http://www.peabody.org.uk/news/pembury-circus-planning-application-approved.aspx

... and so farewell to the trees @ Pembury Circus, corner of Dalston Lane and Pembury Road.

On my way home from the gym this morning I passed by 2 children and I heard one say to the other "What, they're gonna chop down the trees. Are they crazy?".

How many local people are even aware that the trees are about to go?

http://www.peabody.org.uk/news/pembury-circus-planning-application-approved.aspx

alt shot ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/russell-higgs/6370313343/

Suggestions for additions welcome

James

There is a lot of confusion about why people across London and the UK should suddenly run amok looting and setting fire to things. Naturally there is a lot of reactionary garbage in the media desperately trying to portray it as mindless violence, calling for more State repression and trying to make sure middle class England remains ignorant and asleep. Curiously little written about corrupt politicians, police and media moguls who have no moral authority to preach to anyone.

In reality money grabbing, soulless, psychopaths have been raping the planet and organising colossal fraud under the guise of 'free market' capitalism. Their greed, lies and criminality has recently bankrupted most of the Western World (not to mention everywhere else) and their puppet politicians and institutions are now demanding massive cuts to social infrastructure rather than political or social change. So the dictatorship of Capital (as the so called free market should be known) destroys lives, communities and the environment whilst anyone who objects faces police violence and State surveillance. Capitalism is out of control and a tiny elite of power crazed lunatics are literally threatening the survival of humanity.

The last 30 years of Neo Liberal political hegemony has seen a transition from social democratic bourgeois democracy to New World Order police state. Political dissent is outlawed, protesters brutalised, dissent defined as terrorism, and staged managed spectaculars facilitated to legitimise greater and greater State violence and repression. That repression takes many forms from the ubiquitous, intimidating surveillance of demonstrators, the direct physical violence of police, and the subversion and infiltration of opposition; to the more subtle design of schools as prisons, fingerprinting school children, Oyster card and mobile phone movement surveillance. This is not to mention the force of global, corporate insanity whereby nowadays everyone, including the customer, is always wrong.

We all experience this repression and internalise its violence. We all know we and those around us are angry. People may identify different reasons for their anger but the truth is more people are more angry and that is chiefly because we are all now slaves to Capital and the State. Nowhere is this expressed or articulated. Media control and censorship exacerbate the experience of isolation and confusion. Everyone suffers in the individual silence. Personal questions and insecurities hide structural causes and political agendas.

Young people grow up feeding on lies that their lives will be wondrous, celebrity fantasies of football heroes or pop stars. But by the time they reach their teens inner city youths have seen and experienced too much to cling to these myths. Instead many know their future is a choice between soulless, wage slavery in service of alien corporate greed (assuming they can get a job) or a life of crime where at least the opportunity of money and excitement has some tangible reality. Those without the benefit of a strong and loving family to guide them through the insanity of capitalist destruction have no role models or reason not to grab what they can, live fast and die young.

Like the rest of us our society fails young people. We should take some modest comfort in the fact that some still have enough fight in them to rebel. Sure that rebellion is dangerous and threatening for many, sure its more grab than give; but do you want to live in a world where young people passively accept slavery and repression whilst unelected, secret elites destroy them and the planet?

(A cauliflower on the day I should have picked it!)

It's so long since I last blogged and so much has happened on the growing front that I can't hope to cover it all, but here's a few thoughts...at the Woodberry Down community garden, where we are growing in large bags, my "three sisters" sweetcorn/squash/French bean bag looks impressive, but I'm worried that the tassles on the cobs may not have all been pollinated (each silky thread is attached to a grain of corn, and each one needs to be fertilized by pollen from the flowers at the top). I planted eight but one got destroyed by a squirrel, leaving seven. I planted them in a block as they rely on wind to blow the pollen from the flowers to the tassles...but is there a minimum number that works? Perhaps seven is not enough to ensure full pollination...anyone have experience of this? Or anyone tried doing it with a paint brush?

 (The Three Sisters -- sweetcorn, squash and French beans)

My squash is going mad but although there are loads of female flowers with swollen fruit, the fruit dont seem to be getting any bigger. They may end up a weird hybrid anyway, as I had saved the seed from a squash I had eaten, which could have been pollinated by a cucumber or another winter squash (they are all the same species, cucurbit pepo, so can cross pollinate).

(Parsnips and carrots at the Woodberry Down garden)

In the Lordship North edible garden things are growing well despite the frequent strong winds. My first attempt at growing cauliflower was a modest success...the first one I harvested was small and full of mealy cabbage aphids, which I spent an hour digging out with a toothpick! The other two were bigger (a pound each), but they had turned a bit yellow. Should I have protected them from the sun I wonder, or did I just harvest them a bit late (the day before they looked perfect though)? One also had loads of aphids but this time I decided not to be squeamish -- I just boiled them up and pretended the little black specs were ground pepper!

 (a common frog living between the bags in our edible garden)

That's all for now...I would love to hear other people's growing experiences, advice etc, if you want to comment, or write your own blog...?

(below: a solitary mason bee has layed eggs in our bug hotel, using mud to stop the holes) 

http://www.rca.ac.uk/Default.aspx?ContentID=510987&GroupId=510909&CategoryID=36755

http://www.legacycompany.co.uk/competition/