The Beginning of a Journey

Cattitude

2011-05-04T22:54:00.005+01:00

Our little monkey has enjoyed the recent sunny weather.

I'm hoping the expected rain will re-pinken the pads on her little white paws though. They're currently looking distinctly brown.

Yes I'm back

2011-04-20T11:00:00.000+01:00

Indeed, I have returned after 15 months away.

What's been going on? Getting a bit caught up with work... and other stuff.

What's changed? Well lots of things, yet nothing.

Eh? Sorry, don't mean to be philosophical. Lots has happened but, at the same time, little has changed.

Hmmm, OK. In a sort of cryptic mood huh? Yeah, I s'pose. Glad to be back and to finally have some things to photograph and post about.

I love this time of year.

Spring bulbs still going strong:
Blossom still on the trees:

Shrubs starting to come into their own:

Rhoderick

2011-04-18T22:48:00.002+01:00

My rhododendron finally flowered.

Nice!

Black Gold

2010-01-24T21:45:00.004Z

No, not oil. Not Guinness either. I'm talking about compost. I've been making my own for a while with variable results. The result of the last twelve months' effort imply that I'm getting the technique and ratio pretty good. Pretty simple recipe. I compost everything from the kitchen, except meat, in my plastic compost bin. This includes all peelings, trimmings, tea bags, spent ground coffee, egg shells, egg cartons and kitchen roll tubes. Some people advise avoiding too much citrus fruit but that isn't really a problem. When the plastic bin is ready, which you can tell when you turn it with a fork, I add it to my 2 cubic metre compost store. I also have a three sided bin for leaf mould that is filled to overflowing every autumn with leaves from our plane, lime, sycamore, apple, chestnut and cherry trees. The leaves break down into leaf mould at different rates with the plane leaves (my most abundant from two mature trees) taking longest. In the autumn, I emptied the previous year's leaves to the two cubic metre compost store and mixed it well with the contents of my plastic bin. It has not been touched since.

Why am I telling you all of this?

Well, as I am feeling better and the garden has been neglected for a while due to the weather, I used my dark, rich creation to mulch the sad looking borders. Aside from providing an instant dressing to the exposed soil, the mulch is protecting the early spring growth from our next frost or snowfall and giving any active worms some delightful organic matter to drag back down to their homes, thus providing extra nutrients to the roots of all the plants.

Dare we believe?

2010-01-17T22:36:00.004Z

Today presented a very welcome break from the icy conditions and other misery that have gripped the country of late. While still cold and damp outside, all the snow has disappeared and the sky was blue. A brief expedition into the garden revealed that the spring bulbs pay no mind to the increase in VAT and the grief it causes shop keepers; the Cornus cares not to which parts of the great nation some Scottish idiot chooses to send the gritter trucks; the Hydrangeas aren't bothered about the date of the general election and the Skimmia doesn't even know it is 2010.

One could have been forgiven for believing that spring is on the way...

A Theme

2010-01-14T21:32:00.007Z

There seems to be a theme on this blog. Nothing for ages, then an apology that I have not posted for a while. Possibly a little rant on a Friday night after one too many glasses of wine.

I feel the need to rejuvenate the site. Not because it is January, rather because it is stale and aimless. I'd like to set myself a challenge or goal. Let me know if you have suggestions...

In the mean time, what has been going on? Well... today is the middle of January 2010. I'm not going to apologise for my lack of posts but I am going to comment that it takes me being signed off work sick, having spent all of today in bed to be able to find time to post. Being over worked sucks and is quite likely the reason I feel awful.

So, November and December have mostly been about Miss Pickle and the grotty weather. As we know, Miss Pickle spends a lot of her time asleep.

Through November she was housebound as we got her used to her food source. She would spend many an hour gazing out of the kitchen window, wishing that she could get closer to her future friends

For Christmas, our little lady received an escape route in the form of a new cat flap - she is officially allowed out of the house during the day to explore her surroundings. Those of you living in the UK will know that the weather of late has not been too welcoming but she has been coping OK.

However, she still loves coming back inside and falling asleep by the radiator. If she's lucky, there may even be a sunny spot available.

Well, so long for now. I need to get some rest...

Welcome Pickle

2009-11-22T21:24:00.004Z

This is Pickle:

She spends most of her time asleep...

An Apology

2009-11-09T21:24:00.004Z

I need to make an apology.

Neither to a person...

Nor to an animal...

I need to apologise to my workshop!

I am not ignoring you, I still love you. It's just that other things have been more important than you of late. I have been out of the country for three weeks out of five and lost five weekends in the process.

OK, the daylight hours in which we can enjoy each other's company are reduced but things have changed. I'll be around more over the coming weeks and I promise to come and say hello.

So, which project to embark upon? I think I should get cracking on some Christmas presents. My birch and cherry logs may be a little past their best but I think I'll still be able to get some good wood from them. I also think there is a future in the unusual furniture business, so will need to plunder some more hazel poles...

End of the season

2009-11-01T21:32:00.002Z

Congratulations to Jenson Button and the Brawn GP team.

I'm sure not many people put money on them winning a race this season, let alone both championships. There promises to be plenty of driver movement between now and the first race of 2010 in March but there is one departure I am hoping for above anything else - the departure of Jonathan "Push On, Power On, Motor On, Drive On" Legard from the BBC commentary team. He is simply awful. Repeating himself incessantly. Repeating Martin Brundle's well made technical points making the commentary team sound like a badly rehearsed review of a school cross country race. Hopefully the BBC has received sufficient complaints about his ineptitude that the hostility between Legard and Brundle, that was so obvious by the latter's refusal to answer questions posed by the former, is a sign of the departure of the moron from both television and radio once and for all.

Who to replace Jonathan Legard? Me?

Don't want to be rude but...

2009-10-31T22:36:00.002Z

...has anyone ever seen Natalie Cassidy in the same room as Omid Djalili?
(these are not my images, by the way)

...and then it was gone!

2009-10-30T21:14:00.002Z

Nothing to report from October, I'm sorry to say.

All and only work.

Hoping November has more to offer.

Happy Halloween...

As if by magic...

2009-10-04T20:04:00.003+01:00

...it's October.

September was fun but I'm glad it is over. Several things to look forward to in October though. Looking forward to catching up with some old friends and being able to develop my skills. Shame that it means I will have to take a few weeks away from the workshop but it is all for the greater good.

Ciao...

Holy land or danger zone?

2009-09-27T22:02:00.003+01:00

Evening, how are you?

I'm doing well. It's one of those quiet posting months, however. This time, like most previous times, I am blaming work for my absence. I returned from a week in Israel on Friday and am shattered. The week was tough physically and mentally. Not only was I visiting a minimum of 2 clients a day (resulting in me giving ~22 presentations), I was surviving on significantly reduced sleep. By now you may have gathered that I travel quite frequently. Usually for business, sometimes for fun. My travels can usually be divided into two categories; long haul, usually to America and short haul, usually to Germany, France, Sweden, or somewhere similar. Israel rather breaks the mould though. It is a 5 hour flight which results in the loss of an entire day as opposed to just a morning, but it is only 2 hours ahead of the UK. This results in a body clock that is not completely confused as with travels to the US, just out of synch by a little bit.

I had a great time in Israel. I had my concerns prior to the trip but, as usual, the anticipation far outweighed the reality. Most of my meetings and presentations went very well and I got to see a huge amount of the country. We had to venture north of Haifa to get to one client, which meant we were a mere 45 minutes from the Lebanese border. In itself not a very scary thing but my typically bravado Israeli colleague made sure I felt uneasy even when, in actuality, I was perfectly safe. He pointed out exactly where the Lebanese missiles landed and where they were aimed, during the last "difficult times". I was looking forward to returning to my Tel Aviv hotel until he informed me that the latest Lebanese missiles can reach Tel Aviv without a problem. It is a different world!

Israeli food is amazing. I ate very well all week and look forward to taking some inspiration in my daily cooking. The freshest vegetables, perfect balance of fragrant and hot spices, fresh seafood, grilled meat, amazing bread and lemon everywhere. Alas Mrs P and lemons don't get on very well, but the citrus tang is usually from the juice squeezed over the finished dish so it should be relatively simple for me to enhance my dinner without upsetting the marital bliss. If you are ever in that neck of the woods I would highly recommend eating at Mantaray on the south Tel Aviv seafront and Big Itzik in a crazy back street of Jaffa.

So, moral dilemma of indirectly contributing to the death of innocent people aside, trip to Israel was a good one.

RIP Keith Floyd

2009-09-15T23:39:00.003+01:00

When I was younger, I aspired to be the next Keith Floyd. I took a great deal of inspiration from him and thank him for the passion he helped to instil in me.

RIP Keith Floyd, you were an inspiration to many.

Happy Fridays

2009-09-08T23:30:00.004+01:00

My most recent happy Friday was spent being a servant.

Last Friday Mrs P was lucky enough to attend a course at Perch Hill Farm, the beautiful location at which Sarah Raven teaches people a variety of wonderful skills. After an early rise for a day off work, we set on our way towards the south coast.

While Mrs P was learning the skills that are going to help turn our garden into the flowery oasis it wants to be, I spent the day working with head gardener at The Cutting Garden, Beata Burke. I learnt a few things from the chores I performed but infinitely more from chatting to Beata. There's nothing better than learning from the expert!

If you happen to visit Sarah Raven's establishment at Perch Hill Farm and see the particularly resplendent wallflowers or taste the fresh mizuna, spare me a thought as it is just possible that I am partly responsible...

Bienvenue...

2009-09-08T23:07:00.004+01:00

... a Septembre.

You know by now that I tend to start my posting months slowly. Old dogs....

The ninth month of 2009 has been pretty good thus far. Managed a trip down to Wiltshire to see Grandpa Cyril. Was great to see him again. Despite the slightly drizzly weather, we visited Stourhead for the first time. It is a delightful place to visit and the walk certainly did us all some good.

Got a little time away from work to indulge myself in hobbies, business ideas, chores and all things therapeutic.

Will post some pics of my progress...

Adieu

2009-08-29T00:28:00.002+01:00

So long little buddy.

Thanks for all the memories..

You want to know something about me?

2009-08-26T22:49:00.003+01:00

Do you want to know something about me? OK, here is a picture of a De Havilland Chipmunk - the first, and thus far only, plane I have piloted:

Picture courtesy of Oxford University Air Squadron at www.oxforduas.co.uk

Now your turn...

Fortes fortuna adiuvat

2009-08-26T22:25:00.002+01:00

It is true!

15th September 2009 Edit:
OK, perhaps I should qualify what I mean. It has been known for me to take the path of least resistance at times. It is not through laziness, rather through a combination of impatience with the tasks with which I am currently engrossed and desire to attain my goals in life quicker than "the little steps" can get me there. Regardless, I am finding it very useful to continually remind myself that fortune does indeed favour the bold!

What makes a weekend?

2009-08-25T21:55:00.004+01:00

Friends, both old and new.

