10. The Earth quakes and the heavens rattle;
the beasts of nature flock together and the
nations of men flock apart; volcanoes usher up
heat while elsewhere water becomes ice and
melts; and then on other days it just rains.
11. Indeed do many things come to pass.
      HBT; The Book of Predictions, Chap. 19

Not wanting to awkwardly collapse into political opinions here, but i think that this article is worth reading and neatly describes the way I've been thinking education will go for a while now. Ultimately a bad direction, because the whole state school system is in danger of collapse.

In other news, there have been freak quantities of bilberries this year. I think the birds aren't eating them, or something, but we've managed to easily collect several times the usual harvest, without even going beyond the track up from our house. I don't know why things like this simultaneously unnerve me and give me a strange thrill of adventure.
A week or so ago i was up on the moors somewhere in Derbyshire, and noticed in an old quarry that you wouldn't know was there from the road was a congregation of african-looking people, male and female, some mothers with babies strapped to their backs, all in brilliant white robes. They started walking in single file out of the quarry, singing quietly, and their robes billowed in the wind, with the grassy wilderness stretching out behind them as far as I could see. I've got no pictures, I'm afraid: the battery in my camera ran out at just the wrong time. Which makes too much sense.