Nice Pears


Comments

  1. Hermes7 September 2009 at 09:45

    They look lovely. Obviously deserve that first prize.

    ReplyDelete
  2. VP7 September 2009 at 10:25

    Thanks Phillip, I'm most chuffed! Last year the badgers at the allotment ate my pears, so it feels especially good to have some to exhibit this time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Frances7 September 2009 at 11:42

    A big hug and a pat on the back and a hearty handshake for the prize winning pair, oops, I meant pears. I did get a good chuckle from the title. See, the Americans are not always so serious. :-)
    Frances

    ReplyDelete
  4. VP7 September 2009 at 11:50

    Thanks Frances - I couldn't help myself with that title - I'm so glad it's also 'appreciated' across the pond ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Martyn Cox7 September 2009 at 12:19

    O'er missus.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gary7 September 2009 at 12:51

    Hi,
    Not a great lover of pears, but they do look good, well done. Gary

    ReplyDelete
  7. Susan Tomlinson7 September 2009 at 14:12

    I adore pears. Just about the only fruit I do like, in fact. Excellent work!

    BTW, my OOTS is up. Is there a Mr. Linky?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Nutty Gnome7 September 2009 at 14:14

    Well done on your first prize! I don't actually like pears, but I can still appreciate them! :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Val7 September 2009 at 15:02

    They say grow pears for you heirs so I've never bothered with pear trees. You have done really well! Val

    ReplyDelete
  10. Flighty7 September 2009 at 18:05

    Well done! It was our show on Saturday. I didn't exhibit anything but was a steward. xx

    ReplyDelete
  11. Victoria Summerley7 September 2009 at 20:01

    Wow, congratulations! I think you are the first person I know who has won first prize at a show. I am SO impressed.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Compostwoman7 September 2009 at 20:49

    Having just preserved ( froze, chutneyed, wine, jam, dried..) 70 lbs of pears I find it very hard to even look at a plate of the damn things..

    but yours are lovely....well done!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Joanne7 September 2009 at 21:01

    They look edible unlike mine which have to be stewed to be edible.

    ReplyDelete
  14. emmat7 September 2009 at 22:39

    That's so annoying!!! Where did my comment go? I came on the minute you posted it and rambled on about Delia Smith's pickled pears and it just disappeared. Honestly, I am disgusted with Blogger today. But well done! xxx

    ReplyDelete
  15. 3c8 September 2009 at 08:59

    Triplets!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anna8 September 2009 at 10:54

    Well deserved - they look delicious too. A pear tree is on my autumn lottie shopping list.

    ReplyDelete
  17. VP9 September 2009 at 09:12

    Hi everyone - glad you liked my playing around with an old joke :)

    For the non-pear lovers I wonder if its because you've not experienced the juicy melting sweetness that a pear offers when it's just right? It's a difficult one to capture, but there's a good chance with this particular variety, Concorde. It's self-fertile and is a cross between Conference and Comice and has the flavour of Comice with the keeping qualities of Conference. Yum!

    ReplyDelete
  18. HappyMouffetard9 September 2009 at 20:01

    Well done! I love pears - and your comment above has just made my mouth water. Excuse me while I dribble on my keyboard...

    ReplyDelete
  19. VP15 September 2009 at 10:37

    HM - I think dribbling's totally justified :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love hearing from you and welcome thoughtful conversations :)

Comments aiming to link back and give credence to commercial websites will be composted!

Your essential reads

How Advertising Works in Chippenham #41

Image
Decide to put your house on the market Research thoroughly the best Estate Agent* to get you the swiftest sale and best price for your property Agree to have a For Sale sign placed outside (not everyone does these days) Wait for a blogger with a camera to notice that Scott really does need to use his full Christian name in his advertising Et voila ! * = Realtor if you're reading this over the Pond Gosh, I see it's nearly 5 years since the last How Advertising Works , it's great to be back! NAH and I have a list of examples similar to Scott's e.g. Sue Wellings' signature at the swimming club became S Wellings and he was at school with Terry and Steve Potts (S Potts and T Potts). Do you have any examples to add to the list? 😉
Read more

