RIP Lou Reed

RIP Lou Reed. Such a great songwriter, poet, guitar player, artist. Leader of the Velvet Underground, above. That's Lou front centre. What a life!

Ashes

I'm sitting in my favourite chair. It's 9.30 pm. I'm watching the 1st Test of the 2013 Ashes. Listening to Test Match Special on the radio. Boycott and Blofeld. England are batting steadily: 1 for 78. Life can't get any better than this.

Hah!! I crow too soon! Peter Siddle just bowled Joe Root. Ah.... The Ashes!

Holiday!!

Hello all,

I'm writing this on the last school day of Term 2, 2013. Tomorrow begins two weeks of no work. Well, apart from cooking, cleaning, shopping, driving and carrying mountains of holiday luggage!

I will take lots of photos in the break. On my new camera, by the way (a 50th birthday present):

Ok, take care everyone.

Poem

I've been reading a lot of poetry lately. Having considered, over the last 6 months, my own impending death, I can appreciate the following poem by Philip Larkin. It also happens to be a superb poem. (An "Aubade", by the way, is a morning love song, or a poem evoking the dawn)


Aubade

I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare.
In time the curtain-edges will grow light.
Till then I see what's really always there:
Unresting death, a whole day nearer now,
Making all thought impossible but how
And where and when I shall myself die.
Arid interrogation: yet the dread
Of dying, and being dead,
Flashes afresh to hold and horrify.
The mind blanks at the glare. Not in remorse
- The good not done, the love not given, time
Torn off unused - nor wretchedly because
An only life can take so long to climb
Clear of its wrong beginnings, and may never;
But at the total emptiness for ever,
The sure extinction that we travel to
And shall be lost in always. Not to be here,
Not to be anywhere,
And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.


This is a special way of being afraid
No trick dispels. Religion used to try,
That vast, moth-eaten musical brocade
Created to pretend we never die,
And specious stuff that says No rational being
Can fear a thing it will not feel, not seeing
That this is what we fear - no sight, no sound,
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
Nothing to love or link with,
The anasthetic from which none come round.


And so it stays just on the edge of vision,
A small, unfocused blur, a standing chill
That slows each impulse down to indecision.
Most things may never happen: this one will,
And realisation of it rages out
In furnace-fear when we are caught without
People or drink. Courage is no good:
It means not scaring others. Being brave
Lets no one off the grave.
Death is no different whined at than withstood.


Slowly light strengthens, and the room takes shape.
It stands plain as a wardrobe, what we know,
Have always known, know that we can't escape,
Yet can't accept. One side will have to go.
Meanwhile telephones crouch, getting ready to ring
In locked-up offices, and all the uncaring
Intricate rented world begins to rouse.
The sky is white as clay, with no sun.
Work has to be done.
Postmen like doctors go from house to house.


Philip Larkin

6 Months

Today is June 3, 2013. It's exactly 6 months since my open-heart surgery on December 3, 2012. The first milestone has been reached - AND I'M STILLING KICKING! Bring on 12 months!

Latest Music

I picked up some cds on the weekend. Here's the haul:

I have all of Radiohead's albums. But this version of OK Computer includes a second disc of extra material. I haven't listened to it yet.

Beethoven. I have these piano sonatas in many other versions, of course, but Radu Lupu is one of my favourite musicians. I couldn't leave this cd in the shop.

It's shameful I know, but until now I had no Funkadelic (or Parliament, for that matter). This music is very... well... funky.

Brilliant. No more to be said.

Crash Pics

Ok, I'm back at work. After 5 months of pain, boredom and daytime television, I'm back teaching. Which means I have access to fast computers, and access to my photos. Look at the photos below (click on each photo for a zoom). The first is taken minutes after my accident, roll-over damage obvious. The second pic is the car in the scrap yard, weeks later. Looking back, I'm wondering how I survived this crash completely unharmed.

Still Kicking

Hello all,

I haven't been able to post pics of my car crash. This blogging site seems to have switched posting protocols, so I will just have to keep trying.

Anyway... March 3 was the three month anniversary of my heart operation. I'm on half a dozen medications - mainly for either sustaining a low blood pressure and/or preventing blood clots forming around my artificial heart valve. And I'm exercising regularly. I fact I've lost quite a lot of weight, at least 20 kilos, which is substantial. I'm trying to get to around 90 kilos; an ideal weight for my BMI.

I don't know when I'll be back at work - waiting for my cardiologist's all clear. But whatever happens, I'm not going back to a high stress environment. Nothing at work is going to stress me out - of this I'm determined. If my boss' aren't happy about this then I'll either quit or they can fire me. I've learned one thing over the last couple of months - "Life is too short. Live and love every day."

Anyway, I hope to post some pics soon.

ALIVE AND STILL KICKING!

Crisis

Hello all. It's been a couple of months since my last post. I've had a major health crisis. If you want to know about my heart problems, I have written an account of what happened to me.

