Hubpages

I am on a new website now, http://www.hubpages.com. It is a great website, and just up my street because you can write articles on whatever you like, and you have the opportunity to make money from them via Google Adsense.

I intend from time to time to post links to my latest articles on here. Firstly, here is my profile:

http://hubpages.com/profile/nakmeister

Hubs of note I've written so far include:

Google Chrome - Why You Should Try it

Oh no not flowers - Alternative Valentines Day Gift ideas

Budget cuts

Just been reading about budget cuts in the Times. Free school meals are going to be cut for 500,000 of the lowest paid. Ok so they haven't had free school meals yet but now are not going to. This will cost families earning less than £307 per week about £600 a year. What is galling is that families on benefits still get them. Even more of an incentive , for the low paid not to work and live on benefits instead. When will someone sort that out?

That said, I agree with government plans to question all government spending to determine whether it is needed, whether it is cost effective and whether the service would be better provided by the private sector. I always go back to America where private companies sponsor stretches of interstate, presumably paying for cleaning, maintenance etc. Why can't we do that here for starters?


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Postcrossing

Have discovered a great new website, http://www.postcrossing.com where you send postcards to strangers round the world, and in return get postcards sent to you from other strangers round the world. Sound barmy? When you log on to the site and choose to send a postcard, the site randomly allocates you a name and address of another postcrossing member to send a postcard to. You are given a unique postcrossing Id number to put on the postcard for the recipient to input at the other end. Once they have received and logged your postcard, the site gives your details to another random member from somewhere in the world for them to send a postcard to you. The fun is not knowing when a postcard is going to drop through your letterbox and where it will be from.

I have sent 4 so far which means once they are received I should have 4 postcards from across the world heading for my doorstep. I can't wait!

Busy times

It has been several weeks since I blogged - I would apologise but it would only really be to myself so what is the point?

Work has been busy and a bit stressful, though still enjoying... Rachel only seems to sleep all evening every other night and has been struggling with her teeth the last few days. We have also had Kate's parents up over the bank holiday weekend so not much time all round.

One thing I do think is that less is more at the moment. I enjoy the weekends most where we are not rushing round places but are mostly at home and can potter round, do a bit of gardening, cooking and relaxing.

This week, Rachel hasn't slept a lot but evenings have been quite nice. What have I done? Cooked tea, with nice fresh Greek salad. Made sandwiches for us each day. Watered plants. Not a lot else but that was nice. I wasn't trying to do lots which was important. I think in future I should have 5 minutes in garden before going to bed if warm. It is so nice and refreshing late in the evening.

I am thinking of doing some drawing or painting again, not sure what yet though.

Next time: garden update, holiday plans and some old fashioned blogs unearthed!

Post-election thoughts

I didn't end up posting about the election anywhere near as much as I had wanted to, too many other things on. Now it's all over, finally. So what is there to say?

In the election I started off being quite enthused by Nick Clegg and his refreshing message about doing something different. Then later, I veered back towards Labour, as the only alternative that could keep the Conservatives out, realistically. In reality though I was hoping for a hung parliament to really shake things up.

In the end I voted for Labour. It was quite a marginal Labour / Conservative seat in my area, I wanted to keep the Conservatives out and I thought far too many people were picking on Gordon Brown, or voting for the opposition because they didn't like Gordon Brown personally (he doesn't come across very well). I think Brown has consistently been a hard working politician, doing what he thinks is right for the country and just getting on with his job. In the last couple of years, the people that have really got on my wick have been those who say something like 'I agree Labour has really made a positive difference in the NHS, they've got class sizes down, made the country and safe place etc but I just don't like Gordon Brown so am voting Tory...'

There's something quite empowering about turning up to vote at your local polling station, a feeling that you are doing your bit, making a difference, standing up for what you believe in. That's the reason I wouldn't want to vote by post, it just wouldn't be the same. Election night, despite not having been well the previous couple of days I was determined to stay up and watch at least some of it. The exit polls came in, predicted a hung parliament but almost a Conservative majority. I prayed it wasn't so.

