25 - it's a magic number

Today I donated my 25th pint of blood - so that's taken me approximately 9 years of regular donations!

The allotment is still doing very well - courgettes are turning to marrows. No pictures but for the first time ever I grew cucumbers - yeah go me! A bit tough skinned but actually quite nice. Phoebe on the other hand has been getting creative making Pandora style bracelets and now wants to sell her wares :)

A jolly nice person

I had a rant at the ever so un-helpful post office staff this week. I got some passport photos printed for Emily but after getting the passport documents through the door with the leaflet of rules and regulations on how the photo should be presented I thought I'd go for some advice - and who would be better than the people who check and send. Ha I thought wrong. The late opening (yes they finally opened at 9.05 am rather than 9am - grump 1), next they didn't smile or say good morning (is a friendly hello these days too much to ask? - grump 2), I then asked if they could advise me about passport photos and if the ones I had were ok to use. All I got from them was "for £8 we do a check and send", I explained that I could check and send my own form and all I wanted to know was whether the photos were suitable or not. So she chatted with her boss, came back and said again "for £8 we do a check a send service". I explained that I was more than capable of checking and sending forms, all I wanted was a yes or no answer on these blasted passport photos. GRUMP3. She said no after I repeated my question again, so I politely said that their customer service was awful and they should be ashamed to be called a service of any sort. Grump 4

I then popped into Boots store and asked a nice gentleman at the photo counter what he thought. Gladly he obliged in measuring the photo and said that he didn't think that they would be suitable. I thanked him gladly for his advice, popped across the street to a photographer and had more photos taken (and a tad cheaper than that god awful un-usable badly designed user interface of a photo booth at Tesco - passport quality my @rse)

I then thought hey - it's not often I get a nice caring person in a shop who actually gives a darn about you and goes out of their way. So I popped Boots a nice email saying "thanks for employing people who care". And the lovely people at Boots send me a nice box with 4 eyeshadows - coolio. I'm going to start emailing more companies to let them know if I get a good service from their staff. Ahem not that I'm after freebies, but heck they are nice to get :)

Hero of the Week

I haven't blogged about anything significant for a long time. But after watching The Cove this evening I've been in tears. Watch baby dolphins being separated from their mothers, and callously slaughtered - all in the name of food - highly poisoned food, food so laden with mercury that it causes severe deformities in the unborn.

Richard O'Barry you are a hero

Green things part 2

ok since I last posted pictures of the allotment here's an update. Now I'm praying for rain as my poor potatoes are looking a bit yellow and wilty :(

Laughing cat says

CHEEZE!(ps no animals were harmed in this production. Cat bed proudly sponsored by Catit Design Senses Play Circuit - yes its a toy not a bed and he sleeps in it!)

What a difference a day can make

I forgot to take the camera with me to the allotment this morning, but I did take photos of the 12 courgettes we harvested this morning.

I managed to fob off 8 of them to a couple of my neighbours. Whilst using a couple more for making some gluten free chocolate zucchini cakes and muffins.




Next year I need to remembner not to plant so many courgettes ;)

Brassica section

Parsnips and carrots

Tomatoes

Potatoes

Strawberries and rasps

Peas and Beans

Corn salad, lettuce, leeks and flowers (edible flowers) cabbages

Spinich

Cucumber house (loofas too!)

Radish

Crikey it's still growing

The allotment has started yield us some veg ! hurrah hurrah - courgettes anyone?



Some of the crop - 1 over grown green courgette! a couple of yellow and green courgettes and some radish.