Sunday 15 March 2009

Z spends £7

I went shopping yesterday. The usual weekend stuff, and I also went to the discount place, where the old Co-op used to be before the new one was built. I was looking for plastic shoes to wear in the swimming pool - this is not so odd. I'm short, wobbly and one leg is slightly shorter than the other, which doesn't make for good balance in an aquacise class. I couldn't find what I thought would suit, so ambled round a bit and ended up with a small assortment of items. It gave me great pleasure to buy a set of screwdrivers, a retractable tape measure, five retractable ballpoint pens, thirty-five pencils with rubbers on the ends and a pack of five tubes of extra-strong mints. All the pens work and I have sharpened one fifth of the pencils so far. I have eaten some of the peppermints and measured various bits of me.

Today was supposed to be spent in the greenhouse - this afternoon, rather; I was busy in the morning. But a friend invited me out for lunch. Seeds will be sown another day.

Of course, it's a waning moon and there is a school of thought which declares that seeds germinate better when sown with a waxing moon (whoops, I typed 'moob' first, which gives a strange mental picture). I've never found any particular difference myself; it has always seemed to me that the temperature and other physical conditions matter more, but I've never done a careful trial and there are always other things that could get in the way. I think one would have to test it over several years with a wide range of seeds. I suppose the obvious way to start is with weekly sowings of mung beans or mustard and cress, but I somehow don't think I'd ever bother to record the results carefully.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was snowing this morning-big fat flakes like white Corn Flakes that didn't stick. Now it is raining heavily. I always wondered if that plant peas on St. Patrick's day and they will grow well story was true.

Dave said...

I am the sort of bloke who might well start that sort of detailed recording. But not this year.

Z said...

It's a lovely sunny spring day here, Martina, the warmest yet.

I'm not that sort of bloke at all.

Anonymous said...

The uncle of one of my housemates many years ago was a farmer who followed that whole waxing/waning thing. Another piece of that planting philosophy calls for burying a hollow cow horn stuffed with manure in the field before planting. Despite this farmer's avowal that it made a significant difference in yield, that's where I said "pshaw!" and called it all silliness.

Z said...

It takes it beyond plausible and into the realms of mumbo-jumbo, doesn't it? Unless you're growing cows, of course.

Dave said...

Burying a hollow cow stuffed with manure might improve the fertility of my land.

Anonymous said...

Can I just ask why all the little perchases? Did you need these things or was it one of those 'But I neeeeeed it' moments?

Sir Bruin said...

I'll be waxing moobs at the earliest opportunity - more in hope than anticipation, I fear!

Z said...

I applaud your proclivity for hard work Dave, but I can't help feeling that your gardening enthusiasm is getting out of hand.

I did need a pen and a couple of pencils, and the Sage couldn't find a Philips screwdriver the other day and had to borrow Dilly's, and who can resist a peppermint? But it was really sheer joie de shopping.

Sir B - ouch!

Anonymous said...

Primark or QS for the plastic jelly non-slip swiming shoes. Not permanently, but intermittently, unfortunately, so you need to be lucky.

£4 a pair last year. So, someone's been exploited...

Will also help with not getting verrucas (or vurracae?) which, I find, is the bane of public pools.

Z said...

Thank you, BW. I'm going to Norwich tomorrow so I'll have a look if there's time. I don't go shopping except locally very often - I've become stubbornly reluctant to pay Norwich's parking fees, and don't get in the car more than I must - so it can be weeks before I get things I need - and rarely have 'but I neeeeeed it' moments!