A little personal addendum to the global warming posts. Four mornings a week I drive from Letchworth Garden City, through the small neighbouring town of Hitchin & out into the North-East Herts countryside to visit my mother (90 years old a couple of weeks back) in her nursing home between the villages of Shillington & Pirton.
The winding lanes between Hitchin & Pirton Hall are flanked by huge fields, all sown with traditional root crops. All are now fully ripe & this morning I saw a combine harvester in the middle of one of the biggest fields, having already cleared half the wheat. With activity this early, presumably the harvest will be fully gathered, weather permitting, within the first two weeks of August.
Leaning out over the long, straight lane that leads to & past the back of Pirton, there are two beautiful beech trees. In the winter their great spray of branches streams back & away from the lane like hair in the wind. In the summer, both trees standing close the edge of the road & on the crest of a gentle rise, their limpid green leaves stand out clearly against blue skies. I noticed a couple of weeks back that the leaves were already beginning to turn. This morning the vivid green has turned almost entirely to brown &, for a stretch of the lane either side of the two beeches, dead leaves were blowing.
Iíll report again in late September, the time of year at which one might reasonably expect clear evidence of the onset of autumn. By then I assume that both of the beeches will be bare.
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Those who enjoy their soccer matches spiced with a little attendant violence should turn their attention away from the British terraces & look further afield. Last week a football match in South Africa ended somewhat abruptly. A coach from the visiting team took exception to the refereeís decision, as, of course, coaches will. On this occasion however, reasonable debate was abruptly terminated when the referee pulled a gun & shot the coach dead.
Next week the South African Premier League goes into action against the background of the arrest of no less than 33 referees & club officials for match-fixing. So much for present delinquencies. In five years time South Africa is to host the 2010 World Cup. As current statistics stand, South Africa has a murder rate 8 times that of the United States. The perfect ingredients for a record-breaking contestÖ
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Police in Beijing were called in to investigate a manís pet collection. It consisted of 20,000 cockroaches. Police in Brazil were taken by surprise when, during an arms amnesty, a woman turned in 1,300 weapons.
11:44:08 PM 
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