Food, both cooked and raw.

Cricket, both in person and on the radio.

Lord Broad

2009-08-21T22:33:00.002+01:00

On to more important matters.

Today Stuart Broad produced the most memorable display with the ball that I can remember. OK, Fred at Lord's was impressive, but today was history. At 23 Broad is still a young guy, but today he demonstrated maturity beyond his years. Allowed to bowl his natural game, he was beyond match for the Australian batsmen.

If Paul Collingwood gets an MBE for two innings of 7 and 10 at The Oval in 2005, Stuart Broad deserves... a CBE?

There is still a long way to go so let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Last word on the subject...

2009-08-21T22:11:00.002+01:00

Actually, I decided not to delete my comments. Having rested on my words for 24 hours I find the issue more disgusting, offensive and reprehensible.

He is a convicted murder! Of 270 people!!

Megrahi, Gaddafi and those who released the killer - may you all suffer the same slow, painful demise. You deserve it!

The News

2009-08-20T22:45:00.002+01:00

Been an eventful couple of days. Firstly to football matters...

I was never a fan of Neil Warnock's before he was appointed to the helm of Crystal Palace by Simon Jordan, but I've warmed to him. His outspoken nature stems from passion for the game and that is admirable. You may have witnessed the gross injustice that was Palace's visit to Bristol City at the weekend. Simply atrocious that a professional referee and his assistant should disallow a goal that hit the back of the net. Rob Shoebridge should never work in football again. A harsh punishment for a solitary error you may think but he has proven he is incapable of performing his job and any other professional body would not hesitate in dismissing someone for such gross incompetence.

Then to cricket...

Today was an interesting day at The Oval. England underperformed with the bat again, but 303-8 is not terrible so the game is still alive. I was also very impressed by the score at Taunton. Sure it is traditionally an easy batting pitch but Murray Goodwin's 344 was a mighty impressive knock.

Finally a touch of controversy...

I want to keep certain subjects off this forum. Indeed politics is one of those subjects, but there are some things that rile me so much... I accept that cancer is a terrible disease and anyone suffering from it is undergoing a pain I hope I never experience. When, however, did cancer become admonishment for the murder of 270 innocent people?

I'll probably delete that last bit soon, although being associated with that decision makes me ashamed to be British.

The Latest Attack

2009-08-20T22:17:00.000+01:00

Did you know that squirrels eat Swiss chard?

Neither did I.

Until last week.

Little swines.

Am growing some more to compensate for my losses... well, better than claiming on insurance. Swiss chard grows well in the shorter months so I should be OK getting a yield despite it being late in the year. Not just a UK thing tough, seems to happen across the pond too.

Famous Bodger

2009-08-19T22:05:00.002+01:00

You may have heard of Antony Gormley's latest exhibit on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square. It is very contemporary art and not really to my taste as I feel it caters rather too much to the "Big Brother Generation" of public exhibitionism. However, I was pleased to hear that my mate Robin was accepted as one of the plinth-toppers to restore an element of natural style to proceedings. Seems he had a good time atop the stone early on Sunday morning. Here's his post on the experience. Well done Robin! I've not yet viewed the whole hour but look fwd to Jed's first appearance, albeit only audio, on the interweb.

Here and there

2009-08-19T21:41:00.002+01:00

Hello again.

Some months I post lots, some months I post little. I don't know why. It isn't directly related to my activity levels. Maybe it is weather dependent!? Regardless, we approach the back end of August and therefore autumn is nigh.

So what's been going on?

Well, we've seen friends, seen families, tidied the house, harvested veg, got mortgage quotes, dined out at a fine French restaurant... done quite a lot and yet I feel strangely unfulfilled. Looking fwd to the final test of the Ashes of course. Glad the football season has started too. Possibly a little reserved about the magnitude of upcoming work travel - visiting clients in Stockholm and six Israeli cities, followed by at least a week in California and Colorado. All nice places. Well mostly nice places. And all enjoyable travels. But lots of time away from home.

So what am I going to do about it?

Well, be realistic is a good start. Mapping out the hurdles into small, manageable steps is the usual good place to start. Enriching the weekend time might stop it flying by so quickly too. Could be several changes in the Plutus household soon so I guess that is something to look forward to as well!

Ramprakash set for the fifth test...

2009-08-10T21:46:00.003+01:00

No, this isn't a world exclusive, it is my attempt to come to terms with events since Friday.

I tend to get too emotionally involved in events outside of my control but I enjoy it. So I do it! The are many excuses for the dire Friday morning performance with which the twelfth man could present Messrs Bowden, Rauf and (possibly) Ponting scrawled on a piece of paper during a drinks break in England's first innings. None of them, however, are acceptable. Eleven professional athletes with team a psychologist should not let themselves get into the mire we witnessed. To our disappointment, they did! Only infrequently do I let myself indulge in the notion that people are controlling our destiny but, in this case, it is possible that subversive means have engineered what could be the pinnacle of our sporting summer. 1-1, one to play, England must win, Australia have the "momentum". There is talk of what must change in the England dressing room. Having ruminated and cogitated the issue to quite some extent these 24 hours, I have to think that very little should change. OK, Steve Harmison and Ian Bell seem to have the diametrically opposed effect on the dressing room to the presence of Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen and I think the former should be replaced by Ryan Sidebottom. Other than that, I am loathe to change too many players - after all, they are the guys who got England to 1-1 with one to play! Let me know whether you agree:

Strauss - Has to stay
Cook - Never been convinced by him but no alternative, especially considering the ECB's invetment in him
Bopara - Under huge pressure but he has class. OK, he's been nervous, unlucky and sometimes dreadful this series but if you drop him now, you destroy his career. Give him the chance to prove himself, it may be just the motivation he needs
Bell - As a Surrey fan, I love the idea of Mark Ramprakash inspiring England to an Ashes win but think it would be a decision made out of panic. Latest news implies Flintoff will be fit. Bring him in for Bell!
Collingwood - He may have under-performed but he is an experienced pro who is still excellent in the field. He stays!
Prior - Stays without doubt, except his back
Broad - I was having doubts about him prior to the 4th test but his performance (albeit with the bat once pressure was gone on Sunday) illustrates the positive influence of a vote of confidence
Swann - There is need for one spinner at the Oval and his batting is very useful
Anderson - Assuming he is fit, he stays
Harmison - No, no and no. I would love Steve Harmison to be a game changer but his head is all wrong. Needs to be replaced, Sidebottom is the man
Onions - I guess Liam Plunkett would be the only alternative but why? Onions stays

Yep, I know that replacing Bell with Flintoff seems like a bold move. I would move Collingwood up the order to 4th and slot Fred in at 5th. Prior, Broad, Swann, Sidebottom and (to an extent) Anderson can all add useful runs so I have confidence in my selection.

Over to you Messrs Miller, Flower and Strauss. Make the right decision...

Last NYC Post

2009-08-02T22:53:00.003+01:00

OK, last New York post.

A group of pics from some of our travels:

Some details:
- view of St Patrick's Cathedral and the Rockerfeller Center from our room in the New York Palace Hotel
- Lion outside New York City Library
- Empire State Building
- Brooklyn Bridge
- Manhattan Skyline
- Central Park from above
- Villard House
- Rockerfeller Center in a storm

So that's it. New York is a distant, yet wonderful, memory...

NYC - a little more

2009-07-31T23:28:00.005+01:00

So you have probably gathered by now that I enjoyed my first time in New York. Don't want to bore you too much with details but I was just looking at a few photos. We got the Staten Island Ferry from Manhattan to Staten Island and took the majority advice to get straight back on the same boat to Manhattan. The view of the skyline was great, despite the grotty weather:

It wasn't until we got off the ferry and walked up to the former World Trade Center site that I put one and one together. Tonight is the first time I have looked at an image of the skyline with the WTC intact:

Crazy sh!t...

My Teacher, part 2

2009-07-31T22:23:00.002+01:00

It seems that Gardener's World is following me. They interviewed a previous teacher of mine, Juliet Sargeant, during the Hampton Court Flower Show a few weeks ago. Tonight they had a feature with Bernard Boardman, Floral Department Supervisor at RHS Wisley. Bernard ran a shrub pruning seminar at Wisley last year, that featured in this post, and I am using the knowledge he imparted upon me all the time. Thanks to Bernard's wisdom, my potted Wisteria floribunda flowered well for the first time in four years. As with most things in life, there is little substitute for experience. I work on the cutting edge of technology on a daily basis and still relish spending time with my experienced peers who invariably have some way of enlightening me. Good luck on your retirement Peter!

So it seems that I have many teachers in my life. For that, I consider myself privileged...

Central Park

2009-07-28T21:54:00.003+01:00

Have you ever been to Central Park? The last day of our trip to the Grand Pomme was mostly spent exploring this crazy green expanse. Wikipedia informs me that it has a real estate value of $528bn but I think it is truly priceless. Without this oasis of calm in its centre, the entirety of Manhattan Island would be a busy, noisy, bustling madhouse. The respite from the madness that one attains by lazing under the park's canopy is only matched by that of overlooking the rectangular green expanse from atop one of the many surrounding skyscrapers supping on a champagne cocktail, or an Absinthe Minded Refresher in one of Rande Gerber's luxurious establishments.

Our "day in the park" entailed many a walked mile, we approached from the south, up Fifth Avenue, continuing up to the zoo. Mrs P and I have been to many zoos in our time, often finding them to be cruel, barren places. This little gem was quite different! It was small and simple yet all the animals seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves, although the lazy polar bears did their best to betray this belief:

Plenty more wonders and delights to share...

USS Intrepid

2009-07-27T22:14:00.005+01:00

The trip to New York was a present for Mrs P but there was one thing I wanted to get in... a trip to the Sea, Air and Space Museum aboard the USS Intrepid, a decommissioned aircraft carrier that was built during WWII having been in service through Vietnam before being retired in 1974. She is now moored in Hudson River at the end of West 46th Street (the Intrepid, not Mrs P) and provides a comprehensive education on, predominantly American, military aviation history. On the deck, there is a great collection of aircraft including an F-14, an F-16, a couple of Cobra helicopters and most excitingly, an A-12 which is the prototype for the SR-71 spy plane. Here is a little taster:

We saw many other interesting and exciting things and the weather was occasionally good too! I'll post some more pics soon...

Le Retour

2009-07-26T00:28:00.003+01:00

I have returned. I was in New York. It was great. Nice to be back though, NYC is kinda hectic. After catching up on the Ashes highlights, going out for beer and schnitzel and falling asleep on the train home (had to get a taxi back from the depths of Surrey) I made some soup from as many garden ingredients as I could get my hands on:

Good to be back...

Hmmm, foxy

2009-07-17T20:43:00.005+01:00

I have a hate-hate-love-hate relationship with the local foxes. They are a noisy menace: stealing my shoes; stealing my gloves, leaving them in Richard's garden; "doing it" at 3am; leaving me pungent, disease-ridden "presents" and so on. Every so often, however, I feel they look me in the eyes and remind me that it is not their fault. Not their fault that they have mange. Not their fault that they need to poo. Not their fault that discarded KFC is their most convenient food source.

