THAT WAS A WEEK THAT WAS

So how many of us have made plans to do something nice only to have a spanner thrown in the works and spoil them?  I should be used to it by now, I mean here I am 80 years of age and I should have known there’d be a spanner lurking somewhere.  This particular spanner turned the whole of the week into right pain. But hey I’d better start at the beginning.

We have had some odd weather up here so Saturday morning I said we were going into the city for lunch. 

The drive in across the mountains was warm and we felt relaxed even talked about stopping off at Club Nautique for a drink on the way home.  When we arrived, we found the city packed. The sun had brought out everyone to stroll around and sit at the cafes. After parking the car we also wandered round the streets heading towards the indoor market, with the intention of sitting outside in the square having a coffee and generally watching the world pass by.  Boy what a surprise! The market was still there but the stalls which used to be outside in the square were gone, it was just a few coffee tables to one side now which didn’t appeal to us as the atmosphere was no longer there.  Deciding we wanted a coffee elsewhere, we headed down past the roman ruins found a café and sat, like others, watching the world pass by. It was then I noticed it was getting near my time for food and tablets.  So, we decided to head back into the Centre Commercial and a nice little restaurant we know.   However, (and here we go) it was packed to overflowing, with ques waiting for a table.  We had a wander round and found another restaurant, which as it turned out was my undoing.

I can’t say we were impressed with the food. My wife ordered a goats cheese salad only to have a plate of lettuce with a very thin slice of cheese on top and 4 little tomatoes.  I had monkfish which I thought was under cooked but I ate it anyway, then we went home. I didn’t eat much on Sunday and that night I found out why.

I woke in the early hours in great pain, my stomach was not happy.  I spent most of the night in the bathroom bringing up whatever I tried to keep down. I couldn’t even keep water down and the pain was agonizing.  Eventually I managed to get back to bed but I was washed out, in pain and couldn’t get comfortable.  Whatever it was just could not get past the tumor. Next morning my wife went to the surgery and made an appointment with the emergency Dr, as there was no way I was going to the hospital. I saw the Dr and it was then we worked out I had food poisoning, (process of elimination) hindsight is a wonderful thing. Phew that was a close one, I had visions of operations and such because nothing was passing that bloody tumor. 

Now to add insult to injury I was due to have a vaccination that day and whilst waiting for the Dr I saw the nurse. I explained that I wasn’t feeling up to having the jab with my stomach like it was.  But nurses are sneaky people, she asked the Dr if it was ok to give me my vaccination, Dr said yes (both ladies) and she promptly got the needle and that was it jab done… I asked if my wife could have hers (after all this is an older persons vaccination and hey share and share alike) only to be told my that my wife being younger than I am she would have to wait as they “were doing the oldies first” …. I should have taken Stanley Saunders with me he’d have sorted it out.      

M D Bosc…… Author

TO LINKEDING AND BEYOND

To LinkedIn and Beyond

I have to say I am flattered that people on LinkedIn are looking at my work profile and wondering if I would like to submit a resume for an interview. However, I’m sorry to say but I am well past my sell by date, being 80 years of age.  Plus there’s my health problems – a stomach tumor and I have Parkinsons – so I’m afraid I’m no longer available, but it’s nice to know people would be interested in my applying.

Now I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me I have a great team of Doctors/Specialists looking after me here in Spain.  I’m enjoying my retirement and writing, playing Petanca, going on little trips or just having a coffee at one of the river bars and watching the world go by. The hardest part for me is having to learn to relax and take it easy instead of being on the go like I used to be. My only complaint is that because of the tablets I’m taking I can no longer enjoy a drink, even the odd glass of wine has an effect, and we live in a wine growing area bwaaaa!

However, there are lots of lovely little wineries around and if I can’t drink my wife can, but her favorite drink is coffee made with cold milk which surprisingly is very refreshing. She has also found a beer that would pass as ‘stout’ in the UK, and its only 2.50euros a glass.

Life can be very strange at times, besides writing I am now more aware of the forest than before.  Yes I wander around the finca and do little bits here and there, but it’s the watching of the wildlife that brings me joy.  Our bedroom window looks out onto my wife’s garden which is built around an old – and I do mean old – olive tree. She wouldn’t let it be dug up when the bungalow was built and I’m glad she stuck to her guns.  The birds that I can see hopping around the trunks and branches of the tree are many.  We have Robins, Blackbirds, Thrushes, various members of the Tit family plus the local birds, Golden Eagles, Fish Eagles, Red and Black Kites, which we see flying above and around the masa.

