366 days of gratitude

It’s true you take what you can do for granted until you can’t do it any more.

I can still read but not so easily as I used to without the help of glasses especially if the print is small and merges with the background.

That makes me really grateful for larger print with strong contrast.

Word of the day

Scaramouch –  cowardly braggart or buffoon; ruffian; scoundrel; a stock character in commedia dell’arte and farce who is a cowardly braggart, easily beaten and frightened.

Rural round-up

Marks & Spencer Scotland pulls pin on NZ lamb –  Alexa Cook:

British retailer Marks & Spencer will no longer stock New Zealand lamb in its Scottish stores, after a decision to only sell locally-produced lamb.

 New Zealand exports about 29,000 lambs a year to Marks & Spencer in Scotland and the decision will hit about 10 or 12 lamb producers in this country.Beef and Lamb NZ chairman James Parsons is in Britain, France, Ireland and Belgium this week to assess what effect Brexit may have on New Zealand exports. . .

Farmer grows from on-lamb farm to million dollar empire in six years – Paul Mitchell:

In just six years, a farmer south of Whanganui has grown his business from a single block of land to a multi-million dollar company supplying restaurants and supermarkets globally.

This week Coastal Spring Lamb, at Turakina, received its first order from China, giving it a foot-hold in the biggest market in the world.

Founder Richard Redmayne said this was the eighth export market for the firm since it began selling overseas in January last year. . . 

At war with the pukeko – one gardener’s greatest foe – Charlie Mitchell:

The pukekos strike just before dawn, leaving hundreds of destroyed cabbages and a market gardener in despair.

Commercial gardener Brent Treleaven is at war with the native birds, which have caused thousands of dollars worth of damage on his farm north of Christchurch.

He had to relinquish part of his market garden to the pukeko after they took it over. . . 

Cows get inspirational talk before milking – Simon Wong:

An Australian farmer says the pep talks he gives his cows is an easy way to bring cheer to his colleagues, who are facing some trying times.

Two videos of southwestern Victoria farmer Adam Jenkins, posted on Facebook by his wife Catherine, have been shared thousands of times in the past few days.

They’re of Mr Jenkins giving his cows encouragement before heading into the milking shed and then afterward congratulating them on their efforts. . .

Industry’s competitiveness in spotlight at DairyNZ AGM:

Dairy farmers’ ability to remain internationally competitive is likely to be a hot topic when dairy industry and research body, DairyNZ, reviews the past year at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Canterbury this month.

DairyNZ is holding its AGM in Ashburton from 11am on Thursday, October 27, at Hotel Ashburton.

Industry body chairman Michael Spaans says the AGM will review the 2015/16 dairy season, including the low milk price challenges, and discuss DairyNZ’s highlights for the year and future direction. . . 

Latest industry results confirm LIC has the best bulls in the country – by far:

The genetic gain and value that LIC bulls are delivering on New Zealand dairy farms is confirmed in the latest Ranking of Active Sires (RAS) list.

A phenomenal 27 of the best 30 bulls on the All Breeds list are LIC’s, including the top 14 in a row of all breeds.

“These bulls are managed by LIC on our farmers’ behalf, with massive contributions from our top breeders and our Bull Acquisition team,” LIC General Manager Biological Systems Geoff Corbett said. . .

Quote of the day

If children are not introduced to music at an early age, I believe something fundamental is actually being taken from them. – Luciano Pavarotti who was born on this day in 1935.

He also said:

 Learning music by reading about it is like making love by mail.

And:

For me, music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion. 

 

October 12 in history

539 BC – The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia took Babylon.

1216 King John of England lost his crown jewels in The Wash.

1279  Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk founder of Nichiren Buddhism, inscribed the Dai-Gohonzon.

1398  The Treaty of Salynas was signed between Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas the Great and the Teutonic Knights, who received Samogitia.

1492  Christopher Columbus‘s expedition landed on The Bahamas. The explorer believed he has reached South Asia.

1654  The Delft Explosion devastated the city, killing more than 100 people.

1692  The Salem Witch Trials were ended by a letter from Massachusetts Governor William Phips.

1773 America’s first insane asylum opened for ‘Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds’ in Virginia

1792  First celebration of Columbus Day in the USA held in New York

1793  The cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the United States, was laid on the campus of the University of North Carolina.

1810  First Oktoberfest: Bavarian royalty invited the citizens of Munich to join the celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen.

