h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Venus,

This spring I am having one of those milestone birthdays and decided to treat myself with a trip to England. Some of my h2g2 friends are spending my birthday with me in London. It is on 6 May, which is a Wednesday. The outline of the plan so far is to stroll through Camden Market in the morning,(I'm thinking the original market with the craft stalls), have lunch in Little Italy then go to the zoo at Regent's Park in the afternoon.

If you're free and the day appeals to you, I'd like for you to come. We didn't have the chance to become very well acquainted on my last trip over there. Some folks are bringing their kids. It is definitely a family affair. And would get you home early.

Nick talks about you, your garden and how much he and the missus enjoyed their trip to visit you. It would be lovely to get to know you better.

Hypatia

Hi Hypatia,
Thanks for your invitation, it sounds like a fun day and something i would enjoy. I can't let you know for definate at the moment. I've had some ongoing health problems which for the last 3 months, have limited me doing much. Things are improving and hopefully i'll be far more mobile come May time. So if i'm able, i would love to come along for the day.

I'm always telling Nick about the latest flower or orchid find in my garden, he never seems to tire of me going on......well not that he would say anyway Life without my garden would be very empty, even though i do have a family to think about.

I do remember a very brief exchange between us at Kew, but i think that was just as we were leaving for the bus to Richmond. That must have been a couple of years ago now.

Great. I hope you are feeling well that day. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

I've heard about your orchids and general gardening acumen. I'm a plain old country girl who understands that you would never be satisfied without your garden. Our climates are similar enough that I recognize many of the plants there, but different enough that some are new to me. And I only know the common, midwestern names for things.

When Teuchter talks to me about her plants, she always uses the Latin names for them. I have to look at the plant to know what she's talking about. So one of my tasks is to learn the proper names for the things I grow. We're like the characters in Rosemary and Thyme. Teuchter is the Felicity Kendal character and I'm the Pam Ferris character.

We're thinking about taking in a flower show at Harrogate while I'm there this time. I hope that materializes. She took me to the Chelsea Flower Show on my first trip to England. That was quite an experience for me.

Nick and I have some pretty lively discussions. For the past few days we have pondered the relative merits of porcelain and bone china teapots and cups. But no matter what subject begins the conversations, we always wind up talking about food. We both like to cook -- and eat. I always know what he has for lunch at the base and he knows what I have for dinner every evening.

Wow, Chelsea flower show is a great place to visit. I watch it on tv every year, but never been to it myself. It falls during our busy season at work, so getting time off to go is impossible.

I have to admit to being a bit like Teuchter in using latin names for plant, though i do try and back it up with the common names too.

Do you have a big garden? Did your almond tree put down some new roots after being torn out of the ground?

Ah, i guess Nick sent you the photo of the new bone china mugs he bought?
You probably know that us British folks like our tea and it's so much nicer out of a bone china mug/cup. There is still some debate as to whether the milk should be put in before or after the tea, and which way is the 'proper' way. I think that debate will go on for a few more lifetimes yet.

I don't think we'll have anything in common as far as cooking goes, my dinner disasters are legendary. If you want anything charred to turning to ash, me and my oven are the ones for the job. Amazingly, i can still pull off the odd success in the cooking department, though it's never a guarantee.

Chelsea was very special. Besides just enjoying it for itself, it let me one-up my sister. She was always bragging to me about this flower show or that garden show she'd attended. So I decided if I was going to attend a flower show, I'd attend a ~flower show~. I bought her a tote bag as a souvenir and told her to carry it the next time she went to her local flower show. Which she did!

Like you, I watch it on TV every year. One of the show gardens had been moved in tact to Wisley. Teuchter took me there before we went to Chelsea. I recognized the garden from watching the show a couple of years before. That was pretty .

My almond tree is alive and looks healthy enough. The problem is that the ground was so soft when the cousins righted it, that the supports didn't do the job the way they should have done and now the tree leans terribly.

