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From this week's Spectator magazine: "West Midlands Police had failed to record 16,600 violent crimes a year, 22 per cent of the total, according to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary."

'Magic mushrooms' grow in abundance in Staffordshire

'Magic mushrooms' grow in abundance in Staffordshire:

"Specialists say the warmer weather means the psychedelic, naturally-occurring class-A drug has been found growing in large numbers across Staffordshire and Shropshire. Usually, the fungi, found on grasslands and pastures grazed by sheep due to the nutrient-rich manure, are long gone by this time of year, but the mild and wet weather means they have stuck around."

I am not quite sure what this mysterious "warmer weather" he's talking of is, as it seems like a normal winter to me. But I guess he means that until recently we hadn't had a severe cold snap with heavy ice and snow. But given the cold and ground-ice in the last few days I assume that all the Psilocybe semilanceata will have gone now for another year. If you've got these long thin-stalked nipple-shaped mushrooms in some grass on or near your allotment, then that's what they they are...

Penkhull Wassail

The Penkhull Wassail is on again for early 2019.