Gentle into that last good night.

Having had cause to witness the functioning of the NHS at close quarters over the last few weeks I can vouchsafe that care, consideration, and concern for one's fellow man, are virtues still very much in evidence in the NHS.
The patient was spoken to as a thinking adult and the opinion of those close to him was sought as to the best manner of treatment for an elderly and very sick man.
His comfort was the priority at all times and I cannot help but be eternally grateful for the humanity of all around.
In a world so obsessed with efficiency and statistics it is good to know that it is not only money which talks but also gentle nurses and hard pressed young doctors..

No birthing pools here!

Having initially miscalculated the expected delivery day by a whole week I was begining to get a little anxious about the increasing girth of my potbellied pig lookalike, otherwise known as a Jack Russell Terrier.
Driven back to the calender, gripped by neurosis about an incompetent uterus, I realised I was a mathematical, dyslexic numpty and relaxed.

Seven days later, finally going to bed at 2.00am after anxiously scanning the maternity ward for signs of activity I scuttled downstairs next morning and found four little pups had already arrived. Even as I watched she popped out the fifth. At the very least I felt I should offer her a cup of tea but she settled for a massive slab of disgusting dogmeat and lay back on her freshly plumped pillows with a smug look on her face.

They are roughly the size of a fat hamster and the shape of a plump tadpole and both proud mother and I think they would win any beautiful baby competition hands down.

Rumex acetosa

Someone , somewhere, must have a use for dock leaves! Can't some white coated genius miraculously discover a anticancer agent in them, as in yew several years ago? Should I encourage my nettles, ( feel good factor, food for Red Admiral babies! ) to grow more vigorously thus building up the need for dock leaves to rub on stings or finally, the ultimate shame, resort to chemical weapons in my battle for erradication.

On Monday I heaved three sacks, crammed to the gunnels with DLs into the composter at the recycling plant remembering that I shoved in four last week. This does not indicate that I am getting on top of them. Far from it, they are growing at a faster pace now than in the drought of July.

Their roots are roughly the thickness and length of a mature Reticulated Python, and as reluctant to be wrenched from their snug bed as a teenager on a Saturday morning, ( or any morning come to think of it. )

Other less hardy souls moan about Ground Elder, Couch Grass and Thistles. They are the Woody Allens of the plant world when compared with the Mike Tyson Dock Leaves.