Banned and Redeemed in Gardens

I'm peeved.

The 'Online Mail' has banned me and not even told me I was banned!

I feel rejected.

Of course I was only on there to wind up the 'wide eyed loons' who abound on the site, helpfully indicating the falseness of the DMs scribbles.  However, this appears to have been unwelcome.  I know not why, others agreed with me, maybe they have been banned also?   This of course is very much the Tory way these days.  Dictators push one line of thought and ban all others.  In the UK only the far-right are allowed to speak, just watch BBCs 'Question Time,' and see dictator led debate for example.  Only one line of thought is allowed.  Those who question this are browbeaten and not invited back.  

Now, with so much more time on my hands I must make the most of it in a positive manner.  Maybe I will spend more time of 'Twitter,' now of course known by some as 'X.'  But he has stopped Firefox from using Twitter as that browser blocks his data stealing, others do not.  So it means much less time there.

Dearie me, I am going to have a lot of time to myself now...

Well, hold on a minute!  

I have just been for a short 40 minute walk that used to take 10 minutes, round the gardens and when I return the situation has changed.  I can once again post on DM, possibly it was a 'blip.

Blips online are not easy to deal with.  At Sainsburys this morning the lassie was struggling to get onto her phone.  It seems that the staff must do everything by phone these days, holidays etc, and logging in does not work!  

Firefox would not let me log into Twitter this morning, this was a problem.  It worked elsewhere, Edge and Chrome, but adverts appeared as the adblocker was not working there.  Most annoying.  However, later, that also appears to have ended.  Others tell me Musk has been playing around with Twitter, changing servers and fiddling with things, so this may play a part.  However, he is a rogue so we do not know what he will do tomorrow.

The sun was quite hot, the flowers were opening everywhere, and the Bees were filling this bush and having a jolly old time there.  Of course, where I pressed the button they moved inside the flower!  The rear end appears to be their best side as it was offered most of the time.  

These blue things are ripening in time for the birds to enjoy.  I expect soon they will be covered in feathered friends chomping away.  I did not try them myself...

Friday Fun?

It is window opening time again.  The bees are gathering somewhere near here as one or two are making their way in.   The sun has brought them out, and naturally next week, once they are all up for work, the rain will return and wipe them out again.  Such a shame really.  Global warming has produced some floods in Africa and China, but for the most part politicians just ignore this and seek to keep their jobs and the backhanders from oil companies.  The rivers and seas flooded with sewage by private water companies increasing their bonuses will no doubt attract many, though once the rain comes they will be taken away by the increased flow.  Farmers are allowed to use pesticides banned by the EU, which are harmful to Bees, which makes me wonder which Tory lackey has been getting the franchise for that.

I have been getting blocked when attempting to use 'Georgia Girl with an English Heart's page as I get this 'URL: Blacklist' warning.  This comes when a site has Malware, Phishing or such like upon it, usually from outside, and I think can be cleared by running the usual anti-malware/virus stuff.  I hope so as this annoys me and means I canny get onto the page.  'HubSpot' explains in more detail.

Bees

Every day I have to rise from my chair and open the window to allow this man and his mates out.

Outside the back window appears to be a hive, just under the roof, and these men, returning from the hunting trip, often fly in my back window while hovering around attempting to enter the hive.  Each day I find seven or eight tired old Bees attempting to leave by the front window.   But how do they get in?

Because of them I only open the window when standing there, but every so often a Bee is seen floundering around the window pane.  I have learned to wait.  I leave him for an hour or so and when I rise there are often two or three hanging around. 

But how do they get in?

Are they coming from the other room?  But that is far from the hive.  I suspect they fly in when I am not looking, either head for the window, or as most look very tired and near their end, fall on the floor or hide in a curtain.  I found one on the floor, one on a wine glass, and one on the rear window this morning, so I think they must be hiding until fit enough to fly.  Poor things, we need them but take away their plants and allow chemicals which kill them to be used in the UK, but not the EU.  Another Brexit benefit.

 

This is quite long but worth a listen.

A Bee concerning Royal Mail

Royal Mail again!

The privatised mess that is Royal Mail continues to exasperate the public.  The need to feed the shareholders, paid £400 million of the £700 million profit past year, is destroying the service, or at least what remains.  The man at the top, paid £750,000 a year, has proved to be incompetent, sat in front of a Commons Committee and failed twice to appear in control of his company or his knowledge of said company.  The man on the street delivering mail has less control, less money, and all the grumbles this man at the top avoids.

