Apples

The subject of apples, on which  I have written many words. But I shall go on doing so because the fate of the cottage garden that grew the famous Bramley cooking apple is still in the hands of profit...

Roots of resilience: the experts working to bolster apples against the climate crisis | US news | The Guardian

Apples are a common fruit, they sit in the fruit part of the supermarket, glistening with goodness knows what and we buy without thinking.  I collected apple trees in the Bath garden, I loved the blossom time and then the appearance of the first early apples, in this case a Russian White Transparent, a good cooking apple.  I bought them on M9 rootstock so that they were a sensible size, not like the giants in the old childhood garden, in which we would climb and sit.

Abundancy

So the above article intrigued me, the sudden mood changes of the weather in California had seriously disrupted the life cycle of their apple orchards, and they were trying to develop hardier types of apple stock root.

Every gardener knows as we stand on the threshold of summer in the May month the worry and anticipation of whether the weather will change and we shall have snow or frost.  Killing those tender  plants that are making their appearance.

 

Developing new rooting stock takes time, a lifetime sometimes, and as we approach this new world of climate change perhaps we should take more notice of what is happening to our food stocks.  According to The Country Shell Book of Alphabets, written by Geoffrey Grigson, apples were even eaten by the Neolithic people........

Less particular about soil, then plum or cherry, more reliable in yield than pear trees, apple trees in blossom around a village are so characteristic that it may be recalled that apples were eaten by the neolithic people, the first farmers and herdsmen of England, who visited the Causeway camp or moot on Windmill Hill outside Avebury, in Wiltshire, 4000 and more years ago. Pips were found on pottery, possibly from native crabs, which would have been sour in the neolithic no less than a modern mouth, but perhaps from the sweet fruits of Malus sylvestris Ssp mitis. which the Windmill people could have bought with them from overseas. This sub-species native of south-east Europe and south-west Asia, is the parent of garden apple, and may have been grown already in neolithic Europe.. Apples were held to be revivifying and rejuvenating, and there are stories to that effect from the Irish and Norse mythology, as well as from the Near East. Loki, for instance, stole the apples which the goddess Ithunn kept for the gods to eat when they grew old, and gave them to the giants. The gods withered and wrinkled with age, and Loki was forced to get the apples back. ..Most of the exquisite blossoms around the church towers and spires turn to a very dull fruit..

And do not forget the wild crab apple, not an eating apple but it will produce a clear sweet/sour jelly to put on your toast.

Crab apple tree

13th May 2026

Stuffing mushrooms, or something similar.  That quote is simply 'there is more to life than stuffing a mushroom'.  Well yesterday watching a person make sourdough bread in a video, I had the same train of thought.  In the first proving, you had to go back three times every 30 minutes and knead the dough, then of course it had to rise in the pot, preferably for eight hours.  You might be starving by this point but don't worry it will be beautifully baked tomorrow.

Well as I kneaded some dough early this morning, Andrew on his way to swimming pointed out that there was an ugly looking crow sitting on the fence outside.  I often talk to my crow and he was asking for breakfast of course, so sorted some old bread for him and noted we have a new arrival, my namesake, the magpie.  Though of course he could be just around this time of year for eggs but the crows weren't telling him off.

The news this morning: well I am not listening to Today, they are p****** themselves over who is going to be the next prime minister, and Starmer has stuck his heels in.  Could be because of the King's speech which will roll out the Labour government's intentions today.  The speeches King Charles III made in America were beautiful.  He is very good with words, I was not surprised it was so well received but he has written articles in my magazine 'Resurgence' and he can turn a fine phrase.

My camera has sold and I must now look for a simple 'instant' one for our trip to Chiddingford soon and the garden. I should have started earlier with photography with my eyesight going west, trying to set a large camera on the right lines is beyond my scope now.

Vote Green or vote for ......gardeners

A gardener who with his wife bought a semi-detached house with a quarry at the bottom of the garden full of old farm machinery and turned it into a 'Jungle garden'.  Here is Jack drinking water, not Prosecco, but this is called Prosecco Terrace.  My daughter is deep in thought listening to the birds which are being identified by the Merlin app on her phone.

