Hattie & Mary

 Animals have friendships just as humans do

Mary and Hattie are a perfect example of this 

Hattie, as you may remember is the young nurse who used to live in the village by the old post office.

She energetically threw herself into every social activity going. Singing in the community choir, supporting the Women’s Institute and being one of the street wardens during covid as well as being my Church bell co ringer when people used to clap for nurses and every week she used to take Mary out for a long walk and a cuddle.

Hattie and I at the Folk Weekend in the Hall

During lockdown she and her boyfriend moved to the next village in a new build where they’ve had Baby Freya and her absence and cheerfulness has been greatly missed .

Mary hasn’t seen her friend for a year now and went absolutely mental when Hattie leant over the kitchen wall yesterday afternoon to say hello.

Very gently she sniffed at Freya and joyfully joined the family for a long walk, her tale whirling like a helicopter as they made their way down the lanes to the West.

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Soya

A field of soya beans 

There's a lot of unsubstantiated mythology surrounding soya bean production. Back in 1970, annual worldwide production was at 43.7 million tonnes. By 2018 that figure had risen dramatically  to 347.9 million tonnes per annum. Why?

The myth makers and their adherents suggest that it's all down to plant-based diets and the growth in veganism and vegetarianism. However, this is nonsense. Careful analysis by Oxford University demonstrates that the huge growth in soy production is mostly down to the worldwide meat industry. 77% of all soy produced is used in animal feeds. Less than 7% of the soy we harvest goes into human foodstuffs such as tofu, tempeh and soya milk.

Global meat production has tripled in the last fifty years and the acreage of land devoted to soya production has quadrupled. Hence, huge swathes of the Amazon rainforest are now being used for soya farming. It's all about keeping animals fed not about tofu in the supermarket.

Sometimes people believe what they want to believe in spite of the evidence in front of their eyes. We have seen it with COVID  and we see it in relation to how so many gullible Russians interpret what is happening in Ukraine.

And it's the same with soya. By far, its principal use is in feeding animals but I know that those who do not wish to accept this incontrovertible truth will continue to point their fingers at plant-based diets.

By the way, in terms of land use, direct human consumption of soya in its different forms is a far more effective type of nutrition than garnering it from butchered animals raised on soya.  In their short lives animals burn off calories and they defecate and parts of them are not suitable for human consumption anyway. If all soya was harvested exclusively and directly for humans, we would use up far fewer precious acres than when animals are placed in the equation.

There's lots more I could say about the amazing soya bean and the climate issues surrounding it but I am going to leave the subject there for now.

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What was that Scarlett ?

After All Tomorrow is another day…..

 It’s a beautiful sunny day here in Trelawnyd .I’ve moved my little blue table into the front garden to get away from the yapping dogs in the new build and am enjoying Almond Coffee eggs, and hot hot buttered toast -  with my own butter.

I’m ok . 

Yesterday I bought a new lamp for the living room and in a fit of middle aged gay frenzy bought a whole set of plain black accessories for  the new bathroom which will be mostly white with black trim.

I also bought a couple of zombie movies, one of which Infection wasn’t a half bad version even though it had been banned for showing in its native Venezuela.

I binged the movies , ate sushi from the sushi shop outside chester and drank too much gin last night.

Like I said, I’m ok . 

I emailed my ex husband too and wished him and his fiancé well.

The village is busy this morning. There is a coffee morning in the Hall and the shenanigans between the Community Council and the Community Association over the future of the hall seems to be quietening somewhat so I hope the recent discourse is approaching its end. 

There was some talk of it at the shop which now seems to the hub of informal meetings .

On the way back I spied The Velvet Voiced Linda , crossing the road by the hall, bunches of flowers in hand to decorate the tables.

She waved and beamed her big smile.

Affable Despot Jason has just stopped , he’s out walking with Liv and his dogs and took  the piss out of my Italian coffee pot and obvious pretensions 

No brexit here , I told him.

It was nice to see him

Hattie and her new baby are calling up later to pick Mary up for a walk,

My friend Nigel is calling for a chat at 2pm

I’m on nights later 

It’s a nice day x

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