Latest news with #Westland
Scottish Sun
4 days ago
- General
- Scottish Sun
Gardening pro's 3 key jobs to do this weekend to stop rose black spot – including £3 bloom boost
BLOOMING LOVELY Gardening pro's 3 key jobs to do this weekend to stop rose black spot – including £3 bloom boost Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) WE love a rose in the UK - and traditionally our gardens are stuffed full of beautiful blooms that have been bred for thousands of years. But how frustrating is it when you spot the rose leaves going yellow and starting to fall - or the beautiful buds refuse to open and shrivel up instead? Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 3 Rosa laevigata has 'dinner plate-sized' flowers Credit: Alamy 3 Charles Shi is in charge of the Wild Rose garden at Kew Gardens, London Credit: Supplied 3 Black spot is a fungal disease that first appears as black spots on the roses' leaves. Credit: Alamy Black spot is the nemesis of all rose-growers - a fungal disease that first appears as black spots on the roses' leaves. Then the leaf will start to yellow - and fall off - usually spreading further down the plant. And although it doesn't kill the rose - it can weaken it - making it susceptible to other pests and diseases. Spores can overwinter on fallen leaves - and then infects the soil and then the plant next year. Fight against it by making sure that all the fallen leaves are thrown away - not put on the compost. And make sure the rose is pruned to allow enough air to move through the branches. Although proper hard rose pruning is generally done in late winter or early Spring - a light prune now won't be a problem. Also - mulching over winter can help. And make sure you're watering the base rather than from the top of the leaves. Give your rose a dose of proper liquid rose feed - Westland do a decent high performance liquid plant food which helps build resistance to disease. You can get it at Tesco for £8.99. Or Temu is selling Doff Rose and Shrub Feed for £2.89 - which helps maintain healthy roses. Finally - try and choose roses that are resistant to blackspot. Everyone can spot the pot plants - but you have 20-20 vision & high IQ if you can find five red roses in just 19 seconds The general advice with roses is not to plant them in the same soil that a previous rose was in. It can - in extreme cases - cause replant disease - which is where the rose will struggle to grow. You may even find it dies. It's because the roots won't establish properly. But the RHS recommends that you line the planting hole with a cardboard box with a hole in the bottom. By the time the cardboard box has rotted into the soil, the roots will have established. But if you're fed up of black spot, powdery mildew and rose rosette diseases - then have you considered growing a wild rose instead? They might not be quite as extravagant and blingy as the cultivated varieties - but wild roses - known as 'Species Roses' in the catalogues - do a very good job of growing without any human intervention at all. In fact - they're the roses that all our bred roses originated from - and almost thrive on neglect. Charles Shi is in charge of the Wild Rose Garden at Kew - designed originally by Capability Brown in 1900. As part of it's restoration, he and his team travelled as far afield as China and Vietnam to bring back roses that are so new, they haven't been named yet. He told me: 'One of the great things is whilst they flower for a short amount of time - wild roses make up for that by being very resistant to disease. 'Even if they get smothered in aphids they're absolutely fine. 'They're also more hardy. And the early flowers are followed by hips if they're not deadheaded, which feed the birds over Winter. 'It's so important to conserve them - as they could have medicinal compounds that could cure cancer - we're discovering up to 100 compounds every year in our research - which are being used in medical trials. 'They also play a crucial role in ecological conservation by providing food and habitat for pollinators and wildlife.' Some of Charles' favourites include... Rosa Soulieana - which he's nicknamed The Sleeping Beauty Rose - as it's like the one in the book that surrounds the castle. Smells of Cinnamon and up to 4m high. Rosa hirtula - from the Hakone, Japan, at the foothills of Mt Fuji - The only rose with a tree-like habit, with beautiful spiky hips Rosa x odorata 'Mutabilis' A bushy shrub, about 1.8m in height, with purplish young foliage and almost thornless stems Rosa laevigata - has dinner-plate sized flowers.
