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

PS the link to me works OK! As you see, it doesn't matter if you spell the nickname wrong - as I did with you.

>>does that mean that you've found the poem? (Sphincter) <<
Of course! Wouldn't anybody when told that it's too rude to post a link?!

>>I took a printed copy along but refused to read it out, I let the others read it to themselves.<< Spoilsport!

Re Garlic - the first time I made garlic butter as a student in my room in college accomodation I misunderstood the quantities in the recipe and used 3 bulbs of garlic instead of 3 cloves of garlic...the corridor stank for days! And I did too but after a while you don't smell it yourself any more. I remember people backing away just after I'd made it as I'd had to go into a lecture! I'm more restrained with the quantities these days.

MJ (I should change my name to MJ-Oh-no-is-that-the time?)

Mmm...those essentials sound very appetising! Do you have many mouths to feed?

Ooooooooooooooh that's a bit of fishing isn't it?!?!?! (Sorry, I'll probably answer anyway - later)

>I LOVE leeks.<
Me too - it's too late this year but I must grow them again next year - no pests, just rust.

>where I spent all my holidays as a child, pricking out and potting on!<
There's an ISIHAC bit about pricking out and hardening off, isn't there? Graham Garden I think

>Mind you,their sweet cherry tomatoes straight off the plants are strong competition.<

I'm growing a wonderful variety called Vicki - small plum toms, don't go soft after a few days, flavour amazing.

Just had a look at the Gardening Club link you gave, a few allotmenteers there.

What schoolkids can grow is a perennial gardening question - because I think there is no easy answer. Radishes are the quickest growing - other than mustard & cress etc - but if you want a crop in the spring/early summer, you usually have to have it in the previous year. Broadbeans sown in the autumn or even in February are ready to be picked in June/early July - best I can come up with.

>>Ooooooooooooooh that's a bit of fishing isn't it?!?!?!<<

Merely an innocent question! That was quite some reaction! Anyway, I never fish - I'm a vegetarian.

It's so easy to produce a bumper crop of courgettes isn't it. What a shame my kids refuse to eat them. They're actually quite good at eating fruit and veg but I had to hide cougettes in blended soups. They love runner beans though. I was warned not to eat them raw but that's the best way to eat them straight off the plant isn't it? Or even, on the plant without picking them! Is it just the bigger ones with larger beans inside which are supposed to be cooked?

Yes ISIHAC can be a bit on the crude side... Are you one of those obsessed fans who travels the country going to the recordings? We met a few when we went to a recording in Bradford a few years back. They'd come all the way up from some town on the South coast. Great atmosphere in the theatre.

Enjoy those cherry plums - shame you can't post any in this direction via h2g2.I have tried outdoor tomatoes but ended up with lots of green ones ripening in bags with bananas as we had an early autumn frost that year. So much work for one each a day if we were lucky!

Sorry, I do ramble on.

MJ

Thanks for the school plants advice. Had I known I'd still be with this class now I could have done that, had I considered it. I came in on Supply in early Oct and I'm still there! In theory, still on Supply but before Easter they asked me to stay till August as their teacher's on long-term sick-leave. So I gradually became their class teacher and I love them all dearly now, though they can be a handful. Back to plants - I'll probably grow the quickest germination-to-flowering annuals I can find in early June. We've got our own little garden just outside the classroom so we'll plant there and hope snails and slugs don't eat them all.

MJ

>>Ooooooooooooooh that's a bit of fishing isn't it?!?!?!<<

Merely an innocent question! That was quite some reaction!

I knew it at the time, which was why I said sorry in advance. I could now write a lot about different modes of communication but I don't think I'll bother. I read a lot of RD Laing when I was young which left me barely able to hold a normal conversation with someone without attempting to analyse everything that was being said, not said, implied, inferred, projected, etc. I'm finding this board quite intriguingly new - although you're obviously much more used to it than I am. I'm used to email and use it a lot but that's just the electronic equivalent of paper letters. That's enough of that - you are, after all, just a set of alignments of the pixels on my flat screen monitor!!

