Elections open to the deceased

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17°C, rain, it’s only light though

Mayoral Elections are open to the dead inRomania ( isn’t that part of Transylvannia?). Laurie Anderson had a premonition to this in the late 1980s in one of her records. See here BBC
Crime: Govt. clutching at straws, look…
What about this:

The PM was responding to a Cabinet Office report suggesting people felt "cut off" from the justice system.
Louise Casey’s paper said criminals’ punishment needs to be much more "visible" to restore public confidence in the justice system.
It said many people felt it was "distant" and "unaccountable" and suggested neighbourhood police hold regular public meetings and issue leaflets so victims and local people know offenders have been caught.

Great, you’ve had your house burgled and then the local police give you a leaflet.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne
added: "Things like naming and shaming and high visibility tabards are gimmicks.

I took to this idea quickly this morning. I love the idea of dressing up criminals, but flourescent jackets are a dull idea. It’s just not fair on builders and road maintainence blokes, they’d find themselves dressed like criminals. Why not dress up the criminals in something they’d really dislike- they are criminals after all. What about a tweed jacket and a Fedora hat, thay’d really hate that. We’d have criminals who normally wear a white tracksuit and gold chain before getting caught would then wear tweed once they’d been found guilty!

I’m full of good ideas me.

Foxgloves

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13-18°C, cloudy cool then it warmed up. C=51 miles

Cycling: hedgerows full of Angelica that has taken over from Cow Parsley. Elderberry trees are in flower and lots of Foxglove, deep purple/pink and dominant along some roads. Artemesia is most noticable on bridges, especially sandstone bridges- clearly they don’t like standing water. I did shoot a picture, but the camera focussed on the background: stupid automatic cameras, give me manual control! the picture below is probably Mugwort, (A. Vulgaris).

Advice: raw meat

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19°C, drizzle then clearing

Dammit: no ride today because the weather looked poor, but then it cleared up as I drove in. Then the car-radio news was full of fuel shortage and price doubling stories. Regret.
Fox food: I sought advice, the suggestion? Give them raw chicken, wings will do as they are cheap. The fox will eat it all, skin, bones – the lot.

Following vulpecula

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21°C, cooler & more wind. No cloud pm. Hay-fever is strong.
The Fox: hasn’t eaten the dog-biscuits I put down last evening. Perhaps he ate some but I can’t tell with certainty, there are other animals that could be interested.
Soma: In the thick of report writing season again and I wish for some tonic; a preparation that can, on consumption make it seem really interesting instead of that cloying dullness that descends when writing the scripts.
Note: "Soma" is a reference to Brave New World by Huxley.
STALKING one year on: Just idle curiosity, I have been playing this game for a year now. That’s quite something for a RPG/FPS game, they are scripted and contain a limited number of levels meaning that most are "completed" fairly quickly. Perhaps it is the virtual life element that keeps this one going. I hope the sequal isn’t delayed too much. September – in case you didn’t know.
Artemesia (A.Vul.): found a plant growing 200m from home. Am I getting obsessed- note the fill-in flash is a bit overdone.
C-Orchard_Wormwood

Vulpine visitor

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26°C, hot summer’s day, no cloud or wind.

Get home and doze in the hammock in the garden with a good book: what a fine way to end a fine day. I can listen and see some interesting urban wildlife there, including a visitor that was low on my expected list. On waking slowly and looking up, I saw a fox in the garden. We made eye contact, he was evaluating the threat from me, I was looking on in surprise and trying not to alarm him. Then turned  tail & slipped out through the gap in the fence. After a while- I noticed that he was still there, curled up and waiting just outside the boundary fence.  He looked up, eyeing me up with one side of his face hidden behind the fnce. Why would he stay there? Why not continue his patrol?
There is a big pile of branches, twigs and other stuff on the top left of the garden, that set me thinking- for years we’d assumed that it was a home for hedgehogs. But now there is the possibility that it is a den: a den for foxes. The photo below is of low quality, but at least I managed to sneak into the house and get the camera.
Looking here, I worry that he has mange.

Wormwood in Staffordshire

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25°C, 1/10 cloud; light NE; C=79 miles

Absinthium: after stopping by the road for a bike adjustment, there it was – a clump of Wormwood. It really does like sandy soil, by the roadside away from other plants; or is it stiffling the others with that Thujone? I brought a piece home to make sure of the identity. You know what it’s like, after spotting one, seeing them everywhere is easy. I want a sample in the garden.

Willington Power Station: only has 5 cooling towers, and nothing else, no generator hall, no chimneys no other buildings. No wonder it looked so ugly last time I passed it- it’s being demolished. It looks like there are plans to put housing on there (as there is everywhere in the UK).

Beautiful day; 79 miles but not very fast.

El Cant De La Sibil

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20°C, clear summer’s day.

Montserrat Figureas: Delivered CD today from France. It came faster than the Amazon sourced order. Sacred music from Southern Frmace in Latin. Thanks to Simon from Can Llouquette for the recommendation. It’s good for; purity and space. It’s not good for; sing-along (thankfully). Teenagers will probably hate it though.

I’m eagerly waiting for Rachmaninov’s Vespers to arrive now. I had one on loan from our music dept. and though the recording is from St. Petersburg, the production made it all sound a bit remote and vague to me.

Rain & mist 1240m high

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16°C, rain

Last Wednesday: mist and rain photo. What an unforgetable day. We’d stopped at a rocky Col to eat, then on hearing pat pat pat of rain, decided to descend. Coming down the south slopes the rain beat, the thuinder roared and we brisky sought lower alitiudes. Between lightining flashes, I coudl see burnt out trunks fo trees, branches of charcoal in places and thought of the lightninhg bolts. Then I looked back. You know those days where light filters between deciduous trees- it becomes green; well, here the mist itself became green. I’ll never forget that moment, I want a waterproof digital camera.