1822  Pedro I of Brazil was proclaimed the emperor of the Brazil.

1823  Charles Macintosh, of Scotland, sold the first raincoat.

1866 Ramsay MacDonald, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,was born (d. 1937).

1871  Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) enacted by British rule in India, which named over 160 local communities ‘Criminal Tribes’, i.e. hereditary criminals.

1872 Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer, was born (d. 1958).

1891 – Edith Stein, German nun, philosopher, and saint was born (d. 1942).

1892  The Pledge of Allegiance was first recited by students in many US public schools, as part of a celebration marking the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage.

18893 – Velvalee Dickinson, American spy was born (d. 1980).

1901  President Theodore Roosevelt officially renamed the “Executive Mansion” the White House.

1915 World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell was executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium.

1917 World War I: The First Battle of Passchendaele resulted in thelargest single day loss of life in New Zealand history.

1918 The arrival of the Niagra was blamed for introducing a deadly new influenza to New Zealand.

1918  A massive forest fire killed 453 people in Minnesota.

1920 – Christopher Soames, Baron Soames, English politician, Governor of Southern Rhodesia was born (d. 1987).

1921 – Logie Bruce Lockhart, Scottish rugby player and journalist was born.

1928 An iron lung respirator was used for the first time at Children’s Hospital, Boston.

1933  The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island, was acquired by the United States Department of Justice.

1935 Luciano Pavarotti, Italian tenor, was born (d. 2007).

1942 Melvin Franklin, American singer (The Temptations), was born (d. 1995).

1942 World War II: Japanese ships retreated after their defeat in the Battle of Cape Esperance with the Japanese commander, Aritomo Gotōdying from wounds suffered in the battle and two Japanese destroyers sunk by Allied air attack.

1945  World War II: Desmond Doss was the first conscientious objector to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor.

1948 Rick Parfitt, British musician (Status Quo), was born.

1949 – Carlos the Jackal, Venezuelan terrorist and murderer, was born.

1953 “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial” opened at Plymouth Theatre, New York.

1960  Cold War: Nikita Khrushchev pounded his shoe on a desk at United Nationa General Assembly meeting to protest a Philippine assertion of Soviet Union colonial policy being conducted in Eastern Europe.

1960  Inejiro Asanuma, Chair of the Japanese Socialist Party, was assassinated by Otoya Yamaguchi, a 17-year-old.

1962 Columbus Day Storm struck the U.S. Pacific Northwest with record wind velocities; 46 dead and at least U.S. $230 million in damages.

1964 The Soviet Union launched the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits.

1968 – Hugh Jackman, Australian actor and producer, was born.

1968 Equatorial Guinea became independent from Spain.

1976 China announced that Hua Guofeng was the successor to the late Mao Zedong as chairman of Communist Party of China.

1979 The first in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series by Douglas Adams was published.

1979 The lowest recorded non-tornadic atmospheric pressure, 87.0 kPa (870 mbar or 25.69 inHg), occurred in the Western Pacific duringTyphoon Tip.

1983 Japan’s former Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei was found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from Lockheed and was sentenced to 4 years in jail.

1984  Brighton hotel bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army attempted to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. Thatcher escaped but the bomb kills five people and wounded 31.

1988 Jaffna University Helidrop: Commandos of Indian Peace Keeping Force raided the Jaffna University campus to capture the LTTE chief and walked into a trap.

1988 Two officers of the Victoria Police were gunned down executional style in the Walsh Street police shootings.

1991  Askar Akayev, previously chosen President of Kyrgyzstan by republic’s Supreme Soviet was confirmed president in an uncontested poll.

1997  Sidi Daoud massacre in Algeria; 43 killed at a fake roadblock.

1999  Pervez Musharraf took power in Pakistan from Nawaz Sharifthrough a bloodless coup.

1999 – The Day of Six Billion: The proclaimed 6 billionth living human in the world is born.

2000 The USS Cole was badly damaged in Aden, Yemen, by two suicide bombers, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39.

2002 Terrorists detonated bombs in Paddy’s Pub and the Sari Club in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 and wounding over 300.

2005  The second Chinese human spaceflight Shenzhou 6 launched carrying Fèi Jùnlóng and Niè Hǎishèng for five days in orbit.

2013 – 51 people were killed after a truck veered off a cliff in La Convencion Province in Peru.

2014 – Super- cyclone Hudhud in Visakhapatnam. India, killed at least 124 people.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia