For the birds

We have wild bird seed out, for the birds.

Did Tobacco Duties Help Trigger The English Civil War?

Wonderful post from Frank Davis. Comments from Rose are good too.

Frank Davis

I seem to be becoming immersed in Anglo-American history. The mention by Nisakiman that James I had increased the duty on tobacco by 4000% (in 1604)  started me looking for more information. It turned out that his son, Charles I, had also raised tobacco duties in 1633 by some unknown amount. It was nearly all coming from Virginia.

TOBACCO was introduced to Europe by the Spanish, who had learned to smoke it from Native Americans. Despite some early criticism of “drinking smoke,” tobacco became popular among the middle classes in England…

By 1630, over a million and a half pounds of tobacco were being exported from Jamestown every year.

The tobacco economy rapidly began to shape the society and development of the colony. Growing tobacco takes its toil on the soil. Because tobacco drained the soil of its nutrients, only about three successful growing seasons could occur on a…

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Gosh, the Furlongs could do with one of these

Humans are getting SO clever! I thought this guy was great! We need one at our house.

The Furlong’s Ark – urgent rescue

We got perrenials like this – 

We moved it and they are coming

I blogged about the lack of birds in our new city garden. We put a bird feeder up at the fence where I can see it from my bedroom window, but it did not trigger any interest other than invite to it a rowdy gang of droll Jackdaws that trashed it in a few days.

Blogger love

This Furlong, is profoundly moved by the closure of a blog I follow. Well, I really follow the personality of the blogger writing the blog. The person is dying, and today, they closed their blog.

The Mad Hatters Tea Party – the NURSE

I went recently to have my ears syringed. Before your doctor’s surgery in the UK will book an ear syringe, you have to have put olive oil (just cooking olive oil) into your ears for ten days.

I have done this before – regularly.

How to sleep on a sore ear

This Furlong, recently had a very sore, inflamed ear. I was so debilitated with it I longed to just lie down in my bed and sleep. But my favourite sleeping side, is on the left – the same side as my swollen, red, ear.

A bird in the ear is better than one in the mouth

This Furlong has been overwhelmed by physical annoyances which happens as you get older. So she has missed a few days blogging.

I told you about the bird in the hand being better than one in the ear  and that I thought I had wax in my ear.

Well I had. Things got really weird.

Can’t argue about this

Do you remember Susan Boyle?

The first video is her when we first met her.

Below the video is a photo of Susan Boyle glamorised. She has had a very successful career. And she IS looking good. Can’t argue with that.