Category Archives: ramblings

personal, ramblings

Me-meme

My friend Katy has challenged us to to do a personal meme. I take up the challenge as it will make me think about who/what I am. So the questions are:

1. If you could change one thing in your life what would it be?
2. If you could repeat any age which one would it be?
3. What really scares you?
4. If you could be someone else for a day who would you be?

Now this isn’t going to be easy! But let me try …

1. If you could change one thing in your life what would it be?
The trouble is that there are so many things I would like to be different. Would I banish my depression or my excess weight? — both of which are attractive ideas. Or would I plump for £2M in the bank to see me really comfortable for the rest of my days? — equally attractive. Or would I choose to live in a pleasanter environment (though where we are could be a whole lot worse).

Maybe I’ll just plump for having three wishes, then I could have all of the above and more!


2. If you could repeat any age which one would it be?
Oh almost certainly 1972-1976, my post-grad and post-doc years. But only so long as I could do them with the knowledge I have now! They were fun years, and probably my most formative years. I would love to be able to do my doctorate again; I could do it so much better! And similarly with the year I was a post-doc, which I largely buggered up, but which I could do so much better. I could have achieved so much more than I did in those years while still having the fun I did.

3. What really scares you?
Apart from the obvious like dying, being seriously ill and generally becoming decrepit, probably the thing which worries me most (“scare” is maybe a bit OTT) it is running out of money as we get older.

4. If you could be someone else for a day who would you be?
Can I be the Fairy Queen with a magic wand to change both the way the country is run and instill common sense into those who run it? Or maybe I should just be dictator for the day and achieve much the same effect?
But then I’d also like to be a girlie for the day, to know what it really is like from the other side; yes, both the good bits and the bad bits, though this might need more than a day. While I have no great desire to know what periods or brooding a sprog are like I feel I should know. And of course I’d love to know what good sex is like for girlies.

Or then again, in much the same vein as Katy, maybe I could just be me but without the depression, obesity, diabetes, etc. Yes, maybe I’d settle for that.

OK, so I’m not going to nominate people to do this — it’s too hard and too invidious — so if anyone wants to join in either post in the comments or on your blog with a comment to let me know.

food+drink, ramblings, topographical

British Asparagus Festival

The British Asparagus Festival in the Vale of Evesham kicks off on Tuesday 23 April and runs until 21 June.

The official start of the UK’s eight-week asparagus season launches with the Great British Asparagus Run. This celebrates the first-cut round of asparagus with all the pomp and ceremony you’d expect on Saint George’s Day. The Run traditionally begins at the National Trust’s only pub — the Vale of Evesham’s Fleece Inn. Following a morning of festivities, the newly-harvested spears are escorted by a fleet of Morgan Cars to destinations such as Parliament and Buckingham Palace.

Following the Run, Worcestershire goes asparagus crazy throughout May and June. Scores of pubs and restaurants serve asparagus-themed menus whilst shops sell an array of asparagus products ranging from sausages, jam, ice cream and even soap. Visitors to the county can hop on an Asparabus for a tour of the local growers to learn more about the venerated vegetable as well as enjoy cookery demonstrations and tastings.

Find out more on the British Asparagus Festival website at .

As I love asparagus and will only buy British, I might even have to go myself! Let’s hope it isn’t too badly affected by the last year’s awful weather.

medical, ramblings

National Stop Snoring Week

22 to 26 April is National Stop Snoring Week. This is one of the few medical awareness weeks which I am going to mention, because snoring is usually ignored but can actually be life threatening.

National Stop Snoring Week is the annual event, sponsored by the British Snoring & Sleep Apnoea Association, promoting general awareness that nobody need suffer as a result of snoring: it is a condition that can be treated.


And indeed snoring is a condition which should be treated as it is often a symptom of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea, a condition where the airways collapse during sleep preventing breathing. If untreated, sleep apnoea not only destroys restful sleep (and thus quality of life/ability to function) but can lead to heart disease and strokes. Luckily it is easily and successfully treated in 90% of diagnosed cases.

Of course snoring may have other causes and other effects. If nothing else it often disrupts the sleep of family members. And contrary to popular belief snoring is not something which affects only middle-aged and elderly men; anyone can be a snorer.