At this point I should probably try and elucidate why I don't like the Conservatives so much. I think it's my upbringing, in a very pro-Labour household. I grew up believing the Conservatives weren't much interested in helping the little guy, the man on the street. They were pro big business, for the rich. A lot of this was Margaret Thatcher, stamping on the miners, telling everyone to look out for themselves and no-one else. I don't know how true this is anymore, and I certainly agree with certain aspects of the Conservatives, like trying to get lazy people off benefits etc.

It was obvious as election night progressed that there was going to be no quick resolution, and how very true that turned out to be. The next day it turned out that the exit poll had been virtually spot on. The Conservatives were the largest party, but 20 short of an overall majority. The Lib Dems did badly, and actually lost several seats, rather than the large gains they had been predicted. They suddenly held the balance of power however and there was three way negotiations as both Labour and Conservatives tried to form an alliance with them. In the end, they went with the Conservatives, forming a coalition government. I think this was the right thing to happen, as the Conservatives got over a million more votes that Labour. It seems the Lib Dems negotiated themselves a good deal, including a referendum on voting reform, and working towards increasing personal allowance towards £10,000. I think the Lib Dems will end up softening a lot of the Conservatives harsher policies, so the combination may be the best one for the country right now, in a time of economic difficulty when we need to get the deficit down. Plus Labour are now the only real opposition. The government are going to have to make unpopular decisions, and when the next election happens, Labour will (with a new leader) be in a strong position to defeat Conservatives and Lib Dems.

It is worth briefly mentioning the new governments plans for fixed 5 year parliaments (a good thing probably), and needing 55% in a vote of no confidence to force a general election before then (funny, that means Conservatives don't need anyone else to support them to stay in power, hmmm) which I don't think is very good. If 51% disagree with you, you will never get any laws passed, so why stick around like a lame duck? As Andrew Marr pointed out today. 51% could vote to repeal the new legislation, then call a vote of no confidence and pass it with 51% so what is the point?

The next thing to look forward to is the emergency budget within 50 days. As a tax advisor this should keep me busy, and it will be interesting to see what they do. We are teetering on a knife edge trying to escape recession, so I just hope the Conservatives don't wreck it with all their cuts. Only time will tell.

Election 2010

I watched the third and final election debate last night. David Cameron and Gordon Brown were back to arguing with each other, Nick Clegg in the middle shaking his head and trying to look above it all. Basically Cameron's message was big society, small government, start cutting spending and waste now, it is time for change. Labour is don't rock the boat and risk the recovery, we can't cut spending this year. The Conservatives claim backing from big business, Labour the backing of nearly all countries round the world for their recovery plan. The Lib Dems are all about fairness and working together with the other parties to solve the countries problems.

My problem is I think they all have some good ideas, if you pool them all together we might get somewhere. So really I want a hung parliament, I want voting reform pushed through and I want the parties to talk to each other and work together.

Unfortunately none of this has particularly helped me decide who to vote for. I like the Lib Dems fresh, co-operative approach and I like many of their policies. Alas I live in a Labour / Conservative marginal so is a vote for Lib Dems a wasted vote? Still some thinking to do methinks.



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Tim Rice's American Pie

Have been listening to the radio 2 series 'Tim Rice's American Pie'. It's a 50 episode series, each episode telling the music history of one state. The series started in Washington State in the far north west, and is working its way down. It has the full tracks of at least 10 songs, with bits of history and biographical information sprinkled in between. A very enjoyable series. The songs I like for each state are:

Washington State - 'Honeycomb' by Jimmy Rogers & 'Alone' by Heart. Also Columbia River Ballads.

Oregon - 'Arizona' by Mark Lindsay (re-done by Kings of Leon?) and 'The Lady Came From Baltimore' by Tim Hardin. Mark Lindsay was the lead singer with Paul Revere and the Raiders.

California - Walking in Memphis by Cher & 'Don't Speak' by No Doubt (fronted by Gwen Stefani)

General election

We are about halfway through the election campaign now, and my opinion of it changes every few days. I started off being really excited by it, watching a lot of news and tv, Reading the papers and so on. Then I think I got electioned out and sick of it. The Conservatives were alas going to win, and that was that. I was ready to volunteer to hand out leaflets for labour to do my bit, even if I thought it was lost cause. Then came the first tv debate. Nick Clegg the Lib Dem leader whose party was in a distant third place, won convincingly and suddenly it all started getting a bit interesting. Of course given the biased, unproportional voting system we have, it is near impossible for Lib Dems to win, but it is very possible that they will greatly increase their seats in parliament and have the balance of power if no side has a working majority. A hung parliament could be very interesting. The second tv debate was a draw really, and the ten point bounce in the polls remains. One final debate on the economy this week. 12 days to election day. More soon.