So thank you once again to those on Linkedin for considering me employable. You made an old man feel young again.

M D Bosc…Author

Gardening, Cricket and all that

So yesterday I was in my office in the ffz (fly free zone) enjoying the afternoon sun and it’s warmth, when a voice from the house said “when does cricket start?”

Of course it’s April and the start of the county cricket season. So I had a look and there they were Essex playing Nottinghamshire. Now this is the time of year when I have ‘a bit of trouble Betty’ as some days Essex are playing when I go to petanca. However, my wife is a cricket fan and supports Hampshire….she likes Emily. When we first heard her she was just starting to commentate and sounded to us oldies like a little girl (well anyone 40 odd years younger than us does) anyway I digress. How she fitted into that part and became my wife’s favourite commentator says a lot. So I can now go to petanca and leave my wife to listen and report on the action when I get home. Mind you there are times when it doesn’t work like when she wants to go to the garden centre or shopping. But then she brings her tablet and so can listen to it whilst we’re out.

As for the garden well it’s a bit hit and miss at the moment. There’s a lot of things she wants to do but getting started seems to be hard. However I know after 58 years of marriage one morning I will find her elbow deep in sorting things out. As she said her days of jumping up and dashing to get stuff done are loooong gone.

So whilst I’m sitting here relaxing in the ffz listening to the game between Essex and Nottingham I can hear activity in the kitchen…. lunchtime looms.

M D Bosc
Author

Weather and the Garden

I don’t know how many of you have noticed but something strange is happening to the worlds weather patterns.  Places where there used to be balanced weather patterns are now either becoming arid or very wet.  Anyway, it’s still a topic that crops up no matter where you are. 

Here in Catalonia the subject has been drought! Last year was hot, very hot indeed with very little if any rain during the summer.  My wife could be heard telling her flowerpots “Make the most of this no more for two days.” And this went on throughout the summer, as she dished out the water to ensure her bulbs, shrubs etc., survived the heat.  However, we learnt a lesson regarding the bulbs. Up here they need water and the occasional feed during their dormant time, as unlike in the UK we don’t get a lot of rain so the ground dries out and goes like rock. When they appeared this year, they were on the small side with the Hyacinths looking more like Blue Bells. But we’ve had quite a lot of rain these past few weeks and everything has literally gone “water, quick drink and grow” and they have.  Tulips that looked as though they wouldn’t grow very well have taken off and there are some blousy red ones showing their stuff. In between these were yellow ones which first of all looked as though they wouldn’t do more than bud and flower in the leaves. Then the rain arrived and the next thing these tulips were on tallish stems and waving around enjoying the weather. 

The Roses leafed and are in bud even her cacti are budding up. Our two varieties of Jasmine are out and the bank is filling with blue and white Iris soon to be joined by the Lillies. A small bed under the bathroom window is giving off the magical scent of the Fuchsia which drifts around the evening air.  These are the only flowers my wife picks as there are an abundance of them.  They multiply like rabbits, so every year she digs some up and gives them to various people and our Petanca clubs garden. Thing is, although she will dig the bulbs up and check the soil to make sure none are left, next year she finds theres always one or two that escaped.  Her Saffron bulbs have been moved into the FFZ (Fly Free Zone) so that the wild boar cannot decimate her supply. That morning, I found they had attacked her garden bed dug up and eaten nearly 40 bulbs was horrible. What she wasn’t going to do to them, then she cried because I wouldn’t let her set up a machine gun…..but eventually she came back down and taking the remaining bulbs planted them in her tubs and close to the house with the result of so far so good.

As for the weather, well at this moment the river Ebro is doing a very fine impression of The Big Muddy.  Water is flowing fast and furious down towards the Med taking trees and other flotsam along with it.  The river road is, in some places, looking a trifle dubious. The river is cutting into the bank and it would not surprise me if in places the road fell in because of being undercut.  But at least the rain is mostly at night. It’s wonderful waking up to that fresh dust free air, watching the birds hopping about in the Olive tree looking for insects. Seeing the mist forming as the sun dries off the ground causing the steam to rise.  Feeling the warmth of the sun as it gets going and warms the roof of the FFZ.

It will soon be time to string the solar lights in the walnut tree and enjoy evenings outside watching the stars. Wonder if Olly the Little Owl is still around? Oh well enough musing, back to work.  Clearing in the Forest is my Fantasy Historical Novel.  Set in the Middle Ages, it tells the story of three children born out of wedlock to a Norman Baron and a village girl. Magic and history rolled into one.

