Apparently, the first words little Jaya said this morning were “Daddy’s ice cream is so much better than Tesco’s or Bellis’s” I kid you not but she is right. Last night’s production ,pictured below, was blackberry and, having allowed myself a teaspoonfull, I can tell you it was amazing. It now goes in an increasingly ice cream packed freezer ahead of Sharestock when it will be served after supper. Also on the production line yesterday was damson jam. The harvest this year was dire and I had to scrounge fruit off a neighbours trees down by the river. and to chuck in a few of my plums. But, as you can see, we now have ten jars. And then to the orchard.
It is the data behind the headlines that is telling. No doubt folks like Carol Vorderman and the BBC will be creaming themselves with this swing state poll. They should not be. The data behind it is very good news indeed for Donald Trump as I explain.
As I repeatedly point out the Ukraine war and the US Election are closely linked and, as ever, the BBC, ghastly Jon Sopel and the rest of the liberal media class mislead you as to what is going on on both fronts. I discuss bad news for Ukraine and how, I sense, the Kamala Harris honeymoon is over, certainly after Robert Kennedy jnr today, as I predicted he would, threw in the towel in the swing states and backd President Trump. the polls, Financial betting all tell a similar tale.
Straight fromthe Democrat convention the awful BBC brings you a star delegate. The BBC might think this is normal but I challenge anyone else out there to watch this and not leap to the conclusion WEIRD. If you are a normal person you vote Trump/Vance this Autumn.
Joshua is keen that we make nettle cordial and from that nettle ice cream. And so we shall, but first things first: nettle beer.
Real men have wood stores. The Mrs just does not understand what it means to me as I stack log upon log. Readers: I need some male affirmation here. Anyhow as a result of the tree being knocked down and a barn being knocked down earlier in the year I have vast numbers of logs to put in a wood shed emptied after what the Met Office termed“the warmest spring on record” when my fire had to be kept on virtually every single day.
It is all happening on both fronts with shocks from left field.But what happens next? I discuss in detail and as things stand I reckon the US winner will be….
Most of the remnants of the tree chopped down in my garden are slowly being split into firewood. As my wood shed fills up I am taking photos and will bring them all when the job is completed later this week and I can revel in my manly glory. But those branches thatwere too small, the leaves and the sawdust is now piled high on the bonfire site. They will damp down during the Autumn but i staill have some old pallets and other junk from the barns to clear to make space for chickens and goats. So, as you can see below Iam well prepared for bonfire night. But…
In Operation Mincemeat, in 1943, British Military intelligence dressed up a dead tramp as a Marine officer, floated his body carrying details of a planned invasion of Greece onto the Spanish coast knowing that the bogus plans would find their way to the Germans. The Germans fell for it and diverted tanks, boats and men from Sicily, where the allies really were going to land, to Greece. It was a triumph. There are two books written about the operation and both mention the underpants placed on the body but only in Ben Macintyre’s 2010 account, on which the Colin Firth film is based, is there real detail. Unfortunately, Macintyre engages in dramatic conceit and gets it all wrong. I start, once again, with those 4 young girls photographed in the late 1880s.
The sad demise of Michael Mosley in Greece and of Jay Slater in Tenerife this summer naturally made me think of my great Uncle David Cochrane, not just the manner of his death in 1931 but also of the waiting that all three families endured. With Cochrane there is also a villain of the story, his uncle by marriage, and this is, in a way, a precursor to a very long article I am preparing on Operation Mincemeat, the underpants and my family. It all starts with the four young girls pictured below in, I suspect, the late 1890s.
Some folks think it is easy putting on an event such as Sharestock. Far from it. Every single item has to be ordered, accounted for and laid out ready for use. Barely a day goes by without something now arriving at the Welsh Hovel which Joshua and I unpack and lay out in my office. Cutlery for each of the four meals, coffee machines, coffee and decaf, filters, tea, plates, bowls, the speakers, the mikes, the batteries, a big screen, cabling, boxes for ice cream, freezer boxes for milk, the list goes on and on and on. But all is in hand, Joshua and I are not panicking (yet) and September 7 is still three weeks away which means we must start making the nettle beer tomorrow.
It was last year that I contacted the celebrated campaigner on the matter of historic sexual abuse at Britain’s public schools, Alex Renton, to discuss how to push my old school to be more proactive in addressing its own scandals. My abuse at the hands of sadistic Geoffrey Eve was physical. But other boys suffered sexual abuse. One victim, having suppressed his memories for decades has finally decided to confront them, contacted Renton who put him in touch with me. We spoke last week.
As you may be aware my type 2 diabetes was raging and I was in a bad way at around Christmas. Since then, there has been a complete lifestyle change. I cannot reverse some of the damage done but it is in my power to stop things getting worse. This morning there is a very positive an update on my weight and my blood sugars.
Anyone who has ever visited the Welsh Hovel will remember the tall conifer in the garden which blocks out vast amounts of light to the annexe, the newer part of the house (1700s and 1800s). As you can see below this giant tree is now gone. The fir branches are now piled up behind the goat barn in ahuge pile making my November 5 preparations almost complete.
We know that what we are being told is just not true but if the media and the State tell us often enough maybe we will start to doubt what we see with our own eyes, what we hear with our own ears and what logic dictates. From an empty woodshed I reflect on what the Met Office termed the warmest spring on record. And on news out of Poland regarding the Nordstream explosions of two years ago.
