Liverpool

We saw Lucy off as planned on the Saturday. Then up at a reasonable hour on Sunday, a comfortable breakfast then off the Liverpool via Manchester. I had stuff to drop off with Mum and Dad, veg from the lottie, some more of H's Blackcurrant jam and Redcurrant jelly. H's scrounged Dad's over trousers for walking part of our holiday. It is only August after all.

We stopped in Manchester just for a cup of tea and a sarny before heading off to Liverpool. We went straight to Crosby to see the statues via the East Lancs Road. It was a sunny and very breezy day. The men in "real life" look quite strange. As the day wore on and the day trippers dispersed they made an eerie sight. Crosby beach is an odd place. The busy River Mersey and offshore wind farms to the front, the desolate expanse of the Ainsdale dunes to the north, the cranes and docks of Seaforth container port to the south and behind the odd mix of Victorian seaside villas, smart eateries on Crosby's main street and just beyond the poverty of Liverpool. Maybe not the grinding poverty of the 1880's but still a different culture and less comfort then the rest of us enjoy.














We found the Hotel after a minor detour. Cheap and cheerful and in case you were wondering, yes we got a room with a view of the Dock and at no extra cost a view of Birkenhead. We could see a bright blue arched bridge in the distance. H and I wondered if it was the bridge over the West Float where Liverpool Victoria had their boat house. The hotel had a large scale map of the area and it was indeed the West Float where we used to race. Liverpool Victoria Boat House would not be out of place of the Thames or the Isis instead it is backed onto by a scrap yard and derelict warehouses [when last we saw it].

In evening we took a stroll round Victoria Dock. It has been developed a lot since I used to go there. We sat on the benches looking out across the Mersey to Birkenhead. The tide was was just coming the high water slack and there were several ships making their way up stream to their berths. We watched all the nationalities wandering about but then we started to think about filling our bellies. We looked round and to our surprise a Pizza Express. No second thoughts. We even knew what we would have. Dough balls and a Capricciosa pizza which is prosciutto cotto ham, anchovies, fresh strips of red pepper, capers and olives, topped with a free range boiled egg and washed down with a Perroni beer. Having taken time over dinner we strolled back to the hotel.

We had a comfortable night's sleep and in the morning, a good breakfast . We set off for the Lakes but seeing as we had loads of time, we could not check in until 4pm, we went via the "A" roads and decided to stop for lunch at Morecombe.

Scouse Humour

H and I are getting ready for our holidays. A day has become free so I looked for something to fill it. H has always wanted to see Anthony Gromley's installation "Another Place". I rang up a hotel in Liverpool to book a room. The hotel is in the Victoria dock area. I asked "Ian", the jolly chap who was working reservations that day, if the room would have a view [of the Dock]? "Yes Sir, all the rooms have windows" came the reply.

Click HERE for a YouTube of "Another Place"

Spot Weeding

The weather has been very accommodating, heavy showers then a day or two of a dry spell and more showers. Even at night the air temperature is 17+ degrees C and in the day in the mid to high twenties. This has caused the plants to shoot up. That suits me. The strong leafy plants tend to crowd out the weeds. It is only the Onions that suffer since they offer no shade which lets the weeds get established.

At this time of the season I just spot weed and push the hoe about where I can. Any weed that shows flowers is allowed a few days in the sun and is then yanked out. My hope is that the plant has expended a lot of energy growing put out flowers for the bees and other insects and pulling them whilst in flower means they do not set seed. If they have not set seed they can go in the compost.

I friend of mine, Alan, was after a few seedlings to replace the Sprouting Broccoli that had failed. I only had Sprouts but that was deemed an acceptable alternative. We had a tour of the plot and bagged a couple of handfuls of what ever was ripe. He went away with a big basket of fresh veg. His missus, Julia, will make something fantastic. She is a great cook. It will be all that WI training. On the way back we had to drop in at The Railway, where payment was made, in the form of a couple of pints of Guinness. I was such a pleasant evening we sat outside and talked of "cabbages and kings" and other such nonsense over our pints.