M D Bosc

It’s A Strange Old World

So here we are coming to the end of March and Easter is upon us. In some parts of the world the weather is cold, wet, and very windy. Up here in our little valley in the forest the weather has been changeable to say the least.

Normally at this time of year we have some rain a storm or two, even snow, but this year everything has been a bit off. For a start we have not had any snow, although it has been cold. The temperature has either been very mild, warm, or cold but not consistent. Then there is the rain or lack of. Now being green we rely on it to rain to fill the cisterna’s so we have house water for the year. My wife relies on it to fill her garden cubes, so she has water for the plants for the summer. Catalunya has been in the throws of a serious drought for quite a while and cities like Barcelona are suffering badly. Our advantage is that we are in the Ebro Valley although not near the river so when rain manages to get over the mountains,
we are ok.

February was a month of showers and wind. This brought trees down which gave us wood for next year. However, even though we were careful with our supply from last year, we still had to buy wood for the rest of this year as the weather turned very cold. This changeable weather Galtonia candidams, Iris, miniature Grape Hyacinth, and the little Gaura Lindheimeri along with white and yellow Ganzania were out alongside the river road. I assume they are the result of seeds being blown from various gardens over the years. Then last Monday the rain came again. Far from bemoaning this my wife is positively ecstatic. The rain arrives and outside go the pots of Geraniums and other plants for their spring baths (her words not mine).

I am currently sitting in our Fly Free Zone (a netted covered area which is bug free) typing and listening to the birds. This is where I do most of my work in the summer. Its pleasant and cool until around mid afternoon when the sun is at its hottest, so I then move to my desk where it is cooler.

At this moment in time, I am going through my books for adults and changing them. I once read an article in the Sunday Express that a book reviewer wished there was a bit more sex and not so much “wave crashing.” I could do that I thought and wrote A Soldiers Wind. What I did not realise then (18 years ago) was that you needed the waves crashing, imagination is something a story needs.

Being unwell can either be a blessing or a drudge. For me, with my writing, it has been a blessing. It has given me the time I needed to re-edit my books on social and historical attitudes and ways the world looked at things we today think nothing of.

I am currently going through my gangster stories in The Stanley Saunders series. This is a fairly modern story set in London just after the war.  Its about Stanley Saunders the son of a London prostitute and his growing up in the underworld that prevailed in London after the war. Protecting his mother and learning how to kill without being found out. This was something a government department found she was good at during the war and was used to that end. The first book in the series being A Perilous Future.

So all in all 2024 has been a strange old world so far.

M D Bosc

My books are on Amazon.

Artificial or non human Intelligence

My limited contact with any form of AI. is with chat, Quora, 365 and Word, etc, which seemed to have a very liberal bias in the software and I must admit I was getting a little angry because I like to establish my own ethical, moral or political stand point, based on the legal and general accepted norms of civilised attitude and actions. Inclusivity and modern attitudes to words and social conventions which were in everyday use not so long ago, are now considered heinous by artificial intelligence, clearly this is the intention of the programmers and this got me thinking, a terrible state of affairs. Is it possible that artificial intelligence could not handle human history? if AI is taught human history could it decide who was doing something good or who was doing something bad? alternatively are all these actions simply self centred decisions and could AI understand the concept of human self interest. Or would AI decide that if this was the only way humans think and act upon, would they then decide what is in the best interests of AI and make decisions in the interest of the planet and those organisms that do not have a voice or vote in the ballot box, could AI turn into Gaia and place humans into second place.

Could Artificial Intelligence understand all the atrocities carried out by peoples and countries against others since the beginning of human existence. Where one nations values, beliefs and economic gains have caused the death of hundreds of millions, humans who have been slaughtered, for greater power and economic hegemony. How do you explain to an AI that you believe in a god that is all powerful and caring full of love and compassion and if you do not agree with us we will burn you at the stake, or cut your head off, what does that say about human beings?

How would AI deal with the conundrum of whether to drop an Atomic weapon upon Japan. Was it to save the lives of all the POW’s or the lives of the 2 million allied soldiers it was expected would die during the invasion, or the fact that Japan had killed 40 million Chinese during its invasion of China. Perhaps AI would not have allowed this to happen. In the film Independence Day, an alien invasion tries to steal all the raw materials from this planet, perhaps we are already here and doing it! So do we teach AI what sort of people we are or let the nice kind liberal programmers keep them in the dark, which ever decision is made there can only be disaster for humanity.