OK, he may be a mangy little flea bag and the middle photo may be terribly blurry, but tell me this guy isn't in some way adorable...

Convenience Food

2009-07-14T22:14:00.002+01:00

Mrs P goes out occasionally and when she does, I tend to eat lazily. In my mind, one of the greatest lazy bites is the toasted sandwich. Mrs P and I used to (possibly still do) own a Breville sandwich toaster that was used somewhat infrequently. The end result was always so tasty, but the subsequent cleaning outweighed the gluttonous gratification. So tonight, I thought I would experiment with a low maintenance alternative. Pretty simple really:

Butter the outside of the bread slices as you would with a traditional sandwich toaster.
Lay one slice, butter side down, on a piece of kitchen foil large enough to wrap the entire finished article.
Fill with contents of choice (today I opted for thinly sliced German schinken, spring onion, vine tomato and red pepper topped with mature cheddar and port salut).
Place the other slice of bread atop the pile, again buttered side out.
Wrap the foil over the sandwich pressing down quite hard to pack it all together.
Chuck in a preheated hot oven. I used 230C for about 10 minutes and the results were wonderful.

Better than the original without the mess...

Some crops

2009-07-13T22:59:00.004+01:00

I planted my potatoes in pots this year. I planted them in pots the last two year too, but you didn't know that! Some of my pots are ample for a crop o' tats, others are a little restrictive. Not a surprise that the tops of the plants in the smaller pots wilted first, thus they were the plants first to be harvested.

My first spuds of the season:

I thought I'd add a little bit of the garden to our dinner this evening. Couple of leaves of chard, few baby carrots, few baby yellow carrots and various beans. Here's a pic of a few:

Garden to table, does it get any better...?

A draw: a respectable result

2009-07-13T22:34:00.004+01:00

And by that I mostly refer to the resolute batting of Mr Collingwood. Of course I am talking about the first Ashes test (cricket, if you hadn't already figured it out). Punter's boys gave a batting masterclass and didn't do too bad with the ball either but, despite some top order inadequacy, England held on for a stunning draw. Strange term "stunning draw" but stunning it was!

Collingwood for King, Monty for Prime Minister!

Looking fwd to Lord's...

Hampton Court Flower Show

2009-07-11T23:04:00.006+01:00

Mr and Mrs P. Senior kindly bought me tickets to Hampton Court Flower Show for my birthday a few months ago. Today was the day! The show was great for many reasons, not least because it meant I wasn't listening to the stupid cricket on the stupid radio.

A few highlights:

The UK Horticulture stand, sponsored by Garsons Farm was inspired. A beautiful display of ornate floral arrangements dressed with examples of the delightful vegetables from their "pick your own" farm in Esher.

Wisley's 5-a-day stand was a particularly attractive collection of vegetables all grown at Surrey's RHS garden.

Eryngium, one of my favourite plants, was a consistent theme throughout the show. Several interesting varieties including Eryngium bourgatii 'Picos Blue Group' were on show.

The allotment garden was something to be envied. Not a seven deadly sins sort of envy, rather a desire for more sun and less tree cover sort of envy. They, too had purple kohl rabi on the go (see 48 hours) and these beasts would put even Mr P senior's worthy effort to shame. Nearly the size of footballs!
Other things that I didn't photograph... Well, I saw Juliet Sargeant's garden but, alas, Juliet wasn't there. It was a typically colourful yet tranquil place. I had my customary hog roast, picked up some Debbie and Andrew's sausages and had a 99 flake. Lots of other good things that are filed away in the alcoholic mush that is my brain...

New money

2009-07-11T22:47:00.003+01:00

Haven't really noticed the new British coinage but it has been brought to my attention lately. I think it is quite attractive. For those who haven't seen it, a collection can be seen here. My personal collection only stretches to a solitary coin:

Is it not strange how things work out?

Everything has a price...

My Teacher

2009-07-10T23:15:00.002+01:00

Well, if you watched the BBC 2 coverage of Hampton Court Flower Show tonight you will have seen my former teacher and amazingly talented garden designer Juliet Sargeant. Juliet has been and remains an inspiration to me. She taught me how to design a garden from first principles and a huge amount more about horticulture in general. Juliet is great!

Courgette violation

2009-07-07T22:51:00.003+01:00

I have five courgette plants in my veg plot. They're looking quite healthy but the fruit are not setting properly. They get to a few inches long then start to rot at the end. One possible cause for this is incomplete pollination so I have tried the old technique of giving nature a helping hand. Removing a male flower, taking off its petals and rubbing the stamen against the inside of the female flower. The female flowers are the ones with the stubby little fruit behind them, the male flowers are on longer, thinner stems. So, I've impregnated my first vegetable! I feel dirty...

Re: Never Thought It

2009-07-06T23:17:00.002+01:00

http://plutusjourney.blogspot.com/2009/05/never-thought-it.html

I was watching the BBC Three coverage of Glastonbury and caught the Pendulum set. Their drummer is a crazy and unbelievably talented guy. Now is not the time to be publicising respect for our friends down under, however. The greatest gladiatorial contest of the modern sporting calendar starts on Wednesday and a healthy rivalry shall remain in place until the end of August.

Anthropomorphism and me

2009-07-06T22:23:00.003+01:00

Can't remember, nor can I be bothered to search through my previous posts to find out, whether or not I have mentioned that we have a hedgehog frequenting our garden. He usually spends his evenings snuffling around my compost bin, which he seems to have broken into, but we saw him for the first time rather close to our back door, some 130 feet from his usual chomping-ground. I haven't verified whether or not this is him but I love this video too much not to link to it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw-IAYxu5uo

However, the purpose of this post is not to inform you of yet another creature that will be leaving little presents around my garden. The purpose of this post is to inform you that I have named this little guy Horace. This is not the first thing in my garden I have named, very far from it. And I have no idea why I do it. All parakeets eating from my feeder are called Percy, all the damn tree rats are called Terry, my Mahonia is called Mahendra, my Agapanthus is called Agamemnon, even the houseplants have names. And it doesn't stop with names, they have personalities and characteristics too - well the animals do, not the plants, that would be stupid! I have started to wonder if there was some strange childhood influence that makes my first thought to anthropomorphise each new creature I encounter. Any psychologists out there...?

Lame donkey

2009-07-05T23:40:00.003+01:00

As many of you know, I built my own shavehorse last year after spending a couple of days on a course with Robin Fawcett. It was an excellent course, by the way. I read Robin's blog quite frequently and he has recently needed to make a few repairs to his trusty steed. The problem from which my "shavedonkey" was suffering seemed superficial in comparison - he was slightly lame in the rear leg until... well... it fell off:

I managed to get him on the operating table and perform the necessary surgery - a shortening of the body, a reattachment of the rear leg and a general strengthening of the joints. However, I fear his days are numbered. He is stronger than he was before, but is never going to achieve his original rigidity. I'll have to consider my options for replacing the old fella. Could be a good excuse to go on another course...

48 hours

2009-07-05T23:06:00.002+01:00

No, not the Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy film, the weekend!

Weekend was good. Got to see the niece today. She is adorable in a different way every time we see her. Also saw the folks. Gave my dad some of my purple kohl rabi (modrava) seeds earlier in the year. We started them going at roughly the same time and while mine are pushing golf ball size, his are larger than tennis balls. I know, I know, you're going to tell me it's all about the conditions. I accept that. No, really I do. But I am a competitive chap and the feeling of inadequacy is difficult to quash.

Very exciting - the folks salvaged some freshly felled cherry wood from mum's tennis club. Only been down a week or two and I'm looking fwd to getting started on it soon. Learnt an interesting lesson with the birch I'm currently working. First log I used was from some way up the trunk. All went swimmingly, cut like butter. The second log, however, was from much nearer the base of the tree and has been tearing when cut in either direction. I only have a little knowledge about this sort of thing, I'm mostly learning from experience. I am making an educated guess that higher up the tree the grain runs pretty straight. Lower down, however, the trunk is not so linear. The log I used was three feet long, over which the diameter reduced by a couple of inches. I am assuming that the tearing out, from which I am suffering, is because the grain is running at an angle and I am cutting straight. Opinions to the contrary very welcome.

Yet again it is Sunday evening. Sunday night actually. Always comes around too quickly.

Looking forward to a good harvest of French beans, potatoes, onions, garlic and peas this week. We'll see...

Thirty days

2009-07-04T23:13:00.006+01:00

Despite my lack of belief in June, it turned out to be a pretty good 30 days in the life of Plutus. Perhaps I should reconsider my beliefs!? Here's a few things I did for the first time in June:
- visited Israel
- presented to an audience of over 500 people
- chilled with the CEO of my company
- received a perfect rating for my annual performance from my boss
- visited many wonderful, hidden gardens in London (http://www.opensquares.org/)
- visited Nymans Garden
- visited Wakehurst Place
- visited Sissinghurst
- visited Yalding organic garden
- lunched in Wisley's Conservatory Dining Room
- had a stay in the wonderfully opulent Cliveden House

Garden-wise, the place is looking great. I've had a good crop of mange tout and peas. The French beans have started producing and the borlotti beans are exhibiting admirable aspirations. The kohl rabi are starting to swell, courgettes are starting to form, aubergines are flowering, peppers are getting taller by the day, the swiss chard are looking amazing, the parsnips are bulking up, the onions and garlic are nearly ready, the carrots are romping and the new purple radishes are two inches tall one week after sowing. A few beans and peas:

All in all, a rewarding return on the investment!

Wood-wise, things have been slower going. I don't think I entered the workshop for nearly three weeks. Two weeks in California followed by busy weekends and other business trips. However, the last couple of weeks have enabled me to get cracking on the birch logs I picked up in May. I've been keeping them as cool as possible so they are still pretty green inside. Birch is a lovely wood to work, this is my first time! What I have learned thus far is that birch hates being cut against the grain. Some woods are somewhat forgiving of such amateur mistakes, but birch is rather more intolerant of such novice errors. However, items carved from birch show little resistance to being cut after pieces have been aired for a few days. This makes it a great wood for a sporadic carver. Here's a pot scraper I made for a friend recently:

Got a bunch more wood projects on the go. Will throw up some pics soon...

I call him bumhead...

2009-07-04T22:55:00.003+01:00

...and many other names. He is our neighbour's cat. He's called Baloo. He spends a lot of time in our garden. A considerable amount of time in our house too. We love him, despite the random acts of "stipa-destruction".

Welcome back to the world. I know June was dull without Plutus musings but I'm back now so kick back, relax and prepare yourself for... some posts... hopefully...

June

2009-06-30T23:31:00.001+01:00

S'pose I should have mentioned that I don't believe in June, that's why you've not heard from me in a while. Still, it's nearly July...