The Parsnips have been a disaster. No more than a dozen have germinated and the speed they are growing they will look like mini-veg on Christmas dinner plate. The Carrots are doing nicely. There is a green fuzz in the rows where the seedlings are growing and the weather is perfect for them. I have been round the leaders of the pumpkin and cut off the growing tips. This will force the plant to fill out the fruits. One of the pumpkins is already bigger than a football. Broad Beans are ready to crop as are some of the Peas. The climbing French Beans have some pods but they look lumpy rather than smooth. Perhaps I have left them too long on the vine. The early cabbages have been eaten by baby slugs so I will have them out shortly and plant out some of the Brussel Sprout seedlings in there place. The successional sowing cabbage has work quite well in the patch except for the cauli's They all came together and went to seed between my visits.

H has had a triumph with her first attempt at jam making. The Blackcurrant set just right and is just the right balance of sweet and acid. The Redcurrants from Gloria have made a very nice jelly. We had some with the Bacon for tea tonight. The blackcurrants came from our garden and made twenty jars of jam and enough left over to make some Cassis. Mum was clearing out under the stairs and found some part bottles of Cognac left over from parties years ago. I do not like spirits but made into Cassis it is a different matter.

We went to Manchester on Saturday to our dear friend Jill's birthday. The big four oh. It was a smashing evening. We saw folks we had not seen for a long while. They were all amazed at Miss L. Some one them had not seen Miss L since we left Manchester when she was eight. Jill's dad, Charlie, who is a lovely chap, kept referring to Miss L as his super model friend which Lucy liked a lot. There was a young chap, Adam, who sang along to a backing tape. He was fantastic. He sung songs of Dean Martin, Sinatra and Matt Munroe and swing interpretations of more modern tunes. H was all agog because he sung Gershwin's "Someone to Watch Over Me"for her. Ella Fitzgerald did the most well know version. The tune was also used in film the same name with a young Tom Berenger in the lead who is also one of H's favorites.

I have a trip to London this week and I go on holidays next weekend so there will be a lot to do. I have made a list. I only hope I can tick most of it off before I leave.

The Moon

Whilst I was writing the blog this evening I watched the Moon rise. The clouds are thin and stratified. The three quarter Moon rose slowly behind Bardon Hill, huge, red and tastefully obscured by two thin wisps of clouds. As the evening wore on the moon continued it slow upward climb and changed in to its usual milky white colouring. The clouds and passing moon had made new elegant tableau's each time I looked up from typing a paragraph. Just now the moon is hazy but sitting on a cloud layer. It would be a nice night to be aboard. If only I had a reason to be out.

In between writing the blog and musing over the moon I found a photo of the lottie from 30th March this year and compared it with the one I took at the weekend. It is a striking change. See for your self.

March: Frosts, digging, manuring

July: warm, dry, plants hurrying to harvest in full vigour.

Weekend 20th July

I had just a few hours on Saturday to do what was needed at the lottie. Miss L coming back from her sojourn to Cornwall at some point on Saturday. As it happened it was seven in the evening when we went to collect her. Miss L was off to Manchester to stay with Gran and Grandad for the week starting on the Sunday so I only had the morning to do lottie. It was a very busy week at work but managed to get a look in at the lottie during the week and see my buddy Steve to get the orders for watering the plants whilst he is on holiday.

