Morning all,

What a fantastic day here, lots of sun, not too hot and the breeze has picked up enough to get the turbines going. Hopefully lots of people might think it’s time to have a play in the garden and buy some plants, although judging by the roads yesterday they all seem to have got in their cars to go somewhere. I had a hockey match in Havant and we ended up getting there very late after getting clogged up in it all. Luckily there was no match booked on the pitch after ours so we were able to run over.

It was a bit hot for running about but I managed to pace myself and lasted the whole game scoring the winning goal (well one of six in a 6-5 result) and as an added bonus I’m still able to walk this morning.

We’ve had a sobering week with lots of different stuff going on some good some not. On Monday we had some shocking news that one of our seasonal agency ladies who had popped back to Poland for her summer break had been taken into hospital with headaches and was given a rather pessimistic prognosis. She had an operation on Tuesday which we believe went really well and the news was a bit more positive by the end of the week. Gabby is a really lovely lady, we hope she makes a full recovery and comes back soon. We also heard this week of sad news of the loss of Paul Weston who was the husband of one of our ex staff members. Another sudden loss, through a heart attack at work, so our thoughts are with Pam and the family too. Just to top it all off I arrived this morning to find an email from another lovely lady who was coming on a business visit to the nursery next week, who now can’t come as her young husband had a stroke last week and is still in hospital.

OK I know all this isn’t very jolly but on the positive side it does give you a push to focus on what is really important in life and how you don’t know what is round the corner for you or anyone else. Make the most of it and do some good stuff.

On a more upbeat side the Paralympics have been brilliant. I have heard more stories this week from visitors to the games about all the positive vibes coming from all around, how great the volunteers have been, the athletes, the crowds and the press coverage. So well done to everyone, it gives me great hope that the silent, sensible, good willed majority of the population can influence the direction and outcome of a major event by all doing their little bit of positive stuff. Let’s hope we can harness some of this good will to take us forward in lots of other areas and do loads of sensible positive stuff. It took some very good leadership and organisation to get the ball rolling but it was the people that made it work. Although there still seems to be a lot of focus in the media on the medals I think most of the audience just appreciate the efforts of the competitors in taking part, overcoming the obstacles in their way and having a go. So how do we keep all the positive stuff going? I’ve no idea. I’m just going to try and do my little bit this end and maybe you will at your end. That’s a good start.

Eco News

Some pillock (councillor in Totton) is complaining in the paper this week about a small exhibition in Winchester Cathedral highlighting potential problems of global warming. He is under the impression that this simply doesn’t exist and blames the global warming debate for increased fuel prices with the increases caused by useless wind turbines. He also claimed it to be unchristian to plunge old and poor people into fuel poverty. OK I know it is a tricky subject with no sure answers because it is so difficult to prove one way or another firstly if it is happening and secondly why. Also in a similar way there are no single reasons why the fuel prices are rising and are likely to continue to do so. Don’t we need to sit back a bit more rationally and reassess where we are going as a world population to sensibly assess where problems are likely to occur. Lot’s more people and increasing standards of living across the globe result in increasing demand on limited resources. We are heading for big challenges on energy supply, food production and raw material supply. As demand outstrips supply things are going to get interesting, why not embrace the challenges and rise to them, we can all do our bit and we have to start somewhere.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries