The key paragraph in the above is below (screen grab).

This is the official US Treasury explanation on Xitter

Perry tree coming into blossom

#allotment preparing a bed for beans. This bed was used for potatoes last year, so it's a bit dusty. Legumes fix their own N, so no need for regular manure, but they benefit from the moisture, air and humus that buried organic matter can provide. This 7.5×2.5 m plot had lain bare over winter. /2

#allotment I followed a suggestion of using autumn leaves from my street to mulch two of my six rotation beds. I'm very pleased with the results so far, with total weed suppression and no surface "caking" of the soil by rain action over the winter.

Oxford in bloom

Saw this sentimental scene at the Lindon Guildhall art gallery on Monday. The original is luminous and surprisingly moving.

Cold plastic duck

Can anybody diagnose my kumquat's problem? Just had a very productive season. Then laden with ripe fruit, it's leaves start to fall relentlessly, even when they look healthy. Just reported. Roots alive, no insects, maybe some dots of mould.

Not just 45^2!

it's the naturally-occurring bromoform (pic, like chloroform, but with Bromines) in certain brown macro algae (seaweeds) that does the job.

Wytham woods, near Oxford, yesterday. (What a change a day makes!)