rituals and religion

Now I wont say where the pictures below came from cos I am a little concerned by the content of one but they have to be published, not least because there have been no gloved for ages and when two come together and sent to me well I've got to do it.

The first picture clearly shows a preaching glove in action with that finger laying the law down in a most provocative manner.

 But why the need to preach you may ask, well look at the second picture and ask yourself why the need for ritualistic amputation as obviously evidenced here. Like I said I wont say where they were taken but its clearly an area where strange practices occur.

Thin Green Line

I am going to mention this group again, http://www.thingreenline.org.au/.

Please have a look at there website especially if you like to see animals in the wild, in most cases animals need looking after and protecting by people. Rangers are out there day in day out in lots of countries protecting them and helping scientists understand them.

Unfortunately rangers especially in less well off countries die every year often because of illegal poachers who will stop at nothing to get an animal or the part of it they want. A dead ranger nearly always leaves a family with little if any support to help them survive.

Next time you watch a wildlife programme about animals in Africa, Asia, South America and ooh and aah remember there are people living and dying to protect them, and if you can spare a bit of cash think about donating it to the Thin Green Line. Look on it as paying a bit extra to watch animals on the telly.

Yes I was a ranger in this country England, I will never forget speaking to and hearing rangers from around the world at an international conference just talking about their lives and what forms a routine part of it. A routine part that can become the end of their lives. I came home from that conference with a shirt made by the wife of an african ranger who had been killed by a poacher, its a shirt I wear sometimes when storytelling, a shirt that has its own story.

The English Channel innocent or a pawn in the game????????

So like lots of folk I am sitting watching all the people trying to get into the UK whether via ferry and or any which way they can. Then I hear lots of yapping about in or out of the EU. And then I start to wonder and ask questions and I try to be objective.

A few questions come to mind.
1. If the people trying to get on ferries etc in France (other ports and countries are available) are there illegally and have made it from Italy or wherever without claiming asylum.
a) why dont the French (other ports and countries are available) arrest them instead of just taking them down the road and letting them go so they can try again. Cynically could they not get asylum in Italy France or any other EU country and get freedom of movement anyway. Or is that too simplistic.
b) have they heard how bad its going to be here when DC and his friends make even more cuts.

2. How would leaving the EU make this situation any better for us. How are UKIP and other non EUers going to stop illegal immigrants from getting in. What leverage would we have over other country's in the EU when we are not in it to stop them. What incentive would there be for EU not to just turn a blind eye to people wanting to get into UK. What sort of border force would we have and what would we do with anyone found trying to get in.

I know me expressing my thoughts might provoke some folk to accuse me of this and that but am I the only one thinking these thoughts. Or the only one daring to voice them. What is certain to my mind is that both issues are big and need to well explored and explained, how on earth is Joe/Jean public to gain any real understanding of these issues when most seem to be angled one way or another depending on the bias of the media concerned.

Swallows and Amazons Alan Titchmarsh and engineers

I must be getting past my youth or something like.

I commented a few days ago on Twitter about the fuss a BBC news presenter made apologising for  Alan Titchmarsh saying, bastard trenching, it being another term for double digging. Have you ever tried it.

Then today I see that the BBC is making a new version of Swallows and Amazons, supposedly they are renaming a girl originally called Titty as Tatty. Is one better or worse than the other please, what girl would want to be called Tatty.

In my tweet I pondered what the BBC would do with the lovely little plant named Bastard Toadflax, Thesium humifusum its latin name hardly trips off the tongue, would they expunge it from all flora. What hidden meaning would they find in that other little plant Sqinancywort.

Similarly being an engineer many years ago and having had to file file file one particular test piece as well as know all about grades of files, how would they deal with the Bastard File a file of the commercial grade of coarseness between coarse and second-cut.

Next of course we have to move onto the Tit family of birds, Spring/Autumn/ whenever Watch will never be shown before the watershed again.

Is it me or...........

 

The flowers you see in a days work eh...

As a jobbing gardener you get to see all sort and shapes of flowers and plants. You get to know the season just by the plants you see and then........... you come across this one which I saw today.

Still getting over that I move onto looking at a possible new garden which is lovely. In the lawn there are a few bamboo canes oh they are my bee orchids, given I love them I went for a look and lo there is a white sepaled one, something I have not seen too many of.

A nice lunchtime telling stories

I was asked to go along to a community orchard to tell stories to mark midsummer day. So went along told some stories and then just sat and chatted as you do and the time just flew by.

