Primavera Poisoner

Of course, sometimes colour is the whole point... It seems spring is already on its way. Hayfever alert!

Talking of which, out beyond our back garden is a yew tree in what used to be a cemetery. I was standing in the kitchen the other morning, just gazing out of the window, when a pigeon crash-landed onto one of its branches, in that inelegant way they have, with much flapping and flailing about. I was amazed to see a cloud of white dust billowing out, as if the branches were laden with talcum powder. I had never noticed this before but, clearly, it was pollen.

Looking up yew pollen on the Web, I was interested to learn that it has an Ogren Plant Allergy Scale (OPALS) rating of 10/10. Crikey! As the tree lies to the west of us, and in Britain the prevailing wind is a westerly, I began to wonder whether I had located the source of the sore throats, red eyes, etc., that afflict us in spring. I also discovered that yews are toxic in every part. To quote Wikipedia:

The lethal dose for an adult is reported to be 50 g of yew needles. Patients who ingest a lethal dose frequently die due to cardiogenic shock, in spite of resuscitation efforts. There are currently no known antidotes for yew poisoning, but drugs such as atropine have been used to treat the symptoms. Taxine remains in the plant all year, with maximal concentrations appearing during the winter. Dried yew plant material retains its toxicity for several months and even increases its toxicity as the water is removed. Fallen leaves should therefore also be considered toxic. Poisoning usually occurs when leaves of yew trees are eaten, but in at least one case a victim inhaled sawdust from a yew tree.

Yikes! No wonder they plant them in graveyards: it saves an unnecessary journey. You have been warned.

And talking of warnings... The unwelcome but surely inevitable news this morning from Ukraine may mean the dangerous lady below is trying to escape from her box once again. FWIW, I have one piece of advice for you, especially if you have responsibility for the computer systems of an institution or important infrastructure: look to your cyber-security. Russia has been planning this for some time, and has no doubt seeded malware throughout the West's networks. We could be in for a tough time without a shot being fired, or a rocket launched.