Stoke on Trent

Bank Holiday Monday called for a spin out. Miss L came too....which was nice. Today's carefully selected Bank Holiday day out was Stoke on Trent. Stoke! Yup Stoke. The traffic was light. We found our way to the car park outside the Potteries Museum. Five quid to park for the day....gasp. However it was free to go into the museum. The reason for the visit was two fold:

A. To see some of the Staffordshire hoard
B. To see an exhibition of the work of Emma Bridgewater

There were fifty pieces of the hoard. Although they were not cleaned up they were quite amazing. Bridgewater is a ceramic designer that has worked in Stoke for the past 25 years. We had a look round the other exhibits as well. They just happened to have a restoration project of a MK16 Spitfire. Even in its incomplete state it looked fantastic. R J Mitchell, the designer of the Spitfire, was born and educated in and about Stoke. We even had some Staffordshire oatcakes for dinner. Oatcakes are a local delicacy. On the way back home and completely by accident was passed the Emma Bridgewater Pottery. I did a u-turn and went in for a look round. H and Miss L were in heaven. I just liked the building. Apparently Stoke still produces more pottery than any other city in the world. I wonder were they make it?

The day was fairly warm and quite muggy by the time we got home. I went up to the bees to check them over. All seems well so long as this week goes well. The big deal was that I managed to keep the smoker going all the time I was there.

The McDowell Manifesto

H did not get back until mid-morning Sunday. I was already at the lottie. The morning was cool but sunny. I had this idea that I was going to dig over the bottom end of Bed4. This area is to have the Sweet Corn and Pumpkins. I had a brought along a full tray of Cauliflower and one of Onion [Golden Bear] to plant out in Bed1. Bed 2 is this years cabbage patch. Six weeks or more I had planted out the top third of the bed with Spelt wheat. Not a single seed germinated. The bed is full of weeds. The middle third of the bed was covered with black plastic which has encouraged the renegade spuds left over from last years harvest. I could not plant the Cauli's without cleaning up the weeds. I set about it with a will. The rain that fell during the week has loosened the soil so the weeds came out fairly easily, three very full wheelbarrow loads of weeds. It is a pity the edible plants do not grow as easily and as verdant as the weeds.

Whilst weeding I came across something I have been dreading.......Mare's Tail. There is lots of it in the district but up to now we have been clear of it. The Mare's Tail seems to have come in with last year's landscaping of the NFL bagging plant adjacent to the lottie site. There is only one way to deal with it and that is accept that you cannot get rid of it only check it. I dug deeply and pulled out everything I could find. The roots I dug out were dropped in a bucket of water. A couple of weeks in there are and it will be very dead. Steve rocked up in his Landy sporting a monumental hangover. He was celebrating with his in-law's wedding anniversary the night before. Apparently the homemade Lemoncello was got out....very messy. We had a sit on the bench at the top of the plot. We chatted about allotment business, Mare's Tail and a bit bit about each other's work. Steve thought I should write a book about my point of view on business - The McDowell Manifesto. I might do it!

Steve decided to do some work. I went back to weeding. Having finished weeding I prepared the seed bed in the usual way, raking, treading, raking and treading some more. I aways thought the soil of a seed bed had to be light a fluffy. That is not the case for Brassicas. Cabbage family plants like a rock hard footing. I planted out my thirty Cauli's. Then thought about the Golden Bear. I had a place reserved in Bed1 for the onions. As you might imagine nothing could be done before a good dose of weeding had taken place. Weeding done and onions separated from the seed tray I dibbed a hole for each onion in turn.........fifty odd of them and planted them. Then it was just a case watering everything. I took the shears to the long grass and Thistles growing in the path next to Bed 2. Time was marching on: I did a bit weeding on the Asparagus bed. I harvested a couple of Asparagus spears whilst I was at it. I bagged a couple of stalks of Rhubarb. I tidied up the compost heap. Loaded up Degsy and went home.

Not much happened for the remainder of the afternoon. Just a bit of snoozing and watching the F1 which I missed because I was snoozing.

Be careful what you ask for

It has been a very busy week. I have been out every evening for one reason or another as well having to work. I looked in on the greenhouse. I had given it a good soaking the previous weekend. With the weather being cooler than of late the plants were just damp and they had also come on a lot.

