Alas...

...I'm having to pop out for a few days, so there will be no posts until early next week. In the meantime, Daisy and Maisie are here to keep you amused. Failing that, there's plenty to see and do by looking my Blog and Link sections to the right of this page.

Doooo check this out, courtesy of my cyberpal Marilyn in California. She sent me the perfect blend of altruism and quiz a couple of days ago - you can merrily test your vocabulary whilst donating some much needed rice by clicking here.

I'll see you in December complete with some traveller's tales!

Read All About It

This is an ocassional series about some of the carefully selected Links on my page to show you why they're there. First up is the purveyor of all the news local to where I live, the Gazette & Herald (G&H). I've been a regular reader of this award winning newspaper since NAH and I moved down here over 23 years ago. I'm sure it's typical of most local newspapers - the usual mix of local events and festivals, that all important first day at school, local sports fixtures etc. etc. There's also plenty of campaigning and fundraising on local issues, such as the current Kev's Van Appeal (target reached this week - hurrah!). Wherever possible, it also comments on international and national events, as long as there is that all important local angle of course. It manages to do all of this in a quirky style that I find most endearing and most importantly, keeps me reading. We've even made our own minor contributions in the past, me as a "Fed up Commuter" and letter protester re the upcoming proposed changes to the Donkey Field, and NAH for his prowess at swimming at both local and master's levels.

I was a tad disappointed when the paper went tabloid a couple of years ago. Whilst I fully understand the reasons for doing this, I feel the editor didn't carefully consider the needs of us cat owners. The rustle of a newspaper is second only to the lifting of a can opener in attracting a cat to your side. In the days of the broadsheet version, cat and owner could co-exist peacefully - cat plonked down on one page and I able to continue to read the other. Now it's war each time I settle down to read the paper. We used to read the G&H's sister paper, The Chippenham News, but could never understand why the property pages seemed to concentrate on Corsham's housing market, until we discovered a few years later Chippenham's were in the G&H instead - doh!

This week's paper has the usual treasure trove:

• The benches moved from the town centre's bridge at the police's request because they were a gathering place for troublemakers, are to be restored back to the main high street. This means the elderly will have their much needed shopping rest point available again. A triumph of sense and pensioner power over the troubles of today's yoof!
• Our local MP continues to struggle with his political reputation after his 'love rat' antics during the last general election. This week saw him win the latest vote to keep his selection as parliamentary candidate. I'm glad I'll be in a different constituency to his the next time round as Chippenham is to be separated from North Wilts - ironic really as Chippenham was one of the original Rotten Boroughs
• There's continuing High Street woes - parts of the covered car park continues to excude a corrosive substance after 18 months and we're also due to have 15 weeks of roadworks early next year, hot on the heels of a similar period of misery earlier this year

A much closer inspection of the paper was as rewarding as usual and revealed:

• The name of the man who's been jogging around Chippenham in a Spongebob Squarepants hat singing Amarillo for at least 2 years. Apparently he did the same at the New York Marathon recently - well done. However, I'm considering whether to ask him if he does requests to inject a little variety - Avenues & Alleyways anyone?
• A repetitively worded article - there's usually something where nearly exactly the same thing is reported twice, often including the same quote from the interviewee, in adjacent paragraphs. A regular variation is the publication of exactly the same article in at least 2 parts of the paper
• The Regular Events listing continues to have the imaginatively titled "Two Left Feet" dance evenings at £5 per couple. Unfortunately NAH is only known to dance when extremely drunk, so I'm unable to avail myself of this bargain evening. Perhaps I should join "The Sahara Sisters" for a spot of solo belly dancing instead?
• The fact that the last-minute substitute speaker's subject at Hardenhuish WI was "Unexpected Events"...

