This has got to be one of the strangest yet - see what you think?

The weather was unseasonably warm last week but has now grown a little cooler although remaining dry. All that changes today but rain is welcome now that things are moving, growing and greening. Yesterday evening I heard my first bumblebee and there is a small patch of spawn in the pond although no sign of the frogs that made it. The frogs are late this year and do not seem particularly abundant. I wonder if the hard winter has played a part or whether they are wiser than we and know that winter still has some cold weather to delay our move to spring.

It was nice to enjoy the remains of the day and to think of being 50 soon. Seems a long time but marked in the life of so many other things a mere trifle of existence. Still the potatoes and onions are in, the herbs are coming through and the hillside is alive with yellow daffodils. It must be spring...my 50th spring. Maybe my last as the US pastor (Harold Camping) has forecast the world will end this year and only 2% of the world’s population will be raptured (taken to heaven). The rest of us...well we are going on a long, hot trip. But you know that seems like an awful waste of people. But just in case, I shall have to enjoy this spring all the more.

The coming northern front sweeps away the warmer air back to the south. Its chill wind leavens the tree tops to dance in its wake. Above the rustle of motile leaves a solitary magpie cackles its hoary song. Yet the bumble bee queen carries on working, for she cares not for his boasting, vulgar song about how he steals from the works of others. For soon she shall raise an army fit for the summer.

I made a wish so full upon the moon
But realise now it was so late; too soon
The world has now changed I understand
For the sea to ever sweep back into land
I thought that I would teach you a lesson
But you taught me one the harder to learn
That faith and goodness is not ever earned
It is innate within and iconic, of an essence
That will always be of you when I smile

My supermoon pictures - ok not NASA standard but i like to think artistic

Clear skies will reveal a "super moon" phenomenon on Saturday as the moon reaches its closest point to the Earth for almost two decades. Stargazers will be hoping to see a bigger and brighter moon than normal as it reaches the closest point to the Earth since 1992. But experts say that people will need to look very closely to spot the 0.3% difference in size. It is the first time since 19 January 1992 that the moon has come into such close proximity to the Earth. This type of full moon tends to bring a range of high and low tides, but experts said yesterday that there was nothing to worry about.

Well they would say that wouldn’t they! Seriously though the moon should be impressive tonight if we have a clear sky.

The world opens up to
Arms enfolding morning sunshine
Stretched across earlier dawns
Clutching back the lost hours.

The heart cannot escape joy for
Of all the times in the year
This is the most uplifting to...
Simply be and await the summer

Into this brooding arc of change
Turning circles across leisurely days
See the new hours and spend time
To sense the season come to pass
Within lightening spring vistas

We are the sum of evolution by a remarkable chance that creates thoughts that wander lost in the cosmos looking for answers to all the questions. So lofty and challenging are the enquiries we ask. But we can never be given the answers for at the end of it all we are limited by our decaying physical existence. While we know pain and pleasure and while we feel and respond to emotions we shall not evolve further. The proof of this is clear if we look, for all minds since the dawn of literacy have pondered the very same questions and all, (despite the intervention of millennial evolution,) have arrived at the same conclusions. No matter the belief

We are the sum of a creation
Made from an omnipotent will
Given pain and pleasure to...
Teach us there is a better life ahead
Gifted with a generous free will
To feel and respond to emotions
We shall not however evolve further
For we are but the puppets of heaven
We are the sum of a creation
Made evident in their likeness
Given an eternity in paradise
Knowing every day as a joy to…
Await punishment of the wicked
On the judgement day and...
Be rapturous in their torment
Or given never-ending pain in hell
If we be that which we are – human
We are the creator’s sum of chaos

We are the sum of an evolution
Hewed from rock and stardust
Breathed into life by chance
Drifting through a time and space
Living testaments to one single span
Of existence within the universe
While we know pain and pleasure
Nothing else can take precedence
For we feel and respond to emotion
That clings deep into the psyche
And we shall not evolve further
While we hold to instincts of the past
We are the sum of an evolution
A living chain that sometimes
Breaks its familial links and decays
But it matters not, for we shall not
No matter the desire to greatness
Evolve further that this lifetime
We are after all the sum of chaos

March is finally here bringing the long awaited longer days that lift spirits as we once again go and return to work in the light. It’s a huge step change really but it is so gradual that we hardly notice until it is upon us. The garden is looking more mature under the flat grass which accentuates the size of the trees. The emerging daffodils around the base of the trees just add to the effect.