I have a fairly standard-sized lot. It is 120' X 220'. The house sits about 80 ' from the street, so my back garden is roomy but not huge or anything. I have enough room for fruit and vegetables and have some nice flower beds.

My back is giving out on me so I am switching to raising vegetables in self-watering containers called Earth Boxes. This year the only thing I'll plant directly into the ground is sugar snaps early followed by pole beans for summer. I have bean towers for them to climb. And I am making a new asparagus bed this spring. That naturally goes directly into the ground. But things like tomatoes and peppers, salad greens, herbs and crucifers do great in the containers. They grow much happier in them than I expected.

I also have blackberries and strawberries, peaches, pears, nectarines, sweet cherries, and pecans. My apple trees were broken so badly last year in the ice storm that I had to get rid of them. So I need to replant. Oh! And I have figs.

Yes, I received a photo of the new bone china mugs. They're beautiful, and I'm jealous. When I get back from my trip, I plan to buy myself some. Perhaps that same set. But bone china for sure, whatever the pattern. See, your upcoming trip to visit Nick and C has already accomplished something -- they now have classy tea mugs.

I don't have any bone china. My dishes are porcelain and stoneware. They're pretty and I enjoy them, but Nick has convinced me that I need bone china mugs for tea. I have a small but growing collection of tea pots. I really enjoy using them. I never shopped for bone china because I figured I couldn't afford it. To my surprise, I've paid as much or more for some of my porcelain. In future, when I add to my teapot collection, it will be the bone china.

Now i am surprised that you manage to tune in to the Chelsea flower show, i had no idea it was that international.
You're doing far better than me, i have never been to Wisley either. I will get there one day.

Your garden sounds much bigger than mine and you have certainly managed to pack alot into it with vegetables and fruit. Where do you find the time to grow and tend vegetables? I've always found them high maintenence, which is why is stick to flowers and shrubs.
Earth boxes sound and interesting concept, especially if they are self watering. Are they what we would call a raised bed here?
I love Pecans, we don't have Pecan trees here, well not that i have seen anyway. Do you preserve any of your fruit?
Nick is becoming quite the connesuier (sp) on tea and bone china, i can't think where he gets all this from
Bone china mugs are very cheap here, you can pick them up in most of our hardware stores, some as cheap as £1.00 each.
The holiday to Nick's is all booked. It will be an adventure for me as i havent left these shores since 1975. It's kind of scary thinking about flying half way round the world, but i'll be fine.

We have a cable/satellite channel called HGTV - Home and Garden Television. They have highlights of the Chelsea Flower Show on it. They show the prize-winning gardens and the displays in the pavillion. The hoity toity guests, naturally. They don't show the regular folks. If you aren't "somebody", you are invisible to the camera, apparently.

Old fashioned double dug vegetable plots are indeed a lot of work. For years I was the happy housewife and had the time to do it properly. I had beautiful vegetable gardens. But it was almost a full time job keeping them up. Also, I had a husband to help with the digging and planting. I can't do it any longer.

The Earth Boxes are not raised beds. They are containers with reservoirs for water. I'm not sure if I can get away with a link here, but you can google them. It is amazing how well they work. It is a bit pricey the first year to set them up, but they last for years and years. It is certainly easier on the back. No digging or weeding.

I put berries and peaches in the freezer for winter use, make jam with whatever is available and dry the figs if there are any left over.Extra apples are made into applesauce and frozen. Years ago \i used a pressure canner and put up lots of fruit and vegetables in jars. But I have found that freezing them is much less work. I even freeze my stewed tomatoes instead of canning them. I still make pickles occassionally and the odd jar of relish. And I make flavored vinegars and oils with my herbs.

I'm sure you'll enjoy your trip to Canada to visit Nick. He tells me you're going to the falls. I'm envious. He also mentioned a butterfly farm that sounds delightful.

Thats pretty much how they screen Chelsea here aswell, though they do like to interview the garden creators too.

