Month: April 2019

TWTW # 15 A Light Bulb Moment

On By TontowilliamsIn books, Garden / Allotment, The Week That Was, work

I started this week trying to find a lightbulb to fit a fixture in my Mum’s house. It’s a light she uses a lot (to read by at night) so quite important to replace it (or potentially have to get a new fitting to replace the whole thing). After a bit of looking around online I managed to find something that looked like it would fit and so ordered it. As it was the Easter weekend the shops weren’t open again until Monday – I’m pleased to see that they still shut on Easter Day, but not surprised they open again as soon as they can on Bank Holiday Monday (that really is a post for another time) – I couldn’t actually pick it up until then. It’s fitted and as it’s an LED bulb I’ll probably never have to replace it again, I dare say it will even out last me!

My client came back to me with some relatively minor comments on the report, so much so that I was able to turn a revised report around the same day, which has been accepted and hopefully I’ll soon be paid for the work (I see no problem here, as they’ve always been good about prompt payment in the past).

I had a seed sowing blitz this week, getting some gherkins, cucumbers, squash, pumpkin, courgette, and (more) tomatoes in. I’ve still got some sweetcorn and a few other things to sow, but I’ll be doing those probably later on this week, as well as hopefully moving out some of the brassicas to make room for them!

Some of the direct sowing on the allotment are also coming through – beetroot & radish are through – no sign of the lettuce or parsnip yet, but I don’t expect they’ll be far behind. Keeping them watered has been the biggest challenge as the dry weather has meant hand watering the seedlings as they come through, particularly those that are under cover.

I’ve been reading Pico Iyer’s “Autumn Light” this week, it’s been an enjoyable read, and I’ve particularly enjoyed the insights into Japanese life (the book is mostly set in Japan).

You can also read my re-review of Under The Rock by Benjamin Myers which I wrote about yesterday here.

How Dog Names Have Changed Through Time

Revisiting “Under The Rock” by Benjamin Myers

On By TontowilliamsIn Book Review, books4 Comments

I first read “Under The Rock” last year when it came out in hardback and it has now just come out in paperback from Elliot & Thompson Books.

At the time I first read it I wrote:

Very much a book of the landscape, nature and the human interface I read most of this in just over a day. It was over too soon, and I know it’s a book that I am likely to revisit again and again. It’s also shaped how I look at the world now, giving me a different lense through which I see things.

Under The Rock was one of my top books of 2018 and the publishers have asked me if I would revisit my previous review which I’m pleased to do as it has given me a chance to reread the book – perhaps a dangerous thing to do, because will the book be the same second time around? Well I’m pleased to say that it was, and perhaps more so, as although the writing was familiar and I remember large parts of the book, there are also things that I don’t remember or missed first time around. This time my read took me a little longer giving me more of a chance to absorb the telling.

The book is essentially autobiographical about the period in the authors life when he moves to Mytholmroyd from London and begins to explore his new home. His walks and discoveries mean that the book is also biographical about his new location, it’s history, former and current residents. The “Rock” of the title is the overshadowing (Hathershelf) Scout Rock and the authors tales are interwoven around its presence. They are of nature, social history, character tales and stories of the surrounding areas, the moors, Myer’s dog Cliff and of course The Rock. The book arcs back through time but also brings it right up to date with the serious flooding the area suffered in the mid-decade.

It’s hard to put into words that do this book justice but it remains one of my favourite books. To be able to write about a place in such a way that it comes to life for the reader is a gift and the author’s gift to the reader is in turn and incredible book. I recommend this book to anyone, and if you haven’t read it already go track down a copy (or scroll down to see how you can get your hands on the one that I have to giveaway).

About The Author (From the publisher)

BENJAMIN MYERS was born in Durham in 1976. He is a prize-winning author, journalist and poet. His recent novels are each set in a different county of northern England, and are heavily inspired by rural landscapes, mythology, marginalised characters, morality, class, nature, dialect and post-industrialisation. They include The Gallows Pole, winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, and recipient of the Roger Deakin Award; Turning Blue, 2016; Beastings, 2014 (Portico Prize For Literature & Northern Writers’ Award winner), Pig Iron, 2012 (Gordon Burn Prize winner & Guardian Not The Booker Prize runner-up); and Richard, a Sunday Times Book of the Year 2010. Bloomsbury will published his new novel, The Offing, in August 2019.

