Alan Williams's Blog, page 54

Buzzards Overhead

I was out at a meeting for a proportion of yesterday, when I came back I was sitting at my desk catching up on some emails, when I heard the distinctive call of a buzzard outside. I grabbed my camera and stepped outside.

There were two individuals and they seem to be having a lot of fun soaring and diving in the sky. I managed to capture a few images.

Quick Links 9th August 2016

The fact that climate change is real, happening, and having a major impact on the planets weather patterns is an accepted fact by the majority of people, but it does seem that the worlds media does little to highlight the issues as facts, instead tending to focus on the sensational news. Now I know that this is because the sensational stuff is what tends to sell papers or attract airtime or whatever the metric a particular media outlet uses, but I seriously feel that we need to get a grip on...

Quick Links 2nd August 2016

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.

The Week In Wildlife – In Pictures

Currently Reading:

Normal Pt 3 by Warren Ellis [GoodReads]

A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins [GoodReads]

I’ve been taking a lot more photographs over the...

Making Summer Vegetable Tart

This isan easy and quick way to use up gluts of some vegetables, and you can swap out ingredients for whatever you happen to have. For this version you’ll need:

Sheet of ready made puff-pastry (or hand make a sheet)
2 medium or 1 large courgettes (make sure that the skins aren’t too tough)
3 large tomatoes or a couple of handfuls of cherry tomatoes
2 medium red onions
100g Goats Cheese
Small bunch of basil (or dried flakes)
Small bunch or oregano (or dried flakes)
Regular olive oil & extra v...

Quick Links 26th July 2016

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.

A Week In Wildlife – In Pictures

Currently Reading

Normal Pt. 2 by Warren Ellis [GoodReads] I’m really enjoying this 4-part novella from Warren Ellis. It comes out on a Tuesday, so by the time y...

Allotment and Potting Shed Updates 22nd July 2016

The last week has been incredibly hot, with temperatures in the high twenties and low thirties most every day. I don’t mind the heat, but the humidity some days has made things feel quite oppressive. The plot and the potting shed are doing well though, with some exceptions. Video updates of both below.

Quick Links 19th July 2016

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.

Pokemon Go. I’d not heard of those two words until this week, but it seems to be the latest craze sweeping the world. Only just launched in the UK, I think that’s a pretty savy move just before t...

Quick Links 12th July 2016

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.

When I read something like this article in The Guardian, I am increasingly not shocked or surprised. Why? Well put simply, this has been said before, but politician’s and society at large, just a...

Blight on the Allotment

We’ve been having a lot of weather recently that is ideal conditions for the spread of blight. It effects tomatoes and potatoes, of which I grow both. Fortunately I am only growing my tomatoes inside this year, so they are less likely (although not guaranteed) to contract it. The potatoes on the other hand are outside and directly in the firing line. I wasn’t that surprised then to find that I had blight on the potatoes when I arrived at the plot yesterday.

I’d been keeping an eye on them, so...

Daily Harvest

I’m harvesting daily on the allotment at the moment. I haven’t purchased any green vegetables, potatoes or lettuce from the store in some time, in fact I think the only thing that I have been regularly buying as fresh produce is mushrooms (I don’t grow them), radish (I’ve had a total crop failure this year), tomatoes (mine aren’t ready) and cucumber (harvested the first one this morning, so not going to be buying any next week). I love it.

All of this wonderful food, grown by me and eaten by...