The Others

As you will know from my earlier post about Lego David Blaine, I have been following the progress of LDB amazing stunt, "28 Days in a Fish Tank"

Day 25 featured a competition to spot all ten of "The Others" in the fish tank. This, I did, and quite to my surprise I was among the first 5 correct entries recieved. So, I am now waiting with great anticipation the delivery of my very own, Limited Edition LDB Badge.

Those of you who would like to know more about this enagmatic little man can watch "LDB, The movie" here, on quicktime, or if that doesn't work, here.

Day 17 included a visit of "The Flying Satans", performing their excellent hit song, "Magical Man"

Excellent stuff, amusment for young and old.

The Duckling, A very short story

Sadly, the little wild duckling, deprived of it's mum by a cat, which was the contents of the box in the previous post, didn't last so long.

We did what we could but as is so often the way with wild rescue birds but it wasn't enough.

What's in the Box?

My wife's just arrived home with this shoe box which has holes punched in the lid.

This can only mean one thing....... Still, it's been a while since the last time.

Lazy Beds

Playing blog catch up as normal, now reporting an activity 1 week ago.

Saturday of last weekend we took a trip to the nearest large garden centre and bought our set Potatoes, as follows.

Juni, Early, 8 Kg
Berber, early Main, 4.2 Kg
Laila, Main, 6 Kg (The same spuds as last year)

After reading all about Lazy beds in an edition of the excellent Kitchen Garden Magazine, it was decided that we would give this technique a go.

The procedure went roughly as follows,

1: Spread the cow muck, delivered by the young lad in the photo(no not me), into the required rows.

2: Place set potatoes on cow muck.



3: "Fold over" turf/soil on top of potatoes, ensuring most grass/weeds are face down into the cow muck

4: Admire the result of 3 hard hours work and check every day for signs of progress.....

Out of Date Seeds

Along with onions and peas, during our first days work out in the kitchen garden (now a couple of weeks ago), we sowed a good variety of Veg, Herbs, and even some flowers.

Being the hoarder that I am, my substantial collection of seed packets included a fair number of packets past the "sow by" date. The rash decision was taken that these should be used up regardless of how dense the subsequent seedlings may end up.

As much for my own records as your interest, below is a list of the seeds sown, with producer and sell by date (unless otherwise specified). I will endeavour to keep track of thess and publish a detailed germination success/rate report in the near future.

Flowers:

Aster, Suttons, 1/2004
Wild Flower mix, 6/2005

Herbs:

Parsley(Envy), Suttons, 6/2004
Tarragon(Russian), Jahnsons, Dec 2001

Veg:

Courgette(F1 Hybrid), Marshalls, 2005
Leek (Musselburgh), Mr. Fothergills, Packed Aug 1999

Sprouts (Not Brussells!!!):
Mung Beans, Mr. Fothergills, 2002
Alfalfa, Suttons, 6/2002



Other, in date, sowings, included Basil, Coriander, radish, beetroot, spinach, fennel, carrots and turnips.

On a slightly later date, we also made indoor sowings of many different types of peppers, tomatoes and such forth. I will do my utmost to update you on these after "pricking out"!!!

Found, Lost and Found (Again)

I can't make head nor tail of this

I had not been able to find my LandRover Zippo lighter for a good while before now, when it caught my eye lying in the gravel beside the back steps inside the carport as I parked up the bicycle

This is not the first time that this has happened. I first came into possession of this treasure when I found it whilst searching for good skimming stones on the little shingle beach near the hut on the back side of Loweswater lake in Cumbria. This is a place that a good number of my readers are familiar with and it's quite possible that some of you where with us that day. It must be a good few years ago, and my memory is terrible. Maybe it was AJ (AKA Thoughtful Scotsman) and family, friends of Mrs VL visiting from Liverpool, Geoffers, Doc M...... If any of you were there and you remember the occasion please leave a comment to refresh my memory

The last(first?) time I remember actively searching for(and not finding) my Zippo was before "The Lads" trip to the Swedish rally in early February. Judging by the state of it it's been out in the weather for a good while. How it could have been lying in a place that is right beside our normal way in and out the house without being noticed for the best part of 4 months I can not imagine. Maybe Mrs VL has an explanation.

I will start a full photographic restoration, a la Haynes manual, as soon as Mrs VL arrives back with the camera. I hope we've got a good quantity of Brasso to hand.

News Dog

In the lack of any willing customers, Peggy, during a day out at the vet clinic was accosted by Sandefjords local Journalist as part of an article highlighting the problems with Ticks during the summer months on cats and dogs and options for treatment/prevention.

Read the article here. I believe that a closer look at the picture shows that both animals are a little more uptight about the presence of each other than the threat of picking up ticks out in the Norwegian forests.

