Nick Mason

The worldly fixation with the 'chocolate hit', and its perpetual achievement at any time of day or night, seems to me to be an addiction in the most negative sense!

Just as with nicotine and far nastier substances, the use of chocolate or substitute to trigger the endorphin-induced brain rush is a sad indictment of the human condition. Why must people rely on this type of crutch to experience an artificial sense of wellbeing for a fleeting moment? People will then default to the perennial excuse for 'just one more piece won't hurt'! Result - the large bar of chocolate is consumed in one sitting! That packet of chocolate biscuits that was supposed to last the week is gone before it has left the supermarket car park!

The search for chocolate alternatives will be self defeating and pointless. Most chocaholics will adopt their 'indignation' posture & decry any replacement or substitution! Shock-horror to suggest such a thing!

I would respectfully suggest that we rid ourselves of all forms of chocolate or any substitutes. All of it be consigned to the dustbin of unhealthy foodstuffs. We will be well rid of it! Think of the health benefits, the money saved, and the great feeling of knowing that this will no longer be a topic to include in Lenten abstention choices. The scourge of chocolate, or any substitute, will be no longer a topic for self flagellation about 'one more piece won't hurt'! Much nicer and healthier to have a cup of hot lemon tea (without any honey).

You might wonder why I have written this, potentially, explosive post? I will come clean and admit that I detest chocolate!!! All my life!!!
It is the cause of most trouble, embarassment and pain during my first 3-score-&-ten of planet occupancy. The smell is nauseating! The taste is nauseating! The texture is slime personified! The price to purchase is a reflection of organised crime extortion! (How do people afford to eat chocolate?) The effect on populations whose sole financial support is cacao is exploitative and shameful.
Try going to your best friend's 9th birthday party and a slice of chocolate birthday cake! Then having to worship the God of Porcelain after his mother has refused to accept my polite refusal of said cake, because ' everyone likes chocolate'! She made me eat it!!! 10 years later, upsetting the stunning young lady offering free chocolate surprises at the food exhibition I was attending. I never stood any chance of engaging her in polite conversation after my refusal to sample her offering!
Chocolate is disgusting and substitution would be a criminal extension. None of it should be allowed to exist. Expunge it from the face of the Earth!

Well, that is it. My rant against this abhorrent world scourge of chocolate and any substitute is unapologetically delivered. Get rid of the stuff and no substitutes please!

If you have read the above to this point, you have my thanks. Good wishes and endorphin-rushes to you all, even if you like chocolate or substitutes. Lemon tea is calling me (without honey)! Lighten up!

Please enlighten me. What is the significance of catfish in dam leakage? I ask because I have a leaking pond to repair, so all information is welcome.

My problem, I believe, may be due to having a large goat willow growing at the side of the pond island. Most opinion is that the roots have broken through the clay lining of the pond, which is causing leakage. Does anybody know of a reliable & quick method of remedying that particular problem?

I am appalled that anyone would not eat chicken offal or any other offal! It is delicious. I was once eating in a French restaurant with family; my brother-in-law decided to eat the roast duck heart appetiser. This after he assured us that he detested all types of offal. Sadly for everyone else, he announced that he really liked the heart and tried all the other offal as well. His Damascene reversal of his likes and dislikes meant that we all lost out on eating the share of offal he was supposed to detest! Liver, crop/gizzard, neck all disappeared with relish!
So, just goes to show, never trust your brother-in-law!
Anyway, greetings to all from a sunny but cold Devon in the UK. I am now going for lunch - chicken gesiere on sourdough toast.

Is it possible to replace Lead/Acid Gel batteries with NiFe units?
I have a storage system using 16 x 4 volt lead/acid gel units which are charged from a solar PV array. These supply our overnight requirements and any day time usage is only limited by sun shine availability. Any excess power is fed into the National Grid system, once batteries are fully charged.
The current batteries are registering 90% efficiency after 6 years of constant use, so some deterioration which will eventually require replacement of the units. The NiFE units sound as if they could have a much longer working life so I am hoping to substitute an equivalent NiFe storage facility for the existing units.
Is there anything which could prevent/upset the substitution? Anything to be warned about?
Many thanks in anticipation of advice given.