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Gardening & nature update

There has been lots of things I've wanted to blog about in the last week, but haven't had any time at all unfortunately. So all I can manage for now is my weekly garden update, and hope I have more time this week for blogging.

In the front garden there is not much change, flowers I planted several weeks ago look exactly the same as when I put them in, no flower buds or new leaves. Garlic doing fairly well, and a blue flowering plant from last year has flower buds now but they are this time...purple!

In the back garden, 3 of my 5 potato bags have sprouted. In the garden itself there is some signs of poppies or cornflowers starting up (or weeds).

Inside, the mini sweetcorn is still doing really well, all six plants. I have about 5 bean plants now and, some quite big, and quite a few sunflowers. The chilli peppers are just starting to come up too, and the tomatoes are doing ok, though still just look like little seedlings. The beans desparately need repotting into individual pots, and the corn could do with it too.

On the herb front, re-potted the sage into different pots and some in the front or back garden. Most are surviving so far, though some looking rather the worse for wear. Flat leaf parsley desparately needs re-potting, and the basil needs repotting too. Lots of re-potting to do therefore.

In other gardening news, I went to a discussion in Lancaster about creating 'edible streets'. Quite interesting discussion, but most interesting was learning that there is a community orchard in Lancaster, only a few minutes walk from my house. There are volunteer days and evenings when you can help with maintaining the orchard, and it's free access for anyone to pick the fruit when ripe. There are apparently lots of different types of Apple trees (20 varieties) plus pears, plums, cherries, damsons and nuts (hazel, walnuts, chestnuts). Will have to go look this week. It's the Fairfield Orchard, just off Westbourne Rd in Lancaster. There are also apparently 3 'fruity corners' in Lancaster, where soft fruit bushes have been planted, including grapes in at least one. They are just off Dorrington Rd, just off Derwent Rd and also one in Williamson Park. Again, free for anyone to pick. If they get funding, there could be more being grown too.

On the wildlife and nature front, not a lot. There are nice clumps of forget-me-nots in Winckley Square in Preston, and I found my way to Avenham Park, a large park in Preston. On Friday I sat on a rock in Avenham Park and ate my lunch (there were benches, but too obvious!). It was lovely. That was on the edge of the park, it's very big and extends down to the river and beyond. Am looking forward to having some walks in the park, trying to spot wildlife including flowers (and trees when they get some leaves on to make identification easier), and also finding some nice spots to sit and eat lunch. Work is a bit mad (busy), so am going to need my lunchtime escapes more than I have in years.

Also today, saw a Blackbird with nesting material in her beak, and two Robins flying at each other and pecking each other. Quite a sight. They were either mating or fighting, I suspect too male Robins fighting over territory (they are quite territorial I believe).

Anyway, that's ll for now. Hope to blog more in the coming week than I did last week.

Walk along the River Lune - Part 2

Today I went with my dad on the second part of our walk along the River Lune. This time it was Lancaster to Caton, about 5 miles. The problem with doing a one way walk is how to get back, and so I looked up the bus times back from Caton. They were once an hour on a Sunday, 9.49am and every hour after that. So I arranged to meet my dad at my house in Lancaster, to start walking by 10am. I thought this would give us plenty of time to walk and catch the 11.49am bus.

The weather was nice, hazy sunshine and clouds but very warm. For the first 40 minutes or so I was in familiar territory, all the way up to Skerton Weir, and after that it was all new. Also after Skerton Weir, the river mud and silt disappeared, and the water became clear. We saw a couple of chaffinches, as well as an oystercatcher and a couple of female grouse or pheasant. My dad spotted some Coltsfoot (yellow dandelion-like flowers) which he hasn't seem since his days in Bolton, more than 35 years ago, where they were the first sign of Spring. We also saw Lesser Celandines (fanned out buttercups) and some wood anemones (European), lovely white early Spring flowers. It was nice, spotting the flowers especially as my dad could identify them all (though he claimed it was just luck, and did call the wood anemones acanites which my mum later laughed at him for). Flowers are something I used to know something about, but tend to overlook these days. Didn't think about what trees there were, there were a lot along the path, but were not in leaf yet. It will be easy to identify them next time we walk when the leaves will be out.

