Will Bob lose weight?

September 29th.
It seems likely that I will have to visit New Zealand. I have heard that the Food Police are going to start their rather obscure activities in the North Island. I am forced to take more leave now so I thought Barcelona would be good for a few days to continue this year's visits to major Spanish cities. Home of Carvalho and a chance to research the food he eats in the correct environment. Argentina in November/December possibly. Anyone want to come? Not yet clear about work but I suppose it does finance these trips.
The post office annoyed me today but leaving a card to say I had to pay for a letter which didn't carry enough stamps. Since I was only a few paces from the front door at the time, I could easily have paid there and then, but the postman didn't bother to ring the bell. Now I have to go to the postoffice with my passport to get a letter I may not want anyway. Perhaps it is from the mulch maiden?
Guests arrived and upset my diet last night, forcing me to the pub and to eat things like potatoes and bread- and jolly nice it was too! I am told that some of the jokes posted are worse than those of the Food Police, but can that really be possible.
Too wet for the allotment but good news- I have been offered a lot of manure.

September 27th.
When I typed Montalban it came out mysteriously in blue but in the published blog it appeared in orange/brown. The last blog came out twice with a slight change to the second as I didn't think the first had been accepted. I continue to be regularly baffled by these oddities.
For those who have never met him, I would like to introduce Louie Knight, who is posssibly the only Welsh fictional detective, or rather, Private Eye. He is the only PE in Aberystwyth, hard drinker with a weakness for icecreams. Can you think of another Pe who eats icecreams? I don't remember him eating anything else except perhaps some whelks or maybe some fish and chips. I am particularly fond of him having worked in Aberyswyth and the titles are irresistable-Aberystwyth Mon Amour- Last Tango In Aberystwyth- The Unbearable Lightness of Being In Aberystwyth. Well, perhaps they are resistable as I suspect that not many of you have read Malcolm Pryce's books. But the point is, that no proper meals are consumed.
I cannot offhand remember Marlowe ever eating a proper meal except eggs for breakfast, and like all other detectives apart from Mma Ramotswe had a huge intake of alcohol.Did Mike Hammer ever eat a solid meal? What is it about these detectives and Private Eyes that drives them to drink so much?It cant be lack of excitement or variety in their lives. Perhaps they would solve the crimes a bit quicker if they drank less and then there wouldn't be enough left to write a story about! I always think of Bernie Rhodenbarr as a sort of detective but he was of course a burglar who was very strict about not drinking before a burglary. Matt Scudder, one of Lawrence Block's other 'heroes' seems to have an alcohol problem, but I find him rather unpleasant and have given up reading them. Odd isn't it how one whole chunk of a writer's output is unacceptable , whereas I cannot get enough of Bernie Rhodenbarr's adventures?
I don't wish to give the impression that I am against alcohol. I am simply observing that it plays a big part in the oral intake of these characters. Carvalho and Montalbano at least have a decent and interesting diet.My diet of fish, ensalada malaguena,vino tinto and San Miguel resulted in a loss of about half a kilo. I didn't visit the allotment as I was overwhelmed by laziness and fatigue, and it was raining. Amazing how tiring it is on the first day back in work.