Friday's outing was a bit good. H got a couple of tickets for Derby Assembly rooms to see John Cooper Clark supported by Frank Sidebottom [put your speakers on]. Cooper Clark is also called "the Bard of Salford". He is a punk poet and has a particular style of delivery. There are video clips on his website. His language can be a bit.........fruity. No such worries with Frank. We even had a sing-a-long with Frank, yes we did...you know we did. Thank you.
It is a Bank Holiday this weekend which is just as well as Saturday turned out to be a wash out. I woke to the rain slashing down. I have been saying that the lottie needs some rain. I might be being fussy but why can't it rain during the week. I did the trailer run in spite of the rain. I had a look round the lottie whilst I was there. I cut some Asparagus and Rhubarb. Everything else is coming on including the weeds. I yanked out the ones that were in flower. When I took the trailer back to the stables I went up to see the bees. They were buzzing in the hives but few were flying. Not surprising really. It is cool and still raining. H and Miss L are away tonight so with luck I should be able to the lottie tomorrow until such time as they get back and maybe open the hives. The rain eased off about lunch so I did a long overdue job.

I set about re-hanging the gate to the side if the house. I had to fit some pads to space the gate off the wall. It all went very well. I gave the hinges a dollop of grease which they might not have seen for the first twenty years of their life. I even fitted the loop for the hook onto the wall so I can have the gate held open. It is still raining a bit so what else is there to do?

There is always something to do. H and Miss L bought me a trip computer for my push bike for my birthday. I spent an hour fitting it, calibrating it and setting the base data. Now only if it were dry enough to go for spin. And that was pretty much it. An early Tea and a sit back to watch the early evening sun.

Clubbing at midnight.

Saturday night was a blast. I am officially old. Ben whose 21st birthday it was; was being cool with his mates, all Afgan veterans as far as I know and not one of them more than 25 years old. Humbling really. The funny thing was they were scared to death of the cocktail fueled older ladies and Mancunian young ladies. They went clubbing at midnight. We went to bed. It was a really good night.

Sunday dawned really early with the sun blazing in the window. After a leisurely start I dropped H and cousin Colette together with Miss L and her "cool" [says Miss L] cuz Sarah Jane into town [Manchester]. I had to fettle Mums PC and had a chance to "chillaxe" as Miss L would have it. I picked the posse up a couple of hours later complete with their bargains. A spot of lunch and we were off. It was a hot and slow drive home. I contacted my bee supplier and we arranged to meet at 9pm. Today was collection date for the insurance bees. Insurance because I ordered them last year in case my hive did not survive the winter. The hive did survived the winter and had swarmed [a swarm in May is worth a ........] so I now have three hives, Growing bees is easy, capping them is hard. Ten PM Sunday night found me in the apiary transferring a very full nuc of bees to their new home, a national hive. It was too cold really [cold is a relative term] but needs must. I did not fancy leaving them in the travelling nuc box for a few days. I did the transfer by the light of the moon and got stung a dozen times for the trouble of giving them a new home.

It was all a bit special at the apiary on Sunday night. It was very warm in a Mediterranean way, a waxing half moon casting an eerie light from a clear and utterly still sky. The only noise being the gentle tinkle of the Mease. No wind ruffling the plastic of the Strawberry tunnels, no aeroplanes or any other sound of machinery; road, farm or airborne and since my blundering about made a terrific noise the local roosting Pigeons had long since flapped off into the night. Tired but inwardly content I made my way home. Ready for the week ahead? I doubt it but I am content with the bigger picture. Carpe Diem

Early start

Saturday AM was a bit of a rush. I was up early, not quite with the sun but earlier than usual. After a quick breaky I pulled on spark plug out of Degsy. It is burning correctly so fuel consumption must be right. I checked the manual and found where the throttle stop screw was sited. I found a screw driver to fit to the throttle stop and put it in the "glove box". I removed the near side indicator lens to replace the bulb. On removing the bulb I found the earth was corroded. I used a file to clean up the electrode. As you might expect as soon as the bulb was refitted it work as it should. the blister pack of indicator bulbs will have to go into the "store". I dipped the oil and topped it up with something like the right amount.

With indicator fixed, mixture confirmed and oil topped I headed off for the trailer then the bees. Luckily the weather was hot, hot, hot. The trailer was straight forward. I had a quick look round the lottie. I short ...dry but seeds are sprouting. I can only hope that the slugs are kept at bay because of the dry weather. The dry weather and hoeing last week is working out. More hoeing needed though.

