Spud U Like

I'm mostly better now, thank you.  Still getting a few twinges when I do something unwise, like e.g. lift a polythene box full of packs of sugar off the floor to get into another box underneath, or take the dog for a walk and have her tow me through the village like a water-skier, but otherwise I am about 98% fighting fit.

In the 8 weeks - almost 9 actually - since I had my op, the outside world has started to become Spring-like. There are snowdrops and crocuses in flower in the garden, and daffodils in bud. I assume they're daffodils. They might be irises.  Or hyacinths.  I'm not sure.  The mole made a brief appearance in the front lawn, much to our delight*, but seems to have buggered off again.

To mark the "new beginning" feeling, this weekend we are doing a catering job for some neighbours, which I am very much looking forward to.  And yes, we have asked one of our excellent helpers to come along and lend a hand so I don't end up overdoing anything.

So. Other than recuperating, and some low-key socialising, what have I been up to?

Well.  This:

Mr WithaY and I went along to a willow heart-making class in a nearby village, and I made the above work of grace and beauty.  It took me two hours, and hasn't fallen apart yet.  When I get round to it, I will secure it to the fence at the bottom of the back garden so all may admire it.

And how did we hear about this willow-weaving class, you ask.  Well, by attending THIS event:

Which I found out about on Twitter.  I love social media.  The potato day was held in the Cheese and Grain venue, which hosts all manner of events.

Sci- Fi!  Anti-Fracking Protests!  The Wurzels!  Ah, the West Country.  Everything you want, and quite alot of stuff you'd prefer not to have to look at but can never unsee.

So here's some of the highlights of potato day:

And here are the throngs of visitors, eagerly eyeing up tubers:

The vantage point is from the little meeting room upstairs, where we went to listen to a chap talk about foraging.  It was next door to another meeting room, with this stern note taped across the window:

It was a little distracting, listening to the chap talk about the types of plants which could be found locally and were good to eat, with the enthusiastic clomping of trainee burlesque dancers going on in the next room.

What else?  Oh, I had my hair cut off!  I was fed up with feeling frumpy and old and tired, partly due to post-op malaise, I suspect, so I went to the excellent Toni and Guy in Salisbury who did me a funky modern cropped choppy look, which I love.  It's funny, a mate** posted a photo of me on Facebook which he took when I was a student, 25-odd years ago, and I HAVE THE SAME HAIRSTYLE.  Just goes to show.  What goes around comes around.

Only now there's some grey in it. Bah. And gah.

I have decided to try and be a bit less lackadaisical with posting on here too.  I used to get so much genuine pleasure from interacting with people, and just the simple act of writing stuff down was cathartic.  So I will make more of an effort to be here more frequently.  Can't promise photos of potatoes every time, though.








*well, to my amusement and Mr WithaY's speechless rage.

**Hello Martin!

Rocks

I went to the seaside the other day.

Kimmeridge, in Dorset, to be exact.  Mr WithaY needed to go and forage for edible stuff for one of his bushcraft assignments, so he picked the best day of the week weather-wise and we headed out early.

Kimmeridge is famous for being part of Dorset's Jurassic Coastline.  This does NOT mean that there are dinosaurs roaming the earth just outside Corfe, or that you will see volcanoes erupting in Weymouth.

Shame, because that would be excellent.

No.  It's all about the Jurassic geology.  And there's plenty of it to see.  Creationist readers, probably best if you stop reading and go and make a cup of tea while I finish this.  WARNING:  There will be fossils.

So.  A fairly long drive, a fiver to park in a big almost-empty field at the top of the cliff, a walk down the slopey slippy path, over a trip-trappy bridge, a nasty wade through the giant heaps of festering seaweed, and there is is!  The sea!

The sun was out, the sky was blue and it was about as perfect a day as you could wish for.

