Professor Greenhouse and the Eigg conservation project.
Two totally unassociated subjects that I picked up off the wireless this morning. I missed the 5.20am Shipping Forecast and the BBC Sounds app wouldn’t let me play it back as it was too close to the end of the programme. However Farming Today at 5.45 was just starting and I figured that more than made up for not hearing whether there were gales around Rockall.
I think this is one of the better Farming Today’s I’ve heard. The first article was about a 1,500 acre cattle farm on the Isle of Eigg. Grazing on Eigg is not particularly good as you might imagine so the farmer supplemented her income with land management grants from some conservation body. It was very pleasing to hear that the outcome has been a proliferation of wildflower meadows and consequently insect life. Cattle have to be kept off the area for chunks of the year.
Land was fertilised with seaweed and one year there was a glut of twin lambs born. This is not as good as you might imagine as the smaller lambs are susceptible to attack by seagulls and ravens. Farmers preferred a single strong lamb. Good to know.
The second article was about the food supply chain. Farm to table. It wasn’t really as interesting as the first and I drifted off.
The reference to Professor Greenhouse stems from an item on the Today Programme. I have no idea what it was all about as I tend to switch my brain off these days when that comes on the wireless. Too many mentions of orange Americun politicians that stress me out.
Anyway I heard the name of the aforementioned Prof and said to THG “hot stuff”. Quick as a flash she retorted “unless the greenhouse is unheated”. V good I thought. One of the enduring features of our marriage is that we laugh at each others’ jokes :).
So this morning I am dressed and up early. Waay before Thought For The Day triggered the action. At eight fifteen I have even finished my brekkie. A very excellent smashed avocado with chopped chillies and a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar on sourdough with a side of bacon. THG spoils me for which I hope she knows I am grateful.
My only schoolboy error this morning was to forget to bring my phone downstairs. This means I will have to wait before crossing another day off my “sleeps to go” countdown blackboard and refreshing my Facebook wallpaper. For the record it is four sleeps to go.