Sunday Supplement #9


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

I'd love to see the Aurora borealis, but until I do so these pictures from The Telegraph are a great substitute.

Trending Topic

The National Trust this week highlighted that mistletoe could disappear within 20 years in some parts of the country owing to the decline of many of our orchards. As well as asking my local farm shop where they've sourced theirs from, I'll be eyeing it up as a possible source of seeds for a spot of growing my own.

Link Love

There was lots of buzz about the changes to Gardeners World this week, but nothing beats Arabella Sock's unique voice on the subject over at The Sea of Immeasurable Gravy ;)

Blog Action

Don't forget, tomorrow's the closing date to enter my super book giveaway.

Thanks for your contributions to December's Out on the Streets this week and for those of you yet to add your contribution, the above link takes you to the kick-off post.

Comment of the Week is actually an email of the week from my friend Lu (who's also a regular commenter) who sent me this fantastic seasonal link:



If above video link doesn't work, then try here instead.

Keyword Search of Note: we're back to an old favourite - how long is a week? How someone expects to find the answer here at Veg Plotting surprises me ;)

Back to Reality:

There's little time for gardening this week as we have various family visits to make.

Time Out

It's time to get the Christmas decorations up. This was always my job from when I was quite small and it's always a special time for me :)

The picture is of the chilly public planting at the entrance to Monkton Park, which I also wrote about when it was first planted. Last week a magnificent pine tree was taken down, thus leaving a clear view to the large trees featured in the photo. It's going to take a while for the new planting to grow to their height!

Last year I was making chocolate spice cookies - yum; in 2008 I was pondering a Sign of the Times; and finally in 2007 I discovered the Viennese Vegetable Orchestra.

Comments

  1. Janet/Plantaliscious12 December 2010 at 11:28

    That video made me cry it was so joyous! And I am going to try your chocolate spice cookies...

    ReplyDelete
  2. CanadianGardenJoy12 December 2010 at 11:36

    VP girl : )
    I love all these different subject matters you cover in this post !
    What a great idea : )
    I'm afraid my life is way too boring and people would be snoring ? LOL
    I have to pick you up again for my blog roll .. some how you rolled away on me ? LOL
    Joy

    ReplyDelete
  3. Helen/patientgardener12 December 2010 at 12:43

    I would question the National Trust statement since mistletoe, whilst predomiantly growing on apple trees, will also grow on other trees. In fact we have it growing all over the place at work! I also think, though I cant remember where I read it recently, that if you want mistletoe seeds to germinate then you need to apply them to the same type of tree as they originated from as they adapt to the species, if you see what I mean. So your best bet is to get some mistletoe direct from a tree and transfer it to one of the same and the seeds wont take until February/March - see this site http://www.mistletoe.org.uk/home/mtoebuyngrow5.htm. Sorry but done a lot of research on subject for Monday's yell.com post!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. VP12 December 2010 at 12:54

    Plantaliscious - they're delicious I must make some more too :)

    Joy - the great thing about this kind of post is you don't have to have an exciting life to put it together - you just need to read a lot! Gald I've rediscovered you too :)

    PG - the problem with doing a mini summary of a lengthy NT piece is that you concentrate on just 1 aspect of it. The NT want us to ensure our mistletoe supplies are from sustainable sources. And if orchards are disappering and therefore quite a lot of mistletoe and mistletoe adapts itself to its host, won't that make it more difficult to establish it on other trees? So therefore, both you and the NT are right! Thanks for another link - The GYO link I gave has lots pictures of mistletoe and shows it does indeed take a long time to take - the seedling plant after 1 year is tiny.

    I was surprised to find we have mistletoe growing in the middle of town last year.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lu12 December 2010 at 21:28

    why is it that mistletoe seems so very localised? I don't know any growing round here, yet there's plenty in Somerset, not so far away.

    I think I'll be trying the cookies too!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Esther Montgomery13 December 2010 at 09:22

    Really enjoyed the video . . . I do have a 'though', though. It's very long and the number of singers seem to out-number the non-singers by a long way. I began to think, "If I had only five minutes in which to tell someone I loved them and this lot popped up . . . !"

    I was also thinking "Where did they get their men from?" - in the sense that there are nearly always lots of women around with good voices who want to sing. The male section of choirs can be a bit thin.

    I go on my way smiling.

    Esther

    P.S. I'm now hoping some Monteverdi will burst out while I am shopping - you know the kind . . . where someone sings a line and it is echoed by someone else at a distance. And I'd miss out on someone telling me they love me if I could have Beatus Vir suddenly sung by surprise.

    ReplyDelete
  7. VP13 December 2010 at 10:57

    Lu - do try the cookies, they're delicious!

    Esther - I think they were a local choral society as quite a few of them seemed to be very accomplished, trained singers. And if they were, then they'd have made sure their choir was a balanced one. Ours is about 4 women to each male and most of our tenors are female.

    I love your Monteverdi idea - it wouldn't take so many people to do that and would be very effective :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Karen - An Artist's Garden14 December 2010 at 10:07

    The key word searches you have are quite amazing! and always make me laugh

    I have mistletoe growing on one of my apple trees - but I would like to grow some more as I think it may be male - no berries.
    K

    ReplyDelete
  9. VP15 December 2010 at 08:52

    Karen - I was reading yesterday that using berries gathered in February time may be more effective as the ones at Christmas tend to be immature.

    ReplyDelete

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I love hearing from you and welcome thoughtful conversations :)

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