A Home made day

2009-05-31T21:47:00.004+01:00

Another delivery of the reserved sunshine today. Most welcome! After heading to bed some time after the funniest episode of Family Guy I have seen last night, I was expecting to rise later than I'd ideally have wanted. However, sometimes one surprises oneself. I was up making bread for lunch shortly after 8am and haven't stopped since. Well, I have obviously stopped making bread, otherwise the place would be full... you know what I mean.

Got out in the morning sun to:
plant up the summer bedding;
plant out the cuttings of my Buddleja davidii "Black Knight";
plant out the cuttings of my white sedum;
pot up my capsicum and chilli seedlings;
sow an additional crop of beans (black and white kidney, borlotti, dwarf yellow and dwarf purple);
sow some more temperamental radishes (a purple German variety and white Asian variety with pink flesh);
mow the lawn, again;

I harvested a couple of lettuces for lunch and to keep us going for a few days. Nothing better than lettuce straight from the garden to the plate (via several slug and aphid rinses of course).

Home made bread with home grown lettuce and a cheeky nibble of my first home grown mange tout for lunch, embellished with some home bought cheese and ham.

What more could one ask for?

Whole load of woodwork done in the afternoon too...

Birch, birch, glorious birch

2009-05-30T23:11:00.002+01:00

Managed to find some time to stop down at a mate's place to pick up some silver birch logs he has recently felled. I now have 10 logs, each between three and four feet in length and up to nine inches diameter awaiting a purpose. First cuts made tomorrow morning...

'twas a beautiful day

2009-05-30T22:36:00.005+01:00

London in the May sunshine is indeed a wonderful place. Today was forecast to be a particularly spectacular example and indeed it lived up to its promise. We had a table at the Bluebird Restaurant on Chelsea's King's Road booked for 1pm so thought we'd get there early and explore some of the sights before and after lunch. Lots of walking involved. Walked from Clapham Junction station through Battersea Park, over Albert Bridge, along Cheyne Walk, past the Chelsea Physic Garden, past the Royal Hospital Chelsea, up to the King's Road, through the back streets of Chelsea to Pimlico, across Lambeth Bridge, through the unexpectedly open gardens of Lambeth Palace (intended to go to the Museum of Garden History) and back home via Waterloo. Ended up being a 10 mile walk with a delightful, nearly free lunch in the middle. I didn't take my camera. Mrs P did. But I'm too exhausted to copy photos from her camera to my laptop. Instead, here are a few photos google found for me:

Albert Bridge (courtesy of tourblaze.com)

Royal Hospital Chelsea in 18th Century (courtesy of tourblaze.com)

Hornbeam Alee in the garden at Lambeth Palace (courtesy of travelstripe.com)

Wonderful day, albeit a little exhausting...

Never thought it...

2009-05-11T02:56:00.003+01:00

...but I quite like playing the drums. Just spent some quality time with a couple of old, much missed friends who have recently acquired Rockband for the PlayStation-3. I was on drums all afternoon and it was great fun. I'm confident that I have no future as a musician but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Probably don't have the space for the equipment Chez Plutus though.

The best bit about it? I was actually exhausted from playing. Computer games have come a long way in the last couple of years, with the arrival of the Wii as something of a catalyst. No longer are people sitting motionless, staring blankly at a screen with a joystick in hand. Oh no! Now we are swinging our virtual tennis racquet, bowling our virtual balls, firing our virtual arrows and beating our virtual drums. (That isn't supposed to sound as full of innuendo as it does, BTW.) A game is never a substitute for the real thing, of course, but if the nation is going to be obsessed with silicon-emulated entertainment, I'm glad that it now involves more than a little exercise!

Right, I'm procrastinating, I have a pile of work to do...

Filoli House and Garden

2009-05-10T00:44:00.005+01:00

I managed to find some time this morning to drive north on highway 280 to Filoli House and Garden. Filoli, which stands for Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life, is a large country house built approximately 100 years ago with a traditional Lutyens/Jekyll influenced garden. Throughout the formal and traditionally planted 16 acres there are many columnar yew trees, brightly flowering camellias and rhododendrons, box-bordered roses, hidden archways, lots of red brick and magnificent trees including several Camperdown Elms.

May is a particularly good time to view the garden as many of their blooms are at their best this time of year. There are several well manicured areas, most notably the sunken garden of which the focal point is a rectangular pond. The borders are planted with delightful swathes of colour, including blocks of Aquilegia and Digitalis. Both these plants are known as being rather poisonous but the flowers of the former are apparently edible and were often consumed by native Americans.

I think the garden will look amazing in the autumn as the coppers and bronzes of the foliage appear but I am glad my first experience of the place was in the spring sunshine.

Hope to return some time...

Realisations

2009-05-09T05:54:00.003+01:00

I am in the middle of a particularly stressful time at work. I am in California with a huge quantity of deliverables in a rather short space of time. At times, this can get on top of me and today was one of those times. However, a couple of events made me think. I have to have a demonstration working in a few days and the facilities with which I have been furnished to build this demo are limited to say the least. In an uncomfortable situation, with the possibility of failing to deliver for the first time in my life, I was starting to panic a little. That was, however, until a friend queried why I was struggling down a futile path when there was a perfectly viable alternative that I already had in hand. When stressed, it is not uncommon for people to suffer from a little tunnel vision – thinking the path they are treading is the only possible path. Being given a simple element of perspective by an uninvolved party is immensely powerful and has potentially allowed me to reclaim at least some of my weekend. This event and a frank conversation with an old friend, colleague and mentor have encouraged me to look at things a little differently. Instead of getting hung up on the things I find tough, stressful or uninteresting, I need to massage them into things that play to my strengths. Easy to realise when not in the “heat of battle” but I shall endeavour henceforth to keep a level head and always try to employ an element of perspective.

Sounds like a bit of a counselling session doesn’t it? Well, I am currently in the self-help capital of the world!

Happy weekend…

Shake, Rattle and Roll

2009-05-03T23:19:00.003+01:00

We went to have brunch with my bro and sis-in-law yesterday morning. Lovely to see them and Anya. She's looking more adorable every day. I took along a little gift I'd made. It is my first baby rattle that I consider good enough to give away. In short: I had a log of ash, split it, shaped it, shaved it, halved it, carved it, filled it, glued it, finished it.

As it is designed to be used by a little person, my motivation was to keep everything as inert as possible. All steps of the project were done by hand. I picked up the freshly felled log from a woodland in Surrey and did all the shaping and carving using only manual hand tools. Getting the rattle to sound right was a fun task. In my prototype, I used a combination of dry wild rice and dry red lentils. Sounded OK but needed a deeper tone. After several shake tests, I settled on a combination of dry soya bean and dry pearl barley, giving a great combination of high and low tones. The finish was a couple of coats of Chestnut Products Finishing Oil which is safe for use on toys per British Standard EN 71. I like it. It is attractive, tactile and functional:

Hopefully have time to perfect the design soon...

Not all doom

2009-05-01T22:42:00.002+01:00

Nor, indeed, all gloom.

Firstly, the new copy of Living Woods magazine arrived this morning. I must admit, it doesn't seem right without my name in it, but that merely serves as motivation for me to get working on some creative projects.

I also received some great presents for my birthday on Monday. Ray Tabor's Encyclopaedia of Green Woodworking, Lost Crafts by Una McGovern, Grow Your Own Drugs by James Wong, the Slumdog soundtrack, the new Kings of Leon album, Hampton Court Flower Show tickets, a wind up lantern, a cool shed hanger, an old wooden block plane and more.

A little over thirty if you must know...

What is motivation?

2009-05-01T22:07:00.002+01:00

Having been hideously over worked in the last few months, I am wondering what is the definition of motivation. Times have been quite tough of late and it makes one question one's beliefs, fabric and ethics. I strive to do everything with which I am tasked and with which I task myself to the best of my ability, within reason, of course, but am currently questioning why. Why bother pushing myself when there is no reward forthcoming? Why do any more than my hours? There are no long term career prospects in my office. Recent events have clearly illustrated that I'm not secure in my job regardless of how well I perform. There will be no raise this year and only sufficient bonus to purchase a Mars Bar for the outstanding performers. I am far from a socialist but am curious about the benefit of working to rule. It would likely only last a day as it rather contradicts my ethics but maybe I'll try. Once my current project is complete , of course!

At the very least, I need to redress the work-life balance. 14 hour working days are not good for anyone...

15 years - RIP

2009-05-01T21:57:00.003+01:00

1st May 2009, fifteen years since Ayrton Senna was killed in the San Marino GP. An unmatched talent illustrated by this video of his lap around the streets of Monaco in 1991:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUkv6P-2SAw

Feel honoured to be able to remember watching him race!

The Garden in April

2009-04-25T23:13:00.003+01:00

It is, apparently, one of those times. I've not posted for ages and now can't resist the temptation to post multiple times in one night.

So, I've been busy, as always. Work has been a struggle! It is enjoyable but we've had yet another round of redundancies which, again, I survived. Of course, I'm happy to still have a job that I enjoy, albeit a demanding one. It is hard to see friends of many years go through the hardship with which they are now faced. The company looked after them well, however, which restores a little faith. So I have now survived three rounds of lay-offs. Does that mean I am good, lucky, cheap, or a combination of the three? I dunno. What I do know is that there are fewer people in the company and we need to do the same amount of work. One of my colleagues made an amusing point about "the firm" no longer dangling the carrot in front of us, they are now beating us with both the stick and the carrot. Feels true at times. Especially when working until 9 or 10pm several consecutive weeks.

Whatever... this weekend is a five-dayer. Had Thursday and Friday off, have Monday off too. The reason? St George's Day, spring, my birthday, exhaustion, stuff planned, things to do. Had lunch at Mr. Blumenthal's place today and escaped without norovirus. Result!

I didn't realise how much gardening there was to do until I had spare time. Many things accomplished, aside from the veg planting I've already mentioned. We have many sedum growing in our garden. Most of them are the traditional Sedum spectabile but we have some white flowering variety also. Sedum can be glorious, despite their "see dem grow" reputation, and I've been experimenting with pruning them in spring to ensure they flower later and lower. The latter is more important - sedum get leggy and the weight of the flower heads coupled with the long stems means they are often found resting on the lawn rather than providing the expected late summer colour midway up the borders. My method is simple - cut all the heads off the plants, down to about one third of their growth, any time from the middle of April to the middle of May. As I say, I've been experimenting with it for a couple of years and am sufficiently confident that I have done it to every single head this year. The expected result is a beautiful cluster of self-supporting heads in early autumn that will last until December. We'll see.

Other highlights? I pruned Wesley, my wisteria, per instruction from Bernard at Wisley last year. Lo, he flowers! Wesley, not Bernard. The cornus are beautiful now that they are in leaf. The ranunculus, tulips, dicentra, azaleas, rhododendron, kerria and mahonia are all romping away, providing stunning stress-relieving colour to an already delghtful space. See:

Other news... I am now Uncle-Plutus. Welcome to the world beautiful little Anya. Also, welcome young Sen! I look forward to being an influence on both of your lives - lots to teach. And yes, I do realise that week old babies can't read blogs!

