My Annual Letter

A corrected and slightly amplified version of my anual letter for 2021 is now on my website, here

Mild mid-Winter

It was so mild today that, in the middle of my shopping, expedition I felt so warm I removed my scarf.

Farewell Turkey Crown

Yesterday I threw away the remains of the Christmas turkey crown. For many years we've had a duck for Christmas dinner. This year we decided on Turkey and thought just part of one would suffice. When the butcher offered me a choice between a 1 kg crown, and a 2 kg crown I recklessly chose the latter. Even though I put three portions in the freezer, and we had two dinners from it and I made a turkey sandwish yesterday, there was still quite a lot of stale turkey left over. Although I hate wasting food, I sadly threw the remains away.

Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Thought

People often consider Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Thought to be equivalent, but they often conflict. One person speaking inserts their thoughts into the minds of those listening, who may be thus prevented from following their own trains of thought. At one time libraries were places where conversation was discouraged so that thoughtful readers should not be disturbed, but compulive prattlers long ago overode those rules to assert their supposed 'right' to stop other people thinking.

A Triumph for an Ancient Brain

When I went out to the shops yesterday I forgot my shopping so I had to shop from memory. When I got home I checked against my list and found that I had bought precisely the items listed, and nothing else!

A Floriferous November

Although we are now about half way through Autumn there are still plenty of flowers in the garden. Zonal pelargoniums, begonias, campanulas, mexican daisies, fuchsias, feverfew, Winter jasmine, and at least tree other plants the names of which escape me, are all in flower. In a couple of months time the early Spring flowers should start to appear, so we shouldn't be without flowers for long.

Fireworks delayed.

There seemed to be few fireworks yesterday but rather more tonight, though not a great number on either night. Perhaps smelly explosions are becoming unfashionable, though mine is a fairly quiet area with quite a lot of elderly people who may be past getting excited by such things.

Fundamntal Units Confused in the Media

This afternoon I watched a television programme about the earth's atmosphere, and was reminded why I rarely watch television programs about science. Atmopheric pressure near the earth's surface was described as 1 kilogram per square centimetre, perpetuating the pernicious confusion of force with mass.

I prefer to state atmospheric pressure at sea level as about 10⁵ pascals. A pascal is 1 newton per square metre.

Olive Trees in England

I often notice olive trees for sale at prices that seem rather high. I wonder why people buy them. I doubt if trees grown in England would produce sufficent fruit for people to press their own oil. Yet the plants strike me as very ugly, so there seem to be neither utilitarian nor aesthetic grounds for having them.

Triply Jabbed!!

Today I had my covid-19 booster jab, bringing my score to 3.

The last of my Homegrown Tomates.

Apart from a few half ripe fruit that just might ripen indoors, I finished my homegrown tomatoes yesterday. The season didn't seem to last as long as usual this year, mainly because the fruit didn't start to ripen until quite late in August. Still I did have them for about 9 weeks. I've collected seeds for use next year, but I'll miss having my own.

Cutting My Own Hair

It is now considerably more than a year since I last had my hair cut. I was on the point of booking an appointment with the barber when the second lockdown started in September 2020. By then it must have been well over a month since my previous appointment, so I estimate my locks have not been professionally shorn for at least 15 months. Ad hoc snipping seems to have kept things more or less under control, so I may be able to manage without the barber indefinitely.