Category Archives: ramblings

ramblings

Interesting Times

As I said yesterday, we do live in interesting times. In the last 5-and-a-bit years we’ve seen …

In the UK

  • Three Prime Ministers: Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss
  • Two General Elections in 2017 and 2019
  • 2016 to 2020: just how are we going to leave the EU?
  • June 2017: Grenfell Tower fire
  • May 2018: Royal wedding of Harry & Megan
  • Prince Harry & Megan relinquish royal duties and abscond to California
  • January 2020: finally leave the EU
  • March 2020 to date: SARS-CoV-2 and Covid-19 (in UK) including lockdowns, an over-stressed NHS etc.
  • March 2021: census
  • April 2021: death of Duke of Edinburgh
  • Late 2021 to date: seriously escalating energy prices
  • February 2022: Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
  • February 2022 to date: discovery of polio in London’s sewage
  • May 2022 to date: monkeypox
  • September 2022: death of Queen Elizabeth II and accession of King Charles III

Worldwide

  • Three Presidents of the USA: Barak Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden
  • October 2017: ‘Oumuamua, the first known interstellar object, identified
  • November 2018: Gilets Jaunes protests in France
  • April 2019: fire almost destroys Notre Dame
  • May 2019: Naruhito becomes Emperor of Japan on the unprecedented abdication of his father Emperor Akihito (who had ruled for 30 years)
  • December 2019: US President, Donald Trump, is impeached
  • January 2021: US President, Donald Trump, is impeached for a second time
  • March 2021: container ship Ever Given blocks Suez Canal for a week, causing massive disruption to trade routes
  • December 2021 to January 2022: eruption of Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai volcanic island in Tonga, currently the largest eruption of 21st century
  • 2022: attempted invasion of Ukraine by Russia and resultant war

That’s what I can remember. And we haven’t even mentioned climate change, or a rash of celebs being arraigned for sexual abuse!

I challenge anyone to find me a more “interesting” 5 years, excepting around WWI and WWII.

Interesting times, indeed.

current affairs, medical, ramblings

More Covid Stupidity?

So our pathetic government appear to have decided that all Covid-19 restrictions will be removed in two weeks time, as part of the plan to save Boris’s skin. Basically they seem to be saying that Covid is over, the case numbers are falling rapidly, there’s no longer any need to isolate, and we can all go back to normal. [1,2] Essentially this says “we don’t care; go back to normal; if you get Covid well tough luck, but it is now only a cold so continue going to work and spreading the disease further”.

Let’s look at this.

  1. Of course the government reported case numbers are falling; they’re designed to. People are being urged to go back to work, and testing is not being pushed. There is now no requirement to get a confirmatory PCR test following a positive LFT; and there’s no requirement to log the result of a LFT; so testing has dropped off a cliff – people just aren’t bothering. So as the government reports only confirmed positive tests, of course their numbers are falling.

  2. However this does not accord with data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS; a government body) who do random sampling of the population. Nor does it agree with the data from the Zoe Covid Study, who track reports from their 4 million subscribers. [3,4,5] The Zoe study is showing rates still incredibly high at around 200K/day (as it was at the beginning of January) and the ONS data is tracking this fairly closely. That means around 1 in 25 people currently have Covid [5] and anything up to 10% of those are re-infections [3,5].

But it is worse than this …

  1. Going back to normal, means no testing and no isolation. So people will be walking around with Covid as they think they have a bad cold (or are even asymptomatic), they’ll keep travelling and going to work/school, and spreading infection. Many will be forced back to work as many employers won’t tolerate time off sick with a cold (which is in itself stupid, but part of the “work at all costs” ethic).

  2. More people walking about spreading infection means that the number of cases will rise, as will hospitalisations and deaths. And because there’s no testing the government won’t know, until hospitalisations, deaths or school absences start climbing out of control. But by then it is too late; the genie is out of the bottle. (Remember that hospitalisations and deaths lag behind infection by 2, 4 or even more weeks.)

  3. That in turn puts the vulnerable at even greater risk. And many vulnerable people (like me) are feeling even more that they’re condemned to “house arrest” because they dare not risk going out and getting infected.

  4. It also means more children off school, or having their education impacted because their teachers are sick.

  5. And the higher the rate of infection, the higher the number of cases of Long Covid which will severely impact the patient’s life for … well we don’t know how long!

  6. More infection also means the virus has even greater opportunities to mutate. That’s the way evolution works. These new variants may be less or more infectious, and/or cause more or less severe infection. And again we wouldn’t know, because there’s no testing.

