but her father saw that she was very determinate to go

into nursing.

Although the hospital was over crowded and had a very defective sewers and

lack of ventilation Florences knowledge of basic hygiene was very limited

so much so that a sanitary commission was sent in to sort the problems out.

With this death rates were sharply reduced by 44%. During the Crimean war

Florence gained the nick name, the lady with lamp.

While in the Crimean war (1855) a Florence Nightingale fund

was set up for training nurses. There was outpouring of generous donations.

Sidney Herbert served as secretary, and the Duke of Cambridge was chairman.

By 1859 the Nightingale fund had £45,000 at her disposal. There was a host of other

training schemes set up (St Thomas Hospital) is now called Florence Nightingale

School of Nursing and Midwifery and is part of Kings College London. The first

trained Nightingale nurses began work on 16/5/1865 at Liverpool workhouse

Infirmary. There was also funds raised for the Royal Buckinghamshire

Hospital in Aylesbury near her family home .With her bad experience

in Crimea on sanitation and her new knowledge on hygiene. Nightingale

Wrote “Every day sanitary, or the knowledge of nursing, or in other words,

of how to put the constitution in such a state as that it will have no diseases,

takes a higher place, it is recognised as the knowledge which every one ought to

have- distinct from medical knowledge, which any one profession can have.


In 1859 Nightingale wrote notes on nursing a slim 136 page book which has served as

the cornerstone of todays nursing. Also in the 1870s Nightingale mentored Linda

Richards, America’s first trained nurse.

By 1882 Nightingale nurses had sprung up all over the world. USA, Canada, Japan,

Ireland, England, and some parts of mainland Europe. During the American

Civil War the union government asked for her help on organizing field hospital

and medicine for the sick and wounded.

In 1883 Nightingale was awarded the Royal Red Cross by Queen Victoria.

In 1907 she became the first woman to be awarded the order of Merit.

In 1908 she was given the freedom of London. What Florence Nightingale

has achieved in awards and her knowledge in nursing and what she has

done for the health of the world and for all working in the health services

through the world is second to none. But it seems that nobody is invincible to

falling into bad health. From 1857 Florence was bed ridden with depression and

brucellosis.

Her birth day is now celebrated as international CFS awareness day.

On the 13/8/1910 aged 90 Florence Nightingale died peacefully in her sleep in

her room at 10 South Street Park Lane London. The offer of a burial in Westminster

Abbey was declined by her family. She is buried in the graveyard at St Margarets

Church in East Wellow Hampshire England.



Florence nightingale 1820=1910 R.I.P.

Spring Time

Spring Time

The day was beautiful and the birds were singing, it was time to get up and go out walking. Spring was here and the brightness of the day got everyone out in our street washing the walls for painting and curtains coming down to get the spring look again. While I was on my walk the flow of the water under the bridge and the wonderful smile of all the beautiful flowers that surrounding me.
It was the evening and it was time to put spring into action. My friend and I and the children went on a picnic to bring joy and happiness into the wonderful day of spring. The beauty of the flowers and the smell of cut grass always bring us back to our own young days when we were kids ourselves. The children love playing football, hurling and just having fun and been out doors.
Soon summer will be here and the summer will be on top of us. We and other families always hope that the summer will bring colour, laughter and lots of wonderful weather in the months that are ahead of us while school is out.

Book Review By Noel

BOOK REVIEW


Title Twenty Tales From The War Zone;

Author John Simpson

John Simpson was born in London in the 1940, he went to Cambridge University he joined the BBC as a
Sub-editor in the Radio Newsroom in 1966 he soon become a political reporter and then a war
Correspondent.
He spent over forty years covering wars all over the world, this book is a short account of some of the
events he has covered for the BBC.

The book gives the reader a inside into war and all it’s terrible affects on people and countries.
The story begins in Belfast in the 1970 and gives the reader a good idea of just how easy it was to get into a lot of bother at that time in Belfast .
A simple thing like the way he was dressed put his life in danger John survived being shot as a spy .
He went on to cover wars all over the world from Europe to Africa to the middle east.

In this book he gives a brief account of some of the people he interview from soldiers to princess and even one of the greatest men of our time Nelson Mandela .
I found the book very good he has a brilliant way of telling a story
I really liked how he described Osama Bin Laden crying with frustration because he wasn’t allowed to kill him, or how Gadhafi was farting all through the interview .

The book also describes just how hard a war correspondent job can be, the constant danger and the possibility that he might get killed at anytime.
When he was reporting from Iraq in 2003 with the North alliances the convoy he was traveling with came under what is called friendly fire, instead of the enemy killing you, it’s your own side.
This chapter in the book shows war really is a dirty business.
Being a war correspondent he must put his life on the line all the time, John Simpson must be a very lucky man.
They say every man has an animal he can be compared to if that’s the case John would be a cat, because he certainly has nine lives.

This book is well worth reading

The Lady Next Door

It only seems like yesterday that Margaret lived next door to me. She was a woman of deception and always helpful to others, when she died it was a great shock to me.
To start my story it was September 1998 and I moved into a beautiful house not far outside Dover. After I moved in Margaret made herself known to me and welcomed me to the street. I had just separated and was trying to get my life together again, the children were all gone and had made lives for themselves, this was my chance to start again.
I was very into myself and Margaret soon got me out walking, joining clubs and meeting lots of new people. When we had chats she told me lots of stories of her life and how she came to be on my street.
Quite a few years went by and Margaret had influenced me. As I was a writer before I got married I decided to write her story. I had writers block for a few years, but Margaret’s stories made me feel that I could write again.
Margaret had lived through the First World War and her memory was wonderful, some of her stories were unbelievable. Margaret told me one day that most of her family had passed away, that she was all alone and was delighted to have me next to her.
During the next few weeks Margaret had the doctor a lot and she was very weak, but always was very strong and never complained at all. So I was shocked to hear that she had passed away. Margaret had named me in her will but her memory will always live with me through her stories and she will never be forgotten.

Maureen.