We didn't see many boats, but did see a small sail boat in Lancaster with a St George's cross flag, and a couple of speedboat/jet-ski boats. Also saw a longboat being rowed upstream (like the ones in the Oxford/Cambridge boat race).

There was some lovely river scenes past Skerton Weir, and some lovely houses on the other side of the river, including a farm by the river with what looked like a cave carved out of the rock. We missed the Lancaster Aqueduct, but crossed another aqueduct later on. We passed by Halton railway station, disused for several decades at least.

We also passed by Crook O'Lune picnic site, though we didn't stop. By this point we realised that I'd been a bit optimistic about how long it would take. We stopped a couple of times to ask other walkers how long it would take to get to Caton and realised we were going to be cutting it close, though when we saw people pushing babies in prams along the cycle path we knew it must be close. Just after we turned off the path, we saw the strangest and most humble looking Catholic Church I've ever seen, a small squat stone building which was an old storehouse. I think of Catholic churches as grand, purpose built buildings with magnificent stained glass etc etc.

We didn't have time to stop in Caton, but it looks a pretty village. It's been around since Saxon times and was called 'Catun' in the domesday book. Following the introduction of water power, Caton became quite industrial with 8 working mills at one time. According to my 'Walking Down the Lune' book (useful, but going in the opposite direction to us, which is confusing), orphaned children used to be sent from Liverpool to work in the mills in Caton, accounting for upto half the workforce at one time (that's 75 children). They were indentured servants, which reminds me of immigrants to America, and makes me wonder what happened to them after their terms of service were up. Did they go back to Liverpool, travel elsewhere or stay and make a home for themselves in Caton or nearby Lancaster?

Apparently the Romans are known to have passed through Caton too, and a Hadrianic milestone has been found, now in the Lancaster City Museum. Will have to go look sometime.

We got to the bus stop with about 3 or 4 minutes to spare, and my dad immediately struck up conversation with an old lady at the bus stop, asking her questions she didn't know the answers to (How much is the bus fare to Lancaster? A: I don't know I have a pass. Oh I really should get one at some point, my wife keeps telling me to, never got around to it. And: Where is the Methodist church? [he had been many years before]. The lady then revealed she was a visitor and although she came her often, she didn't know for sure!).

The bus driver drove like a maniac and shouted at other people in cars that passed ('What do you think you are playing at mate?'). There was spilt water and coffee on the journey back, and sore teeth from where my water bottle had jammed into my mouth after a particularly sudden application of the breaks. It was a rare experience for both of us, having neither been on a bus for a long time. We passed through Halton on the way back, which was a nice looking suburb of Lancaster, a couple of miles out.

Overall, a lovely walk, much nicer than the first one, partly because it was warmer and sunnier, with more spring growth, but also because the river is prettier and more rural than the first leg of the journey between Glasson Dock and Lancaster. It was lovely walking with my dad, as always, and we agreed that it was much nicer doing a long walk in spaced out stages rather than all on consecutive days, as it allows more for reflection and enjoyment.

The next leg is probably Caton to Hornby, hopefully in the next few weeks.

More gardening...

It's been a lovely weekend so far, and seeds have responded to the weather and started growing. Tomato plants have sprouted, as have all the minipop sweetcorn. Sunflowers are growing too. No sign of chilli pepper plants, passion flower or beans. On the kitchen windowsill, the herbs are going to need re-potting soon. The flat leaf parsley desperately needs a bigger pot, the basil could do with being transplanted into the terracotta pot I've got for it, and the sage now needs separate pots for each of the plants, as they have grown to 5cm tall now.

Outside, all of the garlic has definitely sprouted, but nothing much else happening yet in the front garden. In the back there's quite a few unknown veg plants growing in one of the L-shaped raised beds from the veg box I planted at the end of January - Kate thinks they are beans.

