Heathrow
On my way to Korea in the summer I camped at Heathrow over night. At night they light Terminal 3 with some beautiful purple lights. Most artistic.

heathrow purple
[05-12-08]

SCM Chaplaincy Bonfire - with Jsoc and Cathsoc
This yar November the fifth was a Wednesday, so we took great delight in celebrating Bonfire Night with the fourth annual Kitchener Road SCM Bonfire party. This year we held it joint with Jsoc and Cathsoc which was lovely and proved there were no hard feelings regarding 'ole Guy, who, it turns out, was a Catholic (some silly people seem to think that Bonfire Night is all about burning Catholics. Rubbish! It's all about burning rubbish).

Sadly the pire was not really up to my usual height standards this year. This was another Thesis Affect which inhibated my ability to plan or prepare for any future events. But we had enough stuff, and a shed load of fireworks, plus a bathe with Bertha later on. So all in all much fun was had by all.

three groups assembled

people chatted

"always remember your Safety Johny"

the fire lit with a mini firework display

luke then added some more rubbish

the crowds sood gradually back and admired

I tended to the blaze with my foot

and Luke launched rockets with meths

afterwards the garden was a complete srtate
[06-11-08]

Photo Absence
I'm afraid that my thesis writing has mostly killed off my artistic desire. I've not had the joy to go out and take photos for a good few months now. There's just seemed like either no time, or nothing worth taking. Or more probably I've simply not even had a thought about taking any. Thankfully, early on Monday morning, I came to the tempory end of my thesis - second draft, so I can now think again. Hopefully I'll get around to taking more photos soon.

my acknowledgements were emotional to write
[05-12-08]

Kitchener Community Garden in September
This month really saw the garden bloom, in particular the new raised beds with their stunning sunflowers, sweet peas, rudbeckia and cosmos. This is the first time I've grown sunflowers larger than a person and I'm so pleased!

Sueyon overlooked up the impressive sunflowers

a couple of sunflowers

close up on a side flower

the developing seeds - gerbil food

food for the local bees

the new raised bed

rised bed with guard rabbit - Blackberry
[20-09-08]

Painting the Kitchen
Like I needed something else to occupy me, but our kitchen has been frustrating me for a while now. I've been wanting to paint it as it was looking drab, but all the colours I'd tried clashed with the lower pale yellow plastic panelling. Then, while thinking of my sunflowers and the blue sky, I realised that light blue is the opposite and would work. So I got the paint and Suyeon and I painted the kitchen with a little help from Christian. I also took the opportunity to give the shelving a lick in a deep berry red.

Beginning the blue conversion (not conservative blue)

Su and I listened to BBC Radio 4 while we painted

a shot before for comparison
[15-09-08]

Coffee Bean Roasting
Taking it one step further than simply grinding beans Luke has now taken to roasting his own green beans. Heating gradually in a pan turns the little green chewy gems into fully fledged brown nuggets of coffee joy. 24 hours later the flavour has fully developed to its optimum and coffee is enjoyed.

Luke is our coffee connoisseur (sp?)

Keep the beans moving over a gentle heat

Cool rapidly to seal in the flavour

Today I made the most of Waitrose's Ecover offer

Mount Blackberry

She uses this vantage to reach the raised veg patch
[07-09-08]

Su's Birthday
For Suyeon's birthday, as it was a totally georgeous day, we cycled out to the (stupidly expensive) Hiller Gardens near Romsey. I've not got the photos we took from there, but it was splendid and we both wondered the gardens barefoot. In the evening we had a pancake & bonfire party. Lots of friends, loads of fire and a full mixing bowl of pancake mix. We also fired up Bertha and Su had her first outside bath.

On friday night she dirfted off with Blackberry in her arms

A raging bonfire - the perfect birthday celebration.