I also read various national newspapers from time to time, but fail to recall a single article I've read. This is not the case with the G&H, so I'll leave you with my particular favourites from over the years:

• The picture of Charles and Camilla's banns posted at Chippenham Registry Office (the nearest one to Camilla's home at the time): revealing Camilla as a year older than her beau and not working plus Charles' occupation as 'Prince of the United Kingdom'
• An earlier article on Camilla being bombarded with bread rolls at Sainsbury's in Chippenham by Diana supporters when her dalliance with Charles was revealed in the national press
• An objector to a local eyesore when interviewed describing it as 'Like lipstick on a gorilla'
• A burglary thwarted by the fact that the lookout's deafness prevented him from hearing when the shop's alarm had gone off

Ahoy there!

I loved the article on this morning's Breakfast News about the tanker training school at Southampton. About 200 senior shipping personnel take to the 10 acre tidal boating lake each year to hone their skills using 1:25 scale models of the real thing.

Students say it provides far better training than the computer simulations available. I bet they find it much more fun too! A senior lecturer, Captain Chris Clarke said: "You cannot turn up at Fawley oil refinery in a '150,000-tonner' and say I just want to do a few practice turns." Quite.

However, I don't think Fawley has the same problems with the 'iceberg simulating' swans as they had on the TV this morning!

Thanks to the Warsash Maritime Academy for the image used for this posting.

Guerrilla Gardening

I was surprised to find whilst watching Gardeners' World earlier this year, that I've been practising Guerrilla Gardening for a number of years. You can see my highly dangerous equipment in the picture.

My local garden centre usually gives away a free bag of daffodils each year and although my garden is stuffed to the gills with them, I just cannot resist such an offer. As a result, I've extended my planting onto the public land next to the house. This little lot went under some trees today and I'm looking forward to them brightening up my walk back home from town next spring.

Urghhh!

Having bought my greasebands on Thursday, I have now used them for the purpose they're intended for - protecting my fruit trees against Winter Moth.

I really hate this job as I'm sure that more of the grease gets all over my hands than gets applied to the tree. I always manage to get the timing wrong too - after the allotment's water's been turned off for the winter, so I have to wait until I get home to get cleaned up. This assumes I haven't stuck myself my clothes, to the shed or the car in the meantime. It's only visions of perfect fruit next year that helps to keep me going. Here's an example of the finished result - now try and crawl up that Mrs Moth!

A Good Read

This week's mainly awful weather has meant very little Veg or Garden plotting of a practical nature has taken place. Instead, I've been able to turn my attention to my 'Booklog' (i.e. book backlog), which has swollen to enormous proportions due to recent purchases - about 30 books in fact.

Not books strictly speaking I know, but I've also taken the opportunity to peruse the numerous seed catalogues sent to me in recent weeks. Aha I hear you cry, you could call that veg plotting of a theoretical nature. OK I confess, I've been planning what's needed next year whilst imagining that elusive perfect plot of no weeds, bumper crops and easily tilled soil (dream on!).

Back with the Booklog, I've managed to finish reading Beth Chatto's Garden Notebook this week. It's always illuminating to read the thoughts of one of our great plantswomen - I particularly enjoyed her accounts of the garden nursery part of her business. However, I did find some of her planting descriptions a little repetitive, always a danger with this kind of book, especially when presented in a diarised format.

A particular delight was receiving a book from Grumpy Old Bookman, who's been clearing out his attic recently. I'd requested Scrooge and the Widow of Pewsey, which arrived with an important plop on my doormat on the rain sodden Monday. I wasn't feeling particularly well that day and this book turned out to be the perfect antidote, devoured in one delicious sitting.

I'm now in the latter stages of What was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn. I believe I was fated to read this book as in the space of a couple of days recently, I not only found that it was Book Monkey's recommendation on the delightful Mr B's website, but it was also mentioned in a recent newsletter from my old school as the author is also an ex-pupil. This mysterious, atmospheric book particularly resonates with me due to it's main setting in a shopping complex, very similar to the one where I had a Saturday job as a teenager.

