Reasons to be cheerful

[LMcD]

We're another day nearer to Spring (with apologies to anybody reading this in the Southern hemisphere).

[vinteuil]

We're another day nearer to Spring (with apologies to anybody reading this in the Southern hemisphere).

... yep, tomorrow (in London) - three more minutes daylight than today



.

[Serial_Apologist]

... but I hope you weren't forking out £80 for 100ml for this...

Not QUITE that much, to understate the actuality.

[Serial_Apologist]

I took two pairs of scissors down to our local knife sharpener, who told me that the charge would be £10 in all, which I thought fair do's. On returning, he sliced through a tough piece of cardboard to demonstrate the effectiveness of his work. I then asked what he intended doing with the off cuts - recycle them? He laughed, and said, "For you, sir, I will charge you £7"; and for the first time in my life I realised that my unerring sense of humour had served me a useful purpose.

Amid our troubling times, I would like to draw attention to a new organisation, mentioned on yesterday's lunchtime local news, which is evidently doing some invaluable work among local young folks:

http://www.elevatedmindscoaching.com/

[teamsaint]

I think the first world war could have been prevented by skilful diplomacy. And I agree with Bertrand Russell that if Britain had stayed neutral Germany would have won a quick victory as in 1870. I don't think they would have conquered either France or Russia, but left it at that, and Britain would still be in a strong position . When the autumn stalemate set in Germany proposed peace which was rejected by the British government, and this happeend again after the debacle of 1 July 1916.

Of course there was much that was wrong with pre-1914 Britain. But a good start had been made, by a government advocating sick pay, old age pensions and public ownership of the utilities, which, a s Tony Benn pointed out , put them 'well to the left of New Labour'. Many thinking people , Leonard Woolf for instance, who were adults at the time strongly believed that we were entering an enlightened age. But it was chiefly the post-1918 economic continuum that I was referring to as the 'disastrous' consequence of 1914, plus of couyrse,the loss of life,the deaths of so many able intelligent young men who would have been in senior positions by the 1930s, and the shortage of fathers which led to so much juvenile trouble. . .

Just as a different POV, and not to take issue with your comments, I would always recommend a visit here.

https://cadw.gov.wales/visit/places-to-visit/blaenafon-ironworks

A modern, cutting edge facility in its time, one of whose key markets was arms for the Napoleonic wars.
Ascribing benign motives, as a default position, to politicians and other leaders, is not for me theses days. I wish it were otherwise.

[gradus]

Last year's Amarylis bulbs I potted late are beginning to grow and may yet flower and the Dendrobium rescued from the neglected and unloved section of the garden centre seems to be rallying too.

[smittims]

I re-plant my indoor hyacinths outside the following winter, having discovered that they come up on their own, when I dumped them on the compost heap one year and was pleasantly surprised the following spring.

Someone else is interested also. I found one of them had been dug out , half-eaten and left for dead on the terrace. Squirrel is the main suspect.

[vinteuil]

My father died in 1983 : his Diaries [1969-1983] have been lurking in my brother's loft until recently; they are now with me. I am slowly going through them and getting all sorts of unexpected insights. One nice thing is that he (occasionally) refers in positive terms to various of his students, and in some cases I have been able to share these entries with them fifty years later (sadly some of them have of course died) - it's been really lovely getting their reactions after all these years.

[antongould]

My father died in 1983 : his Diaries [1969-1983] have been lurking in my brother's loft until recently; they are now with me. I am slowly going through them and getting all sorts of unexpected insights. One nice thing is that he (occasionally) refers in positive terms to various of his students, and in some cases I have been able to share these entries with them fifty years later (sadly some of them have of course died) - it's been really lovely getting their reactions after all these years.

May I say a kind deed in a cruel world vints …….

[smittims]

Thanks forthe prompt, vinteuil. I've kept a journal for nearly fifty years, largely to fix dates to various things, incidents, illnesses, and partly to refer to 'what I did when this happend before' (as we used to say 'mark it down for future refernce')

I'm now wondering if I ought to destroy them to avoid my nearest and dearest reading them after I've gone. They might be embarrassed/hurt , resentful etc.at some of the things I've thought and done over the years. Hrmmm... difficult decision. Has anyone else dealt with this?

[oddoneout]

Thanks forthe prompt, vinteuil. I've kept a journal for nearly fifty years, largely to fix dates to various things, incidents, illnesses, and partly to refer to 'what I did when this happend before' (as we used to say 'mark it down for future refernce')

I'm now wondering if I ought to destroy them to avoid my nearest and dearest reading them after I've gone. They might be embarrassed/hurt , resentful etc.at some of the things I've thought and done over the years. Hrmmm... difficult decision. Has anyone else dealt with this?

Damned if you do, damned if you don't... Some of the contents may be of the "oh so that's why" and explain an event, but others might fall into "how could he think/do that?", but without the opportunity to discuss, and perhaps gain further understanding.
My mother was a great letter writer but, apart from the odd postcard, she cleared out all her correspondence when she did the final 'getting things in order', and from then on seemed to throw them away shortly after reading. She didn't keep a diary and didn't keep mementos so there was virtually nothing in the way of personal items, other than photo albums. It did leave some unanswered questions after her death when we three siblings got talking after the funeral about what we remembered of our family life, and discovered we had been told different things about certain events, but there was no written material that could clarify the facts so we were left with the 'adjusted' versions.
A lot will depend on your knowledge of your family and how they respond to events and each other - whether resentments fester and cause rifts, or there is general acceptance that what's done is done, and also whether anyone is interested, or already engaged, in family research, when your record of dates and events could be useful.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Thanks forthe prompt, vinteuil. I've kept a journal for nearly fifty years, largely to fix dates to various things, incidents, illnesses, and partly to refer to 'what I did when this happend before' (as we used to say 'mark it down for future refernce')

I'm now wondering if I ought to destroy them to avoid my nearest and dearest reading them after I've gone. They might be embarrassed/hurt , resentful etc.at some of the things I've thought and done over the years. Hrmmm... difficult decision. Has anyone else dealt with this?

I would publish them Smits. Suspect it might be a best seller.

[smittims]

Thanks!

[LMcD]

I would publish them Smits. Suspect it might be a best seller.

... but would our local library stock it?

(On a more serious note, talks between Suffolk County Council and the operator of its libraries about a new contract have broken down, and concerns are being raised about the future of the service).

[Cockney Sparrow]

(On a more serious note, talks between Suffolk County Council and the operator of its libraries about a new contract have broken down, and concerns are being raised about the future of the service).

In order to survive - importantly ticking the box of community engagement (which I don't decry) libraries local to me have gone into overdrive in that respect. They also charge a local music group (as long as its a reg. charity) £3/week for an A4 poster for an upcoming concert (or anything else) - which leaves me conflicted. (We don't put them up there any more, although that might change; incidentally for a National charity its £6.60). And the poster would be put in a very marginal position in one of the 5 to 8 noticeboards full of county council/library/public health posters.

In this benighted country, just because libraries aren't a statutory service, where the after effects of austerity and financial mismanagement (on a grand scale) are being faced, it comes to something when a service of providing books on loan in return for council and other taxes are facing abolition.

The outpouring of dismay after the damage to the Library in Merseyside shows this isn't just a view of the middle (and older) aged in their supposed or actual comfortable retirement. The politicians at National Level need a good metaphorical kicking for leaving local government on the rocks of the malicious funding policy of the previous government of 14 years.