Robbie is completely over his operation now and his personality seems to have been magnified to another level. I rather thought he might be quieter somehow. He’s 99% joy and 1% hard work. I can live with those odds.

It’s so good to once again take evening and morning walks through the paths that wind across the top of the cemetery. With a healthy dose of imagination the old widely spaced trees and the thick carpet of beech leaves I could almost imagine I am in one of the ancient forests of Middle earth.

Julia Gillard, the Prime Minister of Australia and David Cameron, her British counterpart, are shown a time machine which can see 100 years into the future. They both decide to test it by asking a question each. Julia goes first. "What will Australia be like in 100 years time" The machine whirrs and beeps and goes into action and gives her a printout, she reads it out "The country is in good hands under the new Prime Minister, crime is non-existent, there is no conflict, the economy is healthy. There are no worries"
David thinks "It’s not bad this time machine, I'll have a bit of that" so he asks "What will Great Britain be like in 100 years time?" The machine whirrs and beeps and goes into action, and he gets a printout. But he's just staring at it. "Come on David" says Julia, "What does it say"
David replies, "I don’t know, it's all in a foreign language"

If you...

Can start the day without caffeine,
Can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
Can resist complaining, boring people with your troubles,
Can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
Can understand when loved ones are too busy to give you time,
Can take criticism and blame without resentment,
Can conquer tension without medical help,
Can relax without liquor,
Can sleep without the aid of drugs,

You Are Probably ..........The Family Dog!

This is a bit long but worth reading – perhaps soon whether you live or die will be down to the size of the doctor’s bonus – from File on 4, BBC Radio 4

Government health reform plans 'unethical' warns BMA

Dr Laurence Buckman says GP bonus payments could undermine trust. A key element of the government's NHS reform programme has been branded “disgracefully unethical" by the British Medical Association (BMA). Dr Laurence Buckman says a system of incentive payments for GPs could be seen as rewarding them for withdrawing treatment. The "Quality Premium" will be paid as part of health service reform plans. Health Minister Paul Burstow said the criticism was "a gross distortion" of government proposals. New GP consortia are due to take over responsibility for commissioning health services in England in April 2013 under reforms proposed in the government's Health and Social Care Bill.

The Premium was designed to encourage doctors to commission improved standards of care for patients rather than cutting services, Dr Buckman told the BBC. But Dr Buckman, chairman of the BMA's General Practitioners Committee, warned that bonus payments could undermine trust between doctors and their patients."We don't understand what the Quality Premium means. We don't understand where it will come from. We rather fear it will come out of our pay and be paid back to us if we do certain things. "It appears that what we might actually be asked to do is to save money and if we save a certain amount of money we will receive some of our pay given back to us. That is something that is appallingly unethical."I don't believe that I should be saying to a patient 'you can't have treatment because that way I'll get paid'."I don't think any patient would sit down with me and have in their head the thought that I would only be being paid by withdrawing treatment from them. I'm not prepared to do that". He said while he accepted doctors should be careful with the expenditure of NHS resources, he thought it was important they remained focused on patients' needs:"What I'm not prepared to do is receive pay … on the basis that I withdraw treatment from a patient. That is disgracefully unethical and most GPs will have nothing to do with that," he said.

The idea behind the Quality Premium is contained in an "Impact Assessment “document published in January by the Department of Health alongside the new Health Bill. This says payment of the Premium "should be linked to the outcomes that are achieved collaboratively through commissioning consortia and the effectiveness with which they manage financial resources".
In an interview with the BBC, Mr Burstow dismissed the suggestion that the payments were designed to incentivise cost-cutting by family doctors."That really is a caricature, a gross distortion of what we are trying to do here," he said."What GP commissioning consortia will be rewarded for is improving survival rates, improving quality of care given to their patients.”If the BMA haven't understood that at this stage then we clearly need to talk to them further."
Mr Burstow confirmed that the Quality Premium payments would be paid to successful GP consortia by the new NHS Commissioning Board. Funding would come from within existing NHS budgets, he said. The BMA has already warned that the Health and Social Care Bill could threaten the confidentiality of patient records. In a letter to government the organisation claimed that the Bill gave broad powers to a number of bodies, including the Health Secretary and the NHS Commissioning Board, to obtain confidential information. A Department of Health spokesman insisted the Health Bill did not undermine patient confidentiality and left legal safeguards intact.

File on 4 is on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 1 March at 2000 GMT and Sunday 6 March at 1700GMT. Listen again via the BBC iPlayer or download the podcast.

