There isn’t much colour in our garden, I never seem to get it right at this time of year, but there’s are plenty around and about for the insects to sup some amber nectar.
There’s the heather of course and there is a lot of ragwort around,
it might be good news for insects but no one else likes it, for a start it is poisonous to livestock and has a 70% seed germination rate (oh that my seeds in the garden could aspire to this figure) and it’s therefore no surprise that it seems to be getting a hold around here
Many thanks to all who have voted for this blog on the Dorset Cereals ‘Little Blog Awards’ Tom has been sussing out the competition and tells me I’ve a way to go yet to catch if I’m to catch up with the front runners, but I’ve got till the end of August to win a bumper bag of Dorset Cereals (actually I’m not a muesli sort of girl; but porridge, with a sprinkling of crunchy demerara sugar and a dash of cream, now you’re talking.)
Our breakfast routine has been dealt a major blow, after nearly 20 years of delivering our copy of the the Guardian newspaper, in time for us to give it a quick skim at the breakfast table (or at least look at the photos) the local newsagents ‘new driver’ has announced he won’t drive up the lane to our house, it’s too tricky apparently, the business women in me fumes at the driver dictating the delivery round, for goodness sake (or words with a similar meaning) what’s up with folk, don’t they want to work? I’d read in the newspaper that their is a recession. The chances of him lasting in the job have got to be zilch, this is only August, just wait till the dark mornings, rain, snow, ice grasp his delivery round. If I was the employer I’d be drawing a line under this now, before he decimates the rest of the delivery run, more customers are ruled out, it all becomes completely unviable and we all toddle off to Tesco’s for our daily paper and another independent newspaper shop bites the dust.
August 24, 2009 at 6:16 pm
You’ll have to log in to Guardian on line.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
August 25, 2009 at 10:33 pm
It may have to be so……
August 24, 2009 at 9:36 pm
I agree with the Grauniad online thing. I’m surprised anyone still buys newspapers – they’re such a waste of paper (and money).
August 24, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Oh no, papers are there to be read away from the screen! Preferably in a sunny spot with a cup of coffee in hand… Lucky you even having a delivery, I have to cycle five miles for mine. Can you put a box at the bottom of the lane for the lazy b. to leave your paper in? Anything’s better than having to visit Tesco every day
August 25, 2009 at 6:41 am
An especially brilliant marigold photo!
I’ve enjoyed following your holiday trip in Devon. Looks like a lovely time, and such interesting posts.
Could you entice the paper delivery man with a sign indicating ‘freshly baked scones’ at the end of the driveway
August 25, 2009 at 10:32 pm
I could leave a trail up the lane!
August 25, 2009 at 8:38 am
I gave up buying newspapers a few years back when I stopped working. I now read the Guardian, and others, on-line. xx
August 25, 2009 at 10:31 pm
I know we can read it on line, but some aspects don’t work quite as well, the two page photo spread is a favourite of mine, plus Tom and Joe had taken to having a quick read of the headlines over breakfast, an interest in current affairs and world news is something that Mr Uhdd and I wanted to encourage
August 25, 2009 at 10:56 pm
I well appreciate that! I read mine on the journey to work and/or at lunch-time. Now I can browse various on-line papers whilst drinking a cup of tea, and I save money as well! xx
August 26, 2009 at 11:25 am
Also, if we all start to read it online, there won’t be any Guardian. I think it’s worth supporting
August 26, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Reading online could be seen as the green alternative. However, I see that some papers are moving towards subscription online, whilst others have found that it isn’t working.
August 26, 2009 at 9:04 am
Love the bee photo, and uncanny timing too as I’d just been out that day with my new camera and snapped one very similar myself:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11505695@N07/3857895933/
August 26, 2009 at 10:31 am
I have yet to buy a paper this year – why bother they are all online. I like to laugh at the Daily Mail and our local rags especially, but turn to the Grauniad (Observer) and the Scotsman for some half decent reporting.
Now to the important point…. Porridge and sugar!
Actually in the days of top of the milk, then that and a little demerara sugar was the best, but don’t tell anyone I said so!
August 26, 2009 at 1:47 pm
It’s a fallacious argument that there would be no Guardian if everyone read it online. The media thrives on new ways of spreading itself and in some ways newspaper organisations are handicapped by having to maintain a paper-based side to their news services.
Living out in the country up a bumpy lane seems the ideal scenario for reading online – burning up fossil fuel to deliver newspapers? Hmm.
As for having your noses stuck in the paper over breakfast…
August 26, 2009 at 7:54 pm
As we watched the decline of doorstep delivery milk in our area (about 14 years ago now) what we wished for was that milk, newspapers and post deliveries could have merged into one, one van, one drop, job done.
As for breakfast, it’s a brief affair and certainly not a case of everyone with their heads buried in the newspapers, but the paper on the table and our 12 and 14 year old children taking an interest in the news and issues of the day, that simply wouldn’t happen if we were trying to get us all round the screen of a PC. I suppose our alternative would be to feed them with podcasts of John Humphreys and the Today program on their ipods, on the way to the bus. I’m not sure it would be quite as palatable though.
August 26, 2009 at 11:32 pm
I do agree, it is more satsifying to have tangible reading matter you can tote around the place, use to clean paint brushes etc instead of sitting like a pudding in front of a screen (as I am now, dammit).
The papers (including the Guardian, unfortunately – they just report tut-tuttingly on what others have already reported) are just so full of London-centric celebrity garbage I don’t want to encourage them. Online you can select the section / article you want and boycot the trash.
Postal deliveries – there’s another! Does Royal Mail deliver anything but junk advertising these days?
Doorstep deliveries of food and medical supplies I’ll allow you.
Lovely blog, btw.
September 1, 2009 at 3:33 am
My parents had a newsagents in Perthshire long ago, and used to send out the papers with the milk rounds to the outlying farms.
On Sundays/Christmas Day there was no delivery, but they took orders for the local baker for breakfast rolls. These were in named bags which were laid out with the customers ordered papers.
I loved being in the shop on a Sunday morning when people came in for the papers and breakfast, and a wee bit of craic.