Regular readers will remember the blog I posted of Fido our beloved Jack Russell and tripe hound and Domino our smallholding cat feeding out of the same dish. Sadly dear old Fido went to doggy heaven and number 2 son bought Rosie a golden Retriever puppy dog.
On Thursday night we came home and threw my rucksack on the kitchen floor and we fed Rosie. Domino decided he would try some of the dog food too:
I sometimes times list some of the great Prog Rock band I have seen live or would like to see.
One band I was lucky enough to see at Manchester Apollo was Blue Oyster Cult. They have been going since the late nineteen sixties and are well worth seeing live.
Like all great Prog bands their albums and singles have themes.
People often say they have never heard of BOC. But when they hear their biggest hit single. They instantly say: " Oh yeah, I like that one.
The single is about the inevitability of life and death and the Grim Reaper. We should enjoy life. Hope you have a great weekend.
For me Emerson Lake and Palmer are up there in my all time top five of great bands that there have ever been.
I was lucky enough once to see them live at Manchester Apollo. It was either late 1980s or early 1990s. What a concert, what a band.
Just three members and what more did they need? The band who sound like a group of lawyers were magnificent.
Especially Keith Emerson with his keyboard wizardry and like a knife thrower torturing his keyboards and organs.
Here's a classic track from 1970.
I haven't blogged because I am like Aveline out of Bread, I have joineď an agency. No I don't wish to be a model. I am working has a Labourer on some sites. It's knackering but I feel good physically and mentally.
I did this via email. Any road after asking me for ze rank and number and me Safe Pass and Manual Handling tickets and my new Covid pass. Then they asked for a couple of referees and I said there's one I know who never gives United a penalty against Liverpool. They rang me on Monday and I am participating in indoor and outdoor work out and get paid for it at the same time.
I have been gutting an house for the last couple of days. It's good to have the craic with the lads and the best thing is it's temporary. Hopefully I will make a good impression like Grandad from Bread. "Where's my pudding? Piss off."
So I probably won't be blogging so much for a few weeks. Don't worry "Prog on a Friday" will still happen. Sorry about that folks.😊🎤
I loved Bread. A bunch of scally's who always made their own luck.
Here's the delightful Aveline. Enjoy:
The "Novice" Allotment Holder.
This is true dear readers:
Another creature I met on my allotment saunters is the"novice" allotment holder. Lets call him Mick the new lad. He informed me that he was sick and tired of playing darts and he wanted:
"Summat to do."
"At the weekends."
The poor man was bored and was in need of an hobby or leisure pursuit. Especially when it wasn't the football season.
Oh to watch a live football match, eat a potato pie and drink a cup of Bovril. Maybe even a pint of bitter? Something else to miss from Blighty. Rock concerts too. It's enough to make you put your name down for an allotment. I have my own but it's not the same without the characters is it?
Any road:
I informed him that I was an allotment grower. I suggested that he got himself an allotment to show his family what an hunter, gatherer, he was or wasn't? He was quite enthusiastic to the idea and I managed to secure him the tenancy of an half plot.
He was duly delighted with his new plot. Until he realised that the four foot high plot of grass and Rose-bay willow herb was his new Potager. He was quite taken back and expected his'new' plot to be dug over, ready for him!
"Yeah right!"
"Pull the other one. There are bells on it!"
He soon got over his disappointment and duly rushed down to Wilkinsons in the High Street and purchased a new spade (toy) and an array of vegetable and flower seeds which he purchased in OCTOBER!
A month or two later. I went to see how he had been getting on with his new vegetable endeavours. In fact he had managed to clear SIX feet square of soil. It was just after Christmas. I asked him how he was enjoying his new hobby?
"I don't know Dave."
He says.
"I can't understand why none of my vegetable seeds have come up"/germinated.
The silly billy had only sowed and planted his Summer vegetables in WINTER !
Time for another allotment character folks. Don't worry there aren't many left unless I make up some more?
If local radio had allotment correspondents this man would write it and say something like the following:
"The Leeks are growing in a north to south direction and my Savoy cabbages have got Finger and Toe disease. Did I tell you I bought a new rake?"
Mr Immaculate Allotment Holder is very methodical. He only cares about his allotment being neat and tidy. Every fruit and vegetable is planted in a regimental line. It must be when he joined the Salvation Army and served his country back in the days of National Services or in his case, Services? He use to play lead electric triangle in the band. It was this experience that made him methodical and regimental. Everything is planted in a straight line. Rather like trees on a golf course fairway.
Nature does not work in straight lines. It likes to ebb and flow and meander and self seed in a patched quilt of a Cottage garden way. Mr Immaculate Plot Holder lives and breathes: STRAIGHT lines.
His allotment is immaculate. Hs garden shed wears a resplendent army green annual coat of paint. His allotment entrance is an hardwood teak front door with a letter box and brass polished numbers 22 Acacia Avenue (Iron Maiden song) resplendently polished with Brasso ("clean your buttons with Brasso") and gleaming in the sun.
Mr Immaculate Allotment Holders allotment is organised and set like the control room of an aircraft carrier. His anorak is grey and the same colour of a Royal Navy battleship. Every one of his fruit and vegetables are accurately spaced between itself and the next fruit or vegetable. Seven seeds or vegetable plants to every row. Seven is the number. The magic number. Bees have seven body parts and their hive is split into seven sections. They even fly in a number seven formation. Everybody knows number seven is God's number and that is the number he adheres and regimen-tally sticks to.
Mr Immaculate Allotment Holder never purchases or places any animal manure on his allotment. He believes cow manure to be a 'cold' manure and never heats up to kill any pernicious weed seeds. Horse manure is full of oats and they germinate and grow everywhere. He gets very few weeds because he doesn't add manure or compost to his allotment soil. He hoes rain or shine and shine or rain again. His fruit and vegetables upon harvesting are always small and puny. But they are immaculately tended. His allotment is immaculate and he is a very boring man!
Another character tomorrow. I need to invent some more. The blog writer perhaps? Apparently there are over 350 million active blogs in the world. Three hundred and fifty million writers is an incredible statistic.
Wonder how many blog writers grow vegetables and dream about Britney Spears or Pamela Anderson swimming in Bantry Bay and walking on the beach in her swimsuit and I am collecting seaweed and I ask her if she wants to come back to our house for a brew and I will show her my polytunnel? How's that for a vivid imagination?
Regular readers will remember the blog I posted of Fido our beloved Jack Russell and tripe hound and Domino our smallholding cat feeding out...