We got there just as the tide was starting to go out, so we walked along the beach as far as possible - the red flags were out so the Army were firing on the range, and we couldn't go all the way around the headland as a result - but we were able to go most of the way.  Then we turned around and walked back, peeking into the rock pools that were exposed by the receding tide.

The walk was enlivened by the occasional gentle patter of eroding cliff, showers of shale falling onto the beach.  Also machine gun fire, I assume from the Army range.  If not, it was all kicking off in Corfe big time.

I love the way you can see the different layers of rock in the cliffs, and watch how the tiny shale rockfalls gradually loosen up the bigger pieces of rock to cause a major cliff fall.  Fascinating.  Just make sure you stand several hundred yards away.

Closer to the water, the rock surface is eroded into geometric lines so that it looks like the skin of some giant sea-monster.   I decided that if I ever film a low budget sci-fi movie, I will use Kimmeridge for the location, as it looks like the canals on Mars.

In my head.

We discovered these markings on a rock. I have no idea what they are, I assume they are man made but they might be natural.  Whatever they are, they are funky and tribal looking, and I like them very much.

And of course there are fossils.  Pretty much everywhere you look you can see them, and as more of the cliffs break apart, more are exposed.

There's a causeway that is exposed at low tide, and we were able to walk along it.  A chap was there with a small dog, which was whimpering and straining at a tennis ball floating in the water, too far away to be reached.  We discussed it with the chap.  He was confident that the dog would jump in and fetch the ball.  Any minute now.  Aaaany minute.

As we watched, the dog screwed up its courage and leapt into the sea. At exactly that moment the tennis ball, waterlogged and heavy, sank like a stone to the bottom.

The dog owner sighed deeply, rolled up his trousers and waded into the water with a resigned look on his face.

I got the feeling that little scenario had played out more than once that day already.

Once we had walked along the beach, wading in the shallow water in our wellies, and staggering through the mounds of rotting seaweed, we went up the path to the little marine life museum/exhibition there.  They had a small display of native wildlife that could be found in the area, and there were several volunteers outside cleaning a huge World War 2 mine that had pride of place in the flowerbed.

We passed a pretty waterfall cascading onto the beach.

Awwwh.

Then we walked back along the cliff-top path to the car park, admiring the view from the hill.

Wellies off and back into the car to Swanage, where we walked from the car park at the edge of town through the park, and then to the excellent fish and chip shop.

If there's a nicer lunch than freshly-fried fish and chips eaten from a paper bag, sitting on a bench outside in the sunshine watching yachts on the sea, I don't know what it is.  Mr WithaY went mad and bought his own mini bottle of ketchup, which left his lunch bag looking like an axe murder scene.

Lunch finished, ketchup wiped up and leftover chips thrown in the bin, we waddled back up the hill and headed home.

At one point as we walked on the beach, the breeze blowing and the sun shining, we agreed that it was much nicer than working.

In other news: I've got some forms to fill in from the council which will (hopefully) pave the way for a new business plan.  Fingers crossed.

Day of the Kraken

Once upon a time there was a small scientific outpost, manned only by a lonely botanist and agronomist, and her highly intelligent robot assistant. The robot was called Dewi, in a lame homage to "Silent Running".



The scientific outpost was dedicated to the development of giant fruits and vegetables, to try and stave off the world food shortage, and that.

They had had early, if moderate, success, and were quietly excited about their new Ultra Courgettes and the Really Giant Tomato. The scientific press was beginning to take an interest, and even politicians had been asking questions about the work being undertaken at this remote, coastal outpost.



Yes, it was on the coast. Because of the prevailing wind. Or something.

Anyhoo.

One day as they were out conducting their scientific experiments, polishing the tomato and poking the courgette with a rake, a hideous tentacled creature from the deep emerged. It saw the giant fruits and vegetables, and it lusted after them with all the strength of its vile black heart.



The scientist and Dewi were too engrossed in their work to even see the creature, who sniggered to itself and slunk back into the sea to get some backup.



