Sunday Supplement #6


Sunday Supplement is an occasional round up of the virtual and real here at VP Gardens. I'd like it to be a weekly event just like the best bits and reviews you get in the Sunday papers, but I'm not promising ;)

Web Watch

More stunning photography this week: Earth as art, courtesy of the Landsat satellite and The Telegraph.

Trending Topic

Lots of talk about the anniversary of last year's floods in Cumbria, plus the ones which happened in Cornwall this week almost to the day. All this rather overshadowed the reports about the Environment Agency's proposed river restoration scheme in Cumbria which is designed to reduce the impact of flooding amongst other benefits and was also timed to coincide with the anniversary coverage. The link is to an article in The Guardian which tells you more about it and also has a good debate going on in the comments. I first came across this approach in the late 1990's where it was piloted on the River Skerne in County Durham.

Link Love

On Friday I met Mark for the first time, even though we've been 'friends' via our blogs for around two years. Mark's Views From the Bike Shed is one of the few non-gardening blogs I follow: our residency in Chippenham is the thing we have in common. I was worried our meeting might not be as good as I'd hoped, but as soon as Mark opened the door, I realised that was plain silly. His interest in life is actually what we have in common and time passed all too quickly. Oh and I saw the new bike shed too ;)

Mark has written much more eloquently than I ever can about our meeting, calling me a blog fairy as he had lots of good fortune come his way on Friday. I also had good fortune later on that day, so our friendship looks to be set fair for the future :)

Blog Action

I'm about to do a couple of blog tweeks, which I'll tell you a bit more about shortly.

Comment of the Week: is from Mr McGregor's Daughter who added the following to my Guide to 'Cataloguespeak':

"Thrives in dry shade and difficult conditions" = weed-like tendencies. My favorite is "good cut flower" or "perfect for arrangements" means it flops like crazy or the flower heads are too heavy for the stems.

Keyword Search of Note: is Morrisons recycled packaging which reminds me: I haven't had a reply from them since they acknowledged my rant query about their woeful information about recycling their plastic packaging last January. Must give them a wee nudge about that methinks.

Back to Reality:

We're due to get a cold spell of weather at the end of the week, so it's about time I potted up my garlic ready to get nicely frosted.

Time Out

The picture is of some of the Japanese Quince Mark gave me when I visited on Friday, along with some quince jelly his mum made. Food gifts from friends are great aren't they? These are earmarked for slow roasting - another recipe I'm keen to try from Kitchen Garden Companion, plus making membrillo a la River Cottage's Preserves :)

This time last year I'd found another way How Advertising Works in Chippenham, whilst in 2008 I showed you one of my fortnightly Plot Views snapshots taken over that year. Finally, in 2007 I proved my talent for bad poetry covers more than one genre ;)

Comments

  1. The bike shed21 November 2010 at 21:12

    Let me know how the slow roasted quince goes. I found some crab apple jelly in a local shop on Saturday - very good too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gardeningbren21 November 2010 at 21:29

    Yes please, I would also like to know how the slow roasted quince goes..and soon... I have some gone all yellow given to me weeks ago..but not gone over yet. Thanks!

    Gosh I enjoy your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  3. VP22 November 2010 at 08:12

    Mark - will do and I'm still pink (and very warm inside) from your write up of our meeting!

    Gardeningbren - thank you :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Janet/Plantaliscious22 November 2010 at 09:34

    I like the idea of a real-world meet-up between blogging pals generating good luck! Looking forward to the quince test results, am thinking about planting one. Thanks for the link to the article about re-creating water meadows and meanders (lovely word) in the Lake District, though it won't make staying dry shod when walking there any easier ;-) I think its a great idea to harness habitat rather than just concrete and pumps to slow down the flood water.

    ReplyDelete
  5. petoskystone22 November 2010 at 14:04

    i hope the cumbrian restoration scheme goes through. seems like common sense. glad you & mark hit it off.

    ReplyDelete
  6. VP23 November 2010 at 08:18

    Janet - it was a great to meet Mark :) River restoration is a pet topic of mine as I was a freshwater biologist for a while - I comment on the Bristol Avon catchment management plan on a regular basis.

    ReplyDelete

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I love hearing from you and welcome thoughtful conversations :)

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

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