Delivering bread to the Inn at Whitewell has its compensations

The party set out from the gates. The newly waning gibbous moon shone brightly behind the filigree of branches while the rising sun cast a pale coral pink shade on the ancient trunks. Snow could not be far off for the all knew the rhyme, “when sun and moon are seen in July the days ahead will be full of clear sky. But when they are seen after an autumn eve the wind will howl and snow will cleave.” Two crows caawed and flew off east. Perhaps a bad omen but Ibbero did not seem disturbed. He knew darker, fouler things were abroad on the journey ahead as they had been confirmed by the rumours already reaching Glavendell.

Asthralain as befits a queen was at the head of the company mounted on her horse Sunswift and was robed simply in a plain grey traveller’s cloak. But this was no longer a defenceless queen. She held her face towards the east and in her left hand Hammclas the staff of stewardship supported her will. To those that could see in the brightening day a faint light emanated from its tip as her will flowed through the wood and leached away into the earth. The company moved off and the bright glint of Glowersmair (sword of songs) was briefly seen under Asthralain’s robes. Ibbero had indeed taught her well. The journey to Witchwaste had begun.

For many years scientists figured there were 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, but last year a Yale scientist figured the number was closer to 300 billion stars. Now scientists have estimated the first cosmic census of planets in our galaxy and the numbers are astronomical - at least 50 billion planets in the Milky Way alone and some 500 million of those planets are in what is known as the Goldilocks zone, where the climate is thought to be not-too-hot and not-too-cold, and life could exist.
The numbers were extrapolated from the early results of NASA's Kepler telescope, almost two years though a three-and-a-half year mission which has cost an estimated $600million and that's just our galaxy. Scientists figure there are 100 billion galaxies in the known universe. (I’m guessing that’s a lot.)

Where does it all go? This fragile hold on consciousness we walk across our lifetime with ...it leaches away across sunny dawns and frozen winters? It soars on a spring morning when life abounds and the sounds of the world make a path for feet to follow. It resides in dreams of warmth and love and a deep blue sea set in the distance like an aquamarine field viewed from a cliff. It is the sheen of olives or the fired golden haze of bread arising from an oven like a triumph. It is all that we can cram into a short space of time without lingering over regret. You can live your life with what seems all the greatest treasures outside your reach while the ones you truly have remain unremarked and forgotten as you extend yourself toward all these unobtainable goals. It is the thought that nothing truly matters when we are no longer loved that makes each day last a lifetime.

The harrying of the north continues still

The chances of dying early - below the age of 75 - are a fifth higher in the North of England compared with the South, research suggests. A study published in the British Medical Journal said the north-south mortality difference was now at its widest for 40 years. Researchers from the University of Manchester compared death rates from 1965 to 2008. The government said health inequalities were being addressed. In 1965, those living in the north were 16% more likely to die before the age of 75 than their southern counterparts. This had risen to just over 20% by 2008. Men were more likely to be affected. For men, the average geographical inequality rate over the period 1965 - 2008 was 15%, compared with 13% for women. Even when people in the North and the South were born into similar socio-economic circumstances, health inequalities persisted because people in the South, even if they had low incomes, had greater access to resources: "There is an overall concentration of resource in the South, the 'built environment' is very different, there's more access to education, transport and other large scale resources." These differences are not because those in the north are not looking after themselves... this is because of resources and the NHS needs to take action.

Got a garphics tablet - now i can draw as good as a 5 year old. isn't technology marvellous?

Egypt, the debt crisis, rising food prices, unemployment, immigration - I think on the scale of one day we are about at 1 second to midnight before it all descends into chaos. Let’s face it things aren’t looking good so perhaps they are right about 2012. I think the beautiful song by Oleta Adams sums it perfectly...here’s a bit of it...

We can travel to the planets
Drive a mile through solid granite
Thrive in all extremes of weather
But we cannot live together

We have pondered our existence
Tracked the comets in the distance
But we're overcome with blindness
By an act of human kindness

We have ventured where
None have gone before us
But in matters fundamental
We are patterned on an old design
Welcome back Tyrannosaurus
Evolution is a state of mind

I’ve been finishing off putting up coving in my bedroom...I’m pretty good at it to. (That’s a first for something in that room.) Why I’ve made it look like it was applied perfectly 100 years ago and has slowly matured through small movements in the walls and ceiling into the twisted mess we see today. Still a bit of paint will make it look better. It always does.

Robbie the wonderdog is getting on with normal stuff but is bumping into everything. I had to feed him with a spoon last night but just as he gets used to his collar it will be coming off. I only found out they are called Elizabethan collars. I’m quite sure queen Bess wouldn’t be seen dead in one.

