Alan Williams's Blog, page 45

Eat Seasonally

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It doesn’t come as a surprise to me to read articles like this one, but it shouldn’t really matter that we can’t get produce like this at this time of year. The UK climate doesn’t support growing iceberg lettuces outside at this time of year, but there are plenty of things that do grow well in the UK winter climate. Leeks, kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower to name a few. Add to that things that have been frozen or preserved – beans, onions and a few other things. It doesn’t matter that we...

Quick Links 6th February 2017

Each week I’ll try and post quick links to things that I’ve seen, read, inspired me or just sparked my interest in the previous week, with a little background and my thoughts and other things that I’ve been up to in the previous week. Mostly gardening, cooking and environmental stuff but not always.

Life In General.

It’s mostly been a work focused week, and I’ve been holed-up in my home office working (see below). I’ve had to step out to walk the dogs, and a couple of other chores, but other...

Potato Time

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I picked up my seed potatoes from the allotment shop yesterday, and they’re now sitting in egg boxes chitting. Another sign that the new growing season is nearly upon us.

A Job For The Weekend

Sow some tomato seeds.

If you don’t have any, go buy some. Sow them in some good compost in either a seed tray or if you don’t have the room for that in a small flowerpot on a windowsill. You need to keep them somewhere sunny and warm, and a windowsill is perfect. A propagator in a warm room would be good too. Give them a little water to get the compost damp, but don’t water them again until they germinate.

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Once they’ve germinated, keep the compost slightly damp, but don’t over water them. W...

A Storm Is Coming

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As I’ve mentioned here before, it’s not an uncommon sight to see flocks of seagulls camped out on the local playing field (see above).

We’re forecast for a big storm today, and when I was walking the dogs yesterday there was a maelstrom of gulls wheeling and turning over the field. They hadn’t settled but I suspect that they are coming inshore to escape rougher conditions out to see and along the coast.

I always take this as a better sign that we’re going to get strong winds, it seems to be...

Ghostly Aliens?

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As regular readers of this blog will know, one of my frequent daily dog walks is around the local derelict fort. It probably won’t come to anyone’s surprise that the area often attracts a lot of teenagers, particularly on summer evenings and at weekends. They’re mostly harmless, and I can’t say that I’ve ever had a problem or witnessed one beyond some littering and graffiti.

The graffiti is the usual sort of thing – tags, initials, you know what I mean. Recently though the alien ghosties pic...

Blog Survey

Just over a year ago I ran a short survey of what you the readers thought of my blog. I made some changes as a result of that survey, so I thought it was about time that I ran the survey again to see what you think of those changes, and the blog in general.

It’s a short survey and should take less than five minutes to complete. If you do complete it, you can enter yourself into a draw for a £10 Amazon e-voucher. The survey will be open through February 2017, and the draw will take place after...

Allotment Update 28th January 2017

A quick update from the plot, to dig some parsnips and look at next years layout.

Quick Links 30th January 2017

Each week I’ll try and post quick links to things that I’ve seen, read, inspired me or just sparked my interest in the previous week, with a little background and my thoughts and other things that I’ve been up to in the previous week. Mostly gardening, cooking and environmental stuff but not always.

Life In General.

My Grandma’s funeral was last Friday (27th), the service was very nice and another family era ends. The past week has been a mixture of work and making the final arrangements for...

Rockin’ 1000 – Smells Like Teen Spirit

I enjoy watching these videos, I’m always impressed by the fact that they pull off such a performance. Great long shots over the drummers, who all appear to be in time with one another.