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We had a small crop of great figs in July. Now there are many small 3-4 cm unripe ones. Try culling most of the unripe fruit and trimming the growing shoots off every branch you can reach. Watch out for the nasty sap. You might get some fruit if the weather holds. Later pull off all but the pea sized figs, they will be your first crop next year. Assuming you have Brown Turkey variety, the most common fig in these parts.
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This is an apalling tragedy for the victim, her friends and family.
Local witnesses said the driver lost control at speed on wet roads after overtaking a queue of stationary traffic.It is understood that Whiston Road is an old “quietway” – residential
roads that were recommended for cycling – but no longer forms part of
TfL’s new Cycleway network as it fails to meet TfL’s safety standards.https://translogistics.net/2023/09/woman-cyclist-dies-following-hit-and-run-crash-in-hackney/
It still appears on LB Hackney and TfL cycle maps. I find it the worst section of my regular routes in Hackney. -
We don't know if the bike rider was on the road or on the pavement cycle track. Cars have in the past crashed onto the footway on this bit of road. I ride this route often but have never noticed the little crossing lane for riders who have been caught out on the Mountbatten Way/Millbrook 6 lane highway. The crossing is unmarked and goes over the slip road just after the 40mph sign where cars accelerate to the dual carriageway. After the crash police closed both the cycle track and the slip road for over 4 hours.
You need to be a magician to find the safe routes in Southampton. There is no wayfinding signs for westbound rider near here. People coming from Paynes road are directed onto the bus lane which feeds into the slip road.
I think the crash might have happened just west of (behind) the google map image. Driving here is often hairy with the slip road joining fast traffic. The cycle track here is about 2 metres wide, it is shared with pedestrians and is two way, immediately beside a 40mph dual carriageway. There is no coherent route on the other side of the highway. It is the scariest bit of the route between Totton and Southampton station. -
https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/23741978.cyclists-injured-crash-millbrook-road-west/
This looks serious the road and cycle track have been closed for almost four hours. I went past site on the train. It is just where Paynes road slip joins the main road. I hope the rider pulls through. -
Stolen from Broadway Market over the weekend. My friend's Jo lost her brilliant copper coated frame with white wheels. Please let us know if you see it anywhere. - Charlie
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So sad, so overwhelmingly depressing.
Thoughts with everyone who loved this poor woman. -
In a highly unusual intervention, the chair and chief executive of
Guy’s and St Thomas’ trust, and the heads of the children’s allergy
service where Dr Marta Krawiec worked, have written to the mayor of
London, Sadiq Khan, saying the moment had come “for action rather than
words”. -
for a wider perspective of the labour situation: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/02/empty-shelves-britain-workforce-workers
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URTU represent less than 3% of drivers. Many more are in UNITE but sadly the majority belong to no union at all.
Denigrating drivers as fat necked racists etc, is part of the problem. I can't understand why lorry drivers in this country have such low status compared to almost anywhere else in the world.
I started HGV driving when there was a real shortage of drivers. Pay was good and going up. I earned enough in 16 weeks a year to live and pay my way though college. Since then relative pay and conditions have got progressively worse. It is really hard to recruit drivers who care about what they do if you treat them like shit.
On a bike in the New Forest and London, most of the time. Used to work for LCC, now a free agent.