Pitch Inspection

Welcome back Mrs Rhubarb



Some holey spinach that survived the winter under glass.



Not sure that the garlic with protection has done any better than that without.

500 Not Out

Where was I ?

I had technical problems last week that forced me to do without a computer which, despite the initial frustration and panic, wasn't such a bad thing. Sure, I had to do without a daily fix of new music and let go of catch-up telly & radio and email correspondence paused, but it gave me the opportunity to re-evaluate what this blog is for. I've also just noticed, before uploading this, that it's my 500th post. Huzzah!

I only got around to installing a web counter at the start of the year, but it seems to suggest that there are a few of you out there reading this, even if some of you are bots. (If you don't know what a bot is, you'll be happy to know that I don't intend writing loads of nerdy guff about the technical problems last week, but if you do, perhaps you'll be disappointed and rolling your eyes at the prospect of more rants about vegetables and green things). If indeed you are a human reading this, please leave a comment from time to time, if only to make it look a bit more like all the other blogs out there.

One of my favourite blogs, sadly no longer live although the archives are still available was by Chris Taylor of The Bays. For those of you who don't know, you won't find any records by The Bays because they only play live, improvised jazz / electronic music. The reason that the blog was so good is the reason for its demise - it was a warts 'n' all commentary of life as a musician, documenting dealings with other musicians, friends, promoters, festival organisers etc.. He didn't mention parsnips once. Without being at all vicious, it wasn't afraid to tread on a few feet and name names and of course for me and any other musicians / producers in vaguely the same field, it's a fascinating read. I came across it when searching for info about Simon Richmond, who released music last century under the name Palmskin Productions and was responsible for the rather fine Remilixir album in 1996.

The Bays.com/Taylors Tales

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Simon+Richmond

Then of course there's comedian Richard Herring's 'Warming Up' blog, written every day for more than seven years. Reading it used to be part of my daily routine, to the point where I felt like a stalker, reached oversaturation and didn't find it funny or interesting anymore. He's now also notched up over a hundred podcasts with Andrew Collins (who also has a less frequent and slightly less self-centred blog) and the pair both appear randomly on BBC 6Music, trawling their schoolboy diaries and the toilet for humour. Herring brought a book out fairly recently that was just his blog printed out. Neither of them mention parsnips either.

Off in a completely different direction is a Norwegian blog, Ida's Little Corner Of The World which makes you wish you could afford a better camera and not live in the inner city, with its stunning photography of pretty things. Then there's the plethora of music blogs devoted to previews of new releases or waxing nostalgic about yesteryear or providing links to free mp3s of ancient and modern and an only slightly less amount of gardening / allotment blogs, although these tend to be updated less regularly than the music ones.

Here in the Green Lung, you're just as likely to get this ...



... as this ...



... or this ...



... press the button to select your option below ...

Back To My Roots

Trying to root some carnation and curry plant cuttings. -3° outside doesn't help.

Signs Of Life

80% of the broad beans sown from saved seed a couple of weeks ago have germinated. I'll leave it another week or two before planting them out.

Curry No Favour

Walked out of the house this morning to find my curry bush on the pavement, snapped off from the main stem. It hadn't been large enough to hang over the front wall and get in anyone's way, so I can only imagine who and why. Perhaps a reluctant toddler, hanging on to anything rather than go to nursery school but no, it would have been out of reach. Maybe the passerby in recent years who told me that they didn't like the smell culled it before it flowered, or someone doing parkour grabbed it to prevent a fall or perhaps someone meant to pull a bit off as they passed, to appreciate the pong, but grasped too much and yanked away the branch.

It's been bugging me all day, especially as I don't think it was done until this morning, which rules out alcohol. Ho hum. It was over ten years old I suppose and not in the best of condition, although the pruning I'd given it a year or two ago seemed to have restored it to life a bit. The yellow flowers in summer are great and the aroma intense. I've taken some cuttings for what it's worth and I've been thinking about what to replace it with, probably a mahonia.