Signs Of Life

Unsurprising, as it originates from Siberia, that the rhubarb is one of the only happy plants around at the moment.

Worms In The Carpet

Daisy (not her real name) next door, who's 93, has been hallucinating: Orange worms in the carpet, birds and flowers in the room, garden netting attached to the doctor's head and other weird garden related stuff. They weren't, as I thought when she was telling me, the side effects of radiation therapy or any of the pills she's on, but symptoms of what she called a 'water infection', by which I guessed she meant cystitis. I had to google it afterwards to find some confirmation because it all sounded so bizarre.

Although understandably a bit frightened at the time, Daisy was alright and had been rational and sensible throughout. She'd mentioned the visions to her visiting hairdresser, who'd called the doctor in. At one pont, she hallucinated her late husband in the chair next to her: "I thought he might be trying to tell me something."

Antibiotics cleared it all up in two or three days, which Daisy found remarkable: "To think that six tiny pills could make it all stop." Her generation is largely unused to the possibility of distortions in reality from taking just half of a tiny pill, but the path back to reality is longer than the path away from it.

Trish Keenan

Guardian obituary

Allium ampeloprasum

Basket Case

I had thought that the term 'basket case' alluded to psychiatric patients and the therapeutic pastime of weaving. Apparently it's worse than that and was originally British slang for a quadruple amputee during World War I.



With all limbs intact, what else to do with some prunings from a willow, but embark upon a new hobby. Can you tell what is it yet? Me neither.

60 Not Out

In the recent 60th anniversary episode of The Archers, posh boy Nigel Pargetter fell from the roof of his stately home while trying to take down a banner. The last that listeners heard was a blood-curdling scream as he plummeted earthwards.

Amongst speculation about Nigel's fate on The Guardian website, mygreenlung posted the following :

Wait for it! We haven't heard Nigel hit the ground yet. My bet is that they've left the trampoline out and Nigel bounces back, colliding with David, who's peering over the edge, knocking him to the ground instead. Oooh nooo

Sorry, perhaps I've been watching too many cartoons ; )

Some replies:

The trampoline bounce-back is up there with Hancock's (OK, Galton & Simpson's) disused mine shaft. Brilliant! - Neobor

... really enjoyed all the alternative storylines here (trampoline bounce-back my fave, just) - elisabethmahoney

@mygreenlung oh please, please, please can they use your trampoline idea, that would be brilliant - toonbasedmanc

Bouquets

Not so much brussels sprouts as brussels bouquets: Apparently, if the soil around the base of the stem of the plant isn't firm enough, instead of tight buds you get loose open flowers. Of course they're still perfectly edible and they make a nice change.

Fire up the tree

Indoor Pursuits

-5°

The cold snap continues and the brassicas suffer.

G.C.C.C.

Ice Age Cometh

Despite the first harsh frost and sub-zero temperature, lobelia flowers are still hanging in there six months after being planted out, providing a smidgen of colour in an otherwise dormant and decaying garden.

The allotment yields a good supply of kale and winter greens and the ground is not yet too solid to harvest the last of the beetroot and some frost-sweetened parsnips.

Jam 57

Sixty teenagers had a rip-roaring party at Green Lung Towers this week, leaving much detritus in their wake. One of the things they did to amuse themselves was to count the number of pots of jam in the fridge - 57 apparently. Happily, it all stayed in the jars.

Shake the tree

Ice in the water trough, apples out of reach, a curled fox slumbering in sunshine. Kale ready, leeks on the way, onions started.

Pears for your heirs

"No, 'heirs' not 'hairs'," I explained to the bemused balding bloke on the checkout at Lidl, who'd just been struggling to wave a Doyenne Du Comice pear tree at a barcode reader.

Puzzled by the cosmos

"But why do you bring them to work?" she asked, delighted yet slightly suspicious of the floral display. Surprised by the question, all I could manage was a feeble, "It's what I do."

Propaganda

Turned off some nasty propaganda on Channel 4 tonight, 'What the Green Movement Got Wrong'.

Apparently, because people have been eating GM foods for ten years without any problems, GM technology is safe and necessary, a little like John Selwyn Gummer feeding his daughter beefburgers during the BSE crisis. They totally ignored the issues of cross pollination, monocultures, copyrighted seeds owned by global corporations exploiting poor farmers and famines caused by corrupt regimes not the inadequacies of nature.

The green movement also stood accused of allowing malaria to spread by encouraging the ban on DDT, even though they now wholly support its controlled use to tackle malaria. Again, greenies are maligned for opposing nuclear power, but James Lovelock came out in favour of it way back in 2004 and it's only because of the gobsmacking absence of major solar, wave and wind energy projects in the past twenty years that nuclear has to possibly be the reluctant last resort.

Had to turn it off before they said that the bicycle was wrong.

Watched Harry & Paul again instead ("'Ere mate! D'ya sell lottery tickets?") and listened to a smashing vintage album, produced by ex-Buggle, Trevor Horn.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_(band)

UPDATE

Good to see that the heavyweights like Monbiot have responded to the programme too, in a much more informed and scientific manner.
http://www.guardian.co.uk

Rootsman

Getting Chilly

Ta to Mr G for the plants ; )

Autumn Break

Chrysanths

Spot the difference

If you hadn't seen an old friend for ten months would you still recognize them? I'm not convinced that these are the same cats, although this morning I liked to think that they are. The one that disappeared in the snow last New Year used to spend a lot of time in the allotment shed, but the one I met this morning in the raspberry bushes wouldn't go near it.

Nasturtium

Tropaeolum

First & Last

Feverfew

Chrysanthemum parthenium

Oenothera

Lobsnip

Parsnip masquerading as a lobster

Repeat and fade

A lot a rent

Allotment rents up by 19% next year - that's 15.9% above the current inflation rate of 3.1%. Shurely shome mishstake!

Cortaderia selloana

Colly Flower

Daily A Flower

Equi Knocks

Office World

Badger Moon