Tuesday 25 June 2013

The Other Yukon


The Water Way

The sage’s way, Tao, is the way of water.
There must be water for life to be,
and it can flow wherever, and water,
being true to being water, is true to Tao.

Those in the way of Tao, like water,
need to accept where they find themselves,
and that may often be where water goes
to the lowest places, and that is right.

Like a lake the heart must be calm and quiet
With great depth beneath it.
The sage rules with compassion
and his words are trusted.

The sage needs to know how to flow around
blocks and how to know a way round like water
and how to find a way through like water.

Like water the sage must wait
for the moment to rise and be right.
Water never fights;
it flows around without harm.

Tao Te Ching

Another little snippet from the old country to cheer you up in these supposedly tense times. Chris’s mum may remember the riverside walk at Otley, the next town down river from Ilkley. However the row of houses have another little known name - Yukon. When the land came up for sale there were more people than plots. So the landowner had a brilliant idea no doubt taken from gold rush days. Those wishing to purchase were amassed on the opposite side of Otley Bridge and at the drop of a flag surged across to stake their claim.

I may have mentioned this before to Chris. You will be aquainted with the name Thomas Chippendale, Cabinet Maker. The chap whose company made a few odds and ends now in the Yellow Oval Room in your White House. When a lad he would have played in the fields where ‘Yukon’ now stands. During our Civil War it is said Cromwell’s troops watered their horses nearby. The Archbishop of York formerly had a Manor House of great proportion on the opposite side of the river. The artist Turner would have used the riverside path on his rambles from Farnley Hall, just down river. As too, no doubt, would Ruskin.

Standing with your back to the houses one can see the Chevin, a large expanse of high ground above the town. On the lower edge of the Chevin are Caley Crag’s. Or as some would have you believe The Alps in Turner’s painting of Hannibal crossing them. Back to the riverside and directly opposite the houses stands a small park. In the mid twenties it was the haunt of local nannies and child minders bringing their charges for fresh air. They nick-named it Titty Bottle Park much to the amusement of folk thereabouts. A couple of years ago the new owner of a nearby cafe wanted to rename his establishment Titty Bottle Bistro. The local politically correct brigade went ballistic. It even made National TV. A PR agent couldn’t have wished for such publicity if they had tried.

Coming back to the present, one or the other of you mentioned the fast disappearance of Alaska’s glaciers. I was wondering what the condition of trees over there is like. Because Ilkley is a new town, new as in it developed from 1840 onwards, the majority of ‘mature’ trees date from that era forward. Yew (Taxus baccata) is either dying off or growing at speed. One individual has put on near six feet in two years. I’ve been taking particular note of our broad-leaved species and there is a definite change overall. Many are showing signs of distress, especially those around a hundred years old. More than usual die back of large limbs, dropping bark, to put it bluntly, a right mess.

A friend in Northern Greece has noticed something similar, as too another contact on the Indian sub-continent. So while our respective Government’s are knocking seven bells out of distant climes Mother Nature is quietly having a ball. Are we to let our trees go the same way as the Carrier Pigeon? Oops sorry about that, got a little carried away. Perhaps I could interest you in a couple of books. The Healing Energies of Trees by Patrice Bouchardon. ISBN 1-85675-100-7. The Healing Energies of Water by Charlie Ryrie. ISBN 1-8675-105-8. Both are from Gaia Books www.Gaiabooks.co.uk and if it’s possible to find them over there I thoroughly recommend them. The former frequently speaks of Native American customs and there’s a fantastic double page spread of a Redwood Grove in winter.