Today I weeded nearly all of the garden, between all of the rose bushes and other shrubs, and sowed poppy and cornflower seeds all around the garden. I also planted beetroot in the L-shaped veg bed. So in there now is some garlic, mystery veg and beetroot. Depending on what comes up, may also plant some chanteney carrots in there too (though have already plantedsome in a trough). The other L-shaped bed doesn't get much sun and is just for herbs. There was just some mint starting to re-grow at one end, and a rosemary bush at the other. I planted the marjoram plant I bought last week in the middle, and also sowed some chive seeds in the bed. In the front garden I planted the coriander and oregano plants.

No action yet from potatoes and chanteney carrots, but it is early days.

There is a day of events in Lancaster next Saturday about environment issues and global warming - a lady handed me a leaflet while I was stood by the organic veg stall waiting for Kate to finish. I'm not that interested in most of it, but there is a session about creating edible streets in Lancaster. Presumably this is about growing food using spare land, grass verges etc. a bit like they do in Todmorden (see previous blog article here). Could be interesting.

Weather this week has been fairly good, with some rain but not a lot. Last couple of days have been sunny, warm and dry.

General Election campaign begins...

It's general election time in the UK again, and this, along with the World Cup, is one of the big events of the year. I've always had some interest in politics, but there are long periods of boredom with only the occasional interesting happenings. This election is shaping up to be very interesting, it is a full 5 years since the last one (the legal maximum gap) and it's been 13 years since we had a realistic prospect of a change in government. It's been even longer since there was any real doubt as to the outcome - you have to go back to 1992 for that, and since the first general election I could vote in was 2001, it's the first really interesting election I've been able to participate in. I just missed out on being able to vote in the 1997 election, though my parents allowed me to stay up all night to watch, and it really was exciting stuff as the Labour party won by the biggest landslide in modern times.

For any non-British readers, or British readers who don't know anything about our UK politics, a brief summary. The UK is a parliamentary democracy, so you vote for a party, not a prime minister. The country is divided into 650 constituencies (4 more than last time), and voters in each constituency vote for an MP for that constituency. There will be candidates from all the major parties in each constituency, and the candidate with the most votes becomes the MP for that constituency. To form a government, you generally need more than 50% of the MPs in parliament, so at least 326. Labour currently has a majority of 48, and to get a majority the Conservatives need about 130 more seats this time.

The major political parties are:

Labour - currently in government, leader is Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Historically party for working classes but 'New Labour' in the mid-1990s changed all that and blurred the dividing lines between parties.

Conservatives - the second biggest party, with around 200 seats in the current parliament. Leader is David Cameron. They are ahead in the polls, so have a good chance of getting elected. Traditionally the party of the middle classes, they believe in smaller government, greater partnership with private sector etc.

Liberal Democrats - the third party, with 62 seats in parliament this time. Leader Nick Clegg, but Vince Cable, their equivalent of Chancellor of the Exchequer is very popular. Realistically cannot win a majority, but could hold the balance of power if there is a hung parliament.

Green Party - green/environmental party. Currently no seats in parliament.

UK Independance Party - believes Britain should leave the EU. Has some following, but has no seats in Parliament.

British National Party - ultra right wing party, generally considered to be racist. Believe in 'repatriating' foreigners, encouraging people not native British born to leave. Some following in run-down areas, but no MPs in parliament.

Realistically, the chances of Green Party, BNP or UKIP getting m(any) seats very slim, due to first past the post system (they may receive a reasonable share of the popular vote, but spread to thin to win seats in constituencies).

So there is a good chance of a change in government, a good chance of a hung parliament (where no party has an overall majority), but no one knows. If a hung parliament, no one knows what will happen but it will be a mess - hasn't happened since the early 1970s.

I live in Lancaster, which is the 81st most marginal seat, and one the Conservatives must win if they are to be elected. So a battleground state!

New job...green shoots

Today I started a new job, working for the same firm but in a different office - Preston in Lancashire for those who know the area. This means rather than walk I have to get the train from Lancaster to Preston. It's a longer day, but I don't mind, as it's only a 20 minute train journey, and gives me time to read, blog or listen to my ipod on the train. I haven't commuted by train in quite a few years (nearly 8 years) so it makes a change. The job itself looks like it could be good - I am going to be very busy, but a lot of the work is much more interesting and bigger jobs than I am used to. Am looking forward to the challenge.

