Back to the usual British summer weather. As I type this, the rain is pouring down, and the wind is howling. But luckily, before this all happened, I have managed a harvest or two. I had a friend ages ago who got me a rhubarb bush/tree/hedge which has loved the weather. Along with the bags of potatoes that I planted, the harvest has been not too bad. Tomatoes have been disappointing, but so many things are this summer. The allotment is looking a lot better, but I will save that for another post; in the meantime just enjoy the harvest.
“We’re all lights in the darkness for one another. When one light goes out, it makes it that much more dark for the rest of us. The human eye can see a single candle from four miles away. You never know when your light is the only light someone can see.”
Not sure why I felt the need to post this, it just spoke to me a little. Sometimes people don’t realise how important they are to others, and some people don’t realise how important other people are to them. When they’re gone, however it’s too late. Wave at people, smile, you never know when you’re bringing a little happiness to someone who needs it and won’t let it show. Unless it’s Donald Trump, he can fornicate himself with a rusty piece of scaffold wrapped in barbed wire.
Well not only have I spent the week in some of the most amazing scenery, eaten some of the greatest food I have ever tasted, and taken possibly the best kitty photo ever, I received a phone call to let me know I finally have been offered an allotment.
Now I realise this is probably not as exciting to read as it is to type, but this has never really been about what excites other people, just what excites me.
I am especially looking forward to growing corn; I had no idea this was a feasible option, but as you can see from the photo above, it is quite common over here to grow your own corn.
So as soon as I return to England, I will be endeavouring to get everything sorted on my new plot of land. Not even sure if there is anything that can be planted now that won’t just die before it can be harvested. I foresee parsnips in my future. Obviously photos will be posted as soon as I get them, so hang tight for updates. Peas.
Well this is kinda repeating a previous post that for some reason refused to publish to Apple News, so I will simply do it again and hope this is more successful. This time however I would like to start with the views. I have been pretty high the start of last week, but it has given me the opportunity to take some nice pics.
Perched on a rock over a drop of certain deathOn the edge of a road, only a thin aluminium barrier from a fiery automotive plummet to more certain death
It is worth mentioning that these photos only seem to portray about 40% of how awesome these views were. Especially the pic above, which was terrifying. Two steps forward would literally be the longest step down I would ever take.
This next pic is a giant pan of chicken, pork, mushrooms and cheese. Could possibly be one of the tastiest meals I have ever eaten. The waiter brought two plates with it, as he assumed it was for two people. How little did he know. 1kg of meat and cheese was no match for my majestic frame. Admittedly only managed about 75% of it, but damn it was tasty.
Chef’s Sach
Lastly we have a shoutout to the beer. Bear in mind that I included a two litre water bottle just for scale, as I did not have a banana to hand. A six pack of the green bottled beer cost less than a pint of Peroni in most bars. That’s 12 litres of good beer for less than a UK pub pint.
Water, beer, beer, Rakkia
Anyway, thanks for reading, even though the readership numbers have vastly reduced, there will be good news and more to follow. Peace.
Just a very quick update to the story of my magnificent spuds. Whilst enjoying a relaxing glass of lager on Friday evening, I was approached by the lovely young lady who posted me a potato so many months before. I got to meet her charming mother, and showed them how well the king of spuds was doing now he had been planted and given the opportunity to grow. I had intended to post a pic of how well he was doing, but now realise that I have neglected my family photos regarding tubers. I guess I will update this post when the weather is better and I can set foot outside without risk of drowning.
In the mean time, I thought it was worth mentioning that although the benevolent potato giver was known in my circles as the potato girl, apparently in her household, I was known as the potato guy. Just goes to show that you could always be a potato guy in someone else’s story.
And if potato girl and her family are reading this, it was lovely to meet you, and I look forward to keeping you updated on the spud of spuds.
