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A bite at the cherry
High summer is the peak fruiting time for the sweet cherry, Prunus avium, and although like most foods these days they’re not cheap (approximately £10 per kg/£5 per lb), I …
The bad guys
As catastrophic global heating and the wholesale destruction of the natural world gather unstoppable, exponential momentum and the inarguable evidence of the imminent collapse of our one and only biosphere …
Let us pray
Our sky-God, who art a metaphorFor those who can’t face death,Thy kismet come,Thy luck be doneIn Wales, as it is for everyone else.Give us this once a fluky winAnd overlook …
It’s a lovely day tomorrow
If it’s cock-eyed optimism, all’s-well-with-the-world sanguinity, head-in-the-sand hopefulness and Pollyanna positivity you’re looking for – you’ve come to the right place! Compiled especially for the clinically depressed who can’t bear …
The F Word
The Tories routinely misapply, debase, distort and tarnish the word ‘freedom’ to the point that their definition of it is the polar opposite of the concept’s time-honoured, peer-reviewed, critically accepted …
Frying tonight
The consequences of a one-megaton nuclear bomb* First, a dazzling white light suddenly appears. This is the light of the fireball, a light unlike any light seen before, a blinding …
Sometimes I don’t feel like writing
Achieving biodiversity is not difficult. For instance, there are 40 different plant species thriving in my back garden of only 48 square metres (510 square feet). In one way or …
Eat the rich
Any nation state led by a man like Boris Johnson and governed by an organisation like the Conservative & Unionist Party is quite clearly a failed state; a rogue state …
Farewell my lovely
Cradled in its amphitheatre of hills under a cloudless sky, Bath’s signature oolitic limestone gleamed like gold in the low winter sun as Helen’s family and many friends gathered at …
Fiendish for Yule
Usual rules apply. Solution in January ACROSS1 Alpha male’s wake-up call? (4-1-6-3)7 Play about a broken King Coal (4,4,2,5)8 Female veneer (5)9 Exotic tailpipe in regular use (5)12 Bachelor with …