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Your ballet class sounds like a special tribe. Tribes are important in life.

The Storyteller of Casablanca sounds interesting. I love when an author uses different time lines. Thx for recommend.

My mom loved All Creatures… Hubby and I may have to indulge in PBS streaming service. There are many shows she recommends that are on PBS. BBC for the rest of the world?

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CK, do watch it. It's really something special and the production values on all levels are spectacular.

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Dec 9, 2023Liked by prue batten

Absolutely wonderful. Yet again. I adore the tribes (that I am part of) that are forming on Substack - like-minded individuals given an opportunity to connect, share and appreciate. So beautiful.

I adore those little hearts you’re making! So beautiful! So special. And Hugh Grant! Hahahaha. Love it.

Thanks so much dear Prue. Enjoy that perfect weather while it lasts. Surprisingly hot and steamy up my way after a massive thunderstorm last night. Sending heaps of hugs and best wishes.

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You're very sweet, Beth.

We're in for a hottish week next week, apparently, so I hope to get back to the coast after the ballet lunch to enjoy the beach with my little grandson. I read that the mainland and especially WA has been scorching! We don't do scorch too well in Tasmania. Just 24's and a seabreeze will do me fine. Take care.

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Dec 9, 2023Liked by prue batten

love being part of your online tribe, still tweaking my real life ones,

I haven't made any of those hearts in such a long time, i must drag my basket out and make some. Do you cut your own hearts or buy them precut? I think I stopped because the cutting out bit wasn't fun and my need for them to be perfect (sigh) turned me off. I think I need to go back to precut shapes

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It's so lovely to have you here, Kate - I suspect you're in Oz somewhere as Beth and yourself are often the first to comment which I assume means we're in the same timezones.

I don't think we ever stop tweaking tribes - circumstances change and we must adjust our lives accordingly. The hard part for me and which sends me into a bit of a spin is that I hate change and I find putting myself out there to meet new folk exceptionally hard.

Re the hearts, I buy my own felt and cut my own hearts from a 1000 hearts template. It's a quiet night of therapy for me. They aren't always perfect and I snip occasionally as I stitch so as sides match, but once I stitch them up with buttonhole stitch, it honestly doesn't show.

I've enjoyed devoting the nights to the Christmas hearts - I have a thing for Tomtes and I also have a thing for birds in gardens (my other favourite design) and so between the two, it's been a gentle time stitching. Take care. XXXX

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Dec 9, 2023Liked by prue batten

I am quite close to you Prue, NW coast of Tas, you often pop into my inbox on my saturday morning coffee and scroll time. Yes I use the 1000 hearts template too, perhaps I will spend an evening just cutting a stack of hearts ready to go.

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Oh, the beautiful NW coast - where one of my favourite places is. I have a special place in my life for Boat Harbour Beach in the winter. Empty, echoing and Bass Strait immense and grey. It's gorgeous. I also purchased the best boots ever in Wynyard!

Stitch away - it's that lovely feeling that someone somewhere who is lost, might just get something special from the hearts as they hold them. XXXX

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Dec 9, 2023Liked by prue batten

I’m about 8 min inland from Wynyard. Boat harbour beach is beautiful when it’s not full of people but far too cold for me to swim there. I grew up in Stanley so have high beach standards now. But that place has also changed a lot. My childhood was spent on the beach, climbing all over the nut or exploring high field house as it was empty then. No wonder being outside in nature is my happy place.

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You live in a beautiful part of our state.

I think your experience of Highfield would be mine of Maria Island - empty when we were children and able to roam unfettered. Such stories, so much fun.

We've never seen Boat Harbour crowded. Being winter, every single house is empty which is why we go then. We feel as if we and the Terrier are the only ones there. We haven't been for a couple of years though.

Stanley is picture perfect. Last time we were there, the chairlift was closed because of wind and I had an ankle injury and couldn't climb the Nut. Maybe next time.