The Sun
4 days ago
- General
- The Sun
Gardening pro's 3 key jobs to do this weekend to stop rose black spot – including £3 bloom boost
WE love a rose in the UK - and traditionally our gardens are stuffed full of beautiful blooms that have been bred for thousands of years. But how frustrating is it when you spot the rose leaves going yellow and starting to fall - or the beautiful buds refuse to open and shrivel up instead? 3 3 Black spot is the nemesis of all rose-growers - a fungal disease that first appears as black spots on the roses' leaves. Then the leaf will start to yellow - and fall off - usually spreading further down the plant. And although it doesn't kill the rose - it can weaken it - making it susceptible to other pests and diseases. Spores can overwinter on fallen leaves - and then infects the soil and then the plant next year. Fight against it by making sure that all the fallen leaves are thrown away - not put on the compost. And make sure the rose is pruned to allow enough air to move through the branches. Although proper hard rose pruning is generally done in late winter or early Spring - a light prune now won't be a problem. Also - mulching over winter can help. And make sure you're watering the base rather than from the top of the leaves. Give your rose a dose of proper liquid rose feed - Westland do a decent high performance liquid plant food which helps build resistance to disease. You can get it at Tesco for £8.99. Or Temu is selling Doff Rose and Shrub Feed for £2.89 - which helps maintain healthy roses. Finally - try and choose roses that are resistant to blackspot. Everyone can spot the pot plants - but you have 20-20 vision & high IQ if you can find five red roses in just 19 seconds The general advice with roses is not to plant them in the same soil that a previous rose was in. It can - in extreme cases - cause replant disease - which is where the rose will struggle to grow. You may even find it dies. It's because the roots won't establish properly. But the RHS recommends that you line the planting hole with a cardboard box with a hole in the bottom. By the time the cardboard box has rotted into the soil, the roots will have established. But if you're fed up of black spot, powdery mildew and rose rosette diseases - then have you considered growing a wild rose instead? They might not be quite as extravagant and blingy as the cultivated varieties - but wild roses - known as 'Species Roses' in the catalogues - do a very good job of growing without any human intervention at all. In fact - they're the roses that all our bred roses originated from - and almost thrive on neglect. Charles Shi is in charge of the Wild Rose Garden at Kew - designed originally by Capability Brown in 1900. As part of it's restoration, he and his team travelled as far afield as China and Vietnam to bring back roses that are so new, they haven't been named yet. He told me: 'One of the great things is whilst they flower for a short amount of time - wild roses make up for that by being very resistant to disease. 'Even if they get smothered in aphids they're absolutely fine. 'They're also more hardy. And the early flowers are followed by hips if they're not deadheaded, which feed the birds over Winter. 'It's so important to conserve them - as they could have medicinal compounds that could cure cancer - we're discovering up to 100 compounds every year in our research - which are being used in medical trials. 'They also play a crucial role in ecological conservation by providing food and habitat for pollinators and wildlife.' Some of Charles' favourites include... Rosa Soulieana - which he's nicknamed The Sleeping Beauty Rose - as it's like the one in the book that surrounds the castle. Smells of Cinnamon and up to 4m high. Rosa hirtula - from the Hakone, Japan, at the foothills of Mt Fuji - The only rose with a tree-like habit, with beautiful spiky hips Rosa x odorata 'Mutabilis' A bushy shrub, about 1.8m in height, with purplish young foliage and almost thornless stems Rosa laevigata - has dinner-plate sized flowers.
