Noisy helicopter

Yes, I know I'm a bit behind with my posts... but with this thing hovering over our house at 01:00 this morning waking everyone around I'm not going to be bright and chippy enough to catch up anytime soon!

On the hottest night of the year, when everyone had their bedroom windows open, the Cambridgeshire police helicopter decided to hover a few hundred feet above St Ives for about twenty minutes. Couldn't see any searchlight going, and appeared too high to be doing anything useful. But what a racket it made. No chance of any sleep until it moved off to wake a few hundred other ratepayers up!

I'm assuming it's the police helicopter... it's based at RAF Wyton, which is just a mile north of us. I've put in a Freedom of Information request to Cambridgeshire Police to ask if it was their helicopter, if so what was it doing, what constraints the pilot operates under at night in a built up area and if those constraints were met, what the cost of the helicopter is and some figures on whether it's value for money. I'll let you know when I get a response (they have a month to respond).

Moan over... if it's any compensation I fell better for that! In the meantime I'm gathering photos and stories for the next post, including our trip to Scotland to compete against my brothers at anything that moves. Did I remember to pack my lucky streak? More to follow as soon as I can.

First flush of redcurrants

My ambitious plans for a fruit cage have yet to past the planning stage. I've got the area laid out, even got the plants in there and growing (after a fashion), but I can't find the time to buy or scrounge the wood and netting to get it done. So it won't happen this summer.

Nevertheless the fruit bushes are doing their best without me... here's one of the redcurrant bushes with its first set of fruit (click to enlarge). Got whitecurrant and raspberries too, although the latter are struggling a bit for some reason. Have to wait a while for the type of crop that takes me back to when I used to go raspberry picking in my school holidays near Blairgowrie in Perthshire. Beat most of my holiday jobs hands down, especially the gutting job in a chicken factory! And guess what was on the lunchtime menu.

Got fed up with strawberries... picking developed into a race against the woodlice, who also appear to love strawberries. So they're now outside fending for themselves, much loved by the chickens who should also put paid to the woodlice. Must remember next year to use shop bought compost, since my own was also chez woodlice.

Planted out my peas and beans as well as more lettuce. Arms getting longer by the day as I haul watering cans back and forth from the trough. Started to use the wheelbarrow so I can move three watercans at a time.

Took a step nearer to confirming my status as the allotment equivalent of the village idiot early yesterday morning. Spied a cat along the path and went into my usual feline routine of making lots of noise whilst simultaneously jumping up and down. Has worked at home, so well that all the neighbourhood cats (and I suspect some of their owners) give me and my garden a wide berth. This specimen appeared one of the uninitiated since it turned back to continue its meander. Not to be outdone I silently sprinted towards the invader until it noticed my approach, not surprisingly then giving the required reaction to my renewed version of the Indian rain dance by disappearing pronto. It was at this point I noticed a fellow allotmenteeress by the water trough looking at me with absolute astonishment. Slunk back to my plot trying to look as normal as possible. I know lots of people love cats, but I don't... they kill birds and poo in your garden, all in exchange for an odd purr. Doesn't seem a bargain to me.

Later I took Connor up to the allotment with me. He had another session of building a house to sleep in. To listen to what he thinks about his mum's chocolate fountain click here, or to hear what he thinks about chicken letters and words click here.

Bit of a quiet day today, having had my last of three chemotherapy sessions in this phase of treatment this morning... so lots of dashing to the loo every five minutes for the next few hours. When I've finished this posting I'm going to relax in the warm glow of knowledge that I again hold all three competition cups. Think I'm becoming the Peter Pan equivalent of squash, tennis and darts/pool... it must be so since my rate of decline will slow at some point, finally when I can no longer hold up the racquet/cue/dart. Meanwhile my sons/in law are on the downward trend towards middle age where the rate of decline is much faster.

Next posting will be a bit delayed since Linda and I are off to Scone on Friday for my parents' sixtieth wedding anniversary the following day. Wont be back 'til Tuesday.

More photos from my plot below. Thanks for reading my blog. John

	Reorganised greenhouse, with tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and pumpkins given space. (Click to enlarge)
	The figs are doing really well this year.
	Foxglove.
	Poppy
	Great scabiosa

Walk around Flamborough Head

Off on my annual walk with mate Terry last Wednesday and Thursday. This year it was the 400 feet chalk cliffs around Flamborough Head.

Here's a map of the region showing the actual route we took, straight off Terry's GPS system (click to enlarge, red arrowed line is our path). The first day, having left the cars at Bempton, we took the train to Bridlington (just off bottom of map) and walked back to Bempton.

In spite of all Terry's technology, every year we decide we know better and get lost. Disheartened with yet another diversion around Thornwick Bay and with no visible sign of Bempton on the horizon we decided to try our luck by walking inland. As we trudged along an unending road it was at this point the GPS system took its revenge, telling us we still had two and a half miles to go. We did thirteen miles that first day, much tougher than it sounds because coastal walking involves lots of steep ups and downs.

