Spending will save us all

Interesting quotes from this BBC article on the pros and cons of spending include:

"A splurge at M&S's one-day sale is the socially responsible thing to do, like buying bonds in the war."
"And it's worth remembering that we used to enjoy a buy nothing day every week of the year. It was called Sundays."

Neil Boorman, author of Bonfire of the Brands

"I am fundamentally libertarian. I will never be able to afford a yacht but I like to live in a world where some people have yachts."

Lucia van der Post, founder of the Financial Times' glossy magazine How To Spend It

"Every time you shop, ask yourself, 'Does this purchase support or negate the type of change I want to see in the world? Is this purchase life-affirming or soul-draining.'"

Amanda Ford, author of Retail Therapy: Life Lessons Learned While Shopping

"You see families at shopping centres - it's like an outing."

Michael Gutteridge, a business and social psychologist

"It's a bit like a drug. If you suddenly come off a drug you have cold turkey. You have to wean people off after many years."

Prof John Sloman, director of the Economics Network based at the University of Bristol.

Barnardo's Campaign

I was really shocked when I received the link to this video via a round robin email yesterday. Infact I'm still in shock. To quote Homer J- "I blame society".
Further information from Barnardo's here.

Squashes

Yesterday was Halloween and many people carve a face into a pumpkin at this time of year to create a Jack-o-Lantern. It didn't surprise me much to read that about 90% of pumpkins are grown for decorative use as opposed to being eaten.
Having said that, it's been a really bad year (as was last year) for growing squashes of any kind. This was sad for me as it was the first year I had grown butternut squash plants from seed. The seeds and subsequent seedlings were really healthy and so I looked forward to abundant squashes however "the dull, wet weather we experienced this summer made it a bad year for growing butternut squashes," says Gardening Which magazine. "They really didn't like these conditions and most varieties performed very poorly. Many fruits didn't ripen fully: the skins remained greenish and the flesh was pale-coloured and very poor tasting."
This is exactly what I found. Of the three plants that were planted out, each plant produced one smallish fruit. The last of these I made into a curry last night. The flavour wasn't up to much but it's not put me off growing them. The seed I used is called Hunter which apparently should be able to cope with our climate and came out top in Which's Best Buy trials. I'll try again next year and see if I can do any better.