New Comedy Venue In London

I wrote this just over 4 years ago, but with Arsenal not having won a trophy in 6 years it is probably appropriate to re-open this new comedy club. Unfortunatly Jose Mourinho has now left Chelsea and in fact there is nothing funny at Chelsea, so there is still an opening in the Goon Show Cast to be filled. OK it's not gardening related, It's not mobile technology, but for some reason I remembered the importance of this. The story needs to be told ;-)

Since the Queen Mother passed away in 2002, at the tender age of 101, there has been a distinct lack of humour and practical jokes at Buckingham palace. The Queen Mother was famous for pulling several whole hard boiled eggs out of her mouth during receptions, amongst many other party tricks, and wowing the guests.

Since her passing almost 5 years ago, there has been no royal practical jokers who have been able to take over her mantle as Royal Practical Joker. In times long since past, this title was held by the Court Jester of course. However cutbacks in Royal funding over the years has lead to role of Court Jester being axed. A shame really, but this is precisely why the Queen Mother used to pull whole hard boiled eggs out of her mouth during parties! I must admit that I never saw the trick, but from reading reports about it, apparently it was quite the sight to behold! Many a "Oh look! She's doing it again!", followed by sinciere laughter at the spectacle, were to be heard by the many who have attended a state affair at the palace!

So since the Queen Mother passed away, Charles tried to take over the mantle of Royal Practical Joker, however this did not last, as Charles realised that too many people were laughing at him, rather than with him, during his Joking sessions! Also swallowing up to 7 whole hard boiled eggs, and regurgitating them on demand proved far too difficult! To this day no-one has discovered how the Queen Mother performed the trick!

William and Harry attempted the role after Charles, as a comedy duo. But alas their efforts failed as well, due to ill timed gaffs by Harry, who seems to have learnt the skill off his grand father, the Duke of Edinburgh. Or did he learn it off James Hewitt? Nobody actually knows, and although DNA testing was suggested to determine where Harry learnt his lack of comedy timing from, they have never been performed.

So for the past two years there has been no Royal Practical Joker at all. This has lead to a great worry on behalf of the Queen. Just who would entertain guests at boring state dinners attended by boring politicians and other boring royals? Well the answer turned out to be very simple indeed! The Queen has opened a new Comedy Club in the State Apartments at Buckingham Palace! When there is a state function going on, she now invites several comedians who crack a few jokes here and there for the entertainment of guests!

Pictured above is the opening event at the Comedy Club at the State Apartments in Buckingham Palace. Here the famous comedian Arsene Wenger (who moonlights as the manager of Arsenal Football club, and in this role is actually the most humourless man on the face of the planet!) is cracking a joke with the Queen. They clearly are both finding it hilarious , and it seems that the new Comedy Club is proving a major success!

Last night, while Arsene was craking the jokes, many a "Oh I remember with great fondness when the Queen Mother used to pull 7 hard bolied eggs out of her mouth, but this Arsene chap is pretty fine as well!", was heard amongst the visiting dignitaries. The Queen, apparently greatly impressed by the comedy stylings of Arsene, has invited him to be a permanant fixture at the Comedy Club, should he want to leave his other job as the manager of Arsenal football club.

It is rumoured that upcoming events, at the State Apartments at Buckingham Palace, might actually have the following big three football managers, Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho (Chelsea Football club) and Sir Alex Furgerson (Manchester United Football club) re-enacting famous Goon Show sketches!

These rumours have had various dignitaries and leaders of countries camping out at the front door of Buckingham Palace in order to make sure they can get tickets for the events! Many a "Fancy that! The big football three re-enacting the Goon show!", was to be heard amongst the queued dignitaries, as they hoped to be able to purchase good tickets for the events!

One dignitary was heard to say, "This will be better than the Queen Mother!", which was met who howls of derision and laughter! I mean the big football three performing the Goon show is funny. Arsene Wenger is funny. But NOTHING is funnier than the Queen Mother pulling 7 hard boiled eggs out of her mouth!!!

Please!

