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| Random Ramblings |
| Personal observations on a wide variety of subjects. Photographs of creatures and things that are taken on seeing the unusual as well as everyday things. |
| Language: English |
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Statistics |
| Unique Visitors: 607 |
| Total Unique Visitors: 7739956 |
| Visitors Out: 32237 |
| Total Visitors Out: 72883 |
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| Early prune for prolific bloom |
| 2012-01-27 17:18:00 |
Country gardeners try to prune their roses on the last week of January. This usually ensures many more buds and flowers forming on the roses later in the year. The old saying is: January prune for July bloom. Bush roses are best pruned right back to within a few inches of the ground. The small buds should be appearing on the stems and to help the bush to form pretty and symmetrical shapes it is best to look for an outward facing bud then snip slightly above about half the width of a fingernail, cutting away all of last year’s growth. Check for any dead wood or branches and cut away those as well. Dead wood often allows disease to climb into the plant and leads to a weakened root system. Once the job has been completed then sprinkle some dry fertiliser around the plant eithe...
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| Coeliac Disease–pronounced ‘see-lee-ack’ |
| 2012-01-20 14:38:00 |
Coeliac disease can occur at any time in life, from when a child is weaned, during adolescence, in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties. In fact, it can occur at any point during a person’s life time. It often runs in families and so if one person is diagnosed with the condition it makes sense for all members of the family to have a simple blood test to make sure that they are clear of the disease. Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disease. This means that the body turns against itself and begins to attack itself. This occurs when a person eats the proteins found in common grains. The proteins are often referred to as gluten and they are found in wheat, barley and rye. Often as oats are from the same family source as wheat, barley and rye ...
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| January jumble |
| 2012-01-18 02:05:00 |
What a month! It is a helter-skelter, a waltzer, a ride of changes. There have been highs of double figures followed by crisp-crunch frosts and now it is warm once more. Robins sing eerily through the night alongside distant long hoots of owls. Some nights the sky dances giddily with clouds like ladies from a Jane Austen novel floating over a dance floor. Other nights are black and bejewelled with millions of diamonds randomly scattered over a jet sky. Some days a light breeze licks at last year’s geraniums and plucks at the feathers of birds that parade along the branches of the apple trees. Whilst others are creeping with damp blankets of thick dew that cover everything. Mornings may be brittle and grey or full of bright sunshine and we toss and turn waiting to see what is on offer. ...
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| Anonymous publishing |
| 2012-01-09 17:22:00 |
When we live in a country that encourages freedom of speech and it is second nature to say what we think, it is difficult to remember that in most places in the world it is hazardous to say the most innocent thing. Everything that is either written or spoken has to be carefully examined, diluted and often kept for another time which will most probably never come. There is a programme called ‘Click’ that this week, told of an interesting website that allegedly allows anonymous publishing – so that anyone with access to the Internet, from anywhere in the world, can make a webpage and have true freedom of speech. The website to join for true freedom of speech is http://pen.io/ … find out more here http://about.pen.io/ Why not join and create a little piece of history expressing y...
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| I appear to be growing greenfly! |
| 2012-01-08 17:48:00 |
I decided to venture out into the garden today because surely I had imagined the attack of the aphids for they don’t creep and crawl about in England in Winter and in early January, do they? Apparently, they do either that or I have a completely new plant that is growing greenfly!! If this keeps up I will need to find a mountain of ladybirds and ants to reclaim the roses back. ...
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| Winter wings to Spring |
| 2012-01-07 14:05:00 |
January is filling nature with confusion this year. It has begun with a mild spell which has left the geraniums in full bloom – imagine geraniums in full bloom in mid-Winter in England! Some of the rose bushes still have flowers and buds which are writhing in greenfly. At the same time, there is still no evidence of some of the deep planted perennials but others have promising shoots bright and tender green. Song birds are singing all night long although the night is pitch as clouds hide away the stars and moon. The apple trees have produced buds of soft green fur whilst still tossing away the remainder of last years leaves. The fish in the pond have taken up Latin American dancing as they wind their bodies together in a slow salsa whereas normally they tread water silent and still towar...
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| Christmas 2011 |
| 2011-12-27 11:18:00 |
My favourite cartoon of this Christmas was sent to me in an email .. Google’s Christmas Surprise this year: type ‘LET IT SNOW’ in the Google search bar and enjoy! ...
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| Wicked weapons |
| 2011-12-21 16:05:00 |
A few weeks ago my cat was attacked. I didn’t see it. The first I knew that something was wrong is when her little face swelled up like a balloon. I held her close and carefully ran my fingers softly through her cheek, for it was a one-sided balloon. I could find nothing. At first I thought that she must have inadvertently caught her cheek with her back paw whilst having a little scratch. The swelling didn’t appear to hurt her. So I waited fully expecting her cheek to return back to normal. The swelling remained and so off we went to the Vet’s surgery. The poor little puss had developed an abscess through a fine scratch that had ripped through the cheek. The abscess was both inside the mouth as well as outside on the cheek. How wonderful are antibiotics? How marvellous are analgesic...
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| Eve of invention |
| 2011-11-28 08:14:00 |
It has recently been discovered that ‘Eve,’ Homo neanderthalensis (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) known simply to most as Neanderthals extensively integrated, lived with and bred with Homo sapiens. All Homo sapiens are from Africa but when some of them began to move out of Africa they moved into the same areas where Neanderthals lived which was very extensive and included most of Eurasia. DNA tests suggest that most people who are not living in Africa and of African decent have a percentage of Neanderthal in them making those of us who are not in Africa, hybrids. The Neanderthal gene helps to strengthen us against disease and may possibly have given us the love and key to science and technology. I for one shall celebrate my inner Neanderthal .. Female Neanderthal, picture co...
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| The tail end of an ice-age |
| 2011-11-23 00:51:00 |
We are currently towards the end of one of the colder parts of our history. Living in the last remaining years of an ice-age should be a welcome experience as the world temperatures begin to naturally climb back up to their more normal ambient levels. Unfortunately, in this instance the world has to cope with human activities on top of natural means. Vast swathes of the world are under the influences of industrial change producing large pockets of carbon dioxide and methane. At the same time forests are being torn up, plundered, raped and left barren. Trees are the lungs of the world and we have fewer now than in the history of man. Our planet has the equivalent of emphysema, it is hardly able to breath and replenish the atmosphere with fresh oxygenated air. It doesn’t need an educated...
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