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Child abuse survivors strike back: A reflection on Reflections UK

Jenny tomlin: one of three organisers of the new Reflections  group

Jenny tomlin: one of three organisers of the new Reflections group

Yesterday in a community hall in Loughborough a new group  calling itself Reflections UK representing survivors of child abuse  across the UK was born.

It has arisen because many survivors – at first buoyed up by the creation of the over arching child sex abuse independent panel – have been knocked down by its replacement body, the statutory Lowell Goddard inquiry. While there was a populist demand for a statutory inquiry – many don’t seem to have realised that the price of that was to exclude survivors from sitting on it.

There has now been a strong backlash from survivors who believe their voices  have been excluded and they have decided to do something about it. Yesterday’s meeting was the start.

It is a powerful 21st century response to a government trying to find a traditionally 20th century solution to a very, very serious issue. The Goddard inquiry is a classic way governments try to solve problems – appoint an eminent judge, bring in a bevy of QC’s, hold hearings, make recommendations and spend a lot of money on an inquiry to sort it. The great and the good solve it all for the great unwashed who are eternally grateful.

Reflections UK is a 21st century response to this – made possible through instant communication on Facebook and Twitter – and expecting the survivors to be treated as equal partners. And they are not going to keep quiet and nor are they going to have their very emotive, raw and angry response to what happened to them filtered by the Whitehall bureaucracy. And in the 21st century they have the medium and the power – through the internet – to do it.

Perhaps the most telling example was the treatment of Jenny Tomlin, one of the organisers of the meeting. ( Local blog followers should know she lives in nearby Tring), She is a survivor of sexual abuse and a successful author ( see her book list on Amazon). As she told the meeting ” the great and the good” (not her words) asked her to apply to sit on their advisory group. But when she received the form it was more interested in  academic qualifications than raw experience and direct personal knowledge so she was rejected. How very last century!

The meeting itself drew a very strong cast of speakers. it was opened by Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, who made it very, very clear that she was there as the MP for Loughborough and not as a Cabinet minister. She also refused any media interviews and managed to make a speech without commenting on child sex abuse. But at least she turned up.

Speaker Jess Phillips,MP, a " big gob" for child abuse survivors? Pic Credit: Twitter

Speaker Jess Phillips,MP, a ” big gob” for child abuse survivors?
Pic Credit: Twitter

More interesting was newly elected MP, Jess Phillips.Labour, Birmingham,Yardley, who defeated Liberal Democrat John Hemming in the last election.

She didn’t hold back. As a Victims Champion for Birmingham, a person who had worked with a charity handling domestic abuse -she was well aware of the issue.

She is already making waves in Westminster as an MP. As she says in this article in Total Politics she has ” too big a gob” to shut up. And she certainly went down well at the meeting saying ” My mother told me you  only go for power to give it away” and promised to take an active role in raising cases.Indeed before she had left she had already taken some up.

Other key speakers included a GP Dr Sanjay Panwar; Graham Wilmer ( an ex panel member); Survivor Esther Baker, an Iman Muhammed Al-Hussaini  and a lawyer Nigel Thompson who pointed out how Lowell Goddard has already signed a contract promising to keep secret some of the information she may receive in her role as inquiry chair -presumably from the security services.

The most devastating personal contribution – to my mind – came from Diane House from Loughborough. She told a very familiar tale and illustrated it by going silent in the middle of her contribution. It had all the familiar ingredients of a tale from a person who had been sexually abused by seven different people. Family not believing her, friends calling her a slag, police lacking empathy and even today given a very low priority to investigating her case – which unlike some – did not include any VIPs just nasty human beings.

What was clear from this meeting organised by Phil Lafferty is that out there is a very large group of angry, frustrated people who are determined not to be ignored by the authorities and will make their views known. Lowell Goddard ignores them at her peril because they have the power in the 21st century to tell their stories which would have been denied them in the last century.