Having returned the trailer to the stables I went over to the bees and looked them over. They seem fine if subdued. It might because I was there early and the temperature was lowish or the heavy dose of smoking or both together. Whatever the case the honey is flowing in. Having pressed on I found I was finished by 10.30 and Miss L did not finish until noon. Degsy took me over to a different meadow. I took a few minutes to walk along the river Mease stalking the fish. I found a big ole Willow by the river bank. I had a sit down and wrote in my journal for half an hour. The river is shallow at this point. There was a small school of Chub feeding in the shallows. Toads and birds were singing all very idyllic really but the real world world beckoned. I took a couple of pictures of Degsy looking cool by the river in the sun.

















Time was ticking on. I trundled home for some lunch and to get ready to go Madchaester to party.

Ickle jobs

The evenings are very long now and it has given me chance to do a number of little jobs. One evening I filtered the must of the Rhubarb wine into a couple of Demi-johns. The weather warming up was a happy coincidence. The DJs are bubbling away. Another evening I fixed the cross bars to the garden posts to complete the gateway. It was not much of a job but it was satisfying. I did other jobs such as fix the loo seat, water the greenhouse and the fruit trees and bushes. I did a bit of fettling on the spare hives to get them ready for Sunday.

H and Miss L were looking a bit furtive when I came home from work on Friday. I was led out to the top decking in the back garden to find a glass of wine waiting for me along with cards and presents. Its my birthday on Sunday but we are in Manchester for the weekend. We had a birthday tea and spent time together.....which was nice.

A bit of "culcha"

Sunday was a nice slow start. H has a streaming cold so was not doing anything for the day. I went to the lottie; planted out some more plantlets, hoed of the potato bed, pulled the black plastic off the Bed2 and stowed it on the path adjacent in the hope of killing some of the weeds. Then the best job. I harvested a plateful of Asparagus and took them home in triumph. It cheered H up. She like a bit a Asparagus. So do I at £5 per bunch in the shops.

I went up to the apiary. The bees were flying as expected on the old hive and were not in the new hive. That is now it should be. I listened to the hive and could hear a contented buzz. I looked through the box and found all in order. There was a good number of bees and they were drawing wax. Always a good sign, on few different levels. I open the old box. I did not smoke them and the wind was from the north still chilly which the bees did not approve of. They piled out of the hive to see who pulling their house to pieces. They did not string just whirled around my head...lot of them. All was in order but I do not think the swarming instinct has been satisfied.

I went home via the petrol station and picked up an indicator bulb for Degsy. Whe I got there H was sat in the garden with a glass of wine. Feeling better then? Apparently it was medicinal. We had a chat about this that and came round to the Ivy. It wants to take over the house and next door but not content with covering the walls it wants to get inside next doors garage. I cleaned some of it off and before long had a big pile of cuttings on the floor however you could not really see where it had come from. A decision has to be made. Having tidied up I ran a bath. I had to make myself presentable. We were going out for a bit a "culcha".

H had got tickets to see the Halle Orchestra at Derby Assembly Rooms. H used to see the Halle a lot in Manchester. I have seen them a few times. A full orchestra in full flow is impressive. Their home used to be the Free Trade Hall. It was not known for its acoustics but it was a great venue. I did not look at the tickets until we gave them to the usher who sent us down to the front row just right of centre, seats A15 & 16. In any other case you would be happy with that but not us. We like to be higher up to, as H puts it, to keep a eye on the percussion section. As it was we got a very good view of the first cello, cello and bass section and the conductor himself. He was giving it some jip, waving his arms about, stamping and growling. I am not sure if he is really needed. The program was Spanish themed music from Charbrier, Rodrigo and Falla. There was a bird doing some singing in the mezzo soprano style. There was also a chap playing a couple pieces on a guitar. He was genuinely impressive although it was not my cup of tea. After the interval there was crowd pleasers, excerpts from Bizet's Carmen and all of Ravel's Bolero. They played Bolero to its with gusto to its climax and famous collapse. It had folks cheering, stamping feet, clapping and whistling. It was like The Quo at the Free Trade Hall Hall except it was all tweed and paste colours at the Assembly rooms. They soon ran out of steam the clapping stopped. We were allowed home. We had that thing where you don't want to look hasty but want to leave. We were just getting to our car when the First Cello came steaming past. He had no such qualms when you think he had to get changed and put away his instrument and lug it to the seventh floor of the car park. He was on his toes. H was very happy to have seen Halle, I was too, after my fashion. We are to see John Cooper Clark, the Bard of Salford supported by Frank Sidebottom, if his mum will let him out. That might be more my level.