Wednesday 24 March 2021

Got milk?

Where did all the flocks of small birds go in the 1990s and 2000s, that had been so abundant in the 1970s? Well, it might have been the legacy of 1980s pesticides and the diminution of hedge and meadow habitats. But it may also have been partly that we were no longer giving millions of them a rich milky breakfast each morning, after they had pecked their way through the foil tops on doorstep milk-bottles.

This used to be a very common thing, up until the nationwide move to supermaket carton-milk and the stopping of doorstep 'milkman' deliveries of bottles with foil tops.

Monday 8 March 2021

Back to pong

The "bad eggs smell" is really bad today, and seemingly floating south down the Stoke valley in the light southerly wind. The worst it's been yet. What a nauseating way to start the key 'back-to-school day' for the kids and nervous parents. If it is the Silverdale tip, as everyone assumes it is (though I've seen nothing by way of proof on that, and it might not be the ultimate source) then I wonder if the site is trying to vent the gases 'first thing Monday morning', before some sort of inspection later today? The Sentinel reports there's finally to be a emergency meeting of councillors, MPs and others, seemingly this week, though no date is given by the paper.