about JohnH
Sorted, fit. Current activities are photography, hiking, motorbiking, trail biking, music, geology/geoscience, dinner-at-home, travel and more.
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August is a classic month to prune Wisteria, this one’s been here in West London since the Sixties and is pretty vigorous. I alternate where I prune it most radically: this year it’s the turn of the branches nearest the house, which clears the area for the latest house painters, expected this week.
Relocating Terry’s tree fern, it was a birthday present about 25 years ago but it’s not been happy in the ground in his back garden in Brighton. It seems Dicksonia antarctica do draw from the soil, unlike most other tree ferns. Further, Brighton soil is alkali, due to the underlying limestone but Dicksonia antarctica prefer neutral or acidic soil. So we’ve replanted it in neutral compost in a pot and also moved it to a location which is less exposed to the wind.
And now... a band saw, to control the vigorous Cherry Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) that have filled the gaps, as I guess a previous gardener intended, but have grown out of scale. That leaves space for a Bay tree (Laurus nobilis) sapling that Terry has cultivated in Brighton. There’s one thriving in Fitz Park arboretum nearby so I’m not expecting a problem once the sapling is planted out and established.
The wild flowers of No Mow May being long gone, this is the first cut of the year of my Keswick “meadow”. My new Flymo is a larger electric hover with a 35cm blade rather than the 24cm of the one that’s pretty much worn out already: this isn’t a suburban lawn patch. The new mower has a roller at the front to assist the hover.
Three cheers for Wally Broscene!
Cup Final Saturday having come around again reminds me of strawberries and cream at the LWT television outside broadcasts at the old Wembley Stadium that we did all through the Eighties. Location caterers being one of the unsung heroes of location production, getting on site before the main crew call and being ready with a hot breakfast for all, even if it was Boxing Day at West Ham football ground. I remember several by name: Broscene was always a favourite, Lewis & Clark had their fans too. It can’t have been easy, cooking by gas and before the days of ubiquitous microwave cookers.
Wally Broscene pulled the stops out for the FA Cup Final, in particular he featured strawberries and cream on his menu. I used to hold off buying strawberries until after then so it was a bigger treat. Of course it was a WOSCMB and we worked through meal breaks but carrying coffee (or strawberries and cream) for crew mates never did anyone’s prospects any harm.
