Wind damage in the garden

Having managed a couple of hours at the logging area I was erecting a hand rail up our steep garden steps when Sally came out to tell me the Laburnum in the front garden looked like it was going to be blown over in the gusty wind conditions which were preceding some brief rainstorms.

Sure enough its not looking too upright! luckily its leaning against a 3 inch fence post we had put in to stop it blowing over in the winter but the other post on the right is now far from adequate!  This is a very expensive tree nearly £200!   - - we had one previously in the same location and in replacing it I punctured the plastic gas main to the house! lol!

I looked on the net and its seems to be a bit of a problem with these tree's.  This afternoons job then is to put  a similar 3 inch post in the ground to replace the inadequate one and pull it back upright - - - fingers crossed.

A story in the BBC news will be close to most peoples hearts or more to the point the bottom of their shoes  You see it all the time dog mess all over the place and this article has a bewildering array of solutions which sound like good ideas.  The river and surrounding paths opposite our house have their fair share of poop and its obvious who are the responsible dog owners when they emerge from the paths carrying their little plastic bags - - - Many dont!

Turning to Cats the TV programme mentioned in yesterdays blog, it turned out to be of interest.  50 cats from a small village had the GPS transmitters and a smaller number cameras fitted to record their wanderings.  It was quite surprising to see how many entered other homes to raid the food of neighbouring cats.  So our "Interloper" is not such a strange animal then.  We are altering the feeding of our 2 to make sure there's no food around after we go to bed hoping that will curtail the visits.

James Hunt the Formula 1 racing driver of yesteryear is remembered in this article titled James Hunt: Remembering F1's Swashbuckling Playboy  I used to be an avid watcher of F1 when he was around and there were a number of similar "swashbucklers" to keep us amused as well as some fantastic racing.  Then the likes of Nigel Mansell came along who seemed to blame his failures on anyone but himself!  a lot of races developed into processions and the outcomes were fairly predictable.  The modern rules made it interesting but some of the races are decided on such ridiculous breaches of these rules that its becoming a bit of a drag watching even highlights.

The Australian endurance swimmer provides my first Daily Mail story there are some very good pictures showing the injuries she received from the "Jelly fish infested waters"  She claims to be "not coming back" to attempt another swim of the 160 miles form Cuba to Florida!

 An amusing, well amusing when you think about why its even been reported is this story from the Daily Mail It waxes lyrical about a survey conducted by the University of Pittsburgh into why taking 2 days off when you have flu can cut the chance of your work colleagues catching it by 40%  - - -- Think about it,  they don't get it because - - - your not there!

Finally another garden story, Wisteria you know the plant that adorns the front of old houses looks like a bit of a vine and had long sprays of generally purple/blue flowers.  We planted no more than a stick a few years ago up the side of a bit of trellis and in spring 2012 just as the flower spikes had begun to form a frost killed the lot.  We watched eagerly this year and hoped the frost didn't do a similar trick.  So here it is still on its way to maturity but with the heavy rain of yesterday set to return today I though I had better get a pic before the flower spikes were battered.

Enjoy the day

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