I'm also finally getting to grips with The History and Naming of Plants - the first manual of the Designing with Plants course I'm currently taking. I've had all the materials since August, but have only managed to start it this week. Up to now, I've been procrastinating - aka getting to grips with the reading list, starting the sketchbook and plant profile elements of the course assessment, and making sure I do plenty of practical gardening instead of cracking on with the actual theory needed to pass the exam. This week's weather has made me start the course proper - at last!

Thanks to Tindal Street Press Limited for the book image used for this posting.

Naked Voices

It's Chippenham Festival this week and in spite of the crazy decision to sell tickets only in Corsham, I trolled over there on Tuesday to buy one to see Naked Voices at the Neeld Hall last night. As you know, I've joined a Community Choir and it just so happens that Chris, our choir maestro is a member of this group. I thought it would be a good idea to see how the professionals do things and what we should be aspiring to.

It was a stunning display of varied voices, music and choreography. I particularly enjoyed the StarFlashThunder medley (Startrek, Flash Gordon and Thunderbirds), especially Chris' role as the Brian Blessed character ('Gordon's alive!') and the superhero posing at the back during the Flash section. Another highlight was the Pearl & Dean music (always a favourite when I go to the cinema), cheekily arranged to form the group's own advertisement for their merchandise. A spooky coincidence was the performance of Leiber & Stoller's Ruby Baby as a colleague of mine gave birth to a little girl called Ruby Eva at 12.15 am yesterday.

I was a little nervous about going on my own, but I needn't have worried as there were plenty of fellow choir members there to chat to during the interval. My seating neighbour, a member of Chippenham's Male Voice Choir, was most impressed: his parting words were 'We've got a whole lot more practising to do to reach that standard!' I also had an ulterior motive in going to the concert as our own choir will be combining with 3 others there to form 'The Wiltshire Wailers' to 'Sing for Water' in aid of WaterAid (also linked on the right of this page) on December 17th. We'll be about 100 voices strong and performing a suitably festive programme of music. The stage looked quite small for that number of people from where I was sitting!

If you would like to join a Community Choir near you, then you must take a look at the Natural Voice Practioners' website. You'll find country and county by county listings, so there's bound to be something available close to where you live. If you want to see Naked Voices for yourself, you'll have to hurry as they're on their farewell tour. The above link to their website will tell you where they're performing between now and next March.

Thanks to Naked Voices for letting me use an image from their website.

Grace Brothers revisited

Today saw my regular monthly expedition to Bristol to catch up with friends and colleagues whilst I'm on my career break. As well as catching up on all the gossip, it gave me the chance to visit one of my favourite stores, that veritable Bristolian institution, Gardiner Haskins.

The Gardiner's part was founded in 1823, supplying ironmongery and metal work, why even Brunel shopped there during his time in Bristol. Now it describes itself as a Homestore, and I particularly love it there as it sits in its own timewarp, harking back to the days of 'Are you Being Served?'. The basement alone is worth a visit as there's always a number of bargain bins to rifle through, often stuffed to the gills with totally unexpected goods - for example, snowman covered miniature hot water bottles. They've proved to be a rich seam to mine for (un)suitable gifts for the annual office Secret Santa.

As usual, the woman hovering in the entrance didn't give me one of her 'Get your conservatory/double glazing here' leaflets. I find this really intriguing - do I look like I'm unlikely to buy it, or has the company in question decided that a more softly softly approach will get them more sales? Anyway, it seems to fit with the store's ethos. However, the usual 70s hits background muzak (featuring a cover version of Chicory Tip, no less, why not go the whole hog and play the original I say) had given way to something more cool, hip and trendy - 1930s torch songs. I'm sure this was unintentional, they've probably been playing them all these years and the rest of the world's caught on again. The Brunel Rooms section was offering both late Autumn bargains (mainly garden furniture) and half price Christmas decorations, so how could I resist such a mix of seasonal goods on offer? Whilst browsing there, I was also charmed to see a handwritten note pinned to a number of the shelves - 'Smile you're on CCTV'. I did, and I giggled a lot too.