The other question I'm not ignoring is the one about playing an instrument/singing - will get round to that eventually.

>Anyway, I never fish - I'm a vegetarian.<

Me too. The other day I bought a couple of bottles of beer at the Co-op (next to the allotment so very handy) and the label, being scrupulously honest as the Co-op are, says:
Contains Fish, gluten

I'm aware that probably most of the wine and beer I drink contains Isinglass - and so isn't vegetarian - but to see that yr bottle of beer contains "fish" rather put me off. The Co-op are very good though and have a lot of strictly vegetarian drink.

I don't know about eating runner beans raw, never tried it. I suppose it should be OK as long as they're very young.

I've never been to a live ISIHAC - but I do have lots of them recorded, and listen to them every so often - which is why I could remember the Graham Garden quote. In fact I was listening to one prog the other day which prompted me to start the Sound Charades thread on MC.

More veg (and other) talk soon.

The Heaney poem is still on the R3 thread so I got away with that one - they've moved on by 500+ posts since then so it's got lost in the rush I expect. I can't be bothered to join in with them to be honest, the best time on there was when I was the only person present and I spent the time posting to myself and being really silly. They all seem to be silly in a very unsilly way, if you know what I mean.

Hi Andy,
OK I admit it - I'm too nosy! Just ignore questions you'd rather not answer. In fact I shouldn't ask them at all. Some people like to be asked, but I see now that you're not one of them! I don't want to make you feel uneasy. Perhaps you are making sure you're not too easily identified by anyone. I do think that some people give away far too much personal stuff on these boards and actually I probably have. But only about five (hmmm that's rather a lot) people reading it know who I am in real life. I do think sometimes that knowing what I do now about messageboards I should have started off far more anonymously with a much better disguise! I've only been posting on the BBC boards for a year but it feels like much longer.

Yes, I'm an avid label-reader which makes shopping very slow unless I'm buying familiar food and drink. Constant battle with the kids now they're older to not only avoid gelatine and nuts (allergies) but all the vile colourings and flavourings and sweeteners put in everything that's attractive to kids. Co-op are quite good with Fair Trade too. I tend to turn a blind eye to non-veggie wine as I have enough other things to avoid! Apparently we should also be supporting wine corked with real corks too to help preserve the cork oak farms. There was (maybe still is) a wonderful old cork oak growing in Cannizaro Park off Wimbledon Common where we went nearly every weekend as kids. It was so old it was propped up with crutches. AFAIK (never used that before!) that's the only one I've ever seen.

You've never eaten raw runner beans? They are DELICIOUS! You wouldn't eat the big knobbly ones raw anyway.

Enjoy your weekend - will you be NO, I WON'T ASK ANY MORE QUESTIONS!!!Happy gardening!

MJ

>>>the best time on there was when I was the only person present and I spent the time posting to myself and being really silly.<<<

No, that's really really sad!

>>>the best time on there was when I was the only person present and I spent the time posting to myself and being really silly.<<<

No, that's really really sad!

It wasn't that sad (well, possibly), the regulars appeared after a while and started replying to my nonsense.

>> Perhaps you are making sure you're not too easily identified by anyone. I do think that some people give away far too much personal stuff on these boards and actually I probably have. <<

I am cautious about identifying myself but I'm not sure that I need to be - I have a web presence because of the web site I run so I can be easily identified from there. It used to have my address and phone no on there but not now. I think I was being rather sensitive because I had been cautioning my Andy Kershaw correspondent about not being so open on the R3 boards - here is a little different - although, as you've said, it is still open to anyone. But please don't let me put you off being nosy!!!!!!!

