Friday 7th June

Doctors and vets yesterday, hospital today, life takes on a different perspective.  Paul is doing alright, tired a lot of the time but he even went out in the garden yesterday and swept the stones away on the path, the bantams just love scattering stuff.

I took Lucy to the big new glass fronted vets yesterday, and a very efficient vet examined her, she had a high temperature, and then he took a blood sample, analysised in 20 minutes.  It seems she has a liver infection, not too serious but requiring a fair amount of pills and another blood test in a fortnight's time to see how she is recovering.  Thank goodness for all the new equipment the vets have invested in.  So have I of course, bills don't come cheap, though I do have insurance.

Lucy herself sleeps a lot, tends to throw her bowl of food all over the kitchen floor, but eats some of it eventually, she is a diva of high order with her mischief making and on the whole is still cheerful when teasing us.  Then there is of course all that yummy ice cream that hides pills, will have to invest in some more, perhaps to go with the strawberries that are on sale down at the smallholding in Sinnington.

As an ex-Catholic convent girl, the Pope latest pronouncement made me laugh,

'Do not lead us into temptation'. Is the one I shall always remember, Hail Mary escaped the purge as did 'I believe in God, the father almighty'.  Both of which learnt by heart, one, repeated with rosary beads. The sad fact is all through my formative years I never believed in God.  And as I look at that latest naive updating by the Pope, I despair.  Apparently it was a bad translation from the beginning. 

"The Pope has previously told Italian TV that the new translation was already being used by the Catholic Church because the original translation implies God leads humans to sin.

"Do not let me fall into temptation because it is I who fall, it is not God who throws me into temptation and then sees how I fell," he told TV2000, an Italian Catholic TV channel in 2017.

"A father does not do that, a father helps you to get up immediately."

A line in The Gloria will also change in the third edition from “Peace on earth to people of good will” to “Peace on Earth to people beloved by God.”

The weather is good for the moment, the garden looks perfect and there are three sweet fledgling sparrows harassing their mother for food.  The world is alive with the newly fledged young, whether they be sparrows or crows.

Just photos

Looking over into the spinney. I love the draped effect, of I think is a larch.  The sun catches it early on in the morning

A pot of nasturtiums with sweet peas intermingled,  between my pots of runner beans, which are just beginning to flower

Sweet Rocket, Dame's Violet, Hesperis Matronalis.  Who would not be in love with flower names

The other side of life

Larry, chief mouser at No.10 has been providing fun again, he parked himself under 'The Beast' the reinforced car Trump is using as he faces a somewhat hostile Britain.  Did Larry present a 'security risk'? Probably not but he introduced a grin here or there.

And then, the campaigners 'Led By Donkeys', revealing who they were last week, their poster campaign is an antidote to tweeting... A few years back, British humour was sarky, ironic and very funny, one day we will pick up that thread and run with it.  But as we all hold our heads in despair over the present set of politicians, remember everything goes away with time, even Trump.
In fact Larry was lucky that no American security shot him, but then animal loving british people would never ever forgive that man ;).  Notice how Trump backtracks on the NHS yesterday, don't believe him!

Led by Donkeys poster campaign

Monday 3rd June

Should call this nature notes! But before I go travelling in the garden a Paul update. He has lost that pallor which so worried me and regaining his appetite and even has stopped sleeping so much, so there are signs of a slow recovery.

Last night we watched on Netflix 'A Hundred Foot Journey,' about an Indian familiy's restaurant and a French restaurant with Helen Mirren and Manish Dayal.  Well I won't give a Rachel film review, but it was HAPPY and everyone finished up with the right people.  And though I am not really into fusion cooking, squiggles on a plate for goodness sake, the gentle touches of spices to French cooking seemed to work.

The weather remains cool, but surprises come out of the blue, did I sow Sweet Rocket last year, well it certainly has appeared alongside the verbascum's dark blooms.  The squirrels, there are two, are performing acrobats for food, though I notice there are a lot of fir cones on the tree in the spinney which should provide enough winter food.

The crows and jackdaws feasting on the seeds and pushing out the smaller sparrows and doves.  My two bantams are both broody and have to be put out on the grass for the day, but more often than not they go off and have a dust bath in the potato bed.

