Archive for 12/02/2014
The Forget-me-Not Cultivation Blog
I know, February – it’s so cold and grey.
There appears to be mud and bare branches every where. But don’t despair. Below are 20 plants you can sow from seed in February that will make you feel like Spring is here now.
February is actually a really good month to begin setting your garden, patio, and balcony up ready for the new growing season. So ignore the wind, the rain and snow (what snow!), and instead gather your tools.
February is a month when all seeds bought/saved need to be sown indoors only.
It’s not warm enough outside to leave the little seeds fighting for warmth when there isn’t a lot going around. Instead you can start your garden off indoors and once the plants have germinated and grown they can be moved and planted outside.
By sowing a month early (assuming you take March to be the month…
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Container food growing in Berlin
Official blog of the Met Office news team
As the unsettled UK weather continues this week, the Met Office’s National Climate Information Centre have looked at statistics for this winter so far (from 1 December to 10 February).
These add to previous facts and figures we put out earlier this week, and show a picture of continuing exceptional rainfall across many areas.
Looking at regions around the UK, these provisional figures suggest the region of SE and Central S England has already exceeded its record winter rainfall in the series back to 1910. It is currently at 439.2mm*, less than 2mm above the previous record set in 1915 with 437.1mm of rain.
For the UK as a whole, and also for Wales, both are fairly close to their respective record wettest winter levels in the national series dating back to 1910. Average rainfall for the rest of the month would likely see those records broken.
All countries across…
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Valentine’s Day, one of the busiest times for flower sellers across the world is approaching. You can’t get stirred for the ubiquitous red rose, deemed the perfect expression of love, but it’s a gesture that comes at a considerable cost. Whilst the creep of supermarkets into the world of floristry has made a bouquet of roses more affordable for the masses, demand means a single stem can still cost into double figures from your high-end florists. But it’s not just the impact on your bank balance there’s the cost to the environment too.
Ten or fifteen years ago a revolution in food started here in the UK. We started to appreciate locally produced food for its freshness, seasonality and provenance. I really hope that we can start to care that little bit more about the flowers we buy too. Most flowers for sale in the UK are imported…
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Today’s guest blog is from Livia Roschdi and features one of our ‘star objects’, the Spong Hill Pots. Livia is an intern with Norfolk Museum Service’s Archaeology Department.
Communication problems: Understanding our Past through Signs and Symbols
As a historical linguist, I am often confronted with the question of how communication over centuries works. Scholars come up with many different readings and explanations of objects from the past and claim to know what they are, what they were used for and even draw (sometimes hasty) conclusions on the respective society. But do we actually understand our ancestors? Do we read the signs correctly or are we just interpreting from our modern point of view?
According to Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist of the early 20th century and a key figure in the study of semiotics (the study of signs), a sign represents or stands for an idea of an…
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