Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Mug shots
Today's DT marred by a large mug shot on the front page of one of those celebrity chefs. On the other hand, interested to read and see that as a result of global warming (something to do with the krill supplies moving North or something), some of the smaller Antartic penguins have been forced back into the air. By some stroke of luck, some RSPB cameras were on hand to record the historic moment.
Allotment turned out not to be as wet as I had feared, at least apart from the gullies down the side. Water not got down off the school field yet. So I now have one onion bed dug, although for the first time, when pulling out the bundles of fat white roots which often lurk beneath an innocent looking surface, I find that said fat white roots are striking down into the subsoil. Whatever can they be finding down there? The problem being that they are hard to get out from there, so they may continue to cause trouble into the coming growing season. That aside, with a bit of luck, I should get some onions in this afternoon.
The rhubarb appears to have survived the bad weather unscathed so, again with a bit of luck, rhubard first fruits for dinner. Peach blossom has been knocked out but the plum blossom is about to go and looking very good. Apple blossom a few days or weeks behind. Most of the gooseberry and blackcurrent slips stuck in the ground last Autumn look to be coming into leaf - so with a bit of luck and a bit of water we might have some plants on the cheap. The dandelion patch is still there but not doing much - while I continue to pull much larger and younger dandelions out of ground where they are not wanted. Must be something wrong with the Eastern end of the larger allotment from the dandelion point of view.
Another travel dream the other day, involving a mixture of real places, dreamtime places and entirely new places. For some reason I had to get from South London to some unspecified place just North of the North circular, distinguished by an odd junction of branches of the green (the colour being very significant at the time for some reason) District Line. The unspecified place was very important for some unspecified reason and has appeared in dreams in the past. Associates with Palmers Green. Anyway, got to Clapham Junction by unseen means, where I had to change. This involved going down a stairway marked something like 'ingelatos' - which I thought, in the dream, was Spanish for ice cream, to find myself in a very large, indoor, retail fish market. Struggle through the fish market, without buying anything, and up a stairway on the other side and find myself at a crossroads, in the middle of large yellow or green fields on a bright sunny day with clear blue sky. Hardly any trees or buildings in sight. Gently undulating. No idea where I was, quite puzzled that such a place was so near Clapham Junction, but quite clear that I needed to wait at the bus stop on the road heading North from the cross roads. Along comes a short red bus and I explain to the driver where I want to go and he tells me that the fare will be £56. I think I got a bit annoyed at this point and decided to wait for the next bus. This one, with a more reasonable fare, drops me off at a smaller version of the bus station at Morden. Forget what happened after that.
Allotment turned out not to be as wet as I had feared, at least apart from the gullies down the side. Water not got down off the school field yet. So I now have one onion bed dug, although for the first time, when pulling out the bundles of fat white roots which often lurk beneath an innocent looking surface, I find that said fat white roots are striking down into the subsoil. Whatever can they be finding down there? The problem being that they are hard to get out from there, so they may continue to cause trouble into the coming growing season. That aside, with a bit of luck, I should get some onions in this afternoon.
The rhubarb appears to have survived the bad weather unscathed so, again with a bit of luck, rhubard first fruits for dinner. Peach blossom has been knocked out but the plum blossom is about to go and looking very good. Apple blossom a few days or weeks behind. Most of the gooseberry and blackcurrent slips stuck in the ground last Autumn look to be coming into leaf - so with a bit of luck and a bit of water we might have some plants on the cheap. The dandelion patch is still there but not doing much - while I continue to pull much larger and younger dandelions out of ground where they are not wanted. Must be something wrong with the Eastern end of the larger allotment from the dandelion point of view.
Another travel dream the other day, involving a mixture of real places, dreamtime places and entirely new places. For some reason I had to get from South London to some unspecified place just North of the North circular, distinguished by an odd junction of branches of the green (the colour being very significant at the time for some reason) District Line. The unspecified place was very important for some unspecified reason and has appeared in dreams in the past. Associates with Palmers Green. Anyway, got to Clapham Junction by unseen means, where I had to change. This involved going down a stairway marked something like 'ingelatos' - which I thought, in the dream, was Spanish for ice cream, to find myself in a very large, indoor, retail fish market. Struggle through the fish market, without buying anything, and up a stairway on the other side and find myself at a crossroads, in the middle of large yellow or green fields on a bright sunny day with clear blue sky. Hardly any trees or buildings in sight. Gently undulating. No idea where I was, quite puzzled that such a place was so near Clapham Junction, but quite clear that I needed to wait at the bus stop on the road heading North from the cross roads. Along comes a short red bus and I explain to the driver where I want to go and he tells me that the fare will be £56. I think I got a bit annoyed at this point and decided to wait for the next bus. This one, with a more reasonable fare, drops me off at a smaller version of the bus station at Morden. Forget what happened after that.
# posted by Jim @ 1:56 AM 
