Whoops I just made an account on the Daily Mail. Didn't mean to I was just looking round for gossip on Benedict Cumberbatch. Of what I have seen of him he has a high handed attitude to life and he also has a shouty mouth. The couple of videos I saw and he was arguing angrily with cyclists.
Enough, the reason I was chasing him is that he fronts an environmental video that I have started watching which I will put below. I have only seen a bit of it but (me on my high horse) talking about industrial agricultural. Well I was rather shocked by great rolling orchards of pears in China which had to be pollinated not just by hand but with drones as well. The bees have been wiped out by pesticides and herbicides. What happens is they gather the first early pear blossom in absolutely industrial scale and then shake the pollen free from the flowers via human hand and then with soft brushes go out and pollinate the blossom by hand or by the drones.
It is weird this video coming out at this precise time, Wendell Berry died a few days ago. A Christian man who devoted himself to the land and only used horses on it. His first book 'The Unsettling of America' I read many years ago. I have a couple more, he also wrote poetry, the famous one being of course "The Peace of Wild things"
Two men, one English the other American, I wonder what they would have said to each other.
Talking of books or videos coming out, isn't it strange the coincidental timing of Diana's brother's Charles Spencer's book coming out - Swan Song, Diana, My Sister, in which he attacks King Charles. Plenty of publicity there no doubt to shoot up the sales. The coincidence comes in that another branch of the royal family has moved back to England, Harry and Meghan with their two children. The royals seem to be setting themselves up for another battle. Why can't they do it in private?
The full video as promised, it is over an hour long but looks promising and as what I call the negativity bug is looking a little trashed and there is more hope for the future. That is of course bar the wars that are threatening on all sides.
Happy Equinox to everyone. Though apparently it is on Wednesday but I still prefer the 21st. xxx
Ironically it is the International Day of Peace
I was surprised to read your bit about bees being wiped out in China so they have to pollinate with drones and by hand. Couldn't they just import bees from somewhere that has them? I guess not. What a mess humans have made of the world.
ReplyDeleteThat shocked me as well.
DeleteIt really is a monoculture those pears Ellen. Enormous amount, all the same species probably. Dangerous of course should disease hit them, and you would need millions of bees to pollinate.
ReplyDeleteI heard an article on The Food programme (R4) about commercial honey from China. They keep the bees in large warehouses and feed them on sugar water, not a flower in sight. That made me even more determined to get my honey from a local producer who sells single source honey. I love heather honey but also have ivy honey and hawthorn and rowan honey to try.
ReplyDeleteI think the honey you get in supermarkets are similar Ruta. Our local honey goes pretty quickly. How does the person who produces the honey from his bees know what they have been feeding on, unless they know by taste. Rowan honey sounds good.
DeleteAs far as the Spencer/royal family/Harry and Meghan thing: why is it not private? Simple. Those headlines are selling papers.
ReplyDeleteYes it is just all gossip Debby. Raking over the past never did anyone any good.
ReplyDelete