I was born in the wrong era

I have decided i was born in the wrong era. My music tastes, my favourite films, the fact that I have an allotment, use a handkerchief, etc might just have something to do with it.

My favourite film, The Great Escape made in 1963, my favourite song, "Let there be love" by Nat King Cole, first released in 1961. I should have been born in the 40's so therefore to enjoy all these great things when they first came out.

My favourite artistes are Frank Sinatra, BB King and Nat King Cole. Steve McQueen is my icon, Marylin Monroe my favourite female movie star.

My fashion taste has never really been current. I must admit i don't actually wear clothes from the 60's but i don't really pay much attention to the current fashions. You won't find me wearing low slung jeans, or the latest trainers, probably a free show t-shirt and a pair of comfy boots!

I do want a cardigan for Christmas and yes i do wear slippers at home, actually thinking about it I would quite like a rocking chair too, I don't think i will go the whole hog and get a pipe yet though!

Yes I have an allotment, something that up till recently only old fellas had. Well I don't really think this is relevant in this blog, one of my neighbours is about 30 and he looks kinda cool and trendy. Gardening is very trendy at the moment, which means for once in my life I'm actually trendy but hardly Stella McCartney! (just to show you how uncool i am i nearly wrote Linda not Stella, she does (did) make very good veggie sausages!)

You might be saying that writing a blog is hardly old school, but actually it's kinda like writing a diary and people have been doing that for centuries!!

Toodle pip.

Every allotment needs a "Ted"

Every Allotment needs a man called Ted.
On my allotment we have a man called Ted, he's brilliant. He is the quintesential british allotmenteer. He has been on the plot for over 30 years, has about 5 different plots, knows everybody, makes fantastic tea and is always smiling.
From what i can gather Ted used to be the caretaker for the allotments (i'm on the new part but he's on the old, together there are over 15 acres!), but ill health stopped him. It certainly didn't stop him from growing veg though! Teds plots are emaculate. Rows upon rows of every veg you can imagine. I don't know what he does with it all but none the less it doesn't seem to stop him from growing more!
He is always the first person you see in the morning, and at every 11,1,3, and 5 o'clock the hooter sounds and he's making a brew for whoever wants one at the allotment tea hut.
I've got a few friends on other allotments and they all too seem to have a man called Ted on their plots too. I'm not sure if these other "Teds" are as good as mine but none the less it seems to me that if you want a good allotment, don't just make sure the soil is good, the position with the sun seems right or how far it is from your house, just make there is a man called Ted on the allotment somewhere, then you'll know the plot is right for you.

Some of bird pics

X factor

I hate X Factor. I hate everything about it. I hate the way it exploits people, I hate the way it makes fun of people and I hate the whole pointlessness of it all. I know most of you are probably fans of X Factor. Well just bear with me.

When did it become OK to publicly humiliate people on national TV? I know most of the people going on the show understand what they are getting themselves in to but there is also the very small amount people who are completely deluded. These poor people are thrust in front of the cameras, encouraged to perform then shot down my that absolute wanker Simon Cowell. Would you laugh in someones face if they had been asked to perform in front of you and they were crap? No you wouldn't, because it's just plain rude. It's at if we've been taken back hundreds of years to Roman times and we're all the emperors giving them the thumbs down so we can throw them to the lions!
Another pointless thing about X Factor is the actually prize. Nobody watches X factor because they want to see the next big thing. I admit there are the occasional ones that become successful, but on the whole, they go to number one at Christmas(if they win) or they release one song and then are suddenly dropped by the record company. There is a reason why these people haven't been found by record companies before, it's because generally they aren't really that good!
Please everyone read Ben Eltons Chart Throb. It is hilarious and absolutely rips apart the whole X Factor wonderfully.
I could go on and on but I'm sure by now you've already stopped reading.
Tara for now.

Allotment

I haven't written about my allotment yet! What have I been doing!
Well to start at the beginning. I got my plot June 2008. It was very overgrown and in need of much love and attention. So I started hacking and chopping to my hearts content. And then I continued hacking, chopping but also digging. (I officially hate dock, it's a weed for those of you who think I'm being horrible to someone I know called dock, I don't know anyone called dock, er where was I?) I suppose it took me and my family (thankyou all) only about 2 weeks to clear all the weeds.
I then started to draw a plan of what my plot would look like. As it's very long and narrow I thought it best to have a path straight down the middle with beds on either side. I wanted a few fruit trees and maybe a fruit patch too so decided to make the beds go only three quaters of the way down the plot. The last quater I decided was going to have berries, rhubarb, fruit trees, my compost bins and most importantly my shed!!
Now the next task was to find enough wood to make my beds. Fortunatly Biffys Grandad had loads of old wood in his garage. I think the wood I got from him made about 4 of my planned 9 beds. Oh and also I managed to get some old windows and a glass door which I made into my cold frame. I think the best bit of wood foraging I did was when I saw loads of planks in a skip. They looked to have been from a roof as one side was painted with black tar stuff. I asked the bloke who I knew the skip belonged to if it was OK to have the wood and he was more than happy for me to take it!
So I eventually got all the beds made. I think it was about January when I finshed them.
In October I had got my first produce in the ground, Onions! This meant I would have Onions for Spring/Summer.
I ordered all my seeds through the allotment seed scheme where you're given a catalogue and choose your seeds, then order them through the allotment trust, this is cheaper for me and I believe the trust gets some money from it.
My choices were: Potatoes; Red King Duke of York, Cara, and Kestrel. Tomatoes; Gardeners delight and Golden Sunrise. Sweetcorn, Beetroot, Runner Beans, French Dwarf beans, Parsnips, Leeks, and Celery. I also bought from garden centres Rhubarb, Blackcurrants and Autumn Raspberries. Plus I had leftover seeds from the previous year (from my small patch at home), they included Carrots, Thyme, Courgettes, Squash and Rocket. Blimey that's a lot of stuff!
I realise I'm wittering on here so i'll stop for now and continue another time, where I'll tell you all about the how I got my shed, my turf and fruit trees all for free!
Ta ta for now.

Kit Kats

Has anyone tried the new kit kat? It's caramel, well it's supposed to be. That's my problem. Whats the point in caramel flavour? Caramel is hardly difficult to make and it's probably more trouble to make a flavour and than just to put in a layer of tasty caramel in between the wafer and chocolate!
Oh if you hadn't guessed, i am severly dissapointed with the new kit kat.
What's next? Bringing back the marvelous whisper gold but only caramel flavoured? (probably not actually, whisper is made by the great cadburys not by the rubbish nestle which makes kitkat). Oh and on that note, bring back whisper golds!
This is nuts, i'm not even that much into chocolate!

House update

Well, it's all been go the last few days! Our 2nd offer was accepted on wednesday and now we can start thinking about moving! Well actually we've got a long way to go before then. We have the sale of our house first, then sorting out a mortgage, more than likely move out and into Biffys parents, sort out storage, get a surveyor in, and then finally move in! Wow that's a lot to do and hopefully all before christmas!
See I told you the saying was rubbish!