Two Sides

Refurbishment tasks can be meditative, but they do not directly stimulate the mind. Getting a little stir-crazy, I took a long hour out to hear a presentation by our resident professional historian about the subject of his lifetime's study - the USA. Specifically, the 50 year run up to the civil war, the rise and character of Lincoln, the post-war Constitutional amendments and attempted reconstruction, which failed and was followed by 50 years of segregation - a betrayal of those amendments, which nevertheless became the foundation of the 20th century civil rights movement. That's a lot of history to fit into an hour - it was very impressive

The British were officially neutral, though the aristocracy and politicial leadership privately favoured the south. Britain came close to intervening to try to force a settlement - a two-state solution, to coin a phrase - but in the end was swayed by superior diplomacy by the the north. The blockade of cotton was devastating for our northern mills, but less so for the country than sanctions on trade with the Union would have been. Somehow, Britain got away with supplying arms, even battleships, to the rebels, but never the public support and finance that the Confederacy craved (especially if it came combined with that of France) 

Above all, it was impossible not to feel the echoes of this past in the present: Trump and his white supremacist cadres; Black Lives Matter; voter suppression; the police as an instrument of violent control; politicised judges, subverting the Constitution. All of this reverberates around the world. There was no time to discuss it, but the thoughts were chilling

A 29 Feb to forget: grey, cold, persistent rain giving way to heavy, low cloud and dull, drab light. At the very last, as we were driving home in twilight from family tea, a corner of the sky delivered this moment of contrast from the west - worth stopping the car and pointing the camera. A visual metaphor for anyone who wants it to be