I've been looking for a Christmas Nativity Scene for 2 years now, so why didn't I look in Gardiner's earlier? There it was, the perfect candidate for my Christmas hearth. Now I normally have a 'Bah Humbug!' approach to Christmas, insisting that the event is reserved for consideration during December only, not from August as the retail industry expects us to. However, I've made an exception today and bought the last one - apart from the display model, so get in there quickly! Some raffia and Boltac Grease Bands, completed my purchases, so I'm a happy bunny now.

The other really great part about Gardiner's is their car park. You can get 1 hour's parking for free just by going into the store and getting your ticket stamped by one of the friendly staff. Spend £10 or more and you get 3 hours free parking right in the heart of Bristol, plus a friendly wave from the car park man on duty as you leave. I'm sure the car park is the secret of Gardiner's continued success, so maybe they're more business savvy and not so old fashioned as the picture I've portrayed here - they do have a website after all.

A tip for our American cousins...

Your dinner will be the talk of the TOWN!!

You should try this!

Sure to bring smiles from your guests!

Here is a new way to prepare your Thanksgiving Turkey.

1. Cut out aluminum foil in desired shapes.

2. Arrange the turkey in the roasting pan, position the foil carefully. (see picture for details)

3. Roast according to your own recipe and serve.

4. Watch your guests' faces...

May your stuffing be tasty

May your turkey plump,

May your potatoes and gravy

Have never a lump.

May your yams be delicious

And your pies take the prize,

And may your Thanksgiving dinner

Stay off your thighs!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Many thanks to my good friend Linda, for sending this to me ages ago - I've been saving it up for today's Post!

What - having another go at poetry?

Tried writing Haiku
No inspiration for me
Found this site instead

All tanked up

I've just had the rather unusual sight of an Armoured Personnel Carrier hurtling towards me on the A4 between Corsham and Chippenham. It made one hell of a clatter on the road and isn't the kind of thing I normally expect to see round here - Hercules lumbering overhead from RAF Lyneham are the more usual fare. I suspect it must have escaped from the loverly mud of Salisbury Plain and is missing its playmates terribly.

Has anyone else tracked its progress through the county today? Looking at the APC link above, I think it was a Warrior...

Winter Veg Care

I managed to beat last week's frosts and wrap the leeks up warmly for winter. This is my lazy way of blanching the stems without having to earth them up. There's also less soil to get out when I come to the preparation stage, thus saving much cussing and swearing from me in the kitchen, much to the relief of NAH!

As you can see the leeks aren't that large this year. I'm telling myself that baby veg are the in thing! Luckily allotment warden Pete had some spare plants earlier in the year and donated them to me, so I'm growing double my usual crop.

You can also just see a teensy bit of the giant willow wigwam I made at evening class at Lackham College in the spring. I've been doing a bit of light coppicing of the hazel trees in the ancient ditch alongside the allotment, so there'll be more to show you next year when I swing into mass production for my beans.

Shoptastic - or is it?

I'm now within walking distance of some shiny new DIY, pet and electrical stores. Sounds great, as long as I don't have anything too heavy to lug home. However, it got me thinking about how the face of Chippenham's shopping has changed over the past 2-3 years. We seem to have reached a demographic tipping point that's beginning to make the town look like a smaller clone of Swindon. There's now a couple of shopping sites on the town's borders replete with national chain DIY, home furnishing and electrical stores, plus the odd fast food outlet to keep the kids happy. I don't understand how a town the size of Chippenham can sustain no less than 4 DIY outlets.

I'm glad that the town's high street is continuing to bustle and look busy, but I'm worried about the growing number of coffee shops and mobile phone outlets to be found there. If we don't have a decent, wide-ranging choice of shops to attract customers, that and the recent loss of free car parking for an hour, is bound to make even more shoppers take themselves elsewhere to places such as Bath, Bristol and Swindon.