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Oh. Prue - you have lifted me up today! Not so much that I was "down" but I so enjoy your writing and your approach to life. I too have this sense that all of us want to be connected and there are so many ways for that to take place. Dance has become one of my favourites this past year so I love seeing you in costume and knowing you are "living life large". I think I need to go watch that movie with Hugh Grant - we do a few of those moves in our "World Dance" group at times and it's all so much fun. And finally, I love that Bob Marley song - the beat is reminiscent of something I can't quite put my finger on but it certainly caused my toes to start tapping.

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Thank you so much, Marilyn. The Marley song certainly hits the right note about tribes when one reads the words...

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I’m in awe of you and your ballet tribe! What a wonderful way to stay fit and graceful 😊

All Creatures…I’m absolutely crazy about the show—the Yorkshire scenery, the endearing characters, the heartwarming storylines…Watching each episode, I don’t want it to end. I’m not sure what that says about my (very quiet) life but the show’s sweetness just lifts me up!

And I’m wishing you and your little Terrier all the best as you, he, and your family negotiates the new normal.

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Thanks so much Susan. I have to say that in a typical Jack Russell way, you can't keep a good terrier down - he's mostly his rambunctious self again. Sigh!

All Creatures is so perfect - I was born in the 50's and one can see whispers of 50's life, even though it's WWII and I think to myself, why can't people be as polite, as kind, as respectful now? Both my husband and I often say as we watch it - 'Wish we lived then...' But perhaps we don't really. Technical advances in farming for one thing, advances in medicine for another.

It's good to have you here - kind regards.

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Another lovely post, Prue! I'm so glad to be part of your online tribe, and to have you as a much-appreciated member of mine.

I loved reading about how you and the Terrier have been adapting to his new circumstances. That's a lovely picture.

I watched the first series of the revived 'All Creatures Great and Small' but I just cannot shake the pictures of Robert Hardy, Christopher Timothy and Peter Davison as the previous incarnations of Siegfried, James and Tristan in the previous series I had grown up with from 1978 to 1990. I felt the same about 'The Darling Buds of May' in the early 90s - David Jason and Pam Ferris ARE Pop and Ma Larkin to me (and of course a young Catherine Zeta-Jones as Mariette), and the more recent version paled in comparison!

(Perhaps I'm just a stick-in-the-mud.....) 🤣

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You know what you like, Rebecca and that's the most important thing. You stick to your guns! I was concerned they'd bastardise the theme music, but when Episode One of Series One started with amazing opening titles and the original theme just whispered through a beautiful orchestration, tears fell down my cheeks. Really!!! I'm quite hopeless - I cry at Christmas advertisements!

When I first began watching All Creatures I was, like you, so worried that the actors wouldn't gel, because I had adored that original production. I was concerned that Robert Hardy in particular would never be equalled.

But I've growing to love Samuel West in the role - he's Siegfried to a T. And to be honest, I prefer Nicholas Ralph much more than Christopher Timothy. He has a little more fire mixed in with his awkwardness. But the Yorkshire countryside evens everything out. And the trials and tribulations of weekly characters. I love both series for different reasons.

Golly, only 15 days to go till Christmas. Can you believe it? in February, I think I'll have been on Substack for 2 years!!!!! Not much to show for it except the most wonderful tribe of online friends - worth their weight in gold. XXXX

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Prue, you've pretty much convinced me to have another go at watching Messrs West et al - thank you for the encouragement!

One of the reasons that perhaps I couldn't take the first episodes very seriously is because I remember seeing a very young Samuel West in 'Prince Caspian' and 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader' when I was a child, and then when I was a teenager prone to crushes, on stage at the RSC. To see him as a rather cynical and - dare I say it? - ageing Siegfried required unprecedented effort!

Gosh, you're coming up to two years on Substack - Prue, that's really exciting! And you've got plenty to show for it, as your beautiful writing shows!

Fifteen days, though? Are you SURE? Flipping heck, I'd better get my festive skates on smartish.... 😳

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I love the idea of finding your tribe, Prue. As you know, I wrote a post about it awhile ago too, as I keep having to find new ones each time I move around. It gets harder as I get older. And/or I don't want to spend the energy, until I realise I am missing having a tribe and then I have to just get on with it. But when you do find your people, it is heaven, isn't it? That ease in the relationship is nothing short of miraculous.

