All painted

Weatherwise quite an amazing weekend for February and we managed to get a few hours in on the allottment, shed now treated with preservative (left see Debbie doing the work) and hedge is showing signs of activity- see right.Peach tree looks alive but less sure about the lemon on the right. I planted a couple of Strawberries and also Asparagus plants.
On Saturday I repotted the artichokes (six out of the eight had germinated). Also started some more pea plants as I only have one from earlier sowing. Celeriac shooting well as are the artichokes.

Valentine's, Tomatoberry and peppers

This week was of course Valentine's and we went to the Orangery at Kew Gardens - sadly it was a little scaled back from previous years, which although more costly offered (I think) better value - perhaps it's the austerity times? I think the new catering management company has a differnt outlook.

Saturday I did a little preparation work on the allotment before the rain started to fall and also planted (in a pot) a Peach tree.

As you can see below the Tomatoberry has germinated and been transplanted (9 off) into individual pots. I have started Green and Red Peppers in another propogating tray. Celeriac seeds are coming up (again in a propogating tray) and there is already germination of Cauliflowers.

Snowdrops in the garden (on the right).

Running the cleaner

Well Digeus were as good as their word and I now have licensed copy of the 'cleaner' I have run several times and intend to do so until no errors currently still coming back with more than 50 errors on about the 5th pass).
My PC has crashed fairly often previously and I will see if running this makes any difference to the PC performance.

registry cleaning

Some time ago I was given great and free the Digeus Registry Cleaner, seems there's now a new version..
I'm told by Ashley Adams that it speeds up your computer by cleaning errors in your Windows.
It removes the junk that accumulates in your Windows Registry, fixes Windows errors which results in speeding up your computer.
With Digeus Registry Cleaner you just need a few mouse clicks and your computer will become as good as a brand new one.

The Key features are:

* It removes unused and invalid entries
* It speeds up the boot up time
*It fixes Windows errors which results in speeding up your computer (great news eh?)
* It even eliminates that nightmare BSOD (Blue Screen of Death)
* It is invaluable when your system starts crashing, hangs, freezes and works slow (we've all had that haven't we?)
* This is one of the most popular registry cleaners on the Internet!!

For more information please visit: http://www.digeus.com/products/regcleaner/registry-cleaner.html.
-With this news they'll give me a copy of the new s/ware and I'll let be able to you know how it performs for me.

Neighbourhood Watch - Lemon and Olives

Yesterday Debbie and I went to Richmond theatre and enjoyed the Alan Ayckbourn play Neighbourhood Watch - quite an interesting theme and a good cast not too sure of the message .
But certainly covering some issues around net curtain twitching -Francis Grey as Amy stood out.
Snow down on the allotment and ground solid so only able to put up shelves in shed and gather some more rubbish.

On arrival I noticed (not surprising that I noticed!) that one of the window panes had fallen out - not intruders and was able to put it back in- seems it was just gravity and the cold that drove it out.
Below you can see the Lemon tree (left) and Olive tree planted last week.

Have now started some Artichokes (green globe improved) and cauliflower (all year round) in seed trays in the house.

Daytime TV (live)

I went to an interesting Royal Television Society session on Thursday night.
Learnt quite a bit from the team who work on Live with Gabby (C5) - the programme is produced by Princess productions.

For me TV is nothing if it's not live (actually I don't mrean that but I do reckon that content is merely that if it is not live orat least first run).

Some of the points I got were.

+ The Daytime budgets (and audiences) are small (by peaktime standards)
+ Women outnumber men by about 2 to 1
+ Over 55s are the biggest demograhic section of the audience.

I've not seen the programme but it appears that Matthew Wright who does a programme before Gabby on the same channel shares the studio and there is not even a commercial break between the two programmes!

The other thing that was revealed was how important 'Social Media' is be it Facebook or Twitter for feedback during the show - or how it can inform production and editorial.
Zeebox was mentioned (of course) here I am a little sceptical - I don't neccesarily believe loads of over 55s are already second screen viewers.

Nice little addition

Wow, very quickly got the author signature for my latest Alain de Botton book (sent first class too)- it's surprising how pleasant it is to get something like this in the post - Thanks Alain or your organisation.

Snow and ambition

This weekend I might have overstretched myself.
The weather was cold and ground very hard on the allotment but I planted an olive tree and in a planter a lemon tree.
I also purchased asparagus (3 off) and Strawberries (6 off) and have planted these in pots and put them in lean to greenhouse in hope that in a few weeks time I'll be able to plant them out.

I have also got three lots of seeds started in propogator, Tomatoberry, Celeriac (Monarch) and Aubergine (Baby Roseanne F1). Germination is said to be 7 to 10 days so will keep an eye on these too. In the picure you can also see chillies that are growing indoors.

And more on ambition - the news that Chris Huhne is facing prosecution over irregularities concerning a speeding offence of almost 10 years ago (when he was an MEP) has given the coalition government some problems keeping the 'balance' - must be a real concern as the Lib Dems do not have an unlimited supply of potential ministers and as they reach the back of the drawer who's to say that what they bring out will be up to the job or without skeletons?

Also very excited to be able to provide a link to a truly remarkable piece of work by Dr John Jirik putting on record some first hand knowledge he gained in Moscow when Gorbachev was facing a coup in 1991.