I was was the on the trailer run so was up fairly early. The weather was not helping my timetable, heavy showers were blowing in and out at various speeds. At one stage in the morning whilst working at lottie, a shower blew in and by the time I got to the car it had blown over but I was soaked. I dug up a row of Charlotte's and a row of White Duke of York spuds. The Broad Beans are shoulder high and the cabbages are full flow. The weather has been perfect, warm and wet which has made the spuds bulk up without me having to kill myself watering. On returning the trailer I took a dinners worth of Spuds and some Broad Beans for Chris & Angie. Since I was going up to Manchester I made up two baskets both with two varieties of spuds. One baskets had a cabbage [Candissa] bottle of home cider and a bottle of the demon Damson wine, the another soft fruits from the garden and some small cauliflowers. Mum and Dad got the fruit basket, Uncy Derk the basket with the fortified refreshment. Even sharing the bounty I still had more than enough to do the week.

Digging the spuds was relatively easy work so long as you do not have too many to dig at once! Despite all the rain the soil was just moist. The spuds had sucked up all the water. The Duke of Yorks are great croppers and I intend to leave them in as long as I dare. They make great roasting spuds being large and the insides fluffy when cooked. Here is a picture of the harvest from one of the plants.

I planted ten seed potatoes in each row, not more than a pound in weight for the row and this year they have returned, on average two pounds of spuds per plant. Not bad going.

I even got round to placing stakes behind the vines and tieing them in. The Vines are just about up to the first cross wire which is at about hip height. They might make it to the shoulder height cross wire by the end of the season. Another wait and see.

The only disappointment is the French climbing and dwarf French Beans. They are not doing well at all. I think it is the wind that is chilling them. They just don't like the cold. On the other hand the Pumpkin is making a bid to dominate the whole lottie. I can fell a pinching out session coming on.

Weekend 12th July

This is a busy time of year for me mainly because parts of every weekend are spent ferrying Miss L round various parts of the country. It is a double whammy this weekend because Miss L is a away for the week with a friend and H is away for the weekend with her sister. Miss L just needed ferrying across town to her friends house on Friday evening Miss L, Jess, her Mum and the dog "Ollie", red bandanna and all are to go camping in Cornwall for the week. H was going over the Hathersage to see the Silly Burgers , a compilation of tribute performers. Apparently H and Sis danced their socks off.

I saw H off on Saturday lunch time the went to the lottie for a few hours. There is not a great deal to do at the moment. Weeding of course. I did the carrot patch on my hands and knees and filled the wheelbarrow twice. It looks good now. In the adjacent area I has found that there was no sign of the Parsnip I had planted six weeks ago. There was the odd one which I transplanted into a single row. I figure the slugs had them so re-prepped the area and sowed two whole packets of Carrot seed for the autumn instead.

I dug up another row of Charlotte spuds and washed them. H likes them all clean from the lottie. I checked on the French Beans - climbing and dwarf in bed 2. They are not doing so well. The Pumpkin I put in has got it@s feet under the table and is romping off across the lottie. I had a couple of Butternut squash plants available so I dug a big hole for each one and dumped in five shovel fulls of manure and planted the squashes on top. I also had a a dozen outdoor ridge cucumbers so I planted those around the edge of bed 2

I had a six foot strip of bed 4 which had not been dug over since the winter. I had a load of assorted brassicas to plant out so I set to. The soil was like chocolate cake to dig over. The weeds fell to the fork with ease. Half an hour later the digging was done and I set about planting the seedlings. I have made a discovery. I always plant the seeds in modules and when big enough plant them out. I figure I give them the best start and usually they are big enough to the resist the slugs. I have been gradually increasing the size of the modules. I ran out of modules and sowed the last batch of brassicas in a big deep tray. They turned out to be the best seedling yet. This has lead me to the conclusion that to have vigorous seedlings one must plant them in deep trays so as not to restrict the root growth. Another lesson learnt.

I had an invitation to honour. By tradition Steve has a BBQ on the first weekend of the summer holidays. That was this weekend. A fortnight ago Steve asked me if a could make Elderflower Champagne to order. I said "I don't know". I had only made it once before. I spent a wet but invigorating afternoon tramping round Hick Lodge collecting Elder flowers. I followed the recipe and took the results to Steve's BBQ. The bottles were tight as drums. That made me think they would probably be fizzy. Yep, it was fizzy. It exploded out of the bottle. It was an interesting taste, sweet but slightly bitter and a low alcoholic content. A nice drink to start a summer party with. A bit later the red wine came out and things go a bit silly. All in all it was a very pleasant evening.

