Allan Scott-Davies's portfolio

Talking today to a number of people met along the walk to the allotment there is a common theme running through people's minds. They talk not of recession, of lower income and loss of employment – no…they talk of  time. Time, they all believe, is moving too quickly - so much so that some feel they have been in a state of sleep as they suddenly realise that we are into August, yet it feels as if it should be April or May. So what is happening? Are the Mayan calendar predictions of the end of the material world coming true with predictions of time speeding up, commercial institutes collapsing, and dictators toppled from power and the down trodden getting a voice. Yes the Mayans could not see that some of this has happened due to modern tec...

Waste away On our travels around the back streets of many a city, town and village haunting in the small hours we have been appalled by the amount of waste food being dumped into bins ready to be transported off to landfill sites. And why? It is all because here in the UK in particular we are obsessed with sell by and use by dates on food packages.  The fact that this food is edible days, some times weeks, after the sell by date.     We at Green Ghost Towers (by the sea) have been buying up food on the sell by date and leaving it for a day, then two days, then a week to see if it is something we would like to eat.  We took no risks as to cause unfortunate ghostly instant follow through of the unpleasant kind yet found the food to be...

Green Ghost Towers is enjoying the sea views – not caused by a fateful giant wave but rather a move to the coast. This has meant a smaller garden for both flowers and vegetables. So we all hatched a cunning plan whilst in the lookout tower we spied allotments.  So that was the plan – we would apply for an allotment. Some 14 months later we have half an allotment of five rods. So as ghosts and spooks we like to visit at night and would you believe it? We have the cemetery next door so we can talk gardening over with fellow ghosts before they leave for the light – not sure if the lamp post is the light but if it fits!    Back to the allotment. We asked for a quick plough and wow – great machines move in and we have what looked like a gre...

Things have been a little fraught at GG Towers so it was a great delight to find ghost egg boxes in local shops.  By ghost egg boxes we mean the plastic ones that are slowly replacing the pulp packaging ones we have grown up with. The reason for the change, well the powers that be have wanted to get rid of pulp boxes for some time now as they were seen to be host to bugs that cause sickness when an egg breaks and the contents seep into the pulp box.    The new plastic boxes are lighter, tougher and have a low carbon foot print. One of the users is Oaklands of Shropshire who have a delightful lady of words Becca, who told me that the company are pleased with the cartons and other plastic pots they use for yoghurt and other grocery item...

If you do nothing else tomorrow, Tuesday 20th October, watch the eye opening film about the decline of the fish population in the world’s seas.  Much has been made of the overfishing of cod and herring around the UK so our fish merchants turned their attention to other waters.  Moreover, not just our fish merchants and supermarkets in the UK – the whole world has been over fishing to a devastating level.  Once plentiful supplies of fish have all but gone leaving farmed fish that bring their own problems to the waters in which they are farmed.  It has to be said that some fish farms are well run yet, as with the production of eggs and  meat, there are more people out there who are in it for the money than animal welfare.  If you are unabl...