Trident

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38714047

Sorry, but irrespective of whether or not this missile went off course and PM Mrs May not answering Andrew Marr's questions, I think renewing Trident is a HUGE waste of money. At the time of the Commons debate this was put at £40 billion. Yes, forty billion pounds!

Years ago, for work, I visited Faslane - a very creepy place.

Wicken Fen in January

As I said yesterday, we went for a walk at Wicken Fen in beautiful January weather. It is dull and cloudy here today! The photo shows the windmill used to pump water and the frozen lode. Yes, it was cold.

Have a laugh

This Twitter post made me laugh. I gather the BBC soon changed the caption.

Fen Skies

This morning we went for a walk at Wicken Fen (National Trust). It was cold and very frosty with a bright blue sky. In fact it was a perfect January morning. The picture shows the excellent skies we get in East Anglia.

Wicken Fen is famous for the bittern and its dragonflies. Some years ago I saw a bittern coming in to roost. It is a kind of heron.

The boardwalk was quite icy, so we avoided this where possible

Right shift

In recent times, there seems to have been a swing to the right in the UK and the rest of the world and a sense that our politicians are "out of touch".  The victory of Mr Trump and his "make America great again" speeches are indicative of this. There is a danger that several European nations could move to the right this year.

Here in the UK, we have no effective opposition. The Labour Party opposition is in disarray and faces two difficult by-elections.

This swing to the right may be temporary, but all parties in all nations need to wake up and be aware.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38704082 .

Weather forecasts - hopeless!

At 0830z the Met Office weather forecast for our village said full sun all morning from 0900z. Very very briefly we saw the sun at 1140z. Really, the weather forecasts are useless.

Amaryllis

Every winter we grow an amaryllis in the lounge. It has really shot up in the last week, with what looks like 2 flowers coming from side shoots, barring any disasters.

Last year we supported it with a cane and elastic band.

At the moment, it is 19cm tall.