To save me from the misery of reading more Silent Spring, Cath leant me "Blessed are the Cheesemakers" by Sarah Lynch-something or other. Despite the rather mills and boons front cover I gave it a go. It was actually really good fun. Very simmilar to Joanne Hariss' stuff like chocolat and Blackberry wine, all about the magic of food (In this case cheese), some of the magic must have rubbed off on me cos I was desperate for a nice wedge of brie after a couple of hours of reading this.
Anyway it were just a general kinda romance thing, but really quite funny. Though, I should probably admit to the fact that (being the big softy I am) I did actually cry at the end.
Anyway it was exactly what i needed after the misery of Silent Spring, which I still haven't finished - its taking for ever to read cos I just can't face picking it up.

posted by becky at 3:08 PM

Well I finally decided to read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson in preparation for my dissertation althoughI'v been meaning to pick it up since I satrted this course.
Silent spring is often blamed/credited for having started the modern environmental movement in the 1960s. The basic gist of the book is pesticides are bad m'kay.

I mean in a way its all quite obvious, I haven't been surprised by anything I've read in the book (which it has to be said is a pretty shocking thing, I must be very cycnical about the state of the world) unlike the Cod book to which i was like, "woah", every couple of pages and repeatedly trying to force snippets on to Ronan. This book's affect is more like just a slup of the shoulders, hang of the head and sighing every page. Not that its not a good book, it is, and it was groundbreaking when it was published.
But the thougt that I keep returning to again and again, is how on earth did we manage to survive the last 4 decades while consuming this cocktail of toxins, I mean it does say something about the resilience and resistance of nature that we can throw this amount of crap at it and that there can be anything left. I quite liked this quote;
"They should not be called "insecticides" but "biocides" "
She's very poetic actually, I'd like to read the stuff she wrote about the sea if I get the chance.

Reading this book, I've been thinking about how its little wonder that cancer and MS in my mothers generation seems to be so common. I don't know for definite that the incidence has been increaseing, but I've always had that impression. Its a tragic irony that Rachel Carson herself died of breast cancer only 16 monhs after the publication of Silent Spring.

I've also been thinking about what it must have been like before the widespread use of "biocides". Wether the park and dene were much noisier and more colourful. Wether bird tables and baths ever had a point to them. I remember I used to put out food for the birds but I'd only ever get one or two feeding from it a day, which lets face it is pretty pathetic.
I can never remember there being many birds but even now with the decline of the sparrow, can it be that there is even fewer?... In Silent Spring there are eyewitness accounts saying the birds feeding from their gardens has dramatically decreased, from what seemed to have been a flurry of small feathered creatures, to what i know as an intensive bird feeding session (one or two).

Slent spring has been remining me of a book i read last year by Barbara Kingsolver, called Prodigal Summer, about several different peopleup in an area of America, ones an ecologist studying coyote, an other a farmer using regular pesticdes etc. an old woman who lives next to him who farms organically, it was a lovely little book, got good vibes off it :-p.

posted by becky at 8:13 PM

In our research design lecture on monday, the lecturer mentioned that somone was planning on doing their dissertation on assylum seekers in this the Post-Morecombe Bay Era of heightened public awareness that yes assylum seekers do work some dangerous jobs.
I sometimes wonder what planet these students live on, i mean do they reallly think theyt are going to be allowed on Brockbrushes farm or wherever to gather information. Or that anyone will filll in their neatly typewd surveys.
I was suggesting to Ronan that wre write some stuff while we're on holiday about food production and sales etc. It seems to be a theme at the moment.
Ronans sisters and Aunt were just discussing morecombe bay the other day;
"Oh, I don't think oits really slave labour"... "It was just a freak tide"....
meanwhile on saturday's hen night I had to listen to a lovely conversation about throwing assylum seekers out of the country (one of the women was a solicitor who compiles evidence to get them thrown out of the country).
"Once you've heard one story, they're all much the same"... Liars, scumbag etc. etc. etc.