M D Bosc Author, on Amazon books and Kindle.

Is Wind Free?

The United Kingdom has invested heavily in wind farms and continues to do so. Almost totally off shore every sandbank or none navigable piece of seabed is now or will be in in the future the home of giant pylons with sixty metre wingspan fans atop producing relatively free energy. Now everything has a cost, and the cost of infrastructure for these giant “Free Electricity” structures means an extra thirty per cent on your electricity bill, but, you are saving the planet!! However, China, India, USA, plus vast numbers of other countries are quite happy to continue destroying the third rock.

The main selling point for these wind farms is they are not producing Carbon into the atmosphere but that is not strictly true. Manufacturing all these machines produces a huge amount of carbon but mostly in other countries so we can keep our hands clean, look at us racing to Net Zero on other peoples sweat and pollution, aren’t we clever. It’s a little bit like Ms Thornburg campaigning in the United Kingdom but not the major industrial economies where the vast proportion of carbon is produced.

There is a saying, you get nought for nought, and the basics of physics is you only get out of something what you put in, so is there a hidden cost to wind power? I used to think that a million wind turbines must be taking something out of the system but there is a vast amount of wind out there. If you look at the UK the amount of wind seems to be increasing rather than decreasing, or are the wind turbines attracting more wind? Clearly there is a natural current which flows up and across the Atlantic, the seas are warmer making the current stronger but lifting it northwards, or is it being attracted to the British Isles by a lower air pressure being produced by the huge number of Off shore wind farms?

Britain is suffering from an endless stream of storms while the Iberian peninsular is suffering drought over large areas, north, central and south. The north west corner still gets its fair share but in the last few years the big storms from the Atlantic have reduced dramatically and few reach across to the Mediterranean coast. You see if storms do not develop in the bay of Lyon matters get worse for the eastern side of the country, so I am wondering if Britain is drawing all the major storms northward making a natural northwards current even stronger? Is your home being flooded for illusory gains, I don’t know, but nobody has carried out any studies to examine the effects of wind patterns or local weather is affected or what affects it has or even how someone’s gain is someone else’s loss it just seems like a good game at this moment in time.

It’s a little like some scientists spraying chemicals, Sulphur Dioxide I believe, into the upper stratosphere to cool global warming, and next year we are all building Igloo’s.

You can always trust an expert.

M D Bosc on Kindle, Amazon.

Aquifers

An aquifer is a body of rock and/or sediment that holds groundwater. Groundwater is the word used to describe precipitation that has infiltrated the soil beyond the surface and collected in empty spaces underground. There are two general types of aquifers: confined and unconfined. Confined aquifers have a layer of impenetrable rock or clay above them, while unconfined aquifers lie below a permeable layer of soil. Many different types of sediments and rocks can form aquifers, including gravel, sandstone, conglomerates, and fractured limestone. Aquifers are sometimes categorized according to the type of rock or sediments of which they are composed. A common misconception about aquifers is that they are underground rivers or lakes. While groundwater can seep into or out of aquifers due to their porous nature, it cannot move fast enough to flow like a river. The rate at which groundwater moves through an aquifer varies depending on the rock’s permeability. Much of the water we use for domestic, industrial, or agricultural purposes is groundwater. Most groundwater, including a significant amount of our drinking water, comes from aquifers. In order to access this water, a well must be created by drilling a hole that reaches the aquifer. While wells are manmade points of discharge for aquifers, they also discharge naturally at springs and in wetlands. This definition from National Geographic.

One of the problems that exist in western Europe is vast areas of land that would normally be able achieve a certain amount of absorption has been taken over for other uses. Housing, everyone needs somewhere to live and also to work which then means you need to be able to travel by road, by train, the list goes on almost endlessly so hundreds of thousands of square kilometres are no longer available for rainwater to permeate down into the top surface. It does not need a very large change in the amount of rainwater to cause a catastrophe virtually every time it rains, because the sub surface never gets the chance to balance out and if it does not rain for a long period the surface becomes hard which makes absorption even more difficult.

Some water companies have drilled bore holes, to take water down from rivers into deep aquifers, but this system needs to be increased dramatically to compensate for mans presence on the surface with immense amounts of concrete preventing water from being absorbed naturally through earth.

