It’s been a marvellous week. How could it be otherwise, beginning as it did with the Summer Solstice, punctuated with Midsummer’s Day and ending with the full moon tonight, in a sky virtually free of clouds? Though I must admit to remaining a little hazy about the difference between the longest day and Midsummer’s Day, [...]
What is the matter with Jimmy Doherty? This farmer of rare breeds, saviour of the Essex Saddleback and champion of local food production is off again on a jolly jaunt through the finer workings of the global food machine, or ‘food superhighway,’ as he prefers to call it. Why is he so fascinated with industrial [...]
Crikey! The longest day already! I’m sure it was no more than about six months ago when it was the shortest day. Well, time certainly does fly. Interestingly, Lao-Tzu would not agree with this. For instance, take this pithy little offering from the Tao master: Nature does not hurry, Yet everything is accomplished. Therein lies [...]
Picked up the Radio Times for next week, and noticed that Wimbledon Fortnight starts on Monday 21st. That’s fine – I like a good tennis match. I’m pretty keen on cricket too, not to mention other sports. All good healthy stuff, that’s what I say. There is, however, one very unhealthy element to the onset [...]
As an addendum to yesterday’s entry, I just wanted to say a few words about Tetra Pak. Actually, it will be more than a few . . . On the carton of Coop apple juice, there is a Tetra Pak logo, which now incorporates the new buzz phrase “Protects What’s Good.” In case you are [...]
Allegedly, the Cooperative supermarket chain (now somewhat bigger than it was, having bought out most of Somerfield Stores) can be trusted when it comes to sourcing our food supplies. “The Coop – good with food,” declares their advertising. Oh yeah – says who? What is it about the Coop that makes it ‘good with food’? [...]
In a garden full of bird song, certain sounds tend to stand out, such as the somewhat plaintive call that the collared doves make as they glide in to land on the TV aerial or the gable of Stable Cottage. At this time of year, of course, there is quite a bit of background hubbub [...]
Those dam’ Yankee varmints, the grey squirrels, are pushing their luck again and, on this occasion, I feel they have the better of me. By way of demonstration as to why they have become such a successful species in this country, they are stealing our strawberry crop from right under our noses. We never see [...]
I’m thinking of becoming a counter-activist. The fact is, I am fed up with all of these NGOs, tree-huggers, Earth Day warriors, greenies and all those finger-pointing carbon footprint fetishists. I can’t be doing with any of them. We, the inhabitants of this tiny planet, are like passengers in a bus with the accelerator jammed, [...]
Gosh! Mumczyk’s birthday again – only thirteen years to go before she gets a card from Queenie. Three things usually happen on Mumczyk’s birthday. One: I panic that my card hasn’t arrived on time. Two: I wonder whether I actually got around to sending a card. Three: I end up with Bobbie Gentry’s song, Ode [...]