Summer.....and How

Summer………. And How

The weather forecasters got it right and the predicted heatwave is upon us. I am still playng boules almost daily in 40+ degrees but can't say I do so with a lot of vigour or enthusiasm. In this sort of weather the time to play boules is about 9.00 at night. The «haute aire» above the Cafe des Sports can be floodlit through a control box we can get at so I'll see if I can drum up some support for boules sessions starting at 9.00.

The pots on the balcony need watering daily but they are giving value for money. The jasmine is doing its nut (see photos) and perfuming the whole area around; it can go on blooming for a couple of months or more so I'm keeping it well watered. 

At the back there is still plenty of colour despite the main roses having finished and the tiger lillies in particular seem to be enjoying the heat. So are the frogs in the river opposite; the noise they make at night is enough to wake the dead. Usually, in the past, they have risen to a crescendo and then all cut out together before starting up again. But they seem to have done away with their orechestra conductor this year and carry on continuously.

Last monday was the feu de la St Jean and it lived up to my expectations this year with mussels and chips and music as wall as the usual bonfire and fireworks. The result was a large turnout of villagers and a good time had by all. Next up is Bastille day on the 12th of July.

I finally managed to get all the documents required for my French citizenship application accepted by the immigration service and was given a date for the next stage, an interview in Grenoble. But it is for October 2021 i'm finding the whole process a bit Kafkaesque.

Ideas

An Ideas Factory?

Looking back on my working life I find that there is a common thread. I worked in various roles in IT and businesses but the common thread seems to be that I was above all paid to think and to think differently (outside the box). That holds true from my days in teaching, through the early fundamentals of computing to drawing up business plans. Thinking originally, differently is what has done it for me, often borrowing ideas from others that related to other contexts. So here are some more thoughts along those lines, of whatever import.

My balcony is an obvious place to have an aperitif or late night drink for much of the year. Up one side I have a honeysuckle growing and over the balcony itself is a jasmine, providing beautiful scent through the spring and summer. Anybody else might have planted the same but the way I came to this is as follows. An American architect, Christopher Alexander, had a significant influence on software development through his ideas on how to use space and to define and connect spaces and I was familiar with his ideas. His prime criterion for how to design within a defined space (my balcony in this instance) is a dependence on how that space is going to be used. I have read that he was given the task of designing a university campus and plotted out the main buildings, halls of residence, lecture theatres, laboratories, etc, but left the canvas otherwise blank (grass actually, between the buildings) and said he would complete that 7-8 months later. When he returned, students had defined paths between the buildings by tramping grass down and also defined areas where they congregated in leaisure hours. He simply endorsed the status quo, creating concrete paths where the students had shown where they were needed and leaving grass areas with tables and benches where students congregated. This was not artistic design but design according to use. Others may well have decided on my balcony plants by another route but this is how I decided on mine.

Friend Steve and I often have discussions of a semi-political nature and recently he said that governments should be care ful not to tax the rich too luch because then they might decide to migrate and they paid the most tax. I said no they didn't and Steve, being a friend, rather than tell me to piss off said something like «well I must have been misinformed«. It was a misunderstanding. Steve was talking about the tax individuals paid and I was talking about the revenue that the Exchequer receives. Leaving aside for the moment tax avoidance and how much tax rich individuals actually pay, the open question is what is the importance to the Exchequer of tax paid by the rich? We're still looking for data on that, to test my off-the-cuff contention that if all the rich buggered off it wouldn't make that much difference to the Exchequer.

I had a follow-up thought. Tax avoidance is obviously a reason many tax specialists/accountants are hired. So what if all such costs above some earnings threshold, say £100,000 for an individual and £1m for a company, were made non tax-deductible? There would obviously be a bun-fest on cost attribution but could that have a useful impact? I don't know but it's a thought. My focus on tax currently is, incidentally, because that is what I believe that Brexit is fundamentally all about; all the rest is theatre to sidetrack the plebs.

A final thought for football fans. Technically gifted players get fouled constantly. In the last season in the UK Hazard and Saha were the most fouled players in the Enhllish Premier League. Some of the fouls are no doubt unintentional but there are fairly obvious attempts to avod red and yellow cards by spreading the fouls out between defenders. Referees already keep count of the number of fouls committed by a player, issuing yellow cards to repeating defenders. So what if they also kept account of he number of fouls commited against one player, with a ruling that, for instance, the fifth foul against one individual automatically incurred a yellow card irrespective of the player who committed that foul? It might be unfair to the player committing the foul but would protect technically gifted players (whom everybody wants to see display their skills) and would send a message that such players can't be taken out of a game by fouling them.

Ah well, just thoughts.

Summer Musings

Summer

Summer is here, even if the weather doesn't seem quite sure about it. We've recently had very hot days and warm but overcast days in almost equal measure. Rain is often threatened but rarely materialises, which means I've spent a lot of time watering. The results are definitely worthwhile, however, with bot front (pictured below) and back looking good. My numerous clematis, mostly blue (fancy that) are in full bloom in both the front and the back, as are the fuchsias and the pelargoniums and, at the back, the campanulas (blue again). Come on Chelsea!

Also, for reasons unknown to me; the honeysuckle this year, of which there six front and back, seem to have found their perfect conditions and have run riot.  The perfume at the front is overwhelming and those at the back have combined with climbing roses to break the pillar and arch over which they climb. That is going to be a major job in the autumn.

Summer doesn't begin officially here until the 24th of the month (don't ask), with the fêu de la St Jean. There follows a whole month of celebrations of various sorts which I find enjoyable and look forward to, as well as the weekly Saturday market throigh to the end of August and the mussels and chips sessions on Thursday evenings. Bring it on.

Musings

I keep wondering what makes plants either perennial or annual in different places. If the winter kills them, obviously they must be regarded as annual but I can't understand what it is about winter that kills some plants and not others. Temperature doesn't seem to explain it entirely and neither does position and I wonder if humidity has a rôle. For instance, marigolds, antirrhinums, larkspur and california poppies all proved to be annual when I grew them in England but are generally perennial here despite winters reaching much colder temperatures. On the other hand, winters are drier here. I shall just have to muse on.

UK politics also occupy much of my musing. I remember a time when political debate was subject to thought. Now lies, fantasies and illusions seem to be the order of the day. As Saul Bellow once remarked «Great intelligence is invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep». The front-runners to replace Theresa May as PM and leader of the Conservative party, the traditional home of prudent economics, all propose a no-deal Brexit to wreck the economy and tax cuts and extravagant spending as a way out. To ensure that the democratic Brexit vote is implemented, it is proposed to suspend democratic parliament. Meanwhile the Labour party, almost certain to win the next general election in spite of itself, unless there is a hung parliament (please God!), is tearing itself apart. My mistake in my musings here is probably to try to apply any sanity to the situation.

There has been one disturbing legal development. A private prosecution of Boris Johnson for deliberately lying to the public when in high public office was thrown out by the High Court. The Court has yet to give its reasons. An initially suggested reason, that it was because the case was politically motivated, surely cannot be true. That would give the green light to all public officials to lie ad nauseam. I shall be interested in the Court's explanation for its judgement.