Yesterday i had the opportunity to go around some of the garden centres in my area. Me and my manager went on a recki to see what the cmpetition are doing. I love those days out as it gives me to chance to buy plants that we either don't stock, or are much cheaper. I bought a silver lace primula, which is very pretty. The flowers are almost black ad have a fine white line around each individual petal.

I'm not very good at making jams and stuff. I once made lemon curd and it took four days to finally set, but thats only if you kept it in the fridge.
How do you find time to grow and harvest fruit and vegetables and work full time? I find it hard just to keep up with the general weeding of the flowers beds.

I'm looking forward to seeing Niagara falls, we have nothing even remotely like that here. Butterflies are another one of my passions, along with lots of other bugs which fascinate me. I've been called the 'bug' lady on more than one occassion at work This is not a title i'm particularly fond of.

What season are you in now? It's just coming into Spring here, my favourite time of year. Theres nothing like seeing the first flush of new green in the trees as the leaves start to break.

We are in late winter. Our coldest month is usually January. But we have been known to have frost and even snow up to mid-April. It is absolutely glorious today. The sun is shining and the temperature is around 18ºC. It will be even warmer this weekend. The problem is that it's too warm. The fruit trees will bud out, we'll get a hard freeze and no fruit.

Venus, I don't have time to take care of things properly. That's the problem. That's why I'm switching to containers for my vegetables. Much less work. And I am removing hybrid, high-maintenence perennials and replacing them with native plants that will just sit there and thrive without a lot of fuss. Things like cone flowers, gallardias, shasta daisies, rudbeckias, daylilies, etc.

With luck I'll feel good Saturday and be able to get some cleaning done. I need to prune the blackberry canes and cut back the ornamental grasses. And there are a lot of volunteer trees that are coming up and need rooted out of the flower beds. My fence row desperately needs some attention, as well. The thing is, I enjoy doing it and just being outside after being cooped up all winter. I'm actually looking forward to it.

I start my tomato and pepper plants from seed. It's time to do that. That always makes me feel like spring is on the way. They will be ready to set out right before I leave for England in April. I'm holding my breath that the bearded cousin who is going to house sit will take care of them for me. I can actually plant my salad containers outside this weekend. Cool weather things like spinach, scallions, radishes and lettuces. Then carrots and peas in two weeks.

I have one corner of the yard that I am letting go wild to attract wildlife. Nick, bless him, got me a three-year Fokti subscription for my birthday. I'll take some pictures and put them up there as soon as I figure out how. I am technologically challenged.

Your new primula sounds gorgeous. How large is yor garden? And what do you grow?

Here's hoping you have the chance to get into your garden this weekend.
I'll be working, so no garden time for me.
I have a fair sized garden, around 25ft wide and 100ft long. It has an orchard running alongside it, which makes it perfect for wildlife. I like to grow unusual plants like Arisaema's and carnivourous pitcher plants. I have a Dracunculus Vulgaris, affectionately known as Mr.D. It's common name is Devils Arum, and the flower smells like a dead carcass I also like to grow lily's, despite the problems i have with lily beetles eating them.
My pride and joy are the wild orchids which grow at the end of the garden. They're mostly Bee Orchids, with one Common spotted orchid and two that i introduced last year, a Butterfly orchid and a pyramid orchid. They are all native to this country and are very much in decline in the wild. I've no idea where the Bee orchids came from, but they multilpy each year and seem to like my garden.
I probably have approx 150 different variety of plants, i'm always on the lookout for more.

I have a fotki page, and i can tell you it is really easy to upload photos, i'm no techy either. You can see some of my photos here <./>http://www.venus-garden@fotki. com</.> All apart from the Kew and Autumn photos, were taken in my garden.

What sort of wildlife do you get around your area? I'm sure Nick mentioned Monarch Butterflies pass through your area.

Unfortunately, I can't get the link to your Fokti page to open. Perhaps it is a case of webjello and it will work another time. I hope so.

