From Spring to Potatoes to Blairs Hair to Conspiracy Therories

Good Afternoon Dear Reader, and it’s a lovely one here in Yorkshire. The sun is shining, flowers are blooming, there are even bees about. With all that in mind, here’s a quick reminder, if you live in the UK, track Spring and help improve understanding of climate change by popping along to the UK Phenology Network and posting your observations. Go on, go on, oh go on . . . you can download some brilliant free wallpaper while you are there.

During yesterday’s trip to the supermarket I made an amazing discovery. Organic potatoes for the same price as normal ones! How great is that? On the whole our veg is organic, because I grow a lot of it myself, but potatoes have been a problem. We just don’t have enough space to grow them. I tried the first year we lived in this house, and they completely took over the garden, so I had to stick to more bijou veggies. Buying them was the only alternative, but organic ones were always more expensive, which didn’t stop me buying them, I just consoled myself with the thought of how much I was saving on other vegetables. However, I was really pleased to see them priced the same as all the ‘chemical’ potatoes, and hopefully this will lead to more people buying them, which would be a very good thing indeed.

I was just reading the news on the BBC website, when I came across this story about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown uniting to promote the local election campaign. However, go to the page, and take a look at the video file at the top. Is it me, or does Old Gordy look as though he is about the elbow Big Tone in the back? And while you are there, take a look at Blair’s hair, it seems to have turned a gingery blonde. Very strange.

In these parts the local election campaign always signals the beginning of a huge amount of gossip and intrigue, oh and a series of conspiracy theories. I suppose this is typical of many small places, but it took me rather by surprise when I first arrived. Candidate A will say mean things about Candidate B, who will respond by saying that Candidate A is in league with TOWN COUNCILLORS, oh the horrors. Then Candidate C will chime in stating both A and B are corrupt and possibly from the South. OK, they don’t say the last bit, but you get the idea. To be honest I find the whole thing quite amusing, and rather pointless, because the same people get elected time after time.

And talking of conspiracy theories . . . on Sunday Sky One showed a documentary (yes, I was surprised too) about theories surrounding September 11^th. Most were the usual ones we have seen repeated for some time. However, I was intrigued by the idea of the whole thing being a result of mind control towers and electronic death rays. Seriously though, I do find the whole September 11^th conspiracy industry rather distasteful. I’m not saying I believe the US government version of events, but, at the same time, these theories mostly contradict each other, and the theorists are mostly earning a living by promoting books related to the subject. I strongly believe the truth should come out, but I have my doubts whether someone who is charging me £24.99 for their version of that truth is really as trustworthy as they would have us believe.

On a lighter note, today’s meme come from Blogdrive Insanity, so pop over and have a go if you like.

1. What’s the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to you? - Getting the job I recently started. It was just what I had been looking for. I’m not going to say any more about it, because I’m still rather nervous, and feel that I will be identified as an imposter at any moment.

2. Is there something that you just cannot seem to have luck with? - Growing tomatoes. Year after I try, and fail. Last year, I did manage to get three tomatoes from two plants, which was a 150% improvement on my previous efforts.

3. Do you do any gambling? If so, what kind? - No, when I was at college, I spent a summer working in an amusement arcade, seeing all the ‘punters’ losing money hand over fist was enough to put me off gambling for life.

4. Let’s see how lucky you really are. Pick a number between one and twelve (1 and 12). If you guess the lucky number, you get an extra special comment on your blog! - Umm, I’ll choose number 5.

Listening to: Tattva by Kula Shaker

Thought for the Day: “Where facts are few, experts are many.” Donald R. Gannon