Badgardener

Time to fire up the account again - but I'm still not taking anything seriously, especially with <waves hands> everything everywhere, all the time.

Retired vet surgeon, now mainly landscaping and travelling in a van. Climbing, making shonky things, rediscovering writing as a way to get not even close to paying the bills.

I am here for you, provided your thing isn't being persecutory. If you've found yourself, or if you're still on the journey, I'm all ears and support.

He/Him:

Public Key

npub1207u4ss8y060flwucukywnhv7lmanhzvgr6lzkupy6zguml6aa4qn646jq

NIP-05 Address

badgardener_at_mountains.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs98lw2cgrj8a85lhwvwtz8fmk00a7em3xypa03twqjdpywdlaw76sprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntpunvm8

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub1207u4ss8y060flwucukywnhv7lmanhzvgr6lzkupy6zguml6aa4qn646jq

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Last Notes

2025-12-29 11:23:48 UTC

RE: https://ecoevo.social/@Kimberley/115802413719998061
#Gardening #BloomScrolling
Any US gardeners able to help Kimberley out?
#note1ws5…2546

2025-12-29 10:52:18 UTC

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Access to assisted dying should be a fundamental right, and whilst I absolutely agree that this government would sell everybody down the river for ten more seconds of power (and will have to, to survive), we should not be trying to prevent that right from being recognised in law because of very longstanding deficiencies in end of life care.
We need to see assisted dying as a done deal, and both sides of the political centre then turn the spotlight on properly funding both long-term and end of life palliative care, in particular ensuring that money saved when people choose to end their lives on their own terms is retained within the system, not used to further reduce new funding.
The cynic in me considers that governments of all stripes see dying and disabled people as economic non-contributors and non-voters, so are less inclined to accommodate their needs. That shortfall is being used to argue against a right to die with dignity, which further denies their choices in an already-rigged game.

2025-12-26 09:53:19 UTC

#FootpathFriday
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/115/785/240/131/138/301/original/1bc4a88627b43cfa.jpg

2025-12-21 13:38:00 UTC

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Interesting looking structure in the background, left of centre. What's that?

2025-12-18 07:46:02 UTC

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This is basically everyday Mastodon, in dream form.

2025-12-17 08:47:34 UTC

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Twitter et al: "Knitting? Dude, seriously!"
Fediverse: "Knitting, yay! Also, we should constructively discuss your methodology and maybe run the data through more significance testing and perhaps also more trials to get some meta-analyses. This is the happiest I have ever been in my life. Look at this scarf I've made."

2025-12-14 10:36:40 UTC

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I think the parallel is with Lib Dems, albeit in the other direction: they're seen as competent at a local level, but not trusted in national government.
Cognitive dissonance isn't an impediment for anybody who can look at Farage and think him suitable for election, so my prediction is that future voters will revert to electing traditional parties to local government, but Reform to national: this early foray into bottom-up control will be largely forgotten.
But a periodic reminder that Reform is elected not through overwhelming support, but because the 70% of the population repulsed by it can't find a way to work together.

2025-12-04 08:05:39 UTC

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Mastodon: “Farmers are all secretly-rich, right-wing, tax-dodging, Brexit-voting, nature-destroyers! Down with farmers!”
Also Mastodon: “Where have all the farmers growing our food gone? Somebody should do something!”

2025-11-23 09:54:17 UTC

Finally, the hunt for the perfectly spherical Robin is almost over.
#Birds
#FatBirdsOfMastodon
#JoinIn
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/115/598/392/042/120/970/original/4a419d90fab001fe.jpeg

2025-11-21 07:53:35 UTC

#FootpathFriday
A street in Cusco, Peru. Some of these streets are so steep, I can't see how you could get an actual vehicle up them. Foot traffic only.
#Peru
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/115/586/587/966/659/747/original/2f1e9b89caf5b63c.jpeg

2025-11-18 08:41:18 UTC

Good morning!
Off to work at the garden demolition site: order of the day, attack everything with leaves on.
#Chickens
#Gardening
#JoinIn
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/115/569/767/036/503/432/original/5b14c502e0de9dfa.jpg

2025-11-17 10:15:59 UTC

A rare thing: a day off (albeit because after getting back from a long trip, I'm finding it hard to get clients going on projects we talked about back in the summer), and a lack of rain. It's sunny!
My own garden is going to get some attention for the first time in literally months.
Just a heads-up, though. I'm sure most will have heard about Farmer Gracy, the plant retailer. At this time of year, they're an excellent place to buy bulbs: prices are low and dropping, and if like me you tend to plant very late because of warmer autumns (usually in the Christmas break here), it's a good way to stretch your money.
https://www.farmergracy.co.uk/
(PSA: Not in any way affiliated to the company)
#Gardening

