Category: Uncategorized

True in 1971, and true today. People do care, and are willing to act.

Simplified globalisation is just the removal of trade barriers which will allow the capitalist free market to prosper. However to underpin this other factors are needed.

I have a lot of indoor plants – 60+ – and probably use about 3ltrs a day in watering them which is presumably either evaporated or transpired. What impact does this have on my living environment?

I had never heard of these until today. Established in 1991 by an American magazine called the Annals of Improbable Research awards are made to … just that, the zany and the improbable. A previous winner, Andre Geim went on to win a Nobel prize for developing graphene (although his Ig Nobel was for research levitating amphibians! I have no idea what that is about! But the key is that research can sometimes throw up something unexpected, and that means we should encourage a certain amount of eccentricity in our lives.

This article from the Guardian is just what is needed to cheer us up.

Sitting in meetings we would play jargon bingo, or I would see how fast I could write the states of America or countries of Africa. However I need help to score a game identifying the most useless ministers, ludicrous statements, complete lies, ineptitude, absence, how do I score this? Not only should the score come up on TV monitors, but also a weekly league table could be shown.

Lots of cliched comments come to mind, acorns and oak trees, etc. But it really is about us all making a start on making our lifestyles more sustainable. My recommendations for easy starts are:

Stop mowing parts of the lawn you never use; reduce your meat based meals by 1 or 2 per week; re-use containers, bags and boxes where possible; share appliances with neighbours where possible.

These Olympics have been all about the women for a change. Elaine Thompson Herah; Sifan Hassan; Allyson Felix; Bethany Shriever; Sky Brown; Charlotte Worthington; Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre; Katie Archibald and Laura Kenny; and Lauren Price have made this a games where women and men are on equal terms. Joint events in swimming and triathlon were brilliant. Yes some of the men did ok! Karsten Warholm might be the new male Usain Bolt in promoting athletics. Tom Daley finally won a very deserved gold (and bronze). All our boxers and fighters were outstanding. Cycling again came up with the medals, but so too BMX, skateboarding, sailing. The only down sides were rowing and to somme extent athletics where the men particularly lacked a stand out moment whilst Laura Muir, Keely Hodginson and Holly Bradshaw were outstanding.

But I think it is fair to say that the stand out moments of these olympics have, more often than not involved women.

A concern. This area has an incredibly high take up rate, but there are problems. I have a friend whose daughter if off to university. Having only just turned 18 she has not been able to get vaccinated before. Her appointment yesterday was cancelled due to a lack of vaccine! Attempts to rebook have been unsuccessful as she and her mother do not drive, and suggested sites are not on bus routes. The university suggested a site 7 miles from the campus.

I am drying tomatoes in the dehydrator before packing them with olive oil. Herbs have been dried – with more next week if the weather is dry (it makes sense to pick them on sunny days – of which we have not had many recently). So 9 different mints dried so far, and oregano, rosemary, thyme and basil.