And so I returned

Having seen what the wind had done to the polytunnel I returned - armed with 'stuff' to shore it up and protect it against future wind. When I got there it wasn't as repairable as I remembered. I took the cover off to show the extent of the damage to to the metal frame.









I decided the best approach was to remove the frame, dismantling it with care, and using the cover to protect all the 'stuff' from blowing around, then come away and develop a PLAN.










Before I left I put a stake in and tied our Christmas tree to it as the wind was preventing it getting a root hold.

I returned having concocted a PLAN - a brilliant PLAN - Baldrick would be envious - Take it out altogether!
But I also dismantled the compost bins that had been left - this was already on the future GRAND MASTER PLAN but I brought it forward as I wanted to build a 'bin' to retain the 'stuff' against the wind. Theft is not a problem but the wind can carry stuff for ages. Sheds etc. are left unlocked but with nothing of value - for value read things like power tools - and there is a store of tools that people can borrow from if they find themselves wanting at some point. We had set lettuce and radish in the tunnel and this is now under fleece in the middle of the area. I have added half a dozen early cabbage that we had already growing ready for planting, planted some onions that Granddad had spare and some garlic. I have re-dug all the ground spoiled by the tunnel and dug the ground the tunnel was on as well as starting a new plot and I can truly start to say that the allotment is now MINE!!

A good week spoiled...

It has been a particularly good week. Yes it started with having to get a new dentist and then having to wait a fortnight for an appointment to get my broken tooth repaired but.... I managed to get some more done on the decorating front and then Wednesday.

Wednesday I went to install a server for someone. True to form it tried to foil my attempts at every turn but I beat it back bravely. I continued and was close to finishing Thursday but not wanting to rush went to finish the job Friday. On Friday BT pulled the plug on the internet service as it was switched from AOL to BT. This was supposed to happen Friday night - not Friday morning! Fortunately I was there to make the appropriate router changes and get them going again. I finished the day early despite taking some time for training and tuning - something I don't normally get time for and so I finished the week on a real high. Sounds sad but if you haven't been there then please don't knock it!

So this morning came and I went down the allotment for the first time this week and got a shock! Yes there's been wind but I still wasn't prepared for what I found. The polytunnel had taken a battering with some of the internal struts sheared off while others were badly bent. This poly tunnel was erected by the previous tenant and been left behind with three vines in. As well as bent metal work one end of the tunnel is badly torn as well. Unfortunately this structure is too flimsy a structure for the open location it is in, it should be in a garden where fences and trees will help to break the wind.

We are now licking our wounds and trying to decide it's future.  We had been thinking about doing more fruit in the garden and less vegetables so I think we will now move the vines to garden locations and try to salvage a summer-only 'greenhouse' for tomatoes or cucumbers or similar. It is a real shame that this has marred an excellent week.

Putting Christmas back in the box.

12th Night. Decorations go away and Christmas is over. The first of it's kind I believe and the first over a very sad watershed.

When I was a pup I remember Christmas. I was the fourth of five lads and when it came to judging the mood of my parents they always deferred to me. Why? I don't know. My memories of Christmas morning commenced with being asked "Do you reckon we can go down now?". It was exciting going down to find a pile of presents. Well a pillowcase stuffed generally. Five pillowcases around the the living room. We would open presents and there would be calls of "Look!" and we would. The room would be a mess and the toys would be played with and chocolate eaten. Mince pies for breakfast and excitement all day - until bedtime. At bedtime the magic collapsed and disappointment leapt in as you realised - That was it! Christmas DONE!

I have seen that disappointment crash in at each Christmas for my daughters until they reach a certain point. I suppose it's called Maturity. Our eldest had long past this as she sat her A levels and her sister was born and so for me to see the pre Christmas excitement/disappointment cycle start again was truly magic.

This year was different. Throughout the run up our youngest kept telling us that she was the only one of her group who was not excited about Christmas. I felt disappointed but we did everything we could. Come Christmas eve the two were together again for the reading of "The Night Before Christmas" and I hope that will continue. But as her sister went home again our youngest retired for the night asking what time she could get up. Come Christmas day we heard "How did you know I wanted this?" on more than one occasion but come bedtime she was not suffering the depression that she had previously and so I didn't go and sit on her bed and try to console her as in previous years.

But now we won't have another child of our own and so the Christmas excitement/disappointment magic is gone from our Christmases and while there may be grandchildren they won't carry the same involvement.

It's a sad time this year but a happy time as I am assured that it was still one very good Christmas.,

A Christmas Present For Grandma and Granddad.

SOC's and FOC's Grandparents on wifey's side are now both in their 90s. For nonagenarians they are both doing very well and, while they don't understand technology they do have ideas of what can be done. Granddad asked if his Super 8 home movies could be put onto DVD for him for Christmas. I had a think, with FOC present, and suggested I would need a video camera to do it - something I don't own.

A couple of weeks later, out of my hearing, he asked wifey if he could buy me what I needed to convert his home movies - for my Christmas present. This meant he was serious - but I don't want a video camera! So what to do? I asked FOC and she said she had one but it was to tape and I would need to then copy them using cables and software and it was messy. I then thought about our newly acquired Lumix compact camera. I had not explored it's video capabilities but what were they? I tried a couple of videos of Dylan in the snow and was surprised that they are VGA or QVGA specification. Interesting, but how to get them to DVD for the average DVD player. I sourceforged and found DVD Flick for DVD Authoring. So first thing is to take those videos of Dylan and put them to DVD and see DVD Flick work. It worked a treat and has a selection of inbuilt menus for multiple titles (chapters). I tried the final DVD on the playstation and his DVD player and they worked. Things were looking good.