2025-11-14 08:58:29 UTC

#FootpathFriday
The Whaligoe Steps, on the eastern Scottish coast. These were built to enable local herring women to haul huge baskets of fish up from the boats to the processing facility above. Lucky them.
There are over 300 steps - no two sources seem to arrive at the same number - and the steps are maintained by local villagers. They're not *quite* as steep as the Tourist Board would have you believe, but then I was only hauling my fat arse up them and not a massive load of fish.
#Scotland
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/115/547/192/557/271/106/original/3c4c6328d4d2e696.jpg

2025-11-03 09:36:36 UTC

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To be fair, the leaf-blowing forecast is probably also useful to chainsaw and hedge trimmer users.
(This may not be helpful to your predicament, I realise now)

2025-10-31 16:48:41 UTC

Yes, it's about politics - but it's a good news one, I swear.
Earlier in the year, Cornwall had its council elections and to nobody's great surprise, Reform got the most seats (this is a county which voted for Brexit, despite being an EU Objective One beneficiary to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds).
But they didn't get a majority, and nobody would work with them, so a coalition of Lib Dems and Indies are running the show. Ooh, Reform were mad about it - death of democracy, subverting the people's will, etc.
Anyway, five councillors have since quit the party to form their own club, so it's no longer the largest on the council anyway, after the leader got involved in a *hilarious* pub argument, in public, and everything went gammony over the political equivalent of what their Marjorie said about our Sandra at cousin Kevin's wedding, when she knew Aunty Ida had always promised Sandra that teapot. Obviously, the reasons given for the schism were different, but a secret audio recording was produced which seems to nail it down to Peak Reform.
Anyway, said ex-leader's wife, who was bizarrely representing a district 50 miles from where she lived and who apparently didn't bother to turn up to local council meetings, has now resigned altogether in what may be a huff.
Local social media is awash with people angrily exclaiming that none of these eejits should have stood for Reform, as they clearly weren't Reform material, and all the elections must be run again to get 'proper' Reform councillors in charge of everything.
Remember, it's the party of the people, working tirelessly on the things which matter.
Magical stuff.

2025-10-25 08:25:18 UTC

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The tactical voting in Caerphilly was on the Right, and thankfully minor; Plaid's increased share came from the collapse of Labour - and most of those who switched support won't be returning to Labour any time soon. Plaid was *always* the second party and the natural inheritor of Labour's demise.
Sterner tests will come in Wales.

2025-10-08 22:07:57 UTC

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Aww. Who's a good little fascism enabler? You are! Yes you are! Who's adorable?
Stop being a hyperbolic bellend and go stand on a street corner to protest your rights. The worst that will happen to you is it might rain. Write to your representative. Send money to help legal challenges. Actually do something useful, anonymously if you're frightened to show your face, in person if you're brave enough to stand alongside old ladies and people of colour - who've been dealing with this shit for centuries. Nobody's going to shoot you.
Above all, stop being a whiny, craven little snot. Assault rifles? What are you, five? And if you don't want to be ridiculed, don't put 'Wank' in your anonymous handle and then act like a wanker.

2025-10-08 21:53:01 UTC

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Oh, bless. If this is what you think tough looks like, no wonder you're toeing the line for fascism. Crawl back under your rock and hope everybody else here sorts it for you, sweetie.

2025-10-08 19:27:26 UTC

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Nominative determinism in action.

2025-10-07 07:31:43 UTC

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Our local Labour MP is a good illustration of why it's not just the current leadership, but rather an entire shared ethos of self-serving virtue signalling whilst not actually altering the course of Downing Street's plans.
He talks a good game on a number of issues, but never actually criticises Starmer or his policies directly; he votes along party lines, even when they harm his own constituents (who put him in place to serve their interests); he sounds edgy, but never actually rocks the boat in any way. There are hundreds of them, all saying 'Ooh, Palestine. Isn't it awful?' but being careful not to link the government or the UK to it on any way.
It's an insipid, spinelessly loyal, hand-selected cohort - in the same way that Bozo Johnson's 2019 footsoldiers were picked for far-right, eurosceptic, slavish allegiance rather than competence (remember the Tory party? Where are they now?). And it's that spinelessness which will do for them in four years, because they've just allowed their leadership to do all this - the die is already cast.
TL;DR - I voted our Labour MP in, and I'll be voting him back out again.

2025-10-06 17:34:16 UTC

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At the end of the day, Farage *is* Reform - it's literally his company. Benefactors, useful idiots and protected-characteristic tokens will come and go, but it's essentially a space occupied by Nigel, with plenty of directions to it in the mainstream press. It'll stand until Are Nige falls (which, too, shall come to pass).
If Reform had at least 50% of the polls, Kier's current behaviour would be one of two possible solutions (the wrong one, but at least logical). But they have 30% - the easy 15% and the moderately difficult 15%. The next 5-15% are MUCH harder to get hold of, because most people (in our household, at least) think he's an ashtray-scented, racist grifter.
But 70% of people would actively vote against him, and just need something worth voting for. A fair few of those 30% would probably hop back across, too. Is there enough time either for a change in leadership, or the rise of the Greens?