More information on National Stop Snoring Week at www.britishsnoring.co.uk/national_stop_snoring_week.php.

Transparency: Yes, I suffer from Obstructive Sleep Apnoea which is now well controlled.

arts, ramblings, words

National Stationery Week

Monday 22 to Sunday 28 April is National Stationery Week. Yes, that’s “stationery” with an “e” as in “envelope”.

The aim of National Stationery Week is to get people writing. It is a celebration of the written word and all things stationery. The idea is to get more people putting pen to paper and writing by hand more often, especially children. Oh and to get them spelling stationery correctly with an “e”!


Some would have us believe that, in this digital age, letter writing and writing by hand is dead in the water and no longer matters. But in truth technology has merely distracted us from the joy and importance of writing, it hasn’t replaced it — we still have to write note, postcards, posters and exam papers; and many still enjoy writing letters and even novels by hand. Indeed there remains something special about receiving a handwritten letter or card.


There’s a whole website devoted to National Stationery Week at nationalstationeryweek.com including a page which focuses on children and schools.

food+drink, ramblings

Great British Beef Week

Great British Beef Week runs from 21 to 27 April.

Great British Beef Week is an annual celebration of the British Beef industry. Timed to coincide with St George’s Day each year, it is supported both at a local level, with regional events, and nationally with the backing of the nation’s biggest supermarket retailers.

This year, Ladies in Beef is joining forces with the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, a charity which helps farming families in financial difficulty. Its work is funded by public donations, fundraising events and initiatives and support from businesses and community groups.

More information at www.rabi.org.uk and www.ladiesinbeef.org.uk.

food+drink, ramblings

National Bread Week

Where would we be without bread? In one form or another, bread consumed by very many people the world over, so eating it during National Bread Week (16-22 April) is something most of us will do without even thinking about it.


Whilst no-one is absolutely sure when the first bread was made, man has been eating it in some form since 10,000 BC. Certainly the ancient Egyptians were making leavened (raised) bread with yeast by 3000 BC and it is thought that the workers who built the pyramids were paid in bread. Not surprising therefore bread has earned the title “staff of life”. Indeed, for many throughout the ages, bread has been a staple of their diet and so important, that laws concerning bread have existed for hundreds of years.

The purpose of National Bread Week is to celebrate the ‘roll’ that bread plays in our daily diet. The week will help to promote the nutritional benefits of bread and raise awareness of its part in a healthy balanced diet.

Having said that if you want to find more information or events you’ll have to do some searching as there appears to be no central website — which is missing a big trick!

amusements, ramblings

5th Annual Tweed Run, London

This Saturday, 13 April, sees the 5th Annual Tweed Run through London.

It is a celebration of old fashioned values as up to 400 ladies and gentlemen cycle through central London in high fashion and on a range of antique velocipedes.

You need permission to cycle along with them – and all the tickets have been allocated. Although the exact route is not published in advance (why?) the following viewing points are suggested (times are approximate):

12:00 Marylebone High Street
12:30 Regent Street / Savile Row
13:00 Piccadilly Circus
13:30 Houses of Parliament
14:00 Trafalgar Square


More information on the Tweed Run website at http://tweedrun.com/.

ramblings

National Gardening Week

Continuing the gardening theme from National Beanpole Week, 15-21 April is designated National Gardening Week.

The benefits of gardens and gardening are felt by many millions of people every day. Gardening protects our environment, strengthens communities, helps children learn and contributes to happy, healthy lives.

Through National Gardening Week, thousands of people across the country come together to help keep Britain beautiful by sharing and celebrating everything about gardens and gardening.

National Gardening Week is run by the Royal Horticultural Society along with half a dozen major sponsors. The RHS are organising many events around this year’s themes of horticultural careers and planting for wildlife.

There’s more information on The NGW website at www.nationalgardeningweek.org.uk.

beliefs, current affairs, nudism, ramblings

Kids and Nudity

I’m getting increasingly worried about society’s attitude towards children and nudity. Both allowing kids to see adults nude and adults to see children nude.

Neither is actually a problem, but society is making it into one.

