Wednesday, 10 February 2010

Climate change

Have you all noticed how cold it has been since the Copenhagen conference on Global warming. are the politicians trying to tell us something ?I bet when it gets really colder they will stop the winter fuel allowance.!!

                                                  frank

34 comments:

  1. Well here in Detmold its now 8 weeks with snow on the ground,and yesterday and today its still chucking the stuff down.On my hike this morning it was -6c,now the wind had got up and the snow is blowing around in clouds and drifting,tried the way around the flugplatz again.but going too hard!But we are probably in for a spell of cold winters,after a lot of mild ones,still not up to the really cold ones of the 40s,50d and 60s!My winter woolies have had more use the last 8 weeks than in the last 8 years!Remember "Winter Sales"!!!!
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    Don

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  2. Global warming, I don't have a clue what's going on. We have had torrential rain, with thunder and lightning all morning in Izmir, Turkey. This afternoon, the sun was shining and it was 17 degrees.

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  3. I had a lady come down to the allotments last sunday while we were selling seed potatoes,onions , fertilisers, etc, as it was cold we started a fire with some wood that was lying around, this lady said what about the climate, I turned around and said why don't you tell that to the Chinese and Americans as we seem to be the only fools to be taken in by it and she was soon on her way.

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  4. OK Johnie Why do you have an allotment then,thats hard work,& the veg is cheaper in the supermarket !
    frank

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  5. On cannot beat FRESH FOOD, + good exercise for the over 40s!!!!!!!!!
    Grumps.

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  6. I agree,nothing like a bit of home grown,at least you KNOW whats put on it.Only have my greenhouse now,grow all the herbs we need,plus in season salads,tomatoes,and a row of very good raspberries that fruit from spring till first frost,and alongside the greehouse are black and redcurrent bushes,plus some goosegog bushes.But even the herbs this year are looking pretty sad this winter after all the severe frosts."So when your back stops aching - and your hands begin to harden"----------------!!!!!!!!!
    --------
    Don

    PS - I remember the wartime days when we used to "Dig for victory"in the allotments!

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  7. Don I would love to be a gardener. But her indoors won't let me. Stops her getting bonus points on her Tesco card.

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  8. Frank,
    No 1 It keeps me fit,
    No 2 I enjoy it,
    No 3 my veg doe's not have a load of chemicals in it,
    No 4 If you want to buy your veg from the supermarket ok but I can grow enough for the wife and myself and freeze them to last me for the whole year and I buy my seeds from the garden centre when they are selling them off at 50 pence a packet, so I will bet you that you will spend a hell of a lot more on veg than I do.

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  9. I agree we are almost self-sufficent with fruit and veg, my wife tells me i save her about £20 per week try telling your other half that Don .I also joined my local gardening society,which gives me big discount on seed ect, as well as doing 3 shows per year in which i do quite well

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  10. Reading about gardening and growing your own makes me think about when I had a sizeable garden and became enthusiastic about it. I was in Worcester where everything grows whether you know anything about it or not. After a while though I felt that the growing of veg and flowers was dominating my life and so I cut it down drastically. Just think about it. Saturday and Sunday lunchtimes digging and weeding when the pub was open. Oh! Dear.
    Paddy

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  11. Paddy is that the only time you dug and weeded the garden, you shoiuld have picked a more convenienent time and then you could have got to the pub when the door opened, the produce would still have kept on growing and you would have had the best of both worlds.

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  12. and not forgetting the free pints you get when giving away spare veg

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  13. Yes Don, I remember the Dig for victory campaign.and have been digging ever since,(most of the time out of a hole ).been selfsufficient most of my life .got a HND in it.I am also an enviromentalist. That is why I asked Johnie that question.Because of his seemnly NIMBY attitude toward that concerned lady ,not that I have an attitute toward a small bonfire on an allotment,provided it is fueled from non treated wood, they include it in their personal CO2 footprint. if John had explained it that way,the lady would have probably been on his side.remember the enviroment like love begins at home
    as for my own garden it has been alloted the title as the most valued ecological site within the city's precincts and put a protection order on it, since then their departments has caused my acre of wild orchid and the population of Red listed moor frogs and also the crested newts to become extinct. but thats another story. Happy digging everyone Frank

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  14. Back to that allotment business.As I said,during the war we did our bit in "Dig for Victory".Outside the back garden where I lived during the war with my Aunt was a big patch of allotments,and the stuff they grew was fantastic.One day a fighter shot down a V1,it fell on the allotment patch,and made years of hard work into nothing,but in record time those lads and lasses had put things in order again.I must admit,being a lad,I used to moan when Uncle said"put your Wellies on,work on the allotment,and harvesting today.We also preserved eggs and varied vegetables,and like others we managed the winters through.We were also lucky to have the other Aunt with the farm in Sussex,and with the 410 I used to keep all in a good supply of pheasants,pidgeons and rabbits.And for every pidgeons head you got a supply of shotgun cartridges to keep those animals and birds under control.Those were hard days,but there seemed to be a much different community spirit then!But I do enjoy my garden and greenhouse,the weather has been so bad I have not been able to prune the fruit trees and bushes this year,its been snowing now for three days and the garden looks like a scene from Siberia.
    "so when your back stops aching,and your hands begin to harden,you will find yourself a partner,in the glory of the garden"!
    ------
    Don

    PS - have a nice weekend!