  7. All this is compounded in that immunity wanes. We know that the good immunity provided following two vaccinations was falling off rapidly after 6 months [7]; hence the booster programme. But it does now seem that immunity provided by boosters falls off rapidly too, such that someone like me who had their booster in mid-October (17 weeks ago) now has almost no benefit from it [6]; I’m back where I was last June with a risk of around 4 times the norm [8] (and I’m by no means in the extra-super-mega-vulnerable range). We seem to be needing a new booster every 3 months or so, but there appears to be no plan for this – indeed the current booster programme has effectively stalled [3].

  8. According to the BBC “The law will be replaced with guidance … and for example people will be urged not to go to work if they have Covid” [2]. Frankly the government can provide as much guidance, urging and recommendation as it likes, but people are going to take little notice: they need to work and their employers aren’t going to tolerate high levels of absence.

Is it any wonder the vulnerable and the disabled are worried. They feel that the government doesn’t care about them and wants them out of sight and out of (their) mind. (From a personal perspective, friends are going to increasingly not understand of one’s avoidance of social gatherings etc.)

I have seen a number of respected scientists, including some members of Independent SAGE [9], suggesting that the government’s proposed action is nothing less than “criminal negligence”. We don’t know what is round the corner in terms of new variants, so they could well come back and bite us in the bum at any time. And when it does the consequences are going to be a direct result of yet further government failure.

Whether it is actually “criminally negligent” only a court could decide, but I would certainly class it as totally stupid and intensely unethical.

[1] Guardian; 09/02/2022; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/09/covid-rules-axed-england-is-pandemic-end-really-in-sight
[2] BBC News; 09/02/2022; https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60319947
[3] Independent SAGE; 04/02/2022; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21TKKKFfGYo
[4] Zoe Covid Update; 03/02/2022; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUfjJ1z-a6s
[5] Zoe Covid Update; 10/02/2022; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2Zm9OcULDs
[6] Telegraph; 24/12/2021; https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/24/fourth-jabs-possible-covid-booster-immunity-will-fall-millions/
[7] University of Edinburgh; 21/12/2021; https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2021/covid-19-vaccine-protection-wanes-three-months
[8] QCovid Risk Calculator; https://qcovid.org/
[9] Independent SAGE; https://www.independentsage.org/

amusements, current affairs, ramblings

Predictions for 2022

Once again this year I’ve brought my crystal ball out of retirement and asked it, and my dowsing pendulum, to help me guess what may happen during 2022.

Prognostication has been difficult again this year because of all the continuing unknowns and variables. This is due in large part to the Covid-19 situation, but also the on-going fall-out from Brexit and a dysfunctional UK government.

As before, I’ve divided the predictions into sections: General, World, UK, and Personal. Various items are redacted (although I have them documented) as some might be especially sensitive.

Disclaimer. I remind you that these are just my ideas of what could happen; they’re based solely on hunches and gut feel; I have no inside knowledge, I haven’t been studying the form, and I have a success rate of about 20%. So if you base any decision on any of this I will take no responsibility for your wanton act of idiocy or its consequences.

General

  1. The first half of year is likely to be relatively quiet; but the second half could be turbulent.
  2. Watch out for travel delays and general buggeration during weeks 18-20, 34-38, 38-41 (possibly Covid related), 41.
  3. Also watch out for change around the time of eclipses, especially in areas where they are visible. This year we have:
    • 30/04: Partial Solar Eclipse visible in S Pacific, S America, Antarctica
    • 15-16/05: Total Lunar Eclipse visible in N America, S America, Antarctica, W Africa, SW Europe
    • 25/10: Partial Solar Eclipse visible in Europe, SW Asia, Arabia
    • 07-08/11: Total Lunar Eclipse visible in Arctic, Pacific, NE Russia, NW Canada
  4. There are Supermoons on 14/06 & 13/07. These should herald good news.

