Reflections. More than enough free apples. Security matters. Being prepared for emergencies.

 Here’s the sky reflected in the millpond this morning. It was a fine and bright morning as seems to be becoming the norm at the moment, even if the cloud moves in later.

I had not been back long from my run when the doorbell rang. Fortunately I had not been back long enough to have headed for the shower. It was one of my daughter’s friends with a bag of baking apples. I was expecting him this morning but I had not been given a specific time. I just counted on it being some time after 9.30. It seems he has three apple trees in his garden. This year they have produced a bumper crop and he has been over-run with apples, of which he is trying to give away as many as possible. He tried to offload some onto my daughter, who claims to have no time for peeling and cooking apples and making pies. She diverted them to me, with the suggestion that maybe I could make a thank-you apple pie for her friend. So I was expecting a bag of apples but not quite so many as arrived this morning!

My credit card expires at the end of the month. My bank had warned me to expect a replacement, which arrived yesterday. Now, in the past when your credit card expired they sent you a new on, you signed it and cut up the previous one into small pieces. And then you were good to go. Nowadays you have to jump through a series of hoops to “activate” your new card. So I tried to do so through online banking. It said I had no credit card! Well, I suppose technically not as we have one card between us, or rather two versions of the same card, with Phil as the main cardholder and me as the additional cardholder. 

As the additional cardholder, therefore, I had to phone the call-centre number on the back of the card. After answering a number of security questions, I was informed that I would have an approximately 10-minute wait to speak to an adviser. Armed with a sudoku puzzle to stave off boredom, i settled down to wait, tinny music playing and a probably AI voice  every few minutes thanking me for holding, thanking me for my politeness and my patience. Eventually a human replaced the repeat-bot, i jumped through some more security hoops and all was well. Modern life is complicated!

Here’s something else in the same vein.

John Crace wrote this at the start of his column yesterday:

“Back to the future. Some of us can remember the days when the key to surviving a nuclear war was to kneel down under the kitchen table and keep your eyes closed till you were incinerated or died of radiation poisoning. Now the government wants you to hoard some baked beans and a few litres of water in the hope of getting through the next three days.”

 

He went on to write about Farage but that opening paragraph amused me.

Incidentally, here’s something from The Guardian about stockpiling:

“Sales of tinned foods, bottled water, wind-up radios and torches have surged after the UK government advised households to prepare for emergencies.

Retailers have reported a jump in sales of items linked to preparation for emergencies such as extreme weather or cyber-attacks. The Be Ready campaign was launched last week with the aim of persuading households to lay in supplies to last 72 hours.

Maplin said sales of torches had almost quadrupled and sales of power banks and radios had doubled. One brand of emergency wind-up radio sold out on Friday.”

A friend of mine confessed on social media to having given in and bought a wind-up radio. I think Phil bought one some time ago. Well, I may not have enough tins of baked beans but now I have plenty of baking apples.

At the end of next week we are off on our travels once more, heading for a chess event in Portugal. We’ll pay a ridiculous amount of money for a taxi to the airport but we won’t have to worry about parking. That will be someone else’s problem. Here’s a link to an article about someone being fined for “parking” in a forbidden zone in airport when she stopped very briefly to deal with a wasp in her vehicle! Wasps in cars! Nightmare!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

On being organised. Train crashes. Elections. Pedestrianisation.

 It”s Wednesday again. My plan was to stay in bed as the weather has been so dull and damp and maybe go out for some exercise later. But then I realised we had run put of a few essentials which I can only get from our nearby, but not quite local, Tesco. So I made a supreme effort to get up and out for an early bus to Tesco, did a quick run round (and still managed to forget one item which, in my defence, was not on my written list), caught a bus back to Uppermill, bought some fish from the fish-man, went to the cash-machine in the Co-op, and caught the next bus home. So I was home and organising breakfast at the same time as if I had only been to the Uppermill (dwindling) market. Quite a masterpiece of timing!

I read that there has been another train crash in Spain, two high sped trains in a head-on collision. I think there was another similar collision in January of this year. The reported numbers of people killed in today’s crash keep changing. People living near the crash site rushed out to offer assistance. No doubt there will be an investigation and someone will be found responsible. In the meantime, football games have been cancelled as a mark of respect: 

“All games of the first round of Spanish Copa del Rey football competition planned for today have been postponed as a mark of respect following the train crash in Urda, Spanish football federation said in a statement.

“The great Spanish football family remains united in grief over this tragedy, offering its support to the authorities to help the victims of this devastating accident,” the RFEF said in a statement.