2025-10-06 14:21:04 UTC

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What *does* the parliamentary Labour party believe in, though? Is there a single principle which would be the hill they'd die on, rather than give it up? I literally can't think of one.
There's flexibility, and then there's an abject desperation to remain in power no matter what the cost. If you couple that with lemming-like instincts, your enemy doesn't have to do a damn thing except let you destroy yourself. Farage et al are probably having a weekly sweepstake on what Starmer will do next.

2025-10-06 14:11:46 UTC

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I'm not sure I'm articulating it well, but Labour just seem to be putting huge amounts of effort - and destroying political goodwill - into chasing a small number of voters who have actually found their spiritual, racist home in the far-right.
When they could just go back to some basic socialist principles - infrastructure, general decency, fairer distribution of wealth - and have voters piling in.
Our government is adopting strategies required for proportional representation (and doing it badly and in the wrong directions), when we're still a First Past The Post system. Let the 30% go, Kier - focus on the 70%. Some of those 30% will probably come back anyway.

2025-10-06 08:39:15 UTC

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It's a symptom of the current state of politics that a party for which 70% of the electorate would NOT vote is the runaway leader in popularity polls.
But rather than looking to unite that 70% with - I dunno - moderate, socially responsible, non-genocide enabling policies - the current government is instead trying to win back a few of the 30% by mimicking Farage, and in the process alienating ALL of the former group. They're literally turning their backs on 70% of voters to try to get hold of 5%, who aren't ever going to be their friends.
It's not that Farage is cruising to victory, it's that most of us can't see a coherent strategy emerging to sideline him. Fortunately, even with Starmer in charge doing nothing, Trump-association will do for Farage in the next couple of years - but as with Brexit, he'll have left his skidmark on the fabric of society.

2025-10-05 09:32:59 UTC

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I think there are two pathways, one of them slipstreamed and logical ("I recognise that concept C comes from B, which in turn comes from A. Here are the sources for each step") and one of them requiring a detour around an obvious marker post without reference to it.
In other words, did it take additional effort for them to construct their citations in a way which excluded you?

2025-10-05 09:22:43 UTC

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Not quite the same, but I once turned out for the college rugby team (the captain of which couldn't stand me) and scored both tries in a very rare win for us.
The match report mentioned several players, including the guy who scored the conversions and other people who'd been deemed useful to the outcome, but literally no mention of me.
I turned it into a running gag, and it embarrassed him greatly (which didn't endear me to him in any way).
Also, now I remember, I was a junior author once on a biggish paper (for which I'd done most of the groundwork), where the lead author bizarrely changed my name halfway through the editing process: he claimed not to have known my correct initials, despite us literally working side by side in the department, and was 'unable' to make a correction. Again, I turned it into a bit of a joke, with a specific note on my CV.
Is there a beef, academic or otherwise, with this author? Is it political? Or is there perhaps a degree of scholastic jealousy?

2025-10-04 09:23:27 UTC

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I think it's the same vibe as me telling my kids not to do X, because Y will happen - and then them doing it anyway and really not liking Y, and *me being right*, which is actually harder to bear.

2025-09-25 07:37:04 UTC

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Given that we have a pretty binary choice - the protection of the EU Vs the protection of the USA - Starmer the Remainer is still so frightened of the forces behind, and supporters of, Brexit that he's choosing the option with the unhinged orange lunatic and all the fascism rather than the imperfect but democratically stable cooperative of nations.
Also given that 48% of us voted to remain (and that rather more would vote to rejoin), and that he won the last election on 33% support - a figure he's unlikely to get halfway to - this doesn't even make sense from a position of self-preservation.
Every time he sucks up to the Trump Regime, remember that he's doing it out of choice, despite better options on the table. By *choice*. Chamberlain had fewer options when he became the face of appeasement.
Our Kier has already staked out his legacy. Neville who?

2025-09-16 08:50:39 UTC

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Objective, evidence-based conclusions are, almost by definition, slow to reach.
To be fair, their rapporteurs and teams on the ground have been using the label genocide for quite some time, and the UN as an organisation hasn't been resistant to this. Thousands of people have spent thousands of hours verifying and nailing down every single atrocity to get to this point - otherwise, the one incident which they failed to properly evidence would be seized upon by the Israelis to discredit the entire process.
For us as humans, it looks obvious because it *is* obvious. But to lay the foundations for what has to come next, and to destroy the hiding places for enablers like Starmer, everything has to be rock-solid. Nobody can now claim that the conditions for genocide are not being met, and still remain on the right side of history.

