@Dunkirk_1940 I used to work for YHA, summer term was back to back schools each week. I remember one school from Luton (they came every year), the kids marvelled at stone walls, sheep, grass and the fact our village only had a chippy in the summer, only street lights on the main road & .... >
Farmers have figured out that the cheapest pesticide is a strip of flowers.
When you plant wildflowers through a crop field, not just around the edge but in strips running through the middle, you get ladybugs, lacewings, hoverflies, and parasitic wasps living in the field instead of visiting it.
They eat the aphids, the caterpillars, and the mites for free, all summer long.
In controlled trials, fields with tailored flower strips had leaf-beetle numbers 40 to 50% lower and crop damage cut by around 60%, enough to drop below the threshold where spraying was even considered worth it.
The flowers attract a standing army to our fields.
We spent decades engineering chemicals to kill the insects eating the crop, when the insects that eat those insects would have worked for the price of seed.
@Sharpr1966 My parents still do it, they are from Essex. I tried it on my husband years ago. He, brought up on the vile green coloured shop bought stuff, thought it an abomination......😳
*IMPORTANT*
Please read & share, it could save you or a loved one from a lifetime of chronic system-wide illness. 🙏❤️
Today I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease.😔
I was bitten by 4 ticks 30 days ago & had a red rash come up around one of the bites, that soon started spreading.
As there was no 'bullseye', I didn't think it was Lyme, I assumed it was just a reaction, especially as the rash wasn't painful or itchy..(see photo)
It WAS Lyme!
Any rash around a tick bite is diagnostic.
I didn't know this. 😕
I was bitten at Shapwick Heath on the Somerset Levels.
I've since learnt some areas of the UK have a higher risk of Lyme, and the Somerset Levels is one of them.
If you go out in the countryside, take care... stick to paths and try to avoid brushing up against vegetation, that's how the ticks get on you.
Always check yourself over for ticks when you get home. The longer a tick is attached to you, the higher the chance of infection.
If you find a tick, don't panic, remove it carefully with a tick removal tool or tweezers, being careful not to squeeze the tick.
Keep an eye on the bite for the next month... if a rash starts to develop at the site of the bite in that time, go to your doctor ASAP!
Explain that you were bitten by the tick, and have now developed a rash at the site... they will prescribe antibiotics, usually Doxycycline, for at least 3 weeks.
You may be asked to have a blood test too, but these aren't reliable in the early stages of Lyme, insist on starting the antibiotics immediately.
Sometimes, you don't even get a rash. In these cases, if you get flu-like symptoms in the 30 days after a tick bite, go and see a doctor, it's probably Lyme Disease and you'll need antibiotics.
Many people with debilitating advanced Lyme Disease didn't see the signs, or they just ignored them.
Lyme Disease is usually curable in the early stages, but can become a chronic lifelong illness affecting every system in your body, if left untreated! 😔
I'm not posting this to scare anybody, but because I was ignorant to the rash, and if it hadn't been for my youngest daughter badgering me to get it checked out, I'd not be sat here taking antibiotics for Lyme Disease... I wouldn't even know I had it, and many of the later symptoms are confused with other illnesses!
A case in point is the fabulous musician @Renmakesmusic, who was only diagnosed with Lyme Disease 6 years after being infected! 😯
He really suffered in those years, spending much of it in bed, too ill to get up, but not having a clue what he was suffering with.
I'm obviously no medical expert, all I've written here has come from my own research & experience, so in case there are some inaccuracies, learn more from @UKLyme 🙏
However, you get the picture... if this post prevents just one person getting advanced Lyme Disease, I'd be delighted!
Prevention is better than cure, so please be careful out there!
Don't be ignorant to the dangers of ticks, rashes and Lyme Disease.. don't be like me! 🙏❤️
@ForrestMark@BBCRadio3 Morning Mark, woken up early by a loud Reeth dawn chorus - 20 birds with a very vocal chaffinch, song thrush & wren all sounding like an entire orchestra not just 3 birds! Heard the elusive cuckcoo too.
Breakfast is your farm eggs, & damson jam on toast. #buylocal
@CarlBovisNature A social media acquaintance has them nesting in her garden. 2nd generation came in last year and kicked her parents off the pitch where she was born. It's so much fun following them throughout the year and I'm so grateful she puts the content up.
@Sharpr1966 Yum. Love rhubarb puddings. My husband doesn't though. I've still got lots of homemade apple pie filling to get through before August.
I've sent you a message regarding eggs. Donvt know if you've seen it yet?
@theiaincameron When I lived in Sheffield, bread cakes were huge, like 6-7" diameter and the size of side plates. The smaller roll sized ones were cobs.
I'm now firmly in the savory Roll area with Buns and Teacakes being sweet breads.
Myth: "I only wear vegan fabrics. Better for the animals, better for the planet."
Let's check in on Doris's annual contribution.
Once a year, in late spring, Doris is sheared. The procedure takes approximately three minutes. Doris does not enjoy it. Doris does not, by any visible measure, suffer from it. Doris is, immediately afterwards, a noticeably more comfortable animal in the British summer.
The fleece weighs approximately 3 kilograms. It is sold to the British Wool Marketing Board for, depending on the year, between £0.40 and £2.50 per kilogram. The shearing costs more than the wool fetches. Brian is shearing Doris at a loss.
The wool is then:
- Naturally flame-retardant
- Naturally antibacterial
- Moisture-wicking
- Biodegradable
- Renewable, annually
- Carbon-storing while in use
The replacement, in performance fabrics:
- Polyester
- Polyamide
- Acrylic
- Polypropylene
- All petroleum-derived
- All shedding microplastics on every wash
- All requiring fossil fuel inputs to produce
- All non-biodegradable, with a typical landfill lifespan of 200-500 years
A single wash of a polyester fleece can release up to 700,000 microplastic fibres into the water system. These fibres are now in: every tested water source on earth, every tested human placenta, every tested rainfall sample, the deep ocean, the Arctic ice, and the lungs of marine mammals.
A single wash of a wool jumper releases: nothing. The wool, when eventually disposed of, returns to soil within a few years.
The fabric being marketed as the "ethical" alternative to wool is plastic.
The plastic is "ethical" because nobody has been asked to slaughter the polymer.
The polymer also has not been asked.
Doris, by being a sheep on a fell, is producing the most thoroughly sustainable performance fabric humans have ever made.
Brian is selling it at a loss.
The fashion industry, meanwhile, is selling petroleum at a profit and calling it ethical.
Reject plastic. Wear wool.
Doris is, this morning, growing next year's batch.
@EledaReeth She's imprinted on you now! Also came to say one-day old. They get 1 day to dry off apparently and by day two they are on the river where it's safer away from predators.