September 26th.
Malaga is a fine city, close to its airport, by the sea, a port and a large number of restaurants and tapas bars in a very picturesque old historic city. I always get the impression that they've never quite finished it - long stretches of new roadways in the centre and numerous empty but presumably temporary pavillions in the centre of town. There is a rather unlikely street called Strachan Street which is very smart. I wondered if Gordon knows. The cathedral clock was always stuck at four minutes to nine. They are ripping up the roads around the bullring, so the season is obviously at an end in Malaga. I noted that rabo(tail) of bull was on the menu in many places but the speciality of most of the restaurants was seafood (mariscos), cuttlefish, calamares,calimarettos, rosado , mussels, oysters etc.
Elmore Leonard's detectives don't eat anything except burgers and fries but they drink quite a lot of spirits.(Mr Paradise). Padura's Inspector Mario Conde eats a couple of fairly decent meals during the investigation he conducts in Havana Red but mostly drinks a lot of rum and smokes cigars. One of these meals sounds quite interesting - paisa mix - cook red beans until they begin to soften, add half a pound of minced meat to cook in the juice. Crackling from really big pigs with some of their meat, ripe plantains, eggs , beef steak, garlic and onion. Not sure how its all thrown together so probably have to visit Cuba to try it out. The only other meal described was a stuffed turkey. Stuffed with rice and black beans. Doesn't sound all that appealing to me but might be better than it sounds.
None of the meals described in Excursion to Tindari (Camilleri) disappoints in any way. Seven major meals in the course of an investigation including pasta with a meat sauce,(page 38),risotto in squid ink followed by sea bass(page 88), imperial mackerels in onion sauce (page 129), purpiteddri (baby octopi) followed by four bass,(page 169), Caponata (page 228) which is made from sauteed aubergine, tomato, green pepper, garlic, onion, celery, black olives vinegar, oil, and anchovies. Red mullet all'agrodolce (page 255) and seafood antipasto followed by a giant platter of grilled fish on page 278 complete the meals in the course of one invesigation. Bottles of whisky are also consumed. It must be all the fish that keeps Salvo Montalbano going.
He also gives a plug for his near namesake Montalban's detective, Pepe Carvalho. Why did his name suddenly appear in blue? Pepe has a rather more varied diet and eats much more meat. Several more meals in the Angst-Ridden Executive than in the Camilleri of which the duck ragout was probably the most interesting. After roasting the duck, the meat is removed including its delicate innards , mixed back with the duck's juices and a handful of stoned black olives, its is then all added to separately prepared diced bacon with mushrooms and truffles cooked in bacon fat and a couple of tablespoons of breadcrumbs and then presented as a casserole with the larger pieces of meat. Accompanied by a bottle of Montecillo and followed by dried fruits and natural honey and some pastries from Villores.
Humboldt's Gift is actually making me laugh out loud but it is still quite heavy going and requires an awful lot of concentration and a bit of skipping which I always regret and then find myself delayed as I go back to see if I really missed anything important. I don't know why he is described as a 'writer's writer' but it gives me hope; if I can read him, will I one day write The Book? Yes, the dying book. No meals but an awful lot of whisky. Perhaps if Humboldt and Citrine had drunk a bit less they wouldn't have spent so much time showing off with all their pseudo-intellectual tosh. Half way through and nobody has eaten a thing.
Tomorrow, or perhaps a bit later is weigh day. Will the fish diet have caused dramatic changes? I may go later to see the allotment. Will Woody have done anything much in my absence? Do sheet mulches really get rid of couch grass and docks? How long do they take? Who is/are b.anderic? What does 'coming from left field' mean? I like 'gulp fiction'.
Tuesday night.

September 26th.
Malaga is a fine city, close to its airport, by the sea, a port and a large number of restaurants and tapas bars in a very picturesque old historic city. I always get the impression that they've never quite finished it - long stretches of new roadways in the centre and numerous empty but presumably temporary pavillions in the centre of town. There is a rather unlikely street called Strachan Street which is very smart. I wondered if Gordon knows. The cathedral clock was always stuck at four minutes to nine. They are ripping up the roads around the bullring, so the season is obviously at an end in Malaga. I noted that rabo(tail) of bull was on the menu in many places but the speciality of most of the restaurants was seafood (mariscos), cuttlefish, calamares,calimarettos, rosado , mussels, oysters etc.
Elmore Leonard's detectives don't eat anything except burgers and fries but they drink quite a lot of spirits.(Mr Paradise). Padura's Inspector Mario Conde eats a couple of fairly decent meals during the investigation he conducts in Havana Red but mostly drinks a lot of rum and smokes cigars. One of these meals sounds quite interesting - paisa mix - cook red beans until they begin to soften, add half a pound of minced meat to cook in the juice. Crackling from really big pigs with some of their meat, ripe plantains, eggs , beef steak, garlic and onion. Not sure how its all thrown together so probably have to visit Cuba to try it out. The only other meal described was a stuffed turkey. Stuffed with rice and black beans. Doesn't sound all that appealing to me but might be better than it sounds.
None of the meals described in Excursion to Tindari (Camilleri) disappoints in any way. Seven major meals in the course of an investigation including pasta with a meat sauce,(page 38),risotto in squid ink followed by sea bass(page 88), imperial mackerels in onion sauce (page 129), purpiteddri (baby octopi) followed by four bass,(page 169), Caponata (page 228) which is made from sauteed aubergine, tomato, green pepper, garlic, onion, celery, black olives vinegar, oil, and anchovies. Red mullet all'agrodolce (page 255) and seafood antipasto followed by a giant platter of grilled fish on page 278 complete the meals in the course of one invesigation. Bottles of whisky are also consumed. It must be all the fish that keeps Salvo Montalbano going.
He also gives a plug for his near namesake Montalban's detective, Pepe Carvalho. Why did his name suddenly appear in blue? Pepe has a rather more varied diet and eats much more meat. Several more meals in the Angst-Ridden Executive than in the Camilleri of which the duck ragout was probably the most interesting. After roasting the duck, the meat is removed including its delicate innards , mixed back with the duck's juices and a handful of stoned black olives, its is then all added to separately prepared diced bacon with mushrooms and truffles cooked in bacon fat and a couple of tablespoons of breadcrumbs and then presented as a casserole with the larger pieces of meat. Accompanied by a bottle of Montecillo and followed by dried fruits and natural honey and some pastries from Villores.
Humboldt's Gift is actually making me laugh out loud but it is still quite heavy going and requires an awful lot of concentration and a bit of skipping which I always regret and then find myself delayed as I go back to see if I really missed anything important. I don't know why he is described as a 'writer's writer' but it gives me hope; if I can read him, will I one day write The Book? Yes, the dying book. No meals but an awful lot of whisky. Perhaps if Humboldt and Citrine had drunk a bit less they wouldn't have spent so much time showing off with all their pseudo-intellectual tosh. Half way through and nobody has eaten a thing.
Tomorrow, or perhaps a bit later is weigh day. Will the fish diet have caused dramatic changes? I may go later to see the allotment. Will Woody have done anything much in my absence? Do sheet mulches really get rid of couch grass and docks? How long do they take? Who is/are b.anderic? What does 'coming from left field' mean?
Tuesday night.