  Edit: "Hats off Strangers"  It is all there the magnificent idiocy of the State Opening of Parliament.  You cannot but be impressed by this Medieval sumptuous extravagance  of gold and gilt.  Trump eat your heart out;) I still haven't got to The Speech yet.  Only read this morning that people were wondering whether the King was going to endorse Starmer.  But no worries, when the crown makes an appearance nothing stops the show.

Should you wish to go to the point when the King and Queen arrive it is near 46 minutes.  This when the royal couple are seated, the gold rod is raised and then the black rod knocks on the door three times, this is the beginning of the speech.

11th May 2028

Some how it sums it all up.

 

So May weather is already playing up.  It is going to be cold, especially if the wind is from the North-East. The travelling duo are back tomorrow from Germany, Andrew 's cousin lives there.  He will be pleased to know that all three G/P members of our ward got in.  One of them had knocked on the door the other day to thank him for voting and also we had GP stickers up.  It's over already and they are beginning to fight on the chat boxes,

Will Starmer go I wonder or by bringing two old stalwarts from way back, George Brown and Harriet Harman make a difference.  Not sure, I think Starmer and his government just forgot what the Labour Party is there for, it is called socialism and being there for all the people.  But it is all over thank goodness.

Trailing through photos, fingers always stopping at flowers, I come across Stanton Drew stone circle, I think it is the third largest in the country.  It was not far from Bath and I would go with Moss to wander amongst the stones and say hello to the 'Lion stone'.  The three stones in the pub, the Druid Arms, are not a Cove triangle but in fact has been recently identified as part of  a long barrow.

Each photo tells it tale, the misty green of the Bath downs where once a battle between the Royalists and the Roundheads took place.  The calm sluggish Chelmer Navigational river with the absolute grace of trees reaching down to the water and the sweet smell of cow parsley as you walked along, and the flowering hawthorn, the greatest of hedging in this country, reminding you that years ago the children would eat the sprouting leaves as they budded.  Try it;)

Stanton Drew:  A visit with Paul

History garnered

Turbulence

Take heart, read the Daily Pasture.  It wasn't all bad the council elections.  It was just the British people making sure the Labour Party got punished for not exactly carrying out their proposals.  The two party system is being broken up and that is not as bad as we think.  The Greens did not do too bad either, we have seven on our council, and yes the Reform Party has the majority now on the Council, but there is a good spill of other parties in the mix.  Just ordinary people doing a job.

  Yes of course there is the horror that is Farage looming over us, Trumpian, he is a fright of leering smile and teeth.  But no worries he drinks beer just like the rest of you boys and has a canny way of getting his way with money.  One warning! don't go down his path of crypto currency, he is only out there to fleece you.

So national emergencies cleared up what else is happening? Trump is stuck down the hole with the Strait of Hormuz.  It reminds me of my cat Maxi many years ago who would grab the soft fleshy skin of my Labrador's jaw and Kim would  stand uneasily still, impasse, not sure what to do as the cat tormented him. Kim 0, Maxi 1. 

Did I hear the rumour that ammunition, maybe rockets and drones as well, are being used up to quickly in the theatre of war.  'Theatre of War' what a splendid way to describe the nastiness of war!

Also read an article about producing organic ammonia.  Ammonia is used in the production of artificial nitrogen fertiliser and most of the world's crops rely on it.  So the production of organic ammonia in this world of Climate change would be helpful, but unfortunately it doesn't help the artificial fertiliser that is stranded in the Strait.  And to which everyone is promising us food shortages.

8th May 2026 - Todmorden

 What to start with this morning.  It was a toss up between the Co-op Art Nouveau in Todmorden, or the golden 'blondie' canine beauties called retrievers.  And yes it won't be the local council results because they haven't come through yet.

Whilst we were sitting in the meeting the other day, we wondered why such large windows.  Well it was to let in the light of course.  This room would have held meetings, books and educational classes.  There is a book out, I might ask for it as a Xmas present because it is expensive but gives details.  It is written by Lynn Pearson - England's Co-operative Movement: An Architectural History.  The Co-op started in Toad Lane, in Rochdale (1844)? and burgeoned from there.  It seems that the Tod Co-op was a drapery shop  from 1909 to 1910, you can just imagine the display of clothes in the windows. 

