And in other news...

Garden related again.

Well, plot to be more precise.

Managed to get to the plot for a whole day on Sunday with the family Wayne - with the addition of two extra pairs of hands in the form of my parents.

Dad cleared a whole load of couch grass - call it what you will, but I say couch, others say couch....

Raspberries are looking far neater after EdWayne Scissorhands set to them with his secateurs. No idea if I've done the right thing or not as some are Summer fruiting, and others are Autumn fruiting, but Ill be darned if I can tell them apart! Will know better at the end of the year I'm sure.

Planted a whole row of peas, a load of broad beans and finally managed to get my potatoes in - all 6 rows. 3 of each early and main crop. Just need to remember which ones are which...*

*Demonstrated my mobile phones endless abilities, and took a photo of the the bed with my hand holding the label aloft so I know which one is which. There's no app for that!

Also got the remaining onions into a couple of beds - about 100 spring planted onions to go with the 100 or so autumn planted ones that are already showing green.

Took our old plastic patio furniture, a little drum barbecue and LadyWayne took charge of refreshments and sustenance. All fed and we carried on.

I de-flowered* the rhubarb as it had started to bolt due to the dry weather we've been having, and cleared the weeds from around the plants stinging my hands to buggery in the process on the surrounding nettles.

*no, not in that sense!!

Finally I (with the help of Dad) built the raised bed for Bean that I have been promising, and now that I have a plentiful supply of green garden paint I can coat it, line it and fill it.

On the subject of filling, it would appear that I have found a source of topsoil courtesy of FreeCycle - I just need to sort out how I get it from source to plot....

Maybe that's for the next post.

I will update with some more interesting matter (photos) shortly, once I remember to take the camera with me..

Until then.

The "death wobble"

At this rate I'll need a bit of their help myself!

This post is not in the slightest bit garden related (well apart from the hedge mention a bit later), but I feel the need to impart.

As many of you know I took part in the British Heart Foundation's London to Brighton Bike Ride last year and loved it. I was also fortunate to raise a decent amount of money for them thanks to the generocity of friends, family and you guys on-vine.

I decided to enter again this year, and as I'm a former participant I get a guaranteed place and also enter a team myself.

Having completed the course last year I had a number of friends, neighbours and colleagues who said they'd take part this year and of the four "definites" only LadyWayne's brother is taking part.

So, I sold him my bike and bought a new one and we eventually managed to get out for our first ride this afternoon. The weather was forecast for sunshine so I have to admit the hail we set out to was a bit of a surprise. Then we tackled the big hill just outside the village. Brother-in-law behind me I set off and rapidly dropped down through the gears. "We'll get to the top even if it takes half an hour" said b-i-l. So I plodded on, breath puffing in front of me, lungs heaving, throat rasping.

There was a steady stream of water running down the hill from the now dissipating rain and hail - it became mildly hypnotic and before I knew it I'd reached the last corner - not long now. To this point I hadn't dared look behind me to see if Chris was still there or not.

Eventually the hill began to flatten out and I glanced behind me to see nothing but empty road. I decided (not before time) to stop and have a bit of a drink. After a few minutes I saw Chris come sauntering round the corner huffing and puffing. As he drew nearer he mounted the bike again and made it up the rest of the hill. "Well done lad" I uttered. "I think I've bitten off more than I can chew" came the reply.

We carried on.

Chatting away for the next couple of miles I mentioned that it gets easier with practise and that a lot of it is down to gear selection. Not minutes later we approached a small hill and Chris began to falter in front of me. "Perfect illustration of gear selection" he uttered as I passed him.

We then reached a turning point in the road. Right would take us on a longer loop and a bit of dual carriageway and left would take us on a shorter route but down a really steep hill - where last year I reached my fastest speed.

Left we went.

As we approached the apex I began to push hard in top gear, chasing down the cars that had passed us shortly before.

"See you at the bottom" I heard from behind me.

Now I should point out at this stage that I am on a new bike that I had never ridden before. I had replaced the stem before we had come out, and it's a smaller, lighter bike than the one behind me that I rode last year.

As I approached a bend I hunkered down and tucked in my elbows.

Then my heart leapt.

I felt the bike start to shake.

Then it started shaking more violently.

I feathered the rear brake (discs) and started to look at the hedges flying past as a "softer" option.

The bike eventually started to settle down and my heart worked its way back down into my chest.

As I slowed my brother in law came flying past not realising how scared I'd just been.

At the bottom of the hill there was a pub. We stopped for a pint and I recounted my tale over a medicinal Tribute.

The rest of the journey home was much more sedate and enjoyable.

I have since looked into what I'd experienced and have read that the "death wobble" (and it did feel like I might have been hurt quite a lot had it have gotten worse) is a relatively rare occurence - not one I wish to repeat any time soon.

Neeldess to say - if I make it up Ditchling Beacon again this year I will take things a little more steadily on the downhills into Brighton.

Terrible two's?