H came back on Sunday about dinner time. I had a lie in then a light breakfast and a sit down. Luckily there were heavy showers which stopped any plans for the lottie.

Better than Boggies

I not not do much on the lottie this weekend because I got an invite to a launch day of Honda's CB1000R. Saturday morning was spent travelling up to Manchester. Miss L came along too but just to go shopping in the city you understand. I dropped Miss L off at her gran's and I disappeared to the dealers. I did the sign in thing and elected to ride the CB1300R, CBR1000RR and the CB1000R. The was a free butty van so I partook of burgers and coffee to fill that empty spot. Then for a good look round the bikes. It was a bit of a cheat really, brother Derek's best buddy Harvey works at the shop and Derek has had a couple of bikes from them over the years so it was not like walking into a unfriendly place. Derek with a couple of others were tasked with chaperoning riders on the new bikes round the test circuit.

Whilst I was kicking stones, killing time until my first ride out I had a look at the bikes in detail then I suddenly heard, from across the shop, "Dave 8,4 - Dave 8,4!". It was one of the lads I used to ride with when I was a courier all those years ago. EZ84 was my call sign, Dave's my name. There are about a couple of dozen people in Manchester who get their tagged with their old call sign. I am one of them. I had a chat with Steve. He seems to have done alright for himself. We had a chat about bike's, as you do. Then it was time for a spin. The CB1300 has a 1300cc engine and is big, soft and comfy. Derek wangled it so I went out on my own with one of his buddies. We did not hang about and zipped around the ten mile circuit of motorways, dual carriage ways and main roads. A good mix of road types to show off the bikes traits. Next up was the CBR1000RR a.k.a. the Fireblade. It is the out and out sports bike of the Honda range. It was £&*@ fast, beautifully poised with phenomenal brakes and fantastic exhaust note once the revs were above 4000 rpm, Oh and did I say - blisteringly fast. That was a smashing ride. The riding position was a good if a little short fo leg room. I should have done a few yoga exercises before I got on. The CB1000R was saved until last. That was almost as fast as the "blade" and all most all the things the blade is except more street styled.

Honda have released a special bike called the DN-01. There are only 15 in the country. At the end of the day Derek got to take it up the road to be filled with petrol. It is an odd styled thing. It is essentially a 700cc twist and go scooter.

Once everything was packed away I went back to Gran's to pick up Miss L and spend a little time with them. Of course they got a digest of what I had been up to for the past five hours. Miss L and I popped over to see Uncy Derk. No trip to Manchester would be complete for Miss L without a visit across town. Derek and I had a debrief about the bikes and characters we saw on the day. Auntie Teresa recounted the story of her grand-daughter. I had sent them home when they visited a couple of weeks ago with some homemade jam. The little 'un loves jam butties so tried some of mine. The verdict is that my jam is "better than boggies". Since the jar is almost empty I will take it as a a compliment. Have supped plenty of tea, Miss L and I trundled home in appalling conditions.

Next next morning the weather was not much better so I pottered about in the greenhouse getting the trays ready to be taken down the lottie for planting out. Miss L had a bunged up nose an a sore throat. She was left at home whilst H and I went for a walk round Staunton Harold. It was just a light expedition. We got back to the car just as it started to rain. We managed to almost ignore a car-full of out friends who were just leaving as we arrived back in the car park. It was not until they wound the window down we could see in.

I went up to the lottie about 8pm, just for a look. I did about and hours worth of hand weeding and manged to get my nice trouser scuffed with mud. There will be bother when H finds out. I picked some Broad Beans and Rhubarb and went home. All this rain and sunny intervals is making everything grow like mad, which is way it should be.