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The tomato plants have been growing at a steady pace, the sun has not been shining that much compared to a few weeks back, but I know they have grown because I have had to add more string to the plants to help keep them sturdy when the wind gets up.
It looks like the second truss of flowers are just starting to appear at the top of each of the plants, I will have a much better idea next week of whether this is the case.
This week we have again been extremely lucky with the weather, it has been glorious, everyday has been sunny and warm for the entire week. As you can see in this week photo the tomato plants are flourishing, I have noticed however a few aphids starting to take up residence on the plants.
Aphids are sucking insects which just love to slurp up the sticky sap from plants, they are particularly fond of new tender shoots on many garden plants, including it would seem tomato plants! Aphids are small, soft-bodied, pearl-shaped insects that have a pair of cornicles (wax-secreting tubes) projecting out from their abdominal segment. The aphids I have on my tomato plants are green, but aphids come in various colours including black, red, yellow, pink, white, brown, grey, or lavender.
Aphids feed in colonies, and if their numbers rise too high the aphid colonies can cause discolouration or mottling of foliage, weaken the plant and effect the size and amount of fruit a plant can produce. Furthermore the aphids excrete honeydew on which mould grows, as I have mentioned in previous posts, anything which encourages mould and disease is a serious threat to your tomato plants welfare.
I have not done anything yet with the aphids on my tomato plants, I had a similar situation last year and I found that natural predators kept the numbers under control. I will be keeping a close eye on the situation, if the numbers begin increasing I will remove the aphids from the plants myself. I do not spray my plants with insecticide simply because any kind of chemical you use on your plants will end up in or on your tomato. A tomato laced with chemicals does not sound very appetising to me. It may be a more time consuming process but physically removing the aphid ensures the best results.
I had yet another productive weekend in the house. I have finished off the kitchen diner, and it looks fantastic even if I do say so myself. It has been finished for a while, since New Year in fact, but a leak from the sink in January ruined the new oak floor, and it has taken a few months to rectify this damage. Anyway this weekend I painted the skirting boards which was the only outstanding job I had remaining.
I found this photo on the laptop, which I took before we started on the kitchen diner, I am sure that you will agree the kitchen diner now is a remarkable improvement to what was there before.
I spent the majority of the weekend out in the back garden painting the decking. It amazes me, how just a good coat of timbercare can revitalise even the most tired looking parts of a garden. The decking looks brand new… well for the time being, once the cat's start sharpening their claws on the posts, and people shuffle the deckchairs along it, my hard work will no doubt start to come undone. However I fear I may have made a rod for my own back, having rejuvenated the shed and decking, I now have decided to do the fencing as this looks like it has never been done and looks awful next to the freshly painted shed and decking.
So still on my to do list is wallpapering Dylan's new nursery, and treating the fencing in the back garden. I wonder if I can get it done before the bank holiday weekend is over?
This week we have continued to have some beautiful weather. The weekend was an absolute scorcher, getting into the mid 20's on both Saturday and Sunday. The tomato plants have enjoyed the sun and have grown considerably. Of course the tomato plants are still susceptible to the cold, if the warm weather is replaced by a cold snap the tomato plants could still die.
I have noticed that the tomato plants are already developing internodes or suckers. Last year I removed the first sets of internodes from the base of my tomato plants. The reason behind this was because I felt that if left, the trusses of tomato which would have grown, would be too close to the damp soil and could start to rot. Any tomato grower knows that tomato plants are prone to different kinds of fungal threats, so to ensure the base had room to breath and did not become damp / humid (the kind of environment which bacteria just loves) I pinched out the first few internodes.
I am not sure if this technique is recommended by other growers, I have certainly not come across any mention of it in books or websites, so it may be me just being over cautious, but it certainly worked and the trusses which did set further up the tomato plant were full of fruit and did not hang too close to the soil.
This year I may experiment with one plant and leave the internodes in place and see what happens. It will mean I will get fruit from that plant earlier, but will the lower branches be more susceptible to rot? Only time will tell.