2025-09-15 09:11:03 UTC

@npub13ak…y8hj put up a post yesterday about green roofs and, of course, I had to go big myself up about how easy they were to make. So I thought I’d better put up some proof…
This one’s in my own garden. It’s a small lean-to type, built on the side of a larger shed. The photo’s a bit old, mainly because I’m not going out there right now, but it’s still going strong and is around ten years old.
Construction was off a frame of 3” and 4” posts, and the roof is laid on slightly curved plywood (for extra strength, although it would probably have been ok anyway). ‘Soil’ (50% compost, 50% vermiculite) depth is about four inches, and it all drains into the pot on the stand at left, which is connected to a pipe running under the patio and across to an IBC container on the other side of the garden.
The water from the larger shed roof drains onto this one, which is important - it gets about 2.5 times the water it would get otherwise.
I threw some grass seed up at the start, but have never touched it since. It *might* get watered a couple of times in the summer (although not this year), whatever grows is left alone and I don’t clear it - the elder leaves drop on it as well. It’s never been fed otherwise.
No complicated layers - just plastic sheet in a bathtub arrangement, growing medium and plants. So long as it slopes and the water has an exit, that’s all you need!
#Gardening
#GreenRoof
#SolarPunk
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/115/207/431/776/935/712/original/c4d175c436675a76.jpeg
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/115/207/431/778/203/598/original/5f1e4a9fa287dcbe.jpeg

2025-09-12 08:28:15 UTC

#FootpathFriday
#DogsOfMastodon
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/115/190/369/591/148/117/original/7e41b24f10ee12ce.jpg

2025-09-07 11:25:54 UTC

BEHOLD!
#Gardening
#GYO
#JoinIn
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/115/162/754/971/246/485/original/1a8794f1f887d24b.jpg

2025-08-28 12:42:51 UTC

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What happens when you find the only good things coming out of them *are* the boosts?
Asking for a friend...

2025-08-25 07:58:08 UTC

August has been pandemonium, and there's still a whole week left: an unbelievable number of bars cleared, hoops negotiated and a daunting amount of physical labour performed already, so I'm pausing for a few days to allow some recovery to take hold.
September is going to be fairly lifestyle-altering as well, but it can hang on a mo - today's tasks only include a long-overdue eye test and meeting up with a similarly-flustered human to sit in one of our gardens and drink beer unashamedly. We're worth it.
My life is still blessed, and I have no real complaints: this was last week's worksite, in the sunshine and a stone's throw from my house. (Unfortunately it involved felling a heap of elm trees, either dying or long-dead. Dutch Elm Disease is still very much rampant!)
#Gardening
#Trees
#JoinIn
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/115/088/320/288/808/948/original/bb92e7f1511f9177.jpg

2025-08-10 07:41:12 UTC

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I’m sorry, but the Sunday Express win Parody Of The Day award for this ripper of a headline:
“RIOT POLICE ON ALERT AS MORE PROTESTS PLANNED”
with the lead emphasis on the Palestine Action silent protests rather than the, y’know, wife-beating violent thugs massing outside refugee accommodation.

2025-08-08 08:00:09 UTC

So I’m currently landscaping the front garden of a friend (whose husband is ‘problematic’). It’s a MASSIVE job for a one-man band, and I’ve given her a low daily rate, no profit margin on materials and ten-hour days, and am frankly performing miracles for about half what it should cost, whilst destroying my knees.
So anyway, said husband collared me yesterday and, amongst other gems, told me that if he ‘felt’ that I was too expensive, he’d get someone else in to finish the job, or do it himself (this is a man who’d take three goes to work out which end to hold a hammer). By strange coincidence, his wife - my friend - went away on a break yesterday, so he obviously felt emboldened.
So I did what everybody should do when faced with a narcissist: totalled the bill up to date and informed him that he’d need to pay in full before anything else got done, took some time off to spend with my family, shut down his subsequent gaslighting (apparently, and I quote, it was “a throwaway comment that I have since forgotten” and he’s offended by my reaction to it)…
And told on him to his wife.
Ooh, she’s livid. He’s gonna get it when she comes home.
In the meantime, he’s got seven tonnes of grit blocking his driveway and thirty tonnes of soil piled up in front of his house. Which will still be there when she gets back, because I’m spending some time with my family instead.
So, a lovely day off with my wife to go see our new campervan. We may even stop off for lunch somewhere pleasant and tonight, for once my knees won’t keep me awake.
Photo of a planter (and pretty-much everything else in the photo) I made for an elderly client. She was delighted, and hardly threatened me at all.
#Gardening
#Landscaping
#Narcissist
#JoinIn
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/114/992/056/282/150/365/original/ef1ecfffbb5a959a.jpeg

2025-06-24 09:45:46 UTC

Right, stuff this - I cannot be bothered with the TACO-tainted universe right now.
This was a good day: the Tiger's Nest Monastery, Bhutan, sometime in 2013.
Breathe a bit. There are parts of the world a long way from these buffoons.
#Travel #Bhutan #Mountains #JoinIn
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/114/737/677/177/292/882/original/6a9c089423526c9a.jpeg

2025-06-13 21:53:37 UTC

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Nearly 300 people died. Can you perhaps not make flippant jokes about it?

