tim50stroud

I've a Stella Cherry tree in the garden I bought about 6 years ago, and its grown well, the trunk about 4 inches thick. I've kept her trimmed so I can put a tipi tripod and netting around, and for a couple of years got lbs and lbs of fruit for Solstice; nice sweet yummy big ones, bright red like you get in Tesco's// well, Waitrose, theyr so good. I even had to bottle some, too many to eat.
But for the last two years, the same thing happened; a great surge of blossom in spring, lots of bees, fruit setting, and lots of little yellow fruit. Then late May, the growing tip leaves start shrivelling, and hoards of little bleack aphids start munching. Then 99% of the fruit drops off.
Not sure if theyre connected, but i had a long chat with the nice people at Dundry nursuries and maybe got a few answers.

1      I've fed and mulched with horsey poo compost, but maybe could add some blood fish and bone in spring.
2      Apply a blackfly spray as soon as they appear. There are some orgnanic ones, but i may go nuclear with them
3      Apply a winter wash around December; the little buggers winter over, but how they survived the cold this year......

Can I remember till next year? Where are the ladybirds!

On the positive side, the strawberries are going well, and the raspberries are plumping nicely. Can I eat them all!

My next door neighbour's daughter, A has been living with her for the last couple of years, having returned from Italy  with her 3 year old son; the husband stayed over there. Don't know what the back story is, but had assumed they were amicably separated. Bit surprised wen I got an invite to the christening at the local Catholic church; I know the mum has a strong distrust of religion, especially Catholics, and the daughter is certainly not religious. I said of course I'd go along, and today was the day. Seems it was done for the Italian inlaws, and the husband and his brother and a couple of other relatives turned up too.. hard to keep a straight face; they were archetypal; slick black hair, tight trousers, very dark complexion, open neck shirts and medalions... very sweet! There were about a dozen neighbours and friends, and the deacon did a good job; explaining the symbolism and in a very low key syle. Little A was perfect, didnt squeal at all when up ended in the font.. I think I would have done.
But what was it all about. I don't know what sort of preparation they'd had beforehand; was it just a rubber stamp job to crank up the number of catholics? Where they real honest vows the parents made? Or was it all for appearances.
Theres been a bit of fluff about un-baptism for those who didnt want to be part of the church; I can sort of understand it, but the deacon made it very clear that the vows were being made on behalf of little A; when he could understand better, he could make his own vows at confirmation. That makes sense.
I never got confirmed.

So far been a reasonably ok year health wise but I've overdone it this weekend and collapsed. Not seriously bad, but I dont like it.
Had plans to do loads over the w/end, fixing stuff in the garden, repairing broken pipes from winter and the like. I am manic, so I was  up at 8.00 working through till 5.00, making a special loaf of bread for a party in the evening.
Didnt stop all day to eat.
My smoking has ramped up again and thats making my chest uncomfortable; ok breathing but its not right,
A lovely party up in the hills; a friend's 61st, but i stood outside when it was cold for too long.
I came home about 9.00 (is was an all day party, starting with scones and jam and tea at 3) but i was feeling weird. Cold, shivering fuzzy head, and a sore throat, and irregular missfiring of the heartbeat. and heartburn. Home and wrapped up in a duvet with the heating on, waiting for the electric blanket to warm; double duvet and fully clothed to bed. I dont do that, and its not nice.
This morning chilly but feeling loads bettter. Heart settled down to 80, BP on the high side but ok, blood sugar fine.
Maybe its just a chill with added nicotine withdrawal; I 've not smoke for 24hr.
8.00 and time for bed; see how i feel tomorrow.

Your Vocabulary Score: A+

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

Only a long weekend, but a couple of nights in a hotel, an unheard of luxury for me. As breakfast was included, I had to  have the biggest and mostest, and inspite of walking both days, I've put on weight. Hotel in Oxwich bay, excellent, though service a bit variable. Internet provided lots of churches and castles and seaside walks and standing stones and forts to look at. Really friendly people too, meeting the same ones on different walks. Extraordinary good weather too; July sunshine wall to wall and deserted beaches.. Good beer too.. just wish i could aford to stay longer.