It could be said that after years in the doldrums workwise, there are green shoots for my career all of a sudden, but the green shoots I'm referring to are the shoots coming up from the garlic I planted in the front garden the weekend before last - I just noticed them as I got home this evening. Hopefully by weekend there will be more new growth to report.

Front garden plan

With a spare few minutes, I drew a plan of my front garden patch. Neither the garden nor the drawing are very good, but at least with the drawing I have the excuse that I did it on a computer, with only a laptop touchpad, not even a mouse. I used a free package called paint.net and it is the first time I've used it, hence why it looks like a five year old drew it. Hopefully will update plan as I plant more things, and as things start to grow. If I get time, will do plan for back garden, pots etc.

Bank holiday gardening

Well it has been the bank holiday weekend, 4 days off work, and the weather hasn't been as atrocious as the BBC weather forecast would have had me believe, so I got some gardening done. It was even quite warm and sunny at times. Firstly, I tidied out the shed, which was in a terrible state with stuff quite literally just chucked in. It's a small shed, with a lot of things in, but I can actually walk in, turn around, do some seed planting in pots if I want (was going to but then it stopped raining so did outside), and even find things!

Next job was planting potatoes. Last year I had one 'potato bag' which was a big success. The bags are strong, sturdy plasic bags, with a flat bottom, tall and will stand on their own. I bought two official 'potato bags' and used 3 other bags I had lying around. Fill the bag a quarter full of compost, then plant three potatoes in, ready chitted and with the tubers as far as possible pointing upwards. Half bury the potatoes, but then cover with more soil. The bags are still now only a third full of compost. Oh, should have said that there are four drainage holes in the bottom. Anyway, water well and leave in a spot that gets a good amount of sun. Once the potato plants start to grow, I will keep earthing them up until the bag is filled with compost. This should give strong plants and maximise number of potatoes. This year I planted one bag with Charlotte salad potatoes, and the rest with Arran Pilot maincrop potatoes. I am hoping this will save the need to buy potatoes for many months after harvesting.

Also planted some cherry tomato seeds, habenero chilli peppers, sunflowers, sweetcorn minipop (those little ones you eat whole and put in stir fries etc) and beans. The beans I planted actually looked like magic beans. They are open pollinated which means that the next generation of seeds will be usable, and in fact if I keep the seeds from the plants that do best in my garden it should produce better plants/produce the following year, and so on. I don't know much about seed-saving, but it is supposed to help preserve old varieties that are becoming extinct these days, as commercial seed sellers use homogenous, close-pollinated seeds which don't produce good plants from the second generation (I guess they want you to keep buying from them!). I bought these seeds in Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts, so they have come a long way! They are similar to the beans grown by the first settlers in New England, nearly 400 years ago, so it will be especially interesting to see how they do. I may have to invest in some copper slug rings to keep the infernal beasts at bay.

I also planted some flowers, and have bought some herb plants - oregano, marjoram and coriander. They are all foods I want to use in cooking later in the year. The marjoram will go in the back garden in a bed with rosemary and mint already growing, the coriander and sage will probably go in the herb patch of the front garden.

Weather during the last week (27th March to 4th April) has been mixed. The first weekend was nice and mostly sunny, then during the week mostly rainy with odd bits of sunshine. Easter weekend has been very mixed, half day of rain or overcast, half day of sun. No frost for ages however.

Must go, back to work tomorrow, starting a new job for a new boss (though same firm). More soon.

About the weather

The last couple of days, rain has been lashing down, heavy and wintery, and the forecast for the next few days doesn't look good either which may scupper my plans for lots of Easter weekend gardening. At least it's not snowing though, unlike in Scotland and Ireland last night. The weather is totally beyond our control, but has such a big effect on what we can do in our gardens, allotments and farmsteads. The last couple of summers here in the North West of England have been pretty atrocious with weeks and weeks of rain throughout summer. The slugs loved it, the plants didn't, the slugs ate the plants!

It's interesting whenever I read blogs from other people around the world to see what the weather is like for them. I can't help sometimes feeling a bit envious, especially when I hear this week that the pecan trees are in flower. How wonderful. I remember visiting Greece too, and seeing the orange and lemon groves, and olive bushes. Not possible here, but we must make do with what we are given!