 

Across the road is the library, again built by the Co-op for the people of Tod.  It was built in 1897, and cash has not been spared for it is elegant late Victorian facade.

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Smear Campaigns

I forgot.  Zack Polanski has been through a dreadful smear campaign by various organisations and people.  Yesterday i was so cross about a Nick Robinson interview of Polanski on the Today programme, that I wrote an email to the programme castigating Robinson and threatening to stop my licence fee. (yes my threats are small;) Well I read on my F/B page this morning Harry Gallagher's contribution, so to  I am going to quote it....

Never put politics on blogs?

 that the problem of antisemitism in their movements has been deliberately exaggerated by their enemies for political gain. taken from Tension and dissent: inside the Green party’s antisemitism struggle | Green party | The Guardian

I am about to jump into the fire with very little capital behind me, but my need to see things from both sides is paramount to my soul.  Yesterday I signed up to the Green Party, it took a week to work out of course but as the hostilities mounted up  against Zack Polanski my anger started to form.

The GP has many faults, notwithstanding their long and lengthy debates or discussions about everything.

"the background of the party’s near-continual and often tortuously decentralised process of developing policy"

  Many of them are sincere people and your neighbours and friends.  They want a better world for both the planet and the people, so the so called red/green nature of their cause, the socialism/environmentalism has  a somewhat uneasy feel, I think even in the party itself, a juxtaposition of unease.  In fact what happens in the established parties that fight to govern us is exactly the same.

This of course reflects the whole seething mass of people that live on this Earth, they don't all think the same way sadly, but then we would appear like robots so that is a good thing.  There is dissent, there are a lot of causes brought to the table.  Above all there is the pick, pick nastiness of the people who think otherwise.  And who, I may say, probably have just as many faults as everyone else.

Zack probably has many faults, his training as an actor helps his style of performance and I really think the other parties are very jealous that he has such appeal amongst the people ;)  

He is Jewish, shall I venture down this road strewn with the dead of both Israelis and Palestine.  Yes I was totally appalled by October 7th but I am also appalled by the death of civilians in Palestine.  And, as a rider here, I think Netanyahu should be taken before the courts of Nuremberg and sentenced for his warring. 

On my blog I keep a reminder of the death of the little Palestinian girl Hind, it  would have been her birthday yesterday, someone wrote a poem for her.  For me she represents all the children that have been killed in the needless wars in Israel, Palestine and Ukraine.

This is what is bringing the protest crowds on the streets, they are not some evil minded mobs but young and old, Jewish and Muslim people trying to get this senseless slaughter of other human beings stopped.

Taken from Face Book because this is the real issue, and not the political nit picking we so often find in our media and social outlets. xxx

Baobab trees -Adansonia or the Upside Down Tree

 Wiki Entry taken by Ferdinand Reus

 Baobob Tree taken from Wikipedia and winner of many prize photo competitions - Bernard Gagnon

Isn't it magnificent, yesterday my wallpaper was the Avenue of Baobabs in Madagascar.  Strangely alien, the gold sleek bark and a flurry of branches at the top.  Like the camel it has to store its water and so the great trunk is the water tank. 

It is the Africa Tree of Life and reminded me of a song that was once a favourite.

 

'Shakin The Tree' sung by Peter Gabriel and Youssou N'Dour a Senegalese singer.  A young naive Peter Gabriel and another favourite, Youssou.  It is wonderful that the thing we call a brain connects facts together so sweetly.  Trees of Life are part of our cultural history as well as in our churches.  Anyway you will find the great baobob tree in their background, a rather fat untidy tree but then the storms of life gets us all whether tree or human.

Now I shall go back and find more Youssou songs on the net, my CDs of the music need some sort of attachment to my computer I suppose, I rather miss playing them.  My son recorded most of them for me and I haven't really worked out Spotify but then why should  I?

So has their time come?

 

In the communal space that is called 'Kindness Cafe'  Hannah Spencer made an unexpected appearance.  The Greens had decided to make a play for nine other wards in Calderdale for the council votes this week and so had arranged a meeting a couple of days before.

She is really a 'slip of a girl' still flying high on a win.  Probably going to upset some apple carts in Westminster, she reckons they hate her anyway.  Is she 'fragrant' Cro, I don't know didn't get close enough to sniff;).

