• Schrader vs CPVO at the EU CFI
  Not light reading, but interesting to me.
  (tags: EU CPVO PVR law case CFI)

• BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Ant invader knocks on UK's door
  Hmm. This could have implications for horticulture.
  (tags: alien ant plant_health horticulture Europe)

• 10 useful RSS hacks for WordPress
  Both grayblog and my work website need some attention. God knows when I'll get round to it though. These tips could prove useful though. via Gordon.
  (tags: RSS wp wordpress code blog advice)

• BBC NEWS | The Reporters | Mark Easton's UK
  Apart from the fact the Phytophthora is not a fungus at all, this is a useful awareness-raising article. I'm dealing with Sudden Oak Death on a more-or-less daily basis in terms of its impact on plant health restrictions.
  (tags: plant_health Phytophthora disease news environment UK)
• Welcome to Eat Sussex Magazine/ Celebrating local, seasonal, sustainable food in the South East
  Splendid bi-monthly free magazine about local food and drink.
  (tags: Sussex food drink magazine)
• Wild Man Wild Food – Fergus Drennan the Forager
  Living off wild and foraged food (they aren't the same thing). Fergus writes a column in Eat Sussex magazine and has inspired me to have a go at eating Japanese knotweed next spring (it tastes like rhubarb, apparently).
  (tags: food wild foraging cooking drink)
• Team Laser Explosion 5 – Weebl's Stuff
  Feature length. Well, almost. NSFW.
  (tags: weebl humour cartoon flash)

• BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Obituary: Oliver Postgate
  I wonder how many children had their sense of the surreal moulded by a bunch of pink knitted creatures, poking their heads out of craters covered by galvanised dustbin lids?
  (tags: Postgate Smallfilms Clangers cartoon television animation)

• BBC NEWS | England | Essex | Cosmetics boss funds protesters
  I like Lush products and I am a customer. But I didn't know anything about this. Silly man.
  (tags: Lush Plane_Stupid protest news)

• It's grim, really grim, down in the rural south – This Britain, UK – The Independent
  Rural poverty in southern England is rapdily increasing. I don't think that this will be a shock to anyone living in Sussex or Kent. What to do about it? Well, a start would be to release more land for housing so that supply increases and prices fall (after the recovery, which will surely come).
  (tags: politics poverty Sussex England rural)

Why is it that we seem to be suffering wall-to-wall, back-to-back illnesses in our household? I had a really rotten cold a few weeks ago. Over the weekend I had a nasty stomach bug. And now I have a sore throat, blocked sinuses and repeated sneezing. And, naturally, Hels and Tom have had/got it too.

Anyway, mustn’t grumble, and all that. None of us have had to be hospitalized, which is what happened to my Dad. He’s home now and getting better, but it was one of those stop-and-think things. Hmm.

Meanwhile, we’re all busy as mad things and wondering how we are going to survive the madness of the next fortnight. I do wonder how it is that, every year, we say we are going to do less and make the festivities simpler and more enjoyable, but still end up running around like idiots, cooking for the five thousand, spending a fortune (in spite of setting a maximum of fifteen quid on gifts) and actually not really enjoying it all as much as we’d like.

Bah! Bumhug!

Next year, we will go away for Christmas. I say it every year, but this time I mean it.

• BBC NEWS | England | Sussex | Hospital trusts merger goes ahead
  I'm not convinced by this. My father had to go to hospital last week. For the last 70-odd years, he would have been treated at St Richards. As it was, he was transferred to the half-built Queen Alexandra at Cosham, another 30 minutes away.
  (tags: Chichester hospital NHS England Worthing news)

• Blackmoor Fruit Nursery, The Uks Leading Speacialist Mail Order Fruit Nursery, 25% sale on some items
  Purveyors of all kinds of fruit trees, bushes and plants.
  (tags: nursery fruit plants gardening)

• Natural Decongestants and Expectorants
  Steam works – that we know from past experience. But tonight is the first time I've tried raw onion as a decongestant – it's amazing! I could breathe easily after only two mouthfuls.
  (tags: remedies onion decongestant)

Stainless Steel bowel 10 inch Dia would do for a mixing bowel or any thing else.

 If you let me know quickly, I’ll see if I can get it for you.

• Mussel myth an open and shut case (Great Moments in Science)
  Worth reading. The best advice I had was to only ever buy live mussels (we get them more-or-less straight off the boat) and to tap them when you clean them. Live, fresh mussels will close when tapped. Anything that doesn't move is dead and therefore suspect (though, I suppose, still quite edible if fresh).
  (tags: mussels seafood food science cooking myth)

The hyperactive child is asleep. The wife is wrapping presents. Monty is in his basket. Treacle is sitting next to me.

Me? I’ve just signed my Corporation Tax return and written a fat cheque to the Revenue.

Ho ho and, indeed, ho. Merry Christmas.