A Writers Life

Doing it all for charity mate..

2008-06-04T21:42:00.003Z

My mate Ken Fairley is going to swim from Gosport to the IOW in aid of a local charity - KIDS.

Follow the exploits of his training here:-

http://kenssolentswimdiary.blogspot.com/

Mark

Flickr

2008-03-21T22:57:00.001Z

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

17062007249

2007-06-18T20:14:00.001Z

17062007249
Originally uploaded by Veeoh

Woo! Look!

First crop of carrots. Very tasty, if a bit small.

The taste alone made it worth while

dahlia and log

2007-06-09T14:03:00.001Z

dahlia and log
Originally uploaded by Veeoh

We had some Lime trees cut down at work and I managed to salvage a nice chunk, with a possibility of a couple more - not sure about the Dahlia on the top of this but...

hosta

2007-06-09T14:02:00.001Z

hosta
Originally uploaded by Veeoh

This is probably the first time we had Hosta's and they have not been gobbled by slugs and snails....

Growing on..

2007-06-06T15:26:00.001Z

05062007090
Originally uploaded by Veeoh

Well, its getting there.

What you cant see from this shot is the circle of stones in front of the greenhouse. The willow edging is /almost/ straight....!

Eventually we are going to have more, larger, pebbles around the area where the mud is.

Oh, the lettuce is charming.

Mark

Amelia

2007-05-11T12:43:00.000Z

Amelia just took 4 steps on her own - no stopping her now!

Better move things above head hight now then...

A green dog

2007-05-09T14:48:00.001Z

14042007051
Originally uploaded by Veeoh.

You have seen the other side of the garden with the Greenhouse - this is directly opposite.

Here is our composter, Patio Palm and a nice little path I dug up to the top of the house, oh and a better picture of Ebony.

Main reason for this path is that the "grass" is in such a state at the moment where the builders forgot to put grass seed down that we were getting filthy walking down to drop off our compostable stuff. Is compostable a word? It is now.

Took me about 3 days of graft to make the path but I think it looks great, but then I am biased!

See ya.

Mark

greenhouse

2007-05-07T14:14:00.001Z

greenhouse
Originally uploaded by Veeoh.

Well b'jesus would you look at that. I gone all professional and got me a greenhouse, (quite literally).

A tad under £200 from a very reliable ebay seller, arrived two days after I ordered it.

I would like to say it was simple to put up but I would be lying.

It was a total bitch.

I should have been warned by the first line in the "instruction" manual. This will take 2-3 people 2-3 hours.

There was just me. It took me two days, working until midnight one night.

The instructions, although comprehensive, have been translated from chinese by a dyslesic norwegian and missing several important steps.

But hey, its up, its working as described and bringing my veg on a treat!

Mark

Veg II - return of the Veg

2007-04-30T15:28:00.001Z

veg2
Originally uploaded by Veeoh.

Looks a lot more healthy this time eh? Shame about the abundance of weeds on the parsnips, but really cant tell what is weed and what's parsnip at this stage.

Beans, Carrots, Beetroot and Lettuce all going good too.

The small pots on the left are the Courgettes and the rest of the big pots are flowers - cant be bothered to tell you what kind as i'm knackered now after doing all that.

Strange thing just happened - gust of wind came from nowhere and blew our sun parasol over next doors garden.

Oh, late edit - you can just make out our fat spaniel Ebony sniffing something offensive at the
top of the picture..

Vegetable Patch

2007-04-16T11:52:00.001Z

Vegetable Patch
Originally uploaded by Veeoh.

Well, here it is! Our first foray into growing veg.

I am also very impressed because, besides having a magical inability to cut straight lines, I actually built the raised bed myself.

Looks great from this distance - just don't look closer, its a bit ropey in places.

From the top left, clockwise we have:-

Beetroot and Parsnips
Currently empty
French Dwarf Beans
Carrots and Lollo Rosso lettuce.

All starting to sprout and I'm glad I sowed them in rows since there are weeds coming up all over.

Mark