Green Day Down at The Doctors

Well sort of . Another sunny day and I spent a lot of it making bricks for my woodburning stove from old newspapers. It is very physical but worth it and means I put less in the recycling bin because I am going to burn the stuff.

Lots of paper front pages caught my eye but I think it was the Sunday Post who were suggesting that it took 100 phne calls to get an appointment with a GP , and then you would have to wait months for it. If that is the situation change your practice . I have done it a few times and always ended up with excelent service. I've been with mine for around ten years , they are The Thornfield Medical Group based in Byker and Shieldfield and provide excellent service with and online appointment and repeat prescription service that cuts down the phone calls they have to deal with , an all round winner. Their website is here. The booking system is here.

Another Summers Day .....But It'll Either Rain Or Go Dark Before Morning

A Sunny Corner of The Garden

Well although theres a bit of rain , and summer doesnt really start while about June , loads of people have been whining about the fact we've had no summer and thats it for this year and the British weather is appalling . It's weather , it's unpredictable , get over it.

We've ad the Daily Mail and Express predicting froods , and snowdrifts akin to The Day After Tomorrow , and ...... we're still here , no state of emergency. In fact today has been a great day weatherwise as you can see from the photograph of my garden. It's been a great daty for sitting out and talking in the weather.

It seems lots of people arent satisfied until something bad happens and they'll point out that they predicted it . Well as a farmer I knew once said  "It'll either rain or go dark before morning" , and you know what ... he was always right!!

Bricking It - Logs From Recycled Newspapers

Bought a new lawn mower and one of these things for making logs from old newspapers. Apparently the logs take about three months before they are ready to use , and a weekends papers (four in our house) is enough for ten of the logs or bricks.


Making them is fairly simple but I need to wait three months to see if they are a success.

A Bee, See!

There seems to be a lot of worry over the apparent decline in the global Bee population. It doesnt seem two minutes since swarms of killer bees were coming outr way according to the resident scaremongers in the government and the Daily Mail. Apparently you can attract bees by planting Rosemary and Lavender in your garden . We;ve done this and the garden attracts a healthy number of these impossible flying machines. Below is a short montage soundtracked by Jonathan Richman's excellent "Buzz Buzz Buzz" available here:

Lucifer Sam....

Earlier in the the year we had a problem with cats using the garden as a toilet , so decided to try the "Silent Roar" Lion Poo solution (see here) One cat in particular was a total git , any way I have some film of said offender now avoiding our garden in this bit of video accompanied by Pink Floyd's "Lucifer Sam" which you can get here.

A Garden Post and a Pair of Magpies

Nice weather for the Easter Bank Holiday , and we've managed to get the umbrella up , which seemed to contain an unwelcome infestation of flies, though hopefully our resident spiders and frogs will have devoured them by now!!

Also managed to get a photo of two magpies in our garden ruined by the fact that in was taken through the kitchen window , the flash went off and scred them away, still this is the result.

And here's a short video of the garden featuring "Always With Me, Always With You" by Joe Satriani which is available here:

First Mow Of The Year

Today , well yesterday , was the first mow of the year and lawn doesnt look too bad.

We also repotted a Bay Tree that we got for Christmas , which looks very nice on the decking.


And the Silent Roar / Sonic Gun combination (see here)seems to be keeping the garden cat poo free.

Buying Lion Pooh From Dobbies and Laser Guided Sonic Cat Guns From Wilkinsons!!!

Just been out for the first Garden Centre excursion of the year and spent a fortune on stuff.

We have a problem with cats in out garden , but apparently the best repellent is stuff called "Silent Roar" which is basically fertiliser coated in Lion Pooh . The premise is that if the cat thinks there's a bigger , harder specimen about then it'll leave your garden undisturbed.


Well I've scattered the stuff about so we'll see what happens!!!

Within three hours the cat had abandoned the borders where lion pooh was , and decided to use the lawn in the middle as it's toilet!!! Are these animals stupid? If you think there's a big cat about you don't move another six feet to do your business. Will do the lawn as well and see what happens then.

Go Cat

Today I put some cat rellent on the lawn and got a "Mega Sonic Cat Scatter Gun" from Wilkinsons. Today two cats have been in the garden
and were there about ten seconds . Things may be working!!!

New Bath and Carpet!!

We finally had the carpet delivered after much trauma , and people have asked to see the bathroom , so thought the easiest thing would be a short video , which is here:

It's the first day of August and the weather is mad as a fish going from monsoon to tropical sunshine in a matter of hours , still it could be much worse.

Most of the stuff in the bathroom was supplied by Newcastle Bath & Plumbing Centre in Fenham who are both reasonably priced and provide great service.

After the first video , people want to see the garden and front room, so that's here now. Apologies for shakiness , but still bgetting used to video camera thing , and should give you an idea of how things are going!!

Wild Life - Nature Will Find A Way?

The garden is looking better , but last weekend we had Bill , Nick , Lesley and Matt down for a great weekend ....and found we had a frog in outr new water feature!!! Given that we are in an enclosed block of houses surrounded by roads and more houses and the nearest parkland is half a mile a away and god knows where the nearest open water is!!!

Anyway some pictures of our visitor:




















The following day we were in Alnwick , again with lots of wildlife in the Castle , including a falconry and owlery display , which was most entertaining , some more pictures here:











The Knights Quest and Dragon's Quest are well worth a visit , especially if you are a child. Some of the displays are here , but there are some great surprises.

Seven Days (Waiting For) Grass

We now have grass and a water feature (looking like the monolith from 2001) and lots of plants in our back garden. It's almost there!!!


A couple of views , firstly from an inebriates perspective, on virtually on the floor:

Then we have our relocated holly bush:



And the patio corner with monolith!!


And another view of the garden:

And the front looks far nicer now as well!!




And thats it for today, time for a drink methinks!!