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A cold front
Summer is over. Today was cold, grey and wet, though the rain was more damping than drenching. I went to my maths group in the morning; we studied Pythagorean triples. I'd rather study horticulture; this would be useful. Numbers are all very well, but what good are they? I like to be able to apply what I study. I haven't time to study for the sake of it.
Thought for today
The English think that incompetence is the same thing as sincerity.
Quentin Crisp, in the New York Times, 1977
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A little list
I shall be spending five days soon in the Yorkshire Dales. This morning I started to write a list of things to take with me. My little list is surprisingly long. Perhaps that's a reflection of creature comforts. The more one has, the more one wants to have. Unpredictable weather doesn't help.
I dug the veg patch where the curly kale used to be; now the ground is ready for the next lot of crops (and the neighbours' cat).
Thought for today
We blame in others only those faults by which we do not profit.
Alexander Dumas, (pere)
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A grand day out
Went for a walk today with a local group of ramblers. The sun beat down all day. A breeze kept me from overheating and suntan lotion and a hat kept me from burning. I tied my hat to my rucksack in case it blew off; it did once so I was glad I'd taken that precaution. We stopped to eat our sandwiches on a rocky outcrop which looked an uncomfortable place to sit. I was lucky and found a hollow in one rock that fitted my backside.
Arrived home earlier than expected which meant that I had no excuse not to do something useful. After a revitalising cup of tea, I dug up the rest of my curly kale, removed the leaves suitable for eating, and composted the rest. Tomorrow morning I shall dig the ground ready for the next lot of crops--pumpkins--which are starting their life in the greenhouse.
Thought for today
The whole of life is but keeping away the thoughts of death.
Samuel Johnson, 1791
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The growing season
The vegetables in the greenhouse are bigger every day. Soon the tomatoes will need tying to their stakes and the pumpkins in pots will need larger pots as roots are poking out of the bottom. I want them to be large enough to withstand attack from slugs and snails before I plant them outside. My neighbour tends her puppy; I tend my pumpkins.
Gordon Brown is to think about social care for the elderly. I wonder how many people think realistically about their old age. What do they hope will happen, and what steps will they take to try to ensure that it does? Young people are criticised for not knowing how to cook but many old people can't cook. When their spouse dies or becomes unable to cook for them, they have a problem and are doomed to ready meals which are expensive.
Thought for today
You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.
Albert Camus (1930 - 1960) French novelist, playwright and essayist
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Two Caravans
This is the title of the second book by Marina Lewycka. Her first was A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. I recommend both. Two Caravans is dedicated to the Morecombe Bay cockle pickers and is about migrant workers in England. It has humour and sadness; it is about ignorance, misunderstanding and exploitation. If I hadn't turned vegetarian years ago, I would stop eating chicken. Here is an extract.
Instead, she was assigned to the part of the plant where chickens are graded. They come through from the slaughterhouse on a belt, and all Marta has to do is examine the chickens, select those which are plump and undamaged, and place them on another belt--these are the ones which will be packaged and sold as whole birds. The birds which are a little bruised, or just have, say, a leg broken, or ammonia burns on their hocks, are left on the line, and they go through to another part of the plant where they are chopped into chicken pieces and then go through for packaging, where Ciocia Yola is doing her bit. The chickens which are very badly bruised and mangled go into a huge plastic tub, from where they will be taken and processed for the catering industry--pies, restaurants, chicken nuggets and school dinners.
Thought for today
Nobody notices when things go right.
Zimmerman's Law of Complaints
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Wearing weather
Another hot sunny day. I sweat and the fridge works overtime.
My neighbour likes her dog. She took it to post a letter and carried it there and back. It must not be ready for dirty pavements yet. There were a lot of good boy's and clever boy's this afternoon as well as a few no-oo's. Rather her than me. I'll stick to growing vegetables. They are easier to look after; they need only water, though I do have to keep an eye out for predators.
I have managed to stop the upgrade to my anti-virus program from scanning my computer every time I switch it on. My next problem is to work out how to survive the heat. Perhaps I should shed a few pounds.
Thought for today
Before they seize power and establish a world according to their doctrines, totalitarian movements conjure up a lying world of consistency which is more adequate to the needs of the human mind than reality itself in which, through sheer imagination, uprooted masses can feel at home and are spared the never-ending shocks which real life and real experiences deal to human beings and their expectations.
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1979
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Yet more progress
Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
For the past two evenings I have been struggling to understand the menus of the latest version of my anti-virus program. I want to set the schedules for updates and scans according to how I use the computer not how the programmers think I should use it. I don't have broadband, I use a dial-up connection, and I surf the web little so I fail to see the need for a daily scan for viruses.
I heard a nice description of a brain recently--a kilo and a half of jelly with electricity.
My broad beans, safe from pigeons under netting tunnels, had outgrown the tunnels. This afternoon I removed the tunnels and replaced them with an elaborate construction of stakes, string and a roll of netting which, I hope, will provide support and protection from pigeons. Slugs and snails, responsible for the nibbles in the plants, will still be able to munch on them. Pigeons might not eat broad beans but I am taking no chances.
Thought for today
How can he explain to this impatient young man what it has taken him forty-five years to learn--that loss is an essential part of the human condition? That even as we are moving on down that long lonesome road, destination unknown, there is always something we are leaving behind us.
Marina Lewycka, Two Caravans, 2007
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