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

Yes, he finally got it, and he was very pleased. I only got to see him for around 30 mins as he had to go out, but at least I got to see him. I spent another couple of hours rummaging through old photos, and pinched some much to my mother's annoyance. I want them to illustrate the family tree that I've taken over. It's not my surname on it, so it doesn't feel like my family really, but at least if I keep up our little branch then future generations might be saved a little work.

Sorry to hear about your mishaps yesterday! Us ladies and our matching sets, we always manage to forget something in the transfer!

Glad that your Dad liked his present.You are right about preserving photographs and your family tree for future generations.When my Mum researched ours the trail often went cold because we had no way of telling who it was on the photos.It also became harder when there was only records to go on like birth certificates & death certificates.The results were worth it in the end though ,finding relatives by chance who were viewing the same records but living in the states.
It is freezing out today!so I am glad to be walled up studying.Hope you have a good day yourself

The tree goes back 500 years, but I think the chap who did it paid for proffesionals to do it. I worked out that he's my second cousin once removed. Or something. My nan hadn't heard from him for a year or two, so it could be that he's passed away as well. I've written to him anyway, to let him know what I'm doing and to ask if he wants copies of anything. Maybe another of his relatives will pick up the threads.

I'm back in the office for the day - just taking a short break from work, so avoiding the cold! Wrap up warm, I know it can get cold up there!

Family history is great reading I was amazed at how history repeats itself ,we have a long history of male relatives who were policeman,although a few generations skipped it still continues today.Also strong naval links throughout our family history right back as far as we could trace.It is quite astounding how physical likeness is passed on through the generations my great grandmother ,my auntie,my cousin, myself,and my niece share the same stature and looks.There has also been five women from different generations who share the same bithday as me
It is supposed to be minus three tonight here and it sure feels like it.Enjoy what is left of your evening

There was another cab driver in our history (my parents both drive cabs, and myself and one of my brothers have held licences in the past) which we hadn't known about before. The rest of them all seemed to be land-owning farmers.

That is more than coincidence I think!Land owning farmers sounds quite grand ,were they landed gentry I wonder? and did they have any titles you could inherit like the right honourable or maybe a ladyship somewhere.Perhaps you own half of Englands arable farm land and just don't know it yet...My imaginations has gone off on its own again
Had a nightmare journey home on the bus this evening!!Why do the strange scarey drunks(it was only 5pm)always choose me to sit next to me.Can never decide whether to move to another seat or not.By the time I decided what to do it was my stop.Enough to give anyone nightmares.

I don't think I've got anything coming to me from those farmers. The family moved to London over 100 years ago, and my grandmother was the youngest daughter of a daughter so any cash will have gone down another branch. Proved by the chap who had enough money in retirement to pay for a profesional family tree!

I always moved if I was sitting next to someone I'd rather not when I was commuting up to London and back. Unless of course it was standing room only, then I'd just put up with it for the sake of laziness!

How is your course going?

Well you never know,there could have been a hidden will in an old outhouse building,or buried in a field somewhere,but your probably right the land always passed down to the men.Is there an old saying about the youngest daughter of a daughter?No I am thinking of a seventh son of a seventh son.
The joys of public transport.You are right I usually just move but when they are drunk they can be unpredictable,then they start talking to you even though your reading!There is nothing worse except a scarey mad drunk with B.O in the summer yuk!!!
The course is going well,I am still enjoying it and hopefully I will soon be able to sit my first exam when the paperwork comes through.
What exciting weekend have you got planned?Mine is really not that exciting this week.My best friend has flu and I haven't been out for ages because I had glandular feverI am feeling better now but it leaves you really tired so I haven't had the energy for a night out.
Bet you are off out enjoying yourself somewhere really nicenow I am feeling sorry for myself !!How I hate self pity

Actually I was falling asleep in front of Madonna Mania at my sister-in-laws. She was going out for the evening/night but not until 10.30pm. I had to be there early though, as I take my son and he needed to get some sleep.

I came home this morning and was sowing more seeds, planting a few small plants in the garden, and pricking out tiny seedlings. I came in to last night's washing up, a full laundry basket and a sunday roast to cook. Now that's all done I'm going to sit in front of the telly thinking about the two plants I need to put into the garden and one I need to move into my front garden and whether I can be bothered to do them today or not. Probably not, as I've got three days out of the office this week so I'll do them then. Along with the mowing, the hoovering and changing the sheets...

Sorry to hear that you weren't very well. I hope that you're all better now. It's no fun.

Are you a Madonna fan?So you were just babysitting on a saturday night!That is what sisters are for after all
Been in the garden all day.Had to pot up some petunias and verbenas ready for the hanging baskets,and I grow organic vegetables ,so I planted my broad beans today.What seeds are you growing ?
I ignored the ironing today so I will have to catch up tomorrow.I have a bit of reading to do tonight,if I can stay awake after all that fresh air.It was a lot warmer than it has been of late so it was a lot pleasanter to be outside.
Enjoy your three days out of the office and hope you manage to do the ironing,hoovering,mowing........the lists never ends because when you get to the end everything needs doing again!

I am a Madonna fan, but I hate those Mania programmes. All those second rate singers that no-one has ever heard of, and a very cheap wardrobe. It's just nasty. I only left it on because my SIL was still around and I thought it was rude to come round and change the channel or put in a video. I had to sit through millionaire as well. I don't normally watch much Saturday (or any other) night TV I usually stick a movie on most nights.

