It is Spring .. in November!

The garden always holds many surprises but this year is surpasses itself in fairy tale beauty. I feel like I have stepped into a dreamy, story book as flowers are blooming all over again and with a vigour and urgency of youthful intent, not a half-hearted end-of-season show. They are out to produce moor seeds, moor shoots, moor trailers and vines and are twisting the world into a picturesque jungle of colour.

Honeysuckle – old English name of Woodbine – pictured end of November

This variety is one of two very special types that I have in the garden supporting twin flowers. This is the more yellow variety with a deep woody perfume. The other one has red-veined leaves and pink dipped flowers with a sweet sensual perfume.

Eve of invention

It has recently been discovered that ‘Eve,’  Homo neanderthalensis (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) known simply to most as Neanderthals extensively integrated, lived with and bred with Homo sapiens. All Homo sapiens are from Africa but when some of them began to move out of Africa they moved into the same areas where Neanderthals lived which was very extensive and included most of Eurasia. DNA tests suggest that most people who are not living in Africa and of African decent have a percentage of Neanderthal in them making those of us who are not in Africa, hybrids. The Neanderthal gene helps to strengthen us against disease and may possibly have given us the love and key to science and technology. I for one shall celebrate my inner Neanderthal ..

Female Neanderthal, picture courtesy of National Geographic

The tail end of an ice-age

We are currently towards the end of one of the colder parts of our history. Living in the last remaining years of an ice-age should be a welcome experience as the world temperatures begin to naturally climb back up to their more normal ambient levels.

Unfortunately, in this instance the world has to cope with human activities on top of natural means. Vast swathes of the world are under the influences of industrial change producing large pockets of carbon dioxide and methane. At the same time forests are being torn up, plundered, raped and left barren. Trees are the lungs of the world and we have fewer now than in the history of man. Our planet has the equivalent of emphysema, it is hardly able to breath and replenish the atmosphere with fresh oxygenated air. It doesn’t need an educated person to work out what is likely to happen unless we make more of an effort to contribute to improving our atmosphere – billions of people, animals, birds, fish and plant life will die because the planet will be unable to sustain life.

The most amazing and curious thing about this problem is that there appears to be very little evidence that much is being done to stave off the inevitable. Ask yourself the following: who is monitoring the amount of de-forestation that is occurring throughout the temperate regions of the world? What is being done to off-set the amount of pine trees that have been planted in recent years that have shamefully replaced the slow growing timbers where animals, birds and insects live? How many water courses including rivers are cleaned out, dredged, and fully maintained so that they make perfect homes for native species to reside and thrive? How many farmers are changing the type of crops that they grow and why? How many new boreholes have been recently drilled, whereabouts (what countries) have they been drilled, how many will be required to be drilled to maintain the current populations? The list of things we should know and do something about is frighteningly large and there is little if any evidence that anyone is doing much about it at all. We should all be involved, taking interest and writing about it. Urging schemes to improve lives in thirty to fifty years time because the way that this ice-age is warming up it will not take long at all for everyone to be affected by the events of the near future.

Remember what happened to the mammoth .. this was before man had begun to cut down forests, build sprawling towns, create large industrial deserts .. I don’t want man to go the same way as the mammoth, do you?

Presently surprised!

Went out shopping the other day to try and gauge what sort of things were in the shops with a view to compiling a small list, if not purchasing a few items towards Christmas. The shops were not too full, so we were able to meander through the various departments and explore the numerous offerings that were enticingly placed, often in precarious positions – so that the eye couldn’t miss every temptation.

It seems that this year, one of the cheapest and most plentiful of presents especially for females are ear-muffs. These are in every type of fabric from hand-knitted woollen animal heads, pompoms, faux fluffy sheepskin to trendy embroidered pretend designer ranges (may be some were in fact true designer ranges .. I didn’t take the time to check them all out). They do, however, offer the possibility for younger members of the family to make their own either for themselves or to hand out as presents. Next to the ear-muffs were displays of hats of all kinds many having similar effects as either a deer-stalker (Sherlock Holmes varieties) or woollen Norwegian types that had dangling plaited tassels. Then there were the half-head knitted semi-bonnets similar to ladies’ Cromwell caps embroidered with beads and looking very pretty. Rows and rows of mittens and gloves dangled and touched as we walked by. (DOES SOMEONE THINK THAT WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A FRIGHTENINGLY COLD WINTER THIS YEAR!) Scarves trailed down from pillars and thick flannelette pyjamas toppled over from enormous piles on shelves. The walls were decorated with thick ‘all-in-one granddad tunics’ for young ladies – they were extremely baggy and looked as though they had been cut from the design of a baby grow that intentionally or not was meant to cater for a NAPPY!!

Schooldays

I received this in an email and it made me smile so I thought I’d share it with you:

 

Easter egg

• On Google’s Chrome or Firefox type in the search box the following statement: Do a barrel roll

Now isn’t that good fun?

Haunting scenes in Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon

No matter where you venture in Shakespeare’s Warwickshire, there is beauty. Wild, wonderful, haunting sights and scenes that stay with a person forever.