Life, the Universe and Everything

This is a one off gardening "discovery".  Take a look at these two Fuchsia 'Genii" plants photographed today...     The one on the left has been planted in a sunny bed for several years.  The other one was in a pot in a fairly shady location for a similar period - until about a month ago when I moved the container into the sun. As one might expect, the "shady" plant has mainly green leaves rather than the yellow-green in the sun.  It didn't have many flowers either.  Now that the previously shaded plant is in the sun, this seems to have triggered lots of flowering. This suggests that the way to get a great floral display from a Fuchsia is to keep it fairly shady and then expose it to bright sunshine when you want a display? Of course, the display may be short-lived!

 I've been amused by a recent news item, "Eat turnips during vegetable shortage, suggests Therese Coffey"   as I've been eating very nice turnips for years. Sure, the standard turnip, often sold as part of a "stew pack" in supermarkets can be pretty ordinary. Growing a similar crop in your garden may get you a better standard of vegetable but going a bit further can get you something fantastic! Two sorts of Turnips Maincrop/Winter Turnips This is the standard turnip. Fairly large and capable of being stored, the flavour is fairly mild. Typical colours are yellow and green. You sow seeds July/August and harvest in October or later. They're decent eating. But instead, consider (drum roll) Early/Spring Turnips These varieties are far less commonly seen. Ideally you  pull them out of the garden at golf-ball size and  eat them raw or lightly boiled. They're typically cream/purple. You sow seed February - June and harvest May - September. They have much mo...

In 2019 and for over 30 years before, similar dances have been offered once a month on a Saturday night during except during summer. This was the second scheduled event this winter although the first in January was cancelled. In years gone by, entry was usually by cash on the door and numbers could go over 100 although occasionally they were much lower. This event was limited to 80  tickets bought online in advance. All 80 tickets were sold and I know at least two people who missed out.  Quite a few of the dancers were people who would have been there in 2019 but there were a lot of first timers - and that wouldn't have been so unusual prior to the pandemic. The organisers were keen to be "Covid-safe",  all stewards were masked-up and there was guidance on the website: Covid-19 Safety Guidance We know that we need to keep everyone who wants to come to our dances as safe as possible. Our safety guidance for everyone attending is this: If you have Covid symptoms please don’...

 In 2019 and for several decades before, similar dances have been offered once a month on a Friday night during except during summer. This was the second scheduled event this winter although the first in December was cancelled. We certainly had 16 people on the floor quite often and it might have occasionally got up to 20.  In normal times, numbers could go over 100 although occasionally it's much less.  Most of the dancers were people who would have been there in 2019 although I did spot at least one completely novice couple. The organisers were keen to be "Covid-safe" and advertised Compulsory Covid Pass checking Compulsory LFT before attending Compulsory Green/Yellow/Red ribbons for 2019-style/distancing/own partners only choices. These were enforced with the possible exception of the LTF (If the NHS checker App was set to only show "pass" if the vaccination and test were both in order, then it was enforced)  Nearly everyone chose a green ribbon. I've ...

 Chippenham Folk Festival is normally in late-May but this year they put on slightly over a day of events 22-23 October. No campsite was offered and most of the larger venues were not used. Tickets for events were initially only available online although at the last minute, they were made available from the box office. I attended two dance events Balfolk workshop and Bal This attracted about 30 people although I was told that 60 tickets were available. It was held on the Saturday afternoon in Chippenham Town Hall, a superb upstairs room with an excellent floor. A handful of dancers arrived wearing masks and one kept hers on when dancing. Otherwise, it was very much as "normal".  It's difficult to comment on numbers because a directly comparable event didn't happen in pre-pandemic times. My feeling is that in normal times, selling all 60 tickets would have been hard - although had there, by chance, been a lack of recent similar events.it could well have happened. Ceili...

 In normal years,  this festival offers 3-4 ceilidhs on the greenfield site as well as a "Day of Dance" featuring Contra, etc. at a venue in the town. This year, the "Day of Dance" was cancelled and there were just two ceilidhs. The organisers were a little coy about exactly what was on offer saying, "Not comfortable dancing in a crowd? Don’t worry! The evenings will start out as an upbeat standing concert and with callers on hand" and the programme  billed the ceilidhs as  "An evening with" followed by the name of the band. The Friday event did start with an hour of concert but the Saturday was a dance from the start. Concessions to Covid included: A large container of hand sanitiser near the entrance A last minute email from the festival "Please take a Lateral Flow Test within 24 hours before your expected arrival at the site.". This caused some confusion on the Facebook page as people tried to establish what proof they'd need. Th...

 In normal times, this is a series of monthly events attracting over 100 dancers. This was a "restart" event and the intention is that there will be another dance in October and presumably monthly thereafter. Differences from normal included: A different hall with around a quarter of the floor area of the usual spaces. I asked the organiser if this was deliberate but she said not. .The usual spaces were not available. There were nearly always 32 dancers on the floor and no more than 40. This was low compared to the usual 100+ but fitted the hall well. The large number of students normally seen were absent but this is probably because it's still the vacation. It was my impression that the proportion of the very oldest dancers was less and the that the middle-aged were more prominent. I saw 3 masks being worn by 20-somethings Everyone danced normally but perhaps with a little more enthusiasm and joy than normal.