All this talk of heat waves and global warming, and the talk of eating bugs has brought back old memories of eating sandwiches cover in these things on a hot summers day while on the beach as a child. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRk_Oc_PjAI&t=3s From 5 March 2016 Could the ladybird plague of 1976 happen again? The hot summer of 1976 saw swarms of ladybirds infesting towns and cities across the UK, with many people reporting being bitten by them. In the 40 years since there hasn't been a repeat, but could it happen again this summer? The drought of 1976 was unprecedented in its severity. Reservoirs dried up, as families queued to use standpipes to access drinking water. To titters worthy of a 1970s sitcom, Minister for Drought Denis Howell suggested people take baths with a friend. And, with Milton Abbas, Dorset, and Teignmouth, Devon, having no rain for 45 straight days, the government warned some industries might have to close down because of water shortages. But the heat wasn't the only seemingly apocalyptic event to hit Britain that summer. A plague of starving seven-spotted ladybirds besieged villages, towns and cities. The British Entomological and Natural History Society has estimated that 23.65 billion of them were swarming on the southern and eastern coasts of England by late July. Brenda Madgwick, who spent some of the summer on holiday on Kent's Isle of Sheppey, remembered that "everywhere one put one's foot, it was thick with ladybirds. The posts along the sea-front holding up the chains were completely smothered.'' The ladybird population explosion happened at locations nationwide. "They were all over the place, on every pavement, and at times it was impossible to take a step without treading on them," recalled Frank Haiste of Leeds. The pool at Ruislip Lido in Middlesex was covered with dead ladybirds, deterring all but the hardiest swimmers. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35603972

This is the new Norway-Poland Baltic Pipeline that just coincidentally opened the day after the attack on the Russian pipeline. Poland has secured its gas supplies...

Just a bit of musical entertainment For the Crack ??