September 18th.
There has been a bit of a gap in the entries for a number of reasons but in the interim there has been comment from a new source, BandEric who suggest 'piglit' for the gourmandizing detectives. Much as I like the suggestion, I am slightly worried about the implied insult in calling the detectives 'pigs' which has in my mind alwayys been the term used by large groups of students or strikers already in trouble who want to insult and inflame situations even further. My detectives such as Maigret or Montalbana have become sort of friends that I am very fond of and wouldn't want to insult. So, a clever suggestion but I think we/I will have to keep searching. Furthermore, who is BandEric?
One of the reasons for the delay in making another blog has been fatigue due to excessive digging. I don't think that this has led to a dramatic change in weight but you are just going to have to wait until next week to find out as I will be in Malaga on the seafood, paella,tapas, icecream and alcohol diet. I am taking a few detectives with me so there will be reports of their meals and I may try a few of them myself. Watch this space.
2pm.

September 13 th.
Yes it was sheddar, a special sheese for shedding weight. I dont know how these shpelling mistakes creep in but sometimes they can be quite amusing. However, once I have noticed the mistake, I feel duty bound to correct it. Sometimes I get too impatient to bother to correct and read what I have written so there are no corrections. If I were a faster typist I would get less frustrated and would have more time for corrections.
Yes, KevandJules, you are quite right; it would solve the problem with American Football if I had Sky but the problem is that there is so much other tempting sport on Sky that I might never stop watching.
The midnight icecreams are only suitable for people who don't really care very much about the weight loss. The diet I'm on is planned to be full of treats and pleasures, and is not meant to give any sense of deprivation. This probably means that the rate of weight loss is very slow indeed. In some weeks it does not appear to happen at all but half a kilo a month is good enough for me and if it is more, that's a bonus. Today is weigh day and I have to report a half kilo loss!
Now if this were one of those sex blogs advertised in this week's Observer Woman Magazine' strimming would probably be something done in hygienic conditions in private by two consenting adults, but here I am referring to the machine with a motor drive rotating head with a 'blade' of two thick nylon cords which cut through stalks and weeds or grass or scrub. I had planned a session to clear the surface of the allotment prior to digging it but a mechanical failure
which I dont understand meant that it kept stalling so it was not a success today. I'm not sure that it is worth getting it professionally serviced as once this job is done I probably wont use it ever again. For some reason my left Wellington boot keeps ripping at the heel so having spare right boots I now use two rights. (Does that make a wrong?). The left foot doesn't seem to mind.
I'm slightly ashamed at admitting that I do look at any of the Observer 'life style' colour sections. They usually make me shout with rage more than I do at the tele. Who are all these ghastly people- health advisors, chefs, fashion advisors etc.? Why can't they produce a paper without whole sections that the majority of us never even open- or at least most of the people I know never open? What a waste of paper.
I hope you are all paying attention and noticed the belated article on Leonardo Padura in yesterday's Guardian? Regular readers of this blog will note that you heard of him first in this blog. Unfortunately the article was accompanied by a photo that made it look as though he had a serious malformation of the mouth and an even more serious deformity of his right hand.
After almost a full day at work, I dug until dark and though early, I'm tired and am going to bed after a smalll snack- perhaps a yogurt. Choreopsis has set in.
22.20