I fetched a few movies and the projector and screen and set about the first one. Mounting the compact camera on a tripod beside the project and as near to the projection source as possible I then zoomed in to capture the image. I JUST managed to fill the screen of the camera (it's 4 times optical zoom) with the projected image but was losing out on colour. Over several days I played with lots of settings and eventually bumped in to a setting that is not on the menu - that of exposure. I set this to -1 and started to get the results. I was also projecting onto less than A4 (I had abandoned the aged screen) as this reduces pixelation. Also my compact will only record for 15 minutes before stopping the recording so I found it necessary to record some in 2 chunks and then 'splice' them together later.

Obviously I made the movie 'lead in' blank of the tape longer while I fiddled with getting the camera started and the same would happen at the end so I planned on removing them by Windows Movie Maker (WMM). Problem is that Windows Movie Maker doesn't recognise the file format (mov) that the Lumix produces. I picked up Any Video Converter - Free (AVC) from sourceforge.net and used it to convert the mov format files to mpeg2 which WMM will recognise. AVC gives you the ability to edit out sections of the recording - except I couldn't get it to work so I continued to use WMM and WMM does give the ability to add titles where ever required and also gave me the ability to splice bits together.

Having finally produced the 'titles' (or 'chapters') it was time for DVD Flick. I was really surprised by how DVD Flick smoothed out the flickering images and enhanced the colours. Problem is the projector's chattering is carried through on the sound and DVD Flick needs a soundtrack. At each title (11 so far) I have edited the screen title and the time index of the tumbnail (so that the added title shows) as well as added a new soundtrack (mp3) from a CD I own and removed the original soundtrack. It was at soundtrack level that I found a bug. If the soundtrack is shorter than the movie then DVD Flick just unloads itself and any unsaved changes are lost. I used 'Audacity' to add all my soundtracks together to get one large enough to cater for all my videos.

A few years ago I paid for some movies to be put to VHS professionally for him and comparing the results I feel my efforts have produced the better results. Oh, and cost less as NONE of the software I used cost money - Many thanks to the open source world (and rather unusually Microsoft!).

One cost I did incur though was an extension hard drive as this process is, by necessity, disk hungry and the old laptop is about full - well was anyway.

The freeze sets in....

The weather forecast is grim. Snow and ice for 'weeks'! Not looking forward to it. The freeze last year took our early broad beans and hopefully this year I have cloched early enough.

It doesn't look like I will be going to the allotment for a while and running out doors looks and feels positively treacherous!

It looks like walking with Dylan, who loves biting the snow, and the gym is now the agenda for a while.

Nearly first week on the allotment

I went to the allotment 4 times this week to try to make a start. The natural light, commitments, the temperature and the mains water to the loos having been turned off have curtailed my visits to a maximum of 2 hours. Hard work? Hardly - just great fun.








Tuesday I lifted the beetroot and carrots. It amounted to about 50 pounds of beetroot and about 70 pounds of carrots. Both taste great and I am a true lover of beetroot - but this may prove a little too much this year! We have also been eating carrots in most every known way but, as yet, we are maintaining a healthy skin pigment!

Lifting the carrots revealed a whole lot of leeks which, as I cleared some of the brambles revealed even more.

I also found a row of turnips which will come in handy sometime.

Wednesday I started to try to tidy up the plot to show the allotment committee that we are serious. The secretary was saying that people wait on the list for years and then when they have been given a plot they pay their rent and never show up! WE don't want anyone thinking we are not enthusiastic! But Wednesday was also a frustrating visit because there are so many things that need doing there is a temptation to start them all and finish none.

Friday saw a shorter visit where we decided to do some proper planning so we can focus properly on the next task in hand. On Wednesday I had started to define the path and bottom corner of the allotment and that is where we start our proper effort.

We also decided to move the strawberries - some to our garden and some to a 'out the way' bed. These strawberries are perpetual fruiting and have a lot of bud on even now.

But today it has snowed for the first time this year and that may mean less done for a little while.

First day at the allotment

The previous occupant of our plot quit the allotment rather abruptly and left a lot of things behind. We haven't identified everything yet but are trying to 'tidy up'.

I have started by moving some of the blue plastic out of site and gathering up the bags with compost that have been left sitting around and consolidating them into the compost heaps at the back. I have also been clearing brambles from along the back fence and consigning them to the council bin as they don't compost at all well.

Amongst the things left on the allotment is a poly-tunnel which has 3 young vines in. We are still deciding whether this stays or goes.

After that I have been clearing some of the surface weeds and seeing what lurks below..

Various brassicas are still there in various conditions.

There is a patch of carrots and these are gigantic. I suspect some could enter the 'Dibley Village Rude Vegetable' competition.

There is a patch of beetroot and mostly of a good size.

A raspberry pretending to be a bramble.

A gooseberry bush - no babies I'm pleased to say.

Autumn fruiting raspberry. And what's more...

it's still in fruit.

Various fruit trees, but only 2 are labeled - A Granny Smith Apple and a Conference Pear.

Chives.

7 or 8 trees in all, but mostly too close together.

Not sure what this is so we need to 'look it up'.

So I brought a little home with me while we decide how to store the carrots and beetroot.

On top of all this there are currant bushes as well, but I missed out on photos of them!