2025-06-10 10:24:57 UTC

A plea to any Fedi users into German (I'm assuming wildly) folding bikes: can anyone share any info on this one?
In the local recycling yard this morning, amongst the usual cheap, heavy MTBs, a natty folding bike with rear suspension. The only markings were on the bottom bracket: 'HB Kommerz GmbH'.
Is this the Brompton of German folding bikes, or an imported knock-off? Search engines currently failing to inform.
TIA
#Cycling
#German
#FoldingBike
#GermanCycling
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/114/658/549/298/713/741/original/38ac7ef23db06d61.jpg
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2025-05-18 13:08:35 UTC

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But nothing beats reaching an age where one can cup a hand to an ear and yell, "WHAT'S THAT YOU SAY, SONNY?" and nobody assumes you're joking.
I suspect I'm already at the threshold for something which helps me to hear more clearly, but I actually enjoy selective deafness.

2025-05-07 12:09:36 UTC

Revisiting a garden I built for some friends today, to start on the long-overdue water feature (behind me). The rest of the garden is settling in nicely - although much of the credit goes to the sunshine, which makes everything look better.
This was done from scratch, and every surface, object and stone was put in by me, apart from the fence and the largest beeches along the back (which have been slowly and carefully halved in height). Brief was 'Japanese-y', and after my first minimalist design of three silver birches, a carpet of moss and a running stream was rejected, it became obvious that I was allowed to culturally appropriate like mad. Apologies to any Japanese scrollers.
No before photos, but essentially, there was a collapsed shed, an old trampoline and - well, that was it. Even the dog wouldn't go in there. As transformations go, this is a good one.
The shed was the first structure up, a few years ago now, and the green roof is holding up well. The planting happened last summer, so this is really the first growth season and all seems ok. Electrician coming tomorrow to wire up all the underground conduits, so looking forward to some night-time shots.
It is what it is. Hopefully, the pics are high enough res for some zooming in. Personally, I like the bridge: salvaging the mahoosive piece of slate was EPIC.
#Gardening
#BloomScrolling
#Landscaping
#Sheds
#DryStone
#JoinIn
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/114/466/390/329/542/066/original/ccf680c185eeef89.jpg
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/114/466/391/028/263/444/original/1e40efe849c0d761.jpg

2025-05-04 06:48:06 UTC

This week's contraption.
I do a LOT of soil sieving - in my work, large garden projects have soil removed/added by the lorry load, but with smaller ones, I'll bag it up and bring it home to be sieved, mixed with organic matter and then re-used elsewhere.
I'm also opening up the large 'compost' bins, which in reality are just aged cold piles of sticks, grass cuttings and chicken poo.
So it was a long overdue project to make a wheelbarrow frame for (much) quicker processing: the frame itself has a fixed one-inch mesh for initial sorting, and there's a removable half-inch mesh for finer grading afterwards.
Put about half a dumpy bag of waste soil through it yesterday, and will do about a cubic metre of compost today, mainly for throwing into the beds.
Should have done this AGES ago.
#Gardening
#Compost
#Chickens
#JoinIn
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/114/448/150/723/411/568/original/283c25bdcecc46ee.jpg
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2025-05-03 17:39:17 UTC

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Starmer can't select his underpants for the day without a focus group - and the focus group is made up of his dinner party set, who delight in their association with power, albeit an incredibly dull dinner guest.
Steady as she goes. Don't make waves, Keir. Keep the rudder fixed. Ignore the media, unless it's right-wing.

2025-04-18 18:23:28 UTC

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Big fan of woodlice. Whenever I turn over a log or stone in the garden, a big bunch of them are there, acting nonchalantly and *not at all* as though they were just having a clandestine meeting/Jerry's birthday party.
There's a whole societal structure going on in there, No Humans Allowed.