Friday Bench: Meet Geoffrey

Image
  I'm rather taken with Geoffrey, a friendly giraffe used to promote Toys R Us since 1965. I'm even more taken with his bench inside W H Smith in Chippenham. Prior to the chain's sale earlier this year, it was agreed that certain stores would also have a Toys R Us section within them. Geoffrey's bench marks the transition from one of our traditional High Street retailers into something more fun and entertaining, though sadly rather empty when I took this photo. At some point the name W H Smith will morph into its new owner's chosen rebrand name, T G Jones* - rather bland in my opinion which appears to have been made up, unlike the original name which refers to the company's original founder Henry Walton Smith and reaches back to the year 1792. * = it has already in nearby Malmesbury, though they have yet to erase the etched W H Smith from the glass doors. They seem to have retained the corporate blue colour on the shopfront too, for now at least.
Read more

Friday Bench: With Wallace

Image
The Gromit Unleashed trail in Bristol is providing a lot of free fun and laugher in Bristol this summer and it was the perfect excuse to meet up with my Girls Night Out friends recently. We started off as colleagues 26 years ago, and now are firm friends, though it's rare to find so many of us together these days. Here we are with Wallace providing a stand-in for our one missing group member. This photo makes me so happy! The trail comprises 53 various Wallaces, Gromits, Feathers McGraw and Norbots spread over a wide area in and around Bristol with a few extra surprises along the way such as the roving labybird Gromit and a few items hidden around the Museum. It's great fun and don't we look fab!
Read more

That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide

Image
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it ...
Read more

Jack Go To Bed At Noon

Image
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl...
Read more

The 52 Week Salad Challenge Begins

Image
Hurrah - lots of you have said you're up for the 52 Week Salad Challenge and lo, here we are in week 1! We have people from the UK, France and the USA all eager to have a go, so our salad is fast taking on an international flavour :) Quite a few of you asked questions on how this is going to work, which is where today's kick-off post comes in... The main idea is that we all grow and/or forage some salad leaves to eat every week this year. What and how much is entirely up to you. We're in completely different locations, have different tastes, levels of skill and resources available so devising something more specific to suit everyone would be very hard and might not be what you'd really like to do. Over the year I'll be posting every Friday with ideas of what to grow, techniques to use and anything else I can think of that's salad related. I've already got oodles of ideas, but if there's something you'd particularly like me to post about, t...
Read more

Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone?

Image
The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape...
Read more

Seasonal Recipe: Hedgerow Plum Jam

Image
It looks like it's going to be a bumper plum crop this year, so I was pleased to see my hedgerow 'stash' close by was looking ripe and plentiful a couple of days ago. I'm not sure whether the trees were planted as part of the hedgerow or have sprouted from discarded stones. On closer inspection it looks like there are 3 different plum trees: one looking like an Oullins Gage, one which could be a cherry - though there is a cherry plum - and another bright red variety - about the size of a damson - which fits in between the other two sizewise. I did ponder whether the yellow plum might be a Bullace - a wild plum usually found in hedgerows - but having looked at lots of photos on the 'net, I'm happier with the gage variety. All of these trees are ready for picking early on in the season, so I had a very happy half hour the other evening resulting in 4lbs of them in my bag and still plenty to go! Some were stewed for tea, but I used the bulk of them for jam, ...
Read more

Earth and Sun and Moon *

Image
It's been great to have some quality time on the patio this week culminating in yesterday's partial eclipse. With the live stream to hand, we had fun with our hastily made pinhole projector (a piece of card pierced with a paper clip), playing with the image on our hands, then NAH decided to carefully take a direct photo of the sun. 'That won't work', I said, and I was right... and wrong, with the sun behind its mackerel sky veil blazing forth as usual, but the camera lens flare revealing a perfect image of the sun bitten by the moon. * = I've had Midnight Oil's Earth and Sun and Moon on the brain all week; especially appropriate for yesterday's celestial event.
Read more

Make Use of Mildew

Image
On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi...
Read more