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I've got quite a few books that used to belong to libraries. At first, I bought them direct from the library in the town where I lived; there was a rule that any book that had not been lent out for a certain period of time was withdrawn, stamped as such on the page with the date stamps, and...

But what I resent is when companies tout their products as being "Designed by [some European name or other]" and as being "Made in Europe", and charging an arm and a leg for what is essentially just an injection moulded piece of plastic that I could get made for £5 if I were to order two hundred...

Looks great! My OH bought three very "modern" looking lamps from Fermob a couple of months ago. Ridiculously expensive, €70 each. I reckon that the giblets in the Fermob lamp are almost certainly the same Chinese modules as in your lamp. I've got three on order to build up into something nice.

Yes, but in the case of immigrant populations sticking to their traditional foods, they might not be consuming the vitamin enriched foods.

It's not exactly new. The Lancet had an article about it in 1973, I seem to remember reading something about it in the 1980s, among some immigrant populations (Bangladeshi, I think) in the UK. Immigrant populations in the UK tended to keep their traditional diets; for certain populations, the...

Order a new one, and the old one will magically appear.

Thanks for that. It's growing along the roadside, not so very far away from the millet, so I think it's very probable that both the millet and the thorn apple have come from bird seed.

Two-stroke petrol engines also have oil mixed with the fuel as a lubricant. At one time, you needed to put the premixed fuel in the tank; you could occasionally find "pre-mixed" at the petrol station, but usually you would have to buy petrol in a jerry can and add a measured quantity of oil to...

I'm certain that I've seen this plant before, and was struck by its strangeness... It's about calf-high (that's the calf of my leg, not a young bovine). These are crappy pictures taken with my phone, walking home from the station tonight. I'll see if I can get some better pictures with a...

I am so sorely tempted by that canoe... Don't have anywhere to store it, unless I string it up from the garage rafters, and I would need to bring it over on the car's roof bars through the chunnel (or hire a long van). Unless I paddle it across the channel, up the coast to Le Havre, then up the...

The "Camping municipale" is often right by the side of the river. Convenient if you're canoeing, but not so convenient when there is a flash flood... Safety standards have improved, but up until a few years ago I seem to remember that there were several deaths every three years or so.

There's also a school of thought that a repair should not be intrusive, but that there is no shame in it being visible and identifiable. Indeed, some even go so far as to consider it bad to make a repair that is completely undetectable, because the article is not absolutely genuine but is...

There are places in the USA where people eat pokeweed leaves... maybe only once or twice a year.

The area might have a plentiful food supply now, but have gone through periods of famine or short supply in the past. Then the consumption of what is apparently a bad food choice becomes ingrained as culture and tradition, and people carry it on.

Even if it's a food that you normally like, getting it instead of what you were expecting can be a real surprise... I've never seen Marmite in a tube, but my daughter brought me some Vegemite in a tube when she came back from Australia. Great stuff.

A very interesting article, about a subject that has been on my mind for years. It's not only about food, but technology, too. I can imagine somebody building a fire, and finding that native copper ran from stones used as a hearth, and so the idea of copper smelting is born. And maybe...

Maybe you cooked it "French style".

From the weight of all the people and their Chelsea Tractors. And the weight of Boris Johnson's ego.