When a short sharp shock policy turns into mass sexual and physical abuse

While attention has been focused on a Westminster paedophile ring an extraordinary police investigation into a now closed young offenders institution in Durham is revealing the mass abuse of inmates.

No fewer than nearly 900 people  have come forward alleging physical and sexual abuse  at Medomsley young offenders institution in Durham  dating back to 1970s and 1980s  a decade or so after a trial did convict two people of 2003.

The investigation was triggered after former prison officer Neville Husband was jailed for eight years for abusing five youths.Others coming forward and he was subsequently jailed for a further two years for other attacks.He died in 2010, after being released from prison.

His former colleague Leslie Johnson, who was jailed for six years in 2005 for sexual offences, has also since died.

But now I gather Durham Police  have traced 24 other people involved in the abuse – six of them have also since died – but  up to 18 people could well be charged – if the Crown Prosecution Service agrees they should face justice.

The abuse not only took place inside the closed institution but I gather inmates were taken off the premises across Durham to be physically and sexually abused.

If the case goes ahead it will be the largest number of people ever abused in one institution. There is also an interesting cross reference to Neville Husband’s previous job at Portland prison in Dorset..It is worth reading a blog by Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform here linking issues at the two penal institutions.

Before  reporting restrictions severely limit what can be said – one common factor is emerging – many of the people who were abused at a time when the Thatcher government was enthusiastically pursuing under William Whitelaw the ” short sharp shock ” policy – a tough regime for petty offenders aimed at making them go straight.

I am sure Willie Whitelaw and Margaret Thatcher did not intend to promote sexual and physical abuse of young offenders – but what does appear to have happened is that the policy in this one institution became a licence for this  type of abuse.

In some sense the historic disclosures resonate with today’s government’s punitive views -pursued particularly by Chris Grayling, the current justice secretary- whether it is banning access to books for prisoners or the record suicides among young people in prisons.

If people are treated like dirt by politicians and are seen by society to be worthless – then those in charge of them might well be tempted to abuse them because it doesn’t matter what happens to them. Given Chris Grayling unlike Theresa May, the home secretary,is on record to a member of the public that he thinks having an inquiry into sexual abuse is  “a waste of money” one wonders whether there are current Medomsley’s in the present system.

Child Sex Abuse: Failings in the Peter Wanless and Richard Whittam Review

Peter Wanless: Some failings in his inquiry PicCredit:

Peter Wanless: Some failings in his inquiry
Pic Credit:

Yesterday Theresa May, the home secretary was rightly called before Parliament by her shadow Yvette Cooper, to answer questions about the findings of the Wanless and Whittam Review into the missing dossier naming VIP paedophiles given to her predecessor, Leon Brittan by the late Geoffrey Dickens MP. If Yvette hadn’t done it, Tessa Munt, one of the” magnificent  seven” MPs who called for an overarching inquiry was already planning to do so.

The report with its 12 annexes was rushed out at 11.30 am leaving MPs of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee precious little time to digest it before questioning both authors in a session truncated because of the timing of May’s statement. No wonder Keith Vaz, its chairman, might have been a bit tetchy during May’s statement.

In conducting a meticulous search inside the Home Office  both  Wanless and Whittam did a thorough job – as far as they could – to try and find any references to  what appears to be a long destroyed document. They also exposed the chaotic state of the Home Office’s record keeping and if you look at the annexes to the report shed a little more light on other cases.

So far so good. They then seem to have asked other Whitehall organisations to conduct a search on their behalf but as Zac Goldsmith, the MP for Richmond, quizzed her over the failure to find anything at the old Director of Public Prosecutions, where the dossier was sent, still left a question in this area whether the work had been thorough.

They also seem to have spent some time chasing officials who held documents at the time they have been destroyed in  the hope that they might get them. This is important – even though their report is sceptical about it – because in one of my investigations for Exaro  official documents have turned up because someone kept them in their attic.

They also questioned the Home Office whistleblower who came forward to Tom Watson MP with his fears that a senior civil servant,Clifford Hindley, may have been involved in the funding of the notorious Paedophile Information Exchange.

