Monday October 18, 2004

Monarchy - David Starkey

Last night on the less favoured Channel 4 was a new history series by David Starkey. Called Monarchy this mammoth series will be four years of television and forty episodes! Of course there is already a book you can buy. Starkey has done other history programms Elizabeth I was another good one.

Getting back to the current programm this starts during the dark ages where England had to put up with many kings instead of just one monarch. Offa was the first of one of these kings to try and stitch the country into one, he was the first to put his name on the coins of his realm, he setup his son to be his heir. It was all to be in vain but he has left his mark on the country with a barrier he had built to keep the pesky Welsh at bay Offas Dyke .

This is not the place to document the series but to encourage you to watch it. It is on channel 4 Monday evenings at 9pm ( GMT).

For people like me who either did not listen at school and were clearly not enthused by the teachers there have been several other gems on TV to catch up with past history. History of Britain , Simon Schama was another multi series effort and on a smaller scale Battlefields, Richard Holmes both bring history to life.

Cats in the garden...

I have today had the pleasure of clearing up after someone else's cat. The owner will not be aware of it and will at this minute be enjoying the animals company. I would ask the owner to be a bit more careful what they are feeding their cat. Clearly this animal is suffering from some kind of intestinal problems. I have been retrieving the evidence from my soil in my garden but I am now undergoing the pleasure of having to extract the same evidence from my grass and today from a heather plant. If you do not realise it is there it is a unpleasant experience when you find it I can tell you.

The RHS magazine The Garden has said in a recent magazine that certain cats are not fazed by any attempts to remove them from the garden. They also discuss several ways of getting around the problem.

So what have I done about it ? I have tried;

Audio devices that emit sounds that cats do not appreciate. With a reasonable sized garden I would need a lot of these to give me decent coverage but I do not have the evidence these work anyway.

Various smelling substances. I have used various types of powder, gel all that do not have any effect. Of course they do end up need replemishing after any rain. A feature of the UK climate .

Sticks of various sizes including cocktails sticks in the ground.

Netting. This does work and in the winter when there are large amounts of bare soil in my garden I usually end up covering these areas with plastic netting. It looks horrible but does the job..

My wife got lucky one day and managed to spray a cat with a hose and scored a direct hit. I fear many more pot shots at this cat would be needed to put it off for good.

What I have not done...

Physically harmed any cat or owner. Purchased lion dung which is meant to put cats off. Getting your own cat is meant to help. But I am not inflicting what I detest on someone else. I have also not resorted to getting a predator animal like a rottweiller dog.

So any ideas folks ?