Chris, our postman, works a three day week.  This is quite common, and gives employment to men over 50 keeping them busy and offering a decent public service.  The problem is while Christ covers Monday to Wednesday the rest of the week is covered by overtime.  Royal Mail no longer allow overtime, unless the entire 'walk' is finished!  So, nobody delivers here Thursday to Saturday.

My beautiful, wise and clever niece posted a packet containing family stuff to me.  It had not arrived.  This of course is the Easter Weekend so Friday and Monday are holidays.  WOB, the book shop, posted a packet of three cheap books to me and told me it had been collected.  Indeed, on Saturday night a Royal Mail man logged the packet into the system informing me it was with them.  This morning I checked the tracker and found the packet lodged in Chelmsford, awaiting forwarding to the sorting office.  Nothing today thought I.

At around 11:30 Chris rang the bell, offered me two packets, one from WOB and one from my niece. He also mentioned that the ban on overtime continues, his 'walk,' one I used to do, has increased in size by the addition of yet another street!  Madness!  He has not got enough time as it is to finish the 'walk.'

This results in certain streets being left until tomorrow, which is actually a crime, not that the man at the top cares.  He also made clear that he is no longer allowed to log packets in the morning before delivery.  If he does this allows the customer to know he is arriving, but if they are out it has to be returned to the office.  By not logging it in the customer does not know they have tried to deliver and remains ignorant of the fiddle until they happen to be in.  Customer service, not since privatisation at Royal Mail.

At least I have some books on the shelf, and a pile of old letters and photographs to work through.

The Conservative Party ideology is based on privatising everything to save state money.  In the long run it destroys all services, social, transport and practical, enables some to make money from shares, their friends, and donations aplenty to arrive from those running private companies.  Corruption is the word.

Prisons, probation, railways, buses, Royal mail, DVLA, Passport Office, you name it, anything privatised it does not work, too few staff too many board members lining their pockets.  Has anything privatised worked?

And another thing, stamp prices.  Now I think £1:05 for a first class stamp is a bargain, as it ought to be at the destination overnight.  Under this regime, a good word, it is failing and price increase appear unjust to many.

  

Sting!

 

At ten minutes to four this morning, while I was enjoying a dream, I felt something irked my head.  Naturally, I reached up and removed said item.  Then my head began to irk somewhat.  A sharp pain radiated from next to my eye, I felt a slight bump, switched on the light, and found a large Bumble Bee crawling hesitatingly across the floor.  

It's four in the morning!  

I found a slight spot near my eye, slightly swelling, rubbed ice on it for a minute and went back to bed, the dying Bee now stuttering along the floor next to the cupboards.  Nothing to do now, so back to sleep which eventually returned.  

Why is it, that if you awake around three or four in the morning it takes an hour and a half to get back to sleep?  Why not just return to repose?  

Very annoying.

Tonight, having searched for the beast I found him on the bed, near the window.  I placed him on the window ledge, left sugared water near him, watched him drink and have left him to it.  Whether he can make it I know not, but as he is still under the window that soon I must close he is certainly going to have to move again, and not indoors.

I looked up Bumble Bees in an effort to learn more and now I am confused.  There are so many and I do not know which one this is!  There are so many that even the experts require DNA to be sure about some of them.  

I do know that because of the increase in pesticide use, and this government has allowed such things to continue, Bees, without which we cannot survive, are threatened.  Doesn't it make you wonder why we vote for such people?  

 

 

Sunday Blether

The Bees and the beasties have been making the most of the times.  The gardens are full of bright coloured flowers inviting them to feed and investigate.  They are also full of midge like flies and kids, I am not sure which is worse.  

 

 

In between the thunder, lightning and rain we see blue sky around here.  Up north they are melting in the heat, fires are seen in woodland areas, not helped by idiot campers and their fires, and firemen are busy everywhere.  

London meanwhile is again flooded, the thunder round here was the edge of the storm, we were lucky.  In the south east heavy rain filled rivers and streams, underground passages flooded, as indeed did railway stations and the Underground.  The heavy rain we saw passed away quickly enough.

 

Climate change is real, whatever people say, and worldwide we are facing heat, rain and conditions which we are unable to control.  Russia suffers forest fires and soaring heat, Germany endure heavy rain and floods, all unusual for the time.  Whatever the cause it is time we opened our eyes to the problem, but as usual money talks.

Heading home as rain began to fall these three RAF aircraft flew over in formation.  I think these are 'Chipmunk' aircraft, they used to be the first line in RAF training but things may have changed.  It is also possible these are overflying some event (can you under fly an event?) and may no longer be official RAF planes.  Nice to see however, though I noticed the passing women gave no thought to the craft above, tsk!

