Write-Place

  I came across this poem in a discussion online and was not as familiar with this as other "War Poetry", so looked into it's background. The discussion was a debate on the topical and political climate as it appears to the "public" in the UK today and the current Prime Minister's statement this week that "We are on a war footing". And today, on  81st anniversary of the Normandy landings,  D-Day.  The Beginnings It was not part of their blood,     It came to them very late   With long  arrears  to make good,     When the  English  began to hate.   They were not  easily  moved,      They were icy-willing to wait   Till  every  count  should  be proved,     Ere the  English  began to hate.   Their  voices  were even and low,     Their eyes were  level  and straight.   There was  neither  sign nor show,...

Well, here we are seven days into July and some parts of the country are starting with hose pipe bans. Now I know we must not waste water, after all it's one of the most precious natural things we have available to us - after air, and maybe the sun (and no doubt a few more things) Anyway, it's precious, we know that. And my tomato plants not only have black fly - which is probably caused by being too dry - but they are all shrivelled too and so are the beans and the potatoes are not looking too clever. But I won't worry - I shall use the dirty washing up water on them, which I understand will kill the blackfly and water them at the same time. It's the washing up liquid the blackfly hate, not the grease and bits of food. But come on. We are an island. You can't travel much further than 50 or 60 miles and you reach water. Salted yes, but didn't someone invent something to get rid of the salt for drinking? I am no expert (on anything at all) but even I know yo...

I thought I ought to write a post here, on the day that temperatures are likely to exceed the highest we've ever known - after all, it might be a day, week or month which is remembered in history for this very thing.  Or, sometime in the future, it may even be noted as the time when we had relatively low temperatures compared with what they are then experiencing - in say, 2072 and beyond, whether due to climate change or not.   While the Met Office seem to often  say  "since records began in 1914" to describe any kind of record topping  weather (such as 2007's 'wettest summer'  and 1976's 'heatwave'),  there are of course records that go back much further. Rainfall and snow is measured by the 'England and Wales Precipitation Series', which  goes back to 1766, and the 'Central England Temperature Series' which covers the temperature from the south Midlands to Lancashire, and dates from 1659. Many records have been kept on a personal ...