For many years here I had a special Chistmas practice. It is, of course, summer here at Christmas and on Christmas eve I used to go to the nurseries and buy a lot of flowers and plants and after dark on Christmas eve I would go around the garden and plant them all out, giving them a good soak for the night. It was so lovely to wake up on Christmas Day to a new garden full of colour. These days the plants are so expensive and water the price of wine that I have not done it for a few years, but Jacqui has spewnt a lot lately on the garden so maybe this year i will do it again.

J+J

Pointsettiers are lovely at Christmas time,I hear they grow in the the gardens in Kenya like Hydrangers is that true John.But we must mind the cats they can damage their throats if they eat the leaves.

They just come in Morrisons Phoenix,they are £1.99 and last for ages 

Petrol has dropped a lot here Phoenix,even more at the supermarkets.

Hi all. We have been following UK events with great interest and it is lovely to see that once again our government has taken the lead in the world with steps to get things going again and he is right, our Mr Brown, we will get nowhere if we all stop spending. I think it is a stroke of genius to give a 2% discount on everything we buy. What Britain has that is so sadly lacking in most of the rest of the world is common sense, order and, to some extent, discipline. What a shame that even in hard times like we all face now the so-called Opposition cannot take a mature and useful part in things. Cameron seems determined to continue to make a Punch and Judy Show out of Parliament and a fool out of himself.

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
Thomas Jefferson 1802

But it is not just the banks' fault for lending the money, it is about the people who borrowed it and could not pay it back.

How I wish that we could have responsible government here, this lot think you can cure AIDS by eating garlic and beetroot!!!

Lovely day here. Enjoy yourselves!!

J+J

You are right, Phoenix, and there seems to be no caution in the young ones today. That the banks gave 100% mortgages unsecured should never be allowed. We could ardgue that people need somewhere to live, but  as I recall, we used to save up first. I suppose that with rocketing house "values" the banks saw an opportunity to wring the people dry again knowing that if they failed to pay then the people's homes would be repossessed and they could sellto someone else at a profit. Well, it has not worked out that way, has it.  I don't quite know what can be done now, in the South now homes are worth about half of their asking price and those in control have to find a way of making homes affordable without a situation of general negative equity.

What I have found interesting is that the most apparently logical housing, that of Shared Ownership, has taken two completely different guises in the more affluent South and the more testing North. Down South the HA/developers are committed to offering more individual properties at an exhorbitant cost whilst to the North many developments take more the form of the old style "workers' houses" with small or no back areas, or communal gardens or even back-to-back properties with no rear gardens at all. One can get into home ownership to the north for less than half the price down South, but would the banks/HA's approve the other half anyway. I am surprised to still see this North/South divide existing so strongly. Not so much in the people but in the way things are done locally, I dobelieve that to a large extent our lives are shaped by our circumstances.

It is beginning to emerge that we now have vast numbers of people trying to live on severely limited means on both ends of the income scale ... in fact we almost have junior pensioners!!!  It is clear that the party is over and that realities must begin to dictate circumstances, not wishes. But who is to lead the charge, I certainly believe that the government is addressing the problems, but I also think that the population must begin to act responsibly too, and more frugality and discipline would be a good beginning.

Have a great day, summer is here for us.


J+J

Hello John, Here we go again, agreeing. Do you really believe that people can be re- educated
Do you remember just how you worked out what you could afford to but a Home and retain a reasonable standard of living. The getting married, then perhaps later, deciding IF you could afford to have children   Why does that not happen Today ?? -- Yes, I am aware that 'Thatcher' decided to 'include' the wife's income, should she go out to work. But ?? never mentioned that in time(should life become bad) that those homes would be forfeited, because of default. People should be more responcible, for whatever 'they' decide to do, not expect othere's to 'bail' then out. --- but!! cannot put 'old heads' on the younger people of today. Shame really ??