Emerging

While most things in the garden are a couple of weeks behind previous years, the brassicas in the tunnel are a month ahead. The cauliflowers are looking excellent and this first one will be ready to pick - and eat - in a few days.

The first day of spring has brought with it typical warm blustery nor'westerly winds. They will probably continue on and off until the end of the year. 

Thank you for the comments on my Blip yesterday. I am delighted that I am making some headway in improving relations with my new neighbours. 

Your responses were very reassuring to my mind-whir about what globally available information to trust, and how to decide what is trustworthy. In one sense it is reassuring that I am far from being alone in this quandary, but on the other hand how sad is it that many of us are so sceptical about the information available online and in person.

In the light of your evident interest, I have decided to Blip about the course onto which I am hoping to be accepted. Called 'Reality Base Camp - a beta course in sensemaking' this is its pilot, running for just four intense weeks.

How to make decisions grounded in reality, rather than manipulation or wishful thinking is the purpose of the course. It has me thinking deeply about how badly I want to explore the issues and try to find some solid ground. 

My life is guided by my beliefs that we are over-exploiting the world and that without significant changes to our habits and lifestyles we are fast heading towards a chaotic and probably a disastrous future.

To help other people to understand the implications of our actions I rely on the discussions and conclusions of cited research and analysis. But it is becoming difficult to rely on citations, on articles which purport to be based upon 'independent' research, on opinions of people who assure us that they are 'experts'.

I really hope my application is successful and I have the opportunity to learn methods for unveiling fakes, and give me greater trust in sources which are reliable. And maybe how to define 'fake', 'independent' and 'reliable'.

Hopefully your further thoughts will spur me into more mulling and I'll be able to create an irresistible application! Thank you for helping me so far, and in advance.