The scientist and the robot were taken entirely by surprise! They fought with all of their ability, but the wooden rake was no match for the mighty tentacles, and the robot was frankly crap in a fight.





The hideous squid monsters simply battered the scientist and the robot, and wrapped their long rubbery tentacles around the giant vegetables, stealing them away to their homes under the ocean. Probably to make a nice salad.





The scientist and Dewi lay, dead, in the ruin of their dreams for a better, more fruity and vegetably world.

The evil squid monsters laughed amongst themselves, scuttling back home with their stolen spoils.

The bastards.



The End.

Mad scientists

Hello! Gosh, look, Wednesday already and I'm only just posting. I'd apologise, but as I know it will happen again it seems redundant.

Let's all just accept that I am posting less than I was, but with no corresponding increase in quality, and leave it at that, shall we? Then we can all get on with our lives.

Today, despite it being one of my "sitting at home and swearing at my laptop" days, I was in London.

Again!

I know!

How much more of this excitement can we stand?

London was looking nice in the sunshine today. And yesterday, when I walked back to Waterloo enjoying the scenery. I took some arty photos, when I am less tired I will upload them and share.

There were more police than I have ever seen in my life around Parliament Square, and when I saw the BBC website about the removal of the Tamil sit-down protest in the small hours, I realised why. It's all been remarkably low-key on the news; I can only assume that the BBC are trying not to raise the profile of the protesters by not mentioning it much.

I was at the Royal Society today, where the door handles are made of magical crystal with DNA helixes (helices? Spiral-type thingies anyway) embedded inside them.

It was an interesting seminar and a fine lunch, and I got to walk back to the office through St James' Park looking at the squirrels and birds. Not half bad.

But now I have to go to bed as I am up at 6 again tomorrow. I will of course have been awake since 4.30 but hey, at least it's light.

Guilty pleasure

Oh yes, I know what I was going to say.

Has anyone else seen the repeats of Space 1999 that are being run in the evenings on one of the freebie satellite channels? I have become completely hooked.

Everything about it makes me laugh. The risible "all jiggle about at the same time" acting.

The flares and anorak-based costumes.

The implausible romantic leads, who all either look like your old geography teacher, or like Dutch porn stars.

The bizarre, more holes than a Swiss cheese, plots.

But the point where I realised I was hooked was last week when Brian Blessed was in it. With truly astonishing makeup and a cape that he swirled villainously.

God it was great.

He had blue stripes in his beard and got to cackle and shout a lot. More than usual I mean.

Ah, I avoided the show as a teenager because it was lame and cheap and British*. And now, those are the very reasons I like it.


*And it wasn't Star Trek. And this was pre Next Generation, mind.

Good question

I was watching a great science fiction film this afternoon. "This Island Earth", which I think I saw when I was very young. I kept getting deja vu as I watched it.

It happened to be starting as I was flicking through the channels, and I thought I'd watch it and see if it was any good. It was great.

There was a square-jawed hero nuclear scientist, a glamorous yet brainy female nuclear scientist who, despite being one of the finest minds in the world, shrieked and fell over whenever anything mildy stressful happened, and a bunch* of aliens in improbable makeup.

I think what really made me decide to see it through to the end was this:

Picture the scene.....a small plane has been involved in a bizarre near-crash incident, the pilot (square jawed nuclear hero bloke) losing control and being engulfed in a weird green glow.

So far so good.

The next scene, hero and scientific sidekick mate are discussing this odd event, the phone rings and the hero speaks to someone who has been running tests on the plane.

Hero: "What? Nothing wrong with the plane?" (Pause) "Well, did you check the controls?"

I love the idea that the team of aeronautical engineers in the hangar might go "Fuck! If only WE'D thought of that! The Controls! Well, no wonder he's a genius world famous scientist."

FOr all I know, they could have, I suppose.



*A very small bunch. I think they had a limited costume budget.