2025-04-12 13:49:54 UTC

Picture from one year ago today.
Terrific clients, who have a garden sited in a small but steep-sided hanging valley. Every year, from around November till May, the ground was saturated, with standing water a lot of the time - so they wanted to talk about drainage solutions.
This was the most obvious - just cut a winding trench from top to bottom. Hey presto, a stream! The water flowing through it hasn't been ducted in - this was the amount of wet previously trying to make its way down the garden, which is now contained and visible. Within a couple of weeks, the whole garden was starting to dry out. We estimated the flow at 5-6,000 litres per HOUR at its peak.
Work *with* the water, not against it.
(The large pebbles weren't my choice: I worry that they're over-large and obtrusive, but it will be interesting to see how they settle into the landscape as plants grow in from the sides. It's always good to get periodic reminders that the job is for the clients, not oneself.)
#Gardening #Landscaping #Stream #JoinIn
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/114/325/250/709/608/035/original/c8319e020125e9de.mp4

2025-04-07 18:17:05 UTC

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Not going to lie, the bridge right at the start looks the most terrifying bit; the rest just looks fabulous. What grade does that go at?

2025-04-02 20:55:55 UTC

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Oof. Sorry you've had to go through that. Better days ahead.

2025-03-23 09:48:53 UTC

Garden project from a couple of years ago, which is getting a bit of a revamp. I had a few bits of large, squarish stone knocking about - and no clients' gardens to immediately use them in - so dropped a sunken seating area into my own garden.
The obvious firepit is an old lorry wheel that got washed up on the beach, and rolled/dragged half a mile back to the car. We have so many firepit devices, though, that I turned it into a planter for orange/red coloured flowers (none of the photos of which survived a PC failure).
The chickens have largely turned it into a fort, so I'm planning a surprise diversion (mainly sweetcorn at the other end of the garden) to reclaim it. This may be an ongoing battle of wills.
#gardening #drystone #landscaping #JoinIn #chickens
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2025-02-23 09:26:10 UTC

#SilentSunday
#Mountains #Climbing #Morocco
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2025-02-15 16:29:17 UTC

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I like to put a few things in which aren't included in the main text, but these felt like essays by themselves!

2025-02-15 13:24:41 UTC

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Was it enough, do you think? 😄

2025-02-15 09:32:34 UTC

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Do it! It definitely makes working in the shed more pleasant in winter.

2025-02-15 09:09:18 UTC

The workshop I built for my wife after the first lockdown, mainly to stop her from taking over mine(!)
I’d always been intrigued by the idea of stitching a shed and greenhouse together, so knocked this up. The idea is that the greenhouse captures solar heat in the winter to help heat the workshop - it seems to work, and the shed is very heavily insulated with polystyrene collected off the local beach over a summer and put through a garden shredder.
With a small radiator, the temperature gets up to about 22C very quickly, even with outside temperatures around zero. When they’re about 8-10C and upwards, no heating required.
Built mainly out of free stuff (greenhouse, roof tiles, much of the frame, insulation, copper ridge, windows, door).
Please ignore the oil tank. We inherited it and can’t afford to change systems.
#shed #greenhouse #woodworking #workshop #gardening #maker #JoinIn #crafts
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2025-02-09 21:54:54 UTC

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Beautiful spring-like day in the shires of Old England.
Which, ironically, is also a cast-iron sign to keep the seeds in their packets: these false dawns usually presage a chain of bad conditions.

2025-02-09 10:04:25 UTC

#SilentSunday
#Iceland
#Hiking
#LandscapePhotography
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2025-02-07 08:33:49 UTC

#FootpathFriday
#Mountains
#Climbing
#SomeRiskInvolved
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2025-02-05 08:33:06 UTC

It's 8.32am and I've already had enough internet for the day.
Fortunately, the fence I'm building for an elderly neighbour is calling: a reminder that whilst all the madness is happening above our heads, we have a duty to each other to help at a local level, and take satisfaction from simple, useful tasks.
Go dig a hole, if you're able. The serotonin gobblers in your brain will thank you for it.
#gardening
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2025-02-01 21:17:39 UTC

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I was back up in Derbyshire a couple of weeks ago. Down here in Cornwall, 'hedges' are double-skinned stone walls with a soil centre, but up there hedgelaying is still very much alive. The village still has an annual hedgelaying and ploughing match.

2025-01-18 09:01:37 UTC

"GOOD MORNING! Would you like to talk to me about dinosaurs?"
#Chickens #gardening #FeatheredDinosaurs
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2025-01-14 21:07:59 UTC

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They absolutely do help (I'm one of those contractors), but I'd opt for something with a flat profile: the more bulbous-fronted ones I use for kneeling on hard surfaces tend to leave gurt big holes in your lawn and flowerbeds.
Also, I hate to say it but those rectangular pads with sticky-up handles do work, to take some weight off your knees when getting up from the floor. It's the getting up from deep flexion which causes a lot of the pain and damage.
Are you taking omega supplements as well?

2025-01-12 11:47:31 UTC

#SilentSunday
#BloomScrolling
#Gardening
#Summer
Description in ALT
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2025-01-10 18:43:33 UTC

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Just don't let them near the booze cupboard: they look lairy enough already, without alco-rage.