I have heard it is possible to replant your internodes, I did not try this last year, but apparently if you leave the internodes to grow to about 3-4 inches before pinching them out and plant the internode in another grow bag it is possible to get tomatoes from the internode. I may try planting an internode this year to see whether any fruit is produced.
Of course one way to ensure your lower trusses of tomatoes do not hang down near the soil is to support them by loosely tying the branches to a cane or trellis. I have heard of people creating cages around the plants, made out of chicken wire or similar material, so they can train the branches out through the cages. Once the fruit sets, the cage helps support the branch and prevents it drooping on to the ground. Since I am growing my tomato plants in a grow bag and space is limited between each tomato plant, fashioning some kind of cage was not possible.
Well that is enough this week, let's hope the good weather continues.
Well I have been working on a lot of freelance work lately, which has meant my evening and weekends have been mainly spent looking at the screen of my lap top and drinking copious amounts of coffee. One of the freelance jobs I have been working on has been helping my friend to design a new website for his blind company. I started out with just a few ideas, but the project soon became more involved, and I was designing templates and page elements for use throughout the site. It was a good way of getting some new venetian blinds in the lobby and vertical blinds for the patio doors to match the roller blind in the kitchen. The site is now live, www.melloblinds.co.uk and is already taking orders.
Now with the better weather coming, I have been splitting my spare time between Dylan's nursery and the back garden. I have primed and glossed the skirting boards and painted the coving in Dylan's nursery, the walls are all ready for me to begin hanging wallpaper. Guess what I will be doing on the upcoming May bank holiday!
The back garden is going to be a huge project, at the moment there is a lot of slabs covering the majority of the back garden, these will be replaced by grass, so we can play football and watch Dylan playing in his sand pit. At the moment it is not a particularly child friendly area, certainly not for a toddler who is prone to banging his bonce, and falling over. So as a matter of urgency I will be getting the slabs up and having a lawn laid at some time this year, so next year Dylan can enjoy running around outside, this Summer he is unlikely to be wanting to go outside and run around, at the moment he is just crawling and chasing the cats.
I have planted two varieties of Clematis at the bottom of the garden, and put up some trellis for them to climb. In a year or two they should be covering the majority of the garden wall.
This weekend I have taken down a fence which was around the postage stamp of lawn we currently have, and have painted the shed with a coat of protector. Next weekend, weather permitting will be enough time for me to weather proof the decking, and start clearing some of the debris left from the previous owners.
The tomato plants have not wilted, thank goodness! Over the past seven days there does appear to have been a modest amount of growth compared to the photo I took last week you will see that all three plants do appear slightly taller. We have been lucky with the weather, lots of glorious sun shine and quite mild nights have helped to ensure the plants settle into their outside environment and will have no doubt helped with their growing.
Fingers crossed the nice weather will continue. It is the wind and cold which will do the damage at this time of year.
Last year I had a go at growing tomatoes in a grow bag. The whole experience was really enjoyable, nurturing the little seedling through out the spring and summer and then harvesting the tomatoes at the end. I thought this year I would choose the Gardeners Delight variety as I have heard good things about this type of tomato both on TV and in Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's cook book. I found that 2 of the plants I grew last year were quite tasteless. The one which did taste sweet was one of these dwarf plants called Totem which I left to grow, and did not require any intervention by me whatsoever. This kind of plant is not of use when you wish to indulge your green thumbs.
According to the bumph that came with the plants, Gardeners Delight has a true tangy flavour of tomatoes from a century or more ago. The plant is packed with bite-size fruit, ideal for salads and sandwiches and full of vitamins.
Today I planted up the 3 seedlings into their grow bag and have popped in a cane for each to grow up. If they are anything like last year I will have to add a trellis at some point so they don't start to topple over with all the tomatoes. One of the plants last year grew to over 5 feet and produced huge fruit. However they did lack any kind of taste, which is why I have researched this season to ensure the end result will be more flavoursome.
It is my intention to post an entry every week from now on, with a picture of the plants so we can keep track of how these plants are fairing over the next few months.
You may think that because I have not posted many entries in my Diary of a Nobody, that things have been quiet on the home front, however you would be churlish for having such thoughts, on the contrary I have been extremely busy, so much so I have not had any time to write about my life, I have been too busy living it.
