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Charlie for England!

Charlie chose to buy the new England Football kit with some of the money he received for his 7th Birthday.

Click on the photo or follow this link to see more photos.

We have received the 20 rosebud primulas  and 10 Ariane asparagus crowns, both will go in today, as will the sweet peas from Auntie Sue which have been neglected in their pot until now.

A couple more raised bed frames need making up, so Steve can dig/build/fill them this week, for next weekend when I  will start planting seeds.

First 3 potato sacks are done – with 4 tubers in each of Charlotte, Juliette and Anya. Next round of those in another weeks time.

Putting a small wooden border around the raspsberries, to protect them from the wind and to retain a bark mulch I plan to put down.

Thats going to take more time than I have so Id best get started.

Last year we planted a few varieties of strawberry in a large planter, as we didnt have space anywhere to plant them out. This year, we have plenty of room, so I have transplanted them all into a 2×1m bed.

Biggest challenge now is woodlice – how to keep the little blighters out of the fruit. I dont normally bother about them, they are fairly benign, but they do like strawberries so they have to go ! I would normally use straw to mulch, but as that is a perfect home for woodlice Id rather not, but I dont know what else would work instead. Need to find something in the next few weeks, maybe something artificial that is less welcoming to wildlife ?

Our order was for 10 crowns each of Backlim and Ariane , plus 12 of Stewarts Purple.

So far the Backlim and Purple have arrived and are in two beds. 7 Backlim and 4 Purple in one, 4 Purple in the other waiting for 7 of the Ariane. The rest will go to Loulou and Booya for their lottie.

Beds are fab – Stevie dug them out, we put compost and cardboard in the bottom, premium topsoil above, with a few handfuls of FBB mixed in.

As much as one can do really to give them a good start. They were a little bit dry – left in the bag in the box for a couple of days while I was away, but not too bad.

Now though, we have an unanticipated problem. One of our blackbirds likes asparagus ! Maybe he thinks they are worms/caterpillars, but he is having a real go at them and has damaged 2 so far. I will have  to net the rest asap until they are strong enough to withstand his attention.

I tipped off The Register (Top IT News site) about some preposterous “strategy boutique” tosh for the naming of the new Palm device (Palm  Prē) and they ran a story and credited me for the tip. Shucks..!

Naming the Palm Prē: Strategy Boutique OD’s on joss-sticks • The Register.

The Windmill

Tardis!

Pam and Arthur took Charlie to Scarborough and stayed overnight at the fantastic Windmill Hotel.  Beyond the fantastic Windmill itself it also houses a vast collection of Toys from the 1960’s and on. I recognised some of my faves (Thunderbirds, Batman) along with tons of other cult classics (Super heroes, Star Wars).

I joined them for the first day and then brought Tinker home.

Click on the TARDIS photo or this  link to see the photo set.

I bumped into Liam’s nice music blog and really enjoyed this post: Fuzz Box: Help! My Parents are Cooler than Me!

It helps that I know the people involved – but it’s great (and a bit strange feeling) when someone you’ve known since they were (what?) about 8 yrs old turns into a grown-up – and not only that but a wise and thoughtful one.

Nice post – great writing.

David Byrne - not my own photo - click to see a nice set at Flickr by user pebblesfromheaven

Alison and I saw David Byrne’s concert at the Sage (Newcastle) last night (Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour tour).

It was absolutely amazing – brilliant, funny, heartwarming, touching…. and funky… great musicians, 3 dancers, that amazing voice, that back-catalog of songs in collaboration with Eno (Talking Heads & Solo) mixed with the new (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today) album.

It’s hard to pick a highlight – there were so many…:

• The long funky grooves of the Remain In Light era
• The simple beauty of “Heaven” (”is a place… a place where nothing… nothing ever happens”)
• The art-pop classic “Once in a lifetime” – one of Byrne’s/TH’s best known – still fresh and intriguing (”…and you may ask yourself.. how did I get here… where does that highway go to”)
• The dancers (simultaneously all NY artsy pretentious and yet funny/quirky) – added to the spectacle and showed DB’s love for presenting a “show” whilst avoiding “rock clichés”.  Praise to him to take 3 dancers on a world tour… I’m sure it would be more profitable to tour without dancers.. but he chose to bring them along.
• The country gospel tinged new stuff… and the amazing “Take me to the River”…
• DB “being the sampler” and vocalising the sampled sermon from “Help Me Somebody”…
  • “There`s no escape from Him. He`s so high you can`t get over Him. He`s so low you can`t get under Him. He`s so wide you can`t get around Him. If you make your bed in Heaven He`s there. If you make your bed in Hell He`s there. He`s everywhere.”
• All those great lyrics:
  • this aint no party.. this aint no disco….
  • I’M AN OR-DI-NARY GUY!
  • I’m changing my shape-I feel like an accident
  • Same as it ever was…same as it ever was…same as it ever was…

Wonderful evening – a priviledge to be there.

UPDATE: These 2 reviews (of other concerts on the tour) are fair and good:

• The Times
• The Guardian

Ages ago, we said we would plant an apple tree in our garden, for Granny Pam.  Pending the new veg garden, we weren’t sure where it would go but now that is all sorted, it was time to get it done.

So, here is the evidence – Granny Pam, ably assisted by Charlie, planting her tree. But not any old tree, it is a 3-apple tree. There are Gala and Sunset dessert apples AND Bountiful cooking apples all grafted onto one dwarf tree. Not sure how long before any of it will bear fruit, but we shall offer the first harvest to GP to make pie !

At the same time, we planted a dwarf dessert cherry nearby.