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Omphalos brings you more fantastic speakers at the Bath moot – on the 2nd Sunday of the month!

The next Omphalos Magick Moot is Sunday 10th of May when we present Kim Huggens' talk "Ten Ways to Curse Your Lover: Malefic Erotic Magic in the Ancient World"

In the Ancient World to incite passion and love in somebody using magic was to curse them, and the methods employed by magicians to do so were disturbingly similar to those employed to kill, maim, bind, or ruin a person.
This talk will examine the techniques and methods used in ancient Egypt, Hellenistic Greece, and the Roman Empire for binding the object of affection (or victim) to the magician's will. Fetching charms, erotic-attraction spells, separation spells, curses to torment the victim until they yield to the magician's love, and more will be studied based on both textual and archaeological sources.

In particular, the use of "voodoo" dolls – or effigies – in these erotic malefic magics will be explored. There will be a close study of the so-called "Louvre" doll currently residing the Louvre museum Paris: a female effigy of baked clay, made kneeling and with her hands and feet bound behind her back, with thirteen sharp nails driven through various parts of her body (dated to ca. 3rd century CE.) This archaeological find will be compared with the text from the Graeco-Roman Magical Papyri (PGM) IV. 296-466. The text and the doll bear a striking similarity, and highlight a wide variety of common features from these erotic malefic spells.


Kim Huggens is a current PhD student in Cardiff University's Ancient History department, with a thesis on malefic magic in the Late Antique period. Her research interests focus on the use of figurines in malefic magic in both the ancient and medieval world, and on the influence of the Mediterranean world upon other cultures and times in relation to magic and religion. Previous publications include "Sol Invictus: The God Tarot", and papers in "The Mithras Reader vol. 2", "Horns of Power", and "Priestesses, Pythonesses, and Sibyls". She is currently working on her second Tarot deck, "Pistis Sophia: The Goddess Tarot", and a homestudy Tarot course for Llewellyn publications due out Autumn 2010.

Venue: Upstairs at the Huntsman, 1 Terrace Walk, North Parade, Bath

Time: 2pm for a 2.30pm start

Cost: £5.00 on the door

The Omphalos Magick Moot will continue after the talk, with an opportunity open discussion and lively debate. Regular Omphalos meetings are on the second Sunday of each month, at our new home, upstairs at the Huntsman.

Following Cariadwen's posting a while back, I braved a bank holiday monday and crossed into foreign lands for a visit. Very impressed with the Welsh museums in general, plus they're free. £3 parking all day is a bargain. The museum was.. interesting. I'm afraid I'm not a theme park museum person, and this was one big one. Lots of fantastic buildings from all over Wales, but the feeling that its the old broom with a new handle and a new brush.. all very re constructed. A couple of enthusiastic minders who knew their stuff, but some who just re-cycled the notice board. A great Celtic village, with a dressed up guide making wild fire and a leek soup over a fire.. pity his assistant had a LED head band to see... but the smoke from a tiny fire got me thinking of camps again.
Best was the church.Well, one of several. This one had been discovered just as the wall paintings were starting to deteriorate as the roof fell in. Much conservation just in time, but the rebuilt church had had the paintings re done "using the same paints and techniques" and copied.. the result is very impressive.. a riot of earth colours and quite stunning. I've seen in situ preserved paintings before, but they just don't do the style justice. Very reminisant of the roman wall paintings I've seen..

Take The Bem Sex Role Inventory Test atHelloQuizzy

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My nephew Ewan makes videos.

Some really disturbing images via a LJ article on the Russian Blogosphere... wish i read Russian!

They were at it again on Friday night. The vandals. I didnt hear a thing, being asleep with closed windows and double glazing, but Cath across the road heard crackings and bangings as of much wood being trashed. Shouted and they ran off. It was my next door neighbours front gate being trashed. Its a wood lath gate, 2inch by 1/2 slats screwed together; not super strong, but its pretty secure. Well, it was. 3 slats broken. Oh and the rubbish that wasnt collected due to the snow was thrown all over the place.
There were some wing mirrors ripped off as well. No damage to my place and the car's round the back, but i hate it.
I repaired the gate as best with lots of screws and glue, so it should hold till the summer.

