Dreams
I’ve been sick the last few days. Coming on the back of a lengthy work trip I’m not surprised and likely I contracted whatever it is on a flight – plane-flu.
As is usually the case when I’m sick, my dreams become more vivid or at least I remember more of the content. It tends to be about what I should be doing at work or is at the depths of my mind.
We were talking last night about remembering Sparky. It’s nearly a year since we lost him, and whether we should mark the occasion by buying our current dogs a rememberance gift. Ruby of course wasn’t around, but Wilson was and I wonder what he remembers? Without trying to anthropomorphisise, does he think about Sparky?
I dreamt about Sparky last night, which I think is actually the first time since we lost him. He was poorly, as he was latterly, but perhaps a reflection of my own illness? My preference is to remember him when he was strong.
Anyhow I think we will mark the occasion in some way, but not sure how just yet.
How to Make Baked Eggs with Swiss Chard
Will definitely be trying this recipe when my next crop of swiss chard is ready.
Unlike some of my fellow Garden Share Collective bloggers like Dusty Country Road, Our Wee Farm and Strayed from the Table, we don’t have chickens on the allotment. I wish we could, as I love the idea of being able to go and collect fresh eggs each day, but one of the rules of the allotment site is no livestock. So, when I want to have eggs I need to get them from the shops and our local free range supplier.
I do however have a good supply of Swiss Chard, and enjoy using it in many different dishes, such as chard pilaf and chard and blue cheese tarts. This little light lunch is inspired by the desire for my own fresh eggs and my favourite allotment veg, the silken runny yolk perfectly compliments the iron rich earthy flavours of the chard.
You will need (serves 2)
2 eggs
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To The Garage With The Car
I had to take the car to the garage today. Like many visits, this one was necessitated by a strange knocking noise. Fortunately nothing too serious or to expensive. I did manage to take a few photos and some video on my train ride to and from the garage though.
http://instagram.com/p/yohsQdPrDV/
http://instagram.com/p/ypUvo3PrBW/
2014 – The Year In Review(s)
Found a fellow pen geeks website, great posts throughout.
Top 10 Fountain Pen Reviews of 2014
I had a lot of fun doing the year-end roundup last year, so I figured I would do it again. Some pens have maintained their presence in the top 10 list and with good reason. Each of these posts got the most page views out of all of the posts I’ve made this year. The blog has continued to grow, and there were twice as many visitors and twice as many page views as there were last year. There were well over HALF A MILLION PAGE VIEWS and I want to thank you guys so much for checking out the site! Don’t forget to subscribe to the site using the “subscribe” box located in the right hand menu to get emailed every time I make a post!
So here we go, the Top 10 posts of 2014:
10. Buying a Grail Pen
One of my…
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Allotment Update: Digging A Bean Trench
A “How To” video on digging a bean trench for the summer. The trench will help keep my runner beans from drying out in the summer and provide them with nutrients.
Allotment Video Update 17th January 2015
A cold start on the plot with frozen padlocks.
I’ve also created a 2015 Allotment album on Google+ so that I can post all my 2015 allotment photos to one place. Here’s a link
The Big Allotment Challenge Series Two: Quick Review
I was fairly unimpressed with series one when it was first shown last year, but thought I would see if there was any improvement with series two.
I waited a few days to watch the first episode of series two, watching on iPlayer, rather than live on the series’ newly promoted slot on Friday night from its previous slot on Tuesdays.
Sadly, although I thought there was improvement on series one, it’s still not the show for me. Too much about the competition element, instead of the actual growing. I don’t like the style and I don’t like the judges, particularly the thoroughly rude Thane Prince, who even when she is being complimentary seems to have a patronising and sarcastic tone.
I won’t be watching the rest of the series.
2014 Review and a Look Ahead
I don’t tend to do review of the year posts each year, sometimes I’ll take a theme and just cover that, other times I won’t bother at all. The latter is more often the norm. 2014 however has been a “bit of a year” for me. So I thought I’d just write out a few highlights and one or two low bits too for good measure.
