The Shadow of a Gunman (My Goodreads Review)

The Shadow of a Gunman by Seán O'Casey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I struggled with this at first and think somethings might have gone over my head. I enjoyed the hard hitting ending - if it meant heroes and fighters are not always what we expect and perhaps more modest people pick up the woeful tab at the end of the day.

One of the characters is Donal Daveron, a struggling 'want to be - poet,' moving into a slum in a poor district of Dublin. He has a roommate named Seumus. The other people of the block suspect Donal of being a Republican Volunteer fighter. Donal, who is not such a person, does little to refute such beliefs as I think it appeals to the romantic side of his nature. His roommate Seumus, however, has a friend who is of such persuasion.

When Crown forces in the form of Auxiliaries raid the place after an incident with Seumus' rebel friend all sorts of things come into play with Donal and Seumus needing help to take suspicion away from them. Donal is helped by a young woman who is infatuated with him. A lady called Minnie Powell.

I would highly recommend this story. I thought the drama that unfolded towards the end of this tale was very dramatic indeed.

C.A. Powell
The Black and Tan Summer: Ireland's Turbulent Year of 1920


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One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (My Goodreads Review)

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A single day in a Soviet Gulag/prison out in the freezing Siberian wilderness. We follow political prisoner Ivan Denisovich as he tries to make his way through a normal day at the prison camp, while all around others (guards and prisoners) go through their trials and tribulations. It was a long while ago that I read this novel but it left an impression. It is a story that everyone should try to read - even just the once. It was depressing but compelling at the same time and a real turn off for the glorious worker's paradise.


C.A. Powell
The Last Days of Thunder Child



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Mad Flowers in the Front Garden.

The front garden is allowed to do its thing with mad cascades of flowers. I just planted them and let them get on with it. Sometimes I cut them back and the Red Hot Pokers have been split because the flowers seem to increase each year. Soon the Australian Bottle Brush will come out. Some die off and new ones spring up, but from now until about late September there will be many types of flowers. 

It's hard to image during the winter when it is all bare, but now everything is in bloom, it is difficult to imagine the bleak look during the summer.  

    

Rain All Day for Wednesday. (Now it's Thursday)

It rained all day yesterday on Wednesday, May 17th, 2017. I was in the little hamlet of Chatteris and the village of Manea, emptying all the litter bins. The rain had woken me up during the middle of the night. When I got up at 4.30 am it was still raining. When I got to Chatteris in my work van at 6 am it was still raining. It continued to rain all day and I did not finish work until 5.30 pm. I drove home in the rain. I never knew the sky could hold so much water. It never stopped until near midnight.

My wife said it would do the garden well. I believe her and when I got up this morning at about 6 am to begin my four days of leave, I was overjoyed to see the clear blue sky and the garden looking as though it is getting ready to go for the summer. All the Red Hot Pokers are in bloom and some of the other flowers too. This is just the beginning.

A good downpour of rain is what all the flowers need. I just hope we don't have any more downpours while I'm on my four-day rest cycle. The weather forecast on the news seems good. I'll sit in the garden with some ice cold Guinness to help me get through the arduous relaxation I'm about to apply myself to. With some enthusiasm, I may add.

 



    

The Lord of the Rings (My Goodreads Review)

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this back in 1979 when I was eighteen and I could not put the trilogy down. I absolutely loved this story and became totally engrossed in the wonderful and dangerous world of Middle Earth. I missed my stop on the train several times when reading, during my commute, to and from London. I found corners during my break times to read.

I can honestly say, that this was a wonderful story that made me sad when I got to the end of it all. Sad because I would leave this wonderful fantasy world. In my view, the best ever fantasy saga of all time. It was also great to have read it as an impressionable naive eighteen year old kid. Being spellbound was more rewarding at that young age. This story has a very special place in my heart as I’m sure it does for so many other people too.


C.A. Powell
The Last Days of Thunder Child




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Serendipity Photo - The Swallow and the Water's Reflection.

Sometimes, in a quirky way you get a camera shot and capture a little moment. It's not the clearest photo of a speeding swallow, but if it were a canvas and painted with the still canal water and the reflections, well...?

It might look good with the slight blur and the imperfections. For some reason, this flicks a switch. There were lots of swallows swooping, twisting and diving. I tried to catch them in flight but they are so very fast. In the end, I aimed the camera at the underneath of the bridge and pressed rapid for a few seconds and managed to catch one flitting under. I got several shots but like this one the best. 

I like the water line and all the grassy reed bits floating by and the water line dividing reflection and post etc. Somehow it works, but it was not intentional. It just happened this way on that particular click among the much desperate and blindly clicking away on the multi-frame photo shoot. I was hoping for the best concerning a clear shot of a swallow in flight. I did not get that effect but ended up with something equally as pleasing.

    

An Unassuming Little Place with a Huge and Hidden History

An Unassuming Little Place with a Huge and Hidden History

At the top of this rise, there once stood a castle. It was called Fotheringhay castle. It fell into disrepair during the later part of the Elizabethan period and was being broken down and plundered for stone by 1627. Its destruction date is assumed to be at this time. By 1635 it was declared to be in a total ruinous state and was completely demolished soon afterwards.

By 1603, the Scottish Stewart King James VI was on the throne of England as King James I and by 1635 the second Stewart King Charles I was reigning over the land. This would be a place that neither kings of the Scottish dynasty would favour.

The last English Tudor Queen Elizabeth I had ordered the execution of Queen Mary Stewart of Scotland. The imprisoned Scottish queen spent her last month’s here and was executed on this very hill, where I am standing waving my arms in the above photo. She was the Mother and Grandmother of both Stewart Kings respectively. The place would be of little favour to such monarchs. Therefore no effort was made to preserve the old castle.

There had been a grand hall within the walls and it was in this place that Mary Stewart met her dreadful end. The famous Queen of Scotland was arguably, via Roman Catholic law, still secretly claiming to be England’s queen too and had been constantly trying to form rebellions to win her freedom.

After another plot to depose England’s Queen Elizabeth I, the final straw had come after many years of imprisonment. The Scottish queen had to be removed permanently. It was on the top of this mound that Queen Mary met her demise on a winter’s day of 8^th February 1587.

Also, over one hundred and thirty-five years prior to this, King Richard III – the last Plantagenet king of England was born on this very mound (Where the castle stood) on October 2^nd, 1452.

Now the mound looks like any other mound amid the English meadows and by a small picturesque English village that has a population of around one hundred people. A distant memory of regal ghosts lost in the splendour and panoramic view of the wonderful Nene valley. As unassuming as the Stewarts were to this historical place; so the historical place is unimpressed by the kings. The pleasant splendour rural English village lives on while the ghosts of past monarchs are barely noticeable unless one is informed.