Beebirdcrow

(Press play to hear field recording)

Antler

Walked along the beach to Shell Bay then wandered over the sand dunes, trying to find a path to the Ferry Road. Our way was blocked by a wood and a boggy swamp, on the edge of which we found this antler.

Spider Orchid

After much tramping around at Durlston, involving my father walking in one direction, my mother another while I practised rounders with my daughter in the middle, we found a rare spider orchid, near to where we were playing. One day, I'll remember not to get so close with my camera phone that I blur the piccies.

Bogbean

Up past the cowslip meadows at Durlston, near Swanage, my parents remembered a pond that they had seen being constructed fifteen years ago. When we found it, smaller than they'd remembered, it had become a habitat for the indelicately named but rather beautiful bogbean, rising from a bed of water lilies.

Roadkill

Walked to the village shop to get a newspaper and found this female badger by the road. The speed limit here's 30 mph so I guess she didn't stand a chance, especially if the car was travelling that usual bit faster.

Upsetting start to the day.

The shop didn't have any copies of The Guardian either

Dorchester Brewery

When you've missed your connecting train at Dorchester and you have to wait for an hour, thanks to First Great Western's incompetence, there are worse sights to stare at than the old brewery. Part of the site has been redeveloped and this bit will be getting a makeover soon.

BBC : Brewery Square Development

Garlic & Artichokes

Now that it's warming up, things are starting to put on some growth, like the garlic and artichokes.



James Wong was using artichoke leaves and hawthorn berries to make a chewy low cholesterol bar in the last of the series of Grow Your Own Drugs last week. My Dad takes artichoke pills to lower his cholesterol and help the digestion of fatty foods.

I like combining the garlic, with artichoke heads and a bit of butter, in about three months time.

Coming Up

A few seedlings are emerging - spinach, carrots, beetroot, lettuce, radish. The lines of string help me to know where to look and are supposed to deter puss cat..



.. who is now in training for the low hurdles in the Olympics.

Tree down

Even when you can see that maybe it was getting to be a problem, blocked out some light and perhaps might have posed a risk to local residents in a violent storm, it's still gut wrenching to see another mature tree felled, like this cherry in Edward Street, Redfield.



It was heavy with gorgeous pink blossom a couple of weeks ago. Had I known of its impending execution (what happened to tree preservation orders and published notices of intent ?) I would have photographed it then.

Lost

It was the first time it had happened to me and I felt awful. I was a relatively late adopter and I'm not a heavy user, but losing your mobile phone can ruin your day. It was initially in a pouch attached to my waist, but as I reached to use it in a side street, I noticed to my horror that the pouch wasn't there. Had I left it on the train ? Had some nimble fingered thief unfastened it from my belt hoop ?

The first thing you think of doing is to phone and / or text your phone, but for this you need a phone and of course, your number. These things are not always easy to come by at the time and once they are, it's a bit sad to hear your own voice on the ansaphone . Once you've texted it too, from another mobile, all you can do is wait.

If the mobile that you used to text your own phone isn't your own and by chance someone else does find your phone and attempt to contact you, there can follow a confusing sequence of relayed messages. But even getting to that stage is immensely satisfying and immediately sets your mind to thinking about how to convey this gratitude, reward the kindness and honesty and sees you knocking on a door in another part of the city later that evening.

Przeczytać Podręcznik

I've been reading my friend Yaro's blog with the aid of an online translator, which sometimes gives it quite a surreal and unpenetrable twist. The last one was about reading manuals, which, clever chap that he is, he's able to do in English. He's well familiar with the acronym RTFM (Read The Fecking Manual) which doesn't seem to translate into Polish.

I'm not very good at reading manuals myself, although I do often refer to them. I remember photocopying 100 pages of a manual for Cubase for my Atari for £10 and taking them to Poland 18 years ago. I still find pages of that manual floating around today.

Recently I've been getting into Ableton Live, but I haven't glimpsed a manual yet. Instead, the marvels of YouTube provide a load of professional and amateur video tutorials, which help me bumble around.



