Saturday 30 March 2013

Z calls for BST all year round - not that anyone listens

I was watching the tribute to Richard Briers (I missed the first half and will try to catch it on iPlayer) and Peter Egan said that, when he put down the phone after a conversation with him, his wife always said, you were talking to Dickie, weren't you?  And he said he was, how did she know?  "You never stopped laughing."

Okay, it doesn't take much to make me cry, dammit.

Nothing interesting today, dear hearts, but I'll do my best for you.  Flower arranging - fine.  What's to say?  I bought white and cream lilies, roses and carnations, cut various greens and did two arrangements, one in the pedestal and one to go behind the altar.  There are few leaves of interest in the garden, nothing springlike is out and some of the evergreens are looking tired and off-colour.  The arrangements are quite okay, they'll be better once the lilies are a bit more out, which they will be by tomorrow, I hope.  I also practised the organ and that's okay too.  I played very fast, partly so that when I slow down a bit tomorrow it'll be really easy, partly because I was cold.  Oh, and partly because some hymns sound quite dirge-like unless you jazz 'em up a bit.

Later, I filled the big wheelbarrow with rubbish and have said to the Sage that we need a skip.  There's so much rubbish that isn't burnable and it'll be a bugger to keep taking carloads to the tip (and my job, he doesn't care).  I can't live like it any longer, I'm miserable in a sea of junk that is never sorted out.  I insisted on sorting out the house a year ago and that has made so much difference - we still have a lot of stuff but it's manageable, if not easy.  The garden - well, it's no garden, too random for that - is a different matter, we'll never keep on top of it, but there's no need to make it worse.

I'm abandoning the kitchen garden altogether this year.  It's no good, too much else to do.  I'll grow a few vegetables in the cottage garden, maybe put a few things in the greenhouse, but the chickens will have the run of the veg garden.  They'll be happy, safe and keep the growth down.  I'm sorry about it, but it'll be a relief.  I'm overwhelmed with domestic things, so much that it's no longer any sort of a pleasure, only a source of anxiety.

I cut back the fig tree - didn't look to see what time of the year it should be done, I just did it.  It was overgrown.  And I pruned the grape vine, very late but it's so cold that the sap isn't rising yet - anyway, I don't care.

Weeza says on Facebook that where her parents-in-law live, within spitting distance of Birmingham, there's still an appreciable amount of snow.  Zerlina is charmed to find that some people have built igloos in their gardens and wants to move there for that reason.  I think it's a pretty good reason myself, though I'd rather have the igloos than the snow.  There's been some here today, odd weather - sunshine and snow alternately.  I can't remember having snowdrops in flower so late in the year before.

The clocks go forward tonight - roll on British Summer Time.  If any party made a binding promise to keep BST all year round, I'd vote for it - well, with usual disclaimers, of course, actually I might not.  But why on earth do we have to change the bloody clocks?  We have electricity!  And no one works in the fields by candlelight, even the tractors have floodlights.

19 comments:

Rog said...

UKIP-LONGER? My vote is ready!

Ms Scarlet said...

Yes, sometimes the floodlit tractors work through half the night. When I was a child I found the clock changes exciting.. but now it just befuddles my sleep pattern.
Sx

Z said...

I always leave a get-out, Rog, I'm the real sage of the family. Anyway, how likely is UKIP to abandon GMT?

Me too, Scarlet, it wrecks my whole winter when the clocks go back, I never get back in rhythm until the spring.

Tim said...

Ive said enough about the clock-shift in the past, so will forbear this year... Oh alright - IT'S A BOLLICKS!!!
As for UKIP, before voting just ask yourself, of any party leader - are you happy for this person to have their finger on the nuclear button?

Z said...

I'm not particularly happy for any person who wants control of the nuclear button to have it, Tim. And I'm not voting UKIP.

Z said...

(although kipping a bit longer is always good with me)

allotmentqueen said...

Can we have some warm weather to go with BST?

Although, yes, I'd vote for all round BST anyday. Who cares about the Scots who might be in darkness? Can't they stay in GMT? After all we can manage to trade with the Yanks who are hours behind us. Is the trade with Scotland so vast and important?

Compostwoman said...

I must say I agree with all your points - BST all year round for us, Scotland to keep GMT if they wish, no UKIP but loads of kipping

all sounds wonderful to me.

Can I add - lots of free red wine?

LẌ said...

I crossed the Pacific Ocean several times on a Navy ship. They would always pull a nasty trick on the crew when we crossed a time zone. If it was in the direction that added an hour, it would be added to the work day. If it was in the direction that subtracted an hour, it would be taken at night from our sleep time.

PixieMum said...

So agree about British Summer Time all the year round although I suspect we spend winter in our own Summer Time as we tend to get up late and go to bed late.

At least we change the same time as Europe now, when I worked for an airline it was different so great problems checking flight times in the ABC World Airways Guide in those pre-computer days.

Liz said...

I seem to be in a minority of one in regards to the clocks changing. I would be happy to stay on GMT all the time. Clocks going forward messes up my routine and sometimes it takes weeks for me to get used to it.

Unknown said...

My computer, phone, etc,went forward automatically, but my weather station (run off the atomic clock fron Frankfurt, didn't change.

Anonymous said...

Please stop blaming the Scots for the clock change. I don't want the clocks to change either and I live here!

Z said...

Oh Anon, I love Scotland and the Scots, I've no quarrel with you and every sympathy. It's the changing of the clocks that I hate, however it goes. I'd rather have BST all year round, but second best would be GMT all the time.

Tim said...

I'm with Liz. GMT is the proper time, BST is a flawed political fudge.

Z said...

But I hate those dreary long winter evenings, when everything outside stops at 4 o'clock.

Tim said...

I don't mind long winter evenings, I've kind of got used to them over seventy-odd years. Toasted crumpets aren't the same in daylight.

Ms Scarlet said...

It's not quite right having long winter evenings in BST, but that's exactly what's happening. I'm very grumpy about it.
Sx

luckyzmom said...

Down with daylight savings.