On Scottish Independance

Dear friends,

I am a little sad that Apple has discontinued the iPod Classic.

It was their decision, and I'm sure they gave it a great deal of thought and weighed up all the pros and cons, and to them it made sense. But I think it's a mistake.

I think it marks the end of portable offline music playback. That's progress I guess.

I just liked having my entire music collection in my pocket, with a battery that lasts weeks rather than hours, ready for action without taking my eyes off the road. My mobile phone can't match that.

Maybe it opens up the market for small competitors to develop a terabyte portable media player, the TeraPod, but I'll have to wait for that to happen and it's going to take years.

Although iPods last for ever, I'm on my fourth, after previous ones were lost, stolen or affectionately given away. Anything could happen before the market provides a decent alternative for me.

Its not about me, its about Apple, with their business plan, their iPads and iWatches, their world has moved away from me.

So, me and Apple will soldier on, muddle through as best we can, with a little sadness, and nostalgia for the way things used to be, and the cool things we could do, maybe one day I'll get an iPhone or an iPad Mini.

I'm a little skeptical about the iWatch, I haven't had a wrist-mounted device for twenty years, and I thought that was progress. I can only wait and see if Apple were right.

All my love,

Your friend

Chris

Plants and stuff: About apples

Regular readers and perusers of this blog will be aware that my apple tree is named Huey Lewis. This is what he looked like a month ago:-

Around the 19th of May he was growing these cool like reddy pink bud things

They were all down his branches

About three days later they opened up into these lovely white flowers

At this juncture I'd like to introduce Doreen two spots

She's a ladybird, I like to think she provides 'security' for Huey Lewis, eating up greenfly and aphid type dudes who might be causing him trouble.

Anyhoo, so them buds keep blossoming

and about a week later they've done their thing and start to shed their petals.

And then, well, if the bumblebees and dirty pollen spreading insects have done their job then the dead blossomy bits will turn into apples.

If not, then we're just left with the memory of those happy times at the end of May when Huey Lewis tried so hard.

Plants and stuff: Thems outdoors

Crikey, our plants outdoors have been growing, growing like mighty plant things, and quite a few of the old indoor plants have been shifted outdoors too. I'm absolutely certain you want to see how they're all getting on.

This is the Baron Tomato, when we last saw him he was an indoor plant in a rather dashing ceramic orange pot, but he's grown into a great swarthy beast of a plant and just yesterday was transferred to a B&Q growbag. Its kind of like a step down in the world, but I'm sure he can cope, slumming it with the plebian plants.

Does Amelia Tomato look divine though in her B&Q growbag. She's a fine young plant, I have great plans for her.

You'll easily recognise Colin Rhubarb, he's become a bit of a celebrity cos of my anecdotes about him at work. Last time we saw him he was just a stalk and a tiny leaf living in a cardboard box, but a week ago, I read up on wikipedia about how to cultivate rhubarbs, so I transferred him into some well dug soil, with plenty of compost.

Quite a dramatic change took place, his stalk withered away to nothing and his tiny leaf took on the mantle of being the new face of our rhubarb community. If you look carefully in the photie, you can see a second leaf coming through. By the end of the summer, there might just be enough rhubarb to make a decent crumble. Come on Colin!

Deborah Chives has put on a little weight, but looks all the lovelier for it. And she's kept her beautiful array of flowers. I really must remember to use her in more meals, adding that oniony chivey flavour to dishes.

I'm not sure what's going on with Louise Mint, before I went away on holiday she was huge, with long flowing stems and leaves all over the place, but in the past few days, she's lost a bit of weight and seems a bit straggly. Still as flavoursome as ever, its just down at the base of her stems there are quite a few dead leaves. I'm sure she'll be fine though.

Nina Raspberry is getting bigger. I don't have much faith in her producing any fruit this year, but as long as she's growing in body and spirit, then I'm a happy gardener.

Rosemary Rosemary, much like her colleague Deborah Chives, is doing well, but is under-used in the kitchen. I'm going to have to have roast lamb more often, ooh, and that would make work for Louise Mint too. Could I make lamb and rosemary sausages? That would be ace. What else goes with rosemary?

Sarah and Tabatha are mourning the death of their friend and roommate Pauline. You know, I could have sworn that Pauline was basil, but I've got some growing indoors and he looks completely different. So now I feel bad cos Pauline died and I didn't even know what she was, I don't know why she died, she just slowly faded away in the shade of her roomies.

Redtree Stolenfromwerk is doing okay, he's going a bit green in the leaves, and I've noticed his leaves are like really soft to the touch. He's grown a little bit in stature and seems to be sprouting more leaves. I wonder if he's going to flower or something, or just do the leaf thing.

Huey Lewis, my apple tree who I doubt, but then sprouted, he's wonderful. I think I'm falling in love. He's even doing the apple blossom thing, not just one or two blossomy buds, but loads and loads of them. I might do a whole blogpost just about him.

He fills me with joy.

Our old friend the Dying Bathroom Tree is still holding a tight grasp of life. He doesn't look the healthiest of plants, and his roots are showing and he's got weeds growing in his pot, but, he's still alive. I don't know how he does it. Could it be will-power alone or some magical plant power, cos, I mean he's been looking like he's going to wither and die for about two years now.

Kristin Gooseberry - an ambitious and wide-reaching plant.


Paul, Neville and Phil Johnson, they've grown up to be hardy brothers, darker in leaf than their indoory cousins. I was a little worried that by living in a growbag, I'd be over-watering them, their roots would grow soggy and rot, but they're doing just fine.


The Johnson's neighbours, Cecil and Carlos Cucumber, are mourning the death of their brother Colin, he was eaten, presumably by slugs. They're both looking quite bad themselves, great chunks missing from the leaves, silvery trails leading into the distance. They don't really stand a chance.

Taking Colin's place in the B&Q growbag is Stuart, one of the Jockrock tomatos.

Another Jockrock tomato making the step outdoors is Louise Wener, joining Amelia and The Baron in the new growbag. I hope she's be a fruitful addition to the team.

Plants and stuff: Mostly pommes

I was convinced I'd been sold a pudding by Tesco in this apple tree named Huey Lewis, but it looks like I've been proved wrong.

For weeks he looked just like a dead stick planted in the ground, showing no signs of life whatsoever, except for a few spiders who'd taken up home in his branches. But I was having a potter round the garden after work, when I thought I saw something on Huey.

My eyes did no deceive me, Huey Lewis is starting to bud!

Little green buggers, and not just one or two, but loads of them all over his branches. Even coming out of the bits I thought were broken, dangling limbs. There's life in old Huey yet.

He's veritably bristling with life, like the wee embryonic leafy dudes can't wait to get out there and start photosynthesizing. I might be optimistic expecting fruit this year, but at least he's no dead and I'm so excited to see his buds.

Anyhoo, so there I was, buzzing round the garden, trying to remember the words to Huey's namesake's Power of Love, and doing a spot of weeding, when I saw this little guy.



He's called Ian, he's a potato plant. I'd forgotten I'd planted potatoes. It must have been a few months ago, there were some dodgy ones at the back of the fridge, you know the potatoes with tentacles that make Jaclyn scream. I thought, rather than chuck them, I'd stick them in the ground and hope for the best.

See, cos the soil is so poor, I didn't think they'd do anything, but no, this little chap is just creeping above ground.

Admittedly at first I thought he was a weed, so I have him a light tug, usually cos weeds are peely wally chaps they just come out, but Ian, he's got a lot going on underground, so I'm going to leave him be.