pumpkinstrokemarrow

I see that the latest wheeze from our beloved government is road pricing. We are told that it is nearly certain that it is essential and nearly certain that it will be with us within ten years. So their love affair with huge IT continues despite the storm clouds over the tens of billions spent on NHS IT. The way it works is something like this. You have outsourced all your own IT and the people that went with it have vanished (no sour grapes here you understand). You then hire a blue chip contractor - perhaps Tsetsentrica for example - to advise and support but who then proceed to colonise your organisation. Rather like a cancer or a parasite. They then spot (or perhaps manufacture) a huge opportunity to regenerate, revitalise or otherwise expand your need for advice and support - that is to say a whopping great IT project. They spend a lot of your money explaining why this project is a jolly good idea. You then invite tenders from people who are also deeply enthused about the opportunity to sell you huge amounts of IT. Perhaps they will sell it to you on a buy now pay lots more later basis. Maybe a few reference sites in exotic places. The bandwaggon is now rolling and more or less impossible to stop. In this case it seems most unlikely that anyone will be stopped by the observation that a cheap way to ration road use is to put the price of petrol up. No fat fees or fat contracts in that.

More parochially, the Cheam baker seems very uncertain about Chelsea buns. On some days they are called Belgian buns and come with white icing and a cherry. I had thought that Belgian buns were thought to be cooler for an Austrian patisserie than common or garden Chelsea buns but the truth is clearly more complicated than that.

And back on the allotment, two of the three mole plants look OK, one has started to wilt. But the wet weather continues so maybe we are in with a chance. Not so hot for bean planting though.

After much agonising the small willow tree (vide supra) has now been cut down to about a foot from the ground, so missing out on the pussy willow side of things this year. Maybe I should have waited. Also decided to take out the neighbouring 5 year old rosemary and thyme bushes, the first of which keeps losing branches and the second of which looks half dead. A pity because they are both pretty in the Spring when they flower and can also be useful on the foodie front. One TB informant has it that herbs of this sort only last about 5 years after which you have to renew - but that was not the case when I was a child. I am sure that the thyme that we had went on for years. I don't think we had a rosemary but the ones at Hampton Court are grown for ornament and look like that have been there for years. So what am I doing wrong? Maybe they didn't like being in the shade of the willow for a good chunk of the day. Maybe one should prune them back to the ground and see what happens?

Also trimmed the lower shoots from a small sycamore. Was surprised to find that sap from the cuts (leass than half a centimetre in diameter) had oozed the two feet or so to the ground in about ten minutes. So the sap is clearly rising. Will the fresh cuts attract the deer and squirrels - both of which are partial to a bit of bark gnawing and sucking at this time of year? Still no deer prints inside the exclosure although saw one shooting into the large bramble patch on the South Western boundary as I was leaving. They can get through very small holes in said patch given their size. Bit like cats and mice in that department I suppose.

And a last factlet. I learn that there are around 50,000 sorts of tree knocking around but there is no very satisfactory definition of a tree. Contributions welcome.