Kittens

Kittens are just so good!



One of the things guaranteed to put a smile on my face is a new kitten in the household. Recently we took delivery of a super little grey and white kitten. We call him Hugo Greyball. What a cracker he is. Loud purr, into everything, chases the older cat about the house (much to her dismay), cosies up to you on the sofa and poses adoringly for photos. He also irritates me, in a small way, by sitting slap-bang in front of the PC screen, mesmerised by the movements on screen. At the same time though, it is amusing to watch him trying to catch the cursor and mouse movements - so that's why they call it a mouse!

Oh joyous times.

Lambs - make me happy

Cute little lammies. You can't beat lambs for cheering one's day. I walked across a field full of lambs near Hope Bowdler today. These two kept a wary eye, or four on me, as I photographed them.

It was a bright sunny day, with fantastic clear views. As mid afternoon approached, a deep blue sky, with bright white clouds made for some stunning skyscapes. I managed to capture a decent photo that gives some idea of how things looked;

All in all a thoroughly uplifting day.

The Market - Where good food costs less

Above: Scenes from Shrewsbury's
wonderful fresh produce market - today.

Ida Reds, Jupiters, Ashmead's Kernels, Kidd's Orange Pippins, James Lambournes. What two things do all these apples have in common?

1) They all taste fantastic.
2) No self respecting supermarket would ever be seen dead selling such good quality produce.

Yes, supermarket bashing is in season, and why not? These behemoths of the retailing world tell us that they are doing us all a favour, by providing fab produce at rock bottom prices. Today, I put this claim to the test by visiting Shrewsbury's indoor market, to see what the competition could offer. What did I find? A fantastic range of fruit and veg at startlingly low prices. One stall had six varieties of apple, all from their own orchard. These apples are gorgeous to look at, superb to taste and cheap to buy. Most of them you would never find in a supermarket, because they are not produced in massive quantities, picked by virtual slave labour and flown half way around the world in a refrigerated plane. Most incredibly, the main reason you will not get these princes of the fruit world at your local mega-crummy-food store, is that they are grown locally and sold locally. "Local fruit for local people" The likes of Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrison do not source food locally in small quantities. Instead, they insist on buying produce by the tonne, transporting it hundreds, or more often, thousands of miles to a central depot, then they send it out again, sometimes back to a store only a few miles from where the produce was originally grown. Utter insanity!

At the local market, carrots are home grown and actually taste of something, unlike the watery excuses sold in supermarkets. In fact, the market's carrots are a revelation. Nutty tasting, sweet and crunchy. The purple sprouting brocolli could win a beauty contest! It is fresh and firm. Compare this to the equilavent, prewrapped, limp and stale stuff sold in most supermarkets and you have to question how did we let this happen? I could go on for days. The seafood, the fruit (you should taste the exquisite tiny clementines I got this morning) , the veg, the cheese, the meat from a butcher, who only sells meat selected by himself, from local farms; the coffees from around the world, the fabulous delicatessan, the friendly service. These people are absolute food heroes and they deserve our suppport and custom, unlike the money grabbing, rip-off merchants of the retail empires.

Message to Jamie Oliver. We know you don't shop in Sainsbury's. Why don't you tell the truth and extoll the virues of small producers and retailers? At the same time, can I suggest a new slogan for Sainsbury's, or any other of the not so super, super markets?

Sainsbury's, where dreadful food costs far too much

More on this subject here: Food Miles

Travelling by Train

Half Cm Snow Drifts Bring Chaos to Central Trains

Massive snow fall at Wellington station today

Oh dear. Snow drifting to almost half a centimeter depth, brought chaos to Midlands railways today. I arrived at Shrewsbury station, never giving a second thought to the possibilty that the smattering of snow we had experienced, would wreak havoc on the region's railways. The departure boards showed my train was on time, but the ticket booth informed me that a train failure and a signal failure, had conspired to get that and an earlier train cancelled. "Sorry, the next train is in 45 minutes, the signals are frozen" Grooan..... It's all such a familiar tale of woe. In typical rail industry fashion though, there is a sudden announcement that the next train coming in will go to Birmingham. Never mind that it was originally destined for Bangor, the Welsh would have to wait! So, two train loads of people try to cram on to a two carriage train. Then we wait another twelve minutes for the bloody thing to move. Great. Many of us are left standing, staring into each other's arm pits in a sea of bodies. Thank God I'm getting off at the first stop. Miracously, without being asked, a young lad gives up two seats, that he and his baggage were occupying, to two elderly ladies. At least that cheered me up. A flicker of decency in this squalid world of public (non) transport.

