"Sacha" wrote in message
...



I think there's a lot of publicity about drought because winters have been
very dry in the SE for a few years so stocks haven't been replenished but
also because that area includes London and most newspapers are
London-centric!

Not just newspapers. BBC radio (don't know about tv) has hardly ever
mentioned the north in the weather forecast in the last few weeks. the south
west has been mentioned, Wales, the north west, Scotland and Northern
Ireland have been but we might as well not exists. Mind you, I'm happy about
that. I reckon I can forecast the local weather as well as they can. It does
give a strange impression to people outside the country though :-)


Things are getting out of control and we all have to do something to try
to
redress the balance. There is talk here of tax on lightbulbs that aren't
the
long life energy efficient ones.

I haven't heard of that but it sounds like a good idea.

I don't know if that's a political gimmick
but it's certainly true that the atmosphere is filled with the pollution
of
hundreds, if not thousands of aeroplanes, chugging back and forth laden
with
un-seasonal goodies such as roses and asparagus from Peru.

YES! And people ...

Now, honestly,
who NEEDS asparagus so badly that it has to be flown to England from Peru?

Not me. Nor onions from Tasmania or potatoes from Egypt. But I don't even
want frozen peas out of season. Or at all, come to that. We have enough of
our own in-season fruit and vegetables to feed us well - and have varied,
tasty and nourishing meals.

I'm making it a policy now not to buy veggies that have come from further
afield than e.g. France, Italy or Holland and of course, wherever possible
I
buy stuff that's grown locally in Devon. We have a very large, very good
organic farm near us which sells its produce in its own shop and
distributes
it round England

Round England from Devon? Food miles! We have our own local organic growers
....

And our
butcher has his own abbatoir and knows personally all the farmers who
supply
him with meat.

I know the names of the farmed animals I eat :-) But the beef and sheep come
from our daughter's rare breed organic farm (she has them killed at a local
abattoir and we butcher our own), pig meat comes from a small local organic
farm. We only eat culled cockerels, drakes or stag turkeys from the
daughter's farm. We know that all our meat is well cared for, most of it we
know personally and have confidence that it is the best possible. We don't
eat eggs often but have out own bantams, they see us through the year. I
can't make good cheese or wine though so have to buy it - British cheeses
only, English wine often. It doesn't take much effort to consider food miles
when shopping and soon becomes routine.

The lack of tax on aircraft fuel is a disgrace, people should be prepared to
pay for their travel if they must do it - I doubt that it will ever be
properly taxed because it would lose too many votes. Not mine ... taxing
tungsten light bulbs is an ineffectual token. Bah.


Well, I've made a note of the Japanese anemones and also noted that on
17th
January it was warm enough for two of the nursery staff to eat their lunch
in the garden. This is NOT a usual occurrence here, by any means.

It occasionally happens here too. We often have lunch outside in March, not
in sleeveless shirts but not in overcoats either. After that, unless it's
raining, we have most meals outdoors.

It's blessedly cool today but not raining any more. I've been taking
pictures of plants in our garden for three years, the dates aren't changing,
interestingly.

Mary