Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

I've got Handsome today. Lovely neighbour is doing a course at work - How can we be even more inclusive and accepting of each other at work and left leaning in general without actually falling over. That horseship leaves me cold. I wonder if I'd be able to keep my mouth shut if my job foisted that on me. Think I need to do some sort of self-employed something...

How can we be left leaning if there is no right? They both look similarly corr similar these days.

Neighbour's lucky. They can smile, nod and think about something else, like the

perversity of radish culture. Back in the day, I used to find myself on 'bonding' exercises; like we never bonded in the past? Anyway, the last one found us in a field armed with only balloons, a big ball of string and scissors, with a hurriedly typed instruction to "make a chair capable of supporting a human." 

Well, we sussed that quickly, using an overhanging branch for extra support, and as I was by then only on a temporary contract, I boogered-off home. The rest had themselves disqualified for using the tree! That was basically our philosophy, though. 'Whatever crazy stuff management throws at us next, think of ways to subvert it!'

Boring, hot, sunny forecast, so here's a picture, shot last night, showing how low the River Barle is on Exmoor.   I didn't take it; only edited to remove the worst excesses of iPhone processing! 

YoungBlueEyes

Gawd that balloon story made me laugh Dusty  

River Barle - that's upsetting. Is that lower than normal for this time of year, or is that exceptional?

I'll put this at the bottom cos I'll prolly delete this bit tonight after dinner, don't wanna frighten the horses.
Lovely neighbour is one of the people you end up on the phone to when you need counselling/mental help. She works in a team of 6 or 7. They never saw each other (pre wosname) because they had seperate rooms and worked different days. But now they all permanently work from home. Anyway. A new woman started who's lovely apparently - good at her job, happy to be there, a real breath of fresh air. They all talk on messenger apps and zoom etc. But as soon as the computer realised that new woman isn't white it kicked them all on to a course about being inclusive of other's cultures and feelings (or some such). New woman is English, her mother is Brazilian. Only lovely neighbour and new woman ticked yes to attend the course. Cost of this farce..? £a few k. Yep that's your NHS dollars at work folks. 

Dustyevsky

The River Barle does drop to that sort of level most years. It copes fine at that point, because there are no sewage works upstream. The same can't be said further down or on our local small river that's even more variable. There are no large bogs here to store and release water gradually, like there are on the moor. Another issue is the water people take from the underlying rocks through private boreholes. On old maps, our stream here has watercress beds, but now it dries out by June.

I was teaching the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the 1980s before all diversity stuff became trendy. It was part of our local history, so as a school we saw its importance. I tried to teach it in a balanced way, because there were rights and wrongs on both sides.  I only had one complaint in around 20 years. That was from a black Mum. When I asked what I was getting wrong, she replied, "All of it, our family don't want to talk about slavery days to our kids." It was an opinion as valid as any other, I suppose, but I couldn't offer much in the way of help. After all, we had German, and Japanese kids too, and we covered WW2 most years. Our city was only bombed because the RAF destroyed a similar city in Germany first, and the kids knew that. We got off lightly compared with their residents.

Teach it, I say, warts and all. Never think you fully understand it all, though, would be.the idea I'd want to put across. Very hard to convey the feelings of times past, or times present in a different locality.

Farway

Wow, this thread zoomed on since I last looked.

Dusty, your pic has vanished, nothing there, copyright fail?

I'm glad I left work before all this inclusion arrived, all we had in my latter working years was whatever latest management fad was around, 360 degree reviews I remember, Team Briefs for the latest pep talk, it was also the start of PowerPoint presentations, so every thing came with loud horrible pounding "music" plus every effect that was available, proving that just because you can doesn't mean you should

It was also the start of BS Bingo and internet, so we were able to download BS Bingo cards from t'net

Radishes, I wish I were an expert, I was when I was twelve , my 6d Bees packet from Woollies used to provide loads of French Breakfast radishes, I've never had much success since. Which is why I'm chuffed with this lot. Supposed to be pink and mild, we'll see

FWIW I just sprinkled on the surface, scuffed them around a bit & watered. I think water will be the secret this weather, I can imagine them frying in the sun

I've moved the flat French beans out into the sun, hoping to plant out next week

The two surviving dahlia cuttings are coming along, maybe get them into the final large pot this weekend?