Hedgehogs

Hedgehogs are cute but are sharply on the decline in England for a number of reasons.  This message sent out by our own hedgehog Sanctuary is a timely warning to know what to look out for.  The above shows Matilda just beginning to fill out after having been brought in thin and starving.  The message from our local sanctuary below underlines the role we can all play in helping these small prickly creatures.

Please talk to your friends about hedgehogs. We might know but so many people still do not. Hedgehog’s that are wobbly or shaky, sunbathing or can’t curl up are in trouble and need immediate help. One with more than a couple of ticks also needs help. Ticks target sick hedgehogs. The hedgehog we removed over 200 ticks from was close to death when she came in. She could have been released had it not been for her spines which have been damaged. As soon as they grow she will be back home. Flies lay eggs on hedgehogs if they are out in the sunshine! They need moving somewhere the flies can’t get them. Make sure no flies are still sitting on them too. I had one brought to me in a box complete with flies still laying eggs on it! Maggots  Dehydration are a killer. If in doubt capture the hedgehog first before you call a rescue. British Hedgehog Preservation Society have a list of some rescues, but there are lots of carers. Check Google for your closest. Lots can collect. Do not try and care for the hedgehog yourself. Sick hogs need URGENT care. Offer water only until you have spoken to someone that can help. Please feel free to copy and paste this so you can share. Thank you. Pickering Hedgehog Rescue.

Saturday thoughts

Compose bold, clear, mistake-free writing with Grammarly’s AI-powered writing assistant.

No I have never signed up to it but it flashed across my mind when Tom Stevenson's blog queried our relationship with free speech, in this instance, Peter Willsman, Labour man had said something 'off screen' about the Israeli embassy.  The question could we not speak out about unfair policies in Israel against the Palestinians is perhaps a subject we should be silent on but then free speech becomes impaired.

The correlation between Grammarly and proper writing and of how one actually sees the world through the lens of one's own eye is intriguing.  One problem is the fact that the media are there like a pack of media men (not being cruel to wolves who only hustle for food) hustling for news.  One sentence can easily be taken out of context, and then blown up in front headlines and a person's career can be ruined.  This is a question for editors to address.

But the world of today has changed from the simple place I once knew to a more dogmatic attitude of 'proper behaviour'. We have through the internet, media news and what else, now not only contemplate our own tummy buttons but everyone elses!

Actually I cannot see an answer, news screams at us from every corner, we can only pick and choose, acccept that there are gender issues we never knew existed, or that protests against them, as in the case of the Birmingham primary school, are part of a multi-cultural problem, but maybe we should not have an opinion;)

But at least the day has opened calm and beautiful, the birds are singing, the milkman has just left the papers.................

there is no 'Away'

I wonder who  thought up that slogan about rubbish, every day we are expected to be guilty about something, yesterday rubbish, today eating rubbish food, eg heavily industrialised food with more artificial ingredients than fresh.  O well..

Western world has been discreetly sending their rubbish to Asian countries.  Well they have had enough - good for them - and now are threatening to send it back to the countries it came from.

We talk of recycling plastic but it is almost impossible to recycle all of the plastic, so we should perhaps be hitting on the producers of plastic and telling them to stop.  Okay impossible but solutions need to be found.

How come governments haven't done something about it? Stupid question, we all know the answer to that.  We have 'recycling' schemes, today is our recycling day, newspapers and cardboard in one box, aluminum cans and plastic in the other.  The garden waste, (very heavy with grass cuttings at the moment) is collected by another vehicle. 

Garden waste gets recycled and I buy some each year (it comes in plastic bags though), the rest goes elsewhere.  No matter how much I scan my shopping and try not to buy goods in plasticky things, you have to.  Lucy's chicken, ice cream, fish, etc the list goes on. I suspect that biological wrapping stuff, such as potato starch would get impregnated by the liquid content of the stuff bought. Though I notice some of my magazines and even the Guardian uses potato starch as a covering.. Perhaps there is an answer here, grit one's teeth buy expensive butcher's meat wrapped in paper, and green grocery free of plastic, which I do already and ditch the ice cream, Lucy would be so disappointed if I did that!

Sweden though is managing to control their recycling by burning it as fuel...

Well that is a start, which I follow, our pretty little market town has several shops that cater for our needs.  There is a small shop, bring your own bags for flour, etc and they have vegetables, fruit, local mayonnaise, jams and pickles.  But then think of the log jam if everybody shopped there.