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  15. Frank If like you say you are an enviromentalist, then you are against a lot of produce we buy in the supermarket that has travelled thousands of miles causing more pollution in the atmosphere than my small bonfire, which was an old pallet.

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  16. John you're missing the point I'm not getting at you for having a bon fire or an allotment I'm pointing out that we have to put our own house in order before we pontificate to other lands let me tell you about my visit to my GP recently.he had just fitted his self, & staff out with a set of white trousers & blue polo shirts with the surgery name, as I came in he stood aside pulled his tummy in to show off his new uniform,& to show that he had lost weight ,told me I was fat, I told him he was Ugly.
    then I told him that my wife takes our little dog walkies, & if she leaves somthing she picks it up & puts it in a plastic shopping bag at home she puts the contents into the green bin & the plastic bag into the recycling bin,then in turn it goes by road & sea to china .where it is turned into cheap Polo shirts & trousers.in the process poluting air & water poisoning children with carcinogens it is then packed into cartons that were once our waste paper .SO IT COULD WELL BE THAT HE WAS WEARING A PLASTIC BAG THAT MY DOG ONCE SHIT IN:as for the pallet you burnt you do realise that pallet are treated with carcinogenic preservatives & by burning they are released into the air and the rain brings them down again ,perhaps on your allotments where your veg takes them up you take them home saying ,organic. absolutly no chemicals,you see John the enviroment is around you that is what it means ! please don't think I'm getting at you no I'm just following Proverbs Chapter 7 verse 7.

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  17. Now I often wonder when we eat NZ lamb what we are doing to the world,is'nt it crazy,buying stuff we can produce in our own countries,but no,fly it from one end of the earth to the other,never mind the expence and envirement - give the cat a goldfish.Last week we ate Barramundi from Australia,wonderful to eat,but at what cost.Now I know one can argue "then why buy it?",but its here and if we don't buy someone else will.When I see where you can fly to for a few quid these days then I know NO_ONE gives a monkey about the air we breathe,where profit making and getting rich are concerned to hell with all that nandy-pandy!And all this waffle about oil stocks running out,crap,this keeps the price up,and I bet in a hundred years time(if the world still exists)they will be telling the paupers,keep paying,oils gonna run out in 20 years time!Time the world had a revolution!
    -------
    Don
    PS - its being so cheerful that keeps me going!

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  18. Some are really getting into thier stride now. Keep it going, we're reading it.
    Paddy

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  19. of course the NZ lamb is mainly decendant of the Dorset breed. but even worse is the fact you can buy fish from the Central African Lakes.while the native people starve.remember the earth nut saga
    of the 1940/50s Frank

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  20. Thank s for that Paddy,this is a subject that can,& will cover all aspects of life as it progresses,if everyone gives an input, do not get upset if no one agrees with you ,that is what a discussion is about,but it can bring about new ways of thinking,& how we treat our enviroment, sorry THE its not ours for keeps is it it is for our successors.

    there are few keen gardeners out there I see so to give fuel to this subject try giving me answers to these questions please

    1what is the greatest nitrate polluter of water,both ground & river?

    2 What pesticides & fungicides are safe to use on land & garden

    3 which types & quantites of organism can I expect to find in a teaspoon of good vegetable soil to enable healthy plant growth?

    No I am not showing off,just give some answers & lets see where it takes us , you may be suprised. Frank.

    PS geordie s is quiet

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  21. Derek,
    Did you and some others have a worthwhile story while fishing for Rhodesian Bass(poaching no doubt)
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    Don

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  22. I suppose a gardener knows the difference between Fungicides and Pesticides.
    PADDY

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  23. Frank, I do not for one moment think that you are getting at me, as you have said it is good to have a discussion as we all have our own ideas on what is happening no matter what it may be, one of my gripes is about farmers in this country are paid by the EU not to grow food crops and are given money to put a corner of a field down for conservation and then we have to import our foodstuffs from abroad, so what was wrong with us growing our own, now all this talk about global warming telling us now we should cut down on all this pollution which seems to me to make a mockery of this by transporting food thousands of mile by road and air where is the footprint in this. since we had intensive farming in this country where farmers spent thousands buying chemicals to spray crops against all sorts bugs so that the supermarkets could buy produce that the housewives would buy as it had to look perfect, now we have a situation that if you want to buy a load of farmyard manure you have to be careful who you buy it from as now it is found to have a chemical in it that has been fed to cattle.