It will be necessary to have bore holes that take water down to different levels, so that water can also filter naturally, not just dumping surface water deep into aquifers where water companies then pump it out in the same condition that it arrives there without nature doing some of the work for filtration. We have all seen the problems of flooding in countries right across Europe, and with a greater demand from an ever growing population nature needs to be given a helping hand in moving water from the surface to an area below ground where nature can then be given a chance to carry out its natural cleaning process. Bore holes that empty out at variable depths is the only method that helps nature, and removes excess water from low lying land in times of variations in the weather patterns across western Europe.

Flooding is a regular feature of life at this moment in many parts of the world. Just building walls or putting temporary barricades in place is not the answer as it just move the problem to another area. If you follow the course of the river Rhine you will notice that every time they raise flood defences in one place it floods somewhere else. So we do need to give nature a helping hand in putting water into the ground and not just sealing the surface with houses, building, airports, roads and asphalt.

M D Bosc

Kindle in Amazon

Saving the Planet with Invasive Plants

Invasive Plants That Would Work

Many people who live on the east coast of England suffer from wave erosion. Suffolk, Norfolk, and Yorkshire are the counties which are affected the most by storms breaking in from the North Sea. But this is mainly because the county authorities who have a legal responsibility for coastal defence, have this as a very low priority when deciding their budgets, even though a large proportion of these counties could be washed away.

Hard defences are frowned upon by all the organisations who campaign to save the world but not your homes. Give into nature is the call of all these people, let nature take it’s course, that is alright if you are sitting behind a large tidal barrier in London, so is there another way? possibly there is.

Many plants have been introduced into gardens up and down Britain, plants that have created havoc in localities of an urban nature. Japanese knotweed has spread alarmingly, also Bamboo, there are trees like the Quaking Aspen which has huge root system plus suckers spreading over a vast area. However, in your back garden they become a disaster, damaging buildings and and breaking through walls, so, where is the link?

Land being attacked by wave action and storms needs some help to hold it together. What if a barrier of Bamboo, Quaking Aspen and Japanese Knotweed planted above the high water mark would help to keep the ground together. Clearly they would need to be controlled within a strict environment but erosion would be reduced dramatically, and might even help in some areas to reclaim lost land. These areas would also soak up large quantities of water and lock in carbon on a large scale by growing so quickly, so government subsidies would be available plus this would also be a constant source of employment on the coast and in the countryside.

I live up a hill so it doesn’t effect me, but these people need help, from everyone, because if the doomsters are correct it will come to us all.

Michael Bosc

Plastic Paint

Do you remember some while ago it was discovered that skin care products had microplastics particles, the uproar, how dare they, all the power of government fell on their heads and it was banned, it makes good headlines and shows governments care.

Years ago there was two main types of paint Emulsion which was water based and Oil plus chemical, Solvent based paints, Governments and their technical advisers decided, solvent was bad, especially as all the kids were glue sniffing and all glues were mainly solvent based, stop that, get them on the real stuff, so all solvent based paints were banned.

Today we have mainly water based paint, that helps to promote black mould, two ways, one damps soaks through the walls and the other, most paints have plasticiser in solution so when dry you have a skin of plastic, the problem is this type of paint looses most of its adhesive qualities, so you may have noticed you can now peel paint of the walls just like wallpaper, you therefore have a gap where mould spore can grow and multiply, the professional industry learnt long ago that for paint to be effective it needed to be glued onto its base, it lasted a lot longer and protected that product, most mass production paint is applied by electrostatic, which solves their problems but it does not solve your household problem, you can buy anti-mould paint which is not very effective, does not last long, and you still have to use bleach and disinfectant.

That is one problem, the other is of course, Plastic, what happens to all the billions of gallons of paint that has plastic in solution that you put on your walls and ceilings and then scrape it off and repaint, what happens to all that dirty water after cleaning brushes and rollers that goes down your drain, why are chemical companies allowed to plasticise paint, where does it all go to? I am sure they will find an expert to tell you it is safe, if it was not safe in skincare products, which ends up in rivers and the sea then surely it is not safe going down the drain and dumped into landfills leaching into the aquifers and sewage that ends up flowing down your rivers and then into the sea.

Did you know that ninety percent of all aluminium produced by humans is still in use, why you ask? because there is an economic pressure to recycle, the power to produce aluminium is immense and expensive, plastic on the other hand is cheap and there is no economic incentive to recycle, just social pressure and of course preventing ourselves from destroying ourselves, when your vital organs are blocked with plastic after eating all that healthy fish, and drinking bottled water, plastic bottles of course, then you drop down dead, will we learn, I doubt it, Humans are stupid, do they deserve to exist?

Now that is a question.

M D Bosc