Red Tape or Red, white and blue tape?

Food prices are going up due to EU red tape, screamed the Torygraph.

But these are imports into the UK, so nothing to do with the EU, this is Brexit related red tape that wasn't there when we were a member state.

Higher shipping and raw matrial costs all contribute to price increases. Raw materials are usually priced in USD, so if the exchange rate drops, then proces go up, and due to ships, trucks and containers taking longer to turn round in the UK, prices are rising to refelct this, that and many trucks and containers are returning to the EU empty, so the UK importer is having to pay for two trips.

Simples really.

So, prices go up, standards go down and farmers are being thrown under the big red bus.

So many Brexit benefits.

Wednesday 2nd June 2021

Oh, Gods of IT, please would you provide for me the data for which I have set aside this week to analyse?

The Gods of IT, put their heads together and talked for a bit, and then replied:

No, not today.

Which would be a bit frustrating, to say the least.

So, at least that meant there would be spare times during the day, in which I might be able to make drinks, lunch, snacks and so on.

And sadly, when we got up, there was no sign of Poppy. We expected her to have returned during the night, but there was no sign. And all through the day I had the front door open so she would have an easy way back into the house, thus avoiding the security guard Scully in the back garden.

But I sat looking at the front door, when I should have been working, in case there a black blur came rushing in demanding to be fed. But it never happened.

Jools was behind at work, so she left at quarter to seven without walking, leaving me in the house with just three cats. I made a second coffee, got my workbag out and fired up the laptop and got down to work, apart from the job I really needed to have start so I could fnish before the end of the week.

It didn't happen.

Breakfast was the usual fruit and yogurt, and another coffee, then back to work.

I went for a walk in the garden, and the tadpoles are now breathing through their mouths, and so when I tower over them in the pond, the dive back into the murky depths, but have to return quite soon to get a tiny lungful of air.

Back to work.

Somehow, we had managed to run out of bread, and there was little other stuff to eat in the fridge or larder. So, I defrost a roll, and get the single burger out of the freezer, and realise its a half pounder, and the tiny bun I planned to eat it in would not be man enough, so I defrost a second, then fry the burger patty, slowly until it looked cooked.

That filled a hole. And then some.

I checked the Teams tab on Office, and there was no access to the group I should have had a month back. Neither did an e mail come in with the data.

Sigh.

And there was still no sign of Poppy.

Double sigh.

I am caught up, so I decide to go for a walk.

I put on my boots and grab one camera, then another.

I don't go far, but not wanting to meet my new enemy along the street, so I go in the opposite direction to Station Road, then turn up to walk to the first track leading back towards the coast, with the aim of going up to Windy Ridge on a butterfly hunt.

Everywhere, Cow Parsley has flwoered, and street, lanes and hedgerows are bedecked with the champagne fizz of the plant stretching into the distance. And that and other plants have grown at an incredible pace, and what were once wide enough to allow two people to walk side by side, were now barely wide enough for a single person to squeeze through, plants on either side nearly meeting in the middle.

I do see a Holly Blue resting on a leaf and finally manage to get a shot of one of the flighty buggers.

Yay!

I take the next rack up to the wood, then along the tack beside it to look at what is usually a butterfly trap, but I saw none. So, at the next junction back down and then along, having gone round a huge square. I see some Black Bryony Leaves, but no flowers, they should be out about now. But not yet.

I get back home via the footpath beside Mr Shouty's house, though he had six feet high fences around his back garden, so he doesn't know I am out and about with a camera, maybe spying on him.

Back home to tidy up, then prepare dinner which was cajun spiced chicken with curried rice and some sweet chilli stir fry, and more cherry juice to wash it down with. I know how to live.

And somehow I managed to get to Wednesday morning without realising England were playing, a friendly against Austria, just some 48 hours or so after the last game of the season, but then this is the build up to the delayed Euros.

England play poorly, and Austria had brought their kicking boots, but England won by a single goal, without really impressing, and raising more questions.

And still no Poppy.

Tuesday 1st June 2021

The sun rises so far to the east now, that it is hidden by next door's house, so laying in bed, its hard to tell if its sunny or not outside. Its only when you walk to the back of the house, and look across The Dip do you see the warm sunshine, casting long shadows across the fields, mking the air seem to be filled with particles of light, so thick you could cut it with a knife and spread it on a scone.

Sadly, the new month dawning meant that my apparently endless holiday had come to an end, and I had to log back on at seven, if I could remember the password.

Jools had been up a while, so I stumbled about, drank a coffee, and just like that she was gone.

Leaving me and all four of the cats, for a while, alone. In theory, I was in charge.

I do log on, and after downloading various updates, was able to start work, starting with calls to my colleagues, only to find that the first one, Flemming, had resigned last week. He doesn't have the stomach for the fight ahead. I wish him well.

