Sometimes we are only at peace when we are fighting
So strange, but so true how we find calm in adversity
We truly are the strangest breed of all earthly animals...
We are man and lumber disastrously around the world
We care nothing for others, only for ourselves and our own
It matters not to reason, cajole, bribe or impel our soul
Tides of humanity take pleasured turns to hurt and wound
And it has done so with a spirit lately that shames us all
For many decline starts now but soon to us all the end comes
The faster if we have the wit to see that everything will pass
We will leave and never return to seek solace among the stars
For they birthed us for a larger life and we shall let all this pass
Into memory and sad regret, for we were born to be better than this

Haweswater lake



Aire Force waterfall



New born lamb in jacket



St Michaels church near Shap



Shap Abbey (well what's left of it - thnaks Henry V111)

How do you get a fatty up a tree? - see below

The world is not what it was; we all know this
On swelling populations, sifting west like sands
It turns its fair face from a now fading renaissance
And is dragged back on revived medieval rhetoric
There will be no rapprochement, no new dawn
We feast like carrion on our dwindling resources
We learnt long ago that people will be controlled
So long as all the propaganda flows like cheap wine
They will readily suffer, but they will seek to blame
All those who show them where the truth truly lies
Leaks of my consciousness take flight into the spring
Flow to seed the aether with memories of lost freedoms
They shall remain there, till one day long off in time
When the world is a better place they may return

An elderly Georgian woman was scavenging for copper to sell as scrap when she accidentally sliced through an underground cable and cut off internet services to all of neighbouring Armenia, it emerged on Wednesday. The woman, 75, had been digging for the metal not far from the capital Tbilisi when her spade damaged the fibre-optic cable on 28 March. As Georgia provides 90% of Armenia's internet, the woman's unwitting sabotage had catastrophic consequences. Web users in the nation of 3.2 million people were left twiddling their thumbs for up to five hours as the country's main internet providers - ArmenTel, FiberNet Communication and GNC-Alfa – were prevented from supplying their normal service. Large parts of Georgia and some areas of Azerbaijan were also affected. She faces up to three years in prison if charged and convicted. A spokesman for Georgia's interior ministry said the woman was temporarily released "on account of her old age" but could face more questioning. Pulling up unused copper cables for scrap is a common means of making money in the former Soviet Union. Some entrepreneurs have even used tractors to wrench out hundreds of metres of cable from the former nuclear testing ground at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/06/georgian-woman-cuts-web-access

Coming northern front sweep away
The foul, warm air back to the south.
Let its chill wind leaven the tree tops
To rise up and dance in its wake.
Above the rustle of empiric leaves
A magpie cackles a hoary song yet...
The bumble queen carries a working
Caring not for boasting, vulgar song
Of how he steals the works of others.
For soon she shall raise her army
Fit for the summer world to armour
To sing into the arms of morning
To claw back all the lost hours.
Stretching now across earlier dawns
The heart cannot ever escape for
Of all the times within the year
This is now the most uplifting to...
Simply be and await the summer

The dog recovering from his saturday night activities

The pond in spring, forsythia and the watcher- a cool African mask

1st April 2011
Great I get to fifty and the following day get an abscess on my gum and currently have a face that resembles the elephant man. You can’t make it up (that’s not a pun by the way)...anyway have taken Friday off work because the swelling has now closed one eye. I’ve been to see the dentist who gave me some antibiotics with the proviso to return in 2 weeks because we might have to remove that tooth. This would be the tooth he spent the best part of an hour repairing a month ago. There doesn’t seem to be a notion of what is best for the UK patient anymore just what is going to make the most money for the practitioner. Crazy old world.

2nd April 2011
Thanks to the wonders of modern medicine the swelling is reducing and I am beginning to look about as normal as it gets for me. Quiet weekend methinks. Not that there is much of a window of opportunity for gardening as the weather is forecast wet and windy for the weekend. I’ll write another part of the new chapter of my book. It’s progressing slowly but still progressing. A work in very slow progress. Here are a couple of lines

Rather take this time to remember the joy of the forest and that trees are indeed the heart of the world. They stand as sentinels to all that we hold to be good and strive to protect. There is a power here still that you cannot comprehend but it may soon again be unleashed and that being the case; we had better make sure we are on the right side of it.” As if to reinforce his words the lowest branch of a mighty Beech tree brushed, perhaps almost caressed, the wizards hat.

The news is very depressing from all directions currently so enjoy the growth of the Rheum below – I am always amazed by the speed of spring growth and I love the vibrant red colour of the Rheum plant in spring which turns to green in the light. A marker to show that despite all the madness in the world caused by the beliefs of man, life and growth for the right reasons is unquenchable.

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.