Bold Sir Brian Botany (6)

Sir Brian had a battleaxe with great big knobs on
He went among the villagers and biffed them on the head
On Tuesdays and Saturdays, but mostly on the latterday
He went to their cottages and this is what he said

I am Sir Brian, ting-a-ling
I am Sir Brian, rat-a-tat


Still waiting? Two more

Bold Sir Brian Botany (5)

Sir Brian had a battleaxe with great big knobs on
He went among the villagers and biffed them on the head
On Tuesdays and Saturdays, but mostly on the latterday
He went to their cottages and this is what he said

I am Sir Brian, ting-a-ling


To be continued. Just wait, more tomorrow

Bold Sir Brian Botany (4)



Sir Brian had a battleaxe with great big knobs on

He went among the villagers and biffed them on the head

On Tuesdays and Saturdays, but mostly on the latterday

He went to their cottages and this is what he said





To be continued. Just wait. Patience is her own reward & a mighty virtue

Bold Sir Brian Botany (3)

Sir Brian had a battleaxe with great big knobs on
He went among the villagers and biffed them on the head
On Tuesdays and Saturdays, but mostly on the latterday



To be continued. Just wait. Patience is her own reward

Bold Sir Brian Botany (2)

Sir Brian had a battleaxe with great big knobs on
He went among the villagers and biffed them on the head



To be continued. No cheating. Just wait

Bold Sir Brian Botany

Sir Brian had a battleaxe with great big knobs on


To be continued. No cheating. Just wait. Dym Googlio, as they'd say in Wales.

Woody digs again; Dig, Woody, Dig

At last, the coincidence of a decent day and not being at work. I've started digging from the top plot down, taking the opportunity to extend it and put piles of manure in. Here's a 'Before'

and here's an 'After', taken in the almost-dark-at-4-o'clock light.

Eleven bags of manure 'after' to be precise, although they weren't huge bags. I was going to say that should help with a better crop of garlic next year but have just discovered that garlic needs to be on a long (6 years!!) rotation to ensure build up of eelworm doesn't happen. That may explain this year's poor crop. I tend to think of anything in the same family as leeks being pretty much indestructible. That said, the leeks are pretty feeble ths year too, although that's mostly due to malnutrition.

Problem with having an allotment on a very steep slope, in a wet year like this one, is that all the nutriments go whistling straight down the hill. And I was so dispirited by the poor show, drowning, rotting off etc that I couldn't get round to feeding the beggars again.

Mind you, look at the state of the lettuce plantation (foreground).

Poor show, Woody. Do better next year.

And finally, Number 2 in an Occasional Series of Favourite Tools - The Cornish (aka Irish) spade.

It's a cross between a pointy shovel and a spade. Takes a bit of getting used to - you miss a cross piece at the top of the handle but you do get excellent leverage from that really long handle.

At last I've.....

..... taught myself to do links. Intuitive it isn't.

Note the nifty clock too.

A photo would be good but may be a bridge too far for today.

The East is Red....

... said Chairman Mao. He's clearly never been to my shed, which is supposed to be Red Cedar (that's what it says on the bucket of jollop I've just slapped all over it) but it looks remarkably like Brown to me.

The Great Leader never said The East is Brown. Except when he fell over carrying a bucket of night soil, thus causing the Cultural Revolution in which others ever after carried the Great Leader's poop bucket for him.

You'll deduce from all this that Woody has been winterising his shed - temperatures in Fairbanks, Alaska reached a high of -9C today. You can't be too careful.

Woody has also been stripping the pestilential Russian Vine off his pergola. Low points included falling off the stepladder while head and shoulders through the structure of the pergola, with an electric hedge trimmer in one hand. In an act worthy of the great Trapezo, who never did this clutching a hedge trimmer, Woody caught the trimmer with his foot & swung one-handed from the pergola, emitting Tarzan cries the while.

Still seem to be in full possession of all digits, limbs etc. And all this while suffering from plague. Oh, all right, a streaming cold.