If, when the history books are written, will they make note that an uprising of Green fellowship started up in the Grim North.  Did the ghost ancestors of weavers in the 19th century rise up in the chests of the people attending Hannah's lightening visit.

The meeting rooms of the large Northern towns were full of the proletariat who spoke up in the 19th century, are we now seeing the same with the chant 'tax the rich'?  Yes governments are breaking down  in the forms we see today across the world.  People are taking to the streets and marching once again for  the cash to be laid out a bit more fairly.  For justice and an end to the cruelty of war.  Changing times indeed.

But what I do know that it was a well attended meeting - 60 plus - young and old, Fedora hats and all and she was received enthusiastically and clapped into place.  She has a great burden on her shoulders, from newbie plasterer and plumber she must take the banner of the Green Party and head, with Zac Polanski of course, to carve out a much kinder country.

I note here by the way that there is a witch hunt out on Zac, he is Jewish as well, so you would think the right wing media could get their bloody ducks in a row!

Who do I get cross about, well for a start all those people playing the money markets without one miserly thought as to how the rest of the world is doing. 

There is this woman who lives in Dubai and owns 60 houses back in England which she rents out.  These rentiers are having to learn that throwing people out on the streets is not an option.

Yes that one is for my grandson Ben, who had a flurry of worry last week when that woman, through her agency asked them to leave, the upcoming Rent Bill which arrived on Monday saw to that.  Ben and his fellow lodgers, two I think, though one was leaving, are paying somewhere around £4000 a month rent, yes she keeps increasing it.  They can stay as long as another lodger is found.

Reminds you of George Orwell's  'The Road to Wigan's Pier.' doesn't it?

  

Only a green member could have a good Chihuahua tucked under his arm.  Not a very good photo, but no worries, I am selling my complicated Bridge camera and getting an instant camera soon....

Section 21

 

3rd May - Dawn Chorus International Day

 I had a bit of a downer yesterday.  Thought about giving up my blog because I seem to live so much in the past.  But then Sunday arrived;)  I love Sunday it is supposed to be a place of quietness, when for a moment you can forget about the worries of life.  Also, it is the day people have to listen out for the dawn chorus - International Dawn Chorus Day on the first Sunday in May, which is today.  I heard a few birds but the starlings haven't come back to raise some fledglings under the roof.

There was a small discussion yesterday about the male bird always being recorded but not the females.  Shock, horror, no one ever thought that their birdsong might be different.  Or, which is more to the point, cared.  Shame, the subjugation of the female even extends to birds....... Listen and see if you can tell the difference!

In town yesterday there was Morris dancing and various events but I did not go, tend to panic around crowds.  But people so want the normal events of life to happen and not the daily litany of troubles around the world, that one wonders WHY doesn't the human race create a paradise on this Earth.  I am playing the sound track as I type and hear my favourite bird the curlew's sweet song.  Reminding me of the North Yorkshire Moors. 

Once I caught the cuckoo 'cuckooing' in Blakes Wood.

And then there is always Pete Seeger - Green Grass to remember, somewhat wryly of course.  'From Way up Here'

1st May 2026

We need rain ;)  the farmers in the East are complaining about the lack of rain for growing crops, Farming is feeling the pinch at the moment, what with nitrogen being held up at the Strait of Hormuz.  We of course  will not suffer as much as the poorer countries in the world, someone on the radio said there would be billions of missed meals.  Think on that before you start wars.  

It is beautifully sunny outside, a crisp cold feel to the air, and of course it is May Day, time to dance in the summer and whirl round a May Pole.  Though a lot of that isn't done now - times move on!

Borrowed photo

Fire will be lit on the Hill of Uisneach, the mythical sacred centre of Ireland.  Bealtine will be celebrated for the month of May.  It is, according to sacred myth, the burial place of the Earth Goddess Eriu and also the Sun God Lugh. It is the Axis Mundi  of Ireland and a place, if you are Irish, you can escape from the modern world.

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 I have just watched Senator Sara Jacobs, a young Jewish woman in California take down Peter Hegseth, Secretary of Defense and she refused to be shouted down by him, that was the wonderful bit, every time he intervened she slapped him down.  Probably you will not be able to find the video, as far as You Tube is concerned, it has been taken down, but somewhere out there in America is a woman fighting for her community and it gave hope, as did King Charles lll heroic and softly spoken use of our English language pulled Trump so gently down, he didn't even feel the bump.  When this wretched man finally departs, will America be able to recover though?  