But where they failed – and this was taken up by Steve McCabe, Labour’s shadow social services minister, – was in pursuing civil servants who were around at the time. The lame response from Theresa to appeal to people to come forward was not good enough.

Wanless and Whittam would have seen a lot of documents with civil servants’ names on them because of the way Whitehall has a distribution list for almost every document.Some may be dead, most will have retired.

But they missed an opportunity to be proactive and chase them up. For they must be accessible. They will all be on final salary pensions paid out by Whitehall. It would not be too difficult, to contact the semi privatised agency and get their names and addresses and ring them up. They might be a little outraged about their personal data being accessed – but this is an official inquiry to get to the facts. People do talk to each other – and also someone at the DPP at the time also got that dossier who may not want to disturb a pleasant retirement going on cruises and playing golf.

The result is that we have unsatisfactory verdict of ” not proven ” from this investigation which takes us little further than the Home Office’s original findings.

To get to the truth over child sexual abuse we are going to need a lot of lateral thinking and a sceptical investigative state of mind to prise out information. I hope the overarching child abuse inquiry takes this on board and treats the Wanless review with some forensic scepticism.

The net begins to close on the Westminster paedophile ring

As the child  sex abuse inquiry starts to take soundings from survivors a very serious development has happened for those who hoped to keep the Westminster paedophile ring dead and buried forever.

A brave survivor who has never talked to the police decided to take his courage in his hands and talk to the Met about his horrendous experiences in Dolphin Square where sexual abuse of young boys is alleged to have been combined with sadistic practices.

The survivor who has been given the name ” Nick” to protect his identity. The full story by my colleagues on Exaro was published last weekend in both the Sunday People. You can both read it in full and hear an interview with  him by editor Mark Watts  and my colleague Mark Conrad on the Exaro website.

Suffice to say they have been rumours of dark events at Dolphin Square, used for years as London flats for MPs of all parties but no one has ever testified to the police on what they alleged had happened to them.

He told Exaro that officers “are very serious” about investigating his allegations that two former Conservative MPs – including an ex-cabinet minister – and other VIPs sexually abused him as a boy at Dolphin Square and other locations.

Nick told of how the two well-known politicians raped and physically beat him after he was forced to drink alcohol. He recalled that he was taken to Dolphin Square around 10 times, from the age 11, over a period of two to three years either side of 1980.

Interestingly he also recognised the address that used to be Elm Guest House in Barnes – where the criminal investigation Operation Fernbridge began- as he place where other boys were dropped off – even though he was never abused there. This suggests there is a connection between the notorious guest house and Dolphin Square.

He is not the only person who has made allegations to Exaro about Dolphin Square but there are also other boys who must still be alive today who may also know  what happened to them there.

Given that there is now an inquiry with a remit to look at how well police investigations are conducted it is to be hoped that this time the Met will be given the time and resources to thoroughly investigate the matter. Just as Theresa May, the home secretary, has described the child abuse inquiry as a ” once in a generation ” opportunity to lay this matters to rest it is to be hoped that senior people in the Met will take their cue from her and decide they have a ” once in a generation ” opportunity to investigate  and clear up a matter that has been the subject of Westminster rumour and speculation for decades.


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in the valley of words

Writing-wise 2015 turned out better than I thought. There were plenty of misses where the goal exceeded my reach, but there was strong progress too. So here’s my 2015 Accomplishments and my 2016 Writing Agenda.

2015 Accomplishments

  • Two short stories accepted for publication
  • Completed Dust, short story
  • Completed  Werewolf, Zombies, Sunrise, short story
  • Revised A Useful Blind, mystery short story
  • 10 short fiction submissions (far more than I’ve ever done in a year)
  • Wrote 20,000 words in 1st quarter (50,000 for the year)
  • Revised The Obelisk, short story
  • 52 penpanther posts
  • Began writing The Bone Box

Altogether I wrote more than in previous years and submitted more, and there was less wailing and flailing about–a good year.

