Each week I’ll try and post quick links to things that I’ve seen, read, inspired me or just sparked my interest in the previous week, with a little background and my thoughts and other things that I’ve been up to in the previous week. Mostly gardening, cooking and environmental stuff but not always.

Life In General.  – It’s been a bit of a crazy week with family stuff, I’ve been taking my Mum to a few routine medical appointments which all happened within a day or two of one another, and in between I’ve had a few work meetings and other things to do. We have also now moved onto BST from GMT, with the clocks going forward on Sunday. An hours less sleep is always harder than when they go the other way, and although I like the longer evenings it means it’s a bit darker in the mornings again for a bit when I’m walking the dogs.

There was terrible news from London, which I’m not going to regurgitate here as that has been done to nth degree everywhere in the main stream media.

On Friday Ruby started to limp. This was after her afternoon dog walk, so it’s possible she’s sprained / torn a muscle or bruised her foot. We don’t tend to panic with these things, there was no blood and no obvious sign of something sticking out of her paw e.g. a thorn, so we monitored it. She wasn’t very happy all through Friday evening, but on Saturday morning she was up and about and the limp seemed to have vanished. If there’s a recurrence then she might be on her way to the vet Monday but it doesn’t seem likely at the moment.

Work. – A meeting that I was supposed to be having on Wednesday was cancelled at the last minute, but this meant that there was more time for another meeting, which was very productive. I found out that the last of the proposals that I’d been working on a few weeks ago was unsuccessful which was disappointing, but the client did give some good feedback which was helpful. At the end of the week I also had a query regarding some potential short term work, which I’ve responded positively to, but at the moment the brief is a little vague so I don’t know whether this is something that I’ll be involved in or not (or that the potential client will think I’m the right person for the job).

Allotment. – I’m looking much more now at what seeds I can start sowing, now that the weather is warming up (although we have had a couple of really cold days with windchill, so we might not be quite there yet). I managed to get my early potatoes in on Sunday, and also sowed some more broad beans. Some of these are to fill up gaps where the seed planted at the end of last year failed to germinate, and another patch where some of the over-wintering brassicas were which won’t be used for the time being. It was a gloriously sunny spring morning and life felt good to be on the plot.

Currently Reading

I finished Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman [GoodReads], I was surprised by how much norse mythology was already familiar to me. Other than comics and films I’m not sure where I would have picked this up from.

I’m now reading The Cthulhu Casebooks – Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows by James Lovegrove [GoodReads] – there are so many “modern” Sherlock Holmes stories out there, but this one is reading okay so far, although I think there are a few factual errors in terms of some of the details that got missed by the fact checkers or editors.

The Wind Through The Keyhole by Stephen King [GoodReads] I’m reading for an online group.

This story [LINK] about a dog and a drone made me smile a bit and that the owner of the drone got a suitable dose of karma. This isn’t a particular problem around here at the moment, although the number of drones that I see has gone up recently and we get the occasional one being flown around the playing fields near us. I have to say though that most pilots seem to go out of their way to avoid being too near people or dogs being walked.

The Week In Wildlife – In Pictures

I’ve reviewed the academic papers on both sides of the argument about whether or not certain pesticides have an impact on bee populations and my view is that the evidence strongly supports that they have a significant adverse effect [disclosure: I am a biologist / ecologist by training]. So I am pleased to see this news [LINK] that the EU might be about to go for a total ban. I’m not holding my breath, because it may not happen, or our own UK government might decide it doesn’t need to do anything because of Brexit (we are still members of the EU and haven’t left yet, even if the PM signs the letter triggering article 50).

Finally a quick favour if you’ve read this far. Quick Links goes out every Monday (it used to be a Tuesday but I changed it because Monday seemed better). It is though a review of the week just gone, so sending it out at the start of the next week seems a bit odd. What do you think? Do you have a preferred day? Can you click a single answer in the poll below and let me know. Thank you.