Another thought, Daisys, our local garden centre, why can't they use those brown cardboard pots for plants they are selling, instead of the plastic pots? Slight adjustments and we could be there... Have you hear about 'Who Gives a Crap' toilet paper,   a delicate subject but worth thinking about, they don't use trees in the making of their wares but I am not sure what they do use, its not what you think..

Serious concentration called for here... We cannot live upon this Earth without producing some rubbish, our guilty secret, and here I include Paul, is that we have things delivered to the house and they come in a variety of wrappings including plastic.  Maybe a note to them all, will not accept plastic would do the trick but somehow think they would refuse to send the goods out.  Amazon stands out as a cardboard user, so some good comes out of behemoths even if they are trying to takeover the world.

Wednesday 29th May

Rain has fallen, the plants are grateful. Yesterday Rod and his wife, gardeners who cut the grass in the church yard, came and did ours.  Yes in the rain, they used a thin wand like heater, about five foot across before the mower, and the lawn is cut.  Except when you examine it, the creeping buttercups lie flat and uncut, their strong stems refusing to yield to the cutter.  That is what comes of a house built on a field, we have inherited good and bad weeds.

I hate the word weed, it demotes so many pretty wild flowers, in the lawn there are 'good' weeds but the bullying habit of the buttercup is a problem.

Yesterday I listened to podcasts whilst I wove, firstly on America, very downbeat, and then something on Charles Jenck and architecture.  His garden in Scotland,  Cosmic Speculation one is a revelation in green lawns.  Do I like it? no is the response.  It looks as if he has taken prehistory by the throat, and formed Iron Age forts and round barrows.  Philistine that I am, the question springs unbidden to the mind - Why mess with the natural world? - it can create beauty on its own just look at the trees in the background.

Charles Jencke and Christopher Alexander also an architect (American), create buildings, they are both philosophers at heart. The picture is soothing enough, there are traces of the Glastonbury path there as well, symbols of a new pagan cult.  But Glastonbury rests on age and that ruined church tower at the top. On a more practical level, fancy mowing those curves.  Two thousand years hence will those curves still be as jagged?  As an aside Charles Jencke's wife, Maggie, who sadly died of cancer, also wrote a book, but on Chinese Gardens and the symbolic use of how they were created.  Expensive to buy unfortunately. But something did come out of her death,  these were the Maggie centres.

We are going through a wretched time of austerity, whilst those in office argue interminably about leaving Europe, there are those in the community who live on the edge. Part of the thoughts on Jencke come from an article in the Newstateman, about how as we get older what type of end house and care do we require.  Given good health many are fortunate enough to stay in their own homes, but state funded care, comes out at about £600 per week in a care home, £800 per week in a nursing home and probably £2000 a week in hospital.
Someone talks of compulsory extra money taken from everyone to help towards this crisis, but then you look at the other problems - disabled, living homeless on the streets, young children turning feral in bad social conditions - who do you spend the money on?

And who would have thought that Magid Magid, the now ex-mayor of Sheffield has managed to win a green seat in the European elections.  Hurrah for the greens!  Yes I know it is only for a short time, or maybe not, who knows?  But he doesn't half give a kick in the ribs to the question of immigrants and immigration.  That sense of humour rubs off on everyone :)

Bank Holidays with miserable weather

Forgetting all outside news, I shall concentrate today on flowers.  A walk down the roses by the wall shows each bush brimming over with buds, a sheer show of delight to come, even the foxgloves are producing buds.  On the other side of the garden the colour blue has arrived. knapweed, veronica and Jacob's ladder not forgetting irises.

Jacob's Ladder has always intrigued me, you can see its leaf, bottom left of the photo, structured like a ladder.  It was first discovered in this country at Malham Cove in the West Riding in 1666 under a great wall of limestone.  A gentle non-assuming flower but a native.  Of course it takes its name from the biblical story that Jacob 'slept with a stone for a pillow' and dreamt that he saw a ladder reaching to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it.  The plant reminds me of the front of Bath Abbey which has this  story depicted in stone, the angels climbing to heaven.

Paul continues to slowly improve, soon it will be a rigmarole of doctors and outpatients but for now home is a safe refuge.  Jev (his old car) is attached like a patient to a battery charger in the garage, and I am grateful that I bought a car a couple of years ago, my 'hairdressers car' as my daughter calls it.  Not sure why, its red and small and is a Kia from the local showrooms in Kirkbymoorside.  I would have preferred a blue one but it was the only secondhand car with low mileage and it has done me proud.  Though sadly I scrapped its shiny paintwork at the doctors the other day trying to back out of a narrow space.