Yes folk liked the stories but the few who stayed behind together with myself and the organisers just sat and nattered, what about, home education and environmental educators worth reading, swifts and are they using a new tower possibly could well be the answer, hedgehogs and leaving gaps in fences to let them get into gardens, bats and bat walks, gardening and why some seeds dont seem to be germinating as usual this year, house sparrows and where they are found, and on it went.

Given the pretty grim stories about the environment it was nice to be in company with people all doing what they can to make a difference. Its more of us doing what we can that will make those higher up wondering if people care take notice, eventually.

The pope speaks on climate change

So today the Pope has spoken about climate change and linked it to the poor, already some in power or wannabes have said he should stay out of it.

Sorry no he should keep saying it, him and as many non politicos and big business owners as can do it. Climate change is for real and its effects are going to be wide ranging and for some catastrophic.

Keep doing it Pope and encourage other religious leaders to do the same.

Sometimes perhaps we dont need to apply technology, but thats my thoughts what do you think.......

So I know we can marvellous things with technology and solve all sorts of problems and make life simpler etc etc etc.

I was driving through Histon today and there was some roadworks closing a lane. How were they controlling traffic not with traffic lights but with a good old fashioned Stop and Go board.

Or so I thought as I got closer I noticed that the chap with the board wasnt actually holding it he was holding a control box, and the Stop and Go board was mounted on a box with a motor in it, he pressed a button presumably and hey presto it turned round.

I couldn't really take it in or believe it, why? How heavy are they and havnt we been told physical activity is good for us, surely he would get more holding and twirling a board than pressing a button.

Just because we can do something does that make it right to do it. I bet the old board works out a lot cheaper than the electric motor powered one.

Or have I got it wrong??????????

Robs third pennine way

The boy Busby has done it he finished yesterday Monday 15th two weeks and three days after starting and all by himself. I think the weather could have been kinder at times but he has persevered, wild camped at times and chatted his way along to fellow walkers.

Well done Rob we are all proud of you especially Mother.

The Titfield Thunderbolt

Who can remember or has ever seen it, a classic British film from way way back from the Ealing Studios.

A right trip back in time with some lovely birds as part of the sound track, nice bit of Lapwing a few times. Stanley Holloway, Sid James and many more old faces from British films.

Cracking bit where they steal a train and drive it on the roads, you have to forgive them the fact you can see the rubber tyred wheels underneath on whatever chassis they use to mount a supposed train on, great film though and great fun.

A little drop of wild to lift the day

Been a wickedly hot day for gardening but it had to be done, three gardens left for the week. So started as early as I could and off we jolly well go. One of them has Bee Orchids every year on the lawn which the owner likes kept short. But recently I have left two of the spikes to see if they would come to anything this year.

Hey presto....

Where are they, on a housing estate on the edge of Cambridge.

So I'm a gardener at times

So I'm a gardener at times, why should I have a perfectly manicured garden, havnt got time to be honest, besides I love the natural world so it gives me an excuse not to mow the lawn, well all of it anyway when a good show of flowers are waving there heads about. Got some cowslips and buttercups in the front lawn that have been mowed around already while they flowered and set seed, now some oxeye daisies are in flower and have been left.

In the back and front gardens some Fox and Cubs are thriving, mind as its an introduced plant whether I should keep it is another matter, talking of introductions there are some Scabious in the back garden that need moving to the front lawn where they should stand a better chance of putting on a show.

wildlife chancers

I have posted at least one of these before but now they are in flower. Two chancers who have found an opening to exploit, a place to live and survive if perhaps not a brilliant place. Its a site I am surveying this year as part of my ecology work, a diversion from my gardening.

There's something about this dog rose growing around an old security lamp post, its something to do with the rose thorns I think, natural security or is that silly?

Then there's this naturally sort of bonsaied elder growing in a thin crack between two slabs of concrete, its trunk has been nibbled by rabbits for years but still it holds on and is full of flower at the moment.

its june and the gardens are lovely

Its crept up while I have been working in them a lot this year, too busy and then its Wisteria, its Roses and its the border at home that I have been working on for a year now.

 I'm lucky and I know it, lucky and tired and I know it, lucky tired and getting by and I know it, it'll do me.

ROB pennine way update

Little brother is still okay and doing well, he is about a week and a half in now with about a week to go to finish. If you are up Hadrians Wall way tonight say hello to him for me please.

Could genetically modified mosquitos prevent mosquito-borne illnesses and why I think we love to not look at the full implications

I saw this article on an environmental news site I subscribe too.  Please have a read of it especially take in the comments, up to 90 percent reductions where trialled and relatively little environmental risk.

So the overall outcome is the number of mosquitos will reduce considerably. Hmmnn so what will happen to the other wildlife that feeds on the current number of mosquitos, like bats and birds, has any research been done on that or do we need to wait a few years before reports of collapsing numbers of such species start to occur. But then dont we have this already?