Somehow I always think of trains as a safe travel option. And I still suspect that it may be safer than hurtling up and down the motorways by car. As with plane crashes, the results of train crashes are more horrific and dramatic. You might expect that by 2026 we would have eliminated some of the dangers though.

The elections in Israel have generated a host of contradictory reports: Netanyahu defeated! Netanyahu hangs on! The election is a draw! Nobody has a big enough following to allow them to form a government!  Coalitions will have to be formed! We shall see!

According to this article, the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street has been a success so far.  

And here is a cartoon with a more pessimistic view of things.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Running and dodging the rain. Poppies and watermelon badges. Music at political rallies. And Farm Aid.

 I went out running this morning, for the first time in several days. It was fine and bright and crisp.

There was some evidence of storm damage from the weekend.

Later in the morning it rained, copiously, but by early afternoon the sun was shining again. I have not hung washing in the garden - the altogether too unpredictable weather put me off.

Here’s a post from Zarah Sultana MP:

“In 2026, teachers are being threatened with disciplinary action for wearing watermelon badges in solidarity with Palestine and against genocide.

This is Andy Burnham’s Britain.

Shame on him.”

At the same time, everyone is encouraged to wear a Remembrance Poppy. Some people might also wear a white poppy, to make us aware of those who strive for peace. I read something about someone creating a Palestine poppy, presumably in Palestine colours, but I don’t think it’s been much publicised.

Over in the USA, Neil Young is reportedly suing a Donald Trump fundraising committee for $10m (£7.5m) after his song Rockin’ in the Free World was played at a campaign rally. The lawsuit asserts that the committee breached a prior 2020 legal settlement, in which a different Trump campaign organisation agreed not to use the track without permission. Uh! Oh!

He’s not the only artist upset at having their songs used against their will, usually without their knowing about it until it has happened, and usually at a rally for someone they don’t support. Amongst others, Ariana Grande has also taken legal action because of the Trump Team assuming they could use her one of her songs.

In the comments on the report about Neil Young, someone pointed out the he was one of the founders of Farm Aid in the USA. I checked it up on Wikipedias: 

“Farm Aid is an American benefit concert and non-profit organization founded in 1985 by musicians Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp. The goal of the benefit concert is to provide financial relief to family farmers in the United States, to improve agricultural conditions in soil and water, and to support domestic, locally owned farms as they compete against large-scale agribusiness.”

Neil Young and Willie Nelson were performing there again this year - Willie Nelson at the age of 93!

There you go!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

North and south weather divide. Hallowe’en pics. Election stuff here and there. Revloting cyclists.

 As we are in storm season, here is a weather warning!

I have just travelled back to the North of England with my daughter and her various offspring. The journey was uneventful but very wet. Visibility on the motorway was very poor with huge lorries sensing up spray constantly. So it goes!

Oddly enough the weather was better in the North than in the South but still nothing to write home about. I have been able to put our dustbins out for emptying tomorrow without being blown away or getting soaked.

But here’s a picture of what the storms are capable of.  This is Newhaven Harbour.

And it is reported that about 90,000 properties across northern parts of the UK are still without power after a weekend of stormy weather, with forecasters warning of more strong winds to come.

Two men were killed by falling trees after two named storms, Austen and Boelo, bringing widespread travel disruption, flooding, power cuts and event cancellations. On the whole, we got off lightly.

Here are the last two pictures from our Hallowe’en craft sessions. Pumpkins were carved.

And later, candles were lit inside them.

So that’s that! And a good time was had by all!

In the wider world, chaos continues and elections have been going on or are about to go on here and there. This is from the Guardian:

“Hebron, the biggest city in the West Bank, had paid little attention to Israel’s looming elections until it found itself suddenly in the midst of them, a proving ground for Benjamin Netanyahu’s security credentials in the run-up to Tuesday’s vote.

A gun attack on an Israeli military checkpoint on Friday in which two soldiers were killed brought immediate televised visits from Netanyahu and his finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, whose ruling coalition is narrowly trailing with two days of campaigning left.

They vowed abrupt and sweeping retribution, and the prime minister warned of imminent military operations on a scale the West Bank has not seen in nearly 60 years of occupation.

Within hours, the whole city of 250,000 people had been sealed off and the neighbourhood of Farsh al-Hawa, closest to the site of Friday’s attack, had been flattened. By Sunday morning, there was nothing left but rubble of an industrial area that had been full of car workshops, a big ceramics plant and other enterprises.