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  24. Just a quickie, I've just read a remark that says that northern Europe will be getting colder as the Gulf stream stops flowing ! I'll give my thoughts on the subject in hand tommorow frank

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  25. The Gulf Stream seems to change course every now and again,probably all those Cruise ships heading south.And at the bottom of this is - of course - El Nino!And these cruise ships are rolling off the production line faster and bigger than ever,and they are built to burn the cheapest oil producing the most filth - all this talk about saving the Planet - thats what it is - all talk!!!!
    Its being so cheerful that keeps me going!
    ---------
    Don

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  26. an old meadow that has been ploughed,pollutes more ground/water courses with nitrates than any other method. 2 there is no 100% safe Fungi/pesticide except that that occurs naturaly in the soil or the plant produces for it own use when man starts to use it and it gets into the soil thats starts a problem.

    3 in a good vegetable soil You can expect to find :-- about 4 klm of fungal threads.
    millions of Bacteria, thousands of protozonic (one celled animals)
    a few usful nematodes
    in a sq yard of land down to a spit deep ,a couple of thousand microarthropods should be present.

    because many plants ,if not then all ,liv in a symbiotic relationship with a mycorrhizal fungi then about 60-70%of the root systems should be host to the fungal threads.
    when you have all these in your soil then you have a healthy soil with sufficient protection against disease.it is when you start appling the agar chemicals that you start killing this micro system off when eventualy the are all gone the farmer has to spread more & more fetilizers fungi/pesti/herbicides.until thier land is organicley dead.it has nothing to retain the NPKs & other nutrients in the soil,so where dose it go ? in yer cup of tea via the tap
    the Farmers are slowly but surely killing of thier soil & living! But not so the gardeners or the organic growers you ,you know how to look after the soil and it is so easy,soil being a living thing so it stands to reason that it has to be fed . but not with chemicals & poisons rather with HUMUS
    Farming has survived 10000 years without the need of chemicals.it wasn't until the mid 1800s with the arrival of people such asw Liebniz & Wöhner that it was even considered
    Plants derive all they need from the soil with the exception of Oxygen,Hydrogen & carbon which they get from the air.
    Greed ,corruption& Laziness has caused us to move from mixed farming to to single crop culture & factory farms .to GMOs,Dolly the sheep, cloned Cows, & multi-storeyed pig units.Animals fed on chemical,Hormones & antibiotics. with the need to grow more just to make a few very rich become more richer. PEOPLE STARVE THROUGH POVERTY & WAR:! not because the land can't feed them. now shall move onto Governments & Globalisation Gents ?
    How was my dyslectic finger? Frank

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  27. God knows what toxins are present in the soil nowadays.In my young days when walking in the country it was normal and safe to drink from running streams. Not now though.
    Paddy

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  28. Frank, May I say very well put, now I hope that you see why I have an allotment whereby I do not use chemicals or artificial fertilisers, When I was young like yourself we did not have these big supermarkets where our mothers could go and get veg that had to be so perfect or they would not buy it which reminds me of a bloke on our allotments who used to grow potatoes told me that he would take them home and his wife would not use them as she told him they were not like the ones she could buy in Sainbury's just because they were dirty, (sad or what). I am afraid people do not realise when they buy veg from a supermarket that they are more than likely to be a few days old by the time they on the shelves, where at least I can get mine from the allotment and in the pot within the hour when they are really fresh. May I ask members when they go into a supermarket to watch when they are in the veg area and notice how many young people do they see buying vegatables that they have to prepare and cook.

    (I will leave my thoughts at that for now)

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  29. 'tother day I came across a web site called livingtreeeducationalfoundation.org. its worth a visit. it started with the following;

    If you are thinking a year ahead,sow seed.
    if you are thinking ten years ahead plant a tree.
    if you are thinking one hundred years ahead,educate people.
    By sowing seed once,you will harvest once.
    By planting a tree,you will harvest tenfold
    By educating people you will harvest one hundredfold.

    anon Chinese poet 4 cent BC

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  30. Don think of this when next eating NZ lamb:
    18,651 Klm the distance between NZ and europe.
    Frank

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  31. My little brother in NZ called me up the other day,they had quite a sharp earthquake in the Wellington area,used to love Welsh lamb but ever since it became radio active from the Russian Nuke power station never seen it since.By the way,big rows going on over here on Nuclear power stations,which are being run down by demand,where to put the waste safely for the next few thousand years.Where do they dump it in UK,and does anyone care?
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    Don

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  32. One of the favourite sites being investigated is, I think, for waste is near the present Sellafield Nuclear site in Cumbria and a new Nucleur plant is likely to be built there. And yes Don there are those who are concerned about the disposal problem but people are looking at the numbers employed in that industry and the many more who will be employed in the future. In my opinion it is short-sighted thinking, but people like me are in the minority.
    Paddy

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  33. Don I was watching the local news on WDR TV tonight & saw thiswoman in Detmold choping a hole through the ice in her swimming pool then she took of her robe and jumped in after she had done this a few times she got out proceeded to do joga standing on her head apparently she does this every day normaly without her bikni. she was about your age. she wasn't one of the birds you encounter on your morning hike is she ? Frank

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