Donald Noble’s Site

It must be time to change the clocks again, the news is full of the biannual demand to mess around with the timekeeping system still further. 1, 2, 3...

One of the proposals to it move to what is being termed “Single/Double Summer Time” (SDST) — why not just call it what it is — Central European Time. Although I suppose that this wouldn’t go down too well with some parts of the electorate — after all, it has the word “European” in it, so it must be bad.

There are plenty claims and counter-claims about whether this would save lives & energy, or increase accidents in the summer/winter (delete as applicable). Fordyce Maxwell agrees somewhat

There are still enthusiasts for double summer time, plucking figures freely from the air. This month it is “introduce double summer time to provide more than 8,000 jobs and boost tourism income by £3.5 billion”.

I still stand by what I wrote 3 ½ years ago (although I can’t say I actually follow this, I like lying in bed in the mornings too much).

The obvious answer, with no associated cost, is for people to just get up earlier! We have changed our habits over the past few hundred years, with the advent of the electric light, to stay up well past sunset. If we want to enjoy more of the natural sunlight, why don’t we just match our activities to the daylight, rather than messing about with our clock system!

Plus, the laws planetary motion dictate when the sun rises and sets. Adding one to our arbitrary counting system isn’t going to change that. Unless Newton et. al. missed something rather critical!

Now that a lot of the snow has melted, I got out hillwalking for the first time in a month. Last weekend, Malcolm and I headed up Strathconon, to climb a couple of Grahams either side of the road at Inverchoran.

Beinn Mheadoinn

We parked near the head of the Strath, at the track to Inverchoran Farm, and started walking in that direction, following a good (but steep) track up the coll to the east of Beinn Mheadoinn. Once we reached the coll, we ascended the heathery slopes on the NE of the hill, which were still wet from recent snowmelt. The top was craggy, and rather windswept, with wintery showers limiting the time we spent there.

The views over the Munros to the south would have been rather nice, if it weren’t for the low cloud and driving rain, but were still interesting. The descent was by much the same route, taking just over 2 hours to complete. As we walked down the track, the sun showed through, boosting our sprits, and motivating us not to stop at the car but to continue up the other hill.

Meall na Faochaig

About 200m west of Inverchoran, a track heads northwest, up the southern flanks of Meall na Faochaig, before turning back on itself. Before we got to the end of this track, but still slightly later than we should, we left the track and headed northwards to the summit. The Grahams book suggest following the ridge, but we headed too far east, and ended up with a viewless slog to the top. There we were greeted with nice views of Meallan nan Uan to the north, but the more distant hills to the west were not very distinct due to the cloud. Descent was again by the route of ascent, by which time the weather had cleared again.

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Total time taken: 4¼ hours; Distance 15km; Height Climbed 1050m; Photos Taken 22.

Photos on Flickr

A simple recipe for a vegetarian mixed bean chilli.

• one onion
• a red pepper
• handful mushrooms
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 fresh tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato pureé
• can plum tomatoes
• can kidney beans
• can mixed beans (eg cannellini, flageolet, adzuki)
• 1/2 glass wine
• chilli pureé (to taste, I used 1tsp Swazi Fire)
• 1 square dark chocolate (preferably 70-90% cocoa)
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Fry the chopped onion in olive oil until starting to soften, then add pepper and fry for another 5 mins. Add the mushroom and garlic and fry for another minute
2. Add tomatoes, wine and beans, stir well and then add chilli pureé, seasoning and melt in the chocolate.
3. Simmer for about 20 minutes or more, until the chilli reduces to a thick consistency, then serve with rice, or tortilla wraps

I noticed an article on the BBC news website under the headline “Council faces large crash payout”

Appeal judges have ruled that a council could be liable to pay a mother up to £500,000 in compensation after she crashed on a poorly maintained road. Sussex County Council had argued it was being burdened with an “impossibly high standard” of maintenance in the case. … the nearside wheels of the car had “dropped off” the verge, which was depressed by almost six inches, partly because it was used to park cars by anglers fishing in a nearby river. … Despite driving at 45mph on the rural road, which had a limit of 60mph, the court found Mrs Russell’s speed was “too fast” for the icy conditions and that she was 50% responsible for the crash.

Surely all this will do is to further reduce the budget available to maintain the infrastructure, in times when Councils are already facing massive cuts as a result of the economic downturn.

The money paid out by the council should be used to repair the damaged road, and other damage on roads exacerbated by the winter weather. Otherwise, we enter into a vicious spiral of ever decreasing maintenance on the roads, and ever increasing litigious payouts.

There are plenty of rural roads that have drops at their edges — it is one of the things that one must be aware of when driving — in addition to potholes, bumps, blind summits, and sharp corners, plus water, ice, mud, and animals on the road. Yes, the council should try to rectify these faults as soon as possible, but time and budgets are constrained — and more so if they have to pay out on this case.

This week’s superfood is—in a Homer Simpson style— mmm beer

But hurry, there will be another study condeming drinking beer next week!

Dr Claire Bowring, from the National Osteoporosis Society, said: “These findings mirror results from previous studies which concluded that moderate alcohol consumption could be beneficial to bones.

“However, while the National Osteoporosis Society welcomes measures to improve bone health we do not recommend anyone increases their alcohol consumption on the basis of these studies.

“While low quantities of alcohol may appear to have bone density benefits, higher intakes have been show to decrease bone strength, with an alcohol intake of more than two units per day actually increasing the risk of breaking a bone.”