World

  1. A number of international treaties are likely to be broken in the second half of the year.
  2. There’s an international incident associated with the Winter Olympics; possibly involving the death of a competitor.
  3. There’s a Republican landslide in the US mid-term elections.
    This allows Trump to resurface as a serious contender for US Presidency in 2024.
  4. Macron is re-elected as French President, but by a small margin.
  5. Ukraine is reabsorbed into Russia despite international condemnation.
  6. There’s a military coup in Chile.
  7. Japan starts dumping the tritium contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear site into sea – without telling anyone this has started; in fact it may have been happening for over a year.
  8. There are continuing, and aggressive, clampdowns on freedom of speech and protest across the world.
  9. At least one country votes to leave the EU.
  10. Three countries announce plans to go cash free by 2025.
  11. In good news, global wine production increases by at least 20%, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere.
  12. Covid-19 is here to stay.
    Another deadly Covid variant emerges just as Delta & Omicron are being defeated.
    Covid variants will start to be named in Hebrew or Chinese.
  13. The first “all flu” vaccine is available and it is combined in the Covid vaccine.
    It’s in Phase III trials this year, so won’t be available for a while yet.
  14. Nevertheless anti-vaxxers become more strident and aggressive as they gain increasing support.
    The number of unvaccinated (for all diseases) is causing major medical and public health issues.
  15. There’s a major infrastructure issue, probably affecting several countries, possibly due to a cyberattack or (more likely?) a large solar storm.
  16. At least one major space mission fails; maybe ISS or Ariane 6, or something else.
  17. There are several high impact astronomical/cosmological events; all due to things previously unknown science.
  18. There’s a major earthquake in the Himalayas.
  19. There’s a major volcanic eruption in Philippines, Papua New Guinea, or Iceland.
  20. This will be another hot and wet year, probably the hottest ever.
  21. Deaths: Dalai Lama, Nancy Pelosi, both Popes, George W Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Angela Merkel, Aung San Suu Kyi.

UK

  1. It is likely the men in grey suits will remove Boris as PM.
    However there’s no prospect of an early general election.
  2. Sinn Féin gain control of Stormont.
  3. Recovery is slower than expected as Covid doesn’t go away.
    GDP will increase by a maximum of 2% as a result.
  4. Road & rail infrastructure spend has to be significantly reduced due to economic shortfalls.
  5. Bank of England interest rate rises to between 1% and 2%.
    Mortgage rates increase significantly but savings rates remain stagnant.
  6. Fuel duty is reduced to stimulate recovery, but at the expense of relaxing “net zero” climate targets.
  7. The State Pension triple lock is removed permanently.
  8. Continuing supply chain problems due to the on-going effects of Brexit, Covid, lack of lorry drivers and a lack of key workers; there’s no resolution in sight and food shortages remain a possibility.
  9. Supply chain and interest rates drive an increase in inflation to between 5% and 10%.
    Meat, fish, fruit & veg all increase by 20% to 25% overall.
    Gas price rises by 50% compared with YE2021 – partly as a ploy to make people switch away from gas.
    Electricity prices rise by 25%.
  10. There is continuing disruption to movement of goods between Northern Ireland and the UK mainland.
    Consequently there’s continuing discord between UK and EU.
  11. The government continues to try to reform TfL and refuse further financial support.
    Bus and tube services are cut back.
  12. HS2 costs rise by at least 30%.
  13. Covid cases remain stubbornly high; averagely on-going 400 deaths/week and 100K cases/week.
    A major rise in Covid cases in January/February due to Omicron variant and Christmas/New Year super-spreader events.
    And another spike in September/October.
    Everyone will need another vaccine booster jab, probably starting in late Spring or early Summer.
  14. There’s further significant rationalisation in the supermarket sector.
  15. The government moves to further criminalise prostitution and recreational drugs.
  16. There may well be a significant event (possibly a disaster) somewhere in Thames Estuary roughly north of Westgate-on-Sea.
  17. Deaths: The Queen, Frank Field, Stephen Fry, George Alagiah, George Monbiot, Piers Corbyn, George Galloway, Dennis Skinner, Andrew Marr

Personal
Five items, including possible deaths redacted from here as the content is bound to be sensitive to people I know. However these items are documented in my files and will be tracked.

Obviously I shall try to keep track and will hope to publish the results at the end of the year. Let’s hope we have a better success rate this year and that the worst of the predictions don’t come to pass.

ramblings

Things to Bring Joy

Over on her blog the other day my friend Katy said …

This morning I chanced upon a short thread on Twitter in which Emma Wayland writes a list of things she would gift to someone who was struggling and needed cheer.

… and asked us to say what would be on our list.

Maby TavelSo here are some immediate thoughts from me, in no particular order.