Look here: http://aorticdissection.com/2013/02/03/steven-riley-49/

I hope this sheds some light on why I've been so quiet, and so lucky.

What's in my Curry?

I have two chilli plants in the garden, growing into small shrubs. The chillies themselves are still green, eventually to turn to red. But of course they can be picked while still green (the flavour is slightly different). Keen to try them in my curry, I picked three big beauties.

The picked chillies next to garlic, also from the garden. I'm glad I deseeded them before throwing them into the curry. I had a small bite of one of the chillies - it was unbelievably HOT (and I love spicy hot food). Much hotter than I expected.

You Know You're Old When...

These ideas have been floating around in my head for months.

You know you're old when the last music you bought was a CD. Neil Diamond. Greatest Hits. Five years ago.  



You know you're old when you stand around the water cooler at work and instead of talking about last night's TV or football, you talk about arthritis. (click on pic above)



You know you're old when you watch reruns of Happy Days and think that Ritchie Cunningham's mum is HOT.



More Garden Pics

See, I told you this trellis would soon be covered. The runner bean tendrils are coiling up and up. And the cucumbers are also thriving. These pics were taken this morning before work, and it's raining! Which is good news.  

In this pic can be seen tomatoes on the right, pots on the left, and a new box bed of French Marigold seeds in the centre. Some have germinated.

In my main tomato bed the plants have been planted in the standard way, but the two tomato plants above have been planted using a different method. When I bought the plants, which were tall, I laid them on the lawn on their sides, with the stems parallel to the ground. Over the course of a few days, the foliage on these plants turned at right angles, growing towards the sun. I then dug a trench and planted the entire stem and root ball in the ground, leaving the foliage exposed. Roots will then grow out of the entire stem length. The results can be seen above. I must say they look healthier than the standard plantings. In the foreground are capsicum (sweet peppers). I have never had much luck growing capsicum (for whatever reason) but am determined this year to get a decent crop.

My potting table. In the seed tray are basil seeds. Foreground are cucumbers. Behind these are more capsicum. At the back are squash. I mean to plant out the squash this weekend. I only have to find somewhere to plant them (they will need training up a trellis of some kind).

Hope you like my pics. Remember to click on each one for an enlargement.

Garden Update

Hello everybody. It's been a while since my last post, but a lot has been happening in the garden. You can see in the photo above new plantings. From left to right: runner beans on a trellis - very vigorous. Radishes - French Breakfast - surrounding two chilli plants. The chilli plants, contained within housebricks, have lots of fruit. Spicy fruit! Then another upright trellis with two tomato plants. Just behind the tomatoes are 4 capsicum plants. I only planted them yesterday so they won't move for a while yet. Then some open ground, before we get to my teepee trellis. See pic below.

The teepee trellis. On each leg of the trellis is a runner bean plant. Then between the runner beans I have planted a couple of Lebanese cucumber. I have wired netting over the closest three legs, for the cucumbers, but left the far side open so that I can get to the fruit. I suspect that this trelllis will get pretty crowded later on.

Another photo of the established runner bean, radishes and chillies in foreground.

This is my main tomato garden. On the extreme left, in two square pots, are baby carrots. To the left of the carrots, hidden, is a long pot of germinating lettuce seeds. Six tomato plants, all different varieties. Extreme right is a cherry tomato plant. The rest are standard varieties, although one will produce purple tomatoes and one will produce yellow tomatoes. In the bottom left corner, where the soil looks darker and fresher, I have planted sweet basil seeds. I intend to plant some more around other plants, and also plant some French marigold seeds.

Another view of tomatoes. The cardboard is an attempt to suppress weeds. I intend to pave this path (which will be a lot narrower than this wide cardboard) between the rows with decent pavers, but haven't the money nor the time at the moment.

Well, I hope you enjoy seeing my garden. Remember to click on these pics for enlargements.





Typos of the Month

Ok, it's been a while since my last post. After a number of health issues, and general laziness, I'm going to blog more often. And of course our weather is turning warm so it's easier to take some interesting photos.

When I'm out and about in the community I often encounter typographical errors. These are often hand-written, whose erroneous nature is sort of understandable, but are sometimes printed. I find the latter a little inexplicable.  Here are some I snapped in the last month or so:

My local gym. For the pain we about to receive, may be be truly thankful.

Are you going to join the club, or stand apart?

Garden update

It’s been a while since my last post. I don’t post anything from home. I do it from elsewhere and just haven’t got around to taking any photos to show. Anyway, I finally have some more.

A couple of weeks ago we pulled out the scrappy garden bed from the front of the house. The lavender was lovely for a while, then became leggy and unattractive. The whole area was replaced with roses. You can see our first flower above. Gorgeous.