Saturday ramblings

I have been listening to Fergal Sharkey, taking Claire Balding for a walk,  they have just found the place where Millais painted the picture of Ophelia.  I suppose you would call it over romanticised and an elegant depiction of a pretty English scene, unfortunately Elizabeth Siddal, the model, caught a bad cold from lying in a cold bath. 

Gosh Sharkey sounds old but such an expert on the natural world, and I have just learnt that there are two hundred chalk rivers in England, a chalk river is one of nature's delight.  Apparently the band of chalk starts in East Yorkshire sweeps down to the South and is responsible for the white cliffs of Dover.

Ophelia by Millais

My header photo has some of the elements to be found in the painting, the white water flowers and drifting green plants.  My picture should have had the dozens of demoiselle damselflies that were dancing over the water, unfortunately I only managed to capture one low down in the r/h corner. 

Where is it? Wellow Brook, out in the countryside of Wiltshire not far from Bath. 

A place often visited to see  Stoney Littleton long barrow, here I would traipse with  Moss up the hill past the sheep, to brood and meditate.

If you went into the village of Wellow, you would see a place where other artists had once lived, The Brotherhood of Ruralists, of which I have written plenty, just type in search box if you are interested.  They lived in the old railway station, if you are an artist you just have to be 'with it' ;) bet it was all wicked and communal! 

Only of course that was not important, as is the kerfuffle we find ourselves in at the moment, don't weep for Mrs May, it had to happen, as does a different political system.  We will get to a point of reconcilation sometime just enjoy the pantomime at the moment and reflect on the awful truth. The Human Race is not as clever as it thinks itself.  We are floundering in a mess of our own making.

Friday and back

Well back on my old blog, what scared me? the number of people coming to read a slightly dramatic title I wrote.  I live a quiet life, am happy with it and also chattering on my blog.  Maybe in a nonsensical way and also in an angry mood when I contemplate the mess this country is in.

Well my love is back home from the hospital, don't ask me to write too much when I am worried, really truly worried, my thoughts would be all over the place.

Yesterday he phoned late in the morning that he had been transferred to another ward from the assessment ward, then at lunchtime he phoned to say he was in the discharge lounge.

So I leapt in the car and drove through the country lanes.  It takes a good hour to the hospital, but the countryside is beautiful.  If I go the Terrington way past the gorgeous country estate of Castle Howard, this is Christina's way, but Irene goes the Hovingham way, through Sheriff Hutton past its magnificent ruined castle on the hill and then Strensall.  Both my friends had accompanied me on previous visits.

Then you hit the ring road round York, something I dread, but my confidence has returned with driving and now the ring road and its three traffic islands no longer seem the worst thing to tackle.

Sheriff Hutton Castle.  a wiki photo - By Shaunconway - Own work, 

Back to Paul,  glad to be home, shocked by what had happened, a bag full of protein drinks and pills.

Full marks to the NHS for the wonderful care and attention says he, York Hospital is a very busy district hospital, but runs with a calm efficiency that is marvellous to behold.  God help us though if the computer system broke down.

The only complaint he had was of the wretched behaviour of two badly behaved male patients, one of whom spent the night shouting at the nurses.

Now I have to feed him up, a diet sheet lies on my desk, not too difficult, small meals but plenty of carbohydrates and protein.

Tuesday 7th May

The Celtic deity that resided over the entrance to the Roman Temple at Bath.  I have loved him since first setting eyes on him, he needs to be above all entrances quantifying due respect and reverence on how we view our natural world.  You may ask whether there are wings artfully concealed in his hair or perhaps snakes,  similar to a female Gorgon.  He is the Guardian of Minerva the Roman Goddess of Bath, Minerva is also seemingly implicit in a British role as the Celtic goddess Sulis, so that we have the symbolic imagery of two gods rolled into one, in this instance Minerva/Sulis.  You can find more information here.  Already my senses become overwhelmed by the information to be found 'The Ruin' an old Anglo-Saxon poem written a couple of centuries later when Bath had fallen into ruin and decay after the Roman departure.
Actually what I was going to write, and it is still in drafts was about my daughter's father family, who she still keeps in close touch but it hardly seemed interesting as a write up, so I shall print it and keep it safe.  She was down over the weekend and we talked for a long time about family, one interesting fact emerged which I did not know, was that when her cousin Marc at age 6 was brought back by my ex-sister-in-law from Persia/Iran to Switzerland, my daughter's (and his) grandfather took Marc straight round to the police station and registered him.  
In this time of Brexit, the Opper family who worked in different parts of the world, though all the children were educated in Britain, stand for old England and the comparative ease of moving round the world.  We face a very different scenario at the present time, all my grandchildren though are staunch Remainers.