Henrik is fine, always is, but I can tell from his voice that he is pretty fed up too. To make it clear, I can fill my days up with stuff, non-work stuff, if I'm honest. Maybe I should just give up too.....

I should have been doing data analysis, but the data has not been supplied. Which is fine, I can tackle the e mails, and decide that I will go travelling next week, to visit our site in the north east, a fibe day road trip, away from the dining room table. I had to convince my boss there was a good work reason for going, and not just because its orchid season and there being some reserves nearby. That's just a coincindence.

Poppy went out for a second time, and as I am writing this on Wednesday, and she has not come back yet. She has been gone for 36 hours before a couple of times, but this is not down to Scully, who has slept through most of the day today. Its a worry.

I try to get data sent to me, but my colleague is at her daughter's graduation, so is out of office. And there is getting access to the new Team site on Teams, which hasn't happened.

I find other stuff to do, mainly track down some errant certificates from courses that I had mispaced; could the examination body send replacements? Yes, yes they can.

At half three, I go out for a walk, and the wife of Martin, two doors down, stops to speak. I have not seen her to speak to since we have lived her for over 12 years. She wanted to talk, we talk about all sorts, mostly wildlife and stuff seen in our gardens, and our cats, who she adores.

I do get away, and was a way along the street when this happened:

What are you doing, the man snapped.

Taking photographs.

What of.

Flowers, that path.

Why.

Because I want to, I just live down there, and have lived on this street for 11 years.

Okay, he growled.

Okay I snapped back.

No need to be rude he replied, not joking.

What an assmonkey.

He is using the hedge along the lane as his own compost heap, maybe I should have asked him what he thought he was doing?

I walk on with him following me wheeling his barrow full of clippings to dump in the hedge.

I walk on. Over the field, where another neighbour passes me and asks what I was hoping to snap: butterflies and flowers I say, though remark that the breeze might make butterflies tricky if any were out.

Everywhere is decorated with the champagne fizz of cow parsley, having exploded since I last walked around here. It's so warm, it's nearly hot, and so with the flowers out, feels like summer. Which it nearly is, really.

My back aches, so I turn back at Fleet House, back along Collingwood, passing yet more hedgerows, back down into our street where there were Mulder and Scully waiting for dinner. Meow.

Meow indeed.

I feed them, but they're not really hungry.

I make garlic bread wth some of a jar of pickled Garlic Flowers sent by a friend in Canada, I mix the garlic bith butter, spread on the sliced sourdough and grate some cheese on top before baking for 15 minutes until golden brown and crispy.

The main dish is caprese, which is fine, tasty and light. And agan, there is no wine or beer.

Yay me.

There is also no football, so once cleared up and coffee made, we dunk chocolate chip cookies into coffee, slurp the sludge while the radio burbles. There is a new PSB single to enjoy.

Its alright, this life of ours.

Of lags and lagging

Yesterday, for the first time since March 2020, there were no COVID deaths in the UK.

Yay.

So, we should accelerate the unlocking?

No.

What we have learned is that there are lags: lags between infections rising and hospitlaisations and a further lag between hospitalisations and deaths.

That there are no deaths now is reflecting the infection rate in the last two weeks of April. The rise in infections will not see a potential rise in death to between four and six weeks.

This is what we, as a country, should have learned. BUt the hospitality industry is screaming for easing before 21st June.

There may not be a third wave, or there might. In not changing course now makes it more likely.

Its not that I like lockdowns, but I dislike needless deaths much, much more. Maybe the naysayers and Brexiteers don't think 152,000 deaths, so far, is too many after all. And their desire for a fancy meal in a restaurant of a trip to the villa in Spain is more important.

Irony is dead. Again.

Wetherspoon's boss, Tim Martin, has called on the UK Government to replax immigration rules to allow EU workers in as his chain is having trouble recruiting staff.

Really.

In 2016 he said, in effect, how dare those Europeans come over here and steal our jobs, and five years later, how dare they stay over there and not work behnd my bars.

We did warn them, in this area, hospitality, and others, that there would be a shortage of staff. Last week many pubs are closed because they can't get staff to run the bars, or have to have reduced tables so the staff they do have can cope. There are hundreds of thousands of vacancies in the Care sector.

But it was project fear, of course.

Heinz is to open a ketchup factory in northern England, not as a vote of confidence in the UK, but because the supply chain from their factory in Holland is broken. It adds extra costs to their business, and creates 50 new jobs, that Liz Truss crowded about. In the FT, it reported at £110 billion pounds worth of financial services business has been lost to the EU and US, but Liz Truss said nothing about that.

Monday 31st May 2021

Last day of May.

Last day of holibobs.

