The Songs

All I can tell you about this photo is that I took it in January last year when we were holidaying in Cornwall.  It is strange to write “holidaying in Cornwall”.  Of course it is exactly what we were doing, but as someone who spent my formative years in West Penwith (and yes those years did a great deal of forming) then I would like to think there are special tendrils pulling me west.  Is it natural to crave to return to the source of the stream?  I don’t know.  All I do know is that I feel more of connection with Cornwall than to anywhere else in the world.  Sometimes I envy those with a strong heritage, born and bred, but in reality I imagine that there are more of us gypsies out there, those who never quite belong anywhere.  Citizens of the world perhaps.  Surely that can’t be a bad thing.   It is just that sometimes I would like to be able to sing the songs.

14 thoughts on “The Songs

  1. The photo looks a lot like Vitis rotundafolia, native to here and further north in the US. Whether it is or not, to a certain extent, we are citizens of the world – caring for it one garden at a time.

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  2. Strong heritage can be difficult as well. My ancestral homeland in the Santa Clara Valley is not what it was when I was a kid. Almost none of the kids I grew up with are still here. None of us can afford to live here, and even if we could, the culture is not healthy for children. I really wish I could move to Oklahoma or Oregon, or anyplace where it is easier to survive.

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      1. California is pretty safe. It just seems to have a lot of problems because it is so big and there is so much going on here. There are so many millions of people here that when a fire happens, many of us are going to be in the way. The same goes for floods and mudslides.

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  3. I wonder if people born in the UK generally stay put more than people in North America? It’s a bit unusual to find people who were born here in Victoria, BC and still live here. It livens up the place to have more diversity – Victoria’s reputation for stuffiness seems to have disappeared.

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      1. On the whole, people in North America are quite mobile and don’t seem to mind the distances. Once they get to Victoria, they tend to stay. It really is a little gem. It used to be that young people moved away because the job situation wasn’t very good, but it’s gotten a lot better. On the other hand, the cost of housing has gotten so high that it can be prohibitive for young families, and that’s not good for the life and spirit of the community. It’s worse in Vancouver.

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  4. I understand the pull of the tendrils (or is it roots?) was constantly on the move in my early years but always in Scotland. Been settled in Edinburgh for centuries now but there’s a strong pull to the far north and the islands where I did a lot of forming. Still a citizen of the world though.

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  5. I returned to my roots, I am still not sure it was the best thing. All decision have pluses and minuses, when home you are who you were, when away you are who you are, if that makes sense!

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