Free-Range Living

 'Modern macro/micro life ------ '  

'Microcosm-ics -----'

  At the end of August here on the eco organic micro-holding ('small holding') in the UK midlands, it was quite cold for a few days, except when the sun came out which wasn't an awful lot, so August (and July) haven't been the greatest months, and September, apart from one hotter week, has been 'catchy'. It seems everyone's tomato crop has faltered; here some plants have withered away and the outdoor tomatoes have been a partial failure. The potato crop hasn't been too bad - busy digging the crop up currently, then letting the skins dry for a day or two, then into the paper storage 'sacks'. Onions likewise haven't done too badly, although maybe there's not quite enough to supply the full twelve months, as normal. Brassicas - cabbages, calabrese and cauliflowers have all had quite a caterpillar hit, and 'caterpiller genocide' has had to occur, there not being the option of using spray in the organic growing system, but the beetroot crop's yielding well and the swede crop's looking promising, as hopefully are the carrots under their fleece protection from carrot fly attack.

 The useful looking leek crop that was, has all but disappeared under the attack of yet a 'new' pest, onion maggot fly attack.  For over thirty years here on the micro-holding, leeks used to be a cast-iron autumn and winter crop. that is until about five or so years ago, when the alium leaf miner attacks started, rendering the crop 'un-upright' and 'manky'. In a mild winter it's true there'd be chance of recovery, just as the onion crop would recover from a spring attack of the same foe, but the latest 'onion maggot' attack doesn't seem to offer much chance of recovery, so this winter, alas, no leeks ---- Another casualty has been the late winter purple sprouting brassica crop, as the plants got 'pest attacked' and never managed to recover, tiny caterpillars the main foe.

 'Electro eco ---- '

  The purchase of an electric bike a month or two ago is proving to be a useful 'eco' asset, being used twice a week on average to go the five miles (8 km) down to the nearest small town. The journey invoves cycling the one and a half miles to the next rural village, no traffic generally met to speak of, then accessing the cycle track, an old rail track, for three miles into the town with just the odd dog walker met, then over a crossing of a main highway, no sweat, and the last half mile down an empty no-through road (for cars) into the centre of town. Easy peasy, with virtually no traffic to contend with and blissfully peaceful. As charging the bike up is courtesy of the sun via the solar panels it also has to be one of the most 'eco friendly' and lowest cost forms of powered transport, the physical effort involved also being pretty low. Can't be bad and all contributing to the 'light eco footprint' aim ---- Both the main motors here are relatively low used and being low emission vehicles, are low road taxed, but necessary, as there's no public transport available.

'Macro matters ---- '

Recent events in the Uk seeem to be revealing something of a 'sick' culture, which maybe due to an imbalance between self-interest and society priorities, with life having been particularly good for the 'higher echelons'  ('bosses pay increased (from a high level) by 16% in 2022) in recent times, and particularly troublesome and difficult for the 'lower echelons' over the same period ---- Maybe the higher echelons might need to extend their view beyond self-interest and consider what makes a good, productive society - they may hopefully discover that the lower echelons actually play rather a good-sized part in the success of a society - ? One 'broad sheet' ('quality') paper outlined the current problem areas within UK's society :

 'The collapse of the air traffic control sytems on bank holiday is the latest blow to patriotic pride. Hospitals have waiting lists of more than a year for some routine operations ----  and that's before the impacts of the health workers' strikes. Trains are pricey and unreliable with no sign of an end to industrial unrest. Rivers are polluted, roads are gridlocked. Taxes are higher than ever, public services don't seem to be improving. Thickets of red tape make it excrutiatingly difficult to build, leading to decayed infrastructure and eye-wateringly expensive housing'.