I have lots to do tomorrow. I'm currently working with some ash and some walnut and have many things to create. So little time...

Paper Potted Beans

2009-04-25T22:48:00.003+01:00

I've been busy sowing and planting recently. Most of my veg are now in the soil having been started off in the greenhouse. Could be a little early for some of the beans to brave the elements but I'm both optimistic and impatient so, combined with the fleece protection with which I've covered them, I think things will be OK. This year I started many of my beans in newspaper pots. Last year my friend Sean gave me a paper potter made by Nether Wallop Trading Co. It is a simple, tactile design that enables you to make seed pots from newspaper. Seeing as we only get round to putting our paper out for recycling once a month, there are plenty of unmade pots round here. Incidentally, Sean runs a wonderful little oasis of tranquillity just off the Kentish Town Road called The Boma: http://www.bomagardencentre.co.uk/

If you are ever in North London, I'd highly recommend popping your head through the door, not just because he's a mate. He sells a huge array of wonderful things for your garden and it was looking particularly beautiful and serene in the spring sunshine when I popped in last Saturday while helping my friend Mo landscape her weed patch, er, I mean garden.

Anyway, back to the paper potter... I've been growing a whole variety of beans, as you will have read in a previous post, some of which are significantly more vigorous than others. The borlotti beans took off surprisingly quickly:

I had, however, evidently firmed down the compost in one of the paper pots a little too hard. He showed no sign of breaking through the surface but the pot was steadily climbing above the others. Indeed, he had broken through the bottom of the sodden pot and was propelling himself skyward:

Soon rectified and he's now happily in the veg bed awaiting summer sunshine...

Weekend-tastic

2009-04-05T23:20:00.002+01:00

Been a busy and exhausting weekend. Spent Saturday in Wiltshire tending to grandpa-in-law's garden. Lovely to catch up with Cyril and to enjoy his beautiful view over a sheep-filled field. Sunday was a garden day. I managed to get my first crop of peas planted - yellow mange tout, hurst green shaft, little marvel and the 10ft climbers. About 80 plants in all I think. Sure the slugs, mice, squirrels, foxes, cats and other critters will each claim their share. Planted out some purple kohl rabi and a couple of radish varieties too. Also put out my broad beans of the red epicure variety and a few red little gem lettuces between my onion rows. Hopefully they'll all work in harmony together!

No photos this time I'm afraid. A relatively woodwork free weekend too. Next one's a four-dayer tho', can't help but get some good stuff done...

I Love Spring

2009-03-29T20:37:00.003+01:00

It's true, I do. Here's why...

So many forgotten treasures in the garden reminding you of why you love them
Progress in the greenhouse every day
Longer, lighter days
Sunglasses need dusting off
The Formula One season has started
It's the business end of the football season
Nearly the beginning of the cricket season AND it's an Ashes summer

All wonderful things! What makes this spring better than all the others? Not only am I very proud of Mrs P, I am also soon to be an uncle and am rather excited. Looking forward to meeting little niece-P soon (note I don't refer to her as P-niece - say it to yourself a few times and you'll understand why).

Here's a picture of a viola from my garden:

Gone for a predominantly yellow theme this spring with more colours joining the party as spring grows into summer.

Few other things before you go.
Had a great weekend. Got up for the live qualifying and race in Australia. Knackered now but I only have to meet my new CEO for the first time tomorrow, nothing important. Busy day Saturday in the workshop. Made a few things - a bench hook, a sanding pad and a mahogany test tube holder for Mrs P senior's botanical drawing classes (although stupidly forgot to take a photo). Experimented with some ideas - built working prototypes that look pretty good. Today had a lovely lunch with the family. Got home, planted up all my beautifully chitted potatoes, weeded my onion and garlic beds and added a few filler plants, including a couple of interesting dwarf miscanthus, to the borders courtesy of Mr & Mrs P senior-in-law last weekend.

Happy days...

Le jardin

2009-03-23T22:38:00.003Z

Garden's going well too. While much of my time has been occupied with the workshop, there has been a little time to plant a few new additions. A bunch of Cornus sericea 'Flaviramea' offset by a single Cornus alba 'Sibirica' underplanted with several Heucheras (Key Lime Pie and a purple one, possibly Amethyst Myst). All this has a quickthorn hedge as a backdrop with a young laburnum to give a bit of height. All sounds very impressive but the plants are quite young so will take a while to establish.

Veggie-wise, last week's warm weather has helped things along very well. This year, I'm concentrating mostly on peas and beans with a few root crops. Here's a few of the varieties I'm trying:
Peas - Hurst Green Shaft, Little Marvel and some yellow mange tout and another clibming variety from Mr. H
Beans - Dwarf french 'purple king', broad 'red epicure', climbing purple, borlotti, dwarf french yellow 'berggold', Kidney bean 'yin yang' (from the Eden Project range!) and dwarf green 'Triomphe de Farcy
Kohl Rabi - both purple ('Modrava') and white ('Lanro')
Radish - normal red ones and some 'Hilds blauer Herbst und Winter'

Then there's the salad crops, a few brassicas and some peppers, a couple of types of carrots, my potatoes, japanese onions, garlic and horseradish. Sounds like a lot but we'll see what survives the squirrel attacks. Things are looking OK so far:

You should stop by some time...

Another New Beginning

2009-03-22T21:08:00.006Z

Hello. Yes, yes, another long time between posts. I reluctantly apologise for keeping you waiting but there are two good reasons:
1) I've been spending every waking hour that I've not been at work building and furnishing my workshop
2) You don't exist and therefore are not entitled to voice an opinion (if, in fact, you do exist please post a comment, send me an email, give me a call, write about me on your blog, publish my URL... anything you like really).

So what's been going on in the world?

I'll go first...
OK, the usual rubbish about work - it's busy, challenging, tough, but actually quite fun. Enough of that. What about important stuff? Well, as you may have seen and guessed, I've been building my workshop. Woodworking outside in the winter doesn't sound too hard but it has been a rough winter and I have been suffering having been exposed to such miserable weather. Also, as the warmer weather arrives, I don't really want to be sawing and banging within earshot of all and sundry so a remote location (end of my garden) is perfect. Previous post shows the base Mr P senior and I built in January. Here it is again:
So then we built the workshop a few weeks later. It was on sale from a garden building website - actually remarkably good quality and easy to assemble:

So Mrs P and I agreed that "generic shed orange" wasn't the colour this building was going to stay. After a discussion about masculinity and a couple of Cuprinol tester pots, we agreed on a light green called willow. The result? Judge for yourself:

What do you think? I rather like it.

So in all, the project didn't cost too much. Aside from the building itself:
- I already had the slabs for the base so that part only cost me a few bags of sand and cement
- No additional screws or nails were needed to build the thing although I did invest in a roll of stronger felt for the roof
- I chose to insulate the interior. I was debating what would be the best solution and, despite being tempted by Celotex decided upon polystyrene and hardboard from Wickes. In all, that job cost about £50.
- The furniture? Bench is made out of an old door courtesy of my friends HY and W. Thanks again - it is perfect! The legs are made out of old fence posts etc that I had.
- I built a shelf unit for the right wall. I had a load of old pine shelves (also courtesy of HY&W) that had been sitting in the shed awaiting a purpose. Indeed they found one. I needed a few lengths of timber for the upright and long, lower shelves but managed to pick these up from a local timber yard for buttons.

So, in all, while it took quite a few hours, it cost me very little. Result!

Now, however, I must allow my little paradise to fulfill its potential. The potential to transform my spare time from well-intentioned pottering to a productive and lucrative past-time. Indeed this is a new beginning...

Where've you been?

2009-02-15T21:22:00.003Z

I've been to Paris, Munich and Milan in recent weeks. Where were you?

The reason for my travels? Work! The result? Aside from all the work, mostly eating good food and drinking good beer. Schnitzel and Pilsner, a wonderful combination!

So what now? Lots of work, just without travel. And some greenhouse and workshop building.

Spring is coming! Kevin the kerria keen to flower. Frederick the forsythia wanting to put on a yellow display to compete. All the sedum poking out a great deal of growth. Most importantly, thanks to a little warmth after the prolonged cold snap, the tips of my garlic are just starting to break through the soil. Happy days!

No photos this time around due to a juiceless camera and restricted daylight hours.

Call back soon tho', hoping for some productive times...

Snow in London?

2009-02-01T21:44:00.004Z

Snow has hit London! Not really a surprise. Everyone's been predicting it for a while. Blaming it on the Russians though, which is a little unfair if you ask me. Not sure their silver nitrate cloud impregnation is responsible for this!

Here's a pic of one of the lovely yew trees in my front garden with a gentle dusting:

That's all for now...

The Good, The Bad and The Magnificent

2009-01-27T22:44:00.002Z

Let me start with the good. Was a great weekend, got loads done! It is no longer sub-zero outside (for now). Went to the dentist this morning so have shiny gnashers. Was really sunny today. Got a little battered at kickboxing this evening but gave better than I got.

The bad? It sucks being a Crystal Palace fan right now. Three defeats on the trot. Stupid game!

The Magnificent? Behold the base for my workshop created by Mr P senior and me on Saturday:

Really looking fwd to getting the structure up now. May have to wait a little while as I have a bunch of travel commitments at work in the coming weeks. In the great words of Benjamin Franklin, "He that can have patience, can have what he will". Pretty certain he wasn't talking about the card game...

And a Sunday

2009-01-18T22:49:00.004Z

Well, it seems that the cr@ppy weather struck in the wee hours. Positive - had an unexpectedly "free" day in the garden. Negative - was woken up half a dozen times by the fecking rain hitting the windows and I wanted to clean the kitchen today. But didn't!

So what did I do?

Went to Homebase with Mrs P to buy some (more) sand and cement for the workshop base. Thought I'd aggravate my minor hernia while there as well. Wanted to pick up some manure to mulch my borders with but Homebase were not playing ball so had to stop off at Squires instead.

Got home with said products and injuries, had lunch, then got to work. The soil on my land isn't the best quality. We're on heavy clay being so near the Thames, which is compounded by the neglect from which the garden has suffered for years in the hands of seemingly lazy gardeners. Don't get me wrong, I am often lazy and I consider myself a gardener, but I prefer not to combine the two! Anyway, all my veg are grown in raised beds cos of my soil issues. So, today I dug them over enriching them with a combination of shop bought manure and the contents of my compost heap. I wish "the heap" was able to generate enough material to feed all my beds but, alas, there is only so much peeling of vegetables two people can do in a year!

Following my veg plot preparation, for which I feel I am ahead of the game by the way, I got a little carried away with clearing the leaves from the borders. I was intending to let the leaves protect the borders from the frost for the entire winter but every time I moved a leaf, I uncovered another head striving for the little sun our winter days offer. I couldn't help but let my germanic tidiness get the better of me - before I knew it, all the leaves had been filed away into their alloted location. Good leaves!

