25 years and 3 weeks on

We were talking about politics (as much as we do) at work this morning weirdly spurred on by my winning the Eurovision and deciding to give the winnings to the YPTE (http://www.ypte.org.uk/) who I'd sponsored before on my 100 mile walk. On their blog they had picked up on the news story about the government subsidising nuclear while at the same time reporting that investments in renewables had decreased by 70% in the UK during 2010. Everyone's got ther differing opinions on nuclear but mine is that its a kneejerk short term solution which no matter how 'safe' it now is will leave a legacy of toxic waste that we'll eventually have to deal with. I can imagine the outrage of generations to come when they hear that all of the leakage and associated environmental damage was caused because we were too scared to invest in renewables when we needed it most.

This reminded us that it was the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disatser on 26th April which completely passed me by, probably because the news were hushing it up in case it reminds everyone that 'hey maybe nuclear isn't that safe'. From a personal point of view, despite the horrificness of the disaster and the terrible after effects I've got a fascination for Chernobyl. It is one of the only places on Earth where a place once collonised by humans has been deserted and left to be re-taken by nature. Post apocalyptic movies always interest me, and I love watching CGI scenarios where familiar places become unfamiliar and over run with trees and wild animals. There are loads of examples especially in film but I am Legend, Logan's Run and Planet of the Apes spring to mind.

For that reason I'd love to go to Chernobyl and see the wildlife sanctuary its become. It puts into stark contrast the message of environmental conciousness, because nature will always prevail, it is humanbeings who will become the endangered species. Saving the planet is as much about saving ourselves as anything else. That's not to say we shouldn't try our hardest to reduce our reliance on resources and it's why I support environmental charities that try and conserve endangered species and the poorest people of the world, since is and will be them that feel the effects most.

Anyway that's all from me, check out this collection of abandoned places around the world http://www.geekpolice.net/t16458-top-10-most-interesting-abandoned-places and here's some pics to finish of Chernobly and Pripyat 25 years on:

Bloomin marvellous!

Its been an awesome three days of gardening!

Friday: first volunteering sesh at Tyntesfield with some lovely ladies, was pulling and storing tulips and dafs from the main terrace, weeded a huge rockery, harvested broad beans and rhubarb for the restaurant and pricking out some of the 2400 marigolds for the summer display on the main terrace, had a good chat with Marianne the assistant head gardener about how to do this for a living! Will hopefully be doing loads more!

And at the cottage everything's going mad, except the tom's which I've managed to kill off :(





Saturday: after wedding stuff in the morning - very exciting! I headed to the plot armed with the strimmer, grass and weeds everywhere at least up to my knees all over and even after strimming it was deep enough to be ankle twisty :) but loads better than it was!










Sunday: moved the beans around at the cottage and made some more bamboo and jute twine supports, am really pleased with them, they look pretty cool and will hopefully do the job of supporting the beans! We'll see :) have still got some space to fill in the veggie section of the bed, so put some rocket in next to the spring onions and other salad leaves. Only one more space to fill!




































Managed to drag Daf to the plot as well and finished the strimming and dug four beds, one was the only one we managed to cover in poly before winter and when we lifted it, we discovered the most amazing ants nest, unfortunately Daf's tidal wave of dirt finished them off, hopefully they'll find somewhere else that's not a bee to relocate to.
By the end of the year the plan is to merge as much as possible into longer strips instead of small beds then next year hopefully we can be s bit more self sufficient. I'll plant sweetcorn, cauli's, broccoli, swedes and beetroot hopefully this year and we'll go back to some interesting spuds next year. Would be great to try some heritage varieties.






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