The dog is not going to enjoy the next 10 days

I took these pictures yesterday while out with the dog. Some have an eerie watercolour likeness. I took the dog for a longer walk than normal because Tuesday he is having his operation for his undescended bit. It’s only a day operation, so he’ll be back at home in the evening but probably a bit sore. Hope he doesn’t blame me. Wednesday I have to go the dentist so all round a week of pain I think.

NASA Finds Earth-Size Planet Candidates In Habitable Zone, Six Planet System

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Kepler mission has discovered its first Earth-size planet candidates and its first candidates in the habitable zone, a region where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface. Five of the potential planets are near Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of smaller, cooler stars than our sun.

"In one generation we have gone from extraterrestrial planets being a mainstay of science fiction, to the present, where Kepler has helped turn science fiction into today's reality," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "These discoveries underscore the importance of NASA's science missions, which consistently increase understanding of our place in the cosmos."

The discoveries are part of several hundred new planet candidates identified in new Kepler mission science data, released on Tuesday, Feb. 1. The findings increase the number of planet candidates identified by Kepler to-date to 1,235. Of these, 68 are approximately Earth-size; 288 are super-Earth-size; 662 are Neptune-size; 165 are the size of Jupiter and 19 are larger than Jupiter.

Of the 54 new planet candidates found in the habitable zone, five are near Earth-sized. The remaining 49 habitable zone candidates range from super-Earth size -- up to twice the size of Earth -- to larger than Jupiter.

"The fact that we've found so many planet candidates in such a tiny fraction of the sky suggests there are countless planets orbiting sun-like stars in our galaxy," said William Borucki of NASA's Ames Research Centre in Moffett Field, Calif., the mission's science principal investigator. "We went from zero to 68 Earth-sized planet candidates and zero to 54 candidates in the habitable zone, some of which could have moons with liquid water."

All of the planets orbiting Kepler-11 are larger than Earth

http://www.nasa.gov/

Two Ladies Talking in Heaven

1st woman: Hi, Wanda!

2nd woman: Hi, Sylvia! How'd you die?

1st woman: I froze to death.

2nd woman: How horrible!

1st woman: It wasn't so bad. After I quit shaking from the cold, I began to get warm & sleepy, and finally died a peaceful death. What about you?

2nd woman: I died of a massive heart attack. I suspected that my husband was cheating, so I came home early to catch him in the act. But instead, I found him all by himself in the den watching TV.

1st woman: So, what happened?

2nd woman: I was so sure there was another woman there somewhere that I started running all over the house looking. I ran up into the attic and searched, and down into the basement. Then I went through every closet and checked under all the beds. I kept this up until I had looked everywhere, and finally I became so exhausted that I just keeled over with a heart attack and died.

1st woman: Too bad you didn't look in the freezer---we'd both still be alive.

Been reading more of the life of Elizabeth David. It was truly extraordinary one expects nothing less of a woman so wonderfully capable at her craft. My admiration is slightly mitigated by the knowledge that she came from an immensely privileged lifestyle that furnished her with the means to [quote] her friend Norman Douglas] "Always do as you please, and send everybody to Hell, and take the consequences.” But that in no way diminishes her efforts and contribution to the elevation of us all no matter our background.
All biographies are somewhat flawed but Artemis Cooper has captured the essence of the person in the book. The book does ramble on a bit though; but given Elizabeth David was such a private person one expects Artemis Cooper to have to include indifferent minutiae of her life to make a book of any length. I put the cover below.

The snow can come but ultimately it always dissolves into days of warmer disposition. There is a heavy frost outside and my mind strays to all the warm places she visited and the food she must have tasted. What a character to head off to all these places under her own steam. She never seemed to let a lack of money stop her doing as she pleased. Perhaps that is how we should live, no clock no money, no notion of tomorrow and consume no more than we need. Living only for the day we woke up in...If only life could ever be that simple.

As laughter rises into flowering cherry tree
A solitary yacht moored on an empty blue sea
Softens the view, mellows the heart of she

A mistral may blow among olive and pine
But a bowl of olives, good bread and wine
And Elizabeth David for company, simply divine

She saw the world in a lobster’s sheen
Realised potential no others had seen
Elizabeth David our British culinary queen

27th Jan 2010

Today's headlines (more sensationalism over substance)

Half of UK road speed cameras aren't working
... Only 10% of them actually work in Lancashire

Mother dies after 5-hour hospital wait 'because A&E was clogged up with drunks
Sadly A&E is always clogged up...It’s been ok when I’ve been but it is going to get worse with the cutbacks so I hope I’m never ill.