  • A box of Earl Grey tea (loose tea or bags).
  • Almost any of the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett.
  • Bottle (or better a case) of Domaine Maby Tavel Rosé.
  • Part 1 of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.
  • White chocolate Toblerone.
  • Hot crusty bread with lots of butter.
  • An hour on a summer’s day at Dungeness.
  • A large and stylish bouquet of top class flowers.
  • Warm purring cat.
  • Sitting nude in the garden in warm sunshine.
  • Adnams Dry Hopped Lager or Ghost Ship (preferably on draught).
  • A large measure (it’s usually called a bottle!) of Adnams Copper House Gin, with Schweppes Tonic.
  • Really good fish & chips.
  • A hot shower and a bed with crisp clean sheets.
  • A night of really good deep peaceful sleep.

Like Katy, I’ll ask what’s on your list?

environment, ramblings

Gleditsia

In 2014 we funded the council to plant a street tree outside our house. They planted a small Gleditsia sp. – a honey locust. They’re lovely trees with vibrant green leaves from May to October. And, although they’re not native to the UK, they’re good street trees as they’re ornamental and attractive but without casting deep shade. After a slow-ish start, in the last couple of years it has taken off – I reckon it’s grown around 3 feet this summer alone.

Being autumn it is now turning a glorious yellow – although I doubt it is going to go the deep gold it has in the last two autumns. On Saturday I took advantage of the sun and went out to photograph it. Here it is, a street tree in all it’s glory in its suburban setting.

Street Gleditsia
[The image is made up of eight separate photographs which have been montaged together,
a technique picked up years ago from the work of David Hockney.]

Like all trees, street trees are incredibly important; they help reduce the temperature on hot streets, control water run-off, absorb CO2 and enhance our mental health. So we need more as a part of expanding tree cover to combat climate change. Sadly, though, in many areas they’re increasingly under threat. Which is why we did our small part in funding an extra tree. And, more generally, why we’ve crammed as many trees as we sensibly can into our suburban garden.

I’m sure most of our neighbours don’t care about trees if they even notice them. Some people and organisations are positively anti-tree, seeing them having no purpose, creating a nuisance, and threatening the foundations of their houses. (This latter is, of course, true if they’re planted in the wrong place.)

Fortunately not everyone feels this way and there is a growing realisation of the importance of street trees – indeed all trees. As Spaceship Earth say:

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.
The second best time is now.

personal, ramblings

Unblogged September

Wed 1 Another first today. During lunch, for just a few seconds, a Garden Warbler skulking through the shrubbery outside the Dining Room window.
Thu 2 A very busy 2 days. Actually got done everything I needed to, but that’s not everything on my desk.
Fri 3 Sitting waiting for the supermarket delivery this morning, saw the clock on the cooker say 11:11. I’m always fascinated by times like this which show a pattern, like 01:23, 23:45.
Sat 4 Retrieved the two wasp traps that were put out last Saturday. Not a wasp to be counted – again! Very disappointing, but not a great surprise.
Sun 5 Another day struggling with the depression: sleeping too much; not eating properly; having to resist an excess of gin.
Mon 6 Payday; and time to do the monthly accounts. We’re solvent for another month – even after paying our outstanding income tax. Result!