From: Lisa Palmer, Yale Environment 360
Published June 4, 2015 02:18 PM

Could genetically modified mosquitos prevent mosquito-borne illnesses?

When people think of genetically modified organisms, food crops like GM corn and soybeans usually come to mind. But engineering more complex living things is now possible, and the controversy surrounding genetic modification has now spread to the lowly mosquito, which is being genetically engineered to control mosquito-borne illnesses.

A U.K.-based company, Oxitec, has altered two genes in the Aedes aegypti mosquito so that when modified males breed with wild females, the offspring inherit a lethal gene and die in the larval stage. The state agency that controls mosquitos in the Florida Keys is awaiting approval from the federal government of a trial release of Oxitec’s genetically modified mosquitos to prevent a recurrence of a dengue fever outbreak. But some people in the Keys and elsewhere are up in arms, with more than 155,000 signing a petition opposing the trial of genetically engineered mosquitoes in a small area of 400 households next to Key West.

Many scientists say, however, that genetically modifying the Aedes mosquito — and possibly other types of mosquitoes carrying diseases such as malaria — is a more effective and environmentally benign way of controlling mosquito-borne illnesses than spraying pesticides and other measures. Oxitec’s genetically engineered Aedes aegypti has proven itself in other countries, successfully reducing populations of the insect by up to 90 percent in field trials in the Cayman Islands, Brazil, Malaysia, and Panama. Overall, the trials were so successful that Brazil approved the use of the GM mosquitoes last year.

“Some people don’t want to see GE (genetically engineered) anything,” says entomologist Raymond St. Leger, distinguished university professor at the University of Maryland. “It’s an emotional response. It’s hard to reason people out of a decision they didn’t reason themselves into.”
St. Leger is now conducting field trials in Burkina Faso to test a method in which a mosquito is exposed to a fungus that prevents it from transmitting malaria. He says that Oxitec’s technology to suppress the Aedes aegypti has relatively little environmental risk and that knocking back the mosquito in the Keys, which experienced a dengue outbreak five years ago, “is a matter of urgency.
“You don’t want to wait until it’s endemic,” he says. “The gun is there and cocked and waiting to spread through their mosquitos. The extensive program and spraying with insecticides isn’t working. You need to do something now and not wait until dengue is there. It’s a very dangerous mosquito doing pretty well for itself in Florida.”
Continue reading at Yale Environment 360.

Robs third pennine way trek

So little brother has been going for just over a week now on his third trek along the Pennine Way, his second solo perambulation. He is on schedule and has reached the Pennine Way/A66 crossing.

To me he is doing well especially as I doubt I could do it, he is about half way I suspect. This time he is noticing more people about on the route or at least so far which he puts down to the 50th anniversary of the route.

Keep it going Rob.

Whats this, you call it Whisky!!!!

This will mean a lot to some, yesterday was the 550th anniversary of  Friar John Cor recording the first known batch of Scotch Whisky.

funny bit of weather and counting blessings

So today we've all had a bit of wind today.

 Bit strong for this time of year and I couldn't help it, twenty years of managing parks I was looking round all the time for problems given the trees are all in full leaf now despite  not being involved in park management for the last five years.

Strong winds are always bad enough in the winter but in the summer and gusty blasts like we've had today are a recipe for problems. So my thoughts are with all park managers in the country today I hope its not been too bad, you havnt got too much damage to clear up and no one has been hurt if you stayed open.

And then I count my blessings, it is now over five years since I left Milton Country Park the park I spent many years developing and managing, at the time in 2010 I didn't think I could work anywhere else. But I have proved I can and for myself. Do I miss it, parts of it yes, but I am glad I dont have to worry about strong winds and irresponsible people anymore.

Funny day really Pennine Way and Man knocking on doors

Had a good days gardening today all in all. But as days go its been interesting.

While I am out there digging planting bedding and weeding, my little brother is on day three of his third perambulation along the Pennine Way using me as his daily point of contact. Useful things these mobile phones. Bit strange really thinking about him yomping along all those miles away, I sort of feel connected at least we are both outdoors.

Then just as a contrast one of my clients an elderly lady comes out and says a man has just knocked on the front door, she answered the door for once and he tried to talk his way in asking her questions and saying the answers would be sent to the government. He had no ID as far as she could recall, I quickly checked with a neighbour, yes her door had been knocked but she hadn't bothered answering it, so I called the Police. There have been suspicions that there is a load of these around Cambridge again and today proof. I wont swear but I can wish nasty things happen to him.