Fruits of the forest - nature under stress! Moaning about noisy work colleagues. Weekend fun and games.

 When we have been out and about over recent weeks, maybe even over the last couple of months, we have been observing the progress of the various fruits that grow wild around here. 5-year-old Grandson Number Two has enjoyed picking and eating raspberries - all gone now! The blackberries are in profusion and assuming they all ripen, as they are doing at present, we shall have a bumper crop. It’s still early days although some seem to be ripening earlier than usual. The apple tree in a local farmer’s field is doing quite nicely, ripening fine but the apples are small. The wild tree in the little wooded are is not producing as many as last year. One of the local last year left bags of apples for passer-by to take and use. Maybe that will happen again.

Now, here is a link to an article which suggests that we might not have such a bumper crop as expected. Nature, it tells us is under stress and in some places the berries are very shrivelled. It’s all because we’ve not had enough rain at the right time to promote proper growth and perhaps too much hot weather too soon. Not only is the berry crop affected but some trees are already turning autumnal and beginning to drop leaves. 

Nature is confused! Aren’t we all?

And here is a cartoon comment of wildfires:-

Here is an extract from an article about and employment tribunal: 

“Older employees who are disturbed by younger, more boisterous colleagues in the workplace are not victims of age harassment, an employment tribunal has ruled.

Employees in their 20s and 30s may annoy more mature co-workers by chatting, socialising and looking at their phones but they are not breaking workplace equality rules, the tribunal said.”

Oh dear! Here we have a very modern dilemma. On the one hand there are people saying that young people do not have the same opportunities to meet life partners through work because there’s so much remote working since covid. On the other, some people are complaining because young people socialise at work! 

It’s Notting Hill Carnival this weekend, as I have mentioned before. This morning I read that the police who will be keeping an eye on things have been told they are NOT to dance, even if they really like the music. At one time dancing with the revellers was considered a good thing as it established good relations with the community. Now it is believed to distract the bobbies on the beat from looking out for wrong’uns!

Here in Saddleworth we have our own kind of carnival this weekend. The Saddleworth rushcart will be hauled from village to village, probably as a celebration of harvest at one time in the past.

And the Morrismen will dance their curious way around the district. 

Unfortunately, the various members of the family who are coming to visit tomorrow will have moved on by the time all the fun starts. So it goes!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!