Good things the song thrushes are back, the three goldfinches hop around the garden and blackbirds busily scoop up worms for their young.
And as for pretty pictures, on this damp drizzly day, at this time of the year, the fennel, lavender, rosemary the artemisia 'Powis Castle' and Ladies Mantle leaves are fresh and unfurling and fill the other long bed with a discreet amount of colour, I had been thinking 'Sissinghurst rooms' here, small blocks of plants.

To be recorded; First two swallows sighted at Gospel's Cottage.  Hurrah!

Friday 3rd May

Chosen at random, he is rather cute.

Nelson lost one of his goats yesterday, poor man he was really worried. He stopped me as I walked Lucy then stopped the postman by stopping his car halfway across the road.  He was worried that it would get into gardens and eat people's flowers.  Well I think it may have come home for Paul saw one on the bank of the river.  I have never owned one, not exactly a practical animal to own, Nigel has a couple as well, the white Saanen ones, everyday he goes for a walk and collects them fodder.

Our chairman of the Parish council, elected last week, has been making waves with the local council, not very successfully.  I suspect we will appoint all our councillors by today, of all colours, including green. Then they will sit round and refuse to answer our queries or do anything we need doing.  But I am so glad that our antiquated government system is really beginning to feel the strain and they all running round like headless chickens - it's the 'London' effect.

Talking of chickens, Nelson's fowls are often out on the verge, playing around the great stump of the horse chestnut tree, which was cut down a few days ago, presumably by the council.  This verge goes back about 20 feet, and someone said Nelson had claimed the land, but then our historian sent in the Land Registry plan which shows our small village green and this verge belong to the council.  The horse chestnut was planted at the time of Queen Victoria's Jubilee, no one said it was to be cut down, in Bath there would have some rumblings about that.

I am wittering and there are holes to be dug for plants....and just as I type this there are handsome ponies and traps trotting by, with people piled into the carts.

How does my garden grow?

John's (going gently) call for 'corners' was an interesting delve into our lives.  Firstly, how many dogs and cats sleep on the furniture, answer, nearly all of them. Comfort is the main factor of the rooms, and many were beautifully furnished as well.

So to return to the subject of the garden, when I went out this morning it was dull and misty, there is talk of frosts at night later in the week, so I recorded all that I saw.  Vegetable gardening was somewhat important, hence big sacks to grow potatoes, beans and tomatoes, all snug against a warm wall (hopefully).

The first photo to greet you, and me, is scruffbum Lucy asleep on the sofa, joy she let me sleep through the night without demanding that I come downstairs.

The roses (still clear of blackspot ;)

my one and only aquilegia, delicate foliage

Beans waiting to go out

This plant has refused to flower for the last four years.  In fact it is a a cutting from the original, think it was a penstemon. One of my favourite plants but not too happy up here in Yorkshire.

faithful companions, the viola flowers for a long time

Potatoes and tomatoes

Beans and herbs

Monday 29th April

Sometimes people turn the argument around and for an instance you see a different slant to a story, here it is told in the tale of the grey - red squirrel conflict, and makes clear it wasn't all the fault of the grey squirrel...taken from this link

"During the early part of the 20th century, gamekeepers and others viewed red squirrels as pests and a bounty was offered on their tails. In Scotland alone, between 1903 and 1946, 102,900 red squirrels were slaughtered."

Someone attacked Greta Thunberg as a 'naive and pathetic little school girl' on a forum yesterday. rather than go in and get cross, my only reaction was that she had done more for a movement than many others. And of course how we read others and the terrible mistakes we make when first we choose to comment makes the written word so much stronger than the facial smile you would see in real life.

