Cattitude

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

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

My rhododendron finally flowered.

Nice!

Black Gold

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?

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

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

This is Pickle:



She spends most of her time asleep...

An Apology

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

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...

...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!

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...

...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?

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

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

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...

... 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

So long little buddy.



Thanks for all the memories..

You want to know something about me?

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

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?

Friends, both old and new.

Food, both cooked and raw.

Cricket, both in person and on the radio.