As a journalist, he has written widely about music, arts and nature. He lives in the Upper Calder Valley, West Yorkshire, the inspiration for Under the Rock.

Giveaway

The publishers have kindly given me a paperback copy of Under The Rock to giveaway to readers of this blog. If you’d like to be in with a chance to win this, simply leave a comment below (the email address you use to comment with will be the one I contact you on if you win, but won’t be published). I’ll draw one winner from random from all of the comments that are present after 12th May 2019 and contact the winner by email for their postal address. If the winner doesn’t respond within 7 days, I’ll redraw. My decisions are final.

(Please note if this is your first time commenting here, I will need to approve your comment. If it doesn’t appear straight away, don’t worry.)

TWTW # 14 – A Scorcher

On By TontowilliamsIn books, Cooking, Dog, Film, Fork To Fork, Garden / Allotment, Kindle, Self-sufficient, The Week That Was, tv, Video, Wildlife/Nature, Wilson's Story, work

It’s Bank Holiday Monday as I write this, and I’m a little bit later than usual sitting down to think about what’s happened in the last week. Essentially a short working week for most with the long weekend around Easter and quiet for me as I am waiting for my client to respond regarding a report. He has responded and is taking a wider view across his organisation before giving formal comments.

It’s been getting progressively warmer all week with the weekend turning into quite a scorcher and I’ve been doing quite a bit allotment and garden wise, while I’ve had the time. I’ve sown some lettuce seed as individual plugs – some for my Mum’s garden and the remainder as back-ups for the allotment. I’ve potted on some tomatoes and have got some more seed to sow a few more plants.

I’ve also started off my runner beans. Garden lore says that you should sow your runner bean seeds on the first Bank Holiday in May and plant them out on the second one, so these are a little early but that might not be a bad thing as they were covered in a little mould which I washed off and they seem to be okay – not soft or any obvious other damage other than the mould – so if they don’t grow I’ll have time to get some more.

My car was MOT’d and serviced at the beginning of the week. It passed and so there’s nothing further to do until next year or unless there’s a problem.

Wilson was also back at the vets for his next round of tests – we’re awaiting the results.

I’ve been reading “The Way Home – Tales from a Life Without Technology” by Mark Boyle, essentially the stories of the author when he completely gave up technology, including electricity and other mains utilities, living on an island near Ireland. I’m not that far in, but I’m enjoying it so far.

Slightly ironically I’m reading it on my Kindle.

I’ve also  got  the  (re)review  of “Under  The  Rock” coming  up next weekend with the chance to receive a copy of the paperback.

Been watching the new season of Bosch on Amazon over the weekend, it’s another great season of the show, and it’s great that such high quality tv can be be made to this standard – thoroughly recommended! If you’ve read Michael Connelly’s “Two Kinds of Truth”, it’s mostly based on that.

TWTW 13 – In The Zone

On By TontowilliamsIn The Week That Was

This week has been in two halves, the first part of the week was very much focussed on work. I was in the “zone” working on my clients report, which I duly delivered the draft report only to find out he was away on holiday, so won’t be getting back to me until early this week with comments. No problem, and it meant the latter half of the week was very much spent catching up on tasks in the garden. Sowing some sweet peas, californian poppies and nasturtiums, and generally tidying things up.

We also had a trip back to the vets with Wilson, there’s an underlying problem that we’re trying to get to the bottom of but that needs another round of tests (so far we’ve been able to claim the majority back on his insurance, but it’s not a pleasant thing for him to be spending so much time there).

I’ve finally got some seeds out in the ground on the allotment too. Some parsnips, lettuce, radish and beetroot all went in on Saturday. They’re under cover for now, which makes watering a little awkward, but means they’re much more likely to germinate.

This piece about W S Merwin’s garden in Hawaii caught my eye this week.

Neil Gaiman has possibly come off his blogging hiatus too.

The week ahead includes an MOT and service for the car, another trip to the vets and revising a report (assuming I get feedback in time), it’s also Easter Weekend coming up.

