Life of an outsider

Caught on the inside, looking out

I realised that come 5 September I will have lived in the UK permanently for 27 years, basically all of my adult life. My memories of the US are stuck back in the Reagan era, pre-internet. Yes I have visited family and friends since moving over here but I haven't live there. I have lived in the North East. And yet every so often, someone says to me -- you are not from around here.
My accent is somewhere over the mid Atlantic, so I don't sound like a Geordie or even posh Northumbrian. To someone who isn't British, I sound British. To someone who is, they can hear the American. In that sense, I am not from around here, but the statement still galls.
I have lived in this house for 19 years. Small saplings have grown into trees. I had all my grown children at the local hospital when it still had a functioning maternity ward. I can even remember when they had a pediatric  ward.  I can even remember the Hexham Mart and when where Tescos at Hexham is now was just a small nursery (we still have the green plastic watering can I bought there). My children were all locally educated.
And yet, when people say things like you are not from around here, I nod my head and inwardly cringe. Because deep in my heart  I worry...maybe I don't belong. This is nonsense of course. I do. And to be fair, I have had friends who were from Devon who have had the same treatment -- of you are not from the North East. Some people are just insularly rude.
But I am American. I have just the one passport. I still celebrate American holidays and love lots about America -- even if at the moment I have no intention of going back there to live. I am part of the 8 million migrants who now reside in the UK. I am here legally. My husband and I jumped through many hoops 27 years ago to get me my visa and right to reside here permanently. I do believe migration should be managed and have little time  for illegal migration. I like to think I made and continue to make a contribution to the local area.
Maybe I just like the life of an outsider. I am not sure but what I am sure of  is that I am not going apologise for it any more.

Duckling update

The yellow duckling is fine and well. It is going into pin -- i.e. its feathers are starting to come in. It appears no worse for the ordeal.

The tiny reed pool has been filled as ducklings tend to be dumb about such things. I do think mother ducks can be very harassed with the silly things that ducklings get up to.

The bird flu is far to the south of us. Very worrying for those involved and I see once again, they are attempting to blame wild birds. The strain involved was last detected on the German/Czech border in the summer, very probably early August. The incubation period for the disease is 3-6 days. Birds who are infected tend not to migrate. The time scale is awfully long for the disease to be within the wild bird population and to be unnoticed. Also one would need to look at patterns of migration and investigate if birds from the area routinely turn up in Norfolk/Suffolk. The wildlife reserve next to the farm had not noticed any problem prior to this outbreak. Bird wardens do tend to be vigilant.
In short it is far too facile to blame wild birds and they need to investigate all the options. It sounds far more like infected meat/poultry feed. In other words, somewhere, corners were cut. The last outbreak in February was probably caused by imported turkey meat.
Anyway, hopefully the outbreak can be contained relatively quickly. And I would point out that the H5N1 despite the dire predictions of several years ago has yet to mutate and there is no evidence of human to human passing of the virus.

The revisions continue and I feel better about them. The book will be good.