fields in spring and the wonders of plastic

I recently bought a flat screen monitor for the computer and have finally given up on my old enormous CRT screen which is actually still working, so I will keep it as a spare. The only reason that I bought a new one was because it is second hand from a charity shop and cost £7.50. It also came with a keyboard and a couple of speakers. It was sold as seen and as such I did notice a small dink in the bottom right hand corner, possibly the result of a teenage hissy fit, but I'm only guessing here. After I turned the new screen on, the small dink becomes a pleasing spider web shape which I quite like. The only thing I am not sure about are the colours it gives, which when viewing my photos seems to give them a slightly plasticy look. I can probably fiddle around with the settings or I might just get used to them.

Generally I only replace things when they are completely broken, but this has freed up about 90% of my desk space and has given the cat a lot more room to run around hassling me for biscuits. One example of my not replacing things is my amplifier and speakers (wharfedale) which I bought when I was at school in the 1880s, and although the amp no longer has an on/off button that works, it still gives me a lovely loud sound to enjoy when I'm in the mood to listen to lovely loud sounds.

A lot of new things are rubbish anyway, for example the much trumpeted Dyson vacuum cleaner which seems to have been designed in a laboratory by a bunch of men who have never actually used a hoover in their entire lives. The multitude of things wrong with the Dyson become clearly apparent within about ten minutes of using it. None of these problems have ever been spotted by the lab boffins for some reason and the recycling centres have a special graveyard section for unwanted Dysons.

Another thing that seem to be rubbish are the new kettles, which seem to boil themselves into an absolute frenzy before they switch off. I usually give them a helping hand by switching them off myself and saying to them; " Yes, I think you're flipping boiling now" It's probably best not to talk to kettles too much but they can be annoying at times. Do they boil themselves for so long to give an extra bit of money to the power companies? Who knows eh?

the rags of time

Plenty of rain has fallen recently so lots of growth here at the moment producing the tallest bluebells seen for a good few years. Gales heve blown through and battered the flowers but it is good to see so much rain at this time of year as it is right for spring. These pictures were taken at the end of April so the flowers still had a way to go before being fully in bloom. These were taken on Salcombe Hill which is a good steep climb out of Sidmouth and generally not that popular as a walk as you have to go straight up the Salcombe Road and then hang a left, it is very steep climb so not so good for fag smokers and layabouts but popular with the car drivers.

I got slightly lost in these woods a while back and at a particular point couldn't work out why so much rubbish was turning up, some of it very old, some of it very new, when all of a sudden in a crescendo of debris I came over a bank onto the Salcombe Road. For years, as people drive between Sidmouth and Salcombe, they come to this nice hidden wooded part and they throw all the junk out the back of their vans and cars into the woods. Considering this road doesn't really go anywhere very important (Salcombe telephone box is one of the least used in the UK) it is quite a busy little road and everybody seems very much in a hurry to be somewhere else.

I have been reading at the World Press Network Forum lately which has some good links to articles for news and comment on the global financial situation http://worldpressnetwork.net/forum/index.php?sid=0e6d8d981ab9bd4319e0d3323a90cbd0
the Silver Bear Cafe has some interesting articles too;http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/home.html