sime42

Nuclear is a tricky one. It makes me slightly nervous but I think it is a necessary evil; it's the only way we'll be able to satisfy our energy needs going into the not too distant future. Good insight into the chemistry there again. Why can't lithium fires be put out? The flames and bangs were always my favourite part of subject. I realised that my thoughts were somewhat idealistic. Hence the qualifier at the end! Even so, I'm sure that a lot of children don't need to be driven to school by car every day.

Cars.

This. Agreed. I don't believe that electric cars are at all the panacea that they're widely hailed to be. The fact that the electricity they run on has to be generated in the first place seems to be conveniently overlooked. I doubt very much that as the proportion of electric cars increases our domestic renewable energy supply will be able to keep up. So regardless of power source we will still be reliant on burning fossil fuels to run cars on to some extent. The fundamental problem is that there are too many cars on the roads and just as importantly too many unnecessary journeys made in them. We would all be better off if more short trips were made on foot or by bike, from both the environmental and personal health point of views. Take the obesity epidemic for instance. That could be improved by children walking to school and their parents cycling to work in the office, (where possible).

Plymouth shooting: Jake Davison named as gunman who killed five WWW.BBC.CO.UK Jake Davison is suspected to have killed five people before turning the gun on himself. Jake Davison.

Indeed. Bitcoin’s growing energy problem: ‘It’s a dirty currency’ | Financial Times WWW.FT.COM Elon Musk has highlighted the cryptocurrency’s environmental impact and governments are starting to take notice

Amazon know all that plus a great deal more as well. Like what you thought about but didn't actually buy, what films you like, what stuff your family buys, even who comes up and rings your doorbell. The funny thing is that some people are more concerned about being monitored via a vaccine. There's nowt so queer as folk.

And "forgetfulness". Gavin Williamson Says He Has 'Forgotten' His A-Level Results | HuffPost UK M.HUFFINGTONPOST.CO.UK But the education secretary does recall opening the envelope and seeing the grades.

Fluffing?

Good thinking there. No concerns about the glyphosate crossing over into the tree via the roots though? I thought that could be an issue in some cases.

Anyone tried Cucamelons, (Mouse Melons) before? I'm growing them again this year and they're really heavy croppers. Melothria scabra - Wikipedia EN.M.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Seems like a good year for chillies, mine are very numerous and large already. Though I think they're always a good bet as seem to do well most years. We're picking them already. Even though they're not quite ripe yet, still green, they've got a fair poke of heat. Picking a handful of toms each day now and almost as many gherkins.

Thanks. I'm always interested to hear about proper old crafts. Did you want to use sinew to be in keeping with tradition or is it better than synthetic equivalents?

That's the fundamental thing that I've never been able to fathom. The likes of Amazon, Google, Apple etc already have more than enough data on all of us. The government could only ever hope to gather a fraction of that amount, let alone manage to utilise it to control us all in some way.

Not far off. Yorkshireman grows the 'Holy Grail' of gooseberries WWW.BBC.CO.UK Graeme Watson's prize gooseberry saw off the competition at a centuries' old fruit show. Underdog pensioner wins gooseberry war to claim world record WWW.TELEGRAPH.CO.UK Elderly amateur gardener Bryan Nellist has finally broken the record for growing the world's biggest gooseberry months after a row broke over how the berries were weighed.

Beautiful, but deadly I imagine. Great workmanship. What's involved in processing the sinew?

Booom! There it is. I thought it was more of a confirmation bias but there you go.

I probably got that wrong, it's more likely Cercis canadensis, with the red leaves.

Agree. Cercis siliquastrum. Nice little decorative tree.

A much underappreciated principal.

Used to be even worse in the 60/70s apparently, before the A30 and A38 were made into dual-carriageways. You'd have to queue for hours and hours to get off the M5 at Exeter.

@Big J You've not mentioned the legion little black or blue dog shit bags yet. Sure to be found in any nice green natural space. Lovely! What on earth makes these knobs think that it's an acceptable practice? They often even go as far as to carefully hang them up on trees and bushes.

Poor old Devon seems to be getting a bit of a bashing here! I don't particularly disagree with any of the complaints raised, they're all true unfortunately. The thing is this sorry state of affairs is pretty much the case in any picturesque and rural county in England. Think of Cornwall or Cumbria or Dorset or Pembrokeshire, (Wales I know). Personally I don't see how many or even any of these issues will be sorted by Brexit. The cause of the malaise is far more complicated than just being due to immigration and the EU.

There are some small rays of light in the otherwise grim and depressing outlook for Great Britain. Here's one;- Orbital Marine Power Launches O2 "World's Most Powerful Tidal Turbine" | Off Grid Energy Independence WWW.OFFGRIDENERGYINDEPENDENCE.COM O2 has the ability to generate enough clean, predictable electricity to meet the demand of around 2,000 UK homes and offset approximately 2,200 tonnes of CO2 production per year. ""The O2 turbine started construction in the second half of 2019 and reflects approximately 80% UK supply content. From Scottish steel work and main manufacturing through to anchors from Wales and blades from the south of England; the build of the O2 is estimated to have supported over 80 jobs within the UK economy. The launch of the O2 marks the first vessel launch from Dundee since ship building ended over forty years ago."" 80% home made, that's rare in these times. Obviously the 80 jobs is a drop in the ocean, but it's a start. (As long as non of them were filled by any of those pesky, dirty job stealing immigrants! [emoji12]) Hopefully the government will see the value of ventures like this, (ecological, economical, cultural) and fully support them. It would be great if this could be scaled up into a proper, exporting industry.

200 plants?!

I'm growing ours up frames as well for the first time this year. Inspired by Monty's efforts. I think a lot of the Cucurbit type plants are climbers or at least ramblers.