 Then add in schools in danger of collapse, some having to close, continuing significantly increased living costs in the forms of food inflation, energy costs inflation and rent and mortgage interest inflation, widespread difficulties in getting taken on by a national health service dentist, problems getting to see a doctor and general shortage of doctors, major increases in car insurance costs, new water infrasructure needed due to lack of it by the water companies  alongside big shareholder payouts, the costs of which to be foisted on the 'blameless', the customers, rather than those culpable, the companies themselves ---  life in the Uk for good ol' 'ordinary folk (now apparently 'kindly' termed 'normo's), not exactly a bowl of cherries. Might not be quite so bad if the politicians came over as suitably 'shamed and chagrined' ------- In these 'out-for-self' times, self responsibility is not exactly though featuring too highly ---- whereas 'superiority and entitlement' seem to be thriving --- Then, of course, there's climate degradation --------  

 A recent visitor to Mallorca piled on the agony in one of today's broadsheet papers  :

  'I'm a lucky old geezer having just returned from a four week stay in Mallorca,. The difference between Mallorca and the UK is startling. Crystal-clear seas, clean beaches, clean towns.  A public transport system that functions, a health system that functions, (no long waiting lists). Plenty of fresh food at reasonable prices and roads you can drive on without smashing your suspension.'  

One opposition politician in the same edition blasts the present UK government, and accuses it of ' not standing up for working people --- ', and both writers call for a fresh  'new-approach' government.

  'Dangerous territory ----- ' 

  In spite of the catalogue of modern UK cultural problems, the party of politicians in power over more then the last decade comes over as unrepentant, shouting out as response to criticism its long -sorry -short -list of achievments. It seems that in modern times at times 'negative' aspects (eg. such as criticism) are unwanted and unresponded to -everything has to have 'positivity', or at least 'positive spin'. Hard luck, mates, says the older generation, if it's c--p, it's c--p, no matter what anybody might want it to be, and problems can't be adequately solved if the correct causes remain unattended and therefore unidentified.

This is presumably why the modern tendancy of allowing self and others to 'create their own ('desired') reality' can be dangerous - it can mean then that that the actual dangers of real reality can go unappraised, there is no real risk appraisal, and so people can then walk straight into dangerous territory ------- The UK had its own public demonstration of the same when a recent (now ex) Prime Minister (still unrepentant) brought in a raft of measures that caused panic in the markets and so created a crisis ------- 

 Some of course might suggest that a key underlying factor in modern-day ailments is that the culture has significantly changed around. Not so many decades ago, here in the UK, the accent was very much on 'social', as opposed to 'individual', with a quite strict social class system operating, which could have been one aspect that 'grated' for more than a few - ? Youngsters were 'socially indoctrinated' to the tune of 'you musn't think yourself better then anyone else', and 'you must always think of others before yourself' which was probably quite strict on youngsters so maybe it's not too much of a surprise that there's been a reaction against such 'heavy' conditioning, then also not leaving too much room for 'self '- ? There was even a famous Peter Sellers film extolling the 'non out-for-self' message called 'I'm all right Jack'.

The reaction to the other end of the scale featuring the 'rampant individuality' of 'out-for-selfness' could seem to have now diminished the 'social' side to an inadequate level, resulting in the appearance of the sorts of problems in society outlined above. Whilst individual needs and rights are considered important, so too presumably are social needs and concerns important -people are organised into societies, and it would seem a reasonably key part of the job is to be able to achieve a reasonable balance between the two sets of needs and features - ?

  'Weighing in the micro balance --- '

  In the meantime, the job could be to struggle on, 'very nearly manfully', as they say --- Fortunately, the social/individual balance seems to work out hereabouts fairly naturally, with the social side nicely provided by the local 'Millenium Hall' and its social club, facilitating community exchange and well-being, although it is noticable that quite a few new 'incomers' don't mix, seemingly 'pulling up their drawbridges' ---. The local communities in these rural parts have always welcomed and celebrated the 'individual' side - in one local pub, still going, they used to say 'every village has its village idiot --- but why the heck do we have to have three?' And three they did have, and although strangers may have got the idea that they were borderingly 'mistreated', they were actually looked after by this local community, tolerated, and even 'celebrated' ------ 

Mind you, it wouldn't be hard for anyone to conclude that the local social club had such a bunch, listening in late evening to the 'studied sillyness' of the local 'oldies' - ---

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