So how do we react to 'Climate Change' I wonder?  Is 'Extinction Rebellion' a jumped up protest group of ne'er do wells, did the senior element and the children not impress those who would castigate the foolishness of people stopping the traffic.  Terrible nuisance of course but how do you fit all those people into one basket, they are scared of the gathering gloom.  Can it be that in this country with a media so in love with the word 'B***** we have forgotten to look elsewhere in the world for news, for the Amazon forest destroyed at a terrible rate, for islands overcome by typhoons and hurricanes, our country complacently contemplates itself and ignores the wider issue.

To be quite honest I am not sure where all this will go, 1.5 degree rise means that there will an awful lot of fires around, experienced here on the moors of course, after a very dry winter.  

I am being gloomy again, my only recipe is that we must plant more trees and protect those that are still with us, it may not save the world but at least it will give our hands something to do.  Came across this on F/B this morning, very surreal of course but a message I suppose.

Remiodos Varo - Spanish/Mexican painter - 19th century

A rather long but interesting essay on 'Green Business, sadly it doesn't see us as pulling out of the crisis we find ourselves in - too late

Miscellany

We are still awaiting rain, I need to put some shrubs in and beans in the large bags I bought, problem is they take up a lot of soil.  One method is to use the turves taken up for the new bed, but growing stuff in bags will be an interesting experiment.  I have seen vertical growing as well, mostly salads but have used up most of the south wall of the house with herbs and the bags.  

Looking out of the window this morning and I saw the goldfinch that have been hanging around these last few days.  The bantams lay every day at the moment, feeding well and trotting round the garden without a care, though I would like them to have some care with the tulips, which get flattened under dust baths. In the photo you can see a sign for the forge, this was indeed the site of the old forge, but a deserted bungalow now sits on the plot, weirdly the owner has not lived there since we moved here, but in summer will spend an hour or two sitting outside.  What is the story?

I am inordinately proud of my last weaving effort, which though small is a tea towel and has a number of mistakes, I eventually hung it up for use. Its the yellow one of course.  Weaving is so calming, at least it is after you have warped, which tends to make me ill, think it has something to do with my middle ear.

My other efforts are not bad, but I realise I do not have the precise stitch that a shaft loom has, but I am not going down that road, having owned one in the past and not able to use it - I needed lessons of course.  So my work will follow a more abstract turn;)

Someone the other day moaned about the packhorse bridge one has to travel over to  Malton, single vehicle as it was in the olden days when carriages and carts used them.

It reminded me of the 18th carriage roads that lead to Castle Howard, magnificently lined with old trees now, and just as narrow, as they go under castellated mock walls.

Wednesday 24th April

Polly Higgins, a Scottish barrister, who has just died suddenly from an aggressive form of cancer, was the champion of a new law she was trying to bring about called Ecocide.  A law in defence of nature meant to call on all those that would trash the environment in some form or other.

Relevant today of course as the 'Extinction Rebellion' group gets under way, and there are the mutterings of Climate Change and wholesale extinction of the planet Earth. 

Ecocide "describes attempts to criminalize human activities that cause extensive damage to, destruction of or loss of ecosystems of a given territory; and which diminish the health and well-being of species within these ecosystems including humans. " 

A recent happening of going against the natural order that has sparked fury in this country, is the netting of trees to stop bird nesting in the springtime, so that it stops the birds interfering with the building of new houses, and I don't know how birds make this happen!  But sand-martins have had their sandy cliff edges netted, where once they built their nests.  People have protested by pulling the netting off hedges and trees and I doubt very much that the big time builders will take them to court - not having a leg to stand on.

There have been calls for more green resolutions, in America and the rest of the world but to no avail (it's the economy stupid) but there is a growing stronger movement happening and when populations start calling out for change then governments have to take heed.  The only problem is that people are not necessarily commited enough to follow through.

Another new green deal put forward by Yanis Varoufakis and David Adler in the Guardian, well as always it is all talk.  In many ways Polly Higgins was slightly behind the curve with her new law, what we need now is a world that will survive, and here I am not talking the survival of the fittest, such people as Trump have to be drummed out of office for their dangerous policy, and definitely not given tea with the Queen.... Is not that an absurd thought, is this my England I am talking about?

The following people have written essays in the Resurgence magazine which arrived yesterday.  At the moment I am listening to a Youtube speech from Mothuir, a lawyer, he is not good at talk but still young;)

Extinction Rebellion personalities;

Mothuir Rahman a pupil of Schumacher College in Devon.

