Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Pumpkin news
The Jack O'Lantern pumpkins of the 11 May posting now coming up, with nine showing so far, at the two leaf state. This despite their being regularly flooded and parched due to being kept outside (on a table on the patio, hopefully out of reach of the slugs) in a flat china bowl with no drain holes at a time when there has been plenty of rain. Need to move to planting them out in a week or so.
The incubator pumpkins are demonstrating some resilience, now being back from five to seven. Two which I had down as goners are now struggling back. It seems that unless the slugs decapitate the thing just below the first two leaves - above which one has the business buds - they will try and recover with new buds (and so shoots) from really major damage. Maybe the things are tougher than I have been giving them credit for.
Bucket and spade version of South West Trains to the West country this weekend - the five pound for first class wheeze not working (quite reasonably) during the week. So wound up sitting in one of the coach style seats with my knees pressed into the seat in front for half the journey and sitting sideways for the other half.
Visited a superior gastro pub of the rural variety and was pleased to find kidneys available as a starter. Not at all bad, but Hasek is quite wrong. The version of kidneys with carraway seeds (like a common eating house as he would put it) that I do is superior to the version with wine and what have you that restaurants tend to do. The latter is good but mine is better. As one says (counter intuitively, but not, I think, sillely) kidneys should not taste kidney-ey any more than fish should taste fishy.
Bought some black fly gear in Robert Dyas in Dorchester. For the broad beans. At nearly £10, demonstrating yet again that growing your own is a bit of a mug's game - at least in so far as getting cheap vegetables is concerned. Without doing any serious sums, I estimate that I could buy two years' vegetables with the cash that I put into the allotments in one year. And that is not counting all my time and the wear and tear on the bicycle. The pill was sweetened with a £5 off if you spend £10 redeemable in any Dyas on bank holiday Monday. Sadly we completely forgot about it despite being within 800 metres of such of place on that day.
And last but not least another tweeters' moment. Close up view of the smaller of the woodpeckers which is not a green woodpecker. Vigourously attacking a post. At least it was a post, not the lawn like the things we seem to get in Epsom these days.
The incubator pumpkins are demonstrating some resilience, now being back from five to seven. Two which I had down as goners are now struggling back. It seems that unless the slugs decapitate the thing just below the first two leaves - above which one has the business buds - they will try and recover with new buds (and so shoots) from really major damage. Maybe the things are tougher than I have been giving them credit for.
Bucket and spade version of South West Trains to the West country this weekend - the five pound for first class wheeze not working (quite reasonably) during the week. So wound up sitting in one of the coach style seats with my knees pressed into the seat in front for half the journey and sitting sideways for the other half.
Visited a superior gastro pub of the rural variety and was pleased to find kidneys available as a starter. Not at all bad, but Hasek is quite wrong. The version of kidneys with carraway seeds (like a common eating house as he would put it) that I do is superior to the version with wine and what have you that restaurants tend to do. The latter is good but mine is better. As one says (counter intuitively, but not, I think, sillely) kidneys should not taste kidney-ey any more than fish should taste fishy.
Bought some black fly gear in Robert Dyas in Dorchester. For the broad beans. At nearly £10, demonstrating yet again that growing your own is a bit of a mug's game - at least in so far as getting cheap vegetables is concerned. Without doing any serious sums, I estimate that I could buy two years' vegetables with the cash that I put into the allotments in one year. And that is not counting all my time and the wear and tear on the bicycle. The pill was sweetened with a £5 off if you spend £10 redeemable in any Dyas on bank holiday Monday. Sadly we completely forgot about it despite being within 800 metres of such of place on that day.
And last but not least another tweeters' moment. Close up view of the smaller of the woodpeckers which is not a green woodpecker. Vigourously attacking a post. At least it was a post, not the lawn like the things we seem to get in Epsom these days.
# posted by Jim @ 5:44 AM 