Anyway, just to recap, the kitchen diner was near on finished by New Years Eve, however the same evening I bought Rocky home in January, there was a complete disaster with the plumbing of our new sink, and the lovely freshly laid oak floor in the kitchen was totally ruined. The flood damage was irreparable and I had to take the whole lot up. It was totally gutting to be throwing out all that flooring, weeks after laying it down. Still never mind, we have now opted for a more sensible flooring, the oak floor remains in the dining area, but the kitchen now has a tile effect, non slip lino. It costs less and to be honest it looks just as good as the oak floor.
As well as the new flooring, I had a carpenter come in and create a new door for under-the-stairs. The previous door was fashioned out of God only knows what. Beer crates and balsa wood is my guess, it was a complete mess. The new door looks great, and it has the same finish and handles as the kitchen units.
All remains for me to do now is sand down the skirting boards and reapply the gloss, unfortunately when the floor was damaged all the scotia had to come off leaving glue all over the skirting board. Once this little job is out of the way I think this part of the house will be finished.
On Thursday I came into work as normal, well I say normal it had snowed over night and the journey in took longer than usual because everyone decides to drive at 1mph. I swear there was an octogenarian lady who appeared to be galloping past the car as I trundled along at the pace of a snail. 
Once I was in the office I was introduced to this small ginger bundle of fur and bones. The poor thing had been seen the previous day, but my colleague could not find him when he went out looking for him. However the following morning after the snow had stopped there was a mewing heard coming from the stables. He was obviously cold and tired but had survived the night. He had been taken into the office and given refuge in a Fortnum's box, which must have seemed like heaven, a warm and safe haven compared to previously being outdoors exposed to the relentless elements.
So there he was sat in the middle of the office floor, curled up in his little box. When deciding on what to do with him, it was a toss up between homing him with "the local cat lady" who takes in feline waifs and strays, or I took him home.
I am glad to say I stepped up to the mantle, and as you can see from the photos this little cold ball of fur has really come out of himself. He is only 10 inches long but he stands tall. These photos were taken of him this evening, in less than a week, he has gone from a timid little thing to a playful ball of energy. It is just amazing how much fun he is to watch. A bit of a poser too, he doesn't even mind the flash going off! Maybe we are looking at the future face of Felix or Go-Cat.
I have to say one thing though, he still has not quite got used to Dylan. When Dylan is on the floor playing with his toys, Rocky has a tendency to hide away some where until Dylan has left the room.
I have spent the past few days working like a trojan getting the new oak floor down in our kitchen diner. I can't take all the credit, to be honest I did the donkey work, glueing and tapping the planks together, it was my brother-in-law who was cutting all the wood to fit.
Now the kitchen diner is totally finished and it looks absolutely transformed, having the floor put down really has made all the difference to the ambience of the room. Covering over the blue tiles which were originally down has made the room so much warmer, and it ties all the room together now because it matches the oak work tops we used on the kitchen sideboards and island. It looks fantastic, and Jo and I are both totally blown away with how good it looks.
We managed to decorate the bathroom too, which didn't take too long thank goodness, when I was not laying the floor I was able to roller a wall or gloss a skirting board or two. The room looks so much cleaner and plush now, another brown walled room out of the way. It will be onto Dylan's room next, the coving is already up in there and the walls have been made good, it is just a case of getting the wall paper and finding the time to get on with it.
Anyway I digress the reason I have been working so hard whilst others have been relaxing over the Christmas break is because we wanted the floor to be down for our James Bond New Years Eve party. We had a roulette table, lots of cocktails and champagne and lovely food.
As it was fancy dress, Jo and I thought it important we made an effort. Jo looked stunning dressed as Solitaire, in a 60's/70's white flowing dress, and her hair and make up were first class. I came as Auric Goldfinger's henchman, Odd Job. I had a bowler hat and little beard, it was so funny talking to people throughout the night and them trying not to laugh at me. Can't wait to see the photos!
Happy New Year to all our family and friends, and I hope that you have a prosperous and healthy 2007.