And so it begins! The terrible two's - well that's not exactly true. In fact it's a downright lie! We couldn't ask for more from a son - he's our absolute treasure and even if the two's do turn out to be "terrible" he'll still be our gorgeous boy at the end of it all.

Speaking of two's it also seems that he may well skip the potty (which is about right given that we've spent a fortune on potties and paraphernalia) and go straight to the loo. He much prefers a "toilet wee wee" or "toilet poo poo".

Moving on from one manure related tpoic to another.

It's that time of year when those of you in the gardening community will know that although there isn't much growing going on, there is plenty or work - be it planning, moving, sowing, planning, pruning, browsing, planning or otherwise.

As such I am thinking bout all of those things - admittedly doing little about it to date, but am getting twitchy at the prospect of teh lighter days and warmer temperatures.

Among the tasks that are forming in my mind are to create a couple of raised beds specifically for Hayden (aka Bean) to grow his own little produce or flora. I also need to move the compost heap outside the plot boundaries, create a herb bed....

I may have aleady posted all this - but it's too late to check as my browser has opened the edit page in the same place.

Anyways - I'm pretty sure I haven't posted this before. A couple of years ago I bought a number of raspberry canes - 6 summer, and 6 autumn fruiting. At the time I didn't quite appreciate how rampant raspberries could be, so managed to somehow end up with a mass of raspberry "bush".

My options are thus as I see it;

Try and work out which ones are which (probably resulting in another year without any raspberries) and move them into a more formal arrangement.

Dig them up, throw them out and start again with neat rows, supports and trainers.

I haven't quite made up my mind yet, but optyion 2 is my current favourite.

The more I write, the more I am itching to get onto the plot and get started.

On that note, I am going to stop typing, and concentrate on tomorrow for now. I'm off to the Williams F1 conference centre tomorrow for a work related presentation and meet and greet so I'll leave you with a couple of piccies taken during Bean's birthday weekend.

Ciao for now!



Blowing out his candles all by himself.

Mobile blogging

This is a test to see if I can actually blog from my phone, hopefully making it easier - and more likely that I blog more often.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

So, where do I begin?

Since I last posted so much has changed.

I've been made redundant,worked as a consultant and then found a new job (which is great). Working in the sameplace for eight and a half years it's amazing how much you miss out on in the outside world.

My brother-in-law and his partner have had a baby girl making me an uncle. She's a real beaut.

LadyWayne has changed job, and has more time to spend with her boys - for which we are all grateful.

Christmas has come and gone, which we hosted again (we're good like that).

I have a new phone - it's one of those "smart" phones, and I'm not proud to admit that it is way smarter than me.

The X-Factor came and went - let's hope it stays that way!

When written down in a short list such as this they all seem fairly mundane and insignificant, but life has changed dramatically and fundamentally - yet life is still very good and full of enjoyment.

Enjoyable not least because of our little boy - Bean, who will be two years old in a matter of weeks. It's hard to believe that I was posting on here (and in a large part on the Grapevine) about his arrival.

He's now more a little boy than a baby - the old cliche's about children growing up fast are proving to all be true. He's talking loads, running round, causing havoc and being what all boys are at that age I'm sure.

In terms of the allotment and plot- well, I've been almost as neglectful of that as I have been to this blog. It's been weeks, if not months since I have been on the plot in earnest and I'm feeling equally as guilty about that as I am about my lack of posts here.

Both of these things I intend to address.

I have plans for the plot which include moving my raspberry canes. I might have to start again as the autumn and summer fruiting varieties have merged into such a fashion that distinguishing them is nigh-on impossible.

I also intend to build a couple of high raised beds for Bean, so that he can really get involved. On the odd occasions that he has ventured to the plot with Daddy he has had great fun, so I imagine his own little plot will be great fun for us both.

I need to relocate my compost bins outside of the plot boundaries as I'm getting to the point where the whole plot is almost in use (whoop whoop I hear a call).

I also want to create a dedicated herb bed - and this will hopefully end up in the space the compost bin will vacate.

What else?

I'm sure there have been plenty of things that have happened that a 35 year old like me is struggling to recall, but for now I think I'll call it a post and perhaps interject future posts with sudden recall to try and keep things interesting.

Oh, to "square the circle" (a bonkers saying if I ever heard one) I have signed up to take part in the London to Brighton Bike Ride again this year, and this time have my own team - Wayne's Wheeled Wobblers. I have a few people signed up to take part with me, so what this space for further news.

No, can't remember anything else at the moment - plus Human Planet has just started on BBC HD and it looks interesting....

Oh - here's one of those recall moments. I've just remembered that my potatoes have "gone over" (a bit squishy for consumption), so I'm looking into the possibility of making my own Vodka, but it involves a bit of investement in terms of kit, so it may well be another idea dead in the water. Or should that be Vodka?

No, that's really it for tonight.

G'night.

I'm still here!

Have managed to recover my login info - so will hopefully be blogging again soon. If anyone is still watching that is?