The Good Life - or is it?

On Saturday night I watched a repeat of The Good Life on BBC2 (they were doing some kind of retro evening complete with 70's graphics, Some Mothers Do Ave Em, Dad's Army etc, you don't get sitcoms like that anymore!)
I digress, but my point was that, given that Tom (Richard Briers) was concerned about saving his harvest, why on earth did they a) not wait until the ground had dried out again until harvesting their potatoes, and b) put damp potatoes in sacks!

It was though the case that back then, the whole self sufficiency thing was seen as a bit eccentric really, but now it's mainstream and lots of people was to grow their own food, keep chickens, use renewable energy etc.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/goodlife/

Allotment report

We still have lots of broccoli! This week we had enough for 4 people on 4 days, one of which wasn't me! (I don't like the taste at all but the rest of the family do!) It doesn't show any signs of slowing down, which could get to be a problem as I am running out of space for the potatoes that are going in that patch this year.  

I have continues to plant onion sets at the top end, we have not only the ones we have planted this year but also have the "Japanese" type ones that I planted in October.

My wife has also planted parsnips and leeks from seed that we have saved, and also some turnips and beetroot and peas, some of which have germinated, but the weather has been really quite cold of late so I can understand why things are a bit slow.

The tomatoes I am growing in the office need repotting again, they are about 8 or 9 inches tall, the ones in the lean to greenhouse in the garden are a bit small as it's not very warm for them, so they have also gone to the office for a nice warm and cosy weekend on the window ledge!

coin collecting

A lot has been said about gold... "we buy any gold dot com" and the like!

That's all very well, but what if you can't afford to splash out on some gold sovereigns, jewellery etc, and don't really want to worry about the cost of insuring all that wealth...

Well, there's value in silver and old copper coins but you need to know what to look for.

The current "big thing" are hammered silver coins. No not just an old sixpence that has been whacked with Stanley Tool's finest! Hammering was the ancient process of minting coins where a blank was put between two dies, one with the front of the coin, usually a portrait of the current emperor or monarch, and the reverse with a design, often a shield or coat of arms or cross with a pellet design and the like.

Then it was whacked with a hammer! (you can have a go at the Jorvik Viking Museum in York). The hammering process was was superseded by machinery (milled coinage) in about 1663. Early milled coinage (George 3 and before) is good to look for as well.

Ebay is a good place to start, but you have to be lucky or be prepared to actively go for the bid, as the demand is high. But sometimes you can be lucky especially if a coin has been listed wrongly.

Spinks catalogues give an idea of what to look for and current values of all coins since Celtic times. Or coin dealers of course, but they will by and large be selling coins for the market value, though again you can be lucky if you know what you are looking for.

The latest Spinks catalogues have pictures in colour which makes like a lot earlier, the black and white ones really didn't do the coins justice and made it hard to work out the detail sometimes.

There is a whole language associated with coin collecting but the Spinks catalogue has good explanations, and there are plenty of in depth books such as on Roman coins available.

petrol and pasties!

Well, maybe on the 8th (see last blog post) I could see the future! Lo and behold we have panic buying of petrol! And a strike hasn't been declared yet... I went to the service station the other day in my 8 or 9 day cycle to fill up as usual, and was sitting in the queue for a while wondering how many of the people ahead actually needed the fuel!. I did, my car was bleeping at me as it was hungry!

I don't really want to get personal, but despite the lack of common sense shown by the lady who decided to decant petrol in her kitchen with the hob on, the government minister who suggested filling up jerry cans to stock up on petrol really does need to take some of the responsibility, as the lady in question wouldn't have felt the need to muck around with cans of petrol in her kitchen if the nitwits (and that is putting it mildly!) in Government hadn't opened their gobs and panicked the general sheep ...sorry general public....

And pastie tax...well if a pastie has just come out of the oven, do I have to wait until it has cooled down before I buy it? I heard one suggestion that bakeries should install microwaves for customers to heat their own pasties up... It turns out the last time the Prime Minister ate a pastie was 5 years ago, at a now defunct shop in Leeds railway station, he probably can't remember the last time he had to get his own food never mind go to a bakery!

Petrol prices

The petrol price is getting ridiculous! I remember when the fuel protestors were getting irate about petrol and diesel being 80p a litre back in 2000. Back then I was tipped off by a friend in the local garage on the Sunday, so filled my car right up - by Monday everyone was panic buying and there were queues everywhere. People just went silly - supermarkets cleared of bread and other staples... Thinking laterally, I went in a health food shop, got some yeast and we made bread that evening! Later that week the black propaganda from the Government got going, hospitals supposedly running out of fuel, ambulances not able to get fuel etc - shouldn't have been a problem as the military have an extensive fuel system designed during the Cold War to keep fuel flowing around the country in the event of a war. Besides the Government can use emergency powers etc. It was just to break the strike by turning the public against the blockade.
We'll find out in 20 years time when they release the papers what really was going on, what decisions were taken and so on.

Back to the present, I drive around at 60 mph most of the time now, and average 41mpg. How you drive is important too, no revving or fast acceleration, stop start in towns is bad as well - I use the motorway which is - miles wise just slightly longer than the A roads but get 1-2mpg better on the fuel and a much quicker journey time. However, I am filling up every week with about £66 worth of fuel just to get the kids to school and to work, although any trips out with work get mileage allowance.
The high fuel prices don't seem to stop some people though, there's always drivers zooming along in cars which are probably consuming a whole lot more than mine is. And they sit right up your backside if you happen to be in their way (tip - gradually slow down or raise your left hand (if in the UK) and motion backwards repeatedly, many times they get the message and back off. I have even heard of one driver stopping altogether and having words though I wouldn't recommend that myself!)

I have to consider though whether the amount I am using in petrol is sustainable, both from a cost point of view and I do feel a little guilty at burning all the carbon. However, I have no realistic alternative at present.

Broccoli!

It is purple sprouting broccoli time! And we've got some creamy coloured sprouting brocolli which looks like those mini fractal cauliflowers you sometimes see in greengrocers - it does have a name but I can't remember what it is....

allotment in the snow

Now the 7th day with snow on the ground and -8 deg C when I went out. I heard on the radio the other day that fruit growers are very pleased at the cold snap. Due to the mild autumn and early winter, they were concerned that the fruit trees weren't getting the period of cold needed for the trees/bushes to help produce next year's fruit crop, thus affecting yields.

Be careful what you wish for! After a heavy snowfall on the 4th of February in the afternoon (complete with phantom accidents on the overhead road signs on the M1!), the snow has hung around, getting more icy, with another big dose of snow on Thursday 9th evening. Not much above freezing during the days so only a slight thaw, which has refrozen again into ice during the night.

Not as bad a the last two winters though, but there's time yet!

Allotment photos in the snow - the winter onions just poking out of the snow - they have had a good amount of growth in late autumn so should be fine, they are pretty hardy and most of them survived the last two winters.

Impossible to get the leeks out at the moment, they just snap off when you try and lift them!

And it won't be long until spring and broccoli! We've had a bit already, even a few springs of purple sprounting, but the main crop will be another month or so yet.