2025-01-10 18:41:23 UTC

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They look like they may have evolved enough to repot themselves. Have you shown them where the compost is stored?

2025-01-10 18:39:36 UTC

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That's the nicest thing anybody's said to me all day.
I dug it on purpose, for money. I like building drains - provided you remember water flows downhill, they're not complicated.

2025-01-10 18:28:23 UTC

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From that point to this, at the bottom of a large pit for collecting rainwater, which was trying its best to drown me*, because of all the rain. Life is good.
(*: I foiled it by not lying down on my front)

2025-01-10 08:02:57 UTC

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Ooh, someone’s going to be cranky in 3-17 hours.

2025-01-01 15:06:47 UTC

Chicken SWAT team available for hire: embassies liberated, strongholds stormed, that general kind of thing. Morally-questionable black ops involving expensive flower bulbs a speciality.
Payment accepted in most currencies, including sweetcorn, rice and good quality mash.
(Training facility not fully completed, but it turns out the answer to "Can you teach chickens to use a spiral staircase?" is no - because they can already do it - and you *don't* need to build one to find out. Hopefully this information will help others.)
#chickens #gardening #SomeRiskInvolved #JoinIn #Woodworking
https://files-cdn.mountains.social/media_attachments/files/113/753/653/967/986/970/original/468f23e95da15934.mp4

2024-12-29 16:27:08 UTC

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Human medicine does seem to have fallen over a cliff with preventative interventions, even though it would save SO much money in the long run - but initially, costs are higher until the preventative effect kicks in, so we just repeat the cycle of short term spending which never catches up to the problem. Vet medicine has a way stronger ethos, but obviously limitations relating to reach and cost to clients.
At my age (comfortably past the half-century), I should be doing a full health check at least once a year, to include some targeted blood screens. Prostate scans and rectal scopes ought to be seen like mammograms and smear tests, and scheduled regularly. Cardiac markers and scans for higher risk patients / everybody over 50 is a no-brainer - currently we just wait till you keel over, see if you survive and then pour money and time at you, without cure.
Ooh, I'm vexed, I tell ya.

2024-12-29 14:06:20 UTC

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In truth, it's not the *greatest* test. A lot of medics won't use it for routine screening, but there *may* be some use in tracking PSA levels over time, for picking up asymptomatic cancer patients like the one featured in the story. As there are some familial issues in my lot, screening probably is a good idea for me.
It's not that I mind seeing a doctor - my frustration really is that it seems to have slipped through the cracks at my local GP surgery - can't pre-book, can only book same day but not urgent enough to be seen the same day. Practice nurse (who is brilliant) not allowed to get involved. So people don't engage UNTIL they're symptomatic. It's the opposite of a screening program.

2024-12-28 12:30:52 UTC

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Starmer doesn't want to actually remove regulatory frameworks: he's just demonising the regulators to provide an excuse for why growth is failing to launch. He needs them to largely stay in place, so he can moan about red tape and continue to deflect blame.
The alternative would be to come up with more pragmatic, long term ways of piloting the economy in an equitable fashion - and if they had any of those, they wouldn't be looking for scapegoats right now.
So he'll point, shout, make some completely inconsequential adjustments and - if the economy by random chance picks up - claim that it was all his doing. If it doesn't, back to throwing the regulators under the bus.
I don't think he'll last 2025 anyway: it must be sinking in that he's hopelessly out of his depth, and once Trump is inaugurated, there'll be humiliation after humiliation to contend with. Reeves will be kicked into touch even sooner, as he flails about looking for a lifejacket.

2024-12-28 11:45:06 UTC

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I'm anti-hunting: as a vet, how could it have been otherwise? I support any and all bans on activities where wild animals are harmed for sport. But I've treated many horses and hounds used in the pursuit - and quite a few foxes, too - and most of the clients are not rich stockbrokers, but normal people on modest incomes.
Large numbers of people working in the rural economy *are* hunt followers, whether because they think fox hunting per se is a good way to control pests (not many), see it as a cultural thing (quite a lot), feel aggrieved that it was taken away from them (a lot) or just social (all). So when Nigel turns up in his immaculate waxed jacket and stupid hat, they think he's a bit of a city berk, but they also see that he's *there*.
Nigel is a grifter, but he learned from the best. He turns up and people notice that. Not people in Clacton, obviously, but they're locked into his ideology anyway.
Reform will have gained votes from this, from working class voters.

2024-12-26 18:56:31 UTC

Christmas traditions:
The Boxing Day Cold War Steve jigsaw.
If you don't know 'Steve', he's one of the best, most eviscerating satirists on the internet. Whilst he's unashamedly left wing, there are no holy cows and he's as likely (more likely) to tear Starmer apart as any number of Gammons. The jigsaw is an established part of our Christmas and we don't acknowledge the outside world whilst working on it. Meals get skipped.
The jigsaw usually takes three days and an uncertain amount of emotional toll on our relationships. It has begun.
#jigsaw #JoinIn #Family #SomeRiskInvolved
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2024-12-24 17:27:11 UTC

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My thoughts exactly.

