Saturday, July 13, 2013

Thistles, libraries and puffing




































A crowd of sow thistles.

It is hard not feel total love and admiration for the school girl Malala Yousafazai who addressed the United Nations yesterday in pursuit of a campaign to see better and more widespread education for girls in her country and other countries where it is withheld from them. Sad to see in the paper today which printed a full transcription of her speech, that 1000 libraries are likely to be closed in our own country in the next couple of years.

A tall grey-haired man, his back slightly bent, walks ahead of me, his hands behind his back. (I know him to be well into his eighties). He cups a cigarette in one hand. Every now and then without altering his pace he takes a leisurely puff.  I share his pleasure vicariously this fine morning.

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