Wishing you and your terrier energy to navigate his declining vision-frustrating indeed! And the Bob Marly song was/is brilliant. Had never seen the version with the animation-that was a treat! Also wishing you a peaceful week ahead!

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Thank you, Sabrina.

I'm with you on the tribe thing - my husband and I moved frequently with his career (12 houses in 15 years) and it got to the point where I couldn't be bothered looking for tribes anymore until we made our final move back here, and so I just signed up for courses that interested me and did voluntary work, but always with that sad sense of 'hiraeth' colouring my life.

Interestingly, the old tribes here didn't cut the mustard anymore - I didn't fit in because they and I had changed in the intervening 15 years and so the process began again. I don't know what it was like for you, but I didn't seek tribes out - I enrolled for embroidery and ballet classes and became involved in voluntary work and slowly little communities began to form.

Being an introvert colours everything of course, because mostly I'm happy with my own company and in any case my family lived on the island. And we brought our own little family of kids with us when we moved back. School-aged kids introduced a kind of tribe as well and one of my closest friends (a gardening friend) actually emerged from that.

And a PS: Watched Escape to the Country the other day and they returned to visit a couple on the Isle of Wight. The couple had purchased an old hotel and done it up specifically for families of autistic children. I really admired them. But as we were taken on a tour of the Isle of Wight, including on the couple's motor boat, I thought 'What a heavenly island - I could live here! I wonder where Sabrina is!' XXXX

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Agreed on having school-age children giving the opportunity to meet tribespeople. That was certainly the case for me too. Especially after my husband and I split- I learned who my people really were.

And that hotel for the Autistic families: it’s a five minute walk from our house!! Crazy coincidence. It is a lovely island-thank you for reminding me ❤️

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How incredible!

I remember watching the pre-Tour de France through the UK live a few years ago and lo, they pedalled through North Yorks and past my oldest writing friend's house! We were emailing back and forth and swore we could see he and his family waving!

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Wonderful, Prue. Sweet terrier. Sweet Prue, and her troupe of beautiful dancers. I know I'm not alone in recognizing that feeling connected is often the difference between a fulfilled and happy life and whatever else is not that. I feel so incredibly fortunate to have people who "get me" here at home, across the globe, and online, folks who are willing to tolerate my imperfections and lift me up as needed. Also, that Hugh Grant dance cracks me up every time. Very much in the same vein as this one: 😅https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBPm2Xom_y4

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Kevin Kline is FANTASTIC! Thanks so much for that link Elizabeth, I don't think I could even get that hip movement!!!!

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Dec 11, 2023Liked by prue batten

I believe we have different tribes for different seasons in our lives. I had a fierce tribe supporting me through 2 rounds of breast cancer and referred to them as my musk oxen who surrounded me at my weakest and celebrated my recovery.

I now delight in seeing all my favorite sub stack writers so frequently supporting one another with timely and uplifting comments!

A must view on Netflix...American Symphony. Jon Baptists the maestro, and the loving partner to Suleika.

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So true, Susan. Life changes, we change - and perhaps we look for different tribes because of that. I think we're fortunate to have the luxury of seeking tribes, don't you?

I'm so glad you had your musk-ox with you at that crucial time. It's support when we are at our weakest that makes a tribe worth its weight in gold.

Shall seek out American Symphony!

Thank you for joining in.

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I believe it's a natural inclination to seek out our tribe. Being with like-minded people is such a comfortable place; we're allowed to say and be who we are without fear of criticism. Of course, it's important to hear and experience what other-minded folks believe, if for no other reason than to learn another's point of view and expand our own understanding of the world.

I'm behind on my reading, but the post about your Regency Masked Ball was incredible...what a terrific idea and collaboration! To realize we can also find a tribe on the other side of the planet (thanks to the Internet) is truly wonderful.

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Hope you and your family are okay. I read your post and commented.

Yes, i think being with folk with like minds is comforting and calming and one can do it without closing oneself off from diverse opinions. Comfort and calm is all I want from life these days. I've been a bit of an environmental rebel in my time but I hung up my boots and gloves and returned to my own space - keeping the goalposts close. Keeping my life calm.

Take care and thank you so much for reading and commenting.

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