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When our man Alexander Voloshin and his fellow émigrés, who had seen their share of suffering in the Old World, landed in the United States in the 1920s, they found much to celebrate — but one thing stuck in their craw. That something was prohibition and the Volstead Act, the puritanical law of the land, which wasn’t done away with until 1933. The émigrés had already had a taste of dry living. As I show in one of the first sections of 1917: Stories and Poems from the Russian Revolution, the Tsarist ban on the sale of alcohol during the Great War led to much frustration and, with the coming of the Revolution, to mass raids on cellars and warehouses where wine and vodka were stored. It also led to clever workarounds.

In the brief third chapter of the second part of his epic, On the Tracks and…

Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) in Penlee Park, Penzance

Just a week or so has made a lot of difference to the leaf cover. The leaves went a lovely golden colour before swooping down to the ground.

The first picture is at the end of November, the second is dated 10th December. The cold winds we have had here have done their work.

Some more sheltered leaves lingered longer. On the ground, the leaf litter is mixed oak and chestnut.

The colour of the chestnut leaves on the ground is – well, a rich chestnut.

Brief interlude for some song lyrics:

“When you knew that it was over you were suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning to the colour of her hair“

From Noel Harrisons’ Windmills of Your Mind from 1969.

If you are too young to know it, here’s a You Tube link:

(Some…

Yesterday, a friend and I went to hear  Melbourne-based writer and researcher, Clem Bastow talk with Claire Halliday about her book, Late Bloomer, How an Autism Diagnosis Changed My Life.  This was an event for World Autism Awareness Day at the Brighton Branch of Bayside Library.

This is the blurb for the book, from Clem Bastow’s website:

Late Bloomer is a heartfelt coming-of-age memoir that will change the way you think about autism. Clem Bastow grew up feeling like she’d missed a key memo on human behaviour. She found the unspoken rules of social engagement confusing, arbitrary and often stressful. Friendships were hard, relationships harder, and the office was a fluorescent-lit nightmare of anxiety. It wasn’t until Clem was diagnosed as autistic, at age 36, that things clicked into focus.

The obsession with sparkly things and dinosaurs. The encyclopaedic knowledge of popular music. The meltdowns that would come…

Guardian Hands – Charles Henry Sims. Wikioo.

What doescontainment actually mean?The concept of containment refers to an experience of holding another person so that they feel safe and protected. This ‘holding’ does not have to be in the form of a hug; it can be on an emotional level. We can have such an experience as this within the family, with friends, or in therapy.

Here are 5 quotations to explain the concept further:

Quote 1.

Comfort. 1907. Edvard Munch. Wikioo.

When we hold each other, in the darkness, it doesn’t make the darkness go away. The bad things are still out there. The nightmares still walking. When we hold each other we feel not safe, but better. “It’s all right” we whisper, “I’m here, I love you.” and we lie: “I’ll never leave you.” For just a moment or two the darkness doesn’t seem so bad.

Neil Gaiman

Knowing…