I don't think we have any wild orchids around here. Just saying "orchid" sounds exotic. It's easy to see how you would enjoy them. 150 varieties of plants sounds like a lot for a garden the size of yours. I don't have any idea how many I have. My largest collection is of daylilies. Hemerocallis. I have about 50 varieties of those.

My yard is definitely larger than yours. But I've seen so many houses in England with no gardens at all, that it sounds like yours is fair sized.

I'm worn out and achy from overdoing outside yesterday. My cousins came over to help, so at least several things were accomplished. We got a lot of pruning done. Also, I have/had a small ornamental pond that was put in an unfortunate location. It was nearly impossible to keep clean. Then last fall the pump failed. So I decided to call it quits with it. We drained it and removed the liner. I plan to fill it in and use it for a hosta bed. I may put one someplace else after I get home from my trip this spring. Put more thought into the location.

It's time to plant my spring veggies. That always perks me up. It's amazing how playing in the dirt lifts your spirits.

Every Sunday is spent with my Mother. She recently turned 88 and is crankier by the day. Today I plan to take her to a local garden center to hunt cabbage plants and onion sets. And I always cook on Sundays, so she has food to take home with her for later. She doesn't cook for herself much anymore. Anyway, it's time to call her and get the day going.

Of course it helps if i type the address properly in the first place. <./>http://www.venus-garden.fotki.com</.>
I'm not surprised you're achy after all that work yesterday. It's really satisfying though is'nt it.
Do you still get frost this time of year? It will be another month before people start planting their veg plants outside. I guess thats where a greenhouse comes into it's own.
Vegetable growing is becoming an even bigger thing over here this year, mainly due to the credit crunch i suppose. There was a report on my local news saying that many people were digging up their lawns, and turning them into vegetable plots.
88 is a pretty good age, i guess crankiness comes with age eh!
Both my folks have long since passed away and they were cranky even before they got old. I was an only child, and took the blame for anything and everything that went missing or wrong.
It's been a long working weekend for me, now the weather is improving, we are getting very busy. I'm looking forward to my day off. I might even be able to get into my garden for a brief time.

Lovely photos, Venus. It makes me want to practice with my camera. I don't take particularly good pictures. For some reason, I've never had the knack. My husband was a good photographer and enjoyed it, so he was the one who always manned the cameras.

It is unusually warm right now. We can have frost up to about April 18. I'm leaving for England on April 22, so the day before I leave will be spend getting my tomato and pepper plands set out. My cousin is going to house sit for me. Well, technically dog sit. But he will be there to keep an eye on the plants until I get back.

What I've already planted are cool weather veggies. They can take a bit of frost. A hard freeze would ruin them, of course. We call it a gamble garden. Most years we get away with it and have nice salad greens early. And the peas always do well here planted in early March.

My mother is still in fairly good health, all things considered. She still lives alone in the house my dad built for her 55 years ago. It is going to be a major trauma for her if she ever has to move. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. She had four children. The first died when she was 3 days old. Then she had my sister, divorced and married my dad when Sis was nearly 8. I was born 11 months later. So Sis was almost 9 years older than me. Then there wasn't another child until I was nearly 12 and my brother was born. We always said she had three only children.

My dad died 9 years ago. My brother lives 350 miles away and his wife doesn't particularly like any of us. My sister lived 235 miles in the opposite direction. She died last fall. So there is just me to see to Mother. The thing is, she never liked me. My sister was by far her favorite. So, she resents that I'm the one here to take care of her, and I resent having to do it. It isn't a happy situation. However, since Sis died, Mother is making more of an effort to be pleasant and cooperative.

Do you grow any vegetables at all? I've found, living alone, that it's easier to buy vegetables from the farmer's market. But I do enjoy growing my own. I do it for the plesure of it, not to save money. I'm sure I spend more growing my own. And there is always a lot I cna't use, so I wind up giving a lot away. But, what the heck. It keeps me out of the bars.

