Billhook

I think that is a vindication!

I ain't perfect. I and E with me as in believe and ceiling and for some reason typing on the computer is worse than handwriting Last night played tennis under a plastic bubble but was pelted by a heavy hail storm as I walked from the car and the ground was white over as was I. I distinctly heard my father's voice. " Told you son, Blackthorn Winter!"

https://kathleenwcurry.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/easily-confused-words-voila-vs-viola/ Or did you really start to play on your viola when you saw the snow??!

Now we have the Blackthorn out in full flower here in the East Midlands and here is the local forecast with talk of snow https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2637224

Now today is a classic example of what I understand a Blackthorn Winter to be. We had a balmy warm day on Wednesday and as I said I walked the farm in a T shirt. Today I set off for my morning bike ride with gloves, a thick pullover and wax jacket and yellow vest and helmet. A biting North West wind made me wish I had put my balaclava on and I was frozen after four miles. In the yard processing wood in the shelter of the open front shed which is protected from the North West it was pleasant in the sun but as soon as you moved into the open it was bitter. I do not think it means that there has to be snow, although that can happen. It is a sudden change that happens when the blackthorn flowers which usually corresponds with the equinox but whether that has any influence I know not.

Not sure if you are just winding me up but here today it has been bitterly cold in the Westerly breeze and the Blackthorn is only just coming out.

Not sure about the frost requirement. All I know is that I was walking the fields in just a t shirt on Wednesday which was a balmy Spring day, but yesterday I had a pullover and wax jacket on and it was perishing in the wind!

I remember the 1970s very well. UK was on its knees, a has been nation laughed at by Europe and nothing on the World stage. Power cuts, dock strikes, miners strikes, British Leyland strikes, rail strikes it was not good and the Unions were too powerful. She started off well with the Falklands campaign which brought respect on the International stage. She took on the unions which was never going to be popular with them or their families but it was quite popular with the silent majority. She freed up the financial world to make London one of the most important places and really the cause of our wealth today. She was like a fierce school head mistress who nobody liked but most people respected and one of her greatest legacies was to join with Reagan to sort out the Soviet Union and cool down the Cold War., the fall of the Berlin wall and much more of the relative peace we have had since then until the EU started to tinker with the Ukraine......... The fact that Reagan stopped to consult her on their way to Russia showed that she was a World leader. She did have a vision that everyone could see, it did not appeal to all but at least it was a vision and she was a leader. A great contrast to today's crowd of blow with the wind men in grey. As a final note I am proud that we have had women leaders in these days of sex equality as an example to many countries that would never elect a woman on principle. A lot of our strongest leaders have been women, both Elizabeth 1 and 2, Victoria,. When Margaret and the Queen were ruling over us we were run by women, bit like me in our household! (Never happened in America!)

The other thing I am not too sure of is the flowering of Bullace, Damson and Mirabellum, the latter I know is flowering now and the first two I suspect will flower like the Hawthorn in May but someone will probably correct me We do have a lot of Bullace in the hedgerows here. After a couple of superb Spring days here the Blackthorn has suddenly started to come out with just a few white flowers on each shrub

Where are you Mark? it would be helpful for my little bit of research if anyone replying to this could state the general area they are talking about , please!

Well it certainly turned colder here in the East Midlands when those high winds were here and we have had a few frosts, but there is no sign of the Blackthorn flowers yet and certainly no Hawthorn in leaf.

One of my father's pet sayings which was proved correct nearly every year. We nearly always had a mild spell with drying winds in the first two weeks of March and all the farmers would become very excited and pull land over ready for drilling. We would try and plant some early potatoes and I remember being on the back of a Howard Rotoplanter and it was so cold by late March when the white flowers of the Blackthorn (Sloe) appeared, that I am surprised to have retained my testicles. After this warm February I would be interested to hear reports from up and down the country of the weather when the white flowers appear.

Song for y'all to sing whilst hammering posts in!

Just did the test again but included the one flight and am now up to 6.6 tons It did not ask me about my 53 year old car which although not used on a daily basis does not do more than 22 mpg on petrol However by continuing to use it I must have saved a countless amount of energy that would have been involved in buying a regular replacement. Not sure if that balances out! Same goes for using the recycled bricks and wood in my home.

Not a lot! i live on a farm so no commuting, bike nearly everywhere, eat only Scottish smoked salmon which do not fart very much. Eat own vegetables and fruit. Solar electric and solar tube hot water and wood stove heating. Wood taken from mainly wind fall in the farm woods and processed by me. Very rarely fly apart from one trip to Finland at the New Year for a special birthday , first and last flight for many years. House built from recycled bricks and wood insulated with icynene foam Not sure how to enter the diesel and consumables used on the farm by the tractors and machinery which presumably do not count as my personal footprint as it is a business footprint.

Big halo and virtue signal from me at 5.9 tons but even if we all reduced it to one ton it would still be nothing compared to the energy required to keep the military just on manoeuvres let alone dropping bombs in the far East. A single Eurofighter mission from here to drop a bomb on a target would probably use more energy than everyone's footprint here on Arbtalk A single volcano eruption would be similar. The elephant in the room is the world population which has to be reduced. The only sensible way without war or disease or compulsory cull, is to put a chemical in all sugar which makes people infertile. You would let it be known that this was to be introduced to give people the choice.. This would help stop the obesity crisis as well as the population increase. If this did not work you would make people take an infertility pill before they boarded and aeroplane, or bought exotic foods from far away, or bought any fossil fuel.............keep ramping it up until we arrive at a manageable one billion.

I am sure that you will find many on here willing to share a little of their warmth with you.........

I forgot to mention that my wife was half sitting next to me on one of those half seats. Now she is only ten months younger but does really look more like forty and she was laughing for the rest of the journey, just like you miserable lot. All I do is pour out my heart on this site to gain a little sympathy and what do I receive? Laughter emoticons!

I am about to receive my pension, but I am fit and looked in the mirror the other day and thought I saw a forty year old man (eye sight obviously going as well as the brain!) Went down to London at the weekend and boarded a very crowded tube. Standing room only, next stop several departed and a young girl jumped on. She spied the only empty seat and was about to sit down, then saw me and asked if I would like to take it. It was a very kind thought but I nearly swore at her!

I cannot stop thinking how much June Millington, the lead guitarist, looks like Jimi Hendrix. She is from the Philippines but has similar features to Jimi because of his Red Indian genes from his grandparents.

They were called "Fanny" which in the slightly more prudish 1970s may have been the reason that they were not so well marketed!

and more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcb1HpH42N8

Great Girl Band from the 1970s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imZUqkPlUaQ