Jeremy Clarkson will be laughing into his beer. Another one in the eye for public transport, and another reason for everyone to pile into their cars for every single journey they ever make.

Message to the government: Honour that pledge you made seven years ago and get this sodding excuse for a rail service sorted out!

Poor sods!

Urban Delights

We used to have pride in our built environment

Although Britain is slowly recovering a sense of pride in its built environment, it's still as nothing when compared to the efforts of Victorian and early twentieth century ancestors. Look at this wonderful row of buildings in the centre of Birmingham. Various buildings with loads of features, all in scale and harmony. In those days the value of an impressive building was given considerable weight in the balance against shareholders demands to squeeze the costs of every commercial enterprise, or the need to placate the public, whose short sighted horizons might mitigate against spending public money on inspiring buildings. These days, at the merest whiff of money being spent on a public monument, there is uproar in the press and an inevitable backing down by councillors, MPs and ministers, all keen to retain their precious voter profile at the next election. A plague on newspapers, their cretinous editors and the whingeing curmudgeons that inhabit there pathetic letters pages.

I don't suppose the days of civic and commercial pride will ever return in any truly inspiring way.

More photos of civic pride in Birmingham here

Wintry sunshine - nice

Scenes like this make walking a joy, but not everyone wants you to enjoy it....

A photo from my Sunday walk. The simple pleasures of walking alone in quiet countryside are difficult to explain to non-walking types. It's moments like this that I really treasure. A generally overcast afternoon was brightened by the sun illuminating a patch of sky and the hill below it. Not a spectacular effect, but very pleasant to see. I just stood there and enjoyed it.

What really hacked me off though, was the local landowner, who seemed determined that no-one else should enjoy such pleasures. I walked on public footpaths and at every turning there were strident notices informing me that to my left, or right, or straight ahead there was no right of way, private land, keep out. The right of way itself was hemmed in by fencing. Boy, did this guy or lady, have a problem! What the hell are they afraid of? I might squash the grass? There was pasture all around me, so I couldn't even injure a crop.

Thank heavens for the sterling work of Shropshire County Council, who had opened up all the public rights of way in the area. Bet the landowner was mortified that someone might actually set foot on the land and get some pleasure from it.

Makes me happy 2 makes me irritable 1

Bullfinches, Sparrows and other wondrous birds
My walk around the Hope Valley and Stiperstones area was one of those days that made me really glad I got out. A flock of House Sparrows around a farm reminded me what excellent birds these are. Incredibly, they have just been removed from the pest species list and are now protected like most other birds (Starlings too are now protected). So, that made me happy, but what really got me down was that things have got so bad, that the once ubiquitous Sparrow and Starling are now so diminished in numbers that they have to be protected. How depressing is that? I recall watching dozens of Sparrows dust bathing, having disputes, muscling in on the bird table and generally making a racket in the garden. This was in the 1970s, not so long ago. What the hell happened?

Elsewhere on my walk I chanced upon a cock bullfinch in a hedge. What a fabulous bird that is. Later, I came across two hen and one cock bullfinch. I was ecstatic to see them, but why should I be? Again, not so long ago, Bullfinches were everyday birds, that could turn up in the garden on a daily basis. Not so now. Where did it all go wrong?

Totally happy stuff, with no downside was the occurence of several large flocks of Redwings, a field of Fieldfares (sorry couldn't resist that), a single Snipe whizzing off out of a wet field and two Buzzards gliding low over fields, upsetting the local Rooks. Now Buzzards, there's a success story. In Shropshire, they are an almost guaranteed sighting in the countryside. We even get them soaring over gardens in Shrewsbury suburbs - excellent.

Today's verdict: All in all a happy day rather than an irritating one.

Makes Me Happy 1

Coltsfoot in flower February 20 2005

This is definitely up there as one of the top things that makes me feel happy. Out for a walk yesterday in the Hope Valley, Shropshire. A cold day, but the sun was shining. In the car park dozens of bright yellow Coltsfoot flowers were pushing up through the stones. A marvellous early sign of spring. My lonely walk (no one came with me today) was transformed. These flowers, reminiscent of dandelions, but with lovely deep reddish bracts, send their scaly flower stems up before their first leaves appear. I always feel uplifted at the sight of my first of the season Coltsfoot flowers. Spring is coming.

About this Blog

The Prologue:
Things generally make me happy, irritable or somewhere in between, or even a mixture of the two. Like many blogs, this blog will be a place for me to have a good whinge, in a Grumpy Old Men sort of way. At the same time, some stuff makes me inordinately happy, usually decent walks in the countryside and contact with nature, but also beer, bargain purchases and a host of other stuff. On these pages, I'll record some of these uplifting things too.