First Sowings

Spring is finally in full swing. The sun has shone for a couple of weeks now, prompting us, beginning last Sunday (7th May), into a flurry of activity in the garden.

Onion Bed

This year sees us continuing our soil improvement plans and reclaiming land in keeping with our long term Terraced fruit and vegtable garden plans, which will rise up from both sides of the little farm road that runs down to the field. Last year, we were very lucky to come to an agreement with the real farmer that he would use our large pile of rubble as part of the fondation of his new tractor road and replace this with the soil he dug out of the road. Giving us a great mechanically assisted step forward and removing a load of back braking work for us.

The final layout and allocation of land for soft fruit, vegatable beds and fruit trees/orchard is not decided yet. Fruit trees and bushes will have to wait another year for both readiness and financial reasons. So this year we will use as much of this area as possible for "bulk" vegetables in an attmept to keep the area weed free and blend in the copious amounts of manure that the real farmer added for us whilst filling up with soil.

After a couple hours of hard digging, stone picking and manure spreading we had an area 6m x 1.5m prepared. In here we planted 1/2 a kilo of Sturon onion sets and a row of sugar snap peas. We also prepared an area 1x1m for a 4x4 square of Marshalls Metoer Vroma Broad beans.

Futher plans for this area later in the spring/summer, include french beans, leeks, courgettes/marrows, butternut squash and sweetcorn.

Photos to follow.

Lego David Blaine

I can't imagine why but "Lego David Blaines" Amazing "28 Days in a fish tank" stunt has caught my attention much more than anything "Real David Blaine" has ever done.

Follow all the action live here..... www.legodavidblaine.co.uk

Brilliant!!!!

Show Cats

I guess it's about time that I blogged about our feline escapades again.

The whole tribe (excluding Anitra, who, quite understandable, continues to have nothing to do with the whole traveling and showing lark) set off for Smaalene Katteklubb's Show in Skiptvet on the other side of Oslofjord in the early hours of Saturday morning. In total we were 3 humans and 4 felines.

So that's Vegas, our fine stud boy, who's aversion to cat shows is significantly more manageable than Anitra's, Asia as a "Company Cat" for Vegas to keep him a little more relaxed, Skiddaw with her new foster mum (more on that later) and Little Amazing Incident, our very special AI'd boy.


So I'll start with Vegas and Asia. As hoped, they were quiet and relaxed during the journey. Vetting in for Vegas was the normal fight, which prompted the poor Vet to ask if the others where relations of his..... Aware that Vegas had a full bladder and has a tendency to spray the second he is introduced to a new environment he was put in the bare cage, before decoration with only his litter tray. As assumed he proceeded to empty his bladder up the back and roof of the cage..... Nice.. So, we took cat out of cage, cleaned up, installed curtains, blankets and decorations and put the cat back in the cage. Vegas, being the clever lad he is promptly emptied the other half of his bladder straight up the curtains...... Great...... After that, it was the "company cats" turn. As normal, Asia caused the most amount of destruction possible in a short space of time. Their litter tray was emptied, food was spread all over the cage, water on their blanket and so on.

Vegas was the first up to be judged. He was well enough behaved for the judge to award him the certificate we had hoped for but badly enough behaved not to progress any further. The final, and slightly amusing part of the story involves Vegas's amorous tendency towards Asia (even though she was not in season). She was moved in with Amazing, but not before a small crowd had gathered to watch him "trying it on". Oh how embarrassing...... Must remember not to take a "company cat" in future.

Skiddaw, who we have decided to keep in our breeding program, has been fostered by one of the nurses at the Vet Clinic where Mrs VL works. This arrangement means that Skiddaw now lives and is looked after by her new mum but we organise matings and she will come to us a few weeks before she is due and stay with us until the kittens are weaned. When we she has had a few litters ownership will be transferred to her foster mum. Thus have we an extra breeding cat without the chaos and someone, who fell in love with the breed first time she saw one of our cats, gets to own a cat that they couldn't afford to buy.


On Saturday, Skiddaw was a little unhappy and vocal to begin with, but settled down and was exemplary with the judge. Much to our surprise, she won her class ahead of her sister, Scafell Pike, who was being shown by her new owner/breeder. This was great for us, but a little daft as Scafell really needed the win as part of her plans to qualify for the Scandinavian winners show, which we probably can't attend with our cats.

Little Amazing, much to our surprise, was an example for them all. He was relaxed for the whole day. Not a peep in the car and not a grumble in the cage (apart from when he ended up with Asia shoved in with him...) Despite his independent tendencies, he was perfect with the judge, even taking it upon himself to play with her pen whilst she attempted to write notes about him. Despite being "A promising young man" he was placed second, behind a cat a couple of months older, oh well, maybe next time.

All in all, a good day out.