You Warm the Cockles of my Heart

Julian was distressed to see the dying cockle fields in Wales. Cockling was an industry that went way back in time. She was googling and found that:-

cockle fishing at a low intensity (thinning) may even be beneficial to enhance and rejuvenate cockle stocks. This may be due to new cockles moving into a less crowded area and / or young cockles having a better chance of survival in less crowded conditions. The Burry Inlet in south east England is regarded to have a sustainable ..........

her cut and paste cut out on her, but she got the idea. They weren't doing any harm all those years ago when they went cockling in the south of England, but now they were turning it into a commercial venture, and damage was being done along with modern pollution. Hence the dying cockle fields of Wales.

And warming the cockles of one's heart related to the heart shape of the bivalve of the creature. She remembered eating cockles with vinegar. They were delicious. And winkles. A little known black shelled wormy type of creature that would be labelled 'disgusting' by today's skin tight panted youth.

Julian was devising a 'fine dining' raw food meal. She had gone into business and was now running a raw food, detox 6 day retreat which was proving popular. Students learned all manner of wonderful things about nutrition and chemicals and the way that stuff was being manufactured to play with your head. Buy this organic, natural thing and rub it onto your body. The skin was one of our biggest organs of elimination and we were putting the toxins IN. The consequences of which were sickness on a scale previously unknown. So. Julian had put herself out there and was ready for the chopping block.

The menu was looking attractive. A glass of organic red wine sans preservatives. Tricolour sesame-cashew dumplings and sweet chile-lime sauce, Chile Rellenos, monta-raw jack "cheese", and cacao mole, conch chowder and not necessarily in that order, with a chocolate dessert to follow. And All Raw. There would be green salads and tossed tomatoes to sunburst the table.

She realised that her business acumen was lacking. Her first $120 had come in, and she was now using it to invite them to dinner.

Meanwhile, Nicholas Biko was in town for a brief sojourn from the Prague, where he liked to conduct and play piano. He was very tall with a long face and rode a bicycle in Holland, but went by foot in Australia, wherever possible, which wasn't often as Australia needed a car. Australia had captured his imagination and he had gone from putting ribbons on winning Merino sheep, which had been a 'hilarious priviledge', to eating raw food, cappuchinos and $4 salads in Bellingen, a small country town, almost coastal and always flooding, in NSW.

Nicholas had spent the evening watching a Japanese opera singer in an Anglican church hall with his new found Australian freinds. The singer was married to Wolfie, who was German, and they lived in Tokyo with a visit every year, at least once and sometimes twice, to Ursula, who could teach you to ride par excellence. Nicholas found it hard to believe that there were 'horse guru's'. "It's true," said Julian. "It's like playing the piano." Nicholas nodded.

They said their goodbye's and thanks and appreciations for the wonderful and amazing and rather incredible evening. Nicholas spoke briefly in German to Wolfie and to Ursula. Ursula, who was now in her 80's and having a smidge of trouble with her hearing aid, which she hated with a passion, didn't hear Nicholas speak German words. Julian stepped in to explain and stepped out again as Ursula now strode forth with her typical self assurance and love of speaking.

Julian was in figurative heaven as she heard these languages spoken all around, from English to Dutch to English to German to English ........ and she had no doubt that French could be incorporated.

As a girl, she had shown a natural ability with French, and German languages, when at school in England. Then she had been whipped away to New Zealand, where it had seemed a little pointless to pursue the European way of things. She ended up in Australia and her baby girl, who grew and had never been told these things, decided to go to Paris and learn French, and then to Barcelona and learn Spanish.

Life is an amazing and wonderful and interesting and incredible and marvelous and full of beauty journey.