I love taking photos of flowers and bugs, especially when i can look at them really close up on the pc .

We're having some variable weather just now. After a long and particularly cold winter, the first signs of Spring and a few warmer days, had everyone out in their gardens. Then the weather changed again and we're back to frosts at night, with colder daytime temps. It has'nt stopped the spring flowers from blooming and looking lovely.
It's usually the beginning of May before it's safe enough to plant tomatoes and chilli's outside, when all danger of frost has past. It's at this time that bedding and hanging baskets are put out.

Was it usual for men to build their own houses there? I remember watching programmes like 'Little house on the prairie' and 'The Waltons' where they built their own houses on the plot of land they had bought. I always thought that was just something to make the shows look better.
It must be quite something to live in a house built especially for you.

I can relate to the resentment you must feel, i had the same feelings towards my father on more than one occasion. After mum died in 1997, dad wanted me to up sticks from my home 200 miles away and move in with him, to look after him in as much as cooking, washing, shopping etc. He was less than pleased when i refused and could'nt understand why i did'nt want to look after him. He even said i could bring my daughter and grandaughter aswell, despite not wanting anything to do with my grandaughter. He was a heavy drinker and would quite often phone me at 9am in the morning drunk. It's a complicated story spanning back to my childhood, the upshot is i was always a disapointment to them, unless they 'needed' my help. I resented them both for lots of reasons, though now i just think of them with a strange fondness.

I don't grow any vegetables at all. Every couple of years i grow a tomato plant, but end up with a glut of tomatoes and we're all eating them with every meal and getting sick of them.
Like you i live on my own, so growing veg seems like a waste of time and resources to give most of it away.
I do give away quite alot of my plants, which have either seeded on their own or need splitting up. One of my neighbours and work colleagues are usually happy recipiants.
Have you planned your itinery for you trip to the UK?

Would you mind if i added you to my firends list? I like to ask before doing it.

Venus, I would be delighted to be added to your friends list. And I'll add you to mind, if you don't object.

Actually, it was a bit unusual for my dad to build his own house. He was a determined man, often to the point of rigidity. When he made up his mind about something, then that's the way it had to be. He was a pretty good weekend carpenter, but still, it wasn't something anyone expected him to do. My maternal grandfather was a carpenter by profession, and although his health didn't allow him to help with the physical labor much, he was able to give advise and encouragement. That probably salvaged the project. Also, it is just a simple frame house. Nothing large or fancy. But Mom has been there for 55 years, and she would never be happy living anyplace else.

To illustrate how heartbreaking alzheimer's is, Dad lost all memory of the house. In his later months at home, he kept asking where he was, whose house it was? He drove nearly every nail in it himself, but he didn't know that it was his house. He kept asking to go home.

The trip itinery is a work in progress. I'll get it up in a journal entry soon, I hope. On my previous trips, folks have picked days to join in on the sightseeing. That's a much nicer way to visit with people and get acquainted than the pub meet. I'm not much of a pub person.

I have no objections at all to being on your friends list.

Alzheimers is a truly horrible disease, not only for the victim. I watched a documentary where a mans' life from the time he was diagnosed with the disease untill he died. It was pretty awful to
watch as the condition got worse.

I had a visit from my tribe today, i see them once a fortnight and we alternate who's turn it is to cook dinner. It's always nice to see them, but it's nice when peace and quiet is restored. My eldest grandchild turned 13 this week, jeez, that makes me feel old The youngest is 9 and theres another one on the way, due mid August. a couple of weeks before i go to Canada.

It's not too long until your holiday, does'nt the time pass quick!
I'm not a pub person either, most of the time they are so noisy it's not possible to hold a conversation.

My grandchildren have always lived over a thousand miles from me. It makes it hard to form any real relationships when you are that far apart. Plus they are step-grandchildren. Anyway, they are little more than strangers.