I realise that I too have a role to play in all of this and have set myself a challenge for my Christmas shopping this year:

• No internet buying
• Shop locally, preferably in the centre of town
• Independent shops take preference over national chains
• I'll walk, not drive into town

Wish me luck in my quest!

This Winter, the best dressed pots are wearing...

... a lovely wine-red Cyclamen

Time to get composting!

Yesterday saw the annual leaf mould garden competition and distribution - this year's winner was the top terrace bed, which is now gratefully snuggled up for the winter under the lovely, crumbly stuff you see in the picture. I don't understand how most of the footpath's gravel got in there though. I know the leaf blower did suck up a few bits n bobs last year, but I think they must have bred in the bin over the summer.

Now I must get cracking with collecting this year's leaves before it rains this weekend, otherwise they'll turn into a soggy, sticky, stubbornly unshifting mass all over the garden and front drive. It's the same kind of stuff which forms the annual leaves on the line problem on the railways - nice (not).

Brrr - it's chilly!

I found myself frantically running around the garden this morning trying to capture the effects of last night's hoar frost before the sun melted it all away. This Clematis is still bravely flowering in spite of the icy chills it's been receiving all week. It was a magical time to be in the garden - the sunshine outlined everything with golden rings; there was a steady background drip, drip, drip as the frost melted away, accompanied by the soft falling of the few remaining leaves off the trees onto the ground below.

The strangest crop?

No, I don't mean the crop circles that Wiltshire's so famous for.

My allotment pal Sarah's been emptying out her loft and gave all this to me, plus loads more tapestry wool - half a bin bag in fact! Whoopeeeeee!

Thanks very much Sarah!

A Dilemma

One last lovely apple a-hanging on our tree,

Shall I let NAH have it, or will it be for me?

Note to self - DO NOT give up the day job and become a poet!

BTW it's a Fiesta aka Red Pippin

Courgette, tarragon & lemon bread

I'm a recent bread machine convert, but finding lots of scrummy recipes like this one leaves me eagerly awaiting my next warm, fresh bread fix. It's like magic - all the ingredients get thrown into the machine, press a few buttons and hey presto! A couple of hours later out comes something like you see above. I get the same kind of wonder when a photographic image appears in my darkroom tray.
This recipe is taken from "The Bread Book" by Sara Lewis and is another cunning way of using up some of that courgette glut.
To keep things (relatively) short, I'll just post the bread machine recipe. Do post me a comment if you'd like the hand-made version.
Ingredients

1. 150g (5oz, heaping half cup) courgette - grated & patted dry with kitchen paper
2. 500g (1lb, 4.5 cups) strong white flour
3. 1 lemon, grated rind only
4. 1 tablespoon fresh chopped French tarragon (don't bother with Russian unless you really don't like the aniseed flavour)
5. 1 teaspoon caster sugar
6. 2 teaspoons salt
7. freshly ground black pepper
8. 1.5 teaspoons fast-action dried yeast
9. 2 tablespoons olive oil
10. 200ml (7 fl oz, scant 1 cup water)

Method

1. Assemble ingredients. Lift the tin out of the breadmaker, fit the kneader blade and then add the ingredients in the order advised by your breadmachine's manufacturer
2. Insert the tin into the breadmachine and shut the lid. Select basic large (750g/1.5lb) white bake and select the preferred crust setting if your machine has this option. (I used the dark crust setting for the loaf you see in the photo) Press start.
3. At the end of the programme, lift the tin out of the machine with oven gloves and turn the bread out onto a wire rack to cool. Loosen the bread with a plastic spatula if it's reluctant to leave the tin.
4. If you don't have a crust setting option and you find the loaf is rather pale on top, brush a little butter over the top and brown under the grill.

