tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849167564811493528.post4958800974308077127..comments2024-01-31T04:09:28.704+00:00Comments on SILVERTREEDAZE: KEW UP TO NASH YOUR TEETHPlant Mad Nigehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01051715161395516677noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849167564811493528.post-49326121823928529912011-11-09T20:13:13.315+00:002011-11-09T20:13:13.315+00:00re subsidies.
Read "Worm in the Wheat".
...re subsidies.<br />Read "Worm in the Wheat".<br />valid in 1969, more so nowgzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08034777779347889773noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849167564811493528.post-18302039553538789312011-10-23T22:26:42.693+01:002011-10-23T22:26:42.693+01:00Oh Nigel, I love Kew & I adored the Chihuly ex...Oh Nigel, I love Kew & I adored the Chihuly exhibition. It is indeed expensive to go. I am lucky to live so close & make it worthwhile being a Member, or rather Friend which sounds slightly more intimate!<br /><br />I do have some sympathy with your views of the funding of Kew & the scientific/horticultural aims & achievements versus the populist visitor attractionside. At the moment I think there is room for both but inevitably there is & will be disgruntlement from some quarters.Lazy Trollophttp://lazytrollop.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849167564811493528.post-77453745658014245212011-10-20T14:34:18.450+01:002011-10-20T14:34:18.450+01:00I thought Gran Torino was brilliant, and my son (w...I thought Gran Torino was brilliant, and my son (with whom I went to see it in the cinema) liked it so much he bought it on DVD. The only thing we both hated about it was Clint Eastwood singing the theme tune, as the credits roll. He was described by one movie blogger as sounding "like a warbling toad that was once Tom Waits". So if you're planning to watch the movie, switch off before that bit!Victoria Summerleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05055381807236106596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849167564811493528.post-88235759763871397922011-10-20T11:17:05.573+01:002011-10-20T11:17:05.573+01:00I am not cross. I knew the Hitchcock one - (one o...I am not cross. I knew the Hitchcock one - (one of my favourite films) but not Gran Torino. <br /><br />I didn't like the Chihuly exhibition at Kew but the Nash one sounds well worth a visit.<br /><br />That is the most huggable salvia ever!Arabella Sockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10936438011119860497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849167564811493528.post-59375226756522643702011-10-19T10:25:02.427+01:002011-10-19T10:25:02.427+01:00Fair points, I guess farming subsidies are somewha...Fair points, I guess farming subsidies are somewhat contentious, I'm just aware how many farming families have been driven out in recent years by changing conditions, and how the low milk prices are affecting our local farmers. And as VP says, the hill farmers of Snowdonia or the Lake District seem to really need help to try and hold on to our heritage. A very mixed bag, and I'm not at all informed enough on the big picture. Most of what I hear is anecdotal from friends who farm in our village.<br />I do hope that Kew survives though, to go from strength to strength. The Nash exhibition sounds wonderful.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849167564811493528.post-60173709436073978712011-10-19T09:08:22.820+01:002011-10-19T09:08:22.820+01:00PS - just read through your reply to your comments...PS - just read through your reply to your comments. Hill farmers would have a pretty tough time without some form of subsidy and the upland landscape we value so much is pretty much down to their stewardship of the land.VPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02732971362066784175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849167564811493528.post-67925693375126255162011-10-19T09:03:48.144+01:002011-10-19T09:03:48.144+01:00Boo hoo - Victoria beat me to it. I'm a big fa...Boo hoo - Victoria beat me to it. I'm a big fan of Hitchcock films and NBNW is in my top five. The opening titles alone are superb.<br /><br />I'm a big Clint Eastwood fan too and I thought <i>Gran Torino</i> was much better than what the critics made of it.<br /><br />As for Kew, it's unbelievably expensive these days, but I don't have the answer to the problem. I treasure my times in the Herbarium from when I used to arrange volunteer weekends there.VPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02732971362066784175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849167564811493528.post-40609274928306416412011-10-19T07:49:26.679+01:002011-10-19T07:49:26.679+01:00Victoria - gosh, you do know your films! The earl...Victoria - gosh, you do know your films! The early answer didn't give the others a hope! Arabella will be disappointed and probably, again, cross with me. I didn't think Gran Torino would have come to mind so fast. I'll set a real stinker next time.<br /><br />Esther, gz, thanks!<br /><br />hillwards - thanks for your thoughtful comment. My contention was that Kew, like our main museums, might be government financed - as before - since it costs so relatively little to run but provides such amazing value. <br /><br />Also, I'd love to know how farmers are being 'royally scr*wed'? No other industry has such a heavy and consistent subsidy based, not on hardship, or geography, or quality of land farmed, or on measurable conservation results - but simply on acreage. <br /><br />The notion that farmers are being paid to be good stewards of the land is humbug. Production-based subsidies which caused embarrassing surpluses in the 1980s &90s had to be changed, but the EC needed to come up with a means of continuing hand-outs to prevent protesting French farmers from dumping cow crap in the Champs Elysées.<br /><br />Biodiversity continues to plummet, in the British country side and even those farmers who have taken large extra subsidies, to join specific stewardship schemes, are producing mixed results. There's inadequate policing, to prevent such damaging practices as excessive verge and hedge trimming, spraying glyphosate right up to the roadsides, weed-killing hedge bottoms, damaging wildlife corridors and draining the last remaining and tiny pockets of wetland. <br /><br />Subsidy fosters inefficiency, skews markets and increases food costs for all of us. And I object, bitterly, to the £321 that has been taken, from my household, this tax year, and given, unconditionally, to my richest neighbours. So who, in this case, is being 'royally screwed' ?Plant Mad Nigehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01051715161395516677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849167564811493528.post-14264652964863311502011-10-19T07:09:17.495+01:002011-10-19T07:09:17.495+01:00Keep rantleing!
I look forward to each oneKeep rantleing!<br />I look forward to each onegzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08034777779347889773noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849167564811493528.post-27301054936858167702011-10-18T20:33:43.405+01:002011-10-18T20:33:43.405+01:00Hello - and wow at the salvia leucantha. Like a gi...Hello - and wow at the salvia leucantha. Like a giant purple teddy bear. I want one!<br />Kew was always a special family day out for us, my parents used to sidle along while we were at school but every now and then we would have the opportunity too, so I have fond memories of the place - haven't been for too long. No bright ideas on how to finance it, though. The farmers are being royally scr*wed already, I'd hate to divert money from them. Maybe from the bankers, but that's an old song now...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849167564811493528.post-3807996557664359592011-10-18T19:55:18.735+01:002011-10-18T19:55:18.735+01:00Wish I could think of something useful to say abou...Wish I could think of something useful to say about Kew. I know I appreciate places I have to pay an entrance fee for very much less than ones one can simply walk into. I like to know I can come back as often as I like to see something I specially like. But how that can be financed . . . I fall silent.Esther Montgomeryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05412078991551799972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849167564811493528.post-7703956529322557462011-10-18T17:20:08.618+01:002011-10-18T17:20:08.618+01:00First one, North By Northwest. Second one: Clint E...First one, North By Northwest. Second one: Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino.<br />We're on a Hitchcock kick here at home, because my daughter is studying film composition for A level music and one of the composers on the list is Bernard Herrmann.<br />Watched Vertigo with son and daughter the other evening. They thought it was rubbish, and that Jimmy Stewart was "too old". Honestly, kids these days...Victoria Summerleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05055381807236106596noreply@blogger.com