Boi-oi-oing!

Spring is springing!  My crops are well on the grow.

Spuds:

Strawbs: 

TINY BABY LEEKS; SQUEE!!!

Last year I planted a Jasmine at the foot of the arbour.  I read up on it before I planted it, so I knew it died back in the Winter, but I didn't realise just how much it dies back!  All the leaves fell off and the vines shrank and turned a very dark green.  I was convinced by March that it had died.  I thought "crap, I'm gonna have to dig this one out, amend the soil and go buy a new one".  Then just as I was contemplating doing the work we had the first hot sun of the year and the Jasmine burst into life, grew half a foot and sprouted a mass of leaves in less than a week!  Now it looks like this: 

I fully expect that Jasmine to be a further foot taller come the Autumn.  Also in Spring news, my lawn received its annual infestation of weeds.  This year however I used a weed knife and cleared half the lawn in a few hours.  I really must recommend a weed knife.  Compared with a hand fork it takes a third the time, a quarter the effort, and leaves the grass minimally damaged; whilst hand-forking is hard, long, sweaty labour that leaves your lawn looking like it lost a fight with a platoon of moles.  Seriously, get a weed knife.  Best tenner ever spent!

So yeah, all in all I'd say there's no overstating the boon that a little sunshine can bring to my garden.  And of course as soon as there's hot sun on the grass you'll catch Bill outside, shedding his Winter stoicism in favour of his Summer friskiness!  

Until next time xx

I have invented something amazing!

After much tinkering, I reckon this is the ideal mix for a Baileys Malt:

Into a blender add

• 1/3 of a tub of ice cream, 
• 1/2 a bottle of baileys, 
• 4dsp ovaltine, 
• 2dsp cocoa powder, 
• 1tsp vanilla bean paste, 
• milk up to the max line.  

Whiz it up until smooth and serve ice cold.  The genius thing is that it lines your stomach and gets you pissed at the same time!  I've had two and a half mugs today.  Big mugs.  I should probably sit down now :)

The State of the Garden Address

Here's where we are just now.  I've put in the sage bed, clockwise from back left: purple sage, common sage, tricolour sage, Icterina sage.  

My lemon thyme turned out to be common thyme.  I got it from amidst the lemon thyme and the label said 
"[£1.99]mon Thyme", so I assumed it to be like its neighbours.  Ah well.  I picked up a variegated lemon thyme today and put it in the centre of the thyme bed.  

That'll teach me to not buy a pig in a poke!  

I've planted up bed 3.  There's two frames of bamboo and wire in there.  The one nearest the trellis is growing runner beans (Wisley Magic) and the one nearest the lawn is growing sugar snap peas (Sugar Ann).  

And the lawn is thickening up a treat.  It'll need a mowing and a third seeding to make it ready for the Summer, but imperfect as it is it's still a joy to walk barefoot on after all those stones and nettles.

Approved by Bill!  

In other news: at the bar last night we had a gap between doors and the first DJ showing up, so I got up and DJed for half an hour.  When I DJ I tend to write my set down as I go along.  I got near the end, looked back over what I'd played and realised "shit, I've been watching too much of the news!"  Take a look and see if you can see what I mean:  

Jam - Eton Rifles, 
REM - End Of The World As We Know It, 
Cranberries - Zombie, 
Prodigy - Firestarter, 
Manics - If You Tolerate This, 
Clash - Rock The Casbah, 
Chumbawumba - Tubthumping, 
Alice Cooper - Poison, 
Skunk Anansie - I went to play Hedonism but the disc was bad, so I played Weak.

Dude!

And I reckon I'm starting college in October, if I can get this bloody paperwork squared away.  

Later :)

Anatomy of a herb bed

Dig a small pit

Stakes

Nail in place

Boards

Rubble

Stain

Compost and grit

Herbs

Topdressing

Water heavily the once to bed it in

JOB DONE!

On the tension in London

Here's the score: for twelve years now, successive administrations from Blair's New Labour onwards have been playing divide-and-rule between Muslim communities and the rest of us. Meanwhile they've bombed every Muslim country that they can find an excuse to bomb. 

It's understandable that the Muslim community would feel a bit picked-on, a bit resentful; and while violence is deplorable it is nevertheless understandable that some turn to violence because of their anger at what they see. There has been a race war brewing for twelve years and now our chickens are coming home to roost. 

Idiots on both sides want blood. A soldier has been decapitated, a grandfather has been run through on his way home from the Mosque, a Mosque has been firebombed, and the EDL are out on the streets of London in ski masks. 

This is a time for human beings to start acting like human beings, not pouring more fuel on the fire. If you've got anti-religious views about any group, I don't wanna hear it right now. Keep that shit to yourself, because trotting it about like it were fact in this climate could well get some innocent person killed. Just stow it until this shit blows over.

Now that my heartbeat has calmed from a whine to a purr...

So I'm building my third veg bed out back, minding my own business, and I hear the alsatian over the back go berserk and a girl shriek. Damn near shat myself, but I pulled out my pruning knife and ran up to climb the fence. Got to the fence and it turns out somebody's brought an unfamiliar dog into the garden, the alsatian's showing dominance in its own territory and the girl shrieked at the aggression of it. 

Fucking frit the life out of me!

Today's incident

I don't know how much truth there is in the speculation that today's incident in Woolwich was a terrorist attack.  Maybe it was, maybe it was two bampots trying to be big men.  Who can say?  All I know for sure is that a man has been murdered in a singularly gruesome way.

Leave out the religious thing.  Hell, my neighbours are Muslims.  The dad drives a cab, the mam raises the kids, they get on with us.  She's got a beautiful lawn that one.  If these acts of violence were "a Muslim thing" as the papers would have you believe then why's my neighbour not down Radnor Gardens bombing the bowling green?  It's bollocks.

What it is is individuals who made a choice - for whatever reasons - to bring violence to our streets.  Those individuals might claim a religious motive, a political motive, but at the end of the day they spilled blood in the streets of my damn city.

The EDL have gone down to Woolwich since.  They have no place there.  A bunch of drunkards looking for the least excuse to spill more blood in my city.  They can get the fuck out.

Condolences to the guy's family, and to all the families who are going to be swept up in this bullshit.