Out of the Window........

all is calm and serene. The two Sorbus aucuparia - rowan or mountain ash trees display their autumn colour as they have done since the beginning of October. The horse chestnut tree stands tall and proud but bereft of it's leaves, and the other trees continue to wear summer green stippled with hints of colour yet to come. 

Rowan trees are steeped in legend and mythology.

In the British Isles the rowan has a long history in folklore as a tree which protects against whitchcraft and enchantment. The tree itself was said to afford protection to any dwelling by which it grew. To this day rowan trees can be seen growing besides rural dwellings in the Scottish Highlands. I wonder whether the person who planted our trees knew of this tale - maybe we have a double dose of protection.

Greek mythology tells how Hebe, the goddess of youth, dispensed rejuvenating ambrosia to the gods from her magical chalice. When, through carelessness, she lost the cup to demons, the gods sent an eagle to recover it. A fight ensued and the eagle shed feathers and drops of blood. These fell to earth where each of them turned into a rowan tree. Hence the rowan derived the shape of its leaves from the eagle’s feathers and the appearance of its berries from the droplets of blood. 

The rowan is also prominent in Norse mythology as the tree from which the first woman was made.

The news here is dominated by the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, but will the countries of the world finally come together? There are some notable government leaders that are absent from the major decision making. 

There have been some very alarming reports shown on the TV, one of which was done by the highly regarded BBC Panorama team investigating this past year of wild weather from around the globe. Most of which we had been aware of but without knowing the final outcome or details. Happenings which are becoming increasingly common place, but changing the life for millions. I was aware of the record-breaking high temperatures in the Pacific Northwest of Canada but did not know that a small Canadian town called Lytton had been totally overcome and completely devastated by the wildfires caused by the heat. The town was completely destroyed and burnt to the ground. Floods in Germany and Belgium swept away entire medieval villages and towns, places that had withstood storms and tempests for hundreds of years are now no more. Rural communities in the Australian state of New South Wales have been battling a plague of mice that struck the region. Thousands upon thousands of mice have been invading grain silos, barns and homes and infesting the farmers' bumper grain harvest. The harvest has had to be totally burnt in order to get rid of the mice. I have never seen so many mice, it looked like a horror film. The mice numbers boomed following the unusually heavy summer rains and floods which produced bountiful crops when it fell acrosss eastern Australia after years and years of drought. 

South Korea has been blanketed by massive yellow dust storms blown in from China. The Korean Meteorological Administration said that practically all parts of the nation were affected by high levels of yellow dust that originated in the Inner Mongolian region of northern China and the vicinity of the Gobi Desert. The dust storms have become more deadly each year as they pass over China's industrial zones picking up toxins. South Korea, blames hundreds of deaths each year on the storms, especially to the elderly. Children have to wear special masks to school because it causes respirator problems. 

The people of Madagascar are on the brink of the world's first climate change-induced famine. More than a million people need emergency food and nutrition, with 14,000 already in 'catastrophic' condiitions. Starving Malagasy people are forced to eat insects and old dried roots buried deep in the ground.