Hindustan Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Review: Broken Nest and Other Stories by Rabindranath Tagore
Madhabi Mukherjee in and as Charulata. The film directed by Satyajit Ray was based on Broken Nest by Rabindranath Tagore. (HT Archive) Broken Nest and Other Stories is a collection of three short stories and a novella by Rabindranath Tagore. Capturing the lyricism of the Nobel Laureate's prose, poet and writer Sharmistha Mohanty translated the stories, The Ghat's Tale, Notebook and Postmaster, and the novella, Broken Nest, from the Bengali, and Westland has presented the works in a volume with an exquisite red and white cover. 'For me the light of day and the shadows of night are cast daily upon the Ganga, and are every day wiped away- they never leave an impression. So, even though I look old, my heart is forever young. The algae of years of memories has not covered me so as to keep out the rays of the sun. Sometimes, by chance an algae floats in and clings to my sides, then it is once again carried away by the waves. But I cannot say there is nothing that has stayed. Where the waves of the Ganga do not reach, there, in my crevices, have sprung up creepers and weeds and moss; they are witnesses to my past, it is they who have held the past in their loving embrace and kept it forever green and tender, forever new. The Ganga recedes from me every day, step by step, and I too, step by step, grow older', narrates the ghat in The Ghat's Tale. 152pp, ₹299; Westland I hold on to each sentence as I feel my heart swell at the recreation of the beauty of the Bengal ghat. The rhythm of Tagore's prose takes me to the landscapes I know well – that of Bihar, where too life springs around the banks of water bodies, the ghats. The rituals of birth, everyday life, marriage, and death conclude there. Through it all, the ghat becomes a witness, wise in years. The Ghat's Tale is the story of a child bride who once played there and has now returned to the ghat of her childhood as a young widow. Speaking of the girl's displacement when she had to leave her home for her husband's, the ghat states, 'Someone had taken away the lotus from the water to plant it on land.' Tagore wrote about women being abandoned by love, by their families, and by society. He wrote about abhagini women, those who were abandoned by fate. One such story is that of Charulata in Broken Nest, which inspired Satyajit Ray's famous eponymous film. Through Charulata's experiences, Tagore wrote about the loneliness of married women. When Charu's husband's cousin, Amal, comes to live with them, she is initially annoyed by his demands. Yet, for the first time, she feels like someone needs her and she can't help being attracted to him. Tagore is possibly at his best in this story; what is left unsaid leaps out at the reader. Through shared moments in which they write and talk, Charu and Amal experience a togetherness that is lacking in her marriage. Small acts of companionship fill her life, and she finds herself looking forward to encounters with Amal. For the first time, she experiences jealousy as she fights with another woman, Mandakini (who is married to another man), for Amal. Tagore's minor characters, such as the married Manda, who too is charmed by the attention Amal pays her, further develop the theme of the isolation of married women in Broken Nest. Charulata's husband Bhupati is not particularly interested in literature. However, he pays his respects as a patron. 'Firstly, I don't read, over and above that if I don't even buy books I will be committing a sin which I will never be able to atone for,' he says. Touched by sorrow, he turns to poetry for the first time in his life. He wants to work on his writing so he can be a writing companion to Charu and help her write more. After Amal leaves, Bhupati senses her sadness though he cannot understand why she is sad. In an attempt to comfort her, he decides to translate Tennyson's poetry into Bengali and read it out to her. In Postmaster, a young orphan girl, Ratan, comes to care deeply for her employer, the postmaster. He arrives in the village of Ulapur for work but decides to return to Calcutta. Ratan asks him to take her with him but he laughs it off as impossible. However, once on the boat to Calcutta, he begins to regret his decision. 'When he got on the boat and the boat has set sail, and the rain swollen river appeared to be brimming on all sides like the earth's gathered tears, then the postmaster felt a great ache in his heart- the picture of an insignificant little village girl's sad face seemed to express an enormous, world encompassing, unarticulated pain. Suddenly he felt a strong desire. 'Let me go back, let me take that world abandoned orphan with me'- but the sails had caught the wind, the monsoon current was flowing swiftly, the village had been left behind and the cremation ghats could be seen on the river banks- and in the wistful heart of the traveller being borne away on the river there arose this philosophy, there are so many separations in life, so many deaths, what is the point of returning? Who belongs to whom in this world?' Rabindranath Tagore (HT Archive) But no philosophy arose in Ratan's mind. She only kept circling the building of the post office with tears in her eyes. Perhaps there was a faint hope entering her heart, maybe Dadababu will come back- caught in that hope she could not go far away from here.' The postmaster moves away from Ratan, abandoning her. Once again, water, an element important in the landscape of Bengal, plays a great role in the story. It forever separates Ratan and the postmaster. Her helplessness becomes acute as she is physically unable to move away due to delusion and hope. In the preface, translator Sharmistha Mohanty writes about women written by Tagore: 'These are women of unbearable dignity, forced into a suffering to which they are almost always equal, and the only travelling they do is towards an acceptance of stasis within which they must live.' Compassionate and meditative, Broken Nest and Other Stories exemplifies Tagore at his finest. As always, in prose rich with lyricism, the great polymath explores the depth of the human experience. Sharmistha Jha is an independent writer and editor.