2016 Writing Agenda

1st Quarter – January – March

  • Write Discovery Draft of Writing Emotion, creative writing e-book. Deadline: Jan. 31
  • Revise Runaway Heart. Deadline: Jan. 31
  • Finish writing Runaway Heart: Deadline: March 31
  • A Fall of Diamonds – write 2000 words a month minimum. (Draft at 9,817 words)

2nd Quarter – April – June

  • Order cover – Runaway Heart
  • Runaway Heart – Publication date: May 31
  • A Fall of Diamonds – 2000 words a month minimum

3rd Quarter – July – September

  • Finish Discovery Draft of The Bone Box . Deadline: July 31
  • Outline The Serene Widow
  • Writing start date – The Serene Widow: August 1, 2016. Deadline: September 30
  • A Fall of Diamonds – 2000 words a month minimum

4th Quarter – October – December

  • Plan NANO book – October 1 – 31
  • Write Discovery Draft of NANO book – November 1 – 31
  • A Fall of Diamonds – 2000 words a month minimum to finish December 31

I’ve allowed for thinking, research, shiny objects, and  downtime. I’m going to work hard to hit my quarterly goals.

april progress

LaBacchante.Gerome   A bright and sunny Sunday outside, makes yesterday’s trouble with Shadow Walk seem minuscule, but still, after a week of wrestling with the story, I’m feeling frazzled and anxious. It’s the last day of Grand Prix weekend, could hear the furious buzz of racing cars from Shoreline all day yesterday. April’s progress so far . . .

  • Finished Dust, short story, draft was 8014 words, edited final 5743
  • Finished Werewolf, Zombies, Sunrise, short story, 1311 words.
  • April 5, attended Literary Orange Conference, Irvine. Excellent conference. Really enjoyed the “Modern Ficton” panel. Emily St. John Mandel was the morning speaker. Bought her book, Station Eleven, and got her autograph too. The afternoon speaker was Annabelle Gurwitch, actress, activist, and comedic writer.
  • Shadow, horror short story, published in The Horror Zine Summer Edition.
  • Revising and editing Shadow Walk, horror novella, at 28,152 words, (wrote 4,747 words this month so far)
  • April 15 – 17. Attended online IndieReCon 2015. My first time; great conference for independent publishing. Took pages and pages of notes from the many video seminars, learned much, saved a number of seminar blog posts too. Recommend it. Also, discovered writer Roz Morris
  • Started a new short story, working title, Brenda. Wrote 581 words.
  • Romancing the Night, vampire romance novel for April Camp Nano, stalled at 8049 words. Don’t think I’ll make it this time.
  • Prepared A Terrible Thing, horror short story, for submission. Second time.
  • Posted 7 blogs

Total words for April so far:  46,756.

Indelible Beats: An Abishag’s Second Mystery

Indelible Beats

In Michelle Knowlden’s Indelible Beats, the second Abishag  mystery, intrepid romantic rationalist, Leslie Greene, finds herself entangled in the secretive doings of betrayal, fraud, and murder when she becomes an Abishag wife to the reclusive and misunderstood artist Jordan Ippel. Leslie realizes she’s not connecting with Jordan Ippel with the same affection she had for her first comatose husband and she struggles to understand what she’s learned about him. Leslie’s friends, Cat and Dog, are back and, surprise, Sebastian Crowder, from Sinking Ships, shows up too. I like Sebastian. I do not like Donovan Reid, Leslie’s arrogant and condescending boyfriend. He is neither a prince nor charming. But I digress. Indelible Beats, an Abishag’s Second Mystery, is another winning entry in the Abishag series. Enjoy!