10 minutes later the conversation switchede tpo Burqa's and what a cruelty they are...
"I mean you could understand it if they are ugly, but some of these women are really beautiful"

Anyway thats enough bile from me today.

Heres a photo of the Quayside from the hen night




Actually on a more positive note I just had a really interesting meeting with my dissertation supervisor, I'm not sure how much of it I'll be able to discuss on the blog. But all of a sudden i feel very Miss Marple, theres a definite smell of fish. The scene appears to be set for a very English mystery story.
posted by becky at 12:12 PM

well, I'm hoping that today marks the end of the festive season having just visited my family down in Malton. Jackie and Peter announced their engagement (wedding scheduled for Easter 2005), meanwhile me and ronan got ignored for almost the entire day, we were even placed on the "Kids" table for dinner, despite the fact that Ronan and I have been together for long enough to have our own three year old.
Anyway a highlight of the day was going down to the Skateboard park.

Can't really be bothered to writ emuch more at the moment. Needless to say though I'm glad chrsitmas is over.
posted by becky at 8:43 PM

Ronan's gone out to a party with some of his friend's from university, so I was going to go round and visit Jackie. Fortunately she called and suggested that we went out for a coffee instead, which was good because we never actually get to talk when I go round to her house because of endless demands and interruptions.
Anyway we were sitting in Cafe Picasso and i was asking for some advice on what to do for my dissertation, there now being 3 main topics of intersest 1) Cyberpunk 2)Ecological 3)Environmental Play/Education. And jackie was just saying that number 3 sounded very interesting, when it occured to me that there was no reason why I should have to do it as a dissertation and in fact I could do a very good report about it as ac ollabarative approach with Jackie. Whats more because Jackie is already a published author, there was a chance it would actually get published, and seen and talked about and therefore stand me in good stead for getting employment.
I mean, I (and Jackie) are intelligent enough to do this, and the synthesis of academic backgrounds would work really well, plus I think it would be really good for her confidence, and finding her a new job away from the shitty university. Plus if we could get it done over the summer that would be great, as I'm not planning on getting a job so I'm sure there would be enough time for it AND my dissertation. Which then rules out one of the above choices with out narrowing the field (if that makes sense) which would leave an ecological dissetation as my preffered choice (after all if I did write a paper on play and environment what would be to stop me and ronan writing a paper on Cyberpunk). So all I need now is a decent ecological problem, well thought out question and then a plan. Plus of course Jackie to say "yep" that is a good idea.
The wooly dreams of 20 year old hyped up on too much tea?... Mebbe, but where's the harm in a dream after all. And I'll share a little dream I've had for a little while now and that is that I have something published or at least written (and later published) before I graduate.... just like bell hooks! (although I know i'm not as good as her so I'll be content with one, where as she had two)

So, anyway, I'm feeling a lot perkier than I was this afternoon, when I bumped into Beth Gormely and really close friend of mine when i was younger, we were practically like sisters. Anyway she's thinking of joining the police.
I really really didn't know what to say to her. She just said she didn'y fancy an office job. Anyway I was really upset by this much more so than when Rose or John (ronan's sisters boyf) said they were thining about it. This was like someone I was really close to. Whats more, she was VERY Newcastle university, her accemnt which used to just have a slight geordie twang to it has now gone ultra posh, and she was complianing about not havong brushed her teeth due to being at a ball all last night. I just found it really scarey. Never Mind.
posted by becky at 9:16 PM

Tis the Season to be Jolly, peace on earth and goodwill to all men. Until Dec 26th and the January Sales and then I'll killl anyone who gets to that unmissable bargain of a lifetime before me. THE BASTARDS.