Anyways, even if you cannot get tickets for the State Apartments at Buckingham Palace, and rumour has it that George Bush failed to pick up tickets when his cheque bounced as his bank balance is still in the red after not having paid off his current war, have fun!

Ferns Are Everybodies Friends!

Well apparently not! According To Monty Don from Gardeners' World ferns seem to be scoffed by some as simply an easy solution to a dry shady area! I expect the main protagonists are gin toting Ra Ra's ;-)! He was discussing this two weeks ago in the Gardeners' World episode set at Malvern Spring Gardening show. What is actually wrong with a plant that is an easy solution to a problem? In my rather short book on gardening ... naught!

To me they are another plant with fantastic personality. Over the course of the winter, in the UK, they shrivel up into nothing but mess due to the insane cold. Well it was insane this past winter. Temperatures as low as -18 decrees Celsius had all of us struggling. It seemed to be particularly harsh on the fern in our garden. In honesty I thought it was permanently deceased!

Then in mid April I was surprised by rapid signs of life! The introduction photo is of one of the fern fronds slowly unfurling. Say that quickly 5 times ;-). Below is a photo of the Octopus plant gradually coming out to play. Well to me they look like Octopus tentacles slowing uncoiling ;-)

By the end of the first week in May the fern is almost fully back on top form, as seen below

From mid march to now, and a beautiful splash of green in the shady corner of the garden. Love it. What's not to love about this transformation from a grisly decayed mess, slowly and most bizzarely slowly uncoiling into a very unique looking plant. Nothing I tell you! To all those Gin Toting Ra Ra Fern Haters I feel for you ;-)

That's all for now.

Cheers

m

Trying Out Facebook Page Integration

Testing to see if this gets posted on the facebook page for Mobile Technology and Gardening.

Lets see if it works.

Cheers

m

Trying Out The ShareMyApps Android Application

Hmmm.... the below is the Blogger output from the ShareMyApps Android application. This app inspects your phone to see what applications you have installed and then allows you to select from a list and share with your contacts.

The sharing options seem pretty good. Again it inspects your phone to see what you have installed and allows you to share using applications installed on your phone. So in my case it allowed:

• Gmail
• Text
• Bluetooth
• Blogger - app installed on my phone
• Docs - Google docs
• Dropbox
• FriendStream - the HTC pre-installed app
• Mail - the HTC Mail client
• Peep - another HTC pre-installed app
• Twitter

so a very extensive selection! I tried sharing via Blogger though and this was the output that was generated. See the list of links below. Not exactly user friendly! Can you make sense out of it?

Tried sharing the list via Twitter as well. Hmmm no luck there, my tweet was 763 characters over the allowed 140 character limit!

So although plenty of sharing options, not much validation going on as to whether the content worked in a particular application! Perhaps additional validation, to determine if content is appropriate to share in a particular medium, might come in an upgrade?

Sharing via Blogger:

Amazon UK: http://market.android.com/details?id=uk.amazon.mShop.android Chrome to Phone: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.apps.chrometophone Dropbox: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.dropbox.android Finance: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.apps.finance Foursquare: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.joelapenna.foursquared Google Sky Map: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.stardroid Gowalla: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.gowalla IMDb: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.imdb.mobile LinkedIn: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.linkedin.android My T-Mobile: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.everythingeverywhere.tmobile RunKeeper: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.fitnesskeeper.runkeeper.pro ShareMyApps: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.mattlary.shareMyApps Shazam: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.shazam.android Shopper: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.apps.shopper ShopSavvy: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.biggu.shopsavvy Skype: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.skype.raider Sonos: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.sonos.acr Spotify: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.spotify.mobile.android.ui Translate: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.apps.translate TripIt: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.tripit Tube Chaser: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.andybotting.tubechaser XE Currency: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.xe.android

To be fair though, sharing via email did work a treat. The following is the email output:

Amazon UK
Chrome to Phone
Dropbox
Finance
Foursquare
Google Sky Map
Gowalla
IMDb
LinkedIn
My T-Mobile
RunKeeper
ShareMyApps
Shazam
Shopper
ShopSavvy
Skype
Sonos
Spotify
Translate
TripIt
Tube Chaser
XE Currency

Generated by ShareMyApps

At least they are clickable links to the Android Market! ;-) Also as you can now install apps direct from the PC, via Market Place, onto your Android phone, this allows a user to actually download the application suggestions!