Scoop
5 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
Coast Councils Forge Ahead With Plans For Water Service Delivery Under Local Water Done Well
Buller, Grey and Westland District Councils are set to form a multi-council-controlled organisation for water services delivery under the coalition government's Local Water Done Well legislation. Buller District Council voted in favour of a joint Water Services Council Controlled Organisation (WSCCO) at an Extraordinary Council meeting on 30 June 2025, with Grey District Council following suit on 3 July 2025, and Westland reaching the same decision yesterday. Now a consensus has been reached, the councils will begin work together on a joint Water Services Delivery Plan in accordance with the coalition government's Local Water Done Well reform. This plan must be submitted to the Department of Internal Affairs for approval by 3 September 2025. The new arrangements are expected to start coming into effect from 1 July 2027. Buller District Council Chief Executive Simon Pickford says: 'By teaming up with our regional partners, we will be combining our technical expertise and sharing services to deliver reliable, cost-effective water solutions that meet the requirements of the legislation. 'Working together unlocks efficiencies we couldn't achieve alone, and we're excited to further enhance our working relationship with the councils on the Coast.' Grey District Council chief executive Joanne Soderlund says: 'This agreement reflects our shared commitment to delivering water services that meet the requirements of the Local Water Done Well framework. By collaborating regionally, we're building a platform for more resilient, efficient infrastructure and achieving better value for our ratepayers.' Westland District Council Chief Executive Barbara Phillips says: 'By working together with our neighbouring councils through a shared Council Controlled Organisation, we're ensuring Westland residents continue to receive safe, affordable, and sustainable water services, something we could not achieve alone. 'This collaborative approach allows us to meet regulatory standards, share expertise, and invest in future-proofed infrastructure while retaining local control and ownership.'
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Michigan elections panel clears way for recall effort targeting state Rep. Peter Herzberg
Michigan's elections panel cleared the way for a recall effort targeting state Rep. Peter Herzberg, a Democrat from Westland, for his vote against a Republican plan to lower the state's income tax rate. The Board of State Canvassers unanimously agreed July 18 that the the petition provided a factual and sufficiently clear reason for the recall effort, enabling the petition's sponsor — Keith Butkovich — to begin collecting signatures asking voters in Herzberg's district to weigh whether to keep their current state representative or replace their representative with a challenger. Under Michigan election law, Herzberg has a 10-day window following the board's vote to appeal the determination. To hold a recall election requires signatures from voters in the district equal to at least 25% of the number of votes cast in the district in the most recent gubernatorial election held in 2022. Signatures must be collected within a 60-day window. Herzberg represents the 25th District in the Michigan House of Representatives, which encompasses the city of Wayne along with parts of Canton, Dearborn Heights and Westland. He was first elected to the Michigan House in a special election held in April 2024 and was reelected in November 2024. During a March 18 House vote on a Republican bill to lower Michigan's income tax rate from 4.25% to 4.05%, Herzberg joined most of his Democratic colleagues to oppose the legislation. The Democrat-led Michigan Senate has not taken up the proposal. Herzberg did not immediately respond to a voice message left by the Detroit Free Press to comment on the recall effort. Efforts to recall lawmakers have struggled to go from a mere threat to an actual vote in recent years. The year 2011 marked the last time a sitting lawmaker was successfully recalled. Whitmer: Trump promises 'better deal' for Michigan after semiconductor factory falls apart The latest recall effort — inspired by Herzberg's vote to preserve the state's current income tax rate — mirrors previous recall efforts over Democratic lawmakers' tax positions. In 1983, recall elections spurred by a tax revolt marked a historic vote in Michigan with state Sen. Phil Mastin, D-Pontiac, becoming the first state official in Michigan to be kicked out of office in a recall election. State Sen. David Serotkin, D-Macomb Township, soon met the same fate in his recall election the following week. The recall campaigns were led by those who fiercely opposed the Democratic lawmakers' support for a personal income tax hike proposed by then-Gov. James Blanchard. Serotkin resigned before the state's canvassing board certified the results of the recall election. But then-Attorney General Frank Kelley determined that Serotkin could not run for his seat again despite the preemptive resignation. Democrats lost their majority in the state Senate and closed out the year with an even partisan split in the chamber before Republicans took control. Any successful recall election to oust Herzberg wouldn't be expected to have a similar impact on the partisan composition of the Michigan House since he represents a safely Democratic district. Contact Clara Hendrickson: chendrickson@ or 313-296-5743. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan Democratic state representative faces recall effort Solve the daily Crossword
