Recession.

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Regarding sunshine as a necessary requisite for happiness is a curiously British thing, presumably because it is so unpredictable here.


Well, yes, and no. Think Finns and Seasonal Affective Disorder. Actually, maybe it's just a Finn thing, as I have had the 'pleasure' of working with a seriously depressed Finn, and she was no better in an SA summer than she was at other times of the year. Or perhaps that was because she spent the summer slip, slop, slapping (slip on a t shirt, slop on the sun screen, slap on a hat, and always sit in the shade) and became Vit D deficient.

I soon began to appreciate why so many countries of the world regard heat as a curse and rain as a blessing. The Bible always refers to rain as a blessing for the same reason.


We have had rain for the past few weeks. I knew it was coming, despite the dire predictions coming from the forecasters, as the plants were behaving quite differently from how they have behaved over the past few years. Dog roses, in particular, are covered in hips, which we collect to feed to the horses, and there just haven't been any to collect for the last three or four years.
So everyone is madly seeding paddocks, lawns have sprung back to life, and water tanks are filling.


imagine how it must feel to have nothing but sunshine for years - not quite the blessing we all wish for in our more flippant moments!

Turn on tap and no water comes out. Check pumps. Run hand down outside of tanks to see where the temperature changes, indicating water level, and find that tank is hot all the way to the bottom. Hope that we can get a tanker load of water delivered before the animals dehydrate, or I have to resort to filling 20 L containers from my tap in town.

Invent continually more ingenious ways of getting grey water to garden without neighbours finding out and dobbing you in to the Council.

Spend increasingly higher proportion of hard earned wages on feed for the four legged members of the extended family because there is no grass for them to eat, and hope that hay supplies don't run out before the rains/grass return.

Try not to get too paranoid about any freckles/moles that appear on your skin.

Still wouldn't swop it for life back in Surrey .

xxxx

[blondie95]

your quite right about the sunshine only a temporary lift. Yes it is lovely being stuck in the depths of winter knowing you have a week in the sun appearing at the end of it! I love the seasons we get here, especially Autum i just wish that when summer arrives we get a bit more than the odd day of sunshine to boost our souls!

[englishangel]

Autumn! pah.

THIS is my favourite time of year, all the burgeoning new life, the blossoms, the little green shoots on the trees. I live in the country and within a mile we have foals, calves and lambs in the fields.

[Fjgrogan]

Re the comments above - I know all about SAD - I have had it for years, long before I had any connection with Finland. However so has my Finnish son-in-law - or it may just be that he is depressive anyway? He is a lovely person, but i have observed that his body works in the same way as mine, in tune with light and dark, so he goes to bed early and gets up early, quite the opposite to my daughter who is a late night and lie in person - that is until she has to cope with a newborn needing 3-4 hourly feeds! Anyway this winter they bought a light box - don't know if anyone actually used it. All Finnish children get vitamin D drops provided. In fact even when the snow was thick on the ground the light levels were good - clear blue skies and sunshine, so not as much of a problem as I had expected. So (in a desperate bid to get back on topic!) perhaps we should all get back to following nature - life as it was pre-electricity etc - easy for me to say, I don't have to contend with earning a living in the rat-race! But I sometimes feel that we have become too dependant on the perks of modern life. The money saving credit crunch tips advocated in the media all seem to be things that we have been doing most of our lives to make ends meet. My latest ploy is to save up newspapers and compress them into 'briquettes' for the fire - I haven't actually started doing it yet, but we are beginning to disappear under mountains of newspapers most of which I haven't actually read, so we are becoming a fire risk, and the chimneys urgently need sweeping.

Yes, Spring is good - I normally have a mini-manic phase about now; this year things are out of sync because of the trip to Finland and coming back with what I now think probably is flu, though not of the swine variety. However Autumn is still my favourite - it feels like a time for new beginnings - I used to claim that in a previous existence I must have either been Jewish or an academic! If I 'spring-clean' at all, I do it in the Autumn.

[Jo]

I'm with Mary on this - spring for me. I used to like summer best, but - how sad is this? - I find the years go by so quickly now, that summer is over before I realise it, so I prefer spring because there is still the anticipation of summer to come!

Sometimes I drive a different route in spring just to see all the primroses on the verges round MK - they, more than any other spring flower, really lift my heart.

I love the autumn colours, so it's a beautiful season visually, but to me it heralds winter, cold weather, nature dying, so I don't like it much for that reason.

