Stormy weather

At last the rain arrived this week... decent rain, not the usual brief sprinkle that makes little difference. Here's an ominous cloud appearing over Allotment Heaven (click to enlarge). So no need to water stuff outside, though still having to water gallons into the greenhouse.

I'm beginning to wonder if I'm overwatering the tomatoes. A couple of the first ones to redden have split their skins, apparently a sign of inconsistent watering. Since they're watered every day may be they're drying out during the day and getting lots of water for overnight. So I'm going to water less and see what happens.

Got excited about a polytunnel after a chat with Barry... we were musing over how good it would be to construct one for salad crops throughout the winter. Having a browse on the internet it looked like my acquisition of the water piping was an act of inspiration. A quick measure up indicates I could build a pretty sizeable jobby with main cost being the plastic covering at about £100. Click here for an example.

This week's geek spot is about the sailing stones of Death Valley... they leave trails in the sand indicating movement, sometimes with an abrupt change in direction, and yet no one has ever seen them move. Video footage below.

Struggling on the cups front. Managed to wrest the tennis cup off Barry last night, but he's in holiday mood and somewhat laid back so only counts as half a victory. Not seen the squash or darts / snooker cups for some time, both being firmly held by David. And the new pitch and putt competition is consistently going John's way, though it is providing much amusement all round. Yesterday we managed to lose a club. Anyone could do that in the heat of battle you might think... but considering you only have two clubs at pitch and putt it's got to take a particular kind of incompetence to lose one of them and not notice for a while. Another visit to the charity shops scheduled to see if I can pick up a replacement... though I hope somewhat better than the putter I bought last week for £2. It didn't cure my inclination to send the ball at right angles to where the hole is. More video footage below.

	UFO seen pursuing children on bikes (Connor, Paige and Beth cycling off after popping in for lunch)
	David hacking away after landing up in his favourite tree off the eight tee... think that makes three out of three on this hole for him!