Tue 7 We bought some Granny Smith apples a few weeks ago, but never used them. Still in their supermarket wrapper they’ve kept well on the sideboard and ripened to a greenish yellow. To my surprise they were rather good: crisp, juicy and slightly sweet: unlike the green cannonballs we are normally sold.
Wed 8 A lovely warm sunny day as it was 42 years ago when N and I were bound together at St Peter’s, Acton Green.
Thu 9 If anything happened today, I didn’t notice. Too busy analysing survey data.
Fri 10 It’s Saturday, so why is EastEnders on TV. Oh! Wait! It’s actually Friday!
Sat 11 There’s a big group on Facebook about the new recipe Felix catfood making cats ill. I’ve been running a survey to try to gather evidence rather than anecdote. Today I finished analysing the 499 records.
Sun 12 Just what are DPD doing delivering on a Sunday? They said the package would arrive Monday, but lo, here it is today. One does not expect this of any courier company.
Mon 13 What did I do today? Apart from starting the production of some pate, I have no clue.
Tue 14 So the hospital have finally decided to cancel my 2019/20 sleep study because of Covid. So glad they’ve finally caught up with reality.
Wed 15 Hurry, hurry, hurry … we’ve just realised we need the website updated … today!
Thu 16 Spent most of the day horizontal. Too dizzy in the head for vertical hold to engage properly.
Fri 17 Vertical hold working intermittently today, which is an improvement. But still not good.
Sat 18 What happened there? Awake-ish at 0600 with a purring, upside-down, cat for company. Next I know it’s 12 noon! But at least vertical hold is restored if not full functionality.
Sun 19 Got some British apples in the supermarket delivery this week – and so I should think at this time of year! Suffolk Pink (a fairly new and unusual variety) and Worcester. The Worcester were good, quite sweet but not over juicy. The Suffolk Pink, although more tart were juicier and crunchier which I prefer.
Mon 20 A day of fiddling about and catching up. Really fed up with the depression and inability to do anything.
Tue 21 Picked almost 3kg runner beans. Sadly they’ve been rather neglected so many are over grown and very stringy. But 4x 200+gm packs frozen. The rest stripped for the beans inside which gave another 600-ish gm.
Wed 22 Put some of the beans salvaged yesterday from our overgrown runners, in tonight’s casserole. And they were good. We Brits are apparently the only ones who eat the pods; everyone else grows them for the beans – and I quite see why!
Thu 23 A voyage of discovery trying to understand how to create flipbooks for websites without having to pay for someone else’s cloud storage.
Fri 24 Flu jabs are go! Invitation by text from GP. Booked in for next week.
Sat 25 That’s another acquaintance gone: Lord Gowrie who was President of the Anthony Powell Society. Former Minister for the Arts. Erudite, knowledgeable, and always friendly.
Sun 26 It could almost be Christmas: roast duck followed by biscuits and cheese (with red wine and port, of course).
Mon 27 Awoke early to belting rain, half a gale and Stygian gloom. A lovely sunny day by lunchtime, if still breezy.
Tue 28 Time to remove a bird’s nest amount of hair from my head. N doesn’t like it this short, but it’s a lot more comfortable and I can do it myself (with N’s assist).
Wed 29 It’s flu jab day, today! Let’s see if it knocks me out this year – like it does most years for a day or so.
Thu 30 Picked another 28 big red ripe chillies from the plants on the study windowsill. That’s 92 so far this summer, and there’s more to come; we should make well over 100. Almost all have gone in the freezer; they should keep us going for years!
Chillies on the bush a couple of days ago (left) and today’s harvest.
personal, ramblings

