Saturday, December 15, 2007
Cycles
Having been stocked with proper bread by other means, on the the Chessington run this morning and was reminded why I don't like cycle lanes - at least the sort they have around here. Cycling along past Chessington World of Adventure (the neighbouring Chessington Garden Centre appearing to be packed, presumably with people buying their decorations followed by having Christmas lunch in the Chessington Bistro), in the rather grotty cycle lane, when the back wheel went down some hole and then slipped sideways in an alarming way before forward momentum took hold again. Wouldn't take much more to have one into the side of one of the fortunately small number of four wheeled vehicles who misjudge the clearance.
There have been no rat signs - in the form of burrows or tunnels - in the compost heap for some days now. So hopefully they have been done in - and hopefully without their carcases doing anything unpleasant to those that might be eating them. On the other hand, something is still at the bait, something which appears to be gnawing it rather than swallowing it, presumably mice. Need to think about whether to withdraw the bait or not - taking into proper account BH's dislike of rats anywhere near the house.
While on compost matters, should record that we have started to compost confidential waste (that is to say, material which one of those identity thieves might use). We were tearing the stuff up and then putting it into a large tub of water (see above) which was then stirred from time to time. Eventually it went down to a sort of porriage which was dumped in some quiet spot in the garden. One down side was the rather unpleasant smell from the stagnant water. Another was the tendency for mosquitos to lay their eggs in it, at least until the Autumn. In any event, got tired of that game and the torn up paper now goes straight to the compost. All those dodgy metal oxides in the dyes used on the paper won't affect our organic status as the rat poison has already done for that. And, hopefully they will leach out into the allotment (and so into the ground water, and so into the water supply?) rather than getting into the cabbages there. Maybe, even, they will be a supply of scarce trace elements and the cabbages will pick up?
Second potato trench on the allotment now finally finished, after a rather longer time than I was expecting. Will there be another before festivities kick in? Pruned the apple trees for the first time. Didn't need much as it has taken this year to recover from the depredations of the deer last year. Odd the extent to which the differant varieties are growing into differant shapes. No doubt this can be corrected by careful pruning in years to come. No natural shapes wanted here.
There have been no rat signs - in the form of burrows or tunnels - in the compost heap for some days now. So hopefully they have been done in - and hopefully without their carcases doing anything unpleasant to those that might be eating them. On the other hand, something is still at the bait, something which appears to be gnawing it rather than swallowing it, presumably mice. Need to think about whether to withdraw the bait or not - taking into proper account BH's dislike of rats anywhere near the house.
While on compost matters, should record that we have started to compost confidential waste (that is to say, material which one of those identity thieves might use). We were tearing the stuff up and then putting it into a large tub of water (see above) which was then stirred from time to time. Eventually it went down to a sort of porriage which was dumped in some quiet spot in the garden. One down side was the rather unpleasant smell from the stagnant water. Another was the tendency for mosquitos to lay their eggs in it, at least until the Autumn. In any event, got tired of that game and the torn up paper now goes straight to the compost. All those dodgy metal oxides in the dyes used on the paper won't affect our organic status as the rat poison has already done for that. And, hopefully they will leach out into the allotment (and so into the ground water, and so into the water supply?) rather than getting into the cabbages there. Maybe, even, they will be a supply of scarce trace elements and the cabbages will pick up?
Second potato trench on the allotment now finally finished, after a rather longer time than I was expecting. Will there be another before festivities kick in? Pruned the apple trees for the first time. Didn't need much as it has taken this year to recover from the depredations of the deer last year. Odd the extent to which the differant varieties are growing into differant shapes. No doubt this can be corrected by careful pruning in years to come. No natural shapes wanted here.
# posted by Jim @ 4:59 AM 
