insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman
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Who will help you when the house is on fire?
There’s a lot of misinformation spreading on social media about the Australian bushfires. One is that the Green party is to blame for preventing backburning and hazard reduction. This is false. You can read their policy on backburning here. The Australian Greens support hazard reduction burns and backburning to reduce the impact of bushfires when guided by the…
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Climate change is like getting into debt
Climate change is like borrowing money and getting into debt. Consider this: you borrow a large sum of money and the interest rate goes up every year. You do not make any repayments on the loan and instead borrow more each year. Pretty soon the amount owing is huge and growing because a) the interest…
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Lunch at the Queen’s house
Last time we visited Loch Muick it was so windy we had to shout at one another to talk. We haven’t been back until today. We checked the weather forecast first to be sure we wouldn’t face another gale but I’m beginning to suspect Loch Muick and wind are two words that always go together…
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2019 Australia’s hottest and driest year
These graphs from the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology show how hot and dry Australia has become. Ironically, they were reported by an American newspaper – The New York Times. The only Australian news source to report the record-breaking heat and drought was The ABC. I cannot find another Australian report of it. Please…
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A tragic end to 2019 for Australia
I feel wretched for the millions of human and non-human animals who are suffering through the bushfire crisis in Australia right now. My social media feeds have been filled for weeks with apocalyptic images of smoke and fire, devastated landscapes, suffering wildlife, destroyed homes, and the charcoaled bodies of Australian animals. I have never seen…
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Goodbye tens, hello twenties
It’s the end of a decade today, depending on how you count. Ben tells me the twenties don’t officially begin until 2021 but he’s a mathematician and mathematicians start counting from one. Whereas my background is computer science and in computer science, we begin counting from zero, so I’m going with the twenties beginning tomorrow.…
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Hand-knitted jumpers
I’ve spent the past few days crocheting while binge-watching Downton Abbey. It has been a wonderfully enjoyable way to spend the holidays. I finished this skirt for Elizabeth. Yesterday we went for a bike ride to the charity shop and I picked up two hand-knitted jumpers for £10 each. They are beautiful and someone put…
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Christmas 2019
I always like to write about what we did for Christmas each year because it creates a record of it for the future. Can you remember where you were for Christmas in 2016? Who were you with? What did you eat? It’s amazing how quickly we forget. For Christmas 2019 we were at our home…
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For the treatment of headaches
I got this terrific present from Ben for Christmas today. It contains 6 bars of my favourite chocolate with this prescription. It’s just as well I’m married to a doctor.
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The wishes of children
Last week we were invited to Elizabeth’s school to listen to them sing and to explore their classroom to see what they’ve been working on. At the back of the classroom was a wishing tree that the children had added their wishes to. They were all anonymous but we could read them and some were…
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Wonky parsnips and the winter solstice
I went to my allotment today having not been there for a few weeks. I picked some leeks and parsnips for Christmas dinner but my leeks are looking a bit wonky. Does anyone know why this happens? It’s the first time I’ve ever grown parsnips so I’m excited even if they look deformed. It was…
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Scottish vegan cookbook and lebkuchen
It’s lebkuchen time of year which means it’s time to share my recipe. It has become a tradition in our family to make numerous batches of lebkuchen every December. Lebkuchen is a German Christmas dish which translates to “ginger bread” but there’s no ginger in the recipe. I got the recipe from a German friend…
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When leadership fails
Australia is the hottest place on Earth right now. Bushfires are raging across the country destroying homes and habitats, smothering cities in smoke, and taking lives – two volunteer firefighters tragically died this week. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has been holidaying in Hawaii. Please remember this with @ScottMorrisonMP's name. Spread it far & wide whenever…
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Hottest day ever for Australia
Australia recorded its hottest day EVER on Wednesday with a national average temperature of 40.9C. Paradoxically, the front page of The Australian newspaper, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, ran a story on coal exports and another story attacking the people who are trying to tackle the problem of climate change. Instead, a British news…
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East Lomond hill walk
This morning we walked up East Lomond Hill in Fife. It was a pretty short walk from the Carpark but it started snowing just as we arrived and that combined with an Artic wind made it feel like we emerged from the car and into a blizzard. I think there are probably magnificent views up…
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Pillars of Hercules Bothy
We’ve had the most relaxing weekend at the Pillars of Hercules Bothy just outside Falkland. The bothy is on the Pillars of Hercules organic farm, the name for which was inspired by a local 19th-century landowner with an interest in classical history, Onesiphorus Tyndall Bruce. There is a statue of him in Falkland: The history…
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Falkland
Falkland is an historic village in Fife, Scotland, about an hour’s drive north from Edinburgh. A friend recommended it to us recently as a good place to visit and we were not disappointed. It’s just delightful. Falkland has found fame recently as a film location from the TV series, Outlander. Here’s my Outlander photo which,…
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Despair
I am profoundly disappointed with the election result this morning. The Conservatives under Boris Johnson lack integrity and honesty. Apparently, nearly 90% of their Facebook ads were found to be misleading. During one of the TV debates, the Conservatives rebranded their Twitter account to factcheckUK. There is already an independent fact-checking charity with the Twitter…
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Boris, Actually
Boris Johnson has released a campaign video that parodies the film Love, Actually. It’s quite clever and I give kudos to their marketing team for it. However, it has sparked a huge number of responses on Twitter, some of which are very funny. I DON’T KNOW WHO MADE THIS BUT IT MADE ME CRY LAUGHING…
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We passed the test
I’m very happy to say that Ben and I both passed the Life in the UK test today. It’s the test you have to take to get indefinite leave to remain or citizenship in the UK. It consists of 24 multiple choice or true/false questions about the UK including questions about kings and queens, sporting…
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