Ken Clarke: Hard times ahead for the UK for three more years
I think most of us have lived all our lives in hard times. What they really mean is that your current misery will increase tenfold.

Shout at your spouse and risk losing your home:
It's just the same as domestic violence, warns woman judge
Woman judge - enough said

500,000 UK adults have NEVER worked
500,000 UK adults have NEVER wanted to work and anyway it’s probably soon to be 1,000,000 with the cutbacks

Tommy Sheridan is jailed for THREE YEARS after being found guilty of perjury
Girl who kicked gay man to death in homophobic attack to serve just two and half years
So tell a lie and get three years in jail but stamp on someone’s face and you get two and a half
I’m trying to understand UK justice but I can’t

Egyptian president's son 'flees to London with 100 pieces of luggage as Egypt is rocked by second day of violence
100 pieces of luggage – does this include his wives and servants...jeez!

Sorry haven’t done anything for some time but here is a short history

Dug up the last of the 2010 potatoes for tea from the earth mound we had stored them in. The frosts of December and January had permeated through to the top layers causing a bit of rot but underneath the potatoes where as white and sweet as they were in September. I enjoyed the taste of those with some butter. Given the way food prices are going might need to grow more?

Fell back in into the ravages of a cold last week. Funny isn’t it that when the weather is sub zero we’re all ok but as soon as it gets cold and damp off we all go with a cold. Once the coughing stops (which might be around March at this rate) I’ll be ok.

It rained nonstop the whole of last weekend but now the workdays are back the weather holds to a blue sky and sunny disposition for the most part.

A huge spider walked across the living room wall last night, (much to the bemusement of the dog.) He did have a bark at it but spiders don’t get this large without working a few things out and for me I’ll take that spider as my sign the northern world is waking from winter slumber one again. It has been a mild January after the previous cold moth.

Last Monday – we had a power cut at 7pm so out came the candles and within minutes we are transported back to Victorian times. I think I lit 12 candles and scattered them around but the light whilst mellow and restful is still pretty dim compared to electricity. Going to bed with a candle –
was strange but when I awoke this morning normality was once again restored.

Saturday went to the hospital to see the lady who works for Nick – she’s had an attack of jaundice and is a wonderful shade of yellow. She’s on the mend. I do hate hospitals though.

So here we are again another Monday and almost at the end of the month. Finally moved the large bay tree out the yard up to the garden on Sunday with Mike. When I say moved please read dragged, pushed and heaved the 300 metres. It’s got too large for the yard now but as its 25 years old I wanted to keep it. I decorated it as a indoor Christmas tree one year and all the leaves fell off but it came back as it has done several times after very cold weather.

Other than that it has been a quiet few weeks here. Well I had my haircut last week so that’s me ok till June and I have the dentist next week...what joys await there I wonder?

New York Times recipe book - It is well thought out and cleverly put together. Well worth a read.

The weather here is turning its face toward mild for the time being although it was snowing first thing this morning but it was the kind of cold, wet snow that slaps you around the face as it laughs and then melts as it hits the floor. We’ve had our quota of winter weather but my heart says we shall see much more before spring is finally here.

Prices here are rising fast at the moment with petrol going nuts but the government has just upped tax on goods by 2.5%. That’s going to impact on everything and already I figure that makes petrol in your money - $2 per litre – that’s $9 a gallon! I can see from the web the US pay around $3 a gallon...lucky buggers!! Where it will all end is anyone’s business.

Had a quiet, enjoyable weekend. Saturday went to Southport with Nick and yesterday Mike and I burnt rubbish in the garden and sat and watched the birds while drinking coffee. It is probably imperceptible but I’m sure we can sense the change in the air now. The days are 30 minutes longer and in the mild weather we can once again begin to smell the pine trees scent brought on the wind. Dug up the last of the potatoes for tea from the earth mound we had stored them in. the frosts of December and January had permeated through to the top layers but underneath the potatoes where as white and sweet as they were in September. I enjoyed the taste of those with some butter. Given the way food prices are going might need to grow more?

Fell back in into the ravages of a cold last week which meant having to take a couple of days off work. Funny isn’t it that when the weather is sub zero we’re all ok but as soon as it gets cold and damp off we all go with a cold. Once the coughing stops (which might be around March at this rate) I’ll be ok.