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On May Day, which is today, we should rejoice in the natural world and take a pledge to preserve as much of it as we can, now who was the bear that did exactly that? Smokey Bear, I think the following quote comes from Gary Snyder,

And he will protect those who love the woods and rivers, Gods and animals, hobos and madmen, prisoners and sick people, musicians, playful women, and hopeful children:

Formalities

 Mission accomplished, he departed the chamber with handshakes and smiles. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown but, thanks to some canny speechwriting and a book of quotations, the king had hopefully made his point without triggering a fiery tirade from the mad monarch on Truth Social.  The Guardian .  

Thank god we have a long history of kings, wars and nefarious ministers to fall back on for support.

And let us hope that the king and his queen gets back safely to England.  That photo above, proper English tea, sandwiches and scones with cream and jam, did it make a difference?  Did our slightly eccentric king make peace between our country and the US.  We'll see.

Funnily enough I have just been reading a Newscientist article on how  chimpanzees violent rupture hints at evolutionary roots of war. Well that explains something, not sure what though. 

Bless him. Trump I'm talking about this time, trying so hard to be nice to a 'real' king, did Melanie pour the tea, we, after all, know that the hostess is in charge of the teapot.  A rather unworthy thought did escape me though did they use Meghan Markle's jam on the scones that I saw advertised some time back, or was that a step too far, in reconciliation between a son and his father.  But I bet Camilla asked the age old question we always think of when faced with a scone, cream or jam first!

How to read history

 The magpie holds up her collection of words for the day:  Just read a lovely essay from Paul Knight's words on the 'Turn of the Season, the local awakening of our valley.  The curlews are back and though the weather still shows the extremes of temperature life streams back.  You will note, if you read the words that is, the local meetings at chapels or mills, not necessarily for religion but for the welcoming back of the season and the old tradition of 'mummers'.

I have a problem with this part of Yorkshire, I loved North Yorkshire, its bucolic quietness suited my frame of mind.  Towns such as Helmsley, Kirkbymoorside and Pickering were far removed from protest marches.  I will not ever get used to large towns being so near with their complexity of transport and people rushing around.  But so be it.  At least Knight frames a landscape he loves and writes about with such skill.

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Marina Hyde, who has a tongue like a whiplash and is a favourite writer of mine describing Henry 6th compared to Trump.  Taken from the Guardian

For now, perhaps we are living through the ideal conditions for an American break with Rome. When the English pulled the trigger on the Reformation, of course, they were ruled by a sociopathic malignant narcissist, who emptied his pram of toys when Rome didn’t sign up to his obsession of the hour. He was also extremely given to kleptocracy, and couldn’t really see a policy position without reconfiguring it as a material benefit to himself. I dunno: something feels familiar, I just can’t put my finger on it.

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Has anyone come across Jay Vail, an American who I think lives in London, his observations on the English way of life, I can only probably give you a F/B link, but his quiet satire and understanding are  good.

24th April 2026

It is not actually raining at the moment but this little gem would set anyone up for meditation.  Is anyone getting the recurring advert about Tai-Chi exercises which start every Monday and obviously are the best thing out for elders, and at only 7 minutes long do not strain the body too much.  That is the sales talk by the way.

My next link is to someone called Paul Kingsnorth, he writes through his Substack articles under the title of The Abbey of Misrule.  In fact at the moment he is writing a book on 'Wild Saints'  Now I am not sure which saint he covers whether the Catholic tranche or my own favourite the Celtic school but he is an interesting writer and in the link you will find  his essay, called  'Once and Future Saint - Three prophecies for England'.

The martyrdom of St. Edmunds  killed by the Vikings. Wall painting to be found at St. Peter and St. Paul church in Pickering

  

In the prophecies are two kings, Edmund and Edward, the third is a prophecy that until we return to venerate the saints only then will ''real England'  come back into being.  I will say little on that, as a country we have turned secular and I think it will hardly change.