 

 

I have had problems with the Blogs.  Some of the War Memorials cannot be found, though I can reach them.  Google tells me this is a problem they can fix.  However, as it involved the mobile phone this meant I had to reset the thing.  This has been having problems recently, I lost all my numbers, and other things fell apart, so a reset was required.  Naturally, since getting the phone they have altered everything and it took ages to work out what I was doing, much still has to be done.  Tomorrow I need to investigate the 'robots' problem, whatever that is, which needs fixing also.  This would be easy if I knew what they were talking about!  I am in an area of which I know nothing.  With my technical ability I could lose everything, especially my mind, by nightfall.  

Not Quite as Dreich a Day

 

The sky has been gray all day.  However, exercise was taken, twice!  This entailed walking around town and across the park and home again.  Later in the day I vetured out in similar fashion and now wish to sleep for 14 hours.

 

 

I wandered through the Public Gardens, having noticed these Bees outside the Congregational Church enjoying the flowers.  There were quite a few Bees crawling on the pavement looking the worse for wear also.  Possibly the weather, possibly they are reaching their end.  Lying so small on the pavement will not help them.

 

The gardeners, all volunteers, were being ordered about by the female sergeant major as I passed.  Interesting how I see no Butterfly's these days.

 

I mentioned to one that I had not seen this type of Poppy before.  There were many around, tall and colourful in the gray air.  It is a pity there was no sun as these would look very good in sunshine.   The sergeant interrupted and the woman, like the rest, all retired folks I suspect, hastened back to work.

 

Since the actual gardener retired some years ago a company has been employed a couple of days a week to tend the gardens.  I am not sure who opens and shuts them on other days.  However, whoever is responsible has done a great job in continuing the varied plants on show, colourful and always worth a look.  Especially when the mums have got the little brats out of the way.

 

At the War Memorial I noticed all the wreaths from last November had been cleared away.  What remained however, were the stones left by schoolchildren.  It appears to be the thing these days to paint stones for a variety of reasons, schools here encourage kids to do this for Remembrance Sunday. 

I think this a great idea, simple, enjoyable, and remains in the memory for the kids.  It is also cheaper than a wreath!

Now it is time for the football.  I am full of confidence, actually it is Haddock but that's another story...

 

Funny

Nothing Happened Again so I Took a Walk!

Nothing happened in between dark passing clouds and moments of sunshine.  

The Bees did not notice and carried on with their work. Poor souls only last one year and that is spent in flitting from flower to flower to keep the nest going and pollinating plants.  We would be lost without them.

The pond is awash with Lillies floating on the top.  The gray sky made pictures hard to obtain but I was unwilling to paddle in the deep to get a better one.

This bush was awash also with colourful yellow flowers.  Dozens of them brightening up the area.  The benefit of wandering through the park in dismal afternoons is the lack of kids and mouthy mums getting in the way.  Few people wander about blocking the view or getting in the way of the camera. The downside is the gray clouds that pass over hinder the light.   

The 'Daisies' they grow in the gardens are well fed are they not?  These were almost four feet high.  In my day they were never above an inch or two.  Could it be they are on drugs?

A bright addition to the gardens - whatever it is!

 
The public gardens were once part of the estate of the Courtauld family who built a very large house on the other side of the road.  They had a very big estate which now forms the park opposite and in the 1880's donated this portion of their gardens to the town.  Much rejoicing ensued on opening day as a parade through the town with bonfires and much eating and drinking in the evening as the town celebrated the new acquisition.  Another offering from the Courtauld family who also donated the school in which the museum now resides and many houses throughout the area.  Doctors, hospitals, churches and many other buildings were given by the Unitarian Courtaulds who followed the 'social gospel' of the Victorian era.  If only the wealthy today had such a conscience!  The picture shows the 'Arts & Crafts' style house which was a common theme of Courtauld houses and served until recently as the gardeners home, now it holds a coffee house.

Organised Work

Too early, too, too early this morning I crawled on my hands and knees down the Avenue to the museum.  The warm welcome was not forthcoming, indeed they grumbled each time they fell over me without a word of apology.  However I attended to my duties with a smile on my face and joy in my heart.  This lasted about five minutes.
I had to endure a trip to Tesco to replace the yoghurt like milk in the fridge, a happy occupation mostly but today I bought my 'K' rations at the same time only to discover half the town was at the checkout when I arrived.  The very attractive young lass in front of me with a weeks shopping allowed me very graciously to go ahead of her and this enabled me to make it back before opening time at the shop.  
Then, once I had made my tea, sorted out the mess left by others Peggy, who told me she was on holiday for two weeks, arrived.  She then lied about this but did produce another cup of tea which I managed to accept graciously.