At least those of us with poor weather can start off crops indoors in our warm, centrally heated houses to give them a good start. It makes me wonder what people did hundreds of years ago. Did those gardeners and smallholders start off their vegetables and herbs inside in pots? Did these have to be in the main room with the fire? It would be interesting to read a historic gardening/farming journal someday. Maybe the monks from some of Britain's monasteries kept a diary. Will have to have a look.

This year, I am going to try and keep a log of the weather, along with my record of garden developments and visiting birds.

A good weekend of gardening, crafts and cooking...

Some weekends you feel like the time has passed you by and you got nothing done, other weekends feel like you got loads done. This was the latter. We visited my parents yesterday (Saturday) which took most of the day, and it was good to see them as always, plus my older sister dropped by as an added bonus. Yesterday evening however, all the essential chores were done and Rachel, our daughter was asleep in her cot. So I took the opportunity to make some notebooks. I make handmade notebooks out of old books, board games, maps, and anything else of interest I can get my hands on. The term is 'upcycling' - reusing old materials that might otherwise be thrown away, and put them to a new use. I'm currently binding them with a metal wire binding, but am intending to hand stitch some soon, and at some point do proper, leather bound notebooks in the tradtional way they've been making them for many hundreds of years. For now though, I'm doing the relatively easy wire binding. I sell them online through a website called folksy.com, a sort of ebay but for hand-crafted products (a UK version of etsy). Some of my early notebooks can be found on our shop, which I share with my wife. Am intending to launch my own separate shop soon though, and am trying to make enough to sell at a craft fair in a couple of months. Anyway, Saturday evening I made seven notebooks, which I thought was quite a good effort.

We've been busy cooking today to put food in the freezer so on the days when we come back from work too tired to be bothered cooking, we can get lovely home cooked meals out of the freezer rather than paying lots of money for frankly not very nice takeaway. My contribution to this was a large pan full of chilli, a bit spicier than I'd intended but nice all the same. Kate did a beef casserole and two different types of sausage casserole. All told it should do a good six or seven meals for us both at least.

Next was gardening. Sunday seems to be my gardening day of late, and today was no exeption, although hopefully will be able to do some in the weekday evenings now, as the clocks have gone forward an hour this weekend and it's light until 8pm now. Anyway this morning Rachel had a sleep late morning for more than 2 hours, a rare treat. So I tackled the front garden again, finishing digging over and clearing up all of the stringy roots and bits of twigs from digging out the bushes last week. What's left is now a nice dug over bed of about 120cm by 140cm. I added some soil from our compost bin (a new experiment last year, putting all our left over food in a compost bin at the end of the garden. It's amazing but we have compost now - not perfect as there's some bits of eggshells and onion in the bottom in the compost, but still pretty good). In one corner by the front door there are some daffodils and crocuses in flower, and there's a perennial flower plant growing on the next corner. When the spring flowers have finished flowering, I will dig them up, leaving the bulbs in the soil for next year, and plant something else in their place. For today, I've planted the curly parsley plant in the ground, and planted a couple of rows of flower plants (Aubretia), and sown a row of garlic bulbs. Next weekend is Easter weekend, 4 days off work, so plan on planting more then. I may draw a plan of the front bed to put on here, and update as I plant more things.

I haven't done anything in the back garden as of yet, though did an inspection today, The blueberry and blackcurrent bushes have loads of buds, and some of the raspberry canes have buds too (As recently as last week I thought we weren't going to see any raspberry action this year). The strawberry planter needs some attention, but there are a few strawberry plants with new growth in it. In one of our 'L-shaped' (raised) beds I found to my delight that there are a few garlic plants growing. I planted these last year and they didn't do much, but have only now realised that garlic is a perennial so has come back stronger this year (there's almost as much growth already as there was all year last year). Also, for Christmas my wife bought me a 'veg box' with soil and loads of seeds in different compartments. The idea is you plant the box in the ground and things grow. I planted around 31st Jan, and nothing was growing, but now there is a couple of shoots. Accidentally threw away the paper that says what everything is, so will have to wait and see what comes up. Anyway, lots of work to do in the garden over Easter next weekend. May plant some things in pots mid-week too.

