Gang aft agley

The hurdle at which my hopes for a quick purchase of a Cannon IXUS 850 IS fell:

One of the thoughts rattling my head just about every time I indulge myself / see an H&M advert is Fair Trade. And since my beautiful new shoes were made in Vietnam and H&M are currently advertising dresses for £7.50ish, my head is bouncing so much I need to find an outlet, an answer for when I get told, as I have been more than once and not just by my left shoulder angel, "well if you don't buy them, the people who make them will earn nothing."

Here it is:

In England 77.5 minutes of minimum wage work= the price of that H&M dress ( I know that is before deductions, but there are limits to my obsession for detail) If it was put up to £18.75 and everyone in the process got the increase of 250%, it'd take 3 hours 15 minutes - a morning.

It is a couple of years since I read the article in the Guardian, but I can't imagine things have improved - certainly dresses aren't getting dearer - a woman making dresses in India for export does not earn enough in a morning to pay to travel to work. Imagine she needs to make 50 units a day to earn the #5 needed to keep herself and her 3 children. Imagine that she cannot physically do that, the best she can do is 25. So her 3 children have to work as well. Put up her wages so that she is paid #5 for 20 units, even if her pay increase means that her 3 children are out of work, they can now go to school, because she is earning enough to keep her family.

So how do we let the shops know that we are willing to work a morning for a frock so that a woman can earn enough to keep her family alive? That, I don't know.

At 6.30 am, the light is dim enough for some outdoor pictures to work:

but not others:

these are white and gold narcissi!

I just think that this looks kinda-magic.

Why was I taking photos at 6.30? Because I have taken my dark curtains down to wash. The blackbirds were awake at 5ish and so was I.