Thursday

Another parish meeting yesterday evening, two people standing down therefore we can no longer hold official meetings.  It is all fairly interesting, each parish can ask for a precept from the council - it comes out of your rates, so in actual fact you do pay for it.  Our precept has been paying the rental for a solar 'slow down' sign that is erected every so often at the beginning of the village - £1400 a year.  It did not work properly last time, think they put it in the wrong way round, not facing the sun but this year we come out of the contract.

The next thing is to ask the council if we can build our own footpath along a rather dangerous verge we walk on to do the circular walk of the village, they have (the council) promised 'pedestrians in the road' signs.  Yes they won't give us a pavement, unless one of us killed or injured.  Volunteers were asked for but no one signed up for death.

I have a friend coming for a few days, and of course she is worrying about the Northern trains debacle.  I think it will be alright for her, as she travels on different companies, everything is getting so overcrowded nowadays and especially in those Northern cities and then this worry for commuters as trains timetables are altered and train service reduced.

Life is falling apart, they have just announced on the radio that the stock exchange is closed down due to some computer faulty glitch?  So what with TSB and Visa perhaps we should go more carefully with our reliance on technology as we get shut out of our bank accounts, or can't even reach a bank to check.

But my stately pink foxgloves still strut their stuff and there is a beautiful perennial geranium, purple I would say that is coming out everywhere, indifferent to our human problems.....


Blick Mead and Starr Carr - Mike Pitts