Sinking Ships

Sinking Ships Cover with Eric's picture

Unusual characters combined with unusual ideas are a hallmark of noted mystery writer Michelle Knowlden. Sinking Ships is no exception to her talent. From the first page, I was hooked. Needing money to continue her education, Leslie Greene becomes an Abishag wife, a young woman whose job is to provide therapeutic comfort to comatose men in a temporary marriage that ends when the man dies. A unique and fascinating idea, and Miss Knowlden does it justice in a story with surprising twists and turns. Leslie is a courageous young woman determined to do her absolute best despite the prejudicial attitudes she encounters. Arriving at the home of her new husband, Thomas Crowder, Leslie finds the body of Hillary, Thomas Crowder’s niece, dead on the kitchen floor. With an eye to the care and comfort of her comatose husband, Leslie sets about solving the woman’s murder. Blackmail, an old secret, and a tragic shipwreck combine to make Sinking Ships a fascinating and well-written mystery. This is the first in a series of Abishag mysteries and, having read the excerpt included at the end for the next one, Indelible Beats,  I am eager for it. Not to be missed!

where i live

While cleaning the kitchen, the thought crossed my mind: in my home, where do I live? What spaces do I actually inhabit in the complete sense of the word? Turns out it’s the living room and my writing office.

I’m either on the couch writing, reading, or watching cable or a movie dvd or I’m at my writing desk. These two places are where I spend most of my daily hours. We all have our favorite spaces and probably don’t realize or think about the amount of time we spend in them. Some people can always be found cruising through the hours in their living room, or bedroom, kitchen, game room, or home office. And what do you do in these favorite spaces? Your favorite activities, of course. Mine are writing, reading, or watching.

Yesterday had a good meeting with my writing buddy, a productive day. And this morning I spent time creating a cover for my sword and sorcery tale which I plan to publish as a Kindle Single. I’ve got one more of those to do for another short story. Today is all writing desk time.

And, after a long time thinking about it, I’ve published a print edition of Grave Shadows, with a new cover and available at Amazon (Reviews are welcome!)  and at my CreateSpace page.

Happy writing, d:)!

omg it’s october!

Trick or Treat, Tim Burton

October 1st! Summer’s long fingers grip the season still–not that I’m complaining; I like hot weather. But I know many people are longing for Fall’s cooler weather.

The cosmic clock has ticked-tocked its way to NANO prep time. I wasn’t sure I’d do NANO this year, felt like I needed a break from the annual pressure of November, but an idea jumped up and waved at me and now I’ve decided I will write another 50,000-word draft in one of my favorite subgenres: Sword & Sorcery. Not much of it around anymore, but I’ve always loved sword & sorcery, so yeah y’know I’ll be writing one for the love of it!

I’ll have to carve out some time this month to prep for NANO and continue making progress with Shadow Walk. My worry was taking two months away from SW, especially since I want to finish it by December 31st, but I think I can do it, despite my long commute and full-time job.

I’m not sure yet what I’m going to write in November. I’m kicking over a couple of ideas–a sword and sorcery anthology? a sword and sorcery novel? a sword and sorcery novella or two plus short stories? Tonight, to kick off the start of prep, I’m going to take an hour and brainstorm.

Saturday I attended an excellent seminar on ebook publishing given by James Scott Bell at The Writer’s Store in Burbank. First time visiting the place–small town feel, tucked against foliage-covered foothills, hot as the Mojave that day. It was a long drive for me, but well worth it. Looks like he’s giving it again at Writer’s Digest Conference, West in Hollywood in October. If you’re interested in Creating A Career Out of Ebooks and you plan to attend the conference, his ebook seminar is a go-to in my opinion.

Sunday was devoted to Shadow Walk, in the trenches working out Act 3 and the Five Point Finale. Got 6 new scenes to write, mostly in Act 2. I’m kind of afraid about the Act 3 scenes. All I want to do is finish, let it set still for a couple weeks, and then dance it around somemore.

Happy writing, d:)

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An expo for every interest

Each year the DECC hosts many expos, including the Home & Builders Show, Duluth Women’s Expo and Essentia Health & Fitness Expo. In between the annual expos, there are new and unique events always being hosted throughout the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.

Check out the upcoming expositions that are heading to Duluth.

