Fluid Druids

We originally thought that this was going to be a bit of a gift feature here—it being June, the month for Summer Solstice prancing at Stonehenge and Glastonbury (Shirley Bassey, really expensive tickets and organic toilets as far as we could tell from the blurb on the internet) with would-be-druids in abundance. We were all set on doing a Cosmopolitan style quiz entitled ‘How much of a druid are you?’ with personality types ranging from ‘Merchant Banker’ to ’New-Age Guru’. However, a little late in the day we realised that many of our international readers might be put at a serious disadvantage as they wouldn’t have a clue what we were talking about. So here is the history bit: Druids were polytheists—but they also worshipped all manner of other things including oak trees. They were originally sort of Celtic (cross-border race from Northern Europe including ancient Belgians) or Greek, whichever way your divining rod happens to point to in this particular argument. One of the Greek words for oak is ‘δρυς’, but it is argued that this was imported from Celtic to Greek rather than vice versa.

Anyway, they were very, very, very old hippies—even before Joni Mitchell and the Matala Beach song (Cretan reference, albeit from the Heraklion Nomos). Another interesting fact is that real druids were never associated with Stonehenge (bunch of old stones in Wiltshire, UK, surprisingly near a not-so-secret Ministry of Defence rifle range) and that the Stonehenge = Druid myth arose out of a 16th century revivalist frenzy. From checking out the internet it seems that modern variants of druidism range from the ‘rather alternative perspective on reality’ to the ‘certifiably disturbing’. And, on average (or middling range of bell-shaped (trouser leg) curve for those of you who do statistics) the stuff that is out there makes our own in-house astrologer look conventional. Which leads us to….

Pink, Pink Flamingos

We just had to find room for this story, which we think is lovely. Carlos and Fernando, a gay flamingo couple from the Wildlife and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge, Gloucestershire have now become foster parents to an abandoned Greater Flamingo chick. Carlos and Fernando, a pair that have been together for about six years, were apparently so desperate to raise a baby that they took to stealing eggs. Staff at the trust were struck by the pair’s incubation and hatching skills, and when a nest was abandoned last month, decided to give the pair the opportunity to have the family they seemed to want so badly. Initial reports indicate that all is going well. The newborn is being raised in a crèche along with 15 other chicks, and is being carefully tended for by the proud parents.