Alotment day

Paid a visit today after a few weeks away and things weren't too bad - a few more weeds in some places, but almost none under the beans - do they exude some nasty other plant poison or something? The strimming was fun as usual and dealt effectively with the long grass.

The weather has been wet ad humid and it looks like a few folk have had blight attacks, but our potatoes still look okay. I picked:

1. A few onions from the excellent crop as rain is forecast for the next few days and I'm worried they might rot.
2. Some carrots, which are small and stocky, but have an incredibly strong carrot smell.
3. A huge marrow- I hate marrow but leaving it on the ground seemed a waste - anyone know an edible recipe for marrow?

I expected to pick some blackberries but they are still sour as so I'll wait a few more days.
The wall supported by the contentious "pigs ear form of buttresses" has mysteriously disappeared - parish council shenanigans I expect.

Livejournal, the recession

News of layoffs at LiveJournal spurred me to track down an archiving tool to save my occasional posts if the worst happens - ljarchive did the trick - though it is unthinkable that folks would let the LJ disappear.

We love mr t

Beautiful Days

Summer in England means music festival time, so we three went off for the weekend to Beautiful Days for music and fun.

As it is held just down the road from us it wasn't too long a drive on Friday afternoon to get to the site and pitch our tent. This was done amazingly fast as Enid had selected a great tent from on a trip to Trago Mills several months ago. Once set up in our home away from home we wandered off to explore the stalls and music on show.

Nouvelle Vague were fun with their cabaret style interpretations of classics such as dancing with myself and ever fallen in love. The had a nice sound but it was a bit restrained for an out door venue, suspect a CD or a smaller club are the best experience.

Sleep in the tent was easily achieved, with the family area proving to be calm enough.

Saturday saw rain hit the festival site which made me feel more inclined to sit and read in out wonderfully waterproof tent. We did venture out for some exploring, with Small trying out whittling at the Escot education display.

We listened to Transglobal Underground who put on a good set, but my day was upset by the news that John Cooper Clarke wouldn't be performing as planned. Bum! I went and listened to Ian Cognito for a while, but he just seemed to be swearing for his own amusement so wandered off for a while, returning to the little big top for Attila the Stockbroker who was swearing just as much, but with some wit and left wing vigour.

I fled from the rain for a nap, and returned to hear the last bit of Stiff Little Fingers' set - and good they were too!

Small enjoyed splashing in the mud, as we had all come prepared with wellingtons to keep our feet dry, which was a good thing cause there was a lot of mud about!

After a bit of a rest and read we ventured out again for Supergrass, who I thought were a bit tired. They seemed to be going through the motions of a festival gig without actually having much fun. The "You're a great crowd" patter sounded really forced. At least the rain had stopped by this time so everyone could dance or sit in relative comfort.

The next morning we awoke to a clear sky which made packing the tent an easy task. Plans to hang around at the festival soon gave way to the decision to escape the mud, which involved negotiating a large mud slide that had been the drive into the car park. At first we tried cutting across the car park via vacated spaces, but soon gave up as we became stuck. With some assistance we made it closer to the main drive and decided to turn on the hazard lights and wait for a tractor to tow us out as per the signs around the place. With only three tractors their was along weight. We tried to get Small to look upset hoping this would make the tractor drivers take pity on us, but Small kept laughing. The wait gave Small and Enid a chance togo off and collect Smalls clay diorama of a camping scene from a kids craft tent. Upon their return I decided to give the mud slide/exit a go, having observed a few woks having success with one particular set of tracks in the mud bath. Having suggested to a four wheel drive enabled family they give it a try, we used their free tracks as our link to the magic ruts, and with just a a few pushes along the way the rover slide and spun it's wheels all the way to the exit! Hooray!

I had a great time as did Enid and Small, so we are already planning to attend another festival next summer.

Going home

after a delay at christchurch and a missing bag in lax we are at least safe and sound..