My vacation is just 5 weeks away. I'm really getting excited. We've changed the itinerary several times already, but are finally ready to post one. I hope to get it written up for my journal today or tomorrow. My boyfriend was supposed to go with me, so we were scheduling things he would enjoy. Then that fell through, so we started concentrating on things I would prefer myself. We were going to do Paris, then dropped that. Then we were going to do Scotland, and now have dropped that, as well. We are taking the time we would have spent in Edingurgh to visit Devon and Cornwall. And we have five nights in London. Three plays in the West End and a concert at Royal Albert Hall. I'm positively delighted with it all.

I'm hoping you'll feel well enough to come into the city while I'm there.

I had a read through your itinery in your journal, blimey! That is one hell of a schedule, you'll need another holiday when you get home. It's a shame your boyfriend can't join you.

I'm still unsure as to how my health is going to be yet. If i'm feeling ok, i will come along on the Wednesday. I'll let you know closer to the time.
I have to go to the hospital tomorrow for the final assessment for new treatment. If i still meet the criteria, i should start the new treatment in a couple of weeks. I've been told that if it is going to work, i will see a dramatic improvement within two weeks I don't know if Nick ever mentioned it, but i have rheumatoid arthritis. It's been stable for many years, but this past year my health has been on a downward slide because of this condition.
Anyway, enough of the health stuff.
I've been doing a bit of research into bee keeping, it's something i've always wanted to do. I'm hoping next year to get in touch with my local bee keeping association, with a view to maybe having my own bee hive. They have bee keeping courses i can go on, to learn all about it and the association will help new keepers setting up hives and stocking them with bees.

We are enjoying some beautiful weather at the moment. I even saw a butterfly today.
Do you have Monarch butterflies in your area?

Nick did mention the RA. My friend Teuchter has it, also. She's been fighting it for about three years now. It's a tough illness to have to cope with. I sure hope the new treatment is offered to you and that it works.

I have some osteoarthritis, which is much less serious and easier to treat. I've recently gone back on an anti-inflammatory diet that helps me. I was stupid to stop it. This time I'm determined to stick with it forever. Besides bringing relief to my joints, it helped me lose weight. I regained a lot of it when I stopped the eating plan, so folks at the meet will see me as pudgy as ever. Story of my life. No one saw me when I looked decent again.

We do indeed have monarchs here. We're actually on their migration path. It's fabulous, really quite a sight. We must be on the edge of it because we don't get them in masses every year. Perhaps it depends on the winds or something.

The bee keeping sounds interesting. Do the bees there have that disease that is killing them off world-wide? We have lost a huge percentage of our bees here. It's heartbreaking. The truck farmers are suffering as a result. Many are pollinating by hand.

My trip plans are ambitious. But it's too far to to go to just sit and do nothing. I'll get home absolutely exhausted and have to go back to work to rest up.

What I'm hoping for is good weather for my trip. The first time I went over it rained nearly every day and was cold. Then last time it was just beautiful. I plan to pack a raincoat, just in case.

I'm sorry to hear Teuchter has RA aswell, it is a real pain in every sense of the word. I'm used to it as i've had the condition since i was 30. It's amazing how pain tolerant you become.

What does an anti-inflamatory diet consist of? Are there certain foods to avoid? I was told very early on with my condition to only have very small quantities of red meat and acidic fruits. As i rarely eat either, it's never been a sacrifice.

I am so envious that you get to see Monarch butterflies I'm hoping that they will have a few at the butterfly conservatory when i visit Nick. We have many different butterflies here, though they are becoming scarcer by the year

It's very sad about the bees, as if they dont have enough battles with loss of habitat, then to be killed off by this disease. Which is why i would like to help by giving a swarm a home.

Our weather is always fickle, nothing much can be done about that. Though i would suggest asking Nick to do his fine weather dance just before you come over. If it does'nt improve the weather, it's at least good for a giggle
I'll be in trouble for that remark