Peace, potatoes and cocoa

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This is another chapter from my aunt's memoirs where she describes how family and neighbours celebrated peace in the back streets of Derby in 1919 when she was eleven years old.

June 1919

Although hostilities ceased in November 1918, peace celebrations weren’t held until the following June.

Our street being a cul-de-sac, the family next door living in the very last house, we were able to build our bonfire actually on the road. The neighbours living opposite were all delighted and we rummaged around for anything burnable to help the conflagration. Everyone rallied round as they had done during the war. One old lady every time the maroon sounded, had run up and down the street knocking on every front door, calling through the black letter box,

‘Are you up? Isn’t it awful?’

With that kind of spirit we did pretty well and when the enormous bonfire had been built, children and adults sat and stood round until my dad put a match to one side and another fellow lit the other side. Soon there were Catherine wheels spinning on walls and rockets soaring into the air. The boys loved (and I hated) crackers and jumping jacks which darted and exploded.

On the other side of the big brick wall at the end of the street was the railway line. Now and again a train went chuffing by but we were so used to them we hardly noticed. I’ve wondered since if any passengers saw our bonfire, or at least the sparks flying into the air as the men pushed the glowing embers together.

When the bonfire sagged into a heap of red-hot ash, potatoes were dropped in and mothers went into their houses, reappearing with jugs of cocoa for their families. Jugs of beer had been fetched for the men from the outdoor beer licence.

There was much talk and merriment. My dad picked the cooked potatoes out of the embers with a pair of long fire tongs. No potato tastes as good as one roasted in a bonfire. We children were all dropping to sleep as the fire sank and were taken off to bed, leaving the men still talking.

What a night to remember. Little did we think that in twenty years time the peace we were celebrating would once more be shattered by the dogs of war. But that’s another story.

A little thought game

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This isn't new, but I was reminded of it via a Bishop Hill post. 

Below is a section of the transcript for a BBC Radio 4 current affairs show Are Environmentalists Bad For The Planet? First broadcast 25.01.10.

TOWNSEND*: I was making a speech to nearly 200 

really hard core, deep environmentalists and I played
a little thought game on them. I said imagine I am the 

carbon fairy and I wave a magic wand. We can get rid 

of all the carbon in the atmosphere, take it down to two 

hundred fifty parts per million and I will ensure with my 

little magic wand that we do not go above two degrees 

of global warming. However, by waving my magic wand 

I will be interfering with the laws of physics not with people 

– they will be as selfish, they will be as desiring of status. 

The cars will get bigger, the houses will get bigger, the 

planes will fly all over the place but there will be no climate 
change. And I asked them, would you ask the fairy to wave 
its magic wand? And about 2 people of the 200 raised their hands. 

ROWLATT: That is quite shocking. I bet you were shocked, weren’t you? 

TOWNSEND: I was angry. I wasn’t shocked. I was angry 

because it really showed that they wanted more. They didn’t 

just want to prevent climate change. They wanted to somehow 

change people, or at very least for people to know that they had to change.

* Solitaire Townsend Co-founder and Chief Executive of Futerra Sustainability Communications.

The War that Ended Peace

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I recently finished Margaret MacMillan's World War I history book The War that Ended Peace as recommended by David over at duffandnonsense. It covers the people and events leading up to the war rather than the war itself. 

I bought the Kindle version so the maps aren't as useful as they would be in a traditional book, but unless your geography is even worse than mine it should not cause too many problems.

I'm not a great history buff but the book is an excellent read. Very well written, it takes the reader through the myriad causes of the Great War. No doubt people from my generation all have some familiarity with the main events, but MacMillan's book brings them together in an extremely readable way.

I'll finish with this quote from the blurb which neatly sums it up, although if you read the book you may have some reservations about the word intelligent.

The story of how intelligent, well-meaning leaders guided their nations into catastrophe. Immersed in intrigue, enlivened by fascinating stories, and made compelling by the author's own insights, this is one of the finest books I have read on the causes of World War I (Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State)

Gardening in a changed climate - update

A little over two years ago I wrote a post on our visit to Severn Trent's Carsington Water visitor centre and its drought-resistant garden. As you know, global warming means we should prepare for droughts and plant accordingly. We revisited the place recently so I took another photo to keep tabs on progress.

2013

2015

Tales to drive you mad

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The indefatigable Daily Mail explains.

A solar eclipse is set to block out nearly 90 per cent of sunlight across parts of Europe next month - and it will be the biggest event of its kind in 16 years.

On 20 March, the moon's orbit will see it travel in front of the sun, casting a shadow over Earth.

The eclipse will see up to 84 per cent of the sun covered in London - and around 94 per cent in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, electricity system operators have warned the eclipse poses a serious risk of blackouts all over Europe as the continent increasingly relies on solar power.

Quite why this is a bigger threat than nightfall I'm not sure. The last time I checked, the sun disappeared quite regularly and predictably every day. Without fail. What about cloudy days which are rather less predictable so presumably more scary?

Okay it's mostly the Daily Mail having fun, but to my mind there is a touch of madness too, a hint that all is not well in the collective thinking department. 

Civilisation

The cold economy

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From Click Green we have some exhilarating news on The Emerging Cold Economy.

The Carbon Trust has launched ‘The Emerging Cold Economy’, a new report focusing on the increasing global demand for cooling and the opportunity for Britain to be a world leader in innovative low carbon cooling technologies...

This insight has stimulated new thinking aimed at creating business and environmental value from the efficient integration of cold into the wider energy system, the “Cold Economy”.

Some folk do things and other folk make up stories about it. It's the modern way, or 'The Emerging Story Economy' as I call it in my new report.