Unblogged August

Sun 1 I don’t understand the guy next door to me. He doesn’t like the pigeons because they go “flappy flappy” flying away when he goes down his garden. And yet he persists in chucking old bread out on his garage roof for the birds – mostly pigeons, of course!
Mon 2 A sad day. Returned from lunch to an email that my osteopath had died; he was only 72 although he did have failing kidneys. Over the years he’d become a friend as well as my osteopath. Because of lockdown I’d not seen him for 18 months. A true gentleman, remembered with great affection.
Tue 3 Phew! Work of various sorts today from about 0930 to 2045, including two Zoom meetings. But I did achieve pretty much everything I set out to, and a lot else too. I’ll call that a result!
Wed 4 Slept late, then had a day regrouping after yesterday, and clearing away some of the junk on my desk and in my in-box.
Thu 5 Time to take in the wasp traps (see Thursday 29 July). Oh dear, I’ve caught nothing but a few very small flies. Fuller’s London Pride is obviously not to wasps’ taste. I’m not really surprised as I’ve seen hardly any wasps yet this summer, and the last week hasn’t been good flying weather.
Fri 6 Managed to cock up defining a new website an installing WordPress. I hate having to get the hosting admins to fix it for me.
Sat 7 Slept very late again; achieved little.
Sun 8 Afternoon spent baking: rustic raspberry & blackberry tart; rustic tomato & onion tart; casseroled lamb shanks; stewed gooseberries; stewed blackcurrants. That should keep us fed for a bit.
Mon 9 Spent a large part of the day tinkering around building a website. Why can you never get WordPress to do exactly what you want?
Tue 10 When going out our cats are always told “Take care. See you later. No live prey please.” So what does Boy cat bring us in the middle of lunch? Live mouse. Which he then proceeds to lose in the study!
Wed 11 Anyone who shares their home with a cat, knows they are perverse creatures. Ours, when offered chicken from your plate will tell you it’s their favourite food and ask for more. Today, when taking the meat off the chicken carcass I kept some scraps aside for the cats’ tea. Result: universal disdain from all three!
Thu 12 Last night was supposed to be a peak for the Perseid meteor shower. Yet again, not a hope due to complete cloud cover. We never get to see these phenomena nowadays – just like we don’t get thunderstorms any more.
Fri 13 Friday 13th is always an odd day. Luckily there’s only one this year, compared with 2 last year (March & November). And just one again next year (May).
Sat 14 Last year’s 4 scotch bonnet chilli plants on the study windowsill were cut back in February. They’re being prolific. I’d already picked 15 fruit. Today I harvested 34 chillies, in sizes from “processed pea” to “large ping-pong ball”. They’ve been frozen whole, so small amounts of crushed chilli is easily available when needed. And there’s more to come!
Sun 15 Whatever it was that was going to be done today, wasn’t.
Mon 16 A lot of people are reporting their cats being ill after eating the new recipe Felix cat food; there’s a big group on Facebook, but it’s all anecdote and the manufacturers aren’t listening. So I spent some time drafting a survey to try to gather more reliable information which we can analyse.
Tue 17 Awake and up really early, so I had almost the whole day working on my family history. Many years ago, my mother did a lot of her father’s line, but I think I’ve proven her mistaken about 250 years back.
Wed 18 More work today on firming up yesterday’s family history work. And work on a website for the PPG, which is taking an age!
Thu 19 Wide awake at 0530; shall I get up? Next I know it’s 0930; I’d better get up. Then the next I know it’s 1100; somehow I manage to get up.
Fri 20 Sleep? What is this thing called sleep? Consequently feeling wrecked and the day went to Hell in a handcart.
Sat 21 Was that a day? Up early again on too little sleep so felt out of it all day. Definitely out of it after wine with dinner. Hic!
Sun 22 N picked 2 ice-cream tubs of blackberries from the front garden; it’s a really good, self-set and vigorous blackberry which almost always crops well. There’s also a big patch of large fungi by the wheelie bins; they’re not ordinary mushrooms and not deathcaps; trying to ID them.
Mon 23 Another Monday – at least I’m told it was Monday. And another itching collection of gnat bites.
Tue 24 Got a magnificent book on fungi [Roger Phillips, Mushrooms (2006)] to try to ID the fungi in the front garden. I think they’re probably The Prince, Agaricus augustus. If so they’re supposedly good eating (they’re the same family as commercially grown mushrooms) but I wouldn’t dare risk it.
Wed 25 Why is depression such a vicious spiral of inability to get out of one’s chair? Even on a nice summer’s day.
Thu 26 A hard day’s work organising two very different sets of announcement material for 1 September.
Fri 27 Another of those days where you’re busy all day but seem to have nothing to show for it; except perhaps fish pie for dinner.
Sat 28 Put up the 2 wasp traps for round 2 of Big Wasp Survey. At the same time noticed that the woodland floor between the old apple tree and the pond is prolific with small brown puffballs, probably Scaly Earthball (Scleroderma verrucosum).
Wasp Trap (left) and 3cm diameter Puff Ball
Sun 29 Awake just after 0630 this morning and looking out of the bedroom window. Suddenly in the ash tree outside a small sparrow-sized bird; looks odd; it’s not a sparrow; yes, a first for me: a juvenile Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Nice, as they’re now relatively rare due to loss of elm trees. Have now seen 3 of 4 native woodpeckers (all in the garden here); only missing Wryneck (and that’s very unlikely). It just shows what is around even in suburbia.
Mon 30 A grey, breezy, not very warm August Bank Holiday. Well at least it isn’t raining this year.
Tue 31 Had a couple of new season English apples today. It’s that time of year already. Discovery, an early variety. My memory was they’re not up to much, and it was right: they’re dry and only moderately sweet. A bit like the apple equivalent of a ship’s biscuit. But they do have pretty blush pink streaked flesh.
personal, ramblings

Unblogged July

Taking a leaf out of Diamond Geezer‘s book, I’ve decided to write a post each month of strange, interesting, unusual, or just tedious things that happened each day, but which I didn’t write about at the time.

So here are 31 things I didn’t blog about in July.

