A Strange Ambition

I'm surprised that so many people are trying to become leader of the Conservative Party.

Whoever does become leader is likely to be blamed for a catastrophic departure from the European Union, and may well also preside over the extinction of the party.

Why do that want it ?

The Varieties of Compost

I usually buy special compost for sowing seeds, but this year absent mindedly helped myself to potting compost instead. I mixed it with some sand and vermiculite to improve drainage and sowed my tomato seeds. They grew much better than usual, so I may not bother with a special medium for seedlings in future.

Slowing Down

This morning I timed myself preparing to go out to vote in the District Council elections.

I arose at 6:45. I bathed, dressed, breakfasted, washed up, said 'hello' to the cat and by the time I'd made myself presentable to the world it was 10:15, so it took me three and a half hours to get ready even though I omitted my usual morning check of emails and CIX messages.

I resist a temptation to generalise about the ways of the ancient, but this ancient at least lives slowly:-)

An Annoyingly Tentative Invitation

This morning's post included a poll card for the European Election scheduled for 23 May. Yet there will be no such election in Britain if the Prime Minister can avoid it.

How would we react to an invitation to a wedding between two people who hope to get out of it somehow or other?

Supposing the election doesn't take place, how many people will appear at the polling stations because they don't know about the cancellation, or to protest, or because they want to see how many others turn up for one reason or another?

Questionable Motives

I'm not sure what to make of  children abandoning school to protest about climate change. School is quite a chore for many children so demonstrating about something may be an attractive alternative for many, regardless of what they are demonstrating about.

I'd be more impressed if great numbers of school children abandoned their usual weekend entertainments to demonstrate on a Saturday afternoon.

Overreaction?

The loss of a venerable old building is a sad event, and the threat of such a loss is worrying, but I thought the reaction to the fire in the cathedral of Notre Dame excessive. It seemed reasonable to report the catastrophe while the fire was burning, but there were far too many replays and interviews afterwards.

Mighty ancient buildings make me uneasy. I think how much money would have been levied on people who could hardly afford to feed themselves, and how many builders must have been killed in accidents, just to produce a large building to impress people with the power of whoever had it built.

Money and effort would have been better employed building aqueducts, sewage systems, libraries, or museums, all of which improve the quality of life in one way or another, but a huge church just symbolises the power of priests

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Puzzled by Food Collections

Here and there one sees containers in which people are bidden to place food for the hungry.

That seems strange to me. Do people contribute odd tins that have long lain neglected in dark corners of their pantries? If so some of the food may be too old to be edible.

On the other hand if people buy tins of food specially to donate them, it would be more useful to contribute money. With money those running food banks could buy whatever was most needed, negotiating lower prices by buying in bulk for a good cause, and they would not have to sort a  miscellany of  battered tins.

Laziness Rewarded

After the clocks changed last Autumn I never got round to changing the time on my mobile phone, so now I don't need to change!!!

Paddling Gently Along the Stream of Time

The loss of an hour's sleep is a shock from which it takes me a while to recover, and if I go to bed an hour early I'll find it hard to get to sleep so I plan to adjust to British Summer Time in installments.

I intend  to be in bed tonight about half an hour earlier than usual by Greenwich Mean Time  and to rise a few minutes later than usual, measured by BST. I hope that by tomorrow evening my internal clock will have reset itself to BST.

Spring has Come - for the Time Being

Today, for the first time this year, I walked into town without an overcoat, rejoicing in the Spring sunshine.

A Fragrant Survivor

My wallflowers are coming into flower very early. I'm especially pleased with a plant that flowered last year, and survived the Winter to flower again. It's about three times the size of the plants I bought last Autumn.

Attached to EU Citizenship

I rather like having a passport in the name of the European Union, and feeling myself a member of an  entity larger than the fading former imperial power that is Britain. I'm upset to think that will soon be taken away from me by an ill considered decision of rather dim individuals living in my vicinity.

I wish it were possible to have dual citizenship, remaining a member of the EU even when Britain is outside it.