Do you dig it?

Digging

Oh, I do, I do. Over the last week it seems like I’ve done nothing else and the spade has become an instrument of torture for me. Never one to do things by half, I’ve been digging on three fronts… the allotment front plot one third down the second side, the back plot where I’ve decided to put my fruit cage/polytunnel, and finally one of the borders in our back garden!

Fortunately I finished the garden border after a superhuman seven and a half hour effort yesterday. Now ready to put in the £80 of perennial plants we’ve bought.

The part of the fruit cage area on the plot that I’m digging at present is a nightmare… full of couch grass roots. Best I can do is to turn it over, take out what roots I can see and leave the rest for another dig when the frost breaks up the earth. Yes, believe it or not I’m praying for some more hard frosts!

Yesterday’s start on the digging was delayed by a quick trip to the Comet store in Huntingdon. After two weeks I’ve still not heard from Hephers (who are waiting for an answer from Sony) on whether I can record footage from my Samsung U10 HD camcorder onto the Sony DVD recorder. Even called in Friday and left a message for Simon to ring me… still waiting. So got to assume they’re not that bothered.

In the past I’ve never really warmed to Comet, ever since I popped to the nearby Focus store and was subjected to blaring pop music to announce the fact that Comets had a promotion on. But the assistant Will couldn’t have been more helpful yesterday, even showing me the difference in viewing between 50mhz and 100mhz televisions. Came away saying I’ll have a look at the on-line reviews and be back to him. Finally settled on a Panasonic 42" plasma TV with a Panasonic DVD HD recorder. Just got to return and test my camcorder will record, and haggle down the £100 difference in price on the recorder between their web page and the store price.

Significant annual milestone reached this week… broke out the shorts and revealed the kneecaps. Only exposed in the house during the evening so far… can’t be too racy!

Beth and family returned from a hectic five days in Disneyland Paris. Think Paige wore her Minnie Mouse outfit throughout the trip, including on the way there. Passersby had no doubt where she was heading! And Connor, having fixated about the Eiffel Tower for weeks, got so excited he threw up when he got to the top. Always being told I get the grandchildren too excited but I love playing with them. Was playing Paige air hockey last weekend. When she scored a goal I said ‘Oh b…’ but before I could complete the word ‘blast’ five year old Paige looked me in the eyes and said ‘Were you going to say bugger?’

Had a productive allotment association meeting on Monday in preparation for our Build for Wildlife day on Sunday 16-May. Lots of good ideas about bird boxes and things to encourage beneficial bugs.

And the book? Well, managed to get a page written on Friday (hence this posting is late). Will probably be expanded out to four pages once I get all literary but at least it’s a start.

There’s a new Blogger template designer out with some interesting blog designs. I’ll be doing a lot of fiddling over the next week and the blog might look a bit different as a result.

 

Love of England

England flag 01

Although born in England I’ve always counted my nationality as Scottish, the birthplace of my dad and where I spent my formative years. But increasingly my heart is becoming English. It’s not because I’ve lived here for over forty years, nor is it because my wife and children are English.

English national pride seems something that’s hard to get hold of. It shows itself when an England team is playing, but turns nasty in the case of defeat. Just look at news coverage of the England football team whenever they fail to win a competition.

Other than that it’s really hard to identify. It seems there’s more passion about being Cornish, a Lancastrian or hailing from Yorkshire than being English. There’s nothing  to compare to the passions aroused in Scotland, usually directed against ‘The Sassenachs’ (who were actually Lowland Scots rather than English), or the Welsh love of their language and songs. So why am I warming to England as my home?

For a start the countryside is beautiful in a peaceful and reassuring way. Of course there’s great variety… in the flat lands of The Fens hereabouts on a quiet summer evening you can see for miles, with church spires of all the villages dotted around puncturing the huge sky. Contrast that with the Lake District… the part of England that gets nearest to being mountainous, and yet its all very civilised with beautiful quaint English villages always within easy walking distance. And everything in between, from the honey colour of cottages in The Cotswolds to the quiet and expansive beaches on the Norfolk coast.

Even in London, besides the vibrancy and amazing free spectacles such as The British Museum, to wander round the squares and parks, admire the architecture and be surprised at every turn, to pop into cafes and restaurants offering just about any food you can imagine, is my idea of heaven.

Where to stop… the amazing English language, now accepted as the language of the World, wonderful literature such as the heart stopping Pride and Prejudice, the reserve of the English, the maturity of the society, the tolerance of peoples from across the World.

England has been very tolerant and welcoming of other cultures to this country, particularly when fleeing oppression, and have been welcoming asylum seekers in small numbers since the middle ages. The Huguenots were the first large migration, when more than 50,000 arrived from 1685 onwards.

On the corner of Fournier Street and Brick Lane in the East End of London stands the Jamme Masjid mosque. The building has been used for over two and a half centuries as a place of worship for the peoples of Spitalfields, yet the communities assembling within its walls have changed with successive waves of immigration to London. In 1744, the building started its life as a Huguenot church and 50 years later became a Wesleyan chapel. From 1898 the building housed the Spitalfields Great Synagogue serving the Eastern European Jewish community until it was sold to the Bengali community in 1975. It remains a symbol of movement and fluidity which is so characteristic of London's history and has witnessed individual and group histories that have shaped London and Britain, where many had sought sanctuary.