Finally, thought I'd carve a spoon out of some ash. Got damn cold and dark again before I could finish it so I'll add it to the WIP pile and hope it gets finished soon.

Enjoyable weekend, but the cold and dark sometimes make me wish I was back here instead:

Still, South West London has its charms...

A Saturday in the Plutus household

2009-01-17T18:43:00.005Z

I've run out of nuts. I wonder if people sell nuts after Christmas!? I don't want no sale nuts tho'! Come to think of it, I wonder how long nuts last!? Not very long in my house, that much I know.

Mrs P and I had a productive day. We've planted up our cornus "forest" and put in a quickthorn hedge behind it.

This is our aim with the Cornus. This pic isn't mine, I couldn't be ar$ed to take a photo but found this one of the same variety on on nzplantpics.com. Should look pretty cool.

The azaleas and crocosmia also found their way into the ground. Lots of people consider crocosmia a weed but we have some wonderful Lucifer under our bay tree which I couldn't resist complementing with a couple of pots from the garden centre for a pound each. I then started some woodwork while Mrs P did a great job of digging out the area for the workshop. I was working with some ash and some hazel. The latter is very enjoyable to work with. Stole it from Mr & Mrs P senior's garden several months ago (is is still theft if the owner helps you take it?) but it hasn't dried out too much. I know this because my moisture meter arrived in the post from Axminster a couple of days ago! Hazel isn't the most interesting of woods to behold but is has a beautifully creamy texture. It got too cold and dark outside for me to finish my projects though, so it looks like I'll have to sneak in a couple of hours tomorrow, despite the predicted snow or hail storm.

We're both a bit knackered now, having a break before cooking dinner from the tapas recipe book Mrs P received at Christmas. Never cooked tapas before, quite excited...

Nuts!

2009-01-14T20:45:00.004Z

Mrs P and I went to see grandpa Cyril shortly before Christmas. (Hello Cyril, if you're reading!) We were lucky enough to receive a gift of a turned bowl nutcracker. Check this out, it is a great invention:

As you can possibly see from the pile of shells behind the dish, I've been eating an awful lot of nuts of late, mostly because this tool is so much fun to use.

I hope world nut prices don't increase sufficiently for me to have to give up my new addiction...

Progress

2009-01-13T21:22:00.003Z

The summerhouse come workshop has been ordered, paid for and delivered. It is only small but will serve the purpose wonderfully. Just need to lay that base and build the thing. It'll look something like this when it's built:

(this image is courtesy of diy.com, by the way)

Once it's built, I'm thinking of putting a bench along the back (the longer dimension) for mounting things like a pillar drill, lathe, grinder, scroll saw, vice etc. However, it is difficult to visualise the finished article while it's leaning against the fence in pieces.

I stopped off at a local garden centre/nursery at lunch today. They have a sale on their old stock and I managed to pick up some bargains. Mrs P and I have a border in the garden that is quite acidic and dry. We already have a couple of rhododendrons and azaleas which are doing well, but don't quite fill the space. So, for £3 each, I picked up four more azaleas. Browsing the rest of the plants I encountered another irresistible bargain... five golden cornus, each four foot tall... for a pound each. Same situation with some young quickthorn. I've always been sceptical of budget plants but if you look at hedging specialist websites, you'll find a lot of very cheap shrubs. It seems that the mark up in garden centres can be significant at times. Captive market of sorts I guess. So, once my workshop is built, I have some attractive hedging to frame it. Sweet!

I have rather a lot on at work right now so progress could be a little slow but please check back soon to see how I'm getting on...

The weather outside is...

2009-01-01T23:17:00.002Z

Cold, cold, cold!

Merry New Year everyone.

It has been soooo cold recently that it's been tough to find the motivation to head out back to do much woodwork. I was lucky enough to receive a couple of new drills for Christmas - a Bosch hammer drill for all my DIY needs and a good old-fashioned hand drill which is great at performing intricate and accurate work.

So what does this great new year have in store for me? Well, first things first I need to build some sort of outbuilding to call my workshop. I've narrowed the list down to a few options and need to measure them up properly. Then I need to enlist some troops to help me lay a base and build the thing! In my head, my workshop is the gateway to being able to go from woodworking when the elements and daylight permit to woodworking whenever I want. Looking forward to sharing my progress with you.

The garden is currently looking pretty sad. There are a few little rays of sunshine poking up their heads among the frosty leaves. The mahonia is still thrusting its yellow arrows towards the sun, there a little clouds of blossom on the viburnum, the cornus are all glowing their winter finest, the heads of the sedum have been emerging since the first frost back in October and most importantly my japanese onions are romping away.

"Resolutions?" I hear you ask. I've never been a big fan of new year's resolutions but have always tried to make an effort to improve in one or two areas around the January time frame. So here goes:
1) Obvious one first: drink less - it costs too much, ain't great for the liver and somehow makes valuable time disappear
2) Quality time with quality people
3) Learn to combat my impatient streak
4) Replace some of my tiger energy with some swan energy, possibly add in a little sloth energy but not feel guilty about it
5) Stop blogging at 1 in the morning while drinking whisky

By the way, sorry that my posts have been rather devoid of photos of late. Purely laziness on my part. If you're interested in stimulating other senses, please do visit Mrs P's blog:
http://thedomesticnovice.blogspot.com/

Happy reading...

What, still nothing?

2008-12-14T03:47:00.002Z

Hey, where have you been?
Around.

What have you been doing?
Stuff. Working (the paid kind) quite a lot. Doing a good bit of wood stuff on the weekends tho'.

What sort of wood stuff?
Mainly experimenting with shapes that make good jewellery items and learning about finishes on wood - oils, sealers, waxes, elbow grease etc. There's only so much grease you can get out of one elbow, however! Oh, and I carved some nunchucks out of ash.

You gonna put a proper post together any time soon and share any of your new knowledge?
Yeah, alright, I'll get round to it. Hopefully the christmas break will allow me some time to finish some items and take some snaps.

So why are you posting at 4 in the morning? Got no life?
It's not 4 in the morning, I'm in California right now. Mostly business, a little pleasure. Haven't been over here for about 15 months so it's a welcome visit. Getting my fill of weird sh!t on [adult swim] and getting fed up with people who work in American shops asking me if they can help and proceeding to tell me about every offer they currently have. I'm surprised I have ever bought anything in the States, the continuous pestering has rather the opposite to the desired effect on me!

California, nice! That must be a pleasant change from the miserable British weather.
You'd think wouldn't you? Started off OK but got freezing and rainy today.

Oh, poor you.
Well, you did ask!

So what next?
Few more days in Cali, then head home to see my much missed wife. Got the whole Christmas and New Year period off work so will hopefully get some jewellery pieces finished ready for photographing, modeling and perhaps even selling...

I'm back

2008-11-10T19:39:00.002Z

Hello!

Yep, been a while hasn't it?! Alas, I have returned to work and can no longer dedicate all my working hours to wood and garden stuff but, as I stupidly didn't take out one of those self-paying mortgages, the money is rather welcome.

The latest edition of Living Woods magazine arrived today and would you believe it... my frankenstein's monster of a shaving horse is featured on pages 18/19. I haven't had time to read the issue cover to cover just yet as I have been inundated with literally one email about my new found fame, but it looks great!

So what have I been up to since my last post? Driving to work, working and driving home from work mostly. But in the spare time I've been trying to work on some small pieces. I picked up a really beautiful piece of yew and have been trying to turn it into interesting little pieces of jewellery. Going quite well as it holds a shine amazingly! I also worked some freshly felled sweet chestnut. Man, what a pain that was. Stained my draw knife and scorp due to it's acidity and then promptly split terribly as it dried. Am I annoyed by this?? Not at all. It is yet another wood that I now have a little experience working and there is simply no substitute for experience. I picked up a few ash and oak logs recently which I am very excited about working. The old man is also going to provide me with some more yew and a bit of holly soon too. Who needs Christmas eh...?

The End of a Journey

2008-10-17T23:17:00.005+01:00

Well, back to the real world in a few days. Both good and bad. Good that I get paid again. Bad that I'll have less time to nurture my new skills. Good that I'll, once again, have a short term purpose. Bad (and good) that I have identified an alternative purpose that is hard to penetrate. Whatever. We all have to pay our mortgages, that much is inevitable. We just have to enjoy ourselves as much as possible while doing it. And hopefully be able to plan for the future too. The best thing is that I have not one single regret. My brief time away from work has enabled me to learn skills that, had I been working full time, would have taken me two years of weekly evening classes to gather. Much more than that though. I got to:
- spend quality time with the important people in my life (Mo, Si, Tom, Mr & Mrs P senior, Stew and most of all Mrs P).
- develop all sort of recipes, most notably my hand made bread recipe. Best organic ingredients sourced from France and UK.
- make great new friends, mentors and future colleagues
- perform some vital renovations to my flat
- learn a s##t load about me

Some pics:

Some of my tools

Wood pieces (some unfinished!)

My bread

This is, however, just the beginning!

A new beginning...

Garden Design

2008-10-17T22:41:00.003+01:00

Well this, my final free week, took me to the wonderful Hampton Court Palace to attend an intensive week of garden design training. KLC are a design (both interior and exterior) training company who operate out of premises in Chelsea Harbour and Hampton Court. Without any disrespect to any training course I have previously attended, I can honestly say that this week has been the single most educational and fulfilling week of my life. None of the pretensions of other superficially prestigious colleges, just a great teacher in Juliet Sargeant, excellently facilitated by Ruth Ellis, resulting in a friendly, happy learning environment. Yet another Plutus recommendation - unless you are going to be competing for business, of course, in which case I can assure you that there is no future in garden design so you best give up now! So, I've completed my first site survey, made my first master and planting plans, created my first mood board, designed my first garden (aside from the space behind my flat that I lovingly refer to as my garden, of course) and made a bunch of new friends. What more can one ask for? The answer... due to the fact that KLC operate out of Hampton Court Palace, it was necessary for all students to apply to the Historic Royal Palaces organisation for security clearance. This security clearance gave us completely free access to all areas of the palace. OK, we didn't have too much time to explore, but being able to pop into the tudor kitchens, royal chapel etc. on the way back from lunch made the experience that little bit better. Thanks to Maurice for the history lessons ;)

No pics this time, unfortunately, as my designs are valuable. I'll be sure to let you know the name and address of my design company, however...

