Is the change of atmospheric conditions called "weather" because you don't know whether to go out or stay in?
The week was changeable so by Saturday it was promised to be fine all day and remain so on Sunday. I took a chance on Sunday remaining dry. I hoped that the sun and wind would dry the soil enough to let me harvest some more Potatoes. I have had a very tough few weeks at work and was quite low So H said we should go out. H had seen a piece in a local paper advertising an open day at the Rolls Royce works in Derby. We went along. It was really good. It was the Rolls Royce engineering and restoration club. They had all kinds of stuff from the earliest car and aero engines through to the early jet engines up to some quite modern fighter and passenger plane's jet engines. They had the sorts of Rolls and Royce, who incidentally, met and opened there first car works in Manchester, planes, cars, trucks, tanks, rocket motors and lots of bits of special machines and intricate engineering. The museum had every kind of Rolls related thing but the highlight was at 3pm.
Rolls Royce have a restored Merlin V24 aero engine as used in WWII in Spitfires, Hurricanes, Mosquitos and Lancasters. This one happen to be bolted to the frame and they run it. Three o'clock came and the assembled crowd were treated to the massive V24, 29 litre piston engine being started. It had a little cough and chuff as it was turned over by the starter motor before bursting into life with a deep roar. At first it ran quite rough but as it burbled along on the choke which when reduced settled down into a deep, throaty purr. After a few minutes of ticking over, which is quite fast on areo engines, they pulled the throttles open to run at much higher revs. The sound was visceral. It was not ear splittingly loud but loud with a deep resonance. We were stood about ten yards away. They had a cut down propeller on the motor, no doubt for balance and to give the motor a load, but even cut down to 18 inches the prop still sent a hurricane of wind back to the operators stood at the back of the engine. They ran the engine at different revs. It was quite a thing to witness. When the engine was shut down the crowd broke into a spontaneous round of applause. We then went to find the canteen. A cup of weak warm tea later, my spirit restored, by the event and no the tea, we trundled off home.
The gamble paid off. Sunday was dry. H decided that I needed watching so came along to the lottie. I set about the spuds and H did the French Beans. Incidentally the climbing French Beans have done very well but should have been picked weeks ago. I have been growing them up an "X" shape frame rather than the tradition wigwam or "A" frame. It has worked rather well but next year I will make the "X" more pronounced. When I was fencing last Tuesday I bent the end of my little finger with Martingale attached to my sword. It a french gripped foil which is not what I normal use. It did not hurt much, in fact it was not until I took my glove off at the end of the bout I noticed anything beyond a little discomfort. H made me go to the Doctor the next day and they sent me to Loughborough walk-in centre who duly pronounced I had snapped the tendon that controls the end joint of the little finger, right hand. I have to wear a split for two months. ow try an dig up spuds without sing your little finger of your dominant hand. It is a bugger especially when you know you should not flex your splinted finger. So I was digging with my pinky stuck out as if I was having high tea.
H decided that she fancied a go at digging the potatoes. H has a go every year. Her back is not up to that kind of exertion but she like to have a token go. She loves seeing them come up from the soil "like treasure, like treasure" she says as they come up on the tines of the fork. The soil is in beautiful condition so digging is not too hard but the spuds are in deep so a lot of soil has to be moved. I did the first row myself and half the second row. H did the remainder of the row. She was having fun digging spuds. She would dig up two plants worth I would then go through the soil again for the strays H missed and tidy the soil up as a seed bed, It is heavy work for H and she does not have a method so the potato bed looks like a pack of hounds have been digging for foxes. When H finished I went back over the area we had been tramping over, turning the soil and using the fork to restore the soil to a level surface, more or less. We sprinkled on some Clover seeds. I hope they germinate and start to grow before the year turns properly. The Clover planted as a green manure last year worked really well.
As luck would have it the MotoGP in America was affected the hurricane Ike and was delayed so much so I was able to watch it live on BBC2. Another result! I watched another master class by Rossi. He cements his position at the top of the points table. The next race is at Motegi, Japan in two weeks. I had to be out of the house for 5am on Monday so early to bed.
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