Rack 'Em Up

Flowery Twats

For those of you who don't know and those who've forgotten, Flowery Twats is an anagram of Fawlty Towers.

Oxalis

The oxalis bulbs that I planted in March have flowered, if only briefly, as they've been battered by high winds and torrential rain.

Celery

Celery likes a lot of water, so what with all the downpours recently, I'm expecting this to grow to about a metre in height.

Mesembryanthemum

Badger-Proof Fence

Well, it might slow them down before the guards come running.

Odd

It was one of those scenes you see played out countless times on the telly. I was woken at around 4 a.m. by noises coming from downstairs. At first, I dozed off again, my brain convincing me that it was probably the neighbours. But then I woke again with a jolt. There was definitely something downstairs and something had just been knocked over.

Confused more than frightened, I got out of bed and crept downstairs. At the bottom, there was a picture frame lying on the last step. I put a light on and saw that there was a jar of flowers on the floor of the living room, water spilt over the carpet. A few ornaments had tumbled from a shelf. In the kitchen, there were things on the floor too.

As I tried to make sense of things, something scurried in my peripheral vision in the direction of the closed back door. I followed whatever it was, but it didn't want to be found. I reasoned that it was probably a cat, although not one that I knew. It must have come in earlier through an open window and was now trapped. I opened the back door and stepped back. I couldn't hear or see anything.

Still not 100% sure that it wasn't a rat, or something more wild than a cat, I stepped back and waited. Nothing happened. In the end, I left the back door ajar, closed all the others and went back to bed.

Charity Begins At Home

I was helping my daughter with her homework. There was a knock on the door. I leaned out of an upstairs window to see a young guy with a clipboard and badge. He seemed to be collecting for a charity and mentioned kids in local schools. I told him that I was sorry that I couldn't afford to contribute, neither could I spare the time to talk as I was in the middle of something, but if he had a leaflet about it, I'd be interested to read it.

He didn't have a leaflet, but undeterred, he continued, telling me that they found that usually children's education was something that was left to mum. At this point, I stopped him and bade him goodbye, explaining what I'd been doing before he'd interrupted me.

Later, I found no reference online to the charity that he claimed to represent.

Garlic

Not much of a garlic crop this year. A lot of it succumbed to white rot or never really got going.

Red Onions

Harvested half of the red onions. Didn't have any problem with slugs - unlike my friend in Stroud - although some failed to swell to more than twice the size of the original sets. Don't know whether it was patchy soil fertility or dodgy sets.

Flora

Aloe Vera



Dahlia & Hebe



Olive



Sweet pea

Prize Vegetable

Despite appearances, this chap isn't having a dump. But he has just dumped rubbish in the hedgerow of the cyclepath, opposite this house in Clay Bottom. He might be the owner, tenant or gardener and he may or may not be the person who has been dumping household and garden waste here and on the nearby path up to Rajani's warehouse for many months.

Below: Some of the rubbish dumped on the path to Rajani's earlier this year.

Carpet Moth ?

Looking a bit like a stealth bomber, this carpet moth turned up in the garden. Unless I've jumped to the wrong assumption again ?

Lost In Music

Read the very entertaining musical memoir 'Lost In Music' by Giles Smith, one time member of 80s band Cleaners From Venus now, disappointingly, a motoring correspondent for The Grauniad . I say disappointingly, because now he spends his time and words describing cars as 'sex on wheels' whereas once he was a bit of an anarcho hippie, rode a bicycle and was excited by Trevor Horn and XTC.

Very funny book though. As John Peel wrote in the blurb, "If you have ever watched a band play or bought a pop record, you should read it." I wish I'd read it thirteen years ago when it came out.

Fodder

Very productive time for the allotment. Harvesting lots of new season kale, carrots, broad beans, lettuces, courgettes, new potatoes, artichokes, onions, garlic and beetroot.



Beans, tomatoes and sweet corn just around the corner.

Datura/Brugmansia

aka Angel's Trumpet, Devil's Trumpet, Thornapple, Jimson Weed - a member of the Solanaceae (Nightshade) family and relative of the tomato. Not that you'd confuse it with a tomato, unless you ate some of it, in which case you could believe or do anything.

Sticky Wicket

How would you rate their chances if the Norwegians turned up in Cardiff this week to play cricket against the Aussies ? It would be as absurd as, say, three Brits trying to race the Norwegians to the South Pole. Even if there was time for a few weeks in the indoor nets at Tromso, I suspect some of the Norwegians might still have trouble putting their pads on correctly. Their cause wouldn't be helped if a third of the team pulled out at the last moment for a prior fishing engagement and the remainder discovered that their wives were pregnant.

Still, it might be worth watching, just to see how Norwegian batsmen cope with late swing and whether they burst into tears when given out LBW. A bit like On Thin Ice (BBC2).

Test for Onions

Graham Onions was called up to the squad to face the Australians at Cardiff this week, which reminded me to visit the allotment and harvest some of my crop.

(Not a) Red Admiral

Big Beet

New Berries Please

Leaving behind the daily strawberry harvests of June and on to the summer raspberry crop. Picked about half a kilo today.

Courgettes

Popping Up

Poppies popping up everywhere.

Roots Manoeuvre

Harvested a few early carrot thinnings.

Pilton Pop Festival

TV coverage of Glasto was looking a bit uninspiring for my tastes until The Prodigy and Blur turned up on Sunday. Of course, for me, most of the joy of the festival is being lost in a field discovering something for the first time, being privy to an impromptu 3 a.m. performance by an insomniac genius or contributing to or working for the festival, rather than being a punter.

It's a shame that Oxfam, Greenpeace and Water Aid didn't appear to be given a slot to spout some positive propaganda and we really should have had an in depth exploration of all the innovation that goes on, including solar and wind powered generators.

Despite knowing most of the words to Bruce Springsteen's 1980 album, The River, musically, I'd rather have been at the Sonar Festival or All Tomorrow's Parties but then again, the subtleties and textures of electronic music tend to get a bit lost when heard live in cavernous marquees and buildings.

One of the best things about this year's Glasto was that my neighbours went, leaving in their wake a wonderful tranquillity, allowing me to enjoy the butterflies, moths, damselflies and night scented stock in the garden while still being able to hear myself think.

Fruit, Flower & Veg Box

Broad Beans

Artichoke

Jam Session

Spent an hour this morning with my head in the fruit bushes before a jam session at home.

Spud We Like

First early new potatoes.

Amphibian

I was going to blog about accidentally deleting some important preference files and losing my internet connection, email, trackpad and whole set up, which required half the night to rectify, but then I thought I'd post a photo of this frog, who hopped out of the strawberry bed this morning, instead.

20 20 Vision

The end of a remarkable couple of weeks for cricket lovers, culminating in Pakistan beating Sri Lanka in the final of the 2020 World Cup and the England women's team triumphing as World Champions. I can't remember a more intense period of radio cricket commentary or TV highlights and don't know how the viewing public - let alone the players - are going to cope with five day Test cricket after gorging on two matches a day for the last fortnight.

Bad Hare Day

OK, so it's probably a rabbit.

Bristol Airport EIA

Environmental Impact Assessment of Bristol Airport.

The water sounds really loud to start with, like you've flushed your head down the toilet or something, but then it gets drowned? out by the overwhelming roar of the jet. The crows appear riled, defending their territory from the great beast in the sky, as they do many times an hour. The expansion of Bristol Airport will increase the frequency of this din throughout the Mendips.

Mellow Yellow