The Trials and Tribulations of Swifty Appledoe (Part Three)
May 25, 2021
By Art by Joey Vasaturo, Age 10
This is the third and final installment of Ariana Kralicek’s novella. You can read the first two installments in the April and May 2021 issues of Stone Soup
, or in its entirety online.
Chapter 17
On the way to the hospital, everything is like a jumble. It kind of feels like sorting through old books, if you know what I mean. There are the ones you love, ones you hate, and ones you can’t even remember reading.
Like now. We’re speeding along the streets, Grandma at the wheel and me yelling, “Go, go, go!”
Published:
8:42 AM December 18, 2020
Easton College lecturer William Haire introducing pupils from Queen’s Hill Primary School to some of the cattle on the college s farm via a video-link virtual visit
- Credit: Jade Lanham
Norfolk s agricultural college has begun hosting virtual farm visits to ensure primary school children don t lose countryside learning opportunities during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a normal year the farm at Easton College, outside Norwich, hosts between 50 and 100 visits from local primary schools, with each event tailored to the year group involved and to maximise links with the curriculum.
Younger ages are taught about where their food comes from, the changing seasons and animal welfare, while the work with older pupils can be more focused, such as science and maths days - but in all cases they help develop awareness of the jobs and opportunities in land-based careers.
One of the striking moments, and there were many in the two-part series, was the notion of the west of Ireland being a noisy place, full of talk and laughter and music. It was that notion that hit me most that gone were the songs and talk and the chatter. That a quietness had replaced it that to this day has still not been filled.
The Famine is the Zero Hour of Ireland’s history. It is where all roads begin and end. It is where the clock of nationhood stops and starts. Like other Year One
s or Year Zeros, the outcome was devastating and unlike any other Western nation, our population has never recovered from it.