Upcoming Events


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Danny Lyon films on DVD

The complete films are now available on DVD for purchase with Pay Pal. Most are $29. Institutional purchase is $100. Scenes from each film are now live at bleakbeauty  http://www.bleakbeauty.com/film.html

Juan’s Children Stay in Amerika

It is not often that we awake to good news from our government. Like Lincoln with the Emancipation Proclamation, President Obama has given protection from deportation to a million young immigrants inside our borders, most of them Mexicans. And he did it from within a government, that other than killing people and collecting taxes, hasn’t … Continue reading

Juan Goes Home

Reading the opening of Jean Paul Sartre’s Anti-Semite and Jew, he argues that Anti-Semitism (dislike of, avoidance of, negative table talk about, hatred of, and extermination of Jews – he wrote this in 1947) was a Passion, not an Opinion. An Opinion is “You can’t trust Jews”, “They didn’t serve France in enough numbers in … Continue reading


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2/19/17 – Precurs

before i officially [as i see it now] launched my solo career, i did a noise-and-spoken-word project during much of 2009 and released it on vulpiano records feb 19, 2010. one track has always stuck out for me from that project, a duet with Carahanni, “precurs” . i decided to resurrect and do a solo only version of this weird little track in honor of the project turning 7, as well as “remixing” the original photos i took for the artwork of lichen mimicking a circuit board. and happy to say after all this years i can still call vulpiano home.

1/19/17 – Forest People Pop / new interview

i am happy to announce i have a new record, Forest People Pop, due out later this year

for now please find an on-topic interview with Stray Landings, plus gushing intro
(“years of pushing his vocals into groundbreaking new territory”)

there will be much more to share very soon

12/25/16 – mirai no hana bushi : future flower samurai

offering flowers for 2017 & beyond
floral futurism & technofeminism are the answer

this track features a micro edit of rapper savedthehills
expect more from us in the next year
as well as a new album of mine

in these insane dark times
can we all please find beauty and light
as well as the highest clearest path outward
from the deepest layers of our bodies

12/5/16 – Thai Focus Mix for Frequency Asia

banyen rakkayen / lam phloen kaem poen woen
thai acapella song / youtube
rebel musical / sunset at chaophraya
sublime freq / rao rao
surang duriyaphan / khaek mon bang chang, 2nd tempo level
robert millis / blind street singer, thailand
sublime freq / chiwit sao molam
jah wobble / lam tang way (female vocal)
banyen rakkayen / lam phloen saraphat toei
khana sak sinlapin / tonchap klong yao
derek piotr / sunup
lullaby to elephant / youtube
p.m. pocket music / kack toi mor
chimbuck murung / piece for plung orchestra VS kit clayton / live on shortwave radio

9/24/16 – The Shallows Variations

dear listeners, a very special announcement:
i have been working with bernhard günter on relaunching the trente oiseaux label
the first wave of releases for the relaunch includes an EP of remixes we worked on together
based on my Drono track “Shallows”
you can listen to and buy the release here:

9/5/16 – Homelands
Homelands is a piece I worked on with Nick
the audio is a left-over of Drono
please click HD to watch the video!!

8/15/16 – Mix for Frequency Asia

salawat dulang / tanggak (derek piotr edit) VS tent builder bitch stero / buffalo bitch wave
derek piotr / timelapse outro VS steve roden / airforms
onang onang / rahar paluta (haroan boru)
sublime freq / bao zoo 2 VS pita / fvo
derek piotr / tonic intro
baka forest people / venolouma VS agf / humain
orkès gambus al-hidayah / cari hiburan VS steinbrüchel / momentan def rmx
cô năm cần thơ / hỡi trời cao – xàng xế
ten ten / shinano oiwake 信濃追分
music of indonesia / gandrung bulo (bamboo drums) VS richard chartier / interior field
derek piotr / bhadrakali