Shaving Horse

2008-10-05T16:01:00.010+01:00

So I picked up some logs from my tree surgeon's yard last week. I already had all the tools to get from whole logs to pieces of log (i.e. a log splitter, a sledge hammer and an axe) but getting from rough log sections to workable pieces requires a shaving horse. A shaving horse is simply a bench on which you sit and a cramp to hold wood still while you shape it with a drawknife and spokeshave. There are several websites giving plans and directions such as http://www.greenwoodworking.com/shorse.htm However, in Living Woods Magazine (http://britishwoodworking.com/Living%20Woods.html), Nick Gibbs published instructions to build Mike Abbott's new style horse. To keep costs down, the brief I had set myself was to use up as much of the old wood I had lying around rather than buying in a load of 4x2 as in the magazine. Using a combination of old fence posts from my veranda and random pieces of hard and softwood I threw together my horse in a few hours.
He is a little rickety so I have started refering to him as my shaving donkey, he doesn't have a name yet.

So what advice would I give to people who want to make their own shaving horse? Firstly, there is no substitute for thick wood. You simply can't get the strength when using thinner pieces. Secondly, don't under estimate the strength of your legs. I used a piece of 14mm dowel as my pivot and it snapped immediately. I'm currently using an old piece of copper pipe until I can come up with an alternative. Finally, don't expect it to be perfect first time. My top board, or head, is a little too high. My seat is 50cm from the ground - a comfortable sitting height - and my top board is a further 45 cm from the seat. This creates a slightly unnatural movement and should probably have been nearer 30 cm from the seat as one's arms are stronger nearer your waist than up by your shoulders.

Now to get working on some logs...

My first few pieces

2008-09-25T23:12:00.006+01:00

Twice in one night, my you are lucky readers!

As my regular reader (thanks dear) will know, I've been doing rather a lot of woodworking recently. My two training courses, documented earlier on this blog, were very different and both taught me useful skills. I've invested in a couple of tools but not yet got around to building a shave horse or pole lathe. Shave horse first I think! I took an inventory of my shed earlier and I reckon I have enough spare wood to bolt together a crude horse. As long as it serves a purpose, doesn't matter how it looks IMHO.

But, the lack of horse hasn't stopped me from carving a few pieces. Robin (see Woodwork chapter one) was kind enough to give me a couple of pieces of cherry to play with which I subsequently did. I also picked up a couple of freshly felled logs from my tree surgeon's yard (cheers James). Alas, I am still not very good at distinguishing the different woods from their bark so am not certain of some of the wood I'm using. Learning though! If anyone can recommend a good book that will help me identify trees by their bark I'd be very grateful! Here are some of my first pieces from left to right - baby spoon (cherry), lettuce knife (cherry), measuring scoop with deliberately odd handle (unidentified wood), tasting spoon (poplar):

Different woods work very differently. Poplar, being a very fast growing tree is very light. It isn't the finest wood but has its benefits. Cherry is great to work and looks lovely when finished. I also tried messing about with an old, dry piece of London plane. Such hard wood it is almost impossible to carve. Got a great idea of what I want to do with it though. Watch this space...

Chelsea Physic Garden

2008-09-25T22:46:00.007+01:00

Hello out there! Been a long time, again! Sorry, I've been distracted. Last week was taken up by a short course at the English Gardening School, hosted at the Chelsea Physic Garden under the tutelage of Rosemary Alexander, Laura de Beden and Simon Pyle. This was a great course and I learnt an awful lot from three great tutors. Far too much to disclose here but suffice to say that I now look at gardens very differently. In short, it isn't all about the plants. Sure, plants are some of the constituent parts of a garden but it isn't about buying plants you like and finding a "good enough" place for them. Oh no! It is all about the space. What is it for? What will you be doing out there? Once you've decided upon that, and a few other important things, such as budget, you can then start planning. Only when the plan is complete do you start thinking about the specific plants you want to place. Of course there's more to it than that but you get the idea. We spent one of our four days travelling to a couple of different gardens, including Rosemary's. Here is a pic of her Apricot Border, still looking rather resplendent despite the cold, miserable summer:

I had a great time and am already wishing I was back at the school expanding my knowledge even further...

Plutus has been away

2008-09-15T22:49:00.007+01:00

Hello! No, I've not been lazy, I've been on holiday. Mrs P and I were in the south of France for a short while. Wonderful time had by all, well both! We got the Eurostar to Avignon, picked up a car, drove to St. Laurent du Verdon, drove round the Gorges du Verdon, drove up Mont Ventoux, drove to Orange, drove through Chateauneuf-du-Pape, drove back to Avignon, dumped the car and chilled a little after driving a little over 1000km in our surprisingly capable diesel Fiat in four days. Then got very stressed by the prospect of not being able to return home due to the fire in the tunnel. I shall not post my opinions of Eurostar/Eurotunnel nor any details of my personal experience until I am satisfied with the compensation I receive! Instead, here's a couple o' pics:

Atop Mt. Ventoux viewing our journey back down

Gorges de l'ardeche

Mrs P looking out of the Chateau in Chateauneuf

Of the four places we stayed I adored Le Moulin du Chateau in St. Laurent du Verdon and loved La Banasterie (and their dog) in Avignon. Le Moulin is run by a wonderful Swiss couple called Edith and Nicolas who operate a relaxed, beautifully decorated B&B that forces you to relax, eat well and enjoy yourself no matter how much you resist. La Banasterie is a slightly more busy place due to its location in an Avignon back street but is similarly tranquil. Typical provencal colour schemes and decor really make this place a wonderful find and Mouchi (sp?) the Shih-Tzu is an amazingly friendly little chap! If you are planning a holiday to Provence and fancy staying somewhere more elegant, charming and personal than a hotel check out:
http://www.moulin-du-chateau.com/
http://www.labanasterie.com/

Since I've been back, I've been baking bread with my newly acquired French ingredients, making lovely chicken stock from our roast chicken remains, perfecting some of my woodwork pieces as well as starting a couple of new ones, enjoying sleeping in my own bed and embarking upon some futher horticultural training at the Chelsea Physic Garden.

So much to post about, so little time...

More Wood Stuff

2008-09-05T17:57:00.005+01:00

"What did you learn this week Plutus?" I hear you ask. Well, aside from the fact that it is possible for an entire British summer to pass with only one solitary nice day, I learnt a bit more about wood. Last week was manual turning, this week I harnessed the almighty power of electricity to make my life easier. And easier it was! I turned a chunk of laburnum into a corkscrew handle, a piece of yew into a bottle stop and a piece of mahogany into a bowl. These are all a much more refined finish that my green wood pieces. Last week, after the final pass with a skew chisel, the only finish needed was a burnish with a handful of wood shavings. This week's pieces were sanded with four grades of sand paper, buffed with webrax and finally polished with wax or oil. Much finer finish that makes even my non-symmetrical corkscrew handle look good! I gained experience with several new tools that suit electric lathe work. I had great fun, the only down side is that I am impatient and it can be slightly frustrating when starting out with a new technique and a new tool.

As is becoming customary, here's a pic (albeit quite a bad quality and poorly composed one):

Now for a little rest and some wine...

What makes a good teacher?

2008-09-03T22:28:00.002+01:00

No, really, what makes a good teacher?

I don't necessarily mean a school teacher. In my opinion, anyone who imparts knowledge upon people on a regular basis is a teacher. Some teachers are professional educators, some are people trying to promote their wares, some are religious indoctrinators and some are simply people who love telling others about stuff they know and love. We've all had good and bad teachers in our time. Occasionally individuals connect with their tutor on some "higher level" but more often than not a good teacher is almost universally accepted to be a great imparter of knowledge. Why? Of course topical knowledge is critical but many subject matter experts make horrendous teachers. There has to be more than knowledge. I believe passion is vital, encouragement important and then there is the balance. The balance between giving someone the knowledge to find the answer to a question/challenge and stepping back just enough to allow the student to make, and learn from, their mistakes. I've had a couple of good pedagogues recently, some bad ones too. I've also delivered both excellent and substandard training in my time.

I'm taking several more training courses in the coming months so will probably have more to contribute on this subject but, in the mean time, I welcome your comments...

Tree Rats - update

2008-09-02T21:37:00.002+01:00

OK, so the wily little ####s are squeezing behind my net construction into the greenhouse, locating the nicest looking tomato and making an artful exit. I bound the net to the greenhouse more firmly but they can still manage to squeeze through. My neighbours must think I'm a bit weird swearing at and threatening what appears to be an empty greenhouse. Next step filling a juicy tomato with rat poison a la "Danny, the champion of the world"? I probably don't have the heart. Probably...

Woodwork chapter one

2008-09-02T21:05:00.005+01:00

My education continues. I went up to Essex recently to learn the basics of green woodworking and wood carving. My teacher was a great guy called Robin. He's been working with wood for quite a while in a variety of capacities and there is nothing better than learning from someone who is genuinely experienced! I spent two days with him in his wonderful workshop and learnt a hell of a lot. I started off learning how to split logs with a froe, chop them into a rough cylinder with an axe (a lovely Gransfors of which I am quite envious), shave them into a cleaner cylinder on a horse with a draw knife and spokeshave then turn them on a pole lathe. Man, I have to build one of those. A beautifully traditional method of turning wood - driven by a treadle connected to a pole (or bungee or anything else flexible) with a connecting line that is wrapped around the item to be turned. Here's me making my first turned item, a dibber, on the lathe:

Robin offered just the right balance of leaving me to make mistakes, from which I learnt a bucket load, correcting me and offering to put the finishing touches to my pieces in order to take them from just OK to perfect. I've done a lot of teaching/training in my days and recognise when I come across someone who genuinely enjoys imparting knowledge upon people. And he and Vanessa provide exactly my sort of lunch! If you are interested in learning how to use a pole lathe, how to work green wood, how to carve, how to sharpen tools or any other wood related skills, I'd highly recommend looking up Robin at www.treewright.co.uk

My pot scraper, rounders bat, dibber and spatula:

I've since started my own tool collection. Thus far I have inherited a couple of gouges and a skew chisel from my dad, picked up a cheap spokeshave and bought a couple of new carving knives from an excellent shop on Southampton Row in London called Buck and Ryan. They have a small concession in Selfridges but the main store is really where you want to go!

Next step is to build a shave horse and a pole lathe...

Plutus is injured

2008-09-01T22:04:00.000+01:00

It was my friend's birthday recently. She decided we'd go karting. One of my favourite activities. I was quite looking forward to it. A little liquid on the track and my kart decided it could no longer be bothered to go round corners. Went straight on into a barrier. Hit my leg on the steering column among other injuries. It 'king hurts. Doctor told me that it is an impressive injury but I'll be fine. I tried to disagree but apparently a PhD in medicine outranks my GCSE in biology. Here's my leg just after the injury happened:

Actually looks worse now, one week later. I'm not posting any photos of it in its current state, makes me feel unwell...

Tree Rats

2008-09-01T16:19:00.000+01:00

As you get to know me, you will learn that squirrels and I aren't exactly the best of friends. We had a disagreement about the ownership of a couple of sunflowers about 5 years ago and it has been steadily downhill ever since. Due to the ongoing feud, I deem it necessary to cage up most of my vegetable plants. I am currently growing some tomatoes (gardener's delight and peacevine if you're interested, red ones if you're not) in one of my cloche type mini greenhouses with a net construction firmly fastened to the front to prevent the tree rats from entering. I thought it was foolproof until I just went for a stroll and saw a half eaten tomato wedged between the outside of the back of the greenhouse and the fence. There are no visible signs of entry so I'm a little confused as to what's going on. Surely the squirrels wouldn't be so mean as to steal a tomato from elsewhere and wedge it behind my greenhouse, would they...?