Bank Holiday (UK).

Endless sunshine and light winds forecast. On a bank holiday, are you sure?

Yes.

And so the weather goes from too cool to too hot in 24 hours. And if we were to do anything, we had to do it before it got too hot, and as my plan was to climb Temple Ewell Down into Lydden nature reserve, it would be hot and sweaty walking.

But there would be the chance of a rare orchid or two at the end, if I was lucky. Or butterflies anywhere along the route.

I charged my camera batteries and formatted the memory card, and was ready. I even remembered to take a bottle of squash so we could rehydrate once back at the car. Just about remembered everything.

We had a coffee and the remaining crossants, washed up and were ready for the off.

A quick drive down Whitfield Hill, along to the old George and Dragon, get the camera out and tighten our belts and set off up the steps into the woods.

Despite being a nature reserve, it is also a dog's recreation area too, so watching where we step, we make our way across the meadow and up to the style leading to the upper paddocks, with views down to Temple Ewell, we stomp up the first paddock, through the gate and passed the area where in a couple of moths we will be looking for Silver Spotted Skippers and ALTs, but for now, I chase a few flighty Common Blues as we carry on walking up.

Across the second paddock, there is then the deceptive bit where the path dips downhill, before rising slightly before finally dropping into Lydden. It has been hard, but the worst is now over, and for a while, downhill, and then that last climb. The ground fall away, and we follow the rambling path down the down, dropping to the small gate marking the beginning of the reserve. Just before it, I check for Early Spider spikes, and we find a few now drying well in the sun, but two still in flower, amazingly, and would be in good shape into June, which is remarkable.

I take shots of two, then we press on.

I also snap butterflies; a fine Brown Argus and a Wall Brown more intent on getting nectar then flying, resting, flying, resting and so on and on.

We walk on, reaching the bottom of the down, then back up, and into the Burnt Tip area. Or where I hoped one or more spikes would be.

But I knew there was little chance, but the season is late, it could still happen. I took half an hour walking up and down, back and forth, and find nothing, except every pink version of Common Milkwort, which at a distance could be a spike of an emerging Burnt Tip. But isn't.

Sigh.

And just round the side of the down, the 20 or so Bee Orchids are not in flower either. Though close. Very close. And one is going to be huge.

It is then time for the long walk back up the down, which is never as bad as the walk the other way for some reason. I do stop to chase or watch a restless butterfly or two, but don't get close to snapping one.

A few dogwalkers and their rampant hounds cause my anger to rise. I mean this is a nature reserve, there are parks and other areas to exercise dogs, but they come up here, so no birds can nest in the grass. Two dogs are tearing round barking and making a heck of a noise.

We walk round them, looking for roosting or resting butterflies, but find none.

From there it is a short walk down the steep foot of the down back into the wood and down to the car park. It was full now, but we were done.

We drive home, just as traffic for the coast was building, arriving back at home just after eleven. I make lunch, breaded lemon herby chicken, though bought from Tesco, salad and some bread. As dinner, supper was to be apple crumble and custard, that might have been a mistake.

Anyway, after eating, Jools loads the car to take some stuff to the tip, and I settle down to watch the final play off game, the League 2 game between Morcombe and Newport. It was a poor game, full of nerves and not much skill, Morcombe wining it thanks to a disputed penalty.

It was too warm, really, for crumble and custard, but we had defrosted the fruit and the custard needed using up.

We ended up stuffed, having scoffed the lot, we lay liked beached wales for the evening, listening to the radio, now that the footy season has finished. But, fear not, international friendlies begin on Tuesday in preparation for the delayed Euros, so football on and off into July I think. I see it begins on June !1th and ends on July 11th!

Lawnmeadow: May

OK, I know I'm late with this.

What can you do?

May is when, normally, green things explode, plants, flowers, bushes, shrubs, trees all come into bud, leaves burst forth and it looks glorious as a precursor to summer.

But this May has been different.

I read that just up the coast they recorded 99mm of rain for the month, the highest in a decade, and we had frosts at night until after the May Day weekend.

We check the ponds most days for frogs and/or tadpoles. The tads are getting quite large now, but still have no legs. The frog lazes in the surface of the larger pond, belly all swollen, like me at a health far, it looks quite happy with its tadpole-based diet.

As the month went on, more and more bulbous buttercups opened at the top end of the meadow, until they almost hid the grass, quite the sight.

Elsewhere there is Salad Burnet:

The cats hide in the long grass and flowers like panthers on the savannah:

> In the smaller, top pond we have newts, at least three, of what we think are Palmate Newts. They were getting frisky when I snapped this:

As the month closed, there is a sea of buttercups, but at the other end of the garden there is a host of Ox Eyed Daisies about to bloom, and what a sight they'll be.