The Times editorial on the 19th of January 1858 declared that:
"every civilised people on the face of the earth must be fully aware that this country is the asylum of nations, and that it would defend the asylum to the last drop of its blood. There is no point on which we are prouder or more resolute [...] We are a nation of refugees."

Sure, there are things that need fixing. That mature society has developed a support environment that allows some to see the social security system as their main or only means of income. I’m not blaming those on benefits for this, but the politicians that frame rules which state that once you’re on benefits, for any work you do over 16.5 hours a week your effective rate of tax is 70%. That’s far higher than for a millionaire and means you’re probably working for a net gain of less than £1.50 an hour. I wouldn’t do that. That’s no incentive to work your way off benefits.

 

On the home front the weekly competitions with my sons got into full swing with the first threesome at pitch and putt. Bit of a disaster round for me at 85, but John just pipped David on the 18th by one stroke. I had my first win of the year at pool/darts last Sunday, and am managing to hold in there at squash, being just one behind David this month.

Had another inspection of my blinking bladder last week and passed again with flying colours. Bought a bottle of whisky for a celebratory tipple. One more year to go of treatment and inspection and I’ll then be in the clear.

Made some progress on the novel. Read a book on how to write a novel, then sketched out the chapter structure and started some research. Wish I’d started writing it last October rather than as we’re heading into Spring. Suspect progress will be slow while the weather is good, but keep reminding myself that it should take months and months.

Had the grandsons on the allotment on Thursday. Cue the usual flurry of den building, see photos and video clips below. On the next visit it took me almost as long as they’d been there to tidy up! Was hoping to have the biannual camp fire with sausages and marshmallows, but the weather was poor so it’s been postponed to next week.

Loads of seedlings coming on at present… must post a snap of the greenhouse. And the rain will bring on the cabbage, onions, broad beans, garlic, lettuce and spinach already in the ground.

Started digging over one of the borders in the back garden at home. The plants in there have got a bit tired so I’m aiming to completely replant with perennials and annuals.

Finally, Beth, Chris, Connor and Paige are off to Disneyland Paris on the Eurostar tomorrow for a few days, to include a tour around Paris. Connor is really interested in high buildings so he’s looking forward to his trip to the Eiffel Tower. Popped across last night to show them on how to use my Samsung U10 camcorder, so should be lots of interesting footage for the next posting.

 

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Writers block

Been in a bit of a quandary, blog-wise. Do I continue blogging, or should I start writing the book I’ve got an idea for? Had the occasional thought for a story but think I’ve found a good one that would really interest me to write.

I’m an avid reader, think I get that from my mum. Sometimes I can have a couple of books on the go at once and often get the feeling I could have written something better. I’ve just finished, ‘On Chesil Beach’ by Ian McEwan. First time I’ve read one of his books. The story line is a bit slow and you begin to wonder if it’s a worthwhile read, particularly when he heads off into a bit too much bodily detail, leaving little to the imagination. Thankfully it’s quite a short read at less than 200 pages so I managed to struggle through to the strong ending which certainly did make you think about lost opportunities. Still thought I could have written better.

I’ve also been looking at how frequently authors publish their books. Very often several years may elapse between one book and the next. That appeals to me, giving time to hone the text to perfection. Trouble is would I know when to put the thing down? I go over each blog posting several times before publishing to ensure there are no superfluous words and the text flows nicely. But strangely doing that for months with a story really appeals to me!

I’m going to give both a try… writing the book and posting to my blog, but the blog may be a bit more erratic than usual. Bear with me and I’ll let you have a signed copy of the masterpiece when it’s finished (assuming it doesn’t finish me off first!).

Worrying development on the allotments yesterday evening. Following the breakage of a window in my shed a few weeks ago two young lads have been seen on the allotments. All the usual type of juvenile stuff until yesterday evening… just before 18:00 I was getting ready to cycle home when I heard another plot holder some distance away shouting ‘Get off there. Go on, clear off’. I could see a couple of young boys climbing over things in one of the plots and they disappeared from view. Since I was at that point ready to go I kept my eyes open for them & caught up with them throwing stones from the piles of rubble in the allotment car park. They weren’t throwing at anything in particular & I stopped to watch them. Since I was still some way off they didn’t notice me for a few minutes. They were aged about 10 or 12 years, one below average height with fair or sandy coloured hair, the other average height with dark hair.

When the taller one did notice me he shouted ‘What are you looking at?’ I didn’t answer but started to move towards them to ask them what they were doing there. They trotted off, me following on my bike to encourage them to feel they were not wanted on the allotments. Got closer to them a few minutes later when I noticed the smaller lad had a knife, something like a six inch kitchen knife. When I shouted ‘What have you got there? the smaller boy ran off down a footpath, the taller stopped to turn around and shout ‘What do you want?’ I shouted that I could now identify them and they should stay well away from the allotments.