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Wall painting of St. George slaying the Dragon at Pickering Church in North Yorkshire

But it brings me round to our times at the moment.  On Saturday there was a protest meeting from the right wing factions in Manchester, I think there was a gathering of one yesterday as well, as my daughter said that the men heading down the street to the pub in full St. George paraphernalia looked scary.  And she advised a young black lad not to go in there.

The video of what actually happened on Saturday for St. George's day will tell you the story.  There was of course a counter march against it but the police were out in full force and it seemed to have gone off fairly peaceful.

St.George, who never actually set foot in this country, is being used as a symbol of hate, and I would say to all those people who desperately want to go back to what they see as better times, I shall call you the 'Back to 1958' people it won't happen when thuggery gets on the streets.

Also note, the Jesus cross carried in the video, I cannot believe we are following the American religious crusade masquerading  the steady march of Fascism that is taking place.

22nd April 2026

Spring comes with such a rush.  Suddenly tiny violets with their heart-shaped leaves cover the ground.  The Wind Anemones star the ground with their whiteness and then, roll drum, the marvellous sheen of blue called the bluebell slides through the woodlands in that moment when the trees are slowly unfolding their leaves to the full glory of summer.  You see we have to have that dappled, half cold, half warm sunlight on the bluebells to understand their magic.

The light creeps ahead quickly early morning and even more so in the evening all these happenings just a matter of chance.  A balance between moon and sun.

Out on the street, a crocodile of children escorted by helpers went by chattering like a group of birds humming through the air.  They are on their way to the Hippodrome theatre, a charity run theatre.  Dog walkers pass, dog greeting dog, they are off to their daily walk of pee and poo, not to put too fine a point on it.

 Yesterday I learnt how to collage photographs, you can see the effort below.  I took Paul as my subject, each photo has its story.  Trouble is I have to pay for the privilege of  collaging and am just wondering if it is worth it. 

                       

Scrum

 Sometimes I get mad.  It is normally when someone gets laid out to be the fall guy as Sir Olly Robbins has just been over the 'The Mandelson Affair'.  Listening to Robbins, the poor man being grilled by the foreign affair committee yesterday, he was at a loss to see what he had done.. Sorry sweetheart someone has to take the can, and as Starmer bluster's his way through, my only reaction is,  is that it is not important.  Everyone knew Mandelson is the court jester, he was being sent out to butter up Trump, and sending a rogue to meet a rogue was not exactly what I would have done;)  But then government is always practical if not downright dishonest.

My simple question is this morning why are there so many bloody rogues to begin with?  How come Trump has not been given his marching orders just as Liz Truss and her sidekick Kwatang had been unceremoniously dumped by the Conservative party as they upended the economy of this country.  Truss had 45 days in power, the lifetime of a fresh lettuce apparently.  The time when the party began its great fall from power.

My feelings on Starmer is that he is like a slow clumsy elephant in the china shop but this bitching in parliament really has to stop and they ALL put their minds to the proper running of this country.

Edit:  Just read Owen Jones on the subject of Starmer.  Well Will he can certainly find enough adjectives to describe Starmer, obviously doesn't like him.  But Jones is an overly excited young man and given to forceful opinions.  I am quite fond of him, I see him as a son causing unrest in the home.

Something gentler later on...

Rabbit Holes

A prolific 'mother' spider plant that hides the two routers that we use. I am always scared when watering the plant that water will gush over the routers and instant silence on the two will happen.  In fact the plant doesn't look very happy. The plantlings (actually they are called spiderettes or pups) should be repotted on. 

The plant produces long specialised stems called stolons and the baby plantlets strike out from the nodes along the stolon.  In fact this rebirth is in favour of the mother plant (no cross pollination?) as the plantlings extend along the long line into soil, that is if they were in the ground, the mother plant has less to exhaust itself with.

Why am I thinking about reproduction? Must have been the talk about sexual reproduction last night on late radio,  which was about Desmond Morris's  book called The Naked Ape written in 1967.  I never read it  but remember the publicity it got, perhaps I should go back and read it.  Morris has written many books  but lived in Swindon and his girl friend at one time was, never guess who? was Diana Dors. 

 

This book has significantly influenced the understanding of human behavior in relation to animal behavior.  

Apparently  Morris went on to become a painter, fairly surrealistic and it is assumed that this painting has as the model Diana Dors.  