Incredible Edible Todmorden

Watched an episode of Michael Portillo's 'Great British Railway Journeys' today. Lots of good stuff in there, but was particularly interested in his visit to Todmorden in East Lancashire. The town and surrounding area have a big project going on to become more self-sufficient, and produce as much food as possible locally.

There's an egg list on their website where you can find a map with all the people selling eggs on from the chickens they are keeping in their garden, along with phone numbers. There's herb gardens at the station and carrots growing in the car park and you can help yourself. Looking at the website http://www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk/ - I can see there is also lots of orchards planted, a lot on public land, which people can help themselves to. The project has involved asking schools, public bodies, businesses, local council etc to allow use of some land to grow things. I think this is a brilliant idea, and would love it if we could do something like it in Lancashire.

Gardening plan

Have done some more gardening this weekend, mainly digging out all the bushes in the front garden. There is now quite a decent size bed there to work with. Also went to garden centre, Barton Grange near Preston. Great coffee and cake! Picked up a few seed packets but is a bit early to buy plants. We did see an apricot bush which was tempting however.

Decided to come up with a plan for what to grow. Don't want to have lots of useless plants in pots this year. So I am definitely going to grow:

1) Potatoes - essential. Easy to grow and we eat a lot of them. Got some maincrop (Arran pilot) and new potatoes (Charlotte) chitting on windowsill. Purple sprouts growing out of them! Going to grow in potato bags, probably at back of the garden.

2) Salads - lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber. Kate's mum is starting some off for me, but we may start some off ourselves. Maybe have some lettuce and rocket in the front garden.

3) Garlic - will grow a row in the front garden I think.

4) Herbs - some Basil on windowsill. Parsley, sage, coriander, thyme, mint, rosemary and oregano. Maybe some marjoram and tarragon too. Oh and chives. Some in front, some in back garden. Sounds a lot, but already have some established plants growing already, and some more just planted.

5) Flowers- in front garden and hanging baskets. A mix of bright, colourful flowers.

6) Runner beans and possibly peas. Against fences in back garden.

7) Sweetcorn - fancy giving it a go. Will start off planting in a pot indoors and see how it goes.

8) Carrots - chanteney. Have had success in the past but not in the last couple of years. Slugs and birds keep eating seedlings.

We may grow other stuff, onions being one possibility, but don't want to take on too much. Oh forgot to mention fruit - we have a strawberry planter, blueberry bush and blackcurrent bush. Also raspberry canes but they don't look like they are sprouting this year.

The challenge is maintaining the plants, and in particular seeing off the threat of slugs and birds. For the former I am investing in some copper 'slug rings'. For the latter, may try some nets though. First need to finish clearing and tidying the garden, then get planting. I think Easter weekend, in 2 weeks will be a big planting weekend.



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Wonders of the Garden...and Solar System

Have now seen goldfinches and bullfinches in the back garden. Also yesterday did some more gardening - we re-potted the blueberry bush, and I chopped down the bush in the front garden, ready for digging it out. Planted some heather and a thyme plant in the front garden, and am going to plant flowers and herbs in the rest of the front garden. I've been given the task of looking after the front garden by Kate (my wife) and although mostly doing flowers (because that makes more sense for the front garden), like the idea of doing herbs too. I like growing useful things, things you can eat, or at a stretch herbs that are useful in other ways like medicinal herbs.

Will also be helping sort out the back, may get onto that at the weekend.

Watched first episode of 'Wonders of the Solar System' yesterday with Professor Brian Cox, the rockstar physicist (he was the keyboard player for D:Ream in the early 90s...Things Can Only Get Better etc.). Very good, the footage of sunrise/sunset on other planets was amazing. I think if a programme like that gives you one good, interesting piece of information for you to remember then it has done its job. In this episode it was the fact that there are 142 moons in the solar system in total, but only one of the moons can produce a total solar eclipse and that is our moon. On no other planet can you see a total solar eclipse. This is because the diameter of the moon is 400 times smaller than that of the sun, but it is 400 times further away than the moon is from the Earth. It really gets you thinking, and makes me at any rate wonder about whether there is an intelligent design behind creation... Have got a book by physicist Paul Davies which I think is about this which I should read soon.