In reply to your unasked question, I'll be watching cricket for a lot of this weekend - Warwickshire winning tomorrow against Yorkshire (hopefully) and also Harborne (my local club - oops is that too revealing?). Hope you have a nice weekend, what are yr plans?

bws Andy

A web presence - never heard that before - makes you sound like a spider! Is this website work or leisure? (There, that's not too personal a question is it?!)

Actually the unasked question wasn't that! It will remain a mystery...

The weekend revolves around ferrying kids to and from football, swimming, tennis and horse-riding. Usually a mad rush round shops too. I should mow the lawn(s) if it's dry. Should I be sowing runner beans (indoors)yet? I've sometimes done it far too early and had leggy beanstalks unable to be planted out because of the cold nights. Haven't checked where Harborne is but I don't think you're up here in the chilly North West. Lovely today though. Sunny playtimes - yippee! (I'm out every day with them at this school - unusual as most schools have a duty rota.)

Must sleeeeep now. A child brought a hamster in for the day today (er, yesterday!) but we hardly saw it as it was hidden, fast asleep, curled up very cute, all day! What a life - so brief though. I'm not having pet hamsters here for that reason. Too lovable and short-lived.

Enjoy the cricket!

MJ

Harborne Cricket Club

http://www.harborne-cc.co.uk

The web site is
http://www.bromsgrove-concerts.org.uk/
I don't know whether this counts as work or leisure - I don't get paid for it! Design inspired by...........?

This looks like a jolly place to be!

Ah, so this is your creation. Well done! Sorry, I don't know who it's inspired by but it's very eye-catching and appropriate for the contemporary works performed. Plenty of other programmes I'd enjoy though! I grew up playing chamber music so I love string quartets (and piano quintets too though I've never played one)and I played baroque recorder music too. I once heard the Michaela Petri trio in London - she's amazing. I met her afterwards - she was very inspiring.

MJ

More like design lifted from, rather than inspired by, Mondrian.

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/mondrian.html
http://faculty.evansville.edu/rl29/art105/img/mondrian_composition.jpg
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/modernism/images/mondrian-compositionA.jpg

You might like this one as well (not an original Mondrian!)
http://graphics.ethz.ch/research/point-based/gallery/mondrian-bunny.jpg

Not so modern after all. I do like the bunny though I doubt Mondrian would have been so amused. BTW your third link shouted "Forbidden" at me! Those abstracts are the sort you look at and think
"I could have painted that". Very easy to copy. I looked at Kandinsky paintings with my class in the autumn and some of those provoke that reaction. Indeed the kids did very well doing oil pastel patterns in his style. Then last week I was amused to recognise all the paintings on the walls in Pizza Hut (yes, I know, horrible place!) as Kandinskys.

MJ

>BTW your third link shouted "Forbidden" at me!<

It did that to me too but then worked - try http://witcombe.sbc.edu/modernism/artsake.html
there's a Kandinsky there too

>Those abstracts are the sort you look at and think "I could have painted that". Very easy to copy.<

Great - it allows talentless people like me to design a web site which looks a bit "arty". If you google for Mondrian you'll find some sites that will generate Mondrianesque images for you just using software - no human input required! I'm all in favour of computer art or music - it can only help to make it more accessible to people who don't have the fairly rare skills to paint well, play an instrument well etc.

>I looked at Kandinsky paintings with my class in the autumn and some of those provoke that reaction. Indeed the kids did very well doing oil pastel patterns in his style. Then last week I was amused to recognise all the paintings on the walls in Pizza Hut (yes, I know, horrible place!) as Kandinskys.<

Some abstract artists were, I think, attempting to paint like children so it's getting a stage further on when children try to paint like artists attempting to paint like children!! Pizza Hut!! - now if you'd said Pizza Express I wouldn't have been so shocked.

Warwickshire made heavy going of defeating Yorkshire today - in fact I left before the end because I couldn't bear sitting waiting for the final wicket to fall - and went to Harborne's ground to see the end of their pre-season friendly against Birmingham Univ.