Girl selling flowers

You can read the Wiki here

Went off- piste there somewhat, what I was actually thinking of was the reproduction method of greenflies, I mean I know you will all be fascinated by such things ;)

"They can reproduce quickly, with many individuals developed from unfertilised eggs or parthenogenetically from female aphids.

  

"This is because in asexual reproduction, a successful genotype can spread quickly without being modified by sex or wasting resources on male offspring who will not give birth. Some species can produce both sexually and through parthenogenesis".

I fell in love with the word parthenogenetically along time ago and each year would remember it when I scrunched the blackfly and greenfly off the roses.  Sometimes I squirted the roses with Fairy liquid.  But as a balance of how livelihoods are experienced through the chain of life and how people have studied these things still gives me a sense of wonder at the intricacies of each and every aspect of life that unfolds before us, and yes I did feel guilty killing greenfly!

And just to finish look at that Longnet Stinkhorn, a fungi in Africa and see the work that is being carried out there.  Fungus or plain old mushrooms will teach us about the interconnectivity of the natural world.

Edit: Reason Desmond Morris was on the radio in the middle of the night 

 because he had died quite peacefully on Sunday night.

 

17th April 2026 - yellow archangel

 I am listening to Hauser's Benedictus now but this morning I woke up with Jonathon King singing 'Everyone has gone to the Moon' and wondered why music suddenly makes an entrance into one's brain.  The Jonathon King could easily be explained because daughter and Andrew are going off to Switzerland today for a few days.  The music now playing has just crashed from soft to high, Karl Jenkins is a favourite in the modern classical music frame of  our time.  

It fits the news as it unwinds, storms interspersed with quiet periods.  Now it clicks on to George Butterworth's 'The Banks of Green Willow,' such English music ;)

I shall be going with the whole family to Switzerland in September, have to renew my passport but already have started by having a photo taken down at Morrisons.

Do it online I hear them say but I shall wait till someone with a logical frame of mind too help comes along.  It really is not fair that as I pass on to higher realms the world insists on changing!  Now it is 'Spiegel in Spiegel' my own playlist on You tube not even made by me but some alien computer force.  Yes I have a tongue in cheek approach this morning, my algorithms are playing up.

Sam is cleaning the house, the builders came yesterday and finished the job.  Big warning - do not shut the basement door from the inside, the door will not open from the inside, it is the old fashioned round knob and all the screws are missing in the plate.  The builders used the basement windows to climb in and out to their van.  Not that anyone locked them down there but it happened to Andrew when he was taking his laptop round the basement to show his German family cousin's children round its dark interior.  

Originally it must have been the kitchen down there, alongside the coal hole, the butchery, well it has hooks in the ceiling.  But there is a fireplace and sink down there as well.

At the moment it is all brace yourself just in case.  Store some water, food and a wind up radio and do not use petrol for frivolous use.  Trump has made the world into a shocking place to live and he hasn't even got the brains of a gnat for Christ's sake!

Well better things I have seen this morning - Yellow Dead nettle for a start, or Yellow Archangel.  It can be grown in the garden and there is a cultivated species out there as well.  It also has silver splayed on its leave, giving it the terminology 'aluminium' as well Linnaeus named it and it reminds me that our own wild orchids will be out soon.  Dead but alive, of course you can see the platform on which the bees rest to collect the pollen.

The red dead nettle is also out but not so pretty but still important for the bees.

Lamium Galeobodolon. Teun Spaans - author, taken from Wikipedia.

Bores and builders

 It has started: The first part of checking the basement for the structural engineer.  Holes have to be made in the basement floor under the large paving stones and also in the ceiling.  But the main work maybe months ahead.  The builder and his young lad came yesterday.  He has long hair and a very cheerful air;) My daughter said he must come from Hebden Bridge.  Yes another generation of hippies has floated down from the original.  There again I might be overthinking, who knows.  Anyway it is the start of a long journey for us.

I mentioned in my latest comments, the Severn Bore, something people round Bristol got excited about.  The great wave sweeps up the river and foolhardy surfers try to fly on its back.  Well I had written about the Bristol Channel in 2007 and here it is once again, with its tales of the Romans crossing it and getting stuck in the middle.

A short video but do turn off the sound!

