Labour Support Grows? Planting time and the Blog's Mobile friendly

On a bus ride from Ealing to Richmond today I had the impression that there were more Labour supporting householders than Tories.

Impression I'm getting is that Tory control is not what it should be and that perhaps the Australian experience (as personified by Lynton Crosby who is said to be on a half million pound retainer)  is not totally  relevant to the strange multi party world that is developing across the UK.

A proud Labour supporter

The maverick Tory Zac could almost be a green

My findings are admittedly  pretty unscientific and posters don't necessarily correlate with getting the vote out (the 'holy grail' of political constituency party managers)  but encouraging that there are people who consider that there is alternative to what we've had over the last 5 years.

I did see that the Tory Zac Goldsmith  had some support at the Richmond end of my journey but he is far from the identikit Conservative that dedicates itself to advancement up the greasy pole.

Planting time

Plenty of seeds to plant and seedlings too, yesterday I transplanted some feeble looking Broccoli, have also put some Cauliflower, Lettuce and Beetroot seeds outside  in trays too.

Broccoli makes a great snack for Pigeons 

Seed trays used to start ahead off transplanting

Another batch of Broad Beans

Mobile ready

Nice to learn that My blog is Mobile friendly - Google makes the checking nice and easy.

Man takes a pay cut (voluntarily) and a couple more great BBC Programmes

Strangely excited to hear this morning (from the radio) of a guy who has taken a pay cut so that his staff can receive more, the CEO of  Gravity Dan Price is effectively carrying out a brave experiment on reward.

Seems Dan Price has been influenced by a 2010 report on happiness -good luck to him

What should we pay him?

Other Great BBC Programmes

yesterday I mentioned some must watch TV shows that UK residents can catch on BBC iPlayer well here's two more that i should have mentioned:

Giles Coren brother of Victoria and son of  the late Alan (a one time editor of Punch) - has a somewhat laconic style as well as a strong interest in food and is well suited to being the front-person  the BBC series looking back at how British people's diet   has changed over the last 50 years.

The deceit of the show 'Back in Time for Dinner'  is for a family to rapidly advance though the decades and years looking at Social history with a food-a-centric  gaze - it works well, seem to be a really nice family and the introduction and effect of technology has also introduced an interesting perspective to it.

The other programme which I happened upon pretty much by chance was on a subject I've commented on before the London fashion for extending under the home -well in Ealing I know of a handful of such homes but in Kensington and Holland Park areas it's pretty much endemic.

A  development in Ealing down under 

The difference  is that as you get further into town the basements become more lavish and deeper also the challenges to moving materials in and out.

 Millionaire Basement Wars - certainly showed a class within London that are seriously Mega rich.

Old papers and a couple of fine BBC programmes

As I get older my personal filing system gets increasingly weighted to pension statements and the ancillary reports that come with them - when I worked in TV News I was around at the time that a paperless revolution seemed to be on the horizon, certainly it hadn't arrived when I moved on and I think the same is true of our personal 'business' materials - paperless it isn't.

A step on my academic ladder

A sample of what I collected

Well trying to find some documents I came a cross this advert for my first postgraduate degree which I started (by Distance Learning) when I was living and working in Hong Kong.

What it brought to mind was how difficult I find it not to take courses - next week I'm back at the coal face of Philosophy and will be starting a picture framing at RACC course too - this morning I see that Nick Pearson will be running a course on 20th Century design at OPEN Ealing in May and I'm definitely up for that one too as well as Nick being a great communicator I can see that it will help inform the volunteering I do at The Design Museum.

  TV and Radio

Caught on BBC iPlayer a very considered and worthwhile Panorama about the Suicide of presenter Simon Jack's father  - Male suicide rate remains alarmingly high and the analysis from the programme was that men internalise and fail to communicate - I guess it's a responsibility on all of us to try and correct this and help those around us.

Another great example of the BBC's eclectic range was a programme (another one) about Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah - not the best show about Laughing Len but worth a listen.

we need more balloons 

Making pretty on plot 202 and more planting

I try and keep an eye out on what other allotment plot holders have done to enhance their plots and felt  a deficient  on the frivolous (perhaps) side - I've got some daffodils and generally add some sunflowers.

One pound bargain

The other day in the pound shop I was on a mission to get a piece of trellis and a climbing rose as I thought it could make a nice addition.

After a bit of fixing, and wood protection plus digging I'd managed the majority of the project I've put  compost at roots but need to add further fixings hopefully it'll survive and there'll be some nice bright blooms in the next years or so.

A coat of preserver applied

The one pound rose dug in.

'Strimmer' Battery search.

For my garden strimmer that I use tro keep the paths in order I've been searching for a spare rechargeable battery.
To date Robert Dyas (where I bough the tool) have only been able to give me a small amount of help, telling me that the units were imported from the USA (from Rank Sharp) - Rank Sharp  deal with Chinese producers but so far no update  from them  - if you've got any ideas do let me know.

Strimmer label

The battery

More planting

Peas and Broccoli will soon be ready to be planted out and I've got Courgettes and Kale started now but still lots more to plant - for some reason the water down on the plots has not been turned on so will wait until this happens before a mass planting.

They'll be planted out soon