I would not recommend any use of horse manure now without absolutely knowing its provenance. Most horse owners offering manure to gardeners in sunny Devon cannot guarantee that the horse feed they have been using is herbicide free. This was painfully illustrated to me when I used infected manure to make liquid tomato feed a couple of years ago. Result was that an entire harvest had to be destroyed as I could not offer any of the crop for human/animal consumption. These herbicides are nearly biologically indestructible and should not be perpetuated in the food chain at any time. I have had to clear out all the raised beds in the tunnel and re-establish new/fresh growing medium because of this. Believe me when I say that it is a BIG mistake not knowing the provenance of your food and your animal feed. I am now making all my own compost and plant growing medium because the risk posed by these herbicides and pesticides is too great. Needless to say that horse or any animal manure is not included in any of my composting recipes!

Thought that I would create a green tinge in the eye of all no-diggers! You can see that I live in sunny Devon in the South West of the UK, so I have had the great pleasure visiting Charles Dowding on open days at his Somerset market garden. It is a revelation seeing everything growing at full throttle and productivity. Mr. Dowding's methods work very well and make growing a pleasurable and rewarding occupation with maximum return on the reduced effort expended. Really worthwhile watching his Youtube channel. Even better to visit in person and meet the man himself!

Try the Niwaki hand trowel/knife from Japan. Very useful for deep rooted weed extraction. Or, for surface weeding, you cannot beat the reciprocating hoe. This is available with different widths of blade, depending on the access limits between the crops/plants you are hoeing around. For those of a perverse frame of mind, I still use the left-handed sickle that my Father purchased 50 years ago for his own use. It took me a long time to be able to use this tool as I am more right-handed than left! Reminds me of my lovely Old Man whenever I use it! The odd thing is I now weed by hand using my left hand only, cannot do it properly with the right.
Have a great day!

Compost/manure; no-dig raised beds and time are the only suggestions I can offer. What I have here in sunny Devon to grow on is very heavy clay with flint. Very difficult to work, that is why most farms in our very rural area grow grass for all the cattle and sheep that we grow. So get nature to do the work for you and minimise the back-breaking idea of doing any digging. I wish you the best of all growing seasons. I hope that COVID-19 has not visited you and yours yet; stay safe.

Can definitely recommend River Cottage Handbook No:13 Curing & Smoking. The author is a gentleman called Steve Lamb, who is a master of the 'dark arts' of charcuterie. Entertaining writer and speaker/demonstrator who definitely knows a good piece of bacon. Hugh FW has performed a great service to the bacon eaters world by encouraging Mr. Lamb in his endeavours. Going to have a bacon sandwich now!

I am surprised that contributors are arguing about this.
Just have a look at Sir David Attenborough's latest TV program on the BBC, this should be compulsory viewing for all the 'flat-earthers and head-buriers' on the planet. Schools and young people should also include this in environmental education.
I think that the 'non-believers' could also investigate why we are reading headline articles on the BBC entitled "Why is the US so bad at recycling?", (major US cities suspending their recycling programs because they can no longer offload rubbish to China now). Similarly, a program highlighting pollution on the island of Aldabra in the Indian Ocean shows the plastic pollution generated by African countries, the Indian sub-continent and the islands of Indonesia (tortoises eating plastic waste and green turtles unable to lay their eggs on beaches polluted with plastic flotsam). If you don't believe this then watch the programs.
Please do not think that I am pointing the finger at any particular nationalities, these examples quoted are what is being highlighted currently. I am well aware of our own failings on this side of the Pond in the UK and in Europe. Extinction Rebellion have been pretty active in the last few weeks in the UK. Naturally, the silence from politicians and civil servants in Whitehall and Brussels is deafening now. Big Business can stop looking in the other direction as well.
So, I hope that you will forgive this rant, but please stop the arguing & arm-chair pontificating. Start addressing what we as individuals can do now - in the short term, the medium term and the long term. Start formulating one day, one week, one month, one year, 5 year, 10 year, 50 year plans with the politicians (or without them).
Just do it! Or am I just preaching to the converted?