TWTW # 12 Welcome To British Summer Time

On By TontowilliamsIn Garden / Allotment, The Week That Was, work

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The clocks changed last weekend, and my body & mind have been trying to catch up all week, and it’s been a pretty busy week!

On Monday evening I was giving a talk to Harwell Gardening Club. The talk was entitled An Allotment Year, but as Monday was also April Fools Day, I couldn’t resist talking a little about some of the “gardening” April Fools that there have been. These included Waitrose’s Pinanas; Tesco’s whistling carrots (so you can tell when they’re cooked); who could forget the great Panorama spaghetti farming story; and finally Herr Moler’s phosphorescent sunflowers so that you can read in the garden at nighttime.

I think the talk went well, and there was an invitation to come back another time, so a good evening was had by all.

I’ve also been mostly working on the delivery of the proposal accepted by one of my clients last week. It’s involved a lot of research, and I’ve started writing the main report. That will continue this week, and I hope to deliver the draft to the client next week.

I’ve had a couple of other meetings so it’s been a pretty busy working week all in all.

Although we are officially on Summer Time, it seems the weather has dropped several degrees in temperature. Gone are the shorts of last week and I’m back in jeans again. This will probably be short-lived (sorry for the pun), as it was getting warmer again yesterday.

The weather has meant that other than harvesting purple sprouting broccoli and leeks, I’ve not done very much on the allotment. Instead I’ve been busy transplanting broccoli and cauliflower seedlings into bigger pots, and sowing some sweet peas and a few other flowering annuals for hanging baskets and pots.

It’s possible that we might soon be able to see White Tailed Eagles not very far away from here. A licence has been granted for their reintroduction, and although that’s only a step in the process it’s moving in the right direction for a reintroduction in due course, possibly as soon as this summer. You can read more about it here.

The clocks changing has really mucked up my sleeping patterns, and with a busy week I’ve been a little bit too tired to read when I finally end up in bed. I’ve been dipping into Under The Rock by Benjamin Myers again, which although I read this last year, is coming out in paperback in a couple of weeks time and the publishers have asked me if I’d re-review it. They’ve also given me a copy of the paperback to give away here when that review is published, so if you’re interested watch this space (if you really don’t want to miss your chance then you can subscribe to posts in the box on the right hand menu – you can unsubscribe at any time, and I don’t give your details to anyone else or spam you with anything other than posts from this blog, one post equals one email).

That’s it for this week. Things are a little quieter this week, my main focus needs to be on my clients report. The sooner that’s delivered, the sooner I can have a bit of fun!

TWTW # 11

On By TontowilliamsIn Dog, Film, Garden / Allotment, pupdate, The Week That Was, Wilson's Story1 Comment

Hello there from a relatively sunny Spring day (I know it’s Spring because I’ve been wearing shorts quite a bit this week).

It’s been a fairly busy week workwise this week. That’s not to say that I haven’t also had my share of fun too. The proposal that I was asked to submit has been accepted and I’ve been given the go ahead to proceed with the work! Great news!

I’ve also been working on my presentation and notes for the allotment talk that I’m giving on Monday evening this week (no this isn’t an April Fools joke).

I went to see Captain Marvel at the cinema on Wednesday. It was a good film, and I enjoyed it. I’m hoping to be able to see the final Avengers film in a few months time when it comes out and this film introduces a new character (although I don’t think you necessarily have to see Captain Marvel to enjoy the Avengers film, so long as you know a little bit about the genre generally).

It was Wilson’s 9th birthday this week, so he got some new dog toys and a new harness and we went for an afternoon walk to the beach, as well as having some lunch out.

I finished the final bit of digging on the allotment at the weekend, just a patch that I’ve been leaving and is likely to be the new brassica bed, so after digging I gave it a good cover of lime (this helps to prevent club root, and also my soil is on the acidic side so this helps achieve a more neutral pH.

If you have and interest in Neil Gaiman then can I recommend that you go watch / listen to Tim Ferriss’s podcast with him. I’ve embedded the video recording of the interview below (it’s 90 minutes long), but the podcast page is also worth a visit for some of the show notes.

In the week ahead I’ll be giving my talk and carrying on with the delivery of work for my client. I’ve also got a couple of meetings and it’s generally looking like being another busy week.