scribbles

Lost in the jungle — A bugs life

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 03:35:32 -0700

Imagine what it must be like living in a world where every path moved under your feet, never taking you to the same place from moment to moment — what if those paths varied in size from 8 lane highways to thin and twisty mews, liable to break under your weight at any moment. Plunging you down down to yet another pathway or to hit the ground — hard.

A bugs life indeed.

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Growing your own veg is so rewarding

Wed, 27 May 2009 11:48:16 -0700

It has been a few years since we had a greenhouse. The last one got scrambled by the winter storms we tend to have round here. So each year since we have resorted to starting the plants off indoors — and rapidly run out of room.

This year we have tried something different. Using those small plastic patio style green houses available from stores like B&Q and some supermarkets at least here in the UK.

It is not big but by removing seedlings as soon as possible to a window ledge or other available space we have managed to build up a fair stock of plants ready to go out about now — any sooner and we would have lost them to heavy rain and wind a few weeks back, that is what took most of our stuff out last year!

Still planting we put in some Rocket just this weekend, Sunday it was. And they have sprouted already. Showing their young heads to the world in promise of scrummy things to come in but a few weeks.

Also on the menu, Courgettes / Zucchini. Planted into seed pots around the 17th May and already looking like a good crop might be on the cards.

Anyway to celebrate the abundance of nice things and the wonder that is growing your own, here are a few pictures of them taken just an hour or so ago.

And the best bit. Growing stuff yourself means you can be sure it is 100% organic! No chemicals or other undesirable crud!

If you like the idea of growing your own, you might like to visit The Secret Seed Society — they have great plans to get more folks into growing and eating healthy food.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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"... old-school newspapers seem like aging silent film stars, stricken to find themselves outmoded by technology." E-books, will they save the publishing industry ?

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:09:35 -0700

"... old-school newspapers seem like aging silent film stars, stricken to find themselves outmoded by technology."

Some say that dead tree publishing is dying, certainly there are figures around to indicate fewer sales in many areas. So what of the future — how are we to pass on knowledge and fiction both. Or is the real problem one of attention span, in this ever busier world do we really have time, or indeed the inclination, just to sit and read a good book or a newspaper ?

With the New York Times loosing over 70 million dollars in the first quarter 2009 this analysis make for some interesting reading.

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Update on the six ladies we hoped to rescue

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 06:53:02 -0800

We had been hoping to rescue six battery chickens last weekend.

First the bad news. They have not yet arrived, we had to cancel their pickup due to the seriously bad weather our part of the world has been experiencing these last two weeks. Not to put too fine a point on things it was literally a case of taking your life in your hands to get out of our place due to the snow and ice. Even today as the thaw sets in one still needs a 4x4 and decent driving to make it out in one piece.

Now the Good news. The next batch of rescues is due to happen around March April time and we will be giving a bunch of those ladies a new home instead. The six ladies due to come here will have been found alternative homes with folks not living in such out of the way places -- it is nice here but it can be a little isolated at times of bad weather.

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Six weary ladies are almost home

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:20:42 -0800

Six weary battery hens are almost home. Starting a new life as free range chickens, that way nature intended.

7th February is their big day. This is when we take them home after they have been rescued by the Battery Hen Welfare Trust. Once home they will free range with our Appenzellers and Araucanas. Wandering free, getting wet when it rains, enjoying the sun on their backs and a dust bath when it shines.

We are looking forward to having them stay with us here — happy chickens give so much back, they are just so so relaxing to be with and of course there are the eggs. Nothing like those insipid watery ‘things’ you buy in shops — real free range eggs are rich, dark, and so full of taste. Truly a win win partnership.

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Appenzeller enjoying the sunshine

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:30:31 -0800

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Rescue battery chickens and they will pay you in eggs and friendship

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:30:00 -0800

Signed up with Battery Hen Welfare Trust to rescue and home some battery chickens over the weekend. We have always kept chickens but until now we always got the rarer breeds, Aracunas, Lakenvelders, Appenzellers to name but a few.

Until this weekend and a chance remark we thought the trust only operated in the south of England -- how wrong we were. The rescue is alive kicking and doing much good work in the north as well.

It was always our intention to give a good home to some battery chickens and now we can. Happy days for the chickens and us. Nice thing is that our existing flock will be able to show them how to live as a real bird, not like the wretched caged scrawny existence they had before.

We hope to get our first rescues sometime mid January. In the mean time if you eat eggs, and have a little spare ground please do consider joining us and rescue some hens yourself. All the information can be found here.

No need to worry about noisy cockerels as only the hens lay eggs and so only the hens are placed into the battery system in the first place.

Cost is minimal too, and more than offset by the eggs these ladies will produce for you. Allow them to truly free range and there is simply no way to compare the taste and quality of the eggs you will get with those bought from a shop — even those that are sold as free range are nothing like as good as the real thing.

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Blog fiction set to return

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 08:34:13 -0800

One of the best sites out there for blog fiction is set to return on the 12 Jan this year. I speak about blog.blogfiction.org absent now since mid November.

If your at all interested in blog fiction, reading or writing, make a note to add this to your reading list. The amount of information and resources there is huge. Of special interest is the forum based List of all blog fiction sites as well as a day-by-day feed of the latest updates across many of these sites.

It will indeed be a most welcome return.

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