I’ve emailed our police contact about this, and I’m consulting the key members of our committee on how to communicate this to allotment holders since I know this will worry some of our more vulnerable plot holders.

Made a lot of progress on the allotment this week. Got quite a bit of digging done and planted out broad beans, onion sets and spring cabbage. The lettuce, tomatoes and sunflowers I’ve been raising at home, initially on a windowsill, have all done really well and are now in the allotment greenhouse. Just love it when the greenhouse is full of plants. Must start thinking about putting up the polytunnel/fruit cage.

Having now finished decorating the living room, and even getting round to replacing our bedroom curtains with something a bit more up to date and light blocking (to give me a chance of sleeping beyond 06:00 in summer) my thoughts have been turning more seriously to replacing our television equipment with the latest kit ready for the football world cup in June. Popped into Hephers in St Ives to discuss my list of requirements. Decided to buy from them… it’ll be a bit more expensive since they’re Sony dealers but they’ll do everything and the Sony quality is probably the best on the market.

As always it’s never simple… as I understand it…

  • I can watch high definition (HD) BBC and ITV TV through the Freesat tuner in the television, preferred choice is the Sony KDL-40W5500 but including Freesat, but…
  • I can’t record HD TV since all the manufacturers of DVD recorders (other than a Panasonic model) are waiting for HD Freeview coming out in this area in 2011, but the recorder will capture standard definition through its Freeview tuner and upscale to HD, preferred choice is the Sony RDR-HX995 recorder

Of course I really threw a spanner in the works when I mentioned I wanted to capture and record to DVD footage from my Samsung U10 HD flash camcorder. That records in MP4 file format, and I’d read on line in the DVD recorders user guide that it only accepts MP2 files. Much box opening and reading of guides in the shop before it was confirmed we had a problem Houston. Went through various alternatives to plugging the camcorder straight into the DVD recorder. Upshot is Mr Hepher is by coincidence on a Sony training course on Monday and he’ll ask the Sony trainer about the camcorder issue. At least I’ve learned the lessons of being an early adopter with my HD camcorder and, having considered going for the latest Sony TV, the Wi-Fi connected Sony KDL-40NX703, I decided to play safe with the current but just to be replaced range of Sony TV.

How to make a beehive compost bin

Following on from last week’s post, I’ve also been getting fed up with the rats burrowing into my compost bins. Looks like a mini version of the London Underground at times as the pesks search out tasty morsels of banana skins or cherry tomatoes. So decided to put all those raised bed planks to good use, tidy up the look of the compost area and make things more difficult for the rats at the same time by making some beehive style compost bins to replace the pallet and carpet affairs I’ve had up to now.
 
This plan for a beehive compost bin doesn’t have the quaint angled sides, but uses the same principle of stacking sections and is much easier to make. I used sides measuring 122cm (4ft) by 15cm (5.9ins). My beehive bins are pretty big, with more than a cubic metre per bin. I’m ensuring there’s plenty of capacity for the large amounts of grass cuttings I get when the cemetery grounds have been mowed. Guess in most cases something nearer 75cm (2ft 6ins) to 90cm (3ft) per side would be adequate.
 
The width of your plank dictates the height of the support you attach the sides to… make the support slightly taller than the plank so some air gets into the compost, but don’t leave too high a gap. Mine’s set at 5mm (0.2ins).
 
You then fix the supports offset against the planks so each section fixes into the previous section, as shown in the final positions and side section view diagrams. Click the image to enlarge, and there are photos at the foot of this post showing my efforts.
 
Ambled up to the allotment last Saturday morning to be confronted by one of the big shed windows smashed. Looks like vandals thought they could improve the appearance of my shed and chucked the spade I’d left at the back through the window. Nothing else done… didn’t touch the greenhouse, just sheer wanton vandalism. Another allotment holder reported a couple of young lads, one holding a hockey stick, wandering uninvited onto their plot, the intruders not realising anyone was there since they were sheltering from the rain in a polytunnel. So I’ll keep an eye out for them. Fortunately I had two double glazed window frames ready for just such an eventuality, and they’re now in situ.
 
Really heavy rain at the beginning of the week. Never seen the allotments so flooded before. Photos below. But as the first day of March arrived so did the sunshine, at last!
 
Another visit to the magnificent Wembley Stadium on Wednesday to watch England’s friendly football match against Egypt, their last match at home before the World Cup in South Africa. Unfortunately England didn’t play particularly well, conceding a goal in the first half before going on to win 3-1. Travelled down to London with sons David and John for an early afternoon visit to some interesting historical pubs. Sons didn’t appreciate the history… they were expecting noise and a pub games machine, so we ended up at The Knights Templar in Chancery Lane, a Wetherspoons pub… though I must admit it was good value for food and drink. Some video clips below of sons and Wembley Stadium. Much fun when John, as we flitted between pubs, thought he saw a good one named Clerks Inn… actually one of the Inns of Court facilities in the legal area of London we were strolling through.
 

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