For those astologers if any, reading this, its my Saturn return. First hit was back in novemeber and the second is in march i think. I dont like it.It feels worse than my pluto transits back in the 80's, (conjunct my sun and moon) but out of that cam emy involment with the camps for the next 25 years. What this one will bring I don't know, but i must start thinking and working. It hurts though.

A lousy sweaty sleepless night, partly due to worries about a puddle of water on the path last night, where I'd had a leaking water pipe a few years ago. I worried and panicked about it on and off all night; irrational. It seemed less this morning, and when i came home last night it had gone. Why am I so worried about silly things that are easily solvable.
Maybe not unconnected, I developed a sniffly running nose and a sore throat at work today. By the time i got hoem my nose was well bocked and running and I felt pooped. I'd got some Lemsip capsules at lunch itme, and then to Tescos affter food for lemons and cheap whisky for my anti clu treatment. Honey, Lemon, asprin, water and whiskey in a mug, microwaved (before the whisky) . Sitting here, my nose is dripping. Bedtime.

I've never had a decent laptop; the last one was borrowed from J and I did find it really useful. Oh, and one theat appeared from work, but that went poof. So for xmas I got myself a brand new Dell Inspiron 1525; not the best or the sexiest, and i got a boring black case for it. But it has been pretty much ok for what i need; browsing in front of the TV, sky viewing programmes and some astrology, and of course diary writing.
It was my second go at Vista; I'd had it on my mediaplayer for a while and dumped it back for XP becasue it didnt seem much benefit.
So far since xmas, I've had 2 major problems, both acknowledged on the Dell website.

If you do the hard drive cleanup; defragment and the like it messes up the power down settings; the push button stops working and you loose the ability to hibernate and can only shut down. Theres a dodge you have to run to recover the power settings

This morning, it failed to run at all! Blank screen, with a mouse but no desktop. I tried everything and finally checked the website.. Theres a problem with an AVG update that sees a Vista dll as a virus and kidly deletes it. !!!!!!!!!! WHATS THAT ALL ABOUT!  I've used AVG since Dos, and never a problem.
Seems Vista just has some problems. Still. But how would someone not computer aware cope with this?? 

A  angry
B bonkers
C crap at life
D dirty old man
E enigmatic
F fucked up
G gnostic
H hidden  (see G)
I irritable
J just pathetic
K Krap
L low self esteem
M masturbator
N naughty boy
O Onanist
P pervert
Q queer
R runcible
S sodomite
T tree lover
U upside down
V verdant
W wanker
X rated
Z zoophile

Went into Gloucester for the first time in ages today, Saturday. Went via Sainsbury to stock up on food, after chickening out yesterday evening when I walked down as it was heaving.. I only wanted a water filter cartridge but the  queues were 3 deep. This morning at 8 it was empty, but they'd got Hot Cross Buns on sale. Even the woman in the bakery was amused when I made a face. Hardly born and they're planning to get Him on the cross already.
Gloucester is depressing. The only reason  I went was they have a better selection of Audio books in the library. I got "The Year of Living Biblically . . one mans humble quest to follow the bible as literally as possible by A.J. Jacobs. Looks very interesting and will make a change from Podcasts. Also got a book out about the Black Death.
There are many more shops closing; not just the cheap ones on short leases, though there were several of them. But the big Woolies has its last day; selling the baskets off for £1 and all the shop fittings, tills and lockers. Everything. Theres a few shelves left but the rest of the store is empty. Seem to be bargins, but theres nothing I really want. I bought a couple of jumpers over christmas, reduced from £20 to £4 and a pair of shoes for £20 reduced from £60 and thats quite enough. I did find a copy of Flight Sim 2004 for £9 to upgrade my 2000 version, but thats the only toy for the time being

I don't think new years day is a good day for any sort of major lifestyle changes; its bad enough at any time of the year to make big shifts like that without the added pressure of the season.
I've stopped smoking, and at the moment its no problemkeeping off. The extra dosh is handy,
Booze is the tricky one. Over 1200 cal a day from various alcohols is too much, so along with a reasonably sensible food intake it means too much is going in. I don't want to stop eating food so the booze must go. I wish it were that easy; it reallly does dull the evenings and makes going to bed and sleeping a lot easier.