September 12th.
The American Football Season has begun. For some reason there are not many people I know who enjoy this sport, let alone understand it. Unfortunately, although it is a fast and extremely physical game with moments of superlative skill and artistry, it is not shown on terrestrial T.V until the small hours of the morning, whereas during normal working or waking hours one can watch a fun run or a marathon which some Ethiopian or Kenyan will win, or people playing snooker or darts or any number of minority sports that nobody really cares about. Anyway, if I watch American football, it rarely starts before 00.30am or finishes before 3am. Not only is it difficult to stay awake until then after squash and digging but a midnight snack is usually called for. Its not the time of day for a cooked meal so I have started to eat icecream at that time. I am particularly fond of wafers, gradually squishing the two sides together, licking the icecream squeezed out at the edges until the almost soggy wafer is consumed last of all; very moreish.I will be finding out tomorrow what effect this has had on the weight loss.(There is also the minor point that it interferes with work the following day)
I think I need to find an alternative snack that is not carbohydrate, is tasty and satisfying. Vegetable soup or raw carrots might be the answer.Or maybe one of those little tins of sardines or pilchards with a salad. Or maybe I should eat a cooked meal at one am and go to bed in the early evening until the football begins and eat the meal during the game. I am slightly worried that the more I talk about food and the more it is on my mind, the more I actually eat.
The Food Police usually insist on Brain's but were probably brought up on beers from the far east (Ipswich) or north of the river Fuller's. Personally I prefer the south of the river beer, Youngs- just about the right taste of hops and furthermore delivered by horse drawn drays - how classy is that, clip clopping through the London traffic? Sometimes the Food Police suffer from volume overload and are seen drinking whisky after a mere six or seven pints. Still roughly sticking to the plan i.e no bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, biscuits, cakes, pancakes, sugar. Only by very determined eating of sheese, fruit , and meat do I manage to keep my weight up!
P.S Have seen the comment from the Food Police. As I predicted really. Are six brains better than one?

September 12th.
The American Football Season has begun. For some reason there are not many people I know who enjoy this sport, let alone understand it. Unfortunately, although it is a fast and extremely physical game with moments of superlative skill and artistry, it is not shown on terrestrial T.V until the small hours of the morning, whereas during normal working or waking hours one can watch a fun run or a marathon which some Ethiopian or Kenyan will win, or people playing snooker or darts or any number of minority sports that nobody really cares about. Anyway, if I watch American football, it rarely starts before 00.30am or finishes before 3am. Not only is it difficult to stay awake until then after squash and digging but a midnight snack is usually called for. Its not the time of day for a cooked meal so I have started to eat icecream at that time. I am particularly fond of wafers, gradually squishing the two sides together, licking the icecream squeezed out at the edges until the almost soggy wafer is consumed last of all; very moreish.I will be finding out tomorrow what effect this has had on the weight loss.(There is also the minor point that it interferes with work the following day)
I think I need to find an alternative snack that is not carbohydrate, is tasty and satisfying. Vegetable soup or raw carrots might be the answer.Or maybe one of those little tins of sardines or pilchards with a salad. Or maybe I should eat a cooked meal at one am and go to bed in the early evening until the football begins and eat the meal during the game. I am slightly worried that the more I talk about food and the more it is on my mind, the more I actually eat.
The Food Police usually insist on Brain's but were probably brought up on beers from the far east (Ipswich) or north of the river Fuller's. Personally I prefer the south of the river beer, Youngs- just about the right taste of hops and furthermore delivered by horse drawn drays - how classy is that, clip clopping through the London traffic? Sometimes the Food Police suffer from volume overload and are seen drinking whisky after a mere six or seven pints. Still roughly sticking to the plan i.e no bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, biscuits, cakes, pancakes, sugar. Only by very determined eating of sheese, fruit , and meat do I manage to keep my weight up!

