It may be Winter outside but in my heart it's Spring
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Posted:Jan 9, 2021 3:10 am
Last Updated:Jan 14, 2021 12:16 pm 16504 Views
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Winter has finally arrived in Yorkshire so I thought it might be time to dust off some old pictures from the many gardens we have visited in our travels over the last year or so.
Some are from Canada and others from the UK including a couple from my own garden but finishing up with an iconc view of Butchart gardens on Vancouver Island. The elk is there just because he looks magnificent lol.
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Sunday Dinner and Niklaustag
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Posted:Dec 6, 2020 10:56 am
Last Updated:Dec 26, 2020 3:08 am 17585 Views
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Traditional English Sunday dinner all my own work; one with Yorkshire puddings and one without for Mrs J (she is a Philistine from Devon and does not like Yorkshire's) but today is Niklaustag (Santa's birthday) and the second Sunday in Advent so we have lit the Advent pyramid and will be having lebkuchen for tea later.
The vegetables were all grown in our garden, the stuffing and Yorkshire's home made.
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Last flower pics for the season
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Posted:Nov 12, 2020 1:34 pm
Last Updated:Dec 2, 2020 5:24 am 17909 Views
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This season has been a strange one. After a rather fitful summer the Autumn has been mild and 'claggy' as we say in Yorkshire. With no real frost yet this year the hardier elements of summer bedding are still bravely putting out flowers.
1.The last of the petunias which have been flowering since April
2. Another reliable performer , the Nasturtiums have also been flowering for over 6 months.
3. This Penstemon has now put out five sets of flowers , cutting back after each floweing has prolonged the season until now.
4. Antirrhinums were slow come into flower but have provided colour for the end of the season.
5. Another season long performer this Hydrangea varies between white, pink and pale blue flowers.
6. This ornamental grass is a new addition this year but is coming into its own now.
7. Ageratums and Nasturtiums getting towards the end of their flowering now
8. More mixed Antirrhinums , some dwarf and some full size.
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Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take 'til he knows That too many people have died?
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Posted:Nov 3, 2020 6:27 am
Last Updated:Sep 16, 2021 1:50 am 16293 Views
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These are the official deaths in the US for the last four years.
Total deaths from Jan 1 through the first week of October:
20: 2,089,832
2018: 2,182,1
2019: 2,181,384
2020: 2,476,485
Avg 20-2019: 2,1,9
That is 325,368 deaths over average so far in 2020.
What has caused this increase of 325,000 + deaths?
What is the one factor which makes 2020 different from 20, 2018 or 2019?
Running the same figures for the UK gives a figure of around 66,000 people who have died in 2020 above the average for the last 5 years. (Cf. the official death figure of almost 47,000)
STOP SAYING THAT COVID_19 DEATHS ARE BEING OVERBLOWN.
THAT IS SIMPLY A NOT TRUE!
I keep correcting the figures above and this site keeps missing out digits so they no longer make sense.
The excess deaths figures are accurate
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Let America Be America Again - a poem by Langston Hughes
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Posted:Sep 23, 2020 4:02 am
Last Updated:Oct 22, 2020 2:42 am 17392 Views
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Writen in 1935 this poem is eerily true today and epitomises what Make America Great Again really means.
Let America Be America Again
Langston Hughes - 1902-1967
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(Theres never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this homeland of the free)
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slaverys scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for ones own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet Im the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
Thats made America the land it has become.
O, Im the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For Im the one who left dark Irelands shore,
And Polands plain, and Englands grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africas strand I came
To build a -homeland of the free.
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams weve dreamed
And all the songs weve sung
And all the hopes weve held
And all the flags weve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream thats almost dead today.
O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land thats mine—the poor mans, Indians, Negros, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the peoples lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The r+pe and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!
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The summer is winding down
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Posted:Sep 10, 2020 9:54 am
Last Updated:Oct 3, 2020 6:29 pm 17115 Views
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Now we are in the meteorological 'Autumn' season the main flower display is gone but there are still some tenacious plants flowering for all they are worth, and some second plantings supplying late colour.
Next year we must aim stock a few more late summer/autumn perennials to beef up the display.
 This Dwarf cyclamen seems to enjoy the shade in the woodland corner.
Straw flowers always supply a splash of bright colour
Another bright individual. Sunflowers are one of my late season favourites
This double begonia has made itself at home with a huge calla lily and fuschia in a tub below the decking. They provide a reliable source of colour all season as they flower sequentially.
Dwarf aster and ageratums in complementary blues.
This rose has been flowering all summer.
Coleus foliage gives a striking backdrop the flowers and provides valuable ground cover
Dahlias are reliable late flowering bushes.
The second flowering of this clematis has been better than the first in the spring.
Fuschia, impatiens and petunia set off by a bright yellow sanvitalia in one of hanging baskets
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What happened to their humanity?
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Posted:Aug 23, 2020 5:10 pm
Last Updated:Aug 27, 2020 7:09 am 16971 Views
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57% of republicans (and around 30% of ALL Americans ) expressed the opinion that the deaths of 176,000 American Human Beings so far (and still rising by 00 per day ) was ACCEPTABLE!
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After the rain
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Posted:Aug 18, 2020 4:26 pm
Last Updated:Aug 21, 2020 1:15 am 17087 Views
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A little sunshine after a lot of torrential rain and the flowers are looking a little bedraggled but bearing up.
Amaranthus flowers getting quite long. The plants are over a metre high
Ageratum have taken some time to flower but they are trying hard to catch up.
I think this gladiolus might be drunk
Strawflowers putting on a show
I did not know that sea lavender came in yellow (only white, pink and blue/lilac) but this year we have 4 with yellow flowers.
The leeks definitely appreciated the rain.
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Today's harvest
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Posted:Aug 15, 2020 8:45 am
Last Updated:Sep 19, 2020 1:14 pm 17341 Views
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We have been away for a couple of days so found a decent amount harvest waitig for us.
The potatoes are 'freebies' from a couple of plants which planted themselves among the peas and beans.
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More flowers to greet the month of August
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Posted:Aug 3, 2020 3:50 pm
Last Updated:Aug 22, 2020 12:56 am 17524 Views
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The first day of August is Yorkshire day and the sun was out so the flowers were there to greet the new month.
1. Livingstone daisy - always bright and cheerful
2. This 'black' petunia is the closest we have ever grown to a really black flower.
3. The new clematis is enjoying the sun
4. The newest of the hanging baskets has filled out nicely
5. Lobelia cardinalis, a very striking red against the sea lavender.
6. Love lies bleeding (amaranthus) with long, pendulous flowers for contrast.
7. This hanging basket decorates the garage door
8. Pastel red nasturtium
9. Aptly named poached egg plant
10. The first Gladiolus of the season - interesting flower.
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