Monthly Archives: March 2026

A Jumble of Gibberish

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We have had Goldfinches and Greenfinches in the garden a little more regularly over the last few weeks and the behaviour of the Great Tits is changing. I suspect they are looking for a nest site.

We also have a lovely patch of violets in the middle of the lawn.  We didn’t, after much upheaval, get much done in the garden last year, and I doubt we will get much done this year either. it always seems we have something else to.

I took this whilst waiting for Julia in Matlock. I think it was Matlock . . . my memory is not what it was

Julia is out wood turning and I am doing various things, though mainly rattling off nonsense on the computer. I’ve just done a couple of political blog posts and deleted them, and replied to an editor who has accepted a haibun. And looked up DARVO, which cropped up in a comment relating to yesterday’s post.

I expect Julia will be home shortly, and that will mark the halfway point of my day. It also, as I write that, marks the halfway point of the post. It can be a long old slog when you have imposed a limitation on discussing politics.

I’ve been letting my personal grooming slip recently and my hair, after a couple of weeks of neglect, was getting quite long. I say “quite long” – possibly a quarter of an inch or a little longer. That, I feel, is quite impressive for a couple of weeks. It’s winter and I’m old so it should grow slower than average.  It just goes to show that though I no longer have much hair, what remains is still quite active.

Brick from Watnall Pit Bickyard – I mantione dthese somewhere recently but can’t remember if it was in the blog.

I did wonder, as I started cutting, whether the shaver would cope. let’s just say it was marginal. I did manage to cut my hair back to the scalp but the cutters protested and I had to clean quite a lot out as i went, as they kept stalling.

The lesson I gained from that, Is that I need to stick to a regular regime of hair cutting, regardless of whether I feel under the weather or my head feels cold. I also have an idea for a haibun as a result of my hair cutting experiences.

So with several learning experiences and inspiration for a poem, I have to say that it’s been a good day so far.

Fish Pie – a healthy alternative

When Julia returns with two pensioner special fish and chip portions it will be an even better day, though slightly bitter-sweet. After much heart-searching I have decided it is time for a major review of my eating habits, and the first casualties are likely to be fried food and carbohydrates. I will have fish and chips again, but it could be some time in the future.

 

 

 

 

Modern Manners

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250 words. Not much time. A head full of gibberish.

Somehow the sight of an empty page scares all my words and good intentions away . . .

At the doctor this morning I looked out of the window (the waiting room looks into an internal quadrangle of raised beds and weeds) and watched a single strand of spider silk thrumming in the wind. By the time I go home I had forgotten all about it. However, it has just returned.

Just before going to the doctor the door bell rang. It was a representative from a local builder, energised by sunshine and the desire to fill his wallet at my expense.

Julia listened to him, because she does. He has a job to do, so it’s only fair to listen. However, he kept going and she had to step in and ask him to stop as we were about to go out. She asked him three more times and he kept going on. She even gave him her phone number because she is too nice to cold callers. He kept going and trying to organise a call, either in five minutes, or later in the day.

To be fair, you have to be persistent when you are selling, and I couldn’t fault him from that point of view. However, I didn’t want to be late for the appointment at the doctor.

I went to the door. He started to tell me he would like to clear the moss off our roof.

“Why?” I asked.

He said that some people didn’t like the look of it.

“Well I don’t mind it and my wife has already told you we need to go out so please stop and go away.”

It is important here to repeat that I said “go away”. I did not use a very tempting alternative, I was calm and restrained.

“Well,” he said, in the manner of a Victorian matron, pouting and gathering his skirts around him, “there’s no need to be rude.”

I pointed out that I wasn’t being rude, just telling him to go away because we had to get ready to go out and he’d ignored Julia’s previous attempts to ask him to leave.

I find there’s a lot of this about these days – people seem to think that you should listen to them and do what they want just because they keep on talking. It seems to be a common doorstep technique these days. It’s the technique used by a conman – keep talking and hope that people will be too polite to say no.

Sometimes you have to stop them. Sometimes you have to say no. I have also been known to ask people “What’s it got to do with you?” when they ask personal questions.

Yes, it’s “conversation” to some people, but some just ask too much. I lack the linguistic skills to fend them off, and if a couple of attempted evasions don’t work, I just ask. They soon get the idea.

However, I don’t see it as being rude. If it’s acceptable for a man to knock on my door without being invited, or for someone I don’t know to ask personal questions, surely it’s acceptable for me, after several ineffectual attempts to put a stop to it, to be blunt.

Everybody then knows where the line has been drawn.

I didn’t swear, I didn’t make any personal remarks, I just asked him to stop and told him to go away.

I’m not going to ask whether you think I’m right or wrong, but I am going to ask if anyone has a better way of dealing with it.

It’s a kestrel on his shoulder.

 

Dr Strangelove Comes to Life

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Angel Musician

I’ve just been reading an article on the best nine foods to stockpile if we want to survive WW3.

I’m not exactly sure that this is helpful as, with computers, AI, hybrid warfare and all the other modern horrors, we are probably going to have to faceup to  life without water and electricity. Burning the furniture and using the contents of the water butt are short term fixes but after that I’m not sure where we go.

Rice, it seems, will last a long time, but without water and fuel it’s going to be a bit crunchy. Powdered milk will also be pretty useless without water. I note that tea does not make the list. I’m not sure they have thought this through. Why do you need powdered milk when you have no tea to put it in?

Rufford Abbey, I believe

Honey is recommended too. Not for its nutritional qualities, just for its ability to last a long time. That is, I suspect, of more interest to archaeologists than nutritionists. But never fear, peanut butter is also on the list. It never goes off, according to the list, although after a few years the flavour may suffer. If you eat peanut butter for years I suspect your heart will give out long before the flavour becomes an issue.

I can’t remember most of the rest, though tinned food did feature heavily. Yes, “tinned food” seems to be a food item. I wonder if this journalist is known for their work on details. At least it means we can eat cold baked beans as we see the sun setting on civilisation.

Oliver Cromwell’s House

We laughed, once, at a friend who stocked up on pulses and turned their cellar into a nuclear bunker, we criticised the government for Protect and Survive, and we all secretly thought that Dr Strangelove was over the top, but who’s laughing now?

The good news is that the price of gold is rising again, as it always does in times of global fear, so the billionaires who run the world are unlikely to be feeling the pinch. In fact, with their bunkers and cupboards full of peanut butter, they may actually be doing quite well.

Russian Cannon – taken as a trophy in he Crimean War, now at Ely Cathedral

This, of course, brings me to my next suggestion, that Trump, Putin and all the rest should form teams of three and be set loose in some sort of reality TV programme in the jungle. They can fight it out without risking nuclear war or putting up the price of groceries.

Each nation is allowed to field its President/Prime Minister and two prominent politicians. My money is on the Ukraine team – Zelensky and the Klitschko brothers.

Random photos move on to March in various years.

Goose poem – Anderby Creek