Ok this is just a quick chat about a new browser called Brave. Brave is a concept in browsers that helps keep your browsing private, and helps you support makers of original content by supporting them without having to sell your data to advertisers. Brave is linked into a new cryptocurrency called BAT (Basic Attention Token) which you hold in your browser and can tip your favourite contributors with. BAT is currently priced at about 25p per coin, so you will not be breaking the bank if you tip someone you enjoy reading or watching. The browser itself can also simply disperse your BAT on a monthly basis, based on which sites or contributors you have watched the most. You can set the browser to pay out 20 BAT a month (about a fiver), and it will automatically show you who will get what percentage of that, based on your viewing time, page views etc.
Anyway, bottom line is that watching Youtube earlier had Brave block over 350 ads and trackers in the hour I was watching standup, so even if you decide not to support contributors, it is way more privacy conscious than most other browsers. Ooh I forgot to mention that if you decide you do want to see the occasional advert, Brave will pay you for them, so you can pass those BAT onto the people you enjoy, so that they, we, can continue providing content.
You can download Brave from this link here: https://brave.com/bun192 and for transparency, I will get some BAT if you download it and use it for a month. I do like getting BAT, but I also like people keeping their own data, so give it a go, it can’t be worse than explorer :D\
This is mainly going to be a quick introduction to Tumbling Tom, my new tomato prodigy, and my unalloyed joy at finding out that most of the solar lights that may or may not have been left out through some gnarly weather, still seem to work.
So here is Tom. He is supposed to droop tomatoes. I look forward to seeing his work.
Princess Plum
The Lonely Spud
A tidier corner with onions
Ibrahim and the new candle holders
Potatoes; a plethora thereof.
Gonna have so many strawbs
And lastly, my dinner of homemade bread, homemade butter, cheese, hummus and chicken mayo, with a healthy selection of working lights as the sun went down this evening.
After a hospital appointment, I had half an hour left on my electric car rental, so decided to go for a quick jaunt in the countryside. Apart from accidentally getting thirty miles out of my way, and returning the car late, I did get this photo when I just had to stop at the side of the road to enjoy the misty countryside.
There is nothing insightful in this post, I just wanted to share this regal looking flapper being admired by the cow in the background.
Now before I introduce you, it is worth mentioning what a tricky time it was finalising a name. Everything needs a name, and I wanted these two to have names that would stand the test of time.
After trying Penny and Roni, they didn’t seem to fit, especially as I have also been joined by Ronny and Reggie, the blackcurrant trees. So filibustering aside, please say hello to Princess Plum:
Princess Plum in her new pot.
And, of course, Rhuby:
Rhuby enjoying the sun.
Now all we need is some summer type stuff going on, and maybe some more room around the place. It does seem that all the strawbs survived the winter outside, and we have a lot of them; I can see eight pots full from where I am sitting. Just sadly that so far haven’t been lucky with fruit, but here’s hoping this year will be different.
Also worth mentioning, although probably not necessary as the only person reading this is well aware of where Rhuby and Princess Plum have come from, but obviously a big shoutout to MBZ for my fantastic birthday prezzies, and lets hope I can find a recipe for rhubarb and plum crumble by the time they have done their thing.
Incidentally, and don’t worry, this post is drawing to a close eventually, but the cover photo here is Princess Plum as she is today, budding all over the place.
I will start this with a quick preamble regarding what is probably one of the greatest gifts I have received in recent years. After a conversation with a lass in the pub, I was informed that there was a company that would send people potatoes in a gift box. I did not believe her, and for some reason gave my address to a near total stranger, with her promise of a spud in return.
Many weeks, even months later a box arrived, and lo and behold, a spud in a box, accompanied by the smallest bottle of whisky money can buy.
Well obviously I did not have the heart to eat this pinnacle of potato-hood, but could not think of a fitting plan for him. eventually, my own innate laziness came to the rescue, along with time’s slow progression, and the spud of spuds gave me the answer, by sprouting some shoots.
So I had no choice but to do the honourable thing, and ensure he became spud and sire of spuds.
So there he is, taking his rightful place, so all we can do is wait and see how well he performs. Obviously I will let you know, and you are welcome to mash if they turn out ok.
