We went to see Coldplay at Oak Mountain, Pelham last night - what a gig! They ran through the crowd launched huge yellow balloons and handed out their free CD at the end of the night.
Who eles would release a free CD? And really it was just live concert footage of old gigs - both great marketing and a 101 in crowd interaction and appreciation.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
The 3 hour gardener
As a novice gardener anyway, gardening in Alabama is very different to the UK. The first point that I realised is that you can only enjoy gardening before 12 noon in the summer months otherwise one is transformed into a sweaty red skinned dehydrated mess. This of course is very different from the casual pottering about for an afternoon in the UK.
Secondly the plants are slightly different here and need looking after in a different way. watering, sun, shade are all handled slightly differently for the same plants requirements. While in the UK we might try and create nuclear temperature glass houses to make our Tomatoes grow, here they pretty much can sit in a pot in direct sunlight and receive good rain water whenever it rains. Which is greatly more simple than having to water them each evening in a greenhouse - usually when it is raining outside.
Secondly the plants are slightly different here and need looking after in a different way. watering, sun, shade are all handled slightly differently for the same plants requirements. While in the UK we might try and create nuclear temperature glass houses to make our Tomatoes grow, here they pretty much can sit in a pot in direct sunlight and receive good rain water whenever it rains. Which is greatly more simple than having to water them each evening in a greenhouse - usually when it is raining outside.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Treading carefully
As a feeble Brit who isn't used to having to deal with any dangerous predators in the UK any larger than a dying bee lying in the grass, I had my first face to face encounter with a snake in my back garden.
Having cut my overgrown lawn back to look super I diligently went around the edge of the garden hacking a weeds that had been mowed down rather than cut.
This of course was terrifying and I made a noise that my wife still laughs about today. Jumping around the grass with my sythe I had to take him out. I don't know if he was coming towards me or trying to run away but it was a long and terrifying battle for both of us.
I haven't really identified the snake as I left it over night and something came and took it (I can only imagine ate it). This means there is also something living in my garden that likes to eat snakes. Fantastic so long as it isn't another larger snake!
So as far as my research took me - I was a little ashamed to say it was probably a garden snake that, quote - 'is easily handled by children'
I now have an exacerbated innate fear of my garden and animals that children can easily handle. This of course isn't good. Each twig has to be carefully kicked before picking it up and barefoot strolls are a thing of the past. The 3 hour gardening time frame is now very unproductive!
Having cut my overgrown lawn back to look super I diligently went around the edge of the garden hacking a weeds that had been mowed down rather than cut.
This of course was terrifying and I made a noise that my wife still laughs about today. Jumping around the grass with my sythe I had to take him out. I don't know if he was coming towards me or trying to run away but it was a long and terrifying battle for both of us.
I haven't really identified the snake as I left it over night and something came and took it (I can only imagine ate it). This means there is also something living in my garden that likes to eat snakes. Fantastic so long as it isn't another larger snake!
So as far as my research took me - I was a little ashamed to say it was probably a garden snake that, quote - 'is easily handled by children'
I now have an exacerbated innate fear of my garden and animals that children can easily handle. This of course isn't good. Each twig has to be carefully kicked before picking it up and barefoot strolls are a thing of the past. The 3 hour gardening time frame is now very unproductive!
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