Nothing then happened.
However there was a period of confusion over the distribution of leaflets to schools in the area which any man would have organised properly.  I made this comment and was immediately and wrongly declared 'Enemy No 1' as women always react this way to honesty.  That reminds me, who swiped the other bag of chox I placed on the desk?
Silence then ensued as nothing happened for a long time.
An occasional individual would appear, grumble and leave.  Two visitors, two with queries, one phone call and nothing else happening was my day. 
Taking the opportunity when the clouds parted slightly to attempt (with a real camera) to catch the Bees hovering around the garden I made off and in spite of a dozen blurred pictures obtained my goal, almost.  These are the best I have managed for a while.
Fantastic to note all the pollen (if that's what it is) on the fur.  Once long ago in Edinburgh I watched a Bee such as thee sit on the window sill and brush all this collection into the pockets on his legs before heading of to the Hive.  That was one reason I wished to have a camera capable of such shots and today I almost found a decent shot.    
I then checked the shop, sat down and waited...
Nothing happened.

I glanced at the work involved in preparing the next exhibition, realised how hard this was and returned to my place.  So as my leaving time approached my replacement drove in and nothing was happening I began to organise my departure.
Peggy then arrived with a handful of small stools obtained from a type of Ikea shop.  One table was placed in front of me and a pleading lady asked me to finish what she had started.  Once finished she produced the others and this with five minutes before I left!  Had I not been (on my own) struggling with the 'Allen key' I might have mentioned this ought to have been brought to my attention a  wee bit earlier, like two hours ago!  Three tables later I ran for the door before others arrived, ignoring the unpacked table behind me. 
I slept like a log once I got home.

My Joy Continues

Returning home yesterday morning from St Paul's where I had been persuaded to add my name to the church booklet (does this mean I'm an Anglican heretic?) I discovered the place swarming with these bees.  The kitchen was full of the brutes and having cleared them out I spent the rest of the day forcing more, in one's and two's, out of other windows.
Where did they come from?
I have a horrid idea that a Queen has found a home in the side of the house and we will have this lot all summer buzzing around the kitchen window, hovering across my delicacies and being annoyed by my swiping them with a rolled up newspaper.
Oh joy!

  
How old is this oak tree?  This one has sat here near a p-lace called 'Hanging Hill' for many a day.
i wonder if it is 300 years old or thereabouts?  They do last a long time.
Whether 'Hanging Hill' was used for hangings has not yet been proved but the name comes from somewhere.  Possibly a corruption of an old English word, possibly where they hanged miscreants. Rough justice in these parts in days gone by.  There again the justice was served by the local nobles and not near this place, and hangings took place shortly after sentence unless you were an important bod. 
So who planted the trees down by the river?  Did they occur naturally or was there a plan?  I suppose we will never know.  Today this is a pleasant but muddy wander along the unseen river at this point.  That appears later when a wooden path has been constructed. 

The far banks were until recently the grounds of a convent of some sort.  Here the nuns and their visitors could relax and contemplate while pushing one another into the river for fun.  Next time I take the bike out I will trundle down the councils newly laid path that runs around this area and see if I can find anything interesting.
Treasure chests, dead bodies, plastic bottles and empty beer cans possibly. 

The rain clouds, complete with a tiny airplane, threatened me all the time I wandered along.  Pah!

Now I have to spend the morning furniture shifting, wall painting (which will go on for ever at my rate) and go to the museum for an afternoons volunteer get together.  When, ask I, will I get my siesta?  

Beesy Saturday

The threatened thunder stayed away and instead we had 80 degrees of heat at lunchtime.  I was stuck in the museum doing nothing as the sun took people off to places outside.  So I wondered into the organic garden outside to get a few pics of the numerous beasties gathered there.  They all left as I arrived!  A startling small white butterfly alighted on a lunchbox and waited right up to the moment I raised the camera to flee!  The various bees disappeared also, all bar this man who was too busy enjoying himself to care.  However he enjoyed himself so much he would not stand still and this was the best picture out of many I took.  Bah!

The football season began today.  The wee cup first round in which the Heart of Midlothian triumphed. Having fallen asleep I almost missed it, how times change!  Once I would have yearned for the season to begin, now I am already a bit tired of it because the World Cup just took up so much time that required an absence from the beautiful game.  I wonder how many players will begin the season jaded? Too many I suspect.  There again, when the league actually begins and we play one of the ugly sisters I suspect then I will find enthusiasm once again. 

Until then I'm back off to bed.

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