Makes 1 large loaf. Delicious with tuna or soup, such as my pumpkin recipe
Variations
I find it very hard to keep to a recipe, so here are some variations I've tried:

1. Substitute the same amount of peeled butternut squash for the courgette. This is a good way of using those teeny tiny squashes we've got from our plots this year
2. Fennel foliage (bulb or herb) instead of tarragon for a stronger aniseed taste
3. Use 30-40ml juice from your grated lemon and make up to the 200ml liquid needed with water. Tip - microwave the lemon for 10 seconds and you'll extract the juice much more easily
4. Substitute strong wholemeal flour for the white flour to make an even healthier bread. However, you'll lose some of the green speckled effect from the courgette and tarragon. Also, remember to change the baking option to brown bread!

Supermice? Part Deux

Not content with giving us mice that can outrun most of us, scientists in Japan have found a "brainswitch" which can turn off their sense of danger. As a result a fearless mouse "Delta D" has been seen cuddling up to its arch enemy, the cat. The poor feline is so surprised, it has declined to gobble up the snack temptingly on offer under its nose.

That's not all. Apparently it's been happening for ages via the toxoplasma parasite - it makes rodents suicidally attracted to cat urine. It can also affect humans, so if you see me exhibiting a "sex kitten effect" in future, you'll know I've been got whilst emptying out the litter tray...

Hello Boys!

In case you're worried that this site is getting a teensy bit girly, I'd thought I'd put some hot gadget action into the mix.

This is a Terrex Autospade. It really does take the backache out of autumn digging and was devised by a guy who lost a leg during World War II who wanted to continue to tend his garden.

I'm well ahead this year on my plot preparation as this spade lets me do 3x more than when I use my usual border spade. That plus no aching limbs requiring a hot bath and a quick rub down with Deep Heat later - sorted!

They're no longer available as new, but you can pick one up from eBay fairly easily. That's how I got mine last year, and the proceeds went to charity - yippee! You need to be careful though as prices can vary wildly. Or you could get lucky like Fred, my allotment pal and find one locally for just a fiver - hrumph.

There, all dug over - that's better. Now Mr Jack Frost - get working on those lumps of clay for me please.

News hot off the press! They're back in production, so you needn't be disappointed if your bidding fails. Checkout Fred's shed for details - no relation to Fred from up the allotment though.

Alas...

... there was almost a complete failure of this year's Rocket crop.

So...

... hurrah! The raspberries are still producing - these are Autumn Bliss and Fall Gold.

Seen Comet Holmes yet?

If you haven't, the ever helpful website of our local weatherman, Richard Angwin will get you there. Oh, and you'll need a cloudless night too - so tonight's out of the question I'm afraid. Sorry, better luck tomorrow - believe me, it is worth a look!

The rest is elementary, my dear Watson.

Oi! A word in your shell-like...

My allotment rent is due for an intriguingly named 10 lug plot. Isn't our language wonderful? In the interests of research - and this Blog - I fished around in Google to see what I could find.

As well as the uses more familiar to me, I was presented with a plethora of tools websites offering me all kinds of nut and bolt type thingys. Shinynuts was my favourite of these - only because of its name, I'm not endorsing anything.

If I'm feeling rather geeky, I can join a Linus User Group, (though Library and Local User Groups also vied for my attention) or even look at their radio. I can also sound very knowledgeable at academic conferences by referring to my Linear Units of Grammar. I could even start to worship a Celtic god, should I ever wish to change my religion.
For entertainment, I can bop the night away to the lively Scottish band Skelpit Lug (apparently this means "thick ear", thus exposing the Scots origin of this usage) whilst wearing my rather lovely fashionable plimsolls, or some boots if the weather's really bad. The band's drummer will probably be using them as part of his kit too.