First vandal of the year. No great problem, but more minor hassle. Since last April, a blue Morris Minor has been parked in the lane by the house, where I drive the car round and in through the gates. Its well out of the way, and was moved there since the pub objected to it being parked in their car park. I met the owner once, who said he was in process of restoring it, but he seems to have run out of steam. The last evening I spotted it had moved, and was blocking the cull de sac lane; this morning it seemed gone, but I saw S looking at her car, also parked in the lane. When I came down to have a look, the blue car was wedged against the wall and my gate. S said it must have happened last night, and fortunately hadnt damaged their car.

I rang the police to report it before we moved it back, but surprisingly they said someone would be round. In 45 minutes a real policman arrived; the same one who came round after I complained to the chief constable about all the goings on in the area. He was really nice and helpful; took all the details and helped us push the car back. Suggested it might be an idea if we could encourge some kids to let the tyres down to stop it being moved again. Its a council lane, so he's going going to get them to come and take it away. Shame, as its a nice car; bit rusty, but doesnt look unrepairable.....

Went for a Christmas walk with my new satnav toy, to try and find Randwick Barrow. Its a mile or so away, in the woods, but I've never found it. The area was heavily quaried in the 1900's and is very messed about.

I found the coordinates on Megalithis Portal, and using the little compass tracked it down More or less where I thought, and obvious when you know were to look.


Back via the track, called "Robbers Road"


Heres the route, tracking hideous purple

www.gpsvisualizer.com/display/1230223640-16426-83.67.44.127.html

All this joviality and good cheer isn't really hitting the spot. The shops are heaving with stuff I dont want and the tv is full of adds for things I don't need or want. Buying stuff doesnt make me feel better, and I'm not going to get dragged into that sort of consumer feeding frenzy. The Sainsbury shop this morning was a bit more than usual, becasue I bought my brother in law the bottle of Southern Comfort I alwasy buy, He'll buy me a bottle of Jameson.
But I don't feel a burst of goodwill to all men, or peace on earth, or anything really. Its been a crap year, and shows little sign of getting better. Mum died, a load of people were made redundant at work, and J and I have parted company. I don't want to go into all the details here, but its never been an easy relationship. Much happiness and good times, shared interests and a taste for odd music, but its not enough. We've both got issues with relationships and security and love and closeness, and our respective buttons have been pushed and pushed again till I can't hold together. I withdraw, and she takes the rejection personally. So over the last couple of weeks I've been pulling away. She's upset but i can't keep on supporting her anxiety attacks. We've sat down and talked, but it seems we have such a different understanding of whats been happening; we always have miscommunicated.
I don't know what shes up to; I left a couple of phone messages about maybe going out for a walk on solstice, but she's not at home; off somewhere for christmas maybe. I dont know. And its none of my business anyway.
I know I've been pushing her away, as I always seem to do with people i want to be close to. Self destructive; I dont deserve to be happy is the thought at the bottom of it. So, I went to a counsellor on Friday for an assement, and will start work, again, to try and sort out a way of changing this pattern of bahaviour that hasn't served me well..
But for now its going to be a quiet Christmas. I'll prolly go up North as usual to see sister Maggy, who, surprise, is having a bad time as well.

I just 2009 improves. 
 

Back in September when the apples were falling,  we picked 2 carrier bags of windfalls, and pressed the juice. I added a bit of yeast and the odd hadful of sugar, and its almost ready!

Its nearly ready for drinking, having drained off the good stuff from the settled out gunk, its down to a gallon.

The remainder I froze, and let slowly thaw out.. the theory is that the alcohol fraction melts first, so you end up with a much concentrated high alcohol cider… but it does have some headache inducing properties. I only tried the dregs, and got 300ml of good strong juice… testing results will follow!