The challenge the UK Met Office refused to discuss or reply to, let alone take up, on social media during November 2017

A Foggitt Forecast / The Way of the Blackberry

A nature observation – for the first time in many years, the blackberry season of late September – October turned out to provide extremely lean pickings for the pick-your-own wild blackberry pie makers among us. Most of the fruit of the Blackberry bush either remained red or when ripened by the sun to the normal dark purple failed to fall from the branch ( pic)
Taking a leaf out of North Yorkshire’s famous nature weather forecaster * William Foggitt’s (1913 – 2004 ) bulging diaries, one could speculate the reason for this highly unusual conservation of supply could well be nature’s own preparation for a forthcoming harsh winter or at least a severe cold spell possibly courtesy of the “Siberian beast from the east” by ensuring food supply for birds and insects remains intact. Obviously time will tell..

• “Mr Foggitt used the behaviour of plants and wildlife near his home in Thirsk to predict to produce his forecasts. He also made use of climate records which had been kept by his family for generations. In the 1980s Mr Foggitt’s weather predictions were much in demand by radio, TV and newspapers. This was especially true when be came to different conclusions about the weather outlook than professional meteorologists ”
  Obituary here. More evidence of Mother Nature stockpiling for a savage winter. Berries still clinging tenaciously to the bush through to mid November.

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Update for 19th Nov ( Saturday 18th evening revision ) ; @ play catch-up-as-we-go Met Office? – leaves one wondering whether (ptp) their supercomputer gets weary of getting 4 day forecasts wrong?

… in other words
– play safe by forecasting a bit of everything? ( with low confidence ) #GMetOffice

Playing catch-up-as-we-go.. forecasters ( much like BBC itself) very rarely admit when they get it wrong. Rain forecast for southern England. Actual weather for the day turns out to be heavy snowfall across S. England.
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Link to update and forthcoming Beast from the East verification, 26th February 2018

Dada Poppy
Michael St.Mark 12.11.17

The launch of an alternative Dada-inspired version of the traditional poppy, worn in remembrance of fallen soldiers from all wars of British & Commonwealth involvement – but primarily the 1914-18 world war that provided the catalyst of disgust that induced the birth of Dada as a war protest movement in Zurich, 1916.

The new Dada poppy is overlaid with six green circles in a hexagonal formation plus the seventh at its centre. Corresponding generally to 2015 London Dada Work; *The Bullet Holes of Peace and specifically the ** 7 tenets of Dada,  relating to seven main principles or essential component parts of all Dada Works from 1916 to the present.

Designed to awaken an additional remembrance – specifically for artists – to orient and focus their talents and sensitivities towards true perception and criticism of dark forces still unfortunately present in our society that would again drag us into involvement with yet another unjustified war in future.

It’s now simply not enough to remember the fallen, important though that is, but also we must raise public awareness of the well-trodden path to war typically employed by the mainstream media under control of governments and ultimately big business, whether it be oil or armaments.

 Michael St.Mark
London ( posted 11am on 12.11.17  Remembrance Sunday)

The 7 Tenets of Dada Link

The Bullet Holes of Peace Link

Lest we Forget Parliament’s War Guilt

The Bullet Holes of Peace ( 2014 )

Armistice Day again..
A London Dada annual re-post; justifying Dada’s origin as an anti-war movement in Zurich, Switzerland

Form 2011; Lest We Forget Parliament’s War Guilt
Michael St.Mark

Link to the original Iraq post
Art of War Protest page on Pinterest
The Bullet Holes of Peace

Brian Haw RIP
A man with love, empathy and courage in his heart – that’s a real artist