There’s an interesting opinion piece by Laura over at Catharsis under the title Why NOT Being Naked In Front Of Your Kids Is Weird:

[A] single father, recently found himself under Child Protective Services investigation after some mothers of his 6-year-old son’s friends reported him for showering with his child.

These mothers apparently think because the dad showers with his son, he’s a pedophile. NOT because the kid reported his dad touched him inappropriately or because the kid reported his dad demanded to be touched inappropriately by his son.

Simply because the dad showered with his 6-year-old son. Period.

You know what I think about that? I think that’s bullshit. And I think anyone who takes an innocent act like being naked around a child to the level of pedophilia ought to be absolutely ashamed of themselves.

There are real cases of sexual abuse out there — cases of children being seriously harmed by the adults around them. THERE ARE REAL PREDATORY ABUSERS OUT THERE SCARRING CHILDREN PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY. Simply because a parent is naked in front of his children does NOT make him an abuser, and threatening a parent’s custody of his child with no evidence of such activity is both negligent and irresponsible.

(Emphasis in the original.)

Which, of course, is absolutely right.

OK, so that’s in America. But we’re very little different in this country.

I am concerned at the vilification of artist Graham Ovenden for his portrayal of naked children. OK, Ovenden has recently been convicted of inappropriate conduct with some girls many, many years ago. I don’t know how much abuse, if any, really did occur; I wasn’t there at the time, I wasn’t at the trial and I haven’t seen the evidence only some of the press reports. But the very fact that an artist can be pilloried in the way he has, so long after the event, and when he appears to have taken care that children he was drawing/painting were chaperoned, is deeply worrying. The fact that the charges relate to events 30-40 years ago, and in large part it seems to be the girls’ word against Ovenden’s, smacks of trumped up complaints and something which probably should never have got to court. Although as I say I’ve not followed the details closely, so I may be wrong. But it has been enough to set my alarm bells ringing.

That’s not to condone paedophilia; far from it. As Laura says (above) there are predatory abusers out there; and it is right that where there is sufficient evidence they are brought to justice. But I worry that we are straying into witch-hunt territory, where merely making an allegation is enough for a conviction and that having to provide evidence and to prove a case “beyond reasonable doubt” has gone by the board. This is gutter-press, mob justice.

Merely painting, drawing or photographing a child naked, or showering with a child (yours or anyone else’s) does not constitute paedophilia. Just as a mixed, nude, adult sauna (the norm in Scandinavia!) does not ipso facto mean there is sexual abuse.

We are rapidly approaching the stage where it will be a criminal offence for anyone to see any child nude at any time: parents will not be allowed to bath their newborns; and doctors will not be able to examine child patients. Clearly this is a nonsense and would lead to a major deterioration in health.

As I have observed before nudity and sexuality need to be normalised, not marginalised and ciminalised. I have always maintained that if we had a healthier understanding and acceptance of desires, sexuality, nudity and our bodies it would have far reaching positive effects on our health and our attitudes. Bring children up to understand their bodies, their sexuality and to accept nudity as something normal and they will be more balanced as individuals; more able to discuss their inner feelings and worries; more at ease discussing their medical problems with their doctor. All of which has to be good, if only in terms of catching serious disease earlier and when it is more easily, and more cheaply, treated. But I believe it would also be of great benefit psychologically.

natural history, ramblings

National Beanpole Week

Saturday 13 to Sunday 21 April is National Beanpole Week. And yes, well may you ask!


First celebrated in 2008 and it is run by the Small Woods Association.  The event recognises Britain’s traditionally managed coppiced woodlands along with the wildlife and plants that also live in them. Did you know that Britain lost around 90% of its coppiced woodlands in the 20th century — so there is a real need to support the coppice workers who continue to manage the woodlands we have left.

Simply put coppicing is a way of managing shoots at a size they can be used by cutting them every 10-20 years.  The coppiced wood allows plants to grow in a way that makes them a much more eye-catching addition to a beautiful garden. Not to mention the attraction from butterflies, the endangered doormouse and other creatures like the willow warbler.

Woodlands looked after in this way are known for their fantastic floral smell.  A real treat for the nose and the eyes!

And those coppiced hazel cuttings make superb beanpoles.

There’s a bit more information on the SmallWoods website at .