2024-12-24 16:33:50 UTC

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All joking aside, I'm working on the Don't Encourage Them principle of invisibility.
Plus, no hablo Espanol. Pequeno. All that jazz.

2024-12-24 14:16:23 UTC

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The lovely man who's worried on an almost daily basis that my Santander account has been scammed.
He's so nice, I don't have the heart to tell him I don't bank with Santander.

2024-12-24 12:43:40 UTC

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I vote unpeeled - it helps if you're par-boiling the arse of them. Then toss in oil, then salt, then flour.
<Homer Simpson drooling - roasties aaaaaahhhhhh>

2024-12-24 09:13:00 UTC

General plea: if you don’t already know it, look out for the hashtag #JoinIn which invites people to contribute to posts. Maybe add it to your follows.
It’ll probably peak a bit over the next few days but, like a rescue pup, it’s not just for Christmas - if you’ve read my bio, you’ll know that my stated aim is to talk to you, not just automatically press the like button and move on. People are interesting (if I’m following you, you’re doing something I want to hear more about), and absolutely should be engaged with.
Photo: random chicken coop I built because we all like pictures.
#chickens #gardening #woodworking
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2024-12-23 13:42:34 UTC

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Years ago, I was teaching at a local community college which was obviously struggling for funding. We were asked for blue-sky suggestions for future revenue.
As the campus covered a range of subjects including horticulture, agriculture, vet nursing and conservation, and stretched over a large area, my suggestion was that we needed to run a smallholding or two, complete with a tenant, and put on courses for smallholders, small farmers and backyard keepers. Covering everything from machinery to medical aspects of livestock keeping.
The college response was 'No, not like that. We were thinking of just cutting the teaching staff in half and making everybody work harder for lower wages'. It has continued its decline.

2024-12-22 14:46:43 UTC

Windy but dry, you say? I'll get the axe.
A joy to be out today, although I'm running out of places to stack firewood. One of the perks of being a landscape gardener.
We shall not freeze.
#gardening #firewood #chickens
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2024-12-22 10:15:15 UTC

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There was a quiet, behind the scenes, determination to put farmers in their place: during the 80s, when I first got involved, farming was doing ok at a time when recession was the norm under a right wing, divisive government. And painting farmers as greedy came as easily as breathing to the Thatcherites.
But it spilled over into overt action with the dismantling of the Milk Marketing Board in the mid-90s, which removed any stability in farmgate prices - and not just in dairy, but knocking on through the whole sector.
1996 was the last decent year. There have been small upticks since, but in every single one, market forces have quickly redirected profits into the hands of corporates.
I may just go outside for a while, commune with my chickens and attack the woodpile.

2024-12-22 09:28:14 UTC

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I can only speak to UK farming, and then mainly in the livestock/dairy sectors, but the mechanisms of suppression are the same through much of the developed world.
We seem willing to talk about keeping utilities like water in public ownership, but have thrown food production to the wolves in end stage capitalism - and we’re seeing the inevitable results.
Imagine if countries were having to import large chunks of their water supply from halfway across the world, subject to political forces and dodgy alliances? Why then do we do the same with our food supply?

2024-12-22 09:21:50 UTC

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Thank you, but it’s really just a bit of a rant. Farming is constantly repackaged as a target for hate, by successive governments. The suppression of farm gate prices, using the private sector as enforcers, to keep food cost artificially low is a political tactic to also suppress wages. This backfiring massively, as the inevitable costs to society of poor nutrition and bad food choices are swallowing our economy whole and swamping our health services.
And the people working 100 hour weeks in all weathers for barely minimum wage, to literally keep us alive, are the cartoon villains. Look! I bet they vote Tory! Wipe them out! Where’s all my food gone?

2024-12-21 16:09:43 UTC

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As a vet, working with farmers and watching our national food security - and the population's interest in where our food comes from - decline, I spent decades shouting about this.
We have dismantled farming, and given it kicking after kicking. And I don't think I've seen a more anti-farming platform than Mastodon - people have their heads up their bums about farmers here and they absolutely are not willing to actually learn. They get brittle and angry about their right to demonstrate absolute ignorance.
The classic diatribes seem to be that ALL farmers voted for Brexit (they didn't, and the industry was sold a vision of increasing food security and stable income which was then deliberately pulled from them) and that they're wrong to protest against IHT (they're not, and if you actually listen, it's a small part of what they're trying to say).
We are fast approaching a collapse of our farming sector, and even then the farmers will be blamed first. People WILL find out.