A few curmudgeons, first light hearted. I planted beetroot, perpetual spinach and chard,it pretty much disappeared. I thought slugs, nope, I caught the culprit,a sparrow. I have more to go in. Folks who have known me some time are aware of the neighbours/fence/weed saga. Well, hubby had a peek over (as you do!) Came in and said to me that they have actually copied pretty much every plant/shrub we have. I bought some recently,3 of naturally, haven't even had chance to plant,lo and behold: they have one identical. Mine are sitting under the shade near their side waiting to be planted. Theirs is planted the other side of the fence to where ours will be (hubby recently made new raised bed) They have also added (very badly I might add) a structure which sticks up above the fence,and of course,more of "my plants". As you folks know we are of the "right plant, right location", so they may well come unstuck. Grrrr
After a flurry of activity for the past week, we haven’t seen the chiffchaff visiting it’s nest in the undergrowth for a couple of days. This morning, the feathery interior lining of the nest is lying on the lawn. So hoping the babies had already fledged and left, but the probability is that the nest has been plundered. OH is very upset. We have read that chiffchaffs often try a second brood, if so, I hope they’ll build their nest in a rather more secure location.
Pansyface,my late mum used to say that I find it flaming annoying I have to say, mine looks much better (you'll have to take my word for that,) but when I hear folk saying how lovely "theirs,",is, it isn't,it's tatty,weed Infested/ lot of rubbish. It grates.perhaps I should stick my head over,and said ", nah,you want to see ours,!!
Yes.. I'm looking at the lovely, heavy crop of cherries here, and wondering how on earth the birds manage to eat most of them before they're even half grown. I don't begrudge them the fruit, but it would be nice to have more than one bowl a year for ourselves. 😄
I bought some Spanish cherries today. They seem cheaper than usual so there must've been a good crop. I was wondering how they manage to protect them from scoffers.
Nets and cages I expect @B3. There are fields of apple and pear orchards here which have huge nets that can be spread over them on frames and I suspect it's anti-bird rather than sun shade.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I don't mind the birds having a few cherries,we have one full size tree (as well as a dwarf,) the b***** blackbird.. boy he's big,takes a bite and drops it on the ground! My curmudgeonly, today. Hubby drinks orange juice with bits. He said to me some time ago,to leave his glass alone,so he can use it all day. He'll give it a swish out,then use it for his other cold drinks. Well,that's the theory!! We both take antihypertensive meds, plus vit D in the morning. He brought mine out (that's rare!) With orange juice with bits (I keep telling him that you should take meds with water!! He's given me a "clean glass", I had washed and dried. One of those beer balloons, narrow at the top,a pig to clean out. He had 2 more of them he used yesterday,PLUS a chunky big tumbler, which is ridged. None are dishwasher safe!!! Grrrr
I use the same ceramic beaker for my water all day every day but my wife can get through an entire cupboard full of glasses in a day. No one can even drink that much so I've no idea how she manages it.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
We see some odd effects - money is one. Man decides that things have worth, so trades objects. The objects may be too big to carry around or are immovable anyway, so we 'symbolise' and abstract the concept to introduce money. Now money is just a number on a screen in some electronic store. Can that ever go back - and if so to what point?
Weapons - stones, wooden weapons became obsolete with metal. Metal had types and each harder metal replaced the old. Each had a massive advantage until gunpowder made close up weapons less effective. No we have missiles that traverse continents.
Medicine - we now cure disease, we fix defects in bodies and will use DNA targeted medicines to keep people alive. But is that good? What is the effect of people living to 70, 80, 100... 6 billion people, 10 billion? All on a planet that has finite resource. Business wanted/wants a healthy workforce (covid showed that) - but will that be the case in 50 years?
Machines - to make things easier man starts to use tools. Stone, wood, metal as time progresses. Machines become mechanised, robotised - sophisticated to the extent that to increase 'productivity' (to support a capitalist model), the only way is to replace humans with more and more machines - from computers to robots. Now AI in its infancy means even more tasks can be undertaken by machines. Art, media..what won't be done by a machine - and irrespective of that question - how can you constantly increase productivity without machine intervention?
So what happens - we try to control what people do - we legislate. But we know that doesn't work. Monetary fraud is rife, medical abuse (from dodgy DNA and cloning experiments to biological weapons) is rife, weapons are used when banned, and who wants to ban AI - when capitalism means that whoever uses it has a massive financial advantage. It all becomes one insane race. But a race to what? What is the goal?
It just seems that power and money is the goal - and anything is then justified in the race to obtain them - and that means that the cap will never be put on the bottle.
@steveTu even before Covid many youngsters were unable to do even basic calculations without the use of a calculator so I'm sure they love just being able use us a bit of plastic to pay for things. I was in our local Co-op pre-Covid and the items came to (say) £5.12. I handed over a £10 note and 12 pence in change. The young person on the till looked blank and asked me what the 12p was for. I said it's so you can give me a fiver in change. The blank look never changed and it was only the intervention of a 'more mature' member of staff which prevented the 12p being handed back, followed by a load of coins.
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I find it flaming annoying
I have to say, mine looks much better (you'll have to take my word for that,) but when I hear folk saying how lovely "theirs,",is, it isn't,it's tatty,weed Infested/ lot of rubbish. It grates.perhaps I should stick my head over,and said ", nah,you want to see ours,!!