Ash.

9°C. Light rain.
It’s Ash trees under threat this time. Rather like the Oaks, where an aggressive fungus was spread by a beetle, this one has airbourne spores to propogate. The fear this time is the scale, ash trees make ups about 1/3 of our mixed woodlands. But we do have the most fragmented woodlands that cover the smallest proportion of our countryside.

If the worst happens, I shall be saddened.

Related articles

• Ash tree ban may be too late to avert ‘UK tragedy’, says expert (guardian.co.uk)

Maffs an Inglish

10°C, grey, rain threatens.

Teachers’ entry requirements:BBC they’re “getting tough” on teachers. The Govt. plan to raise the entry requirements to the profession by adjusting the skills tests taken by trainee teachers. The English & Maths tests will be raised to a GCSE grade B equivalent, once source said. For decades, all teachers must have a decent Degree. But wait, we all had to get that GCSE to get on the BA course all those years ago so what’s the problem? I don’t see what this is meant to achieve.
Let’s hope that the Govt. ministers will have to sit a test too. Don’t forget that Ed Balls, the previous Education Minister clearly stated that he wanted most pupils to be “above average”. So there is scope for improvement if a bloke who has such responsibility has not the faintest understanding of basic Year 8 maths. Averages, mean median and mode, we all understand it, why not you?
How did that guy get into Oxford?

Related articles

• Talking tough on teacher standards (theperseschool.wordpress.com)
• Teachers are to blame for children’s lack of ambition, claims education minister David Laws (educationviews.org)

Shopping is annoying.

13°C, grey.
Fact: shopping is annoying. Shops stock a large range of trousers for guys with a fat arse and bamboo legs. Another shop I tried, sold trousers in only one leg length, that was a short 34″ so alterations are not possible. I hate shopping and I envy those who can go into a shop and choose colour and fabric. My choice is between- buy something that doesn’t fit, or leave the shop.

Heavy head, but light heart

10°C, sunny.
It’s Saturday so it’s  headache day. The sun does shine, a week’s holiday lies ahead. No camping though, not much point when daylight is gone so early.

Spent the day planting bulbs. I will have forgotten where I put them by spring, let’s be surprised.
Some over-grown plants had to get cut back. I saw no Ivy, but there are itchy patches on my hands now. Do other plants contain the same chemical that makes ivy poisonous?

Gideon

12°C, sun.
At work, 11 year olds were issued with Gideon’s bibles today. They looked puzzled, though some said you can use them to help with problems in life. There is a sort of key in the front where problems are listed giving passages to read.
My problem was- can they go into the recycling bin, or should we drop them in the normal land-fill rubbish? It hangs on whether the cover is real leather.
_____
Later: After work was filled with trying to use Excel to decrypt a text string. A nice problem to work on. I didn’t know enough about arithmetic progressions to write the formulae quickly. A good problem to try, I like the feeling when puzzling over things like that.

At night it does rain.

9ºC, rain
No ride to work, the fault lies with a sore throat not the weather. The rain prefers to fall mostly in the dark this week. Darkness is much longer lasting this month. No  daylight until 7.44 and it’s good again before 18.20, that’s all.

Blame the rain

12°C, light wind, sun
Instead of crane flies this year, it seems as though the mozzies are more abundant. I say this now because one bit the back of my neck this afternoon. A strange occurance, we don’t get many in England. Not this part of England anyway.
I would blame my new pond as the source but other people have noticed more midges/mosquitoes too. So the blame shall rest on our exceptionally wet weather this year. Where conditions are against one species, another thrives.

Blimey, fog.

8°C, thick fog.
Leave the ride till later.
Decorating– in just a few hours I got the ceiling and walls painted. The ceiling is apricot-white silk emulsion and the walls, flat chalky Matt blue. I worked between 14.00 – 18.30 though failing light prevented proper checks. The only unfinished area is the top of the walls where it overlaps the undercut ceiling paint. The Matt paint skidded unevenly over the silk. Perhaps later…

Kissing you is like…

9C, clear
“Kissing you is like kissing gravel, you look better upside-down.”
…Listening to kristen Hersh

Rosie had a run in the woods. Golden light filtered between tall trunks set against deep blue sky. Rainfall inside the wood was heavy though. Not a cloud beyond.

drawn on phone

Tried a drawing app on my phone. It’s good enough but this screen is too small to make it practical. Or is it that my fingers are too big?
Shame that.

244 watts

12°C grey but no rain
What is there in this house that draws 244 watts? Nothing is switched on as I arrive home. Well, there is a battery charger and the fridge. Where is it all going- the fridge is not even making it’s on noise?