Farhana Yamin

https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2019/court-affirms-yellowstone-more-valuable-than-gold-blocks-mining-exploration

Monday quick post - Happy Earth Day

Fancy moving to Eskdalemuir in Scotland to the Buddhist Temple of  Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery, everyone seems happy in this Easter celebration.  Somethings do brighten up the news;) Happy smiling faces.

Sunday

There was an interesting article, think it was in the New York Times, about growing wildflowers in your lawn, or anyway not mowing and weed killing the lawn, then the above popped up.  The wildflowers encourage the insects the hedgehogs eat.  The little sanctuary in Pickering for hedgehogs is sending all their inmates out to the wider world this weekend, do hope they survive.
It is the individual act of saving species by devoted people that makes this world go round.  
Notice the disapproval of 'Extinction Rebellion' protest on a few blogs but would only add that protest is just that!
But back to holding onto what we have got left, trailing through the large bed is lamium purpureum or red nettle backed by white tulips.  

The dead nettles are such pretty flowers, Yellow Archangel, white dead nettle, often called deaf or dumb nettles according to Grigson.  A dandelion pokes its head up as does a lost wallflower - tut, tut.  Deadnettles are of course stingless unlike the real nettle that creeps through the fence, but you can at this time of year make nettle soup from.

                            On The Nature of Daylight by Max Richter

Saturday 20th April

We took a trip to Castle Howard Garden centre yesterday, I wanted one of those fancy tripods for sweet peas. Well I found one and along the way (though the place was stacked with flowering plants) only bought three tomato plants.  Those cost me an 'arm and a leg', apparently because they are grafted.

There is something truly magnificent about the land and grounds round this

'over the top mansion', the care and love that has gone into the land but also the sheer effect of what wealth can do. 

Taken from their website.

Age has blended this bridge beautifully into the surrounding landscape, a picture of tranquil beauty, I can only pray that it will outlive the fracking danger that dominates the North Yorkshire landscape at the moment.

But to other things, four mugs are winging their way here, to join the four I already own.  They come in my favourite colour - turquoise, have always given me such pleasure when I drink my morning coffee, the smooth roundness of the shape, but as hospitality unfolded I realise four was not enough, now I need a larger coffee jug of course.  Strange how gray has crept into the picture of fashionable colour, have been knitting all my gray wools together with shots of a multi-colour wool.  But my third weaving attempt will be shades of yellow.

Dried flowers

Thursday 18th April

Three peacock butterflies flew over the hedge yesterday as Lucy and I walked, gosh what abundance, in this one butterfly at a time I usually see around the garden.  There was a orange tip male and also female flitting across the garden as well, it is so good to see the normality of spring happening.

                               Anthocharis cardamines taken from Wiki -By Charles J Sharp - Own                                      work, from Sharp Photography, 

The perfection of such creations, and think, spinning atoms have all created this.  Red tailed bumblebees buzz around, the stitchwort flower makes a show against the nitrogenous fed grasses of the verge. Read Murmurrs blog on no ass - hole Warty Comb Jelly and wonder at how  evolution works! 
As I write this the tractor and tank have arrived, the new pump is to be fitted, well they have had an early morning start, the traffic must be so pleased with them ;) The two bantams have fled back to their run luckily as well.
Yesterday someone turned up for coffee, we have said to people in the village we have coffee at ten, so come along if you feel like it.  Well I had only met this person the day before, so was slightly startled when the bell rang.  He has only just recently moved into the village, has a small dog and an adorable year old daughter called D, (won't name just in case).   He turns out to be a house ex-husband and has D by day and then she goes home to her mother.
Well he seems to dabble in a bit of everything, writing, poetry and painting, but I think he wants someone to babysit D, no, I gave up babysitting children with the last of the grandchildren.  But he has said he will come every week maybe I will invest in some toys.  D was lovely with Lucy who was not quite sure of this little creature scrabbling around  and playing with her toys but her tail wagged most of the time and she was definitely intrigued.

https://northstoke.blogspot.com/2008/05/valley-of-black-pig.html

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News; How it changes in tone. I notice that there are many questioning the rush of money by billionaires to fund the restoration of Notre Dame but making the comparision with the terrible fire at Grenfell... Huffpost, a contrast between medieval benefactors and todays wealthy who are not prepared to fork out for human disaster.