Day two saw us going by rail to Filey and walking back to Bempton again. Only eleven miles this time with quite a bit of beach walking and fantastic sights of cliffs and birds. Saw my first puffin...

here's a photo of one taken with Terry's latest bit of kit, an SLR camera. Feel I'm falling behind in the technology stakes... must think what I can aquire in time for our next get together!

Thought it might not be my finest moment when we rolled up the street to our overnight bed and breakfast at The Ship Inn past a house with its windows boarded up... but the accommodation wasn't too bad apart from me banging my head continuously off the attic bedroom roof.

Had a move around in the greenhouse to allow room for my tomatoes to grow. Took down some of the shelving and potted up my plants in bigger containers. The strawberry plants are a bit of a disappointment... some of the fruit are a funny shape and they seem to go dark and then past their best pretty quickly. Might move them out to give more room.

At last some decent rain meant I could break up the clay soil more successfully. Made progress on the bean/pea supports. My experiment to see if it was better to initially grow vegetables in the greenhouse before planting outside is proving a hit. Although I've been watering seeds planted outside every day they're only starting to show their heads, and somewhat erratically, whereas those in the greenhouse have sprung up strongly.

Noticed a distinct reduction in eggs from the feathered fiends over the last week with two eggs per day if lucky, and then a broken egg... have they become cannibals? Next the flash of a brown furry thing nipping under a plant tub. Armed with a hefty stick I whipped up the tub... to find a rat rushing around the pen tying to escape. A bit of a tap on the bonce despatched the intruder and production is back up to normal again.

Huge disappointment today. Supposed to be going with my two sons to watch England play Andorra in their world cup qualifier at Wembley, one of our special father and sons trip out together we do once or twice a year. Got the shiny tickets, aimed to set off early afternoon by train, bit of a crawl around some interesting London pubs before a serious burger for tea, then pitch up at the FANTASTIC Wembley Stadium to join 90,000 fans for a bit of heavy atmosphere.

Cue the RMT Union and their leader Bob Crow, today the most hated man in the land for the cynical way he has selected yesterday and today to disrupt the plans of many thousands of England fans by calling the London Underground workers out on strike and bringing London transport to a virtual standstill. So whilst the rest of the country's workers are taking pay cuts, if they're lucky enough to have a job, RMT members are striking for a five percent pay rise and the promise of no compulsory redundancies. Do they live on another planet?

Although we could get to the match, the fear of a poor atmosphere with few fans present and a nightmare journey home means we'll be watching on telly. Here's hoping the disappointment of thousands of families not able to get to the match weighs heavily on Mr Crow and his members in the form of many sleepless nights.

First strawberries

Munched into my first strawberries this week, example shown here (click to enlarge). They're early since I'm growing them in the greenhouse. Thought I'd have a bug free crop until I observed a woodlice burrowing into one plump red orb. Some of my strawberries are very dark red when ripe, never seen them that colour, but they were delicious with yoghurt.

Feel I'm making real progress with the additional early morning visits to the plot. Weeds are almost under control and planted out some of the vegetable seedlings started in the greenhouse... seems to work well. Even started constructing a pea/bean support frame on the back plot.

The tomatoes are also going really well. Aiming to grow those in the greenhouse too... allotment grown tomatoes are a million times sweeter and tastier than the supermarket version, but my crops have been really disappointing over the last couple of years. The first tomato flower appeared this week as shown below.

Slapped some more paint on during the week to finish the hall ceiling with a second coat. At last getting to grips with the contortionist ladder. Look forward to getting down to doing the walls next weekend.

Unbelievably, I'm the holder of all three cups... tennis, squash and pub games! The first and last time that happened was immediately after I bought the silverware for £1.99 from a charity shop. Unfortunately when I say 'holder' I mean it in a mental rather than physical way... son David has taken to not bothering to bring two of the cups to matches thinking he'll save himself the trouble of carrying them home again! So no photograph to celebrate.

Visited the garden show at Woodgreen Animal Shelter with Linda, Becky and Beth on Sunday. Really enjoyable... it took us all day to wander around in the sunshine looking at the stalls and exhibits, following a set path insisted on by the family version of Hermann Göring in the form of daughter Becky, who insisted we only look on the right hand side on the first round, returning to view only the left hand side on the way back. Beth bought a pink imitation coconut matting parasol, so bright you could see it from the other side of Cambridgeshire!

Yesterday started writing a history of allotments in England, aiming to make it a more in depth and interesting version than some of the drier text you can find on other sites. First of next three chemotherapy sessions meant I had to take it easy in the afternoon, though sitting indoors on a hot sunny day went against the grain. After several hours of research had only just started to put fingers to keyboard, and I've still gots hours more investigation and editing... so should be ready some time before end of the year given the amount of spare time I've got at present!