Well Christmas has been and gone, we had the best Christmas ever. Having Dylan with us made the whole day even more enjoyable. It was really great to see all our friends and family over the festive period.
I spent the majority of Christmas day morning getting the dinner ready for the 10 of us who were eating in our new Kitchen diner. There was a 20lb turkey to wrestle into the tray, lots of veg, pigs in blankets, bread pudding, and so on, you get the idea, a traditional Christmas dinner.
I have had enough practice over the past few years cooking up the Christmas dinner, and thankfully like the ones before this one went without a hitch. Everyone had a lovely meal together and after dinner we all went through to the lounge and opened up our presents together. It was a really great afternoon, one I shall remember forever.
Needless to say Dylan got the majority of presents, including a spinning top, an activity walker and a baby Liverpool FC football kit. Watching him play with his toys is great fun, I spent hours watching him shake his head to music, and bang cups together.
Christmas evening was spent in front of the tele watching the Christmas programmes, including Ricky Gervais' Politics which I still find hilarious every time I watch it.
Can't wait for next Christmas to come round now!!
On Saturday morning I went over to France and Belgium to get some bits for the festive season. We had a fantastic crossing, a bit choppy as you may expect at this time of year but not the kind of crossing to turn you green.
Whilst over in Belgium I bought a selection of beers, a case of the most bizarre and potent beers the country has to offer. There is nothing under 5.6% and there is at least one that is 10%. I have already had a few bottles, they helped numb the brain on Saturday evening as Jo was watching an audience with Take That. Although I would sooner pull my own fingernails out with pliers and then proceed to put the exposed tips into industrial bleach than have watched this programme, there was no way I could have stolen the remote from Jo to watch any other channel. It was firmly clasped in her hand. One thing I must say is fair play to the fella out of the group who must be pushing 40 now, and was break dancing like a teenager. Not sure I will be body popping and doing windmills when I am his age.
Whilst I was out enjoying the local brews in Belgium, Jo was at home grouting the kitchen. I tell you what she has done a good job too, she is much better than me with a grout float and a sealing gun. I end up making wobbly lines, hers are dead straight with crisp edges. If she gets bored of her current employment she can always become a tiler!
The kitchen has come on leaps and bounds, as I have already mentioned all the tiles are now up and grouted. The peninsular unit is finished, all the doors are on and most of the painting is done. The only things now are little jobs like cutting a bit of kickboard, adding a handle to one of the draws and getting Dan the blind man to come in and fit the roller blind.
Dylan had some trouble with his guts over the weekend, and his poor old butt was red raw with nappy rash. Not sure if it is because of his teething or if he had a bug. He wasn't sick, just had violent eruptions in his nappies. My mum told me that I was the same with my teeth when I was a nipper. So sorry son it sounds like it may be hereditary. The good news is today his rash has all gone and his morning toffee is back to the consistency and aroma it should be! Let's hope his teeth will be here soon, I wouldn't like him to be going through that every time a tooth is on the way.
Well as far as I am concerned the first day of December signifies the first day of getting ready for Christmas. Over the next few days I will be putting up the tree, writing out my cards and stocking up on the festive cheer. I am off to France and Belgium tomorrow to get a few ingredients for our New Year James Bond party. Plenty of vodka and martini, plus a whole heap of other bits for the cocktail bar! I will no doubt get Jo some Belgian chocolates, and if I have to help her eat it… so be it :0)
I love Christmas time, and this year will be even better because Dylan will be having his first Christmas. Not that I expect him to do much more than rip up the wrapping paper and then try to devour it, but it will make the whole holiday even more enjoyable.
Happy Christmas to all!
On Friday evening I went to see Casino Royale with Jo. Well what can I say, it was fantastic. This is the best James Bond film I have seen. Having read all the Ian Fleming novels, and now working my way through the John Gardner James Bond books, I have always thought that the Bond characters in the movies to be a little too poncey. They seem to be a lot more public school boy in character than Bond was in Fleming's books, the new Bond played by Daniel Craig was in my opinion more like the character, more gritty, and cruel looking than the pretty boys who have been before. The credits at the beginning were great too.