September 9th.
So, the URL thing is 'willbobloseweight.blogspot.com' but what is the page title?And how do I clear my i-pod and get rid of all the i-tunes and start again with an empty i-pod and a clear list that doen't have names but lots of different 'track one etc'?
I hope you can follow the train of thought- food - allotments- digging- boredom- listen to i-pod-boredom- change the tunes- possibly add Italian or Spanish - frustration- - rage at inanimate objects- why worry- go to pub for a few beers etc. The problem will still be there tomorrow. Actually the digging may contribute to weight loss by firstly burning up calories and secondly by keeping away from the kitchen and the tempting snacks therein. It wasn't planned to be a major part of the regime but is simply an essential part of preparing the allotment. I have a feeling that there will be those amongst my readers who will be wanting their own allotment soon. I would recommend you get your name on the waiting list as soon as possible a s in some parts of the country you can wait a few years. Fatboy Tucker was most impressed by the site and size of my allotment which I think is ninety feet by thirty. That may not seem much to you but it looks huge when you have to dig and remove all the roots, docks, couch grass etc. It even has a little shed into which I hope to install a gas ring to make coffee, a few comfortable chairs- I'm sure I saw some on offer in Morrisons recently; those green plastic garden chairs that are obviously unwanted now that summer is over. Kit suggested a solar powered fridge for keeping a few beers cold in summer. Won't need the house soon, though its good to come back for hot bath and to sleep on a comfy bed. The effect of the digging is to make me sleep like a log for longer than before.
After a session digging today, I came back for eggs and bacon and fried tomatoes, some rather nice salami and some nuts and peas and after a shower I'll be off to Cardiff to have a beer or two with the Food Police (Bute Town Division). There was an enquiry into the swimming today. The answer is that there are other things to be done rather than get bored swimming up and down a pool. Perhaps when it gets dark earlier and when it will not be possible to do anything useful on the allotment, I will start swimming in the early evening. It should be quite pleasant in the heated outdoor pool.
7pm

September 8th.
Thank you for the advice. I tried to get on to a free easy hit counter but as I expected something cropped up which I couldn't understand and I couldn't proceed. There was a dire warning too that'We will disable any counter used in Email' ,which I didn't understand either. It also sounds rather threatening. What do they mean by 'URL of page' and 'Title of page'? I'm sure I'll get more advice on this but for the time being will remain in ignorance of the number of visitors.
Plans for a rather restrained food and drink intake were scuppered last night by an invitation to have a few beers so ended up eating both before and after the visit to the pub. At least I walked there and back. Cod with cheese melted on top with raw peas, pistachio (or is it pistaccio?) nuts and an apple and later more nuts and a lot of German Salami. Today looks as though it will be a fine day for some strenuous digging after a game of squash so I can look forward to further significant weight loss this week, especially as I'm planning a lot more digging over the weekend.

September 8th.
Thank you for the advice. I tried to get on to a free easy hit counter but as I expected something cropped up which I couldn't understand and I couldn't proceed. There was a dire warning too that'We will disable any counter used in Email' ,which I didn't understand either. It also sounds rather threatening. What do they mean by 'URL of page' and 'Title of page'? I'm sure I'll get more advice on this but for the time being will remain in ignorance of the number of visitors.
Plans for a rather restrained food and drink intake were scuppered last night by an invitation to have a few beers so ended up eating both before and after the visit to the pub. At least I walked there and back. Cod with cheese melted on top with raw peas, pistachio (or is it pistaccio?) nuts and an apple and later more nuts and a lot of German Salami. Today looks as though it will be a fine day for some strenuous digging after a game of squash so I can look forward to further significant weight loss this week, especially as I'm planning a lot more digging over the weekend.

