So many ways to catch a fish!
Cambodia – Snapshots of a way of living
Cambodia – Life along the Mekong – A glimpse
As we went slowly down the river we had a glimpse into the lives of other people. It puts your life in perspective.
Cambodia – Fishing on the Mekong
The waters rise and flood the land. The houses are all on stilts. It makes the land extremely fertile and the river teems with fish. Unfortunately, the families of the fisherfolk have grown. Commercial enterprises have moved in. It is incredibly overfished to unsustainable levels.
Cambodia – Another way of life.
sailing down the river gives you an insight into how other people live! This community’s whole life revolved around the river and fishing.
Cambodia – heading down the river to the great lake.
Incredible to think that only a few decades earlier we were bombing the hell out of the place!
Poetry – The Gansey Girl
The Gansey Girl
Patiently sitting, waiting,
with her three needles, knitting
Her Gansey sweater
For her fisherman.
Each sweater unique
So the body can be identified
When fished out of the sea.
Close-knit, in one piece,
To keep the elements at bay.
Self-consumed, thoughtful,
Content, but on edge.
Patient and reconciled,
Avoiding thinking
Of the possibility,
Not looking out to sea,
Controlled, focused inside.
Around her hem
Shoals of fish swim
Above her buttoned boots.
Her face, whimsical,
Not pretty yet handsome and kind.
Her clothes patterned and full
But nowhere near as intricate
As the product of her round needles.
All her love
pouring into the work
Out of her fingers,
The intricacy of the pattern,
That she wished
Never to see
Washed up
In some future nightmare,
Like so many before her.
Frozen in that moment for ever.
Her young fulsome body
Captured in that instant.
The tension of the vigil evident.
All her fears expressed
In the concentration of her stance
So understated.
A Gansey girl.
One of many
Who spent an eternity
Hovering in anxious calm,
Waiting.
Out at sea,
Among the heavy rollers,
With the icy spray,
Stinging wind
And lightning strike;
Pitted against the elements,
Hauling nets,
Lugging fish,
Tossed like a toy,
Earning a living,
Her man.
On the ocean
With the pitch and yaw,
Drenched and ripped by waves,
Laughing into a gale,
Knowing,
Challenging,
Pushed to the limits,
Accepting and enduring
The dangerous test.
Seeking the rewards,
The fulfilment,
The pride,
The camaraderie,
Companionship,
That comes with such danger,
When men work
As a team.
A test of manhood.
So the Gansey girl
Does what she can.
She knits and waits
Like so many others.
Her face controlled,
Introspective,
Sad and accepting,
Her attitude reflective.
The emotions stored
Waiting to erupt.
Opher 6.1.2019.
I wrote this poem after spending time with the wonderful statue of the Gansey Girl by the brilliant sculptor Steve Carvill.
Sitting serenely on the pier she sees out the boats and welcomes them back in.
She is a reminder of a past age, of the dangers of the sea; a reminder of the present day, where dangers are not all gone; and a warning.
Fishing is a hard life. There has been a heavy cost.
Poetry – The Gansey Girl
The Gansey Girl
Patiently sitting, waiting,
with her three needles, knitting
Her Gansey sweater
For her fisherman.
Each sweater unique
So the body can be identified
When fished out of the sea.
Close-knit, in one piece,
To keep the elements at bay.
Self-consumed, thoughtful,
Content, but on edge.
Patient and reconciled,
Avoiding thinking
Of the possibility,
Not looking out to sea,
Controlled, focused inside.
Around her hem
Shoals of fish swim
Above her buttoned boots.
Her face, whimsical,
Not pretty yet handsome and kind.
Her clothes patterned and full
But nowhere near as intricate
As the product of her round needles.
All her love
pouring into the work
Out of her fingers,
The intricacy of the pattern,
That she wished
Never to see
Washed up
In some future nightmare,
Like so many before her.
Frozen in that moment for ever.
Her young fulsome body
Captured in that instant.
The tension of the vigil evident.
All her fears expressed
In the concentration of her stance
So understated.
A Gansey girl.
One of many
Who spent an eternity
Hovering in anxious calm,
Waiting.
Out at sea,
Among the heavy rollers,
With the icy spray,
Stinging wind
And lightning strike;
Pitted against the elements,
Hauling nets,
Lugging fish,
Tossed like a toy,
Earning a living,
Her man.
On the ocean
With the pitch and yaw,
Drenched and ripped by waves,
Laughing into a gale,
Knowing,
Challenging,
Pushed to the limits,
Accepting and enduring
The dangerous test.
Seeking the rewards,
The fulfilment,
The pride,
The camaraderie,
Companionship,
That comes with such danger,
When men work
As a team.
A test of manhood.
So the Gansey girl
Does what she can.
She knits and waits
Like so many others.
Her face controlled,
Introspective,
Sad and accepting,
Her attitude reflective.
The emotions stored
Waiting to erupt.
Opher 6.1.2019.
I wrote this poem after spending time with the wonderful statue of the Gansey Girl by the brilliant sculptor Steve Carvill.
Sitting serenely on the pier she sees out the boats and welcomes them back in.
She is a reminder of a past age, of the dangers of the sea; a reminder of the present day, where dangers are not all gone; and a warning.
Fishing is a hard life. There has been a heavy cost.
Lunch on the Mekong Delta! Photos
We weaved our way up narrow tributaries, through banks of weeds, and stopped for lunch at a little restaurant on an island.
The food was fabulous and we were serenaded by a little Vietnamese combo. The fish meal, caught from the river, was decorated with little Vietnamese figures.
I went off for a wander over the island to try and get a few shots of the exotic birds and flowers. I also wanted to see more of the normal day to day life of the people who earned their living in the delta.
The Gansey Girl – Bridlington Sculpture
The Gansey Girl – Bridlington Sculpture
The Gansey Girl is a sculpture by Steve Carvill. It is situated on the pier at Bridlington. It depicts a girl sitting there knitting while she waits for her man to come back from fishing.
Gansey sweaters were knitted by the wives for their husbands. It is an East Riding corruption of Guernsey. A Gansey was normally knitted in blue and white in distinctive patterns. They served two purposes. Firstly they kept the men warm on their long fishing trips out into the frigid North Sea. Secondly they helped identify them when their bodies were washed up. After time in the water the jumper was the only identifying feature.
Fishing was one of those working class trades that was exciting, well paid, hard and exceedingly dangerous. It has largely gone now and has been industrialised, mechanised and taken over by the huge fishing companies.
I think the sculpture captures the emotions of the girl as she patiently waits for her man to return and knits him a new sweater – a Gansey Sweater.
The Gansey Girl – Bridlington Sculpture
The Gansey Girl is a sculpture by Steve Carvill. It is situated on the pier at Bridlington. It depicts a girl sitting there knitting while she waits for her man to come back from fishing.
Gansey sweaters were knitted by the wives for their husbands. It is an East Riding corruption of Guernsey. A Gansey was normally knitted in blue and white in distinctive patterns. They served two purposes. Firstly they kept the men warm on their long fishing trips out into the frigid North Sea. Secondly they helped identify them when their bodies were washed up. After time in the water the jumper was the only identifying feature.
Fishing was one of those working class trades that was exciting, well paid, hard and exceedingly dangerous. It has largely gone now and has been industrialised, mechanised and taken over by the huge fishing companies.
I think the sculpture captures the emotions of the girl as she patiently waits for her man to return and knits him a new sweater – a Gansey Sweater.
Opher's World 