Work
I’d say that the year as a whole has been backdropped by work-life balance, with the balance being unevenly tilted towards work. I’ve had to reapply for my job as part of a restructure, and it’s been pretty full on. I’ve been offered voluntary redundancy twice (and we’re just going for a third round now), I’ve not applied on both occasions, but am giving the third time some serious consideration.
Life
On the life side of the scale it’s been a tiring year. I’ve done far less, due to pressures of work than I would like. I’ve noticed that I’ve been far less present on social media platforms, as well as reading less books and generally having less time for relaxation.
We lost Sparky our elder dog back in March, and then got Ruby at the end of June. I still miss Sparky every day, and things still feel very empty without him around. Wilson has taken well to being the older dog, and I’m really pleased and impressed with the way he’s turned out into such a well rounded dog.
Allotment
The allotment has been going along quite happily, it’s not been the best of years, but it’s been far from the worst, and I’m setting a good basis for next year. I’ve managed a few video posts, and have a year ending one to go up, as soon as it’s posted to YouTube.
Books
As I mentioned I’ve read far less than I have done in previous years, mainly due to having less free time. I would however single out a few books I’ve read (I read these in 2014, but they may not have been published this year) to mention here:
The House of Dolls by David Hewson – There’s no such thing as a bad book by David Hewson, and this new series set in Amsterdam has all the hallmarks of being fantastic. This first in the series is excellent and I look forward to reading the next one, hopefully in 2015.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline – This took me back to my childhood and the computer games that I used to play.
The Burning Room by Michael Connelly – The latest Harry Bosch, and a great addition to the canon, and likely to be a milestone step in the series. I’m not sure where Michael Connelly is going next here, but there are a number of options, and again I look forward to the next in the series. (I also loved the Amazon pilot of Bosch, and can’t wait for the full series).
Films
Again, a few to single out (and again I watched them in 2014, but they may have been released before that year):
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Only recently watched this, but I loved the direction that the movie went in following on from the previous one, and abandoning the Charlton Heston era movies (and the awful Mark Wahlberg remake).
Captain America: The Winter Soldier – I love the Marvel movies (and the comic books too), and I’ve seen a few others this year as well; Thor: The Dark World and The Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s a close choice between Capt. and Guardians, but again, I think the way that the story and characters have been bought on since the first Captain America movie, plus Avengers: Assemble give this one the edge.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Loved this. Wasn’t sure that it would ever work as trilogy of films, but it does. Looking forward to the final film too, although that will be a 2015 watch for me.
Godzilla – A remake that remain truer to the original and a great film.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – I’ve never read the books, but love the films, again looking forward to the final two parts of this series too.
And Looking Ahead to 2015?
I’m not sure what 2015 holds. More upheaval at work I expect, and I need to make a decision about voluntary redundancy again. There will also be more books to read and more films to watch. I don’t really do resolutions, but I’ve got a few aims for 2015.
- Be more balanced of temper. I think in part 2014 has been characterised by me having a shorter fuse than usual. I’m not happy about this, so want it to change. More counting to ten I suspect in 2015.
- Better work – life balance than above.
- Read more, although be realistic about what’s achievable. I also want to get through the “To Be Read” backlog mountain. Although I’m not setting any firm systems in place to do this as I have in the past.
- Have a good year on the allotment, and try to keep a better photo and video record of what’s going on there.
- Write more. Both blog posts, but also get back into writing properly.
There are lots of other things in my head (you could always add; lose weight, be fitter etc) but the above are the main aims.
Allotment Video Update 6th December 2014
It was a frosty start to this morning, with the temperature down to -4 Celsius. Given the weather and my work commitments over the last few weeks this is the first proper visit I’ve made to the allotment, beyond checking that everything is in order. I’d laid down some tarpaulin a few weeks ago when it was so wet in order to keep a patch dry to allow me to start the winter dig. Here’s a video update from this morning.
I also took a few pictures:
Electronic Scrapbook 