September 7th.
Need I say more? How posh is that?
Those only now discovering the blog might have missed the ratatouille/batatouille references earlier. I have not repeated my attempt to cook that dish as it is inevitably disappointing in my hands (and the bats are hard to catch) and I think it would be best for me to go to France to catch up on some really French meals and I will stick to beef and Yorkshire etc. and I wont try to grow or cook courgettes. The fish,chips and beer diet is not to be taken lightly and is not recommended for all. It just obviously suits me. New readers and contributors are very welcome but I must point out that it isn't just relatives who are reading it and skeletons must be kept in the cupboard (or in the attic if that was where you hid the last victim, Dunc).
I do feel that this has become an open e-mail to anyone, relative, friend, aquaintance or passer by which has led to contact with those I sadly seldom see and just as was predicted earlier, it has become slightly less food orientated and there are morepersonal snippets . It would be fairly easy to tell what occupies my spare time, what I'm doing, what I'm reading and eating though I haven't mentioned Hereford, the chained library and the Mappa Mundi. The Food police were thrilled to see Colchester on the map- one of the few places in Britain to get a mention.
I am also looking for advice on what to plant in the autumn apart from the soft fruits and perhaps some more plum, gages and apples which could be grown as espaliers or even fan trained against the allotment north wall. Someone mentioned broad beans but do I like them enough to bother? Furthermore, I would be interested to know how many people actually read the blog. Is there a way of finding out how many read it without making a comment? Even if nobody was reading it, I would still continue as it will become a part of the evidence about weight reduction that will eventually appear in the long promised book A Short Guide To Dying. There is nothing like first hand experience in all the unpleasnt and pleasant things which contribute to health and play their part in survival.
The first meal in Havana Red comes on page 69. Paisa. Red beans boiled until soft, add minced meat, ripe plantains, eggs, beefsteak with plenty of garlic and onion with rice cooked with extra lard! Very unappealing to me but eaten with great enthusiasm and pleasure by Conde, the detective. All this talk of food makes me hungry so I will go now to find something interesting in my local superstore. I find a combination of pistaccio nuts, peas I shell from the pod and eat raw, with Italian salami makes a really tasty starter or in fact a meal in itself when you add some salad, ham and assorted cheeses.

September 6th.
In spite of the chips, batter on the fish, the Yorkshire pudding, the roast potatoes and the beer at the weekend, there has been a one kilogramme weight loss in the last week! Maybe it is not the diet but the punishing sessions digging the allotment after a hard game of squash that has lead to this happy situation. I was beginning to have secret doubts about the diet and the suffering but now I feel I am definitely on the right track.
The plums are over but this week the first pears should be ready. There are still some runners but fewer than I would like. I feel that the allotment will solve these problems next year. There is of course a very large area to be cleared and dug over so one anticipates a consistent weight loss from now on. Work is definitely interfering with my other activities but I have felt in the past that the busier I am, the more I actually achieve and that when I'm not working there is no incentive to get on with anything and consequently I just put it off. So if I can keep working for as long as it is fun, I will do so.
No meals so far in Havana Red but there is a lot about steak in the Lonely Planet guide to Argentina. I am toying with the idea of a trip there in November/December. I continue to be surprised about the spelling mistakes which creep in uninvited. I had meant hall not hill in the previous blog. There are no hills in my house.
22:48 pm

September 4th.
StanandTel think that I should be doing a bit more suffering but the whole point of the weight loss regime was that there would be no pain or any feeling of deprivation. As it happens so far the weight loss has been as much- or as little - as the suffering. One of the problems has been trying to avoid certain foods when in company. This weekend I have eaten fish and chips with mushy peas for one meal and a roast beef dinner in a pub. One can hardly offend the chef by declining to eat the parts of a meal that are considered integral to it, can one? Futhermore there is something special about Harry Ramsden's fish and chips, well anyway the fish, which makes it a special treat, and it is my view that I should have plenty of treats.
I had meant to post a blog on the first of the month but after playing squash I went straight on to three hours digging on the allotment. I had thought that this was going to be a seriously weight reducing day but it was followed by a weekend of treats and beer. The exercise left me too exhausted to write the blog, so I apologise to all those who now depend on it too remain sane and in touch with reality. There may be hundreds, possibly thousands of you but it may in fact be nobody and I'm talking to myself again. The Blog Monitor thinks it might be possible to find out how many people actually read the blog. How do I do this?
Weather permitting there will be more digging today. Although the plot is very large it should be easy to keep in good condition once it has been cleared and rotivated. I'm planning a serious attack with Weedol at one end while I continue to dig the other end in preparation for the planting of raspberries in October and November. I might put in some strawberries and gooseberries in the autumn with the the hope they will produce a crop next year. I think I'll try to learn Italian if I can put some Italian lessons on my i-pod to learn while digging. There will be plenty of possibilities to practise Italian . It seems rather odd that there don't seem to be any Spaniards about with whom I could practise Spanish. What else needs to be planted in the autumn?
The times on these blogs are rather unreliable. They probably refer to some time zone in the USA . There are at least two time zones in the house; the kitchen is an hour ahead of the hill. Strange how different it feels going from one to the other!