I’m a bit late with today’s post as I’ve been going through some short stories and sorting out which can go off to magazines and which I can serialise for you guys. And then I had a biscuit attack.
In general I have a fairly healthy diet. I’m vegetarian with a dairy allergy which means that for the most part I’m vegan except when I go out to eat. I don’t have caffeine after midday and I don’t drink much more than a beer or glass of wine with dinner. But I do love a chocolate digestive; in fact I’m starting to love them rather too much – so I decided that instead of buying some more I’d make flapjacks. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
I’ve just taken them out of the oven and I have to say they look a bit sticky. I think I went a bit mad with the honey. Never mind, I’m sure they’ll be delicious. They have to cool down before I can cut them though.
Yesterday I did a job I’d been putting off for ages; namely, sorting out the compost. We have three compost bins but I’d been gradually emptying the dalek one as it’s become a magnet for badgers. I’ve tried clingfilm, I’ve tried netting, I’ve tried wire – nothing seems to keep the buggers out. We had some partial success with male urine sprinkled around the bins but the only sure fire way is to empty out the new stuff and replace it with well rotted compost. I actually filled four bags with the stuff which I suppose I should put on the garden in the autumn (hang on! It is the autumn! Blast!) and put the rest inside the dalek. No badgers so far.
So that’s all good.
TV wise, I’ve been re-watching the first series of His Dark Materials which they’ve put up in preparation for the second series next month. There’s a few good things in the pipeline; another series of The Crown, ditto The Handmaid’s Tale and, most interestingly of all, the return of Spitting Image. It remains to be seen whether there’s any satire left to be made out of current politics – I have to say both our government and the US seem to be moving further beyond the pale with every passing day. I feel an email to my MP coming on…
And with that I’ll leave you for today. I hope you’re enjoying the serial; I’ve got more in the pipeline on subjects including death row and domestic abuse. Cheerful stuff…
Kirk out
PS Anyone remember Compost Corner? It was Tiswas’s spoof of Crackerjack.
Sarada Gray 
Just out of curiosity: what do the badgers do in your compost bin? I no longer have a garden, but when I did at my previous address, I had an open compost heap at the end of the garden, and I don’t think it was ever interfered with [by badgers, anyway! 😉 ].
Re. letters to MPs: hardly a day goes by when I don’t email my Member, mostly using the automatic petition facility on various campaigning websites, but occasionally a personal one. This gives me a sort of perverse pleasure, knowing that I am possibly ‘encouraging’ him to do the job he’s munificently paid for [although this tedious lot more probably falls to one or more minions]; sometimes [but by no means always] I receive an automated reply and, occasionally, wonder of all wonders, I receive a personal reply, which is very likely to parrot the party line [guess which party?], but it has been known for him to use his own well[?]-chosen words, into which a hint of rancour has been known to creep: marvellous!
Cheers, Jon.
Our MP is fairly new to the job so I don’t know what she will be like. She replaced Nicky Morgan who was always punctilious in her replies, if unhelpful. My main motive for emailing is not to get them to change their minds but to get them to realise that people care. If they get a huge postbag about something it will hopefully at least make them think.
The badgers are a nuisance. I don’t know where you live but we’re in a town centre so open compost heaps are not recommended. They basically hoik the flap off and eat the compost, scattering it over a wide area in the process. When you’ve scooped up scattered orange rinds and half-rotten banana skins on a daily basis you tend to get a bit fed up.
Yes, I can well imagine that would become annoying very quickly! I live on the edge of the North York Moors, about 3 miles out of Whitby, so probably any badgers in the area can find enough to eat in their natural environment. I do see an occasional road casualty, sadly.
Our MP is the Rt Hon Robert Goodwill [Con]; I will refrain from any ad hominem comments but, suffice to say, we could do better. He knows I care about many things, but that never sways him from the party line. Cheers, Jon.
Lovely part of the world, I imagine. Shame about the MP