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This is not exactly a newsletter, but just a few items to remind you that BSG is still here. If you have anything to share, click a reply to this email and send it in. To begin with, we have an item from Mukti Michell about the Carbon Savvy programme to help you reduce your carbon footprint. No doubt some of you will already have received this directly but this may help to spread the word further. Click the link:-
https://mailchi.mp/3b23d3145a0b/carbon-savvy?e=9a43771c37
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The Mens Shed on the Station allotment are still looking for tools. When the last appeal went out we specified that we were looking for a bench grinder. Thinking this was a bit of a long-shot, we were pleasantly surprised when Eileen Robinson came up with just that. This time we are saying that a pillar drill could be useful, but in fact, anyone who is chucking out any no-longer-used tools will find that they are well received at the shed. We already have some duplicates but that doesn't matter; eventually we will put them on a stall at a car boot sale or in the Pannier market. Nothing will be wasted.
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With all the ever-changing regulations on Covid, we could not think of doing an apple juicing event this year, but that didn't stop the intrepid team from the Springfield allotment site setting up an impromptu event on the station allotment site. Fuelled by apples from Chris Hassall's orchards at Landcross, and mains electricity from the Mens Shed's temporary supply, the apples were crushed with a garden shredder and the pulp put through two small presses on the decking in front of the Men's Shed Workshop
.   Thankyou Clare Lowe for the pictures and Jean Loveridge for sending them in.
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"ENTANGLED LIFE"
This is the title of a book I read recently which challenges the way we look at the created world. It is a study by Merlin Sheldrake of fungi, which are one of the oldest forms of life in existence, predating plants and animals and embracing lichen and yeasts as well as mushrooms. Fungi form a vast network of mycelium reaching throughout much of the earth under our fields and woodlands, creating a 'wood wide webs' that transport nutrients and chemical messages to trees and plants. When it comes to breaking down and devouring waste products, even highly toxic ones, they excel. They have survived the major extinctions that have faced life on earth and our own lives are very much tied in with how they function. The book emphasises how much all forms of life are dependent upon one another.
Despite the depth and detail of this book it is very readable being full of stories and anecdotes about the writer's researches and those of his colleagues. It is easily obtainable from 'on line' booksellers such as Abebooks.
Stuart Fuller.
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The reduction in insect numbers of late is worrying to say the least. I remember that back in the sixties people fixed plastic deflectors on the front of their cars to reduce the splat of insects colliding with the windscreen......useless of course; just sold more plastic. Now I celebrate when I am annoyed by a housefly buzzing around when I would once have hurried to cover the food. The culprit is clearly something to do with agricultural pesticides, though I have a sneaking suspicion it may also be something to do with the particulates from diesel emissions. For an interesting view on this topic by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation click here:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ6rL4kMSSc
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