Thu 1 I bid for 2 paintings live, online at our local auction house. Didn’t get them; wasn’t prepared to pay more than £50 and they sold for £75.
Fri 2 Waitrose new Fulfilment Centre near home made rather a mess of this week’s grocery order. Lots of items unavailable and an unusual number of errors. Unavailability of items possibly down to the shortfall of lorry drivers?
Sat 3 Picked a good handful of chard & radish leaves for salad. Having removed everything slug eaten, I was left with enough for half a sandwich. But supplemented with some coriander, and a big bunch of mint and basil, it made a nice quantity of baby leaves.
Sun 4 Having lost the last of our koi a couple of years ago, we still have at least 4 goldfish in the pond: one large pale one, and at least 3 orange/red ones of various sizes (one of which must be home grown).
Mon 5 We’ve a couple of bags of date expired cashew nuts and have been feeding them to the birds in a wire peanut feeder. And are they appreciated! This evening for an hour, while eating dinner, there was a procession of great tits and blue tits (at least 5 birds altogether) feasting on the nuts; one, often two, on the feeder at all times in a perpetual relay.
Tue 6 Trip to the optician to collect new glasses; will have to finish adjusting them myself. Then I filled in & filed both our tax returns. And all before lunch.
Wed 7 Why is it that without an alarm set I seem unable to surface before 10am?
Thu 8 Glad to be side-tracked this afternoon into doing maintenence on N’s PC, thus avoiding tedious work for the PPG.
Fri 9 Had to do the work I avoided yesterday. One piece I can’t complete yet as I need input from others. The second, some data analysis, proved too much for today’s addled brain.
Sat 10 Awoke to find a wondrously clean white plate in the garden. N had put out some lamb chop bones, fat topping from some paté, and a cracked egg. Mr Reynard clearly had a tasty buffet. Must see if they like banana.
Sun 11 40 years ago today we moved into this house. Saturday 11 July 1981 was hot & sunny. With the help of a colleague and a van we moved from our dingy rented flat into this house. I lost half a stone in the process. This latter needs to be repeated, many times over.
Mon 12 Today’s thunderstorm was the nearest we’ve had to a decent one for some years. We used to have lots, but they seem to have dwindled in the last 10 years or so.
Tue 13 Selection workshop for a local council community review panel. Don’t expect to get through as they’ve probably got too many white middle-class men of a certain age.
Wed 14 One of those tedious days where nothing much happens and you don’t have much to show for it either. Although I did finish a couple of short articles for AP Soc Newsletter.
Thu 15 Had to email friends and decline a dinner date. After much discussion we both still feel much too vulnerable in current Covid situation – much though we want to go back to socialising and these friends are the very top of the list. Hope they’re not too pissed off with us.
Fri 16 Up early (for me) to a lovely sunny morning, and the squawks of next door’s African Grey parrot out on their veranda.
Sat 17 Hottest day of the year so far. And far too hot and uncomfortable to do anything; so I didn’t.
Sun 18 Waitrose new Fulfilment Centre near us is still not at the top of its game, and I’m fed up with talking to Customer Services about it; now in conversation with the John Lewis’s executive office.
Mon 19 Freedom Day for some. But not for us. We’re still feeling just as vulnerable as ever thanks to our short-sighted government.
Tue 20 I’m retired. So why did I spend almost the whole day working?
Wed 21 Chaired the early morning meeting of GP’s patient group on Zoom. Poorly attended. At times you wonder why you bother!
Thu 22 Contrary to expectations the local council have appointed me to their community review panel. They’ve clearly not twigged that I belong to The Awkward Squad.
Fri 23 Extra meat rations today! As we were about to receive the supermarket delivery, Tilly the Cat presented us with a small freshly dead rat.
Sat 24 Thunderstorms? What thunderstorms? It was touted to be heavy thundery rain all day today, but not a rumble of thunder, nor a single drop of rain – although it was dark like November.
Sun 25 Well, after complaining yesterday, the fairies were moving the furniture around upstairs this afternoon, and finally after days of waiting, at teatime we got some good thundery rain.
Mon 26 Mid-afternoon there’s a sudden, hard smack on the study window. Obviously a bird strike. Very dead wood pigeon later found on the patio below the window.
Tue 27 N had moved yesterday’s dead pigeon onto the lawn. This morning it had disappeared, one suspects with an assist from Mr Reynard – later confirmed by the trail camera.
Wed 28 Awake just before 0500hrs, I was alerted by a nearby security light. After a minute or so, a fox trotting briskly and purposefully up the road carrying something which in the half-light looked like it could be dead rat.
Thu 29 I’m taking part in the Big Wasp Survey again this year (the 5th year), and today I set the first two wasp traps. BWS are doing two survey sessions this year, now and in late August. I’m not hopeful of this session as the weather looks rather iffy for flying.
Fri 30 Not having got everything we wanted on today’s supermarket order, we tried a small delivery from Amazon Fresh.
Although maybe not up to Waitrose quality, and one doesn’t like giving Amazon even more money, it certainly worked well as a stop-gap.
Sat 31 It’s one thing being depressed, but it’s a bit much when you spend the night dreaming about being depressed.
Especially as it leaves you even less inclined to do anything than before.