8/1/16 – Split with Samsara Portal Holistik

dear listeners
I am happy to announce a small release on an Indonesian label
Tandem Tapes approached me to work on a split release with one of their artists
I thought it would be a good opportunity to shine light on the star player of Drono, “Wash”.

the word ’drono’ is Malagasy for wash
so “Wash” is the centerpiece and quasi-title-track to the record
the version I did for tandem is a bamboo mix

lately I am preoccupied with making beats and textures out of bamboo recordings
I am really happy to be able to tell this different story of the piece and push it from techno-drone territory into fullon rhythmic hypnosis…with some hidden gamelan
hope you enjoy:

7/15/16 – things compilation

things. things. loose things, strange things, forgotten things. uncritical & bandcamp-only release of #voicenoise scraps, remixes, commissions, etc. feat terminal 11, agf, glass owl…

6/20/16 – Zap! Bang! interview

Zap! Bang! Magazine spoke to me about Drono, production process, and my work in general
you can read the interview here

6/10/16 – Drono released

2016-05-27 18_18_01

Drono releases today

BUY: LINEiTunesBleepBoomkat

endless gratitude and wonderment to my collaborators
and especially to all listeners:
thanks for listening my crazy dusty music

5/23/16 – Wash

Wash. wash wash wash
“Drono” = Malagasy for wash
this is the centerpiece track, hypnotic sub, lowercase #voicenoise
listen deep, late at night, good headphones, near sleep
macbook speakers in the forest work too

news archive


text:
What Matters Most Booklet

by Lucile Johnson

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eBook SKU 5157448

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Product Description

“You never know when you will make a memory that will linger for years.” —Lucile Johnson

Have you ever met someone who made you feel good just by being in their presence, who gave you encouragement or just made you smile by what they said? Popular speaker and author Lucile Johnson had that kind of effect on thousands of people all around the world. In this celebration of a lifetime of profound work from this dear sister, you’ll experience heartwarming firsthand accounts of lessons learned and wisdom taught. Given as a gift or kept for yourself, this booklet, filled with simple words of hope will make you laugh, cry, and remember what matters most.

About the Author

Lucile Johnson

Lucile Short Johnson has addressed thousands of people over the years--the majority of them women--and has touched their lives and hearts. She and her husband live in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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Topre Corporation

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Topre Corporation
Type Corporation
Founded April 30, 1935
Headquarters Tokyo, Japan
Employees 2,302

Topre is a Japanese engineering company that makes pressing parts, air conditioning equipment, computer parts and various other electronic and electro-mechanical devices. Topre is known among mechanical keyboard enthusiasts for its development of the Topre capacitive switch. This switch is found on many keyboards (mainly Japanese-made) including the Topre-made Realforce and the HHKB Professional made by PFU. Topre started making keyboards in 1983[1]

An illustration of the first ever Topre capacitive keyboard prototype can be seen on page 202 of Hyakkei PC (パソコン百景) monthly Vol.27, dated February, 2003[2]

  1. Internet Archive: Wayback Machine - Snapshot of article on Topre keyboards
  2. Hyakkei PC monthly, Vol.27 excerpt - Realforce 106 article


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A Beginner’s Guide to Nettles

The New Zealand Red Admiral Butterfly, (Bassaris gonerilla or kahukura), is endemic to New Zealand, which means it is not found naturally anywhere else in the world. In 1928 the Red Admiral butterfly was described as “very common”, but it would probably not be described that way today. A number of reasons have been suggested for its decline such as the parasite wasps Echthromorpha intricatoria that came here from Australia in the 1900s, and Pteromalus puparum, which was deliberately introduced in 1933 to control the Cabbage White Butterfly.

Another possible reason is a reduction in the availability of their food plants. The preferred food plant of the Red Admiral caterpillar is Urtica ferox (ongaonga or tree nettle). The caterpillars also feed on other nettles such as Urtica incisa (scrub nettle), Urtica aspera and Urtica urens (Dwarf Nettle).

