Jim Webster's Blog, page 26

A really superior species

  Somebody said something to my lady wife along the lines of, “Would Jim be interested in these?” I think the person was talking about horses, or sheep, or something. My lady wife looked at what was being talked about and said, “Oh no, he’s a cowman.” So having dairy cows back is nice. Not …

Chasing the right pheasant

  I was walking round sheep this morning and Sal suddenly went into ‘hunting mode.’ When you’re a small dog and there is a lot of long grass about, this can be tricky. This is especially true as Border Collies tend to be very visual dogs. So she tackles this by either springing up into …

I may consult you later

I never thought I’d mention Sherry Phyllis Arnstein in this blog. To be fair, this is because I’d never heard of the lady. But then I only recently came across her Ladder of citizen participation. Now over the years I’ve taken part in a lot of government consultations. This isn’t a party political thing; I’ve …

Pontifications along a road less travelled. OK so what is university for anyway?

  So you’ve seen the picture, what is it all for anyway? I mean, what is university for? Obviously universities do think that at least part of the reason that they’re there to do vocational training. Otherwise we wouldn’t have them producing doctors, teachers and youth workers. All these professions are very ‘hands on’ and …

Wool gathering

Somebody was commenting about wool prices and how much wool was worth. Well at the bottom end of the market a Herdwick fleece can weigh up to 2kg and is worth perhaps 25pence per kilo. So your hard won fleece could be worth a whole 50p Jacobs, popular with smallholders and others have a better …

The world of cute lambs and the tuna melt panini.

It has been said that the world is a magical place full of people waiting to be offended by something. This is probably true, but today, perhaps by accident, I might not offend anybody at all. I know it seems unlikely but in an infinite universe pretty well anything should be possible. So this morning …

Pontifications along a road less travelled. Shall they fold their tents and as silently steal away?

  Let us imagine a purely hypothetical situation. Because it obviously couldn’t happen could it? I mean, not in a civilised country! But anyway let’s assume you have a young man. In this case stress the young. Oh we not doubting the man part of it, but if he was any younger you’d probably call …

Pontifications along a road less travelled. Kids today, they show no respect.

  I realise I don’t count. Brought up outside town I was driving tractors at the age of eight. At the age of fifteen I just walked out of a whole class detention at 3:45pm precisely explaining that some of us had work to do. I’d promised my father I’d start milking because he needed …

Pontifications along a road less travelled. Citizens, honest toil awaits

Gather round citizens and briefly rest from your labours. But not for long, our new society will not build itself. Refreshed by the stirring words of those who have so heroically marked out our path we shall strive to exceed what we have already achieved. Fellow Stakhanovites we must work without expectation of reward. ‘From …

Pontifications along a road less travelled, but it’s on the website.

  A friend of mine was trying to get hold of her bank. The problem was that you cannot speak to a person, all you get is menus. You now have to email them. They promise they will answer the email after three days, but a week later she was still waiting. She wanted to …