Is it a table, is it a bench?

2008-08-22T23:38:00.000+01:00

Mrs Plutus and I recently took delivery of our table, come bench. We were strolling around Hampton Court Flower Show earlier in the "summer" and came across The Bench Company's stand. We'd been intending to get a bench for half way down our garden (the sunny bit) for quite a while but hadn't yet got around to actually making the purchase. After a stroll around the rest of the flower show, an overpriced but delicious wild boar sausage and a couple of pints in the sun we decided to return to purchase a bench that turns into a table. By this time I think I was swept away with the notion that I would have a Transformer in my garden. OK, no robot in disguise I admit, but a pretty cool and functional piece of kit. Also important to note that the company called me well in advance of the delivery date, stuck exactly to the agreed delivery time (on a Sunday I should add), assembled the bench in the desired location and were thoroughly nice folk ensuring I was totally happy with my purchase before they left to make their next delivery. Here are a few pics of Mrs Plutus performing the transformation:

Even though it has only been around a few days it has already become one of my favourite places to be. Sure, I'm not officially working right now but I still have a lot of work to do. It is that little bit more satisfying being able to do said work in the sun on my new purchase while listening to the cricket in the background. Here is a pic of my new desk in action:

Love it...

Wisley Flower Show

2008-08-21T22:51:00.000+01:00

Wisley Flower Show. I didn't know about it until I visited Wisley last week and saw them erecting the marquee tents. The Wisley information desk told me to expect a small version of the Hampton Court Flower Show that Mrs Plutus and I had attended earlier in the summer. Indeed the forewarning was accurate - this was a small but enjoyable show, centred around a large marquee that was 50% fuchsia exhibition and 50% streptocarpus, heuchera, gladioli, pelargonium and agapanthus. Mr and Mrs Plutus senior met me at the show and we all had a very educational time wandering through the gardens afterwards. Highlights of the stroll include (mostly for Mrs Plutus senior's benefit):

Lychnis - a perennial that was rather disappointing when it first arrived in my garden. A few little dianthus-style flowers each on a thin stem two feet from the ground. Didn't look like much at first but the proliferous production of magenta flowers has been simply wonderful. Regular dead-heading is a must!

Eupatorium - another perennial. The variety most common at Wisley looks like a large dogwood (cornus) with the beautiful dark red stem and is apparently an extremely useful plant that can treat malaria, gout, arthritis and many other conditions. I look forward to learning much more about this at the Chelsea Physic Garden in a few weeks!

Eryngium - Sea Holly. This is a beautifully structural plant that would look amazing in a border with acanthus and a prolific verbena at the back.

Lantana Camara - A particularly attractive flower that looks like a hybrid between a primula and a hydrangea in my opinion. Apparently it is quite invasive so please be careful planting it in your garden!

Canna - not really my thing but a couple of images for Mrs Plutus senior. Enjoy...

Stolen Vegetables

2008-08-20T23:32:00.000+01:00

I've been put in temporary charge of my friends' allotment. Doesn't really involve much work when the weather is this bad. All I had to do yesterday was pick some beans and tomatoes so that they'd continue to fruit.

Really drums home the importance of sun though. I have an amazing garden but the southern boundary is lined with several huge trees which cast a shadow over most of the garden until early afternoon. Not even gonna think about the effect of the roots! I've managed to populate all the non-veg areas with relevant plants, most of which are doing very well, but vegetables are a different story. The difference between identical crops (same seeds sown at the same time in the same greenhouse with the same water) that have been planted in my garden and my friends' allotment is huge. Some things crop well in my garden (tomatoes, peppers, beans and peas especially) but some things don't crop well at all (notably root veg). However, EVERYTHING crops so much better at my friends' allotment. Maybe I should gather together an army and plan an invasion...

Shrub Pruning

2008-08-20T22:53:00.000+01:00

The RHS gardens at Wisley run a variety of short courses as well as half day and full day training sessions. Members get a great discount and of course, free entry to the gardens any time they want. As an RHS member, I thought I'd pop along to the afternoon shrub pruning session on 13th August.

So what did I learn? Well, it is all common sense really. The golden rule is to look after your tools because, even with all the knowledge in the world, if you use blunt instruments you'll end up with poor results. You don't have to have a pair of Felco secateurs (although they do have a great range of tools to suit pretty much all requirements - and I'd love a pair if anyone feels the need to buy me an unexpected gift). After returning from the training, one of the first things I did was sit down with my old inherited secateurs, an allen key, a spanner, a screwdriver, a sharpening stone and my bike degreaser and lube. Taking them apart, sharpening the blade, cleaning the mechanism and reassembling them are all really easy steps. Look out for an entry on this topic coming soon.

On to the shrubs themselves. Bernard, my teacher, first took us through some of the most common English garden shrubs and how they behave. Buddleja, fuchsias, hydrangeas are found in most gardens and all flower off the growth formed in the same year. Therefore, you want to prune them pretty hard - cutting back most of the long stems (especially in the case of buddleja) so that they don't form ugly, long, old, woody growth. As is typical for most shrubs (and perennials for that matter) you want to regularly dead-head during the flowering season to encourage further flowering. Otherwise the dead flowers try to set seed, diverting energy away from producing more blooms. Pretty much all shrubs want to be pruned hard in early spring, i.e. late February or March. This hopefully gives the worst of the frosts time to pass before the new, young growth forms after pruning. Careful with winter flowering shrubs like forsythia. You really want to prune this straight after flowering. Leave pruning forsythia until late spring and you risk losing the next year's flowers.

Here are a few pieces of shrub-specific advice:

Buddleja davidii
Can be considered a weed I suppose. It grows everywhere, especially along the banks of the railway lines in south west London, but when in flower looks majestic and attracts so many useful insects to the garden, hence the name butterfly bush. I have always been more of a fan of the darker purple hues and so I have a Black Knight variety in my garden. This pic doesn't really illustrate what a lovely colour it is, apparently my camera simply can't handle its purple-ness!

I took a couple of cuttings earlier in the year, kept them in my open greenhouse and a couple of them even put out tiny little flowers. Donated a couple to my mum earlier today.

Hydrangea
Leave on flowers over winter to add a little frost protection. Personally I find the brown petals of the old flower heads rather unsightly but if they serve a purpose, then I guess I can live with it. When performing the early-spring pruning, you want to look for early bud growth and cut below that point. The theory here is that the early bud growth is a sign of how far the "spring energy" has risen up the stem. If you cut below the first bud growth you are forcing the shrub to put out new growth from where it has energy. Prune above the early bud growth and the shrub doesn't yet have the energy to start growing.

Philadelphus
Like other summer flowering shrubs, philadelphus flowers on growth it put out the previous year. As before, remove flowers when they start looking tired, but only if the shrub is small. I don't have a philadelphus in my garden but a couple of my neighbours do. The larger of the two would probably take a day to dead-head. Besides, I quite like the carpet of white when all the petals fall.

Wisteria
The old English country garden favourite. I have a small wisteria that I keep in a (large) pot. However, he has failed to flower reliably for the last couple of years. There are lots of theories on pruning wisteria, Bernard didn't claim to have the only method, he didn't even claim to have the best method, but he told me the method they use at Wisley and they get an abundance of amazing flowers every year.

We're assuming that the shrub is established and that you are not trying to train it into a new area. Throughout the growing season, probably worst from August onwards, the shrub will be sending out long runners looking for new places to climb. These can be taken off whenever necessary or unsightly by taking them back to 6 buds or shoots. As the leaves fall in winter, you will have a bare wisteria skeleton with each branch being six shoots long. Leave this over winter, then in February or March prune each spur by half, i.e. back to three shoots/buds.

And that's it. Of course, that isn't really IT, there is an awful lot more to successfully maintaining shrubs. If you haven't already done so, check out the RHS website as it has plenty of extremely useful advice.

All for now, see you soon...

Finding time

2008-08-18T12:32:00.000+01:00

OK, OK, I know. I said I'd post every few days and it is now nearly a week and nothing new has arrived. I've got some free time coming up and will throw something interesting out soon...

1st - 10th August

2008-08-13T21:44:00.000+01:00

Strange feeling saying goodbye to everyone at work even though you are going back. I've never said a permanent goodbye to anyone I've known for 8 years, except at a funeral of course, so this experience was odd. But there is too much to look forward to, I don't fancy getting caught up in any negative emotions.

First week of my three month journey was spent in Italy where two of my friends were getting married. The wife and I avoided honeymooning in Italy in August last year thinking it would be too hot. Good move! Last week it was between 30 and 35 degrees C most days and we were without air-conditioning for most of the week. However, the magnificence of the locations more than made up for the lack of sleep, continual sweating, heat stroke and general crabbiness. See what I mean...?

My Introduction

2008-08-13T19:47:00.000+01:00

1st August 2008 was a big day in my life. I left my job of eight years, albeit only temporarily, to embark upon a three month journey of discovery...

From the ages of twenty one to thirty I have been working in the semiconductor electronics industry and while it can be a fascinating place at times, I need a change! Generally speaking, silicon valley companies treat their employees well. Not many employers allow their employees to take periods of unpaid leave for personal development purposes so I consider myself lucky to be able to take time away from my job to hurl myself into everything I find fun, interesting and enjoyable.

A little about me... I am an engineer by education and trade. I believe it to be a deficiency of the English schooling system that I had to decide upon my vocational career path at the age of fifteen. I studied Maths, Physics and Electronics A-Levels and then went on to study Electrical and Electronic Engineering at university. Not wanting to waste my education I chose to follow a career in the electronics industry. To this day I've had no regrets – my work has allowed me to travel the globe and taught me many extremely valuable skills. I've even been passionate about it at times. Recently, however, I have become tired of the politics, exhausted by poor management and disillusioned about following a career just for the sake of it. I'm embarking upon a journey of discovery, finding out what is out there, trying to understand what I want to do “when I grow up”.

I'm going to be taking a variety of training courses over the coming months – horticulture, garden design, woodworking, wood sculpture, wood turning and a bunch more. I'll be spending much belated time with my good friends and family as well as finding some time to make profitable renovations to my flat. I spend so much of my time cooking and, without wishing to sound too arrogant, most of the end products are way better than your average restaurant food. Hence I shall also be commencing the scripting of my recipe book. Haven't decided upon a theme yet, that'll probably come with time although working with whatever Kingston-upon-Thames market can supply me at a reasonable price may well dictate some of the contents.

Hopefully you want to stay with me during my journey. I intend to post at every available opportunity although several of my training courses mean I have to stay away so I can't make any guarantees.