[Jude]

Recession - my son & his fiancee have both been made redundant ( they both worked at the same firm - I said at the time all their eggs in 1 basket, but I was ignored as per norm!) For every job here offered there are about 150 applicants - many with post grad qualifications as well as previous experience, however, many are not taken on as the firms know that as soon as a job more suitable to their qualifications comes along they will up and leave. I am too qualified to work on the tills at Stainsbugs or Trashco's let alone the Un-copertive.. Although I currently don't have the energy to even think of working let alone actually doing it!

What I want to know is : food prices have shot through the roof & yet the benefits I get to live on have remained the same! The Bank takes EVEN more of my money for being in the red than before, and the only thing that seems to be going cheap is lager! (30 440ml cans for £10 in Stainsbugs, or £8 in Trashco's). Plus how come the country is on it's knees, and yett he government has awarded itself a 2.3% pay increase?

I understand that I am exceptionally lucky to have the benefits I have (I would much prefer to be able to work for a living though), but I am now in the line of fire as every benefit I am being given is about to be changed, done away with, in the Governments attempts to get us disabled back to work - can someone explain to me how a disabled person can get a job when a qualified person can't? That the Government wants me to do 4 weeks of continuous work to prove I am capable to work (ignoring the fact that I would probaly be fast asleep by day 2, and would have to call in sick for the remainder of the week) - and this capable to work will then enable me to recieve my DLA? Am I just totally stupid, thick, moronic and daft or is this "test" sort of the wrong way around???

Going back to those who have been made redundant - forget your degrees, look only at your work experience and put that in, as any qualifications seem to put prospective employers off! I think they want new staff who they can "mould" to their own ways. Oh well, my cats come first and then the house & utilities and then me - just as well my children are adults really! And before JR starts - I am a VEGGIE and no I would not consider eating cat food in either dry or wet (ugh!) format!I prefer to fill up on water if that is the requirement. If nothing else I am losing weight which is great!

[blondie95]

Re the comments above - I know all about SAD - I have had it for years, long before I had any connection with Finland. However so has my Finnish son-in-law - or it may just be that he is depressive anyway? He is a lovely person, but i have observed that his body works in the same way as mine, in tune with light and dark, so he goes to bed early and gets up early, quite the opposite to my daughter who is a late night and lie in person - that is until she has to cope with a newborn needing 3-4 hourly feeds! Anyway this winter they bought a light box - don't know if anyone actually used it. All Finnish children get vitamin D drops provided. In fact even when the snow was thick on the ground the light levels were good - clear blue skies and sunshine, so not as much of a problem as I had expected. So (in a desperate bid to get back on topic!) perhaps we should all get back to following nature - life as it was pre-electricity etc - easy for me to say, I don't have to contend with earning a living in the rat-race! But I sometimes feel that we have become too dependant on the perks of modern life. The money saving credit crunch tips advocated in the media all seem to be things that we have been doing most of our lives to make ends meet. My latest ploy is to save up newspapers and compress them into 'briquettes' for the fire - I haven't actually started doing it yet, but we are beginning to disappear under mountains of newspapers most of which I haven't actually read, so we are becoming a fire risk, and the chimneys urgently need sweeping.

Yes, Spring is good - I normally have a mini-manic phase about now; this year things are out of sync because of the trip to Finland and coming back with what I now think probably is flu, though not of the swine variety. However Autumn is still my favourite - it feels like a time for new beginnings - I used to claim that in a previous existence I must have either been Jewish or an academic! If I 'spring-clean' at all, I do it in the Autumn.

h2b suffers from SAD and we bought a light box before christmas, i have to admit its quiet nice to have gradual light come on in the room in the mornings rather than the sudden sound of the alarm and then opening the curtains. For the 30mins before the alarm goes off the light on the box increased and it does mean you naturally stir rather than the shock awaking because of the alarm clock. I have also put lighter curtains up so more natural light comes in in the morning. H2B is early to be and early up whereas Im early to bed and then cold stay there for a good while in the morning as long as someone brings me a cup of tea!!!

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

One clever little use for the "Useless", is to cut BOTH ends off your tin cans, and then put them over young seedling plants, such as lettuce --- helps 'em to grow and keeps slugs and Snails off. --- better than Slug Pellets which poison whatever eats your slugs ------ I have Toads ! (An adult Toad -- Bufo Bufo -- can eat half its own weight in slugs per night ! !)

Apropos SAD -- are we still on Topic ? I am the opposite --- I tend to go to sleep, or sulk, in my outside Sauna !

We have 5 Pensions, between us, and no children at school. An ideal situation, you might think ---- but wait until they start Means Testing Pensions ! !