Plastikschleuder

 In the photo, one can see some dark clouds in the background. It was 8:00 pm 20:00 and the threat or better blessing, of thunderstorms, was brewing. It had been another hot day, I think probably another record or two broken somewhere in Germany or Europe.
 
Later, after dark, there were the odd lightning streaks to be seen around us but it didn’t arrive directly over us. But it was humid and at midnight still 22°C on the terrace. Poor old Flash had a restless night and kept waking up and wanting to find somewhere cooler. Sometime after midnight, he had just found a suitable place when I suddenly heard the sound of light rain. It was wonderful lying down, all lights and TV off and listening to the sound which sent me off to sleep for an hour or so. Flash also seemed to be happier but he did wake me up twice in the course of the night: while seemingly having wonderful dreams of galloping over snow-covered fields, his hind legs kept scratching against a wooden cupboard and I assumed he was trying to get up on the tiled floor! Oh well as dawn started I did manage an hour shut-eye again.

 
The pool is now over 30°C such that even for me the horror of the initial descent of the pool ladder, which makes one gasp as the water gets above the knees and heads for the nether regions, has gone. And we aren’t covering the pool at night either.
 
Earlier I had done another round of preserving various food from the garden. More dried tomatoes and pickled gherkins. And then creating a dinner with all sorts of bits and pieces which was great fun. The first courgette of the year, in thin long slices drizzled with olive oil and grilled on the sea salt base left from drying tomatoes earlier and giving a lovely added taste to the dish which used some of the penne and pesto remains from yesterday but this time with lots of parmesan covering a julienne of raw baby carrots and flash grilled to give a crispy tasty cheesy topping. And a glass of red wine to wash it down with.
 
No film tonight but able to laugh about some of the latest antics from the Brexit brigade destructing the UK, the self-destructing Labour Party and topped off by nationalist drum banging from the Home Office. Following the revelation that forced marriages of British teenagerswith Indian subcontinent heritage is leading to illegal immigration and the cries for help from these “brides” are being ignored,  they proudly announced:
"The UK is a world-leader on tackling the horrendous crime of forced marriage, and work to combat it is an integral part of our cross-government violence against women and girls (VAWG) strategy, published in March 2016”
What a load of jingoistic twaddle. The problem has been around for decades and not been dealt with. Just search the Home Office website and see all the “consultation” documents. Alone one UK charity gets 13,000 phone calls a year on problems associated with this. AND teenage brides objecting to their unwanted husbands getting UK visas, do not enjoy anonymity!
I am currently trying to find a sensible and worthwhile outlet to turn my rants into positive action. I am not allowed by UK law to do anything meaningful on the Brexit front or other UK issues. Can’t complain too much about spraying chemicals on plants as most of Europe’s cereals and maize seems to have died from drought.
 
I was reminded this week of one rant that is close to home. In the past, I have often mentioned the plastic that is being washed into our streams and rivers and thus eventually ending up in the Danube, Black Sea, Med, Atlantic, Pacific etc. I suspect many think I am nuts but I was pleased to see that a German university has started a long-term research project here in southern Bavaria into just this problem and there was also a TV news bit about a group of canoe and paddling enthusiasts doing a plastic clean up on the Loisach river south of Munich. The river is of special environmental interest and starts in Austrian Tirol, passes Garmisch, then joins the Isar river south of Munich before passing through the city and then into the Danube.
 
In our village, we have a wonderful  “Schleuder” (catapult) to get large quantities of plastic into our local river. A series of grass and maize silage heaps belonging to a farm. The farm itself is nowhere near and the cows couped up in a dark shed, so it doesn’t worry them about the plastic shreds that are torn off their piles and distributed around the countryside. Now they are building a brand new large one to further add to the problem. The concrete silage bin is now the closest manmade construction to our property. In the photo, the blocks are now up and will be supported by earth walls. The wooden building contains the first silage bin they had – a vertical version that does not require any plastic nor hours and hours of heavy diesel fuelled machinery rolling up and down to force out any air. But these old-style bins are not fast enough at getting the feed from bin to cow mouth. They require a little more time to extract.
 
Just perhaps with my occasional post here on Blip which ends up on Facebook as well as the odd video I have posted to Facebook, might at least shame them to keep the yard and the surrounding countryside tidy. Not much that one can do about the various heaps being a horrible eyesore and negative image carrier for the village and parish. I doubt they would plant trees or bushes to hide them a bit – they are the lot that keep trying to get us to cut down bushes and trees on our property and even illegally cut some down this year.