The Nettle family are also host plants for the Yellow Admiral caterpillars. There are many kinds of Nettles, with Wikipedia estimating 30-45 species, although not every plant with nettle in the name is from the nettle family, Urtica. Nettles have a long history in folklore, with a lot of myths surrounding them as well as a confusing variety of different names for each species. So for example Urtica dioica has also been referred to as U. breweri, U. californica, U. cardiophylla, U. lyalli, U. major, U. procera, U. serra, U. strigosissima, U. trachycarpa, and U. viridis. It is most often called common nettle or stinging nettle, but also goes by the names tall nettle, slender nettle, California nettle, jaggy nettle, burning weed, fire weed and is one of the three different kinds of plant known as bull nettle.

So the following is intended to be a helpful introduction, not an exhaustive list!

Urtica dioica
Also known as Common nettle or stinging nettle. It is a native of Europe, Asia, North America, and North Africa. It is a Perennial growing 1 to 2 m high, with leaves 3 to 15 cm long. wikipedia.org, New Zealand Flora

Urtica urens
Also known as Dwarf Nettle. It is a native of Europe and North America. It is an annual growing about ½ m high, with leaves up to 8cm long. wikipedia.org, New Zealand Flora

Urtica ferox
Also known as Ongaonga or tree nettle. It is endemic to New Zealand. It is a perennial growing up to 5m high. Ferox is Latin for ‘fierce’ and a hunter once died after pushing through a dense patch of it. wikipedia.org, http://www.nzpcn.org.nz, Oratia Native Plant Nursery, Flora of New Zealand

Urtica incisa
Also known as Pureora or scrub nettle. It is native to New Zealand and SE Australia. Height variously reported between 40cm and 2m. Leaves 5-12 cm. Likes shade or mild sun and a sheltered spot. wikipedia.org, nzpcn.org.nz, Oratia Native Plant Nursery, nzpcn.org.nz, Flora of New Zealand

Urtica australis
Also known as Southern nettle. Native to Chatham and Stewart Islands. It grows up to 1m tall with dark green leaves, 10-15 cm by 8-14cm. nzpcn.org.nz, Oratia Native Plant Nursery, Flora of New Zealand

Urtica aspera
This is an uncommon nettle from the South Island. It grows to ½ m high with leaves 2-4cm long. It prefers dry and shady conditions. nzpcn.org.nz, Flora of New Zealand

Parietaria debilis
(Occasionally referred to as Urtica debilis) Also known as New Zealand pellitory although it is found throughout the Southern Hemisphere. A spreading annual plant forming patches up to 50cm diameter. It has the advantage over other Admiral host plants of not having a sting, however its small leaves make it less than ideal. wikipedia.org, nzpcn.org.nz, Oratia Native Plant Nursery, Flora of New Zealand

Children and Nettles

Unfortunately Nettles are listed in “Safety in pre-school centres: plants to avoid” (http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/42014/preschool.pdf) so simply planting them in your children’s butterfly garden is a no-no if you are a pre-school. However there are still a number of options for making Red and Yellow admirals part of a butterfly garden for children.

The easiest option is stick to the stingless Parietaria debilis and accept that it will not be able to support many caterpillars. Another option would be to plant the nettles behind a fence or barrier so the children can see them but can’t touch. Alternatively grow the nettles in hanging baskets out of their reach. Perhaps combine those options by placing Parietaria debilis where they can have a close look, but have the main supply of nettles elsewhere. For a butterfly garden in a home another option is to accept that a nettle sting is something they will get over, and they will treat nettles with more caution in future.

Phenology and parasitism of the red admiral butterfly Bassaris gonerilla. New Zealand Journal of Ecology (2004) 28(1): 105-111, downloaded from http://www.nzes.org.nz/nzje/free_issues/NZJEcol28_1_105.pdf

Moore, L.B.; Edgar, E. (1970) Flora of New Zealand. First electronic edition, Landcare Research, June 2004. Transcr. A.D. Wilton and I.M.L. Andres. http://FloraSeries.LandcareResearch.co.nz