However, I had to lug the hefty tomes of the Oxford English Dictionary off the library shelves to finally find the meaning of my lug - or did I? There's two definitions that seem to apply in the allotment sense. The first is an unit of area equivalent to 1/160th of an acre. The second is a unit of length (aka rod, perch or pole) and it's here where the confusion lies as it can be a rather variable 15, 16.5, 18, 20 or 21 feet. In Wiltshire alone it was 15, 16.5 or 18 feet in 1811. Perhaps I'll stick to the unit of area for simplicity.

So there you have it, plotwise - I'm rather pleased that my allotment society is working hard to preserve some of the more obscure items from our imperial system of measurement. But I can't help wondering why go for 160th of an acre? It doesn't seem to make any sense. Perhaps it harks back to the times when most of us were serfs and it was the size of the strips of land the lord of the manor (tug your forelocks aka lugs please) allocated for us to tend on his behalf? Can anyone out there enlighten me further?

Advice from Ben Elton's mum

I love this comment from Ben Elton when he was talking about his writing the other day. His mum told him "Remember, the F-word is an exclamation mark, not a comma". I will strive to apply her philosophy to this Blog too, dear Reader.

It got me thinking about advice from my own mum, from many moons ago. For me, two phrases stick in my memory. "It's black over Bill's mother's", an instant weather forecast meaning "There's a terrific storm brewing way over there, so if you're going out you'd better put on your coat, otherwise you're going to get very wet dear". The other one was "You'll need to go all around The Wrekin", which roughly translates as "You'll have to take rather a circuitous route to get there, so allow plenty of extra time for your journey and whilst you're at it, you'd better take these sandwiches and flask of coffee with you". This latter pearl of wisdom was brought home to me just before I left home when I went for an interview at Aberystwyth Uni, as I literally went "all around The Wrekin" by train. It must have been in the view from my carriage window for most of the journey. For those of you unfamiliar with it, The Wrekin is a rather fantastic hill in Shropshire which can be seen for miles in any direction. Shropshire is home to several other rather splendidly named topographical features - Wenlock Edge (limestone escarpment) and the Long Mynd (some of the oldest rocks in Britain, if not the world).

However, I digress. Which pieces of advice do you treasure from your mum?

Voxbox

I've just done a quite scary thing. I contacted the leader of a choir in Corsham this afternoon to ask if I can join in tomorrow night - luckily that's the night they practise. I haven't sung in a choir for years and only have a really good sing at the moment when NAH's out somewhere for quite a long time. I've been thinking about doing something a bit more structured for a while and learnt about Voxbox via the Pound Arts Centre's latest leaflet. It's an informal fun group - no soloists, no auditions and no need to be able to read music. As I can't do the latter this'll suit me right down to the ground. I was a bit worried that I'd be starting after everyone else, but they've just finished a concert and are starting on Christmas carols tomorrow, so it sounds like it'll be the perfect time to start.

Supermice?

It's been reported in the news lately that scientists have genetically engineered a new strain of mice - they can run for up to 5 hours at a time (where to? the lab can't be that big) and live twice as long as "normal" mice.

Hmmm, I smell a rat...

Heeeerrrrre's trouble!

I'd like to introduce you to Jess, our black & white scamp of a cat. This pic was taken by my Non-Allotmenteering Husband, or NAH for short. I'll put a translation of this in the Glossary at the side, so you'll know who I'm talking about in future posts.

Jess' favourite trick at the moment is to open the cat flap and escape during the night. She can do this when the flap is locked one way - just to keep her and her brother Skimble in at night. We have to do this if only one of them comes in for their late night supper. She's worked out that if she pulls the flap towards her, the freedom of the garden is hers for the taking!

I'll pop in a companion pic of Skimble in a future post.

Accounting - aargghhhh!

Has anyone had the same trouble as me with their Profile? I go in to edit something and it always resets my occupation to Accounting - that's so not me at all! Now I'm sure there are some lovely Accountants out there, but the ones I've met at work tend to make a red mist descend over my eyes as I desperately try and understand their business requirements for the project I'm working on.

All the other bits of my profile mercifully stay the same, apart from the ones I'm editing of course. Any ideas on how I make this Accounting madness stop?