Tied up my Regale lilies, it's their first year of flowering, came a last year's birthday present so pleased to see them

And, following on another thread by AR, these are my wild strawberries, which I know now are Fragaria Vescans

-taff

Hmmm..I dunno. In my case, until BLM [and while I was thinking I wasn't racist] I discovered I did indeed use racist language, not anything you'd be ashamed of using, but I did use language that wasn't great, in the same way you'd call someone a silly girl [various intonations yes, but think boss to worker] to undermine them subtly, it was that kind of thing. I'm glad I realised to be honest. Although these courses are never going to change the kind of people who say, I'm not racist, my best friend is black....

Another scorcher, the tree is slowly disappearing, I have sown some goats beard but the purple kind which I have just found out is salsify [ seeds came from a friend where they just appeared out of nowhere in her garden] so I hope it can go for a short and productive life in the front garden to make more...

ArbitraryRandom

Pre pandemic, I'd go on any training course they wanted to send me on as long as they paid me my time. I don't really care what I'm doing with the time they've bought. In one ear and out the other most of the time anyway. 

Nowdays it means travel/leaving the house... so I'm more resistant. But I can still be tempted if it means an overnight stay/cooked breakfast and the chance to meet up with some old friends in the evening with work paying at least half the bar bill

Pollen is horrible again today - Watered the plants first thing (6am) then retreated back inside. I swear it was coming off the grass in clouds as the kitten romped around.

Forecast is rain at about 5, then on and off until Tusday next week. Thinking about having a bbq with the folks in a couple of weeks so my 'extended no mow May' will probably come to an end then. Will strim it long (too much junk still hidden in the grass really to mow), and I've got a giant lidded bucket to make bin juice with the raking (based on the advice not to put any bits of bind weed in the compost). 

YoungBlueEyes

Yep agreed, and your last paragraph there is bang on.

I can see what these courses think they're doing, but their actual affect must be minimal at best. And such a lot of money too.

It's tricky all the way round I think. When people would say "you've got to document and remember this, you can't forget the past, we MUST REMEMBER!! Daddy would always say "why? It doesn't do a damn bit of good, and people 'forget' when it suits them anyway". However many dead that were lucky enough to be buried after the Great War can hardly have been cold before round 2 started, not much remembering there....

OTOH I can see where your black mum was coming from. Sometimes you just want to leave something behind and start again, what good is it to be bringing it up and reliving it all the time? Mum tried to be as English as she could possibly be when we came to England - a fresh start should be just that. Why take the chance of a new life if you're gonna spend it dragging your history and misery with you? Granda could do hours on 'what the perfidious english did to us for 800 long years', at what point do you let it go...? I never suffered the Potato Famine and your black mum was nowhere near a slave ship. People should be allowed to let it lie. 

So, yes. Teach it, teach all the sides and rights and wrongs as far as can be ascertained to be true. But don't be ramming it down people's throats. 

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

Dusty, your pic has vanished, nothing there, copyright fail?

Still there for me.   Don't think my SiL has put copyright on it!

YoungBlueEyes

Sorry I took too long typing my previous post cos Handsome is being puppyish The 'last paragraph that was bang on' was Dusty's ha haa! I think I'd prob be the same as you taff, I'm not a racist but put me under the right microscope and I'm someone would pick me up on something....

Anyway. I must check my strawbs (wondering what kind they are now, poss Fragaria Vescans..? I'll go get a pic) They were already here when we moved in so they might be actual wild ones...
Ooh I wonder what your lilies will look like Farway? That's such a lovely idea for a present eh  

And as for the rain.... can one of you, any of you, please shoo some up this way!

YoungBlueEyes

Just to put the icing on lovely neighbour's course story - she's just text me. New woman got a lift there with a friend and it turns out lovely neighbour knows her! They used to work together in the prisons a few years ago. As there's no teacher/mentor/overseer making sure they're having fun properly they've all sacked it off and are coming home. They'll all be at mine by lunch time because they're bladdy good fun and lovely neighbour thinks I'd like them. 

Wondering if I can bill you lovely taxpayers the nhs for the lunch. I don't know BoJo, if that makes a difference?