I’m in the back yard. Behind me you can see a nice cabbage in a square pot. It’s thriving well, but has been attacked by snails/slugs lately. The good thing about the pot is that I can pick it up and move it away from the snails. Jasmine grows on the fence. Hopefully it fills up the entire boundary. Is that a new tree to my right? No, it’s my patch of broad beans! Around 7 feet high and cropping heavily. I really don’t know why this year’s crop is a foot taller than last year’s crop, but I’ve had to tie them securely against this month’s strong winds.

Remember to click each pic for an enlargement. Hope you like these photographs. I will post some more soon. Cheers.

Some Funny Pics from the Net

I Have Survived

Last Sunday I was preparing dinner. Spicy meatballs with pasta. I decided to add some chillies. I wasn't concentrating like I should. The knife slipped. The chillies were diced. And two fingers. Well, actually the tips of my second finger and thumb. I laughed it off. But when, two hours later, the bleeding would not stop, my wife insisted I visit the hospital. The photo above was taken in the waiting room, kitchen paper towelling saturated with the red stuff. The result was a couple of days wearing a massive white bandage.
But ... I survived!

Note: after the accident we ate the spicy meatballs and pasta.
Never did find those fingertips.

New Vegetable Bed

It's winter. There's not a lot of planting and harvesting to do in the garden, but I'm still pretty busy. I'm back at work, but had the last two weeks off for holidays (benefits of teaching!). I wanted a raised bed for my vegies, so sourced some hardwood timber railway sleepers. People told me that treated pine would be suitable, but I don't feel comfortable growing food near chemical treatments. And hardwood looks great - weathered and natural. Anyway, I found 4 sleepers and positioned them where I wanted the bed to go: near the house but getting full sun. A raised bed is important since drainage in this location is poor.



Once positioned, I needed to level the timbers. I borrowed a spirit level and removed turf from beneath the sleepers until level. 

 

The corners were fixed. I used galvanised plate and screws. A simple job but effective.

 

I toyed with the idea of digging up the grass turf inside the bed (the bed was set into a lawn). But instead decided to lay sheets of newspaper: quite thickly (but not too thickly). This should kill the turf and deter weeds. Then a sprinkle of blood and bone. Then a thick layer of sugar cane mulch. This mulch is nice to work with. It's finer than pea straw mulch, and opportunistic peas won't be growing in this bed! You can see the result above, with the newspaper clearly visible.

The mulched bed is above. About 8 feet square. So a possible problem will be reaching the centre of the bed from the edge. It's best not to walk on garden beds too much; compression of topsoil is not a good idea.
So I'll be getting some chunky pavers and laying a small path from the edge into the bed.

Leaving room for the path, I lay thick strips of compost over the mulch. In this case 6 strips. See above. Into these strips I planted broad beans. Why broad beans? And why not fill the beds with more compost? Broad beans (and all other legumes) can be used as "green manures" - grown, slashed just prior to pod formation (as the flowers are dropping), left on the surface of the beds (perhaps dug in slightly, but not "turned over"). Broad beans are "nitrogen fixers" - they store nitrogen in nodules on their roots. This nitrogen can then be accessed by subsequent plants grown in these beds. When the beans are about a foot high I'll heap more and more compost around them to encourage root formation. So compost will be added to the bed gradually.
And of course the slashed beans will add to the mulch.

Anyway, this vegetable bed will be ready for spring and summer.

You can see broad beans above, to the right of the picture. This is the rest of my vegetable garden mid-winter. These beans are being grown for food, of course. From extreme left to right - lettuce, row of radish, peas under trellis, 4 cabbage, row of chinese cabbage (slugs and snails love these!), broad beans, jasmine on the fence.
Behind the beans, hidden, are plant pots of cabbage.

Ok, hope this was interesting. Remember you can click on any of the photos above for enlargements.
I'm looking forward to planting out my new spring/summer vegetable bed!

Carrots - First Crop

I harvested my first carrots on the weekend. Long and straight!
I used carrot tape (seeds, evenly spaced, embedded in a light paper tape) but can't remember the variety.
Dad gave me the tape. Thanks Dad!

Latest Garden News



My vegetable garden at the start of winter. From left to right: peas about to climb their trellis, in front of the peas are lettuce, to the right and behind the peas is a big basil bush, snow peas climbing their own trellis, a row of young radish, clumps of carrot, two rows of chinese cabbage, two rows of broad beans. To the right of the broad beans are small pots of cabbage and a long pot of strawberries. The whole area is mulched with suger cane mulch.



Close up of carrots, chinese cabbage, broad beans. The white squares are offcuts from a kitchen cabinet someone was building in the neighbourhood. I happened to be driving by and scrounged them immediately. They serve as somewhere to stand when watering and weeding. Pretty handy.



My snow peas are cropping well. Every morning I pick a big handful to add to my lunch the same day.
Fresh and sweet, and totally organic.

Hope you like my pics. Click on any of them for a larger view.