'Gloom, doom ---- and -- daffodils?'
Crikey, the last few weeks hereabouts in the UK midlands have been pretty gloomy, and accordingly solar electric production's been pretty low. November was apparently officially the Uk's gloomiest November on record - it's certainly been rare to get a sighting of the sun. Throw in some pretty windy, stormy episodes and lots of heavy rainfall and it hasn't exactly been a bowl of cherries - some poor folk in the north of England have been flooded out twice in as manyweeks, with the water in some instances coming up to living room ceiling height.
Here at the organic eco micro-holding (small smallholding) fortunately there's not too much risk of floods, but it's still been 'wet and windy' for a week or two - no sooner has the wind dried things up a bit, then more rain arrives - yesterday all day, leaving a quagmire in the chickens' run. Fortunately there's a lean-to area, so they can at least feed in the dry, then it's a case of getting in the pen and forking the sopping straw and muck out, replacing it with new bright dry straw. Satisfying to see them then in drier conditions and pecking away at the new straw. They run from the pen into a small yard, off which the straw shed lies, where they've made a nest in which they lay their eggs - one per bird per day, seemingly no matter what the conditions. Later in the day they're let out into another enclosure where the compost heaps are, which gives them some more space and activity to occupy them - hopefully come spring-time they'll be able to run out in the paddock again.
Not too many crops now left out in the veg growing area, just some beetroot (good crop this year), some winter greens,some greens for the spring, a bit of salad stuff, a few celery plants and a few leeks which unfortunately got depleted by the alium fly attack, which seemed to be quite a bit worse than last year. The stored potatoes are coming to an end but the stored onions look as though they'll last a few more months, as though won't the apples which are going soft - probably not the best storing varieties - ?
'A ray ---- ?'
The 'gloom and doom' scenario that's been planet degradation via global warming, seems to have lifted somewhat with the news that two hundred countries have agreed on a strategy to tackle the problem at the recent Paris climate conference. There seems to be a more widespread acknowledgment that there is a world-threatening problem, with the 'naysayers' in retreat and increasingly seen as operating from the 'vested interest' base - ? The breakthrough seems to have been in getting nearly two hundred countries to sign up to an agreement to reduce carbon emissions, but there did not seem to be too many 'hard and fast' targets set, and of course presumably there's no 'policing' re. what individual countries are up to - ? It's maybe just a bit hard too to see that the more industrialised/materialised countries will be able to 'pull their horns in' just like that, which presumably is the necessary way forward - ? 'Proof of the pudding will of course be in the eating' - let's hope awareness has reached the stage to counter 'heavy consumption' patterns and financial vested interests -------
'Eco life' here at the micro-holding contributes at the miniscule micro level, but saying that, it's the level that's open to the individual and it does give satisfaction that it's doing just 'a little bit'. If most were able to 'do a little bit', then end of problem - ? An advantage of the set-up here is that it is very small-scale, with low resource use, and therefore repeatable - a garden and an allotment (small area of ground to rent on which to grow vegetables and fruit) would be the small-scale resources needed. Maybe one of the 'mental blocks' to be overcome is the idea that the individual, being micro small, can't make too much of a difference - ? (and maybe individual independent outlooks and motivation has been 'weakened' by 'largist' sytems and media - ?) Whilst the individual's effect is obviously micro small, if more and more do it then the cumulative effect starts to count, and as before, the individual can take satisfaction that they are 'doing their bit' (along with getting/remaining healthy, stimulating interest and independence of spirit and so forth).
'Small' v. 'Big'------- again
With so many 'big entities', including governments, in the world, some suggest, following maybe Orwell's and Huxley's lines, that 'individual, independent' life is probably 'doomed', in that , using the UK's 'control' culture as an example, the 'big and powerful' appear to want to influence and even control peoples' lives to quite an extent. One recent reported example was the UK government's response to the published results of a study that indicated a negative result on the educational opportunities for younger people, due to social policies enacted by government. The official government response shocked somewhat - the study was dismissed more or less as a 'trifling affair' - convenient for it maybe to deny effects that wouldn't necessarily reflect it in a good light, and somewhat alarming that , presumably due to size, and a 'might is right' mindset, it felt able to 'diss' such a study, and the efforts of some of its citizens, particularly as these citizens were university staff carrying out rigorous high level academic research - ? If governments feel it's ok to act in such a manner, it wouldn't seem to be showing too much credible 'leadership', and maybe not then necessarily leading to too much of a build-up of trust and goodwill from the people, i.e. citizens, its supposed to serve - ? Such a response could then too also be denying a reality, presumably creating conditions of 'distortion' within a society - ?
Ah well, such is (current) life, and the job is to struggle on 'very nearly manfully', as they say ---- 'perfection being the far off goal'. One symbolic ray of light locally has been one or two small and brave daffodils down the lane (and other 'untimely' flowers out) which have decided to brighten up the neighbourhood three months early, due to the unseasonally mild weather. Look a bit lonely though, and as if they're struggling in the mid-winter conditions - as maybe quite a few might feel ----- ?
'Another ray ----- of sorts'
One individual who also made it his mission to 'bring some rays of light' into peoples' lives was a character a few years back along who they called 'Mad Black Jack'. Jack was a bus driver who had the distinction of looking just like everyone's version of the devil - a swarthy face with a great hooked nose, jet black hair coming right down his forehead and, it seemed, sparkling black eyes. Such an apparition sent a shiver up the spine until the realisation hit that his 'devilish' antics were a source of sustenance to many. For instance, one day Jack drove a hospital visiting bus, involving him and his conductor sitting in the cafe for an hour until visiting was over, It was a cold, bright early spring day, still overcoat weather and the conductor had brought a folding white cane he'd found on the bus into the cafe to show Jack.
By departure time, Jack had devised his devilish plan. He waited till the double-decker bus filled up, then, wearing coat and dark glasses and carrying the white cane, had the conductor lead him to the back of the bus, then proceeding to tap his way along to the cab, then making a bit of a show getting up into the cab, the conductor pushing him up into it. 'Tell them', he said to the conductor, 'tell them I'll be ok once I get the feel of the road'.
Passengers were though pouring off the bus when the conductor went round the other side - Jack had to be brought round and do eyesight tests before many would alight again, and both bus crew duly received disciplnary letters from the company. Jack of course was not to everyone's taste, but my, the tales told of his escapades were legion and legendary, and did much to raise a lot of spirits ----
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