It rained non stop the whole weekend but now the workdays are back the weather holds to a blue sky and sunny disposition. Still a huge spider walked across the living room wall last night, (much to the bemusement of the dog.) He did have a bark at it but spiders don’t get this large without working a few things out and for me I’ll take that spider as my sign the northern world is waking from winter slumber one again.

Do you know what
• the food of England is?
• the hooks, the chimneys, and brick ovens in cottages were for?
• the Southdowns, New Forest and Lake District, other than recreation, can provide?
• goes into your daily bread?
• the pasteurization, homogenization and standardization of your milk involves?
• differentiates a York ham from a gammon, or prosciutto; a red herring from a bloater; Evesham, Bath, and Lincolnshire asparagus; a damson from a bullace?
Do you know when
• to expect the first broad beans, and the last tomatoes?
• to pick hedge garlic, St. George’s mushrooms, and Dorset Moss?
• to buy the finest watercress, clotted cream and laver?
Do you know where
• breeds of livestock, types of cheese and varieties of fruit come from?
• fish and shellfish are landed, by whom, and how stocks are doing?
• to find oatcakes, mazzards, filberts, and rusks?
Do you know that
• while the number of books, articles and programmes on cookery continues to rise, the number of people who can cook continues to fall?
• while the cases of heart disease and food poisoning continues to rise, so does the consumption of allegedly ‘health’ foods, and amount of regulation?
• the quantity of ingredients in low fat spreads (two in butter, one in lard) can be up to twelve?
• cheap food and eating habits have had a greater effect on animal welfare, the bird population, wild flowers, conservation and SSSI than subscriptions to good causes?
• Kyoto in Japan has over two hundred historic shops, complete with fronts and interiors, many of which are devoted to food, and the flagships of the English heritage industry (Salisbury, Winchester, etc.) may have two?

Supermarkets
Do you know
• how many small shops and businesses existed in your area before one or more supermarkets rolled into town?
• how supermarket 'contracts ‘are terminated?
• how 'free ‘offers operate?
• how much the supermarkets spend on advertising and packaging compared to the cost of the goods?
• how much of the supermarkets' food is wasted?
Do you know
• what you pay for a product like milk?
• what the supermarkets pay?
• what that means for suppliers, future supplies and national security?
Do you know
• where English apples go for waxing?
• where in store bakers obtain the dough for their bread?
• why, in cases of animal cruelty, profiteering and duplicity, the supermarkets are not accountable nor 'available for comment'?

What you can do to help safeguard finite, endangered and historic resources, which other countries would be proud of
• buy food in markets or shops.
• link a place on the map and a time of year to the food you obtain.
• ask in restaurants and inns for Sussex beef in Sussex, Shropshire lamb in Shropshire, Tamworth pork in Tamworth, the sole in Dover, the crab in Cromer, the kippers in Craster, the wildfowl in winter, cherries in summer, plums in autumn, and cut rounds or splits with a proper cream tea – until you get them.
• consider your roots. Ask your antecedents what they cooked, and cook it too. The local economy will benefit as well.
• read: A History of the Countryside by Oliver Rackham; Country Life by Howard Newby; The Englishman's Flora by Geoffrey Grigson; Death of Rural England by Alun Howkins; Food in England by Dorothy Hartley, English Recipes and Others by Sheila Hutchins; Eating England by Hattie Ellis; Traditional Foods of Britain by Laura Mason with Catherine Brown. Also: Lavengro by George Borrow; Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thomson; As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee; An Innkeeper's Diary by John Fothergill.

No then buy the book below

When the river meets the sea ever is there turbulence across the rocks that have stood so long across the aeons. Like the river I become lost in the sea and all its greatness. I have flowed endlessly on until now and fast become enveloped in ancient wisdom. Yet it scares me and I try desperately to reverse the flow and return to the mountains where I sprung. I was a child of purity that trickled through a thousand feet of strata caressed by glacial embraces. Yet it is now all of no hope and I am carried away by currents into the depths of the secret sea. Released from ebb and flow I glance one last time to the heavens and the moonlit sea sways under a northern wind that sighs to me to beg goodbye.

6th Jan 2011

Here’s the New Year and I brought it in with a cold. A real stinker too...just about everyone has had a cold over the last few weeks. All this talk of swine flu, but I think mine was just a piglet of a cold. It probably wasn’t helped by cleaning out the pond the other day. 4 inch of ice to break up but it had a good side as most of the weed and debris was encapsulated within it. See the pictures below. Just need to wait for the water to clear. Perhaps this spring will be able to see the newts swimming around.