11°C, S wind. Light rain.
Finally I got the photo; was worth the slight risk of a late arrival at work.
Rushall homes.
So here is a way to save thousands of nothings. Bargain.
Help! I need a mathematician.
1
Crime minister.
6°C, no wind.
No I didn’t vote yesterday either. I stayed away from the polling booth along with 88.4% of the electorate. One polling station ( in Devon I believe) didn’t receive a single vote. In that time, questions floated in my mind; what is crime commissioner? What do they do? And are we really supposed to make our decision based on the leaflet dropped through the door? There was nothing in it but party political nonsense. Why does the job have to be a political one?
One leaflet promised “more visible policing”- not the old “bobbies on the beat” cliché again is it? We know from previous experience that it looks great but makes little difference to crime prevention (it’s brilliant for crime re-location though). All I want these days from politicians is evidence based policy, giving sway to vested interests and pressure groups gives unsatisfactory results.
A very mysterious event.
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Leaves.
9°C, still & foggy start.
Drove in today. Fog has descended.
Drove home in clear air but my view was obscured by a boot full of leaves. Our caretaker let me take 6 big bags of swept leaves, mainly from London Plane (?) trees. There are loads of those in the borough- they cope with pollution well.
Eleventh hour.
9°C, NE light, sunny. CK:48.8 miles.
Rode along the coast to Southport. Before I got there I came upon a memorial ceremony at just before 11am. So, I pulled over and stood there. And watched. I removed my helmet for the duration.
On the drive home this evening, we stopped on Cannock Chase for a night-time walk in the forest. We’ve done this a few times now. Autumn has it’s own sensations that can not be experienced at any other time of year. I look forward to the onset of deep winter under the same circumstance. Night walks away from street lights is a vivid experience in snow. Could this mean I an finally finding ways to enjoy the season. Will my annual loathing of Christmas start to recede?
Leaf mold.
10°C, dry, SW.
Got my energy back, so rode home quickly and raked 8 bags of cherry tree leaves. Making leaf mold is such a good way to use up all those clothes bags that come through the door each week. I get 2 or 3 each week, and there is no way of knowing which ones come from fake charity collectors. So rather than add to the re-cycling bin, they make a good way to store the piles of leaves. The bags even have ready-made breather holes.
Grumpy
10°C, dry.
Oh dear, that was a grumpy post yesterday. Today feeling better, recovering from a strange virus, Let’s blame that then.
I fear that grumbling can become habit.
Interesting prog on TV last night, old drivers are a little safer than 20 somethings. They are just as annoying too, but it seems that view are often aware of their growing limitations such as judging speed of other drivers. So what they do is to compensate with caution. Perhaps little understanding is required. As for boy racers who react to tricky situations by stamping on the throttle…
Is it all over?
6°C, clear and starry (including Venus)
Is this trial over yet? Woke up to hear that US voding is complete. There were only two cannidates, they got the same number of votes but somehow Wilhard lost by a wide margin. The map is coloured by each state. Red for the right-wing and blue for the even-more-right-wing, or is that left wing in their currency? The news features centre around a small number do canndidates, and a large number of voders.
Their president, in practice has limited power, so at least when they elect a half-wit nazi (Bush), or an insane war mongerer (Reagan) they can’t do as much harm as they’d like. I don’t argue with Americans’ right to vote, nor that the outcome has an effect on us non-Americans, but that it would have been better to limit election news stories to once a month until this week. It doesn’t seen to matter who they get, whoever wins will still exert economic power (protectionism), world power (mainly by bombing people), environmental (by polluting us all) and general bullying.
British TV has bored and annoyed us with this story since Easter, and will drag it out some more I fear.
Morning news will remain un-watchable for some time.
Silver woods
9°C, clear.
Restful: took a restful day. Body said I had to, so dutifully…
Took Rosie to a wood new to us. On a low hilltop near a tall TV transmitter. Initially there is a coniferous wood. But further in Silver birches formed a metallic wall, like bound barbed wire. The trees were all about the same age though the ground is mature, deep, soft and black. This has all the signs of managed woodland. The bedrock is bunta pebble bed, so the quite deep puddles should drain better than these do. Credit to the thick humus for that. I’d like to get know this wood more, something that can takes.
later I watched Kill Bill 1 which is a rather silly film.
Ash.
9°C. Light rain.
It’s Ash trees under threat this time. Rather like the Oaks, where an aggressive fungus was spread by a beetle, this one has airbourne spores to propogate. The fear this time is the scale, ash trees make ups about 1/3 of our mixed woodlands. But we do have the most fragmented woodlands that cover the smallest proportion of our countryside.
If the worst happens, I shall be saddened.
Related articles
- Ash tree ban may be too late to avert ‘UK tragedy’, says expert (guardian.co.uk)
Red clay roads
CR:52 Miles. Rain later.
This ride wasn’t too cold but it did rain on the return leg. I could have avoided it but for the roads. The mud was as bad as it can be, the back wheel skitted about alarming me enough to get off and walk. I had to walk a few times on this ride, even that was less than easy in cycling shoes. The shoe-plate is not intended for walking and are treacherous on slippery surfaces. The delay added up enough to allow the rain clouds to build. Now it has started, the rainfall should do a decent job and wash that mud away.
The Racelite bike is definitely the wrong mount for these conditions, the mud built up under the brakes such that I had to stop twice to clear it. Tyre levers are good for flicking mud out to free the wheels.
Now shut up, I need to go out and hose the bike down.
Micycle 