Year: 2009

May 23, 2009
Have spent much of today in the garden, making sure it will survive my approaching holiday. The new bed is alive with lettuces and salad greens (and some very healthy-looking Pok Choi), and the last thing I want is it to die off if there is no rain.

The other beds all have soaker hoses buried, fed from a pipe that goes around the garden, and I have just extended this to the new bed. The pipe is normally fed from a pair of water butts, but they are almost empty at the moment. So for the two weeks I am away, I have set up a timed water feed from the mains, to come on for a while, every 3 days. I did have a cunning plan to use the timed mains water feed to simply top up the butts, using a ballcock valve – that way, the mains water would only be used if the butts were empty. But that is a level of complication I haven’t got time for at the moment.

May 21, 2009
Just watched Question Time, which this week was all about the sorry state of affairs regarding MP’s expenses. A frequently heard comment from the audience was “Why can’t we have a general election, now”, and this was supported (no surprise!) by both William Hague (Conservative) and Vince Cable (Lib Dem). To my surprise, I was more in agreement with Ben Bradshaw (Labour) who said that to do so would let those who committed the most serious offences to get away with it. I’ll explain why I think this is so.

May 8, 2009
Had another excellent evening at the George Hotel at Leadenham. I had to travel up for a meeting at Bridlington during the day, but popped in on Tim and Annie on the way back, and then went along to the George with them. Many thanks to Annie for feeding me at such short notice!

Less people were attending this month from previous months I have seen, but we still had a very good time of it.

May 3, 2009
I’ve had a couple of minor disasters in the garden this spring. Both my basket tomatoes and my courgettes got planted out way too early, resulting in a loss of plants.

Until today, it has been a puzzle to me why I decided to plant them out – it seemed to me I would start off thinking “it’s too early for X”, then suddenly decide that if anything I had left it late, and then – after I had planted – I watch the plants slowly die.

May 2, 2009
May 1, 2009
About a week ago, I was browsing in the local Factory Shop, and I saw a shelf full of slow cookers. The last time I used one was in my student days. In fact I still have the crock from my old slow cooker, but the electric bit (which also doubled as a chip fryer) got thrown out many years ago.

Anyway, among the larger family type cookers was this one, priced at 12.99 then reduced to 8 quid. I couldn’t resist it. It’s a nice little 1.5 litre cooker, perfect for 1 or 2 portions, and has 3 heat setting – “low” (slow cook), “high” (simmer) and “keep warm”.

April 24, 2009
Just got back from seeing Little Shop of Horrors at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham.

Last time I saw this show was in New York, with a full cast and a spectacular Audrey II, which was able to extend over the first two rows of the audience. This UK touring production, based on the successful revival from the Menier Chocolate Factory (and later the West End) is notable that it has only 10 people in the cast with one one actor in particular – Alex Fern – playing virtually all the bit parts, as well a drunk and dentist Orin Scrivello.

April 23, 2009
I’m hoping that someone with some knowledge of fruit trees can help me.

I have a long established pear tree in my garden- it was here when I moved in 10 years ago.

It was badly neglected and overgrew a path, so I gave it a trim and a trellis to grow against. For a couple of years it bore some good fruit, but then went into decline. Every spring it would grow nicely, and be green, and then the leaves would get some kind of bug or mite and curl. The fruit, if any, would be scarred and not very appetising. I tried various things over the years, and ended up cutting the whole thing back to the trunk on a kind of “kill or cure” idea. This also enabled me to train it against the wall, solving the path problem.

Last year, I had no pest problem, but no flowers or fruit either. This year looked really good, with good growth, and lots of flowers. However, there are signs of the pest again.

Pictures follow after the cut.

April 20, 2009
April 16, 2009
Who watches the watchmen? Well, if you believe this, kids watch the watchmen.

Caught this on YouTube, and it is just about perfect, in that it so wrong on so many levels. Someone has way too much time on their hands, but you have got to love their attention to detail.

April 14, 2009
Got back from Bradford last night, and I am off to Liverpool today, so I’ve no time to post in much detail.

I have to say that LX2009 is the best Eastercon I have been to for many years – and that is a comment on the quality of this year’s con, and not putting down previous years at all.

April 9, 2009