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.

The snow that seemed so unconquerable a week ago has slipped away in the mild rain that has fallen yesterday. Nothing can resist the onslaught of a determined foe and the ice yields reluctantly to water for now leaving behind a brown, flattened landscape that is uninspiring. Christmas has now come and gone and though enjoyable as ever the anti-climax is palpable. In our hearts and minds we build it much bigger than we can ever achieve. It must be a remnant of childhood memories that plays a recurring theme through the rest of our lives. A time of warmth, love and safety with all those that have now left us. It is if you will; a reflection of our innocence when Christmas was a time of magic and life was evolving at a much slower and less cynical pace.

For now the time of year is for some sad reflections and perhaps recriminations. Nothing ever quite works out the way we want and yet the heart wells ever optimistic for a new year. If I have learnt one thing it is that there is no perfect life for us as we grow older. It doesn’t get any easier and things change because they must and that change will out, no matter the resistance to it. So my resolution for the New Year then is to begin to not keep putting off till tomorrow what can be achieved by me today, to be a little healthier and fairer and to finish my book by this time next year. I’m getting going now because I finally worked out how to do it the way I want. But it only took 50 years!

I plan to have a quiet time but whatever you plan to do tonight have a wonderful new Years Eve and opening to the year ahead.

I took these photos tonight with the full moon and the twighlight setting on my camera...cool!!!

17th Dec 2010

Snow’s back for the weekend. Very heavy snow showers Sunday although I have to say it keeps changing every time I look. In fact it snowed yesterday and when I took the dog for a walk it was good to see where I was going for a change. The moon is now 82% full with a full moon in 3 days time so it looks evening walks will be bright this weekend. I just put a moon phase on here...cool!
One more week to go till 10 days rest...can’t wait. I bought myself a first edition Elizabeth David for Christmas. It’s her first book ‘A book of Mediterranean food’ and really it is quite accurate to say it was the beginning of the food writing genre in Britain where novel and recipes merged into a wonderful storybook. Must have been something else in the 1950’s when it came out and gave the UK its first glimpse at the wonders of olive oil and other Mediterranean ingredients. If you look it up you’ll see her first editions go for some sums but this one wont...as it is a bit tatty. But hey it’s mine.

I know this is a bit cheesy but it makes you think....

We never get what we want,
We never want what we get,
We never have what we like,
We never like what we have.
And still we live & love.
That's life...

The best kind of friends,
Is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with,
Never say a word,
And then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.

It's true that we don't know
What we've got until it's gone,
But it's also true that we don't know
What we've been missing until it arrives.

Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they'll love you back!
Don't expect love in return;
Just wait for it to grow in their heart,
But if it doesn't, be content it grew in yours.

It takes only a minute to develop a crush on someone,
An hour to like someone,
And a day to love someone,
But it takes a lifetime to forget someone..

Don't go for looks; they can deceive.
Don't go for wealth; even that fades away.
Go for someone who makes you smile,
Because it takes only a smile to
Make a dark day seems bright.
Find the one that makes your heart smile!

May you have
Enough happiness to make you sweet,
Enough trials to make you strong,
Enough sorrow to keep you human,
And enough hope to make you happy.

Always put yourself in others' shoes.
If you feel that it hurts you,
It probably hurts the other person, too.

The happiest of people
Don't necessarily have the best of everything;
They just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

Happiness lies for
Those who cry,
Those who hurt,
Those who have searched,
And those who have tried,
For only they can appreciate the importance of people
Who have touched their lives.

When you were born, you were crying
And everyone around you was smiling.
Live your life so that when you die,
You're the one who is smiling
And everyone around you is crying.

To those people who mean something to you,
To those who have touched your life in one way or another,
To those who make you smile when you really need it,
To those that make you see the brighter side of things when you are really down,
To those who you want to know
That you appreciate their friendship.

11th Dec 2010

It has been a much earlier winter than normal here…much colder and snowier than normal. It has made a nice change but now my feet are complaining. Good old Britain an inch of snow and chaos reigns. Luckily it is forecast to get a little warmer this weekend which it has.

Christmas is coming fast now...just a few more weeks to go. Can’t wait to have some extended time off work. I used all my holidays up too early this year so haven’t had any time off since September. Nothing special planned for the holidays but it’ll be nice to do nothing (as always!)

There was a chill in the air when the travelers set of from Glovemere. The ride to the hinterland of Rhosar would take three days through the misty vale of Sarpel. Ibbero counseled that it would be best to travel lightly and in secret. The roads were safe for now, but it could not be clear if they were being watched. Rumours of ill creatures, which roamed abroad in the night, had reached the court over the last few months and had caused unease.

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 Hammaclas the staff of stewardship supported her will. To those that could see a faint light emanated from the 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