As the bulldozers were at work there, another district a few kilometres away was being systematically emptied. Ein Deir Baha was allegedly home to at least one of the two men involved in the attack (both of whom were killed on the spot), and on Friday its residents paid the price.

The imam from the local mosque, Fahed Ahmaro, was woken at about midnight by the loudspeakers from military vehicles patrolling the street, telling homeowners to vacate their homes immediately for their own safety.”

Rather more optimistic election news comes from Brazil. Again from the Guardian therevis this:

“Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, has staged a dramatic election fightback, defeating his far-right opponent, Flavio Bolsanaro, to claim a historic fourth term in power.

With 100% of votes counted the 80-year-old leftist received 4.4m votes more than Bolsonaro, with a 51.79% share to his 45-year-old rival’s 48.21%. However, soon after Brazil’s electoral authority confirmed Lula’s victory, Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat and asked for the results to be annulled.

Lula narrowly lost the first round of the election to Bolsonaro in early October, casting his political future into doubt and plunging progressive Brazilians into three weeks of despair. Never, since the return of democracy in the 1980s, has the first round runner-up won the second vote.

But Lula did precisely that on Sunday, prompting joyous scenes on the streets of São Paulo, where he had been following events, and at the hotel where he was watching the count.}

And in London they have been pedestrianising Oxford Street, including banning cycles, but apparently cyclists have been ignoring the ban today! Oops! Bicycle anarchy!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Stormy Sunday. An extra hour in bed. Crafty results from yesterday.

Yesterday disintegrated into Storm Austen or possible it became Storm Beolo. The wind howled all night and this morning dawned fine and bright but still windy. But at least we had an extra hour in bed as the clocks went back last night.

In view of yesterday afternoon’s dreadful weather we kept the children busy with a range of craft activities. And so we ended up with a range of clay creations, all Hallowe’en related.

And we had a hint of Mexico and the Day of the Dead, inspired somewhat by Frida Kahlo.

And the ten-year-old showed off her art appreciation with a Modrian-inspired collage.

Today, so far, all we did was walk onto the town centre where the children spent Waterstones book tokens they had received as birthday presents.

Later we’ll have a roast dinner together. But now I have to get involved in craft activities again. 

Tomorrow we head for home. More normal service might be resumed. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Half-term. Dodging the storm to pick pumpkins.

It’s the half-term holiday. Not that half-terms really mean much to me any longer as its more years than I can remember since I was really ruled by the academic year. But the two smallest grandchildren are still at school and our daughter is a teacher, and so my life is still impacted by the school calendar. 

So, in appreciation of how hard teachers work, here’s a quotation from one of Terry Pratchett’s books:

‘You sound like a very educated man for a barbarian’, said Rincewind

‘I didn’t start out as a barbarian. I used to be a teacher. But I decided to give it all up and make a living by the sword.’

‘After being a teacher all your life?’

‘It did mean a change of perspective, yes.’

But … well … surely … the privations, the terrible hazards, the daily risk of death …

Mr Saveloy brightened up. ‘Oh, you’ve been a teacher, have you?’

Yesterday my daughter and I, accompanied by Granddaughters Number Two and Number Four and Grandson Number Two, drove to Buckinghamshire to spend the weekend with my son and his family. Granddaughter Number Four and Grandson Number Two were delighted to be reunited with their cousin, Granddaughter Number Three (and her two cats).

This morning we all set off in two cars as soon after 9.00 as we could organise ourselves so that we could have some fun and games before Storm Austen hit this part of England later in the morning.

We were going to a pumpkin patch - well, a farm that has turned itself into a pumpkin-growing and -selling place, with a plantation of Christmas trees nearby ready for when Hallowe’en is finally put away. As far as eye could see-there were fields of pumpkins, with pumpkins of all sizes and colours.

There was a mystery door leading nowhere.

And a spooky piano waiting to be played. 

My son and Grandson Number Two loaded wheelbarrows with pumpkins.

We then had to select which we would actually purchase, much to the chagrin of Grandson Number Two who would have happily kept the lot. Granddaughters Number Three and Number Four and Grandson Number Two will carve them artistically this afternoon. 

Alongside the pumpkin patch there was a churros van. Two portions of sugar and cinnamon churros were purchased and consumed. i am not as a rule a great fan of cgurros but freshly fried rhey were fine.

There was also a gift shop and a farm shop selling all sorts of food fproducts. Someone has turned the farm knto a going concern by the looks of things.

Life goes ln. Stay safe and well, everyone!