Or so goes the new song of Fenwick's window, obviously due to the fact that its been speeded up by 666% most people don't hear this. To their untrained ears it comes out something like Fa la-la la la la-la la la.


posted by becky at 11:38 AM

A very lazy weekend, I was at my most active when tucking into sunday dinner round at the Dodds'. Did no work at all, not even this photo project. Never mind, I'll have it and my "landscape assesment" assignment handed in on wednesday, and then apart from the ecology exam on the last day of the semester, that it and i'll be finished for xmas. if you can call it finishing, since i have so much work to do over the holiday.
Got a geat photo of the cereal aisle of Asda, I'll have to post it up when I've worked out how to uplad stuff on to webspace properly.
Just waiting for Ronan to finish his lecture so that we can go get ome food before my next lectire at 5pm, I 've already been in labs for soil for 3 hours, so i am feeling pretty tired. Although I'm hoping to get most of this assignment finished tonight. It doesn't look to complicated but you never know. In labs we got to play with dangersous chemicals again, but all these dangerous chemicals are pretty boring really un;ess you have an accident with them i suppose, stll the analysis of soils continues, lthough it feels a bit like flogging a dead horse. I mean how many different ways cabn you prove that the topsoil is rich in organic matter?... Quite a lot apparently. Whilst in labs, the geography lot were planning a "course night out" which apparently is for geographers only as us environment scum were most definitely excluded from the invitation. Not that I care I wouldn't want to go out with a load of stupid Geographers anyway, :-P
Ronans been busy as well with assignments he's just finished one on mysticism, which is really good, no doubt another first, (he got 74% for Chaucer the jammy git), and then I think hes starting work on the American mosdernism one tonight. AFter a filling meal of bangers and mash. (ronan got well sucked into the platt packaging of asda finest aberdeen angus beef or some such nonsense - i blame him entirely), still its nice to actually have some food around the house, its even looking comparatively tidy.
Meanwhile in the outside world everyone is apparenty panicing about christmas, and the ongoing angst about finding the "perfect present" for whoever, town is absolutely frantic. And to tiune ointo the consumer angst another shop has opened up in Eldon Square, to offer the happy consumer even more choice of shit.
"Would you prefer the turd, madam, or perhaps the poop would be more to your liking?..." "Oh the crap madam, yes an excellent choice, very fashionable this season"
Anyway this new shop is called oils and vinegars, and sells oils and vinegars, i'll have to take some photos cos it really is daft, it has really stupid liquids in these big glass tanks "rasberry balsamic" or "truffle oil" or some such nonsence. meanwhile on the central displays, are the spanish style dishes from which to serve you tapas or mezze. Meanwhile while the future ofd oil and vinegar diversity seems rosy, We have a choice of 3 tomatoes and maybe 5 lettuces in the supermarket, and thousands and thousands of species are dying out.

posted by becky at 3:34 PM

Had a great time last night at the Live Theatre - But have been absolutely exhausted today as a consequence and haven't done anything.
Ronan's parents rang at about 12 today, saying they were going to pop in on their way home from town, so for ten minutes i frantically ran round doing a mad quick tidy up in the front room, so that Ronan's dirty clothes, at the least weren't drapesed around the room.
Oh and just watched an episode of sex and the city. It's like watching a car crash!


Video





posted by becky at 8:59 PM

Got My GIS/ Earth Obs assignment back, this morning with a mark of 69%. No bad huh?, maybe going to that wqorkshop tomorrow morning isn't so important after all...
Had to come in at 9am this morning - a bit of a shock to the system, and all to watch a video on the Fell Sandstones of the simonside hills and their influence on the soils of the areas/ Exciting stuff I can tell you. Outr lecturer told us that his wife had faken asleep when he first brought it home to watch (not bad considering it only lasts 27 minutes), within 5 minutes I could sympathise deeply. It was one of those occasions where it actually hurts to try and stay awake.
At the same time though it was quite amusing, it was made about 10-15 years ago and there's what appears to be a big bearded soil scientist, silently and apparently quite randomly digging up bits of the hill side with a very serious bbc voice over. Meanwhile, the big bearded man is pointing out fault lines in sandstone rocks with his trowel in a manner very simmilar to an air hostess. Later he really gets hands on, demonstrating the squelchy-ness of the various soild which overly boulder clay.
Got to brave the big wide world of town and forrage for some food to bring back to my man, who should be hard at work on his essay.
posted by becky at 12:15 PM