So what will next month bring, I wonder?

current affairs, medical, personal, ramblings

Horrible Times 22: Lockdown 450

In this instalment … Today, Saturday 19 June 2021, is day 450 of lockdown for us.

And still not a lot has really changed since I last reported on Day 400

So why don’t we get the “bad” news over first?

  • In the last 50 days I’ve managed to get off the premises just twice. Once for part 2 of my annual diabetes check-up & shingles vaccination, and secondly for an optician’s appointment. That makes a grand total of just 9 “outings” in 450 days. Which is quite pathetic really, although rather understandable.
  • I managed to miss the partial eclipse of the sun on 10 June. I don’t remember when we last had clear skies, at a sensible time, for any astronomical phenomenon.
  • We’ve had two friends in hospital. One with heart problems, which have needed a pacemaker fitted; the other with a broken leg (luckily not a hip).
  • In other medical news I got a talking to by my diabetic nurse for letting my blood glucose control slip somewhat over the last year, and not losing any weight. Moral 1: must try harder. Moral 2: the medical profession need to understand quality of life.
  • And of course our pathetic government has delayed removing all Covid restrictions. I have to say I think this is the right decision, given the apparent extra transmissibility of the Covid delta variant. However it is entirely of the government’s own making: they could have nipped this in the bud by introducing travel restrictions to/from India in early April rather than waiting 3-4 weeks. But then this is entirely consistent with their whole approach.

In more positive news …

  • We’ve had a mini heatwave, which is rather a nice change from the cold wet weather which preceded it.
  • And the good weather has enabled us to get our runner beans planted, as well as a selection of salad leaf veggies. Nothing to harvest yet a while although I have harvested the first dozen chillies from last year’s plants (on the study windowsill) which I overwintered.
  • The good weather has also brought the roses into bloom. The garden is a riot of roses at the moment, including a dog rose flowering right at the top of our mature silver birch tree. Walking down the garden there is a heavy scent of roses.
  • Having found a very dead Rose Chafer on the patio table, I was finally impelled to buy a macro lens for my camera so I can take more/better close-ups. So far this has mostly meant flowers.
  • As well as splashing out money on a new lens I also bought two paintings by Adrian Daintrey at auction. For security reasons I’m obviously not going to post them here, but members of the Anthony Powell Society will find out more in due course (as Daintrey was a friend of Powell’s).
  • And finally, I’ve been doing quite a bit of work on my family history. I’ve especially been trying to unravel the Marshalls back in the late 17th and early 18th centuries around the Weald of Kent. I have a brick wall there in my father’s line; I’m sure there are connexions between all those I’ve found, but currently I’m unable to prove it – or satisfactorily work out exactly who is related to who. It doesn’t help that the men are all called Stephen, Thomas or William. The one guy with an easily identifiable name, Reynolds Marshall, seems to parachute in from nowhere in the late 17th century. It’s a tangled web which should be solvable, but for the fact that back then parish records were patchy and often haven’t survived. And along the way you get diverted down some (usually irrelevant) rabbit holes – so just who was the rather improbably named Samuel Drawbridge? Such are the joys of family history!

So what happens next? Well who knows. By the time of my next report at day 500 we’ll either have had all restrictions lifted and told we can go back to (some approximation to) normality, or we’ll be deep in another wave of Covid cases. Or, the pessimistic side of me suggests it might be both of those.

We’re not even in the lap of the gods, but the whim of our government. Gawdelpus!

food+drink, ramblings

Early Chilli Harvest

Today I have harvested the first of this year’s chillies: a dozen fully ripe Scotch Bonnets from the four plants on the study windowsill.

These are last years plants, and they’re getting cramped in a single 9-10 inch diameter pot! After they finished flowering last autumn I left them on the windowsill, and kept them watered. They continued to flourish as they were getting some warmth and good light, but not enough to keep flowering.

Then in late February I cut them back to about 10 inches. Within days they were growing new side shoots, and within a few weeks were flowering. They’re now good compact plants! Today’s harvest is the result.

These are two of last years crop;
this year’s have gone straight in the freezer

Although I’ve not repotted them, they have had their soil topped up and been given some feed. So with regular water and more feed, hopefully they’ll produce more flowers, and chilies, as the summer progresses. Hand pollinating the flowers is the best way to ensure a good crop – an old small watercolour brush is their best sex toy.

I might even try to keep them over another winter although they really will need repotting by then!