Tinseltown has departed

Sigh. I was going to show you a neat little sign that appeared at the bottom of our road a while ago. It was a eye popping shade of fluorescent lime green and emblazoned with the legend "WB LOC".

A trip to Lacock just over a week ago revealed an intriguing number of companion signs along the way, plus its sister in Lacock itself, "WB HQ". Then the penny dropped - these were signposts from the M4 telling the Harry Potter film crew where to go. Major excitement down our neck of the woods! Alas, the signs have been taken down and the machine that is Hollywood has departed for pastures new.

I tootled along to the village see what was going on - lots of people striding purposefully up and down the street talking into their walkie talkies and saying things like "I've just seen a pap - it's a woman with a child in a pushchair", and lots of brawny men in hi-vis laying down white matting and erecting barriers to keep us muggles at bay. The filming was at night, with about a hundred people descending on the village to try and catch a glimpse of their heroes. They must have been extremely patient - the actors didn't meet their fans until late on the third night (the last one) of filming. I'd given up by then and was snuggled up at home with a glass of Baileys.

On the plus side - It was a beautiful day and I did take the opportunity to use my National Trust membership to look round Lacock Abbey (used as a location in earlier HP films). It was the home of William Henry Fox -Talbot, the inventor of the negative film process in the 1830s - quite a good link into the more modern stuff going on a couple of streets away at the time. The grounds are lovely too - lots of cyclamen under the trees at the moment. I also had a gawp at the village allotments as some of them are in the Abbey grounds - in a walled garden, much green eyed envy expressed by VP at the time.

Pumpkin Soup

This is what one of yesterday's pumpkins got turned into - yummy! I made up the recipe as I went along in the end - plenty of home grown garlic, onions, fresh herbs from the garden (there's a clue in the picture showing the main one used this time round), plus vegetable stock and black pepper to taste. It was simmered for 30 minutes and then whizzed together using my hand blender. Slurp - loverly.

NB you can also see a tantalising, shadowy glimpse of VP in this pic!

It's psychedelic man

Oooh I like it!

Do click on the allotment photo below to look at the larger image. You get quite an artistic effect that I've spent ages in the darkroom trying to perfect on some of my black and white photos from time to time!

Any ideas on why this might be? Is it due to the image size and the puny number of pixels on my digital camera?

Here's how it all began...

This is my "inheritance" - Plot 14, back in November 2003. Ignore the 2 sheddy bits halfway down, they're next doors'. Mine's the one down the bottom. If you're very good, I'll let you peek inside in a later post.

I've got the 2 thin beds (actually it's 4, but you can't see the split half way down the plot in this pic) - the one immediately in front of my shed and the one you can see to your left. When I first went up to see Plot 14, I thought I just had the one in front of the shed. But noooo, the plot marker was on the other bed.

The upside - the shed; recently in cultivation, so not too weedy and (relatively) easy to dig.

The downside - there's bindwind lurking in there and it's a heavy clay...

Here's a Pic!

Mmm, mmm, mmm...

As we've just had Halloween, I thought you'd like to see these little beauties.

Not bad after the summer we've had!

Now where's my recipe for pumpkin soup?

Hello World!

Well, I've finally taken the plunge and decided to find out what blogging is all about :-)

Don't be fooled by the title - it was going to be Bits 'n Bobs, but that wasn't original enough for the Blogspotmeister. So, as my allotment is one of the biggest parts of my life at the moment (it's all that autumn digging & muck spreading that needs to be done, you see), Veg Plotting it will have to be from now on.

However, I'll be musing about whatever takes my fancy at the time. So watch this space. Or look at my profile - that'll give you a clue on what future posts might be about ;-0

I'm sure as a complete beginner to this lark, I'll make plenty of mistakes along the way. So doooo bear with me - or let me know via your Comments where I've gone wrong, I'll learn more quickly that way...