flight

This beautiful swallow was made by local artist Lizzie Farey. I bought it for D's birthday some years ago and it hangs in our kitchen. You can see more of Lizzie's lovely work HERE.

At this time of the year I always think about the swallows and other small birds who are making the journey north. They will most probably be leaving Africa around now, arriving here anytime from April onwards, their return greeted joyfully as a sign of summer. I recently read this nice article about swallow migration. The writer ends with a reminder about other ( human) migrants and ponders the difficulty of their journey and the welcome they might receive. That has also been on my mind recently, watching the latest news from Syria. Yesterday I watched a video about a man who had fled from Syria and now lived in Scotland. He had designed his own tattoo to represent the journey he had taken to get here.  I also watched a film called "The Other Side of Hope" about the unlikely friendship between a Syrian refugee and a Finnish travelling salesman. 

It was another blipper, Harling Darling, who had recommended the film, so I'm recommending it in turn. That's one of the things I like about the Blip community - sharing with and learning from others. I came to Blip to learn about photography; I ended up learning about life :-)