Su firing up Bertha to charge the bathwater
[30-08-08]

Raised Bed Council Soil
After completion of the raised bed structure, I called in the council to deliver 3 cubic metres of their composted soil. If you live in Southampton you can contact Andy Joyce from the council. He makes and sells a mix of compost and top soil for about £17 a cubic metre delivered. Not free, but great value.

The completed and painted raised beds

We went triangular on Luke's reccomendation, not because of Gardeners' World

The soil was delivered direct to the driveway

3 cubic meters of earthy goodness
[05-07-08]

Kitchener Garden in 'Summer'
So the summer has been rubbish, but this is how the Kitchener Community garden looked when I got back from Korea. The folks here had done a superb job looking after the place, including new tubs of patunias around the garden table. I was particulary excited about the sunflowers as they were totally massive - far taller than I've ever managed before. Three glorious yellow crowns looking splendid.

the original vegetable patch

the new raised bed - just taking hold

Suyeon's cosmos still flowering

actual fresias grown at home (smelling beautiful)

rudbeckia for the first time, just emerging

the king sunflowers
[17-08-08]

Bangers and Mash
This evening, with the help of Suyeon, I cooked perhaps one of my finest achievements - bangers and mash. "How strange" you might think, bangers and mash must be one of the simplest meals to make: boil then smash potatoes, and stick in sasagges. Well yes, it is simple, but, you see, the trick is that it's English food. I'm just not good at English food and so any time I make something that remotely resembles a Sunday lunch I get overly impressed by my skills. This particular meal used Tesco veggie saugges, a sweet onion topping, runner beans from the garden (boiled) and spinach with cream and nutmeg (also from the garden). Splendid.

Suyeon picking spinach from the garden

and rummaging around for some beans

Emery harvested some peas and a yellow caugette for his dinner

Suyeon with our English deleacy

Bangers and Mash - proper british food!
[20-08-08]

Advertising on the BBC?
Maybe there isn't any and I was just making it up.

I did a search and found no results.

No, no I was right. That is definitly an advert for Airbus.
[16-07-08]

Mid Summer - Rainy Day
For everyone else not in the UK right now you have permission to feel smug. The weather here is appalling. Granted it's not as bad as last year, but today the rain has been relentless. Still it helped me get some work done.

Relentless rain on the window

One very wet and spiky haired rabbit
[09-07-08]

Bougainvillea
Last year I rescued a bougainvillea plant from Haskins garden center. It was only small but flowering quite profusely. After if finished flowering it got an attack of black-fly. I sprayed with organic insecticide and the poor thing lost most of it's leaves. But this spring they began to grow back, I pruned it and it's shot out in quite a few directions and it's been enjoying living outside since. Then a few days ago I noticed it was flowering. I never expected to get a bougainvillea flowering in the UK, so I'm ever-so pleased. My bamboo is really doing well too.

Lots of new growth since last year

A close up of the lovely emerging petals

And my mega bamboo growing on the windowsill
[07-07-08]

Kitchener Community Allotment
Over the past two months we've been working on a project to redevelop part of our garden. Previously there was a rather dodgy shed which was gradually collapsing (and in threat of going up in flames during bonfire sessions. So in one sunny May weekend Luke and I took out the shed and all it's rat infested crap inside (discovering a rat living beneath the floor). The a week later we had a conflagration with the rubbish wood (most has been recycled in garden).

Now we had a newly discovered area of land. We (well, Yann) excavated back the soil to expose the plateau gravel 'bedrock' and then we started work on building a raised bed. With Luke's inspiration we went for a nestled triangular structure (not inspired by Gardeners World as he doesn't watch it). Then everyone pitched in to put a lick of wood preserver on it.

Shed with lots of crap inside

The walls came off pretty quickly

And the rest didn't take long either

Viola - no shed

Of course then you need a fire

Yann was an excavation machine

The first triangular construction

Then there were two

And a shot showing their context in the garden

Yann's excavated soil drew the attention of one particular garden friend.

And she (Blackberry) dug herself a warren - how cute.
[08-07-08]