Run for the hills: Distraught

Friday, 14 May 2010

Distraught

This! Look! Look at this! Soddit! For all the world this looks like blight. I mean how the F?!? It's only just stopped snowing. Soddit!

These are earlies, grown in pots by the side of the cottage - clearly I've created a superb little micro-climate. Soddit.

But where has the infection come from? The most likely source (if it wasn't the tubers - and it shouldn't have been really) is dot dot dot ... the compost they are in. And guess what? That compost is now all over the garden. Buggarit. Soddit.

Soddit. Soddit.Soddit. Soddit.Soddit. Soddit.Soddit. Soddit.Soddit. Soddit.

I've cut the infected bits off and burnt them under the light of the moon dancing naked and squealing nibbling on funny looking mushrooms with antlers on my head and with my navel full of the still beating hearts of earthworms.

BuggaritBuggaritBuggaritBuggaritBuggaritBuggaritBuggaritBuggaritBuggaritBuggaritBuggaritBuggaritBuggaritBuggarit

5 comments:

townmouse said...: It's not frost damage is it? Mine have a few brown patches, which I put down to that very late frost.; 14 May 2010 at 16:55
The Speaking Goat said...: It could be - but I don't think so. It appeared a couple of days ago (and maybe that was after a heavy frost minus 6 C up here you know ) - but it seemed to be spreading and it really does look like blight. Hopefully you're right though.; 14 May 2010 at 17:25
Ellie in Edinburgh said...: Not sure it can be blight so early in the season. Would either suggest frost - which can turn stems black.
Or it could be blackleg. This attacks early in the season & is worse in heavy soils and rainy weather. If there is damage below the ground it could be this?; 16 May 2010 at 11:57
Anonymous said...: "......under the light of the moon dancing naked and squealing nibbling on funny looking mushrooms with antlers on my head and with my navel full of the still beating hearts of earthworms".

Do I remember you practicing that dance at Rodney Street one night? Something very similar anyway......

%-D

MTB

Word verification:
"Chenab" - a miniature fork-like instrument used for the collection of still-beating worm hearts.; 24 May 2010 at 18:28
The Speaking Goat said...: Excellent comment Mike! Yes of course - you were a good teacher!; 25 May 2010 at 08:45

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Where I"m coming from - !CAUTION! a bit of a polemic

Firstly, there is nothing more important than me and my family. The most precious thing I can give them (including me) is time. In my job, with all it's pressures, I singularly failed to do this. So we run for the hills and try to redress the balance.

Secondly, climate change is happening. It's a cataclysm, the scope of which is beyond our comprehension. This is why we are doing so little to stop it - we just cant imagine the scale of the upheavals to come, and we can't imagine how we, as individuals, can stop it.

Everything is stacked against effective action. Our economy is driven by consumerism and it is consumerism that is driving climate change. Our political leaders are paralysed - to curb consumerism would cripple the economic engine. We increasingly define ourselves by our economic position and the things we buy. We are what we buy. What politician dare restrict our ability to buy, our ability to define ourselves? It would attack our very self and would be political suicide.

And anyway, the real power lies with money - and the people with money want us to consume and they spend millions every second of the day persuading us to consume more. What hope do we have against such power? And everything we buy pumps a little more CO2 into the atmosphere.

Thirdly, I am no saint. I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to change my life for the benefit of myself, and, I hope, the planet. Ultimately my reasons for doing this are selfish, and although I'll do what I can to keep my carbon footprint low, I'll make many choices that are not so good for the planet. Like anyone, I can only voluntarily make changes to my life at the speed I can. I don't intend to beat myself up over this - I do intend to change faster than most.

Fourthly, there is hope. Our lust to consume is a very recent phenomena. Not so long ago we principally defined ourselves by our relationships with friends and family and place and we defined ourselves by our usefulness to society. I believe that climate change will force us out of consumerism, and in its place we will find those core values, and rediscover a sense of wellbeing that is so missing from our current fractured existence.

There are lots of examples where this is starting to happen. The transition town movement is one - people getting together and learning to appreciate the things and people around them. I played a small part in helping Sustaining Dunbar get off the ground. (http://edubuzz.org/blogs/sustainingdunbar/about-us) What I found there were people striving to build a positive and resilient future and there are transition towns popping up all over the place - a really positive movement. (find out more about transition towns)

Fifthly, At the end of the day it's all bollocks. So let's all go off and have some fun - it's the most important thing we can do - but let's just try to do it without killing the planet in the process.

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Run for the hills

Friday, 14 May 2010

Distraught

5 comments:

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