I've got some verbenas in the garden that I planted last year. I liked them so much that I've got some more seedlings on the windowsill. Some of the seedlings I put into pots yesterday wilted! I brought them in for the night as my greenhouse hasn't got a cover on it at the moment, and it's a good job I did as the wind and sun had dried them out. I wouldn't have noticed they needed more water otherwise - although as it's raining today they probably would have been ok. I've put them back out there now.

I've got tomatoes, borage, cerinthe (only three of those grew, but the seeds were a couple of years old) and chinese lanterns, and I've just sown some fennel and delphinium. My son put some sunflower seeds in pots, which I promptly knocked off the shelf making him cry. So I had to tidy those up for him. He's still got some more to do which I hope to get him doing later in the week. He's got a short attention span so he only managed to do about 5 pots.

I think only Madonna can do Madonna!
It has poured with rain all day,everywhere is flooded,and I think it is going to take a few days for the garden to dry out.
I absolutely love my garden ,to me there is nothing more relaxing than pottering around the garden.There is so much to do at this time of year and keeping the seedlings growing can be tricky,because at night the tempreture can plummet.
It is nice that you encourage your son to grow his own plants,I got my love of gardening from my Mum & she in turn from my grandfather.It helps you appreciate nature to garden when you are young.
Delphiniums are lovely I grow them myself and nature helps every year by self seeding(always a bonus)I grow a lot of herbs because I love to cook with themYesterday I potted my tomato seedlings into bigger pots.My garden is carefully cultivated but it looks cottagey and natural.It took a lot of planning and about 3 years ago we totally replanted redesigned the whole garden.It was a huge amount of work but it was absolutely worth it.What about you? what kind of garden do you love.

I love a garden that I can just do as much or as little as I please in.

I'm mostly interested in a wildlife garden, so it is with that in mind that I do everything. I don't use pesticides or fertalisers (except my compost heap and the odd bit of poo, I don't get weeds because I don't consider any plant to be a bad thing - although I have been known to pick and dig up all sorts of plants out of the borders just because they aren't in a convenient place and I'm pretty much immune to nettle stings these days - unless I grab the stem to pull up by accident .Most of what I take out of the garden stays in the garden itself, by being added to the woodpile, the compost heap, or my dinner! Sometimes I have to put the lawn mowings out for the council recyclers because I've just got too much to deal with, and if I cut down a large shrub then I do as well, but mostly if it's in the garden it stays there somehow. I've got my reward, I've got a fledgling holly hedge in the front garden - all presents from the birds! Didn't cost me a penny, and hopefully it will grow well so I'll have a nice hedge that will protect the garden a bit from the litter louts. I live opposite a shop, so there's always litter in the garden. I'm hoping a hedge will block most of it. Sadly no dropped ten pound notes ever find their way into the garden.

My son is learning all about life from the garden - frogs from the pond, tadpoles, birds - we're currently discussing whether or not our resident pair of collared doves are going to give birth to live babies or eggs. I think he's just having trouble remembering, rather than not really knowing.

He's also excited about our tadpoles - but we have those every year. I guess the thrill never wears off!

An organic gardener hurrah!!there are more of us than we think.I actively encourage wildlife to my garden,and have many wild visitors,collared doves,buzzards(we have two pairs that consider my garden part of their territory),sparrow hawks,finches,,hedgehogs(or fleabag family)rabbits and insects in abundanceI did have a toad but I had to transport him back to the stream nearby as splendid as he looked he dug a fresh hole in the lawn each day in which he deposited a fresh dropping ...and as he was a large toad he had to find pastures new.
I was taught by my grandfather that a weed is just a plant in the wrong place
I am compost mad and think it is marvelous what nature gives you back with very little effort.The spiders also love the compost heap and I have seen some as big as an eyeball in there.

You removed a toad? I dream of the day a toad comes to stay. They are the slugs worst enemy. I did get some toadspawn from a friend once, but it died and I've never found any again since.

I too was naive about how perfect an antidote to slugs a toad would be,and when he first arrived I thought joy!.He was magnificent to look at and was large and obviously adept at eating the old enemy(slugs).The first few holes he dug in the lawn I forgave & I even thought he may be shy or scared, as he spent all day in his freshly dug hole peering out only rarely.But then I realised he wasn't happy with the same dug out every day(clearly his own droppings offended him somehow)I thought of possible ways to modify his behaviour ,I even found him a huge clay pot to reside in, but he declined and went back too his daily digging.An old gardener suggested keeping him captive under the huge clay pot during the day but that seemed excessively cruel.Then the local( expert in killing birds ) cat appeared and stalked the toad mercilessly so with a sad heart we transported him safely back to the stream from which he had come from.He obviously decided after his encounter with the cat that a suburban garden wasn't a good place to live.

Oh well, I'm used to holes in the lawn because I've got rabbits. I usually fill them in with the finished compost from the seed trays or pots, and mix in a little grass seed as I do it. Nice bit of toad fertaliser would be lovely!

These were serious holes ! small craters to be exact and although I love my lawn(mowing it a favourite job but for its main purpose having somewhere to position the sun lounger)I am not that obssesive about it as grass is resilient.Believe me when I say the toad made the lawn look like Somme battle field.This was a JCB digger toad if ever there was one

Perhaps he needed a girlfriend to keep him busy?

Maybe it was his girlfriend he was trying to hide from.Some men just like burying their heads in the sand or in the toads case lawn