Rain, rain and wind, more rain, some sun

Weather forecast at 8am this morning

So we have a so called summer weekend, the Harbourside Festival in Bristol which is a three-day event and lots going on locally including three types of event in Frome. We awoke this morning to a largely clear sky but above is the forecast for 1:00 p.m. This does not auger well for any sort of planning. There is a secret garden event in Frome but looking at the weather it will be better if we go tomorrow Sunday.

I watched the morning news and was reminded that the BBC sex up the weather by marking the European weather in red when in fact it is this type of temperature every year even 45 degrees. That is how the custom of siestas came to be. Amazing what a £62m donation to the BBC  from Bill Gates can achieve.

We were also told that the Just Stop Oil people had interfered with the First Night of the Proms and indeed intend to make this a memorable week this coming week for London. I honestly believe these people are being paid because every time they appear there are roundly condemned and people are starting to take matters into their own hands. May this continue and grow. It’s not as if there was a shred of scientific evidence for what they are claiming. We rely on fossil fuels for 85% of our energy so do we just stop that? Do they want us to go back to the Middle Ages?

I spoke to the coordinator of the meeting last night about the barbecue for Christian people, and I said that it was a jolly enough crowd but looking at the medium term how do we draw more people in? Maybe like a cell it has reached its natural size and would benefit from division into new groups perhaps. It’s a tricky one this if we are to avoid being  cliquey and exclusive though we may not intend it to be that way.

Over the decades I have observed groups and I noticed that there are very few groups that contain more than 25 members. They then split or tend to split into two which follows nature because that is what cell division is all about. We are part of nature after all and superimpose our own imaginings and desires at our peril. We even speak of ‘natural’ behaviour in other words behavior in accord with nature

Visit to Farrington Gurney – ‘Pollination Party’

Talk about sunny periods and showers! Bright sunshine one moment, pouring rain the next. It was supposed to be raining at one o’clock but as I write at 2:15 pm we have bright sunshine, a breeze, warm and muggy.

It was obvious that this event was sponsored. Admission is free, is a free, talks and seed bombs are free, plant free, drinks and snacks are free. In a word – free. First I was very struck by the enthusiasm of the large number of children who were in this small village hall (credit to the parents for bringing them along). Secondly I was struck by the huge number of plants and there must have been about a thousand, waiting to be given away which they were to be at three o’clock though we did not stay to see it.

The plant varieties forgiving away included flowering currents, Mexican Orange Blossom, common lilac, autumn sage, creeping blue blossom, Skimmias and finally heavenly bamboo

The first talk was by Ellie Jarvis, a PhD student at the University of Bath in her second year. She spoke enthusiastically about the importance of pollination and creatures who pollinate. You can look this up easily yourself but we have pollinators to thank for every third mouthful of food we eat. Not only do they pollinate our food crops, but they’re also vital for the survival of other plants that supports so much of our wildlife.

Anything can be used to plant seedlings including this boot. To the left is the lecturer preparing some ‘seed bombs’.

Three bumblebee species have become extinct in recent decades. The recent European Red List for Bees reports that almost one in ten species of wild bee face extinction, and over the past 50 years, half the bee, butterfly and moth species studied in the 2013 State of Nature Report have declined.

Ellie spoke with great enthusiasm and authority. She ended her 30-minute presentation by making seed bombs which are made out of water, earth and seeds which you make into a ball and throw around wherever you like in the countryside. I went up to her and congratulated her on her presentation and said that she should do more speaking. She had previously said that she had never given a talk to such a large number of people. She has nothing to worry about.

Every one could make a Bug Hotel supplied with free already cut to size wood, screws, cut bamboos sticks and pine cones – the activity was very popular with children and adults alike including myself. Everyone left with an example in their hands

This was followed by an equally enthusiastic talk by Cathy Edge from Somerset bees entitled ‘everything you never knew about bees’. I had no idea that a worker bee can be converted into way Queen Bee by changing their diet. What an amazingly ordered world they live in. She did go slightly over time, something that someone like myself would get annoyed at, but she was well received.  I treated myself with a pot of local honey (£6) to go into our family larder.

We left at this point did many others. The atmosphere was very jolly. Children were running around and making some noise during the presentations but it did not matter because the microphone volume took account of all the background noise.

On the way out we saw a glass case consisting of a knitted house, church plus knitted animals.

As for the weather, what can I say? Far from being continuous rain which is what we had been promised it really was a mixture of sunshine and being warm and muggy, and then torrential rain. However, the rain lasted for a few moments so no harm was done.

Although we could have continued our journeys we decided to spend the afternoon at home. Tomorrow Sunday we will visit some of the 23 Gardens which comprised the ‘Secret Garden’ visitations of Frome which is being held this weekend from Friday to Sunday.

To Tesco’s in our search for unhomogenised milk. I looked at the screamers on the National Papers.  Evidently we are all going to be burnt to death by temperatures which will reach 45 degrees as in Europe.  Whilst in the car park we saw a car with scriptural texts on the side. Well done them.

Altogether a very good day