Moors -14th April 2026

 Something I read yesterday: Rebecca Solnit's latest essay.  In the comments at the bottom of the  essay you will find the words 'Flower Power' and maybe those lessons learnt at the time of the Vietnam war will also influence us today.  After all it is still in living memory, and when you see the crowds protesting whether in London or America there is a  lot of elders participating.  And with the win yesterday in Hungary of overthrowing a right wing authoritarian  leader there is always hope.

 Meditations in an Emergency

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Listening to the news this morning and one item jostled against the other.  How our defence spending had been neglected over the years and the problem with enough energy to be on tap in the future.  Well wind turbines to a degree are saving us from complete disaster but many people are staring at them with disgust, not me by the way.  They remind me of a scene in H.G.Wells' War of the World'. You can see how my childhood was coloured by the books I read ;)

One of the first Illustrations of War of the World

As an aside I read somewhere that all our technology that we experiment with today is from reading science fiction books which predicted the future.  Wonder what Musk read? I suppose it all depends of course as to what's on the bookshelf.

Anyway to get back to wind turbines there is a big hoo-ha about 34 giant turbines to be put up on Walsaw Moor, not far from here and a stone's throw from  the Bronte's moor.  It will be somewhere near Hebden Bridge and  Haworth, the place where the Bronte sisters lived in the Rectory there with their father.

Haworth Rectory

It will cause a lot of disruption on the moors, though I think people are agitating more over the sight of these giant turbines.  There will be of course disturbance of the wildlife, especially my favourite bird the curlew and yet I have mixed feelings about whether they should go up or not.  Practically they give us clean energy which is not disruptive of the climate.  We seem further away from such things as nuclear fission? and Nuclear energy takes time to build the power plants and of course involves some risk.

The trouble with the people of today is they want to stay in the time warp they see around us, whereas the human condition always moves on.  Whether it is rebuilding after war or technology advancing in a way that changes the order of things.

Paul Kingsworth calls it The Machine that is running the show. It is the balance of power, technology, wealth and ideology. The balance that is out of kilter at the moment.  It is well known  for instance that war puts vast sums of money into a few  people's pockets, it is in itself a distraction.

Anne Pettifor

Sunday 12th April 2026

 

"Today" by Mary Oliver

Today I’m flying low and I’m

not saying a word

I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.

The world goes on as it must,

the bees in the garden rumbling a little,

the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.

And so forth.

But I’m taking the day off.

Quiet as a feather.

I hardly move though really I’m traveling

a terrific distance.

Stillness. One of the doors

into the temple.

I do so like Mary Oliver's poetry, it somehow grabs the truth of the moment. I share the same feelings towards nature as she does and when people look at me suspiciously as I tell them to enjoy the natural world and become part of it, I know just where she is coming from.

But this blog is about a list of who I listen to, and perhaps the people who direct my thoughts as to how the world works. Let us start with.....

 

Professor Tim Wilson  Sitting in front of his brightly patchwork curtains and often equally dressed as brightly, he gives his opinion every day in true professorship style. He led me early this morning to.....

The News Agent fronted by Emily Maitus, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall.

The Rest is Politics US with Katty Kay and Anthony Scaramucci.  The 'Mooch' messes around of course and he is a crypto currency person but his take on Trump is needlepoint..

The Rest is Politic UK Fronted firstly by Rory Stewart, a bit of a gloom and doom disaster person, think he knows everything about the Middle East but entertaining. His partner is Alistair Campbell. Tony Blair's second in command at one stage in our earlier history.

Heather Cox Richardson,  Also like this American lady for her daily interpretations of what is happening in America.  She is a cool, calm and collected historian.

Owen Jones.  He is definitely a radicalised left bending person.  I love his eagerness and sheer brimming energy as he talks.  You can find him in the Guardian as well.

Novara Media  The three presenters I see most of are Michael Walker, Aaron Bastani and Ash Sarkar.  Young, lively and very intelligent.

Pasture Politics.  A witty sardonic look by an American farmer through the eye of his sheep. The Herd/Us is played beautifully by the sheep who nibble his jacket and stare blankly into the camera.

There are others but I am tired of finding links and names at the moment.  But the above does illustrate how the media is taking an individual path of its own to describe the world events that are happening around us at the moment.