Bog plants!

Hello again,

I have just returned from an excellent weekend in Yorkshire.

A group of friends stayed in the delightful Hebden Bridge and spent a day walking before returning to try out the local hostelries. It made for interesting walking along the rivers that had the textile mills from the 19th Century. Apparently, the fast flowing rivers were not used to generate power but in the processing of the wool; coal was in fact burned for power.

I then met up with my family to visit friends in Barnsley which was fab - lovely people, great hospitality. My thoughts were that a) we don't visit often enough and b) quality of life is a topic that I need to take more seriously.

Whilst out, I took this shot of an unusual planting container. I alone was privy to the sight and happy to have flushed out the opportunity. I panned around and was bowled over to see the strawberry plants in the porcelain. Without delay I managed to get the photo in the can. Taking my rightful place on the throne I became the king of the pun.

Enough nonsense, until next time...

Recycling or re-houseing or re-sitting?

Hello again,

I am currently in the process of re-fitting my kitchen, you know the whole thing; sub floor, floor, cabinets, tiling etc.

Part of the process included buying and installing a 1000mm wide cooker hood which arrived in a huge box. Having installed it we were left with surprisingly little packaging; a big box and some polystyrene.

What do you do with this sort of packaging? Firstly, the big cardboard box has been turned into an indoor playhouse for my daughters with opening doors, windows and a chimney and after some thought, I adapted the polystyrene into the world's lightest chair. Eventually the cardboard will end up on my compost heap but I don't know what I can do with the polystyrene - any suggestions would be welcome.

Like I said, it is recycling at its best or should I say re-housing & re-sitting

Until next time...

Brace yourselves!!

Hello again,

Another useless/useful fact for you.

I didn't know until today that vertigo is not the fear of heights, the fear of heights is actually, acrophobia.

Acrophobia is an irrational fear of heights whereas vertigo actually describes the spinning sensation when you are not actually spinning. That said, vertigo can be brought on by heights but can also be brought on by many other, not height related, triggers.

Either way, this picture tests your metal.

Until next time...

Plane crazy

Hello again,

I took this shot out of the window of a car (from the passenger seat) whilst travelling down the A4, beside Heathrow, at 50mph.

Heathrow is an extraordinary place. In 1946 it literally consisted of a surplus army tent in a field that constituted an air field. Now it caters for an extraordinary 68 million passengers and 1.3 million tonnes of cargo every year.

Mind boggling...

Until next time...