I went to the driving range with Ross on Saturday morning, knocked a few balls around. I was quite consistent towards the end. I may be rediscovering my interest in the sport. Let’s see if Happy Gilmore gets back out there!
I have spent the rest of this weekend decorating. I went to B&Q this afternoon and picked up the rest of the kitchen, all the tiles too and the rest of the new door handles. I never thought the kitchen would all come, it has been such a long wait, still wonders will never cease. This now puts us in the position to get the kitchen completed before Christmas. Since Jo and I are doing the Christmas dinner again this year for both her and my family it will be good to have it all done.
I also glossed the kitchen door, put the new net up in the bathroom and have painted both Dylan's and the bathroom ceilings. A few more little chores off the ‘to do’ list.
Well I am full after eating a bootiful beef stew and dumplings cooked by Jo and about to watch the rest of Heartbeat with my babe. Man I love Sunday evenings!
Why should I not publish my diary? I have often seen reminiscences of people I have never even heard of, and I fail to see—because I do not happen to be a ‘Somebody’—why my diary should not be interesting. The Diary of a Nobody, originally serialised in Punch in 1888
Taking Mr. Pooter as inspiration, I have decided to make more use of my blog, it has not been used much since I integrated it into my site, and I think that even if the entries have no interest to others it will at least allow me to keep track of my own life.
The last month has been an eventful one, Jo my wife, Dylan my baby son and I moved into our new home on Friday 13 October, and it has been non stop since then. Fortunately the date did not prove to be a problem, those who are superstitious may not have moved on this date, but for us everything went according to plan. Well apart from me loosing a 1999 Heat and One Nation tape pack, which I had just sold on Ebay. Lost the money for that one!
Our new house soon became home after unpacking our bits and pieces. However there were already a considerable amount of things which needed to be done to get the house up to scratch.
We have already had new guttering, soffit's, and fascias, the old stuff was the original guttering made from asbestos, which had 50 years worth of moss in it. Rain water just spilt over the top, giving the effect of walking through a waterfall every time you stepped out the house when it was raining. A wall has been taken down in the kitchen to create a spacious kitchen diner. Which has meant ordering a new kitchen… tiles… gallons of paint… (well 10+ litres) and by the sounds of it, a new floor to boot, because Jo finds the floor tiles depressing! I ask you!
The carpet in the lounge had to go because the previous occupants owned 5 Alsatian's which meant the house smelt of dog every time you opened the front door. This noxious odor combined with Dylan about to start crawling in next to no time, we decided it best to get rid of the offensive brown shag, and replace it with a golden honey woolen carpet. Now our home smells nice and clean, the lounge looks brighter and airier and Dylan can roll around with his toys and not worry about getting a mouth full of dog hair or smelling like a canine's musk gland.
We have already decorated the entire lobby and staircase. My brother Todd helped me to lay a new floor in the lobby, cheers brother! It looks much nicer than the cheap laminate which was down before. As well as cheap, the previous floor had bowed, which meant when ever you walked on certain parts, it would creak like a fat walrus had decided to lollop across the floor.
I have still to finish the landing upstairs, some sanding down and glossing still needs to be given my attention. Once this is done, the plan is to get a new carpet for the stairway, as this is currently brown and really thin, it needs to be replaced to make the stairway look finished. This new carpet and canvas prints of the family will then be the finishing touches. Soon another part of the house will be done. Hallelujah!
I then can look forward to wall papering and decorating Dylan's nursery, sort out the bathroom, then our bedroom, the lounge, spare room and loft conversion. Plenty to keep me busy, and the local DIY stores in business.
Jo and I are both home makers, we love spending time together at home, so after work and the weekends means lots to do at this stage in our life, but soon enough we will have put our stamp on the property and it will be home sweet home. When this is the case, we will probably move again… just like we did this time round. We finished off our 2 bedroom Victorian town house in Margate. We were really happy there and got it looking just how we wanted, then less than a year later we packed up and moved to our new abode.
Jo and I am off to Westgate tonight, to the Carlton Cinema to watch the new Bond film, Casino Royale. Hopefully it will be as good as the reviews say!
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