Despite sticking to the manual / recipe, this banana cake didn't quite turn out right first time and was uncooked in the middle although looking fine from the outside. Trouble is, I don't have the manual for the oven and without it, I don't know how much the fan assistance contributes to overall cooking time, or whether cooking time stays the same and the temperature should be reduced. A handy YouTube video about Phillips ovens would help - or more cake practice.

Frogspawn

Having played at being god in recent years, raising froglets from frogspawn in jars at home , I'm leaving it all in the pond this year.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Despite the pigeons having a go at it over the winter, the half a dozen purple sprouting broccoli plants have survived, thanks to a bit of netting and make a tasty, healthy harvest.

Dead Ball

Besides England securing a win in the 4th ODI against the West Indies at the weekend, the match was notable for being the last in which Steve Bucknor will be umpiring, having decided to retire at the age of 62 after a sometimes controversial 20 year career.

Today I've been invited to a local cricket club's pre season meeting and advised that outdoor net practice starts in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I've already retired at least once due to injury and other demands on my time and the preponderance of perpetual league cricket is difficult to dip in and out of.

Ah for the days of friendly matches in the Mendips and much scrumpy and ale at the boundary edge and an afternoon on a cricket field on the outskirts of London in the 80s, when I bowled an over to Sunil Gavaskar and wasn't carted around the ground and later towered over him at the urinals. Now, if HE had time for friendly matches against tiny club sides celebrating their centenary, so should everyone.

Observer Blubs

Since getting into gardening, this time of year always brings a sense of urgency. There's so much to do; sowing, planting, taking cuttings, watering, controlling pests. So it's nice to sit back once in a while, to enjoy the daffs planted in the autumn, before burying the newly arrived summer flowering bulbs from an offer in The Observer.



Not exactly LIVE PLANTS, more like dormant bits of wood which don't need to be opened or planted with quite the sense of urgency that the capital letters convey.

British Summer Time

Despite the forecast, the first day of British Summer Time* was great. We went for a cycle up the River Avon (well ok, the towpath) and turned off by the herons' nests up through the woodland.



And despite having watched all of 'Victorian Farm' on the telly, I still don't know what this bit of agricultural machinery is.



What a lovely wall ! Skilful, beautiful stuff.

* Ultramarine - British Summer Time


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Feel The Force

You're only supposed to harvest rhubarb when there isn't an 'R' in the month, unless you 'force it', by putting a bucket or old chimney pot on top of the plant, which encourages early, soft growth. We harvested our first few stems of the year this weekend.

Mr Sweet Potatohead

Trying to grow sweet potatoes for the first time this year. What you're supposed to do, is cut up small pieces and get them to sprout and root individually, before planting them out for a lengthy growing season. I'll probably plant this out whole at the earliest opportunity with a bit of protection and see what happens. I've got another one which hasn't sprouted at all yet.

Beans

Sowed some very early borlotti beans a week or two ago, which I planted out under glass.



Same with the broad beans, which are better suited to colder weather, although the ones I planted last autumn are in a right state. Just as well I've got a fresh couple of dozen to supplement them with.

Colder

Watched a documentary on the 1984 miners' strike, reminding me of its effect on my politicisation at the time, but also setting me off to hunt down a haunting song which appeared in the soundtrack.

I seemed to know it well, yet I couldn't put my finger on it. Was it Echo & The Bunnymen, The Psychedelic Furs ? No, too electronic for that, but it wasn't New Order or Joy Division and it was too European to be Suicide.

So I typed a few of the lyrics into googly and eventually identified the song. It was quite a shock to discover that the track was only 6 years old, not 25 as I'd assumed, that I hardly recognised the artist's name and he wasn't British.

But what a track ! Crikey !! It's got bits of all the bands mentioned above and he's clearly into his Joy Division. I remember now that I must have recorded it onto MiniDisc from a John Peel show, the year before he died.

It's a great one for doing the Ian Curtis dance to ; )

Last FM (Some interesting remixes too) : Colder - Crazy Love

YouTube : (Until they block all music vids)