For most of us fortunate to live in West Wales we are not bothered with ‘light pollution’ and now and again we may look into the clear night skies and marvel at the many galaxies before us.

A writer for Scientific American says: “The more clearly we see the universe in all it’s glorious detail, the more difficult it is for us to explain with a simple theory how it came to be that way.”

Today, there are 88 officially recognised constellations. This is different from the historical understanding of a constellation dominantly used in astrology which is defined as a group of stars easily identifiable by a pattern to observers on Earth.

Until the 1920s, there had seemed to be just one galaxy but, thanks to observations with larger telescopes, we now recognize that our universe contains at least 50,000-600,000 galaxies - each with billions of stars.

Something, sometime must have started the process: as we near our Summer equinox I ask myself: “How can some people suggest that there is no God?”

Straws in the Wind

Reconnecting children

NFU Environmentalist Mark Pope has said: “Until recently, the farming industry has not been good at telling its story on how it produces sustainable food and for too long children have been removed from the knowledge of where food comes from and how it is produced.

“For the past 12 years, a colleague and I have been running large school visits as part of Open Farm School Day - aimed at getting children out onto farms to learn about where their food comes from.

“We started as long ago as 2004 providing for some 800 children - since then, we have built this up to three large school visits to farms in a year, hosting some 1,500 children annually.”

Mark tells me that he considers these farm visits play a vital role to help show the children where their food comes from, how it is grown and in some of the larger events show them how to prepare and cook food, taking them through the journey from farm to plate.

To make these days work well, they rely on the great support of local farmers and other volunteers and he feels that it is fantastic how some of the normally shy farmers come alive when talking about the job that they love while guiding the children round the farms!

Other aspects include visits to talk to the children about the work that farmers do to help our environment, protecting he soil and the wildlife in our hedgerows - if planned carefully these days can link to the national curriculum and, where possible, teachers are supplied with workbooks, such as the NFU’s Why Farming Matters booklet and follow up work to be done at a later date.

Mark affirms: “Our aim is to spread this model, encouraging others to run similar visits - I passionately believe that we have huge potential to promote farming and its story.

“The farm visits that we organise are invaluable at reconnecting children with farming, food and our vibrant environment. This can only be good for the farming sector and for the education of our children, but also their health and wellbeing.”

Bitter sweet

A man placed some flowers on the grave of his dearly departed mother and started back toward his car when his attention was diverted to another man kneeling at a grave.

The man seemed to be praying with profound intensity and kept repeating, ‘Why did you have to die? Why did you have to die? Why did you have to die? Why did you have to die?’

The first man approached him and said: “Sir, I don’t wish to interfere with your private grief, but this demonstration of pain is more than I’ve ever seen before. For whom do you mourn so deeply? A child? A parent?’

The mourner took a moment to collect himself, then replied: “My wife’s first husband.”

True story

As a young bagpiper, I was asked by a funeral director to play at a grave-side service for a homeless man, with no family or friends.

The funeral was to be held at a cemetery way back in the country, and this man would be the first to be laid to rest there.

As I was not familiar with the backwoods area, I became lost and, being a typical man, did not stop for directions.

I finally arrived an hour late. I saw the JCB and the crew, who were eating lunch, but the hearse was nowhere in sight.

I apologised to the workers for my tardiness, and stepped to the side of the open grave, where I saw the vault lid already in place. I assured the workers I would not hold them up for long, but this was the proper thing to do.

The workers gathered around, still eating their lunch. I played out my heart and soul. As I played the workers began to weep. I played, and I played, like I’d never played before: From My Home and The Lord is my Shepherd to Flowers of the Forest. I closed the lengthy session with Amazing Grace and walked to my car.

As I was opening the door and taking off my coat, I overheard one of the workers saying to another: “Boy oh boy, I’ll be darned, I never seen nothin’ like that before - and I’ve been putting in septic tanks for 20 years!”

Ye haw!

Swiss-based donkey milk company Eurolactis is ramping up production, and is set to launch the first large-scale production of Onalat - a chocolate bar made with donkey’s milk.

Company boss Pierluigi Christophe Orunesu says the plan is to increase production to meet growing demand: “We’re entering a very important cycle of production. We started with 20,000 bars per batch, now we are going to reach the 40,000 bars per batch. We’re seeing a steady increase in demand for Onalat in Europe, in the US, Asia and Australia and we are expanding our distribution network in Italy.

“We are providing to key players like Sojasun, who distribute our product in France, and have wholesalers in Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. We have requests in the UK, but there it is online only right now.”

Pierluigi admitted that obtaining a sufficient supply of donkey milk is a real challenge

“Currently, we take milk from 1,000 donkeys, mostly in Italy, but there is big potential in the Balkans and Portugal is another country that could satisfy our needs.”

Thought for the day

Said the robin to the sparrow: “I should really like to know, why these anxious beings, rush about and worry so.”

Said the sparrow to the robin: “Friend, I think it must be, that they have no Heavenly Father such as cares for you and I.”