So if you like telling your friends about applications they might like, ShareMyApps is a pretty good way to do it. It might not work across every format, but potentially additional support, for some form of validation, might be available in later releases

Have fun

Cheers

m

The Rosemary Leaf Beetles Are Back!

The Rosemary Leaf beatles, or more affectionately know Chrysolina Americana, are back! Actually I am not sure if Chrysolina Americana is a term of endearment or not! These little, yet rather strikingly colourful, blighters like to dine out on the leaves of Rosemary bushes. Apparently they do not do any lasting damage but as I did last year I am keeping an eye on them ;-)

There seem to be fewer this year than there were last but apparently they are about from May to October, so perhaps I am in for a surprise in the months to come ;-) The photo below, I am assuming of there eggs, leads me to believe that there will be a few more about later on!

The Rosemary bush survived their onslaught last year so fingers crossed it comes through relatively unscathed again this year. Their metallic green and red stripes are pretty impressive so they are definitely an interesting addition to the garden. If a few consumed Rosemary leaves are the only cost for their presence then it is a small price to pay to be able to watch them thrive in the garden. Well fingers crossed they don't thrive too much ;-)

a few further details:

• Scientific name: Chrysolina americana
• Size: Approx 8mm long
• Distribution: Found in parts of Scotland, Wales and England (especially in the southern counties)
• Months seen: May to October
• Habitat: Gardens, allotments and parks - including my garden!
• Food: Rosemary, thyme and other herbs

Despite their name they are a native of Southern Europe. I guess along with all other Southern European species, they are starting to thrive in the UK as the weather warms up a little ;-)

That's all for now.

cheers

m

Not An Early Morning Kind Of Flower

Does anyone know the name of this flower? It is really one of my favourites in my garden due to its intense orange colour and character. It burns brightly in amongst the garden green and is a real scene stealer. For the life of me I don't know what it is called. I should look harder in the weed section as I think this is probably what it is!

It really does grow like a weed and given half a chance will take over the entire garden bed if you let it. This year I cleared out half of one bed just to give some of the other plants a chance.

One of its brilliant features though is that it opens slowly through the day and really seems to have a life all of its own. The above photo is an early morning snap before it has decided that waking up might be an idea. Below is a mid morning snap, showing it slowly waking up to the warm sun.

Finally by about 11 it has decided that it is finally time that it should be up and about!

As I mentioned above though it really does seem to have a character all of its own. The photo below is a classic example of this. This I took last year just after moving in. Tell me it's not smiling for the camera! ;-) Love it!

Anyway, gotta dash, the little one sounds as if he is stirring!

Have fun!

Cheers

m

ADDITION

Or better yet if you turn the above photo upside down you get a frowning face. A rather distorted and dishevelled frowning face but this might be precisely why they are frowning!

An Ant Update On The Peonies

In my Peony blog entry I mentioned the ants that seem to infest the budding flowers. I was not aware of whether they were there for a feed, or indeed if they were actually involved in the pollination of the peony flowers.

I have since done a little research and according to the Heartland Peony Society, ants and peonies are a completely natural combination. Looking at their FAQ they state:

Question:
I was visiting a friend today who has many varieties. The buds were covered with ants. She commented that she needed to spray them with an insecticide. I thought I had read that ants were beneficial to the peonies. Is that correct and if so, just how do they help?

Answer:
Do not try to get rid of the ants on your peonies. This is a natural and temporary activity. It is believed that peonies produce small amounts of nectar and other ant attractants to encourage ants to help in opening the dense double flower buds found in many peonies. The ants may be found covering certain varieties and avoiding others, this is totally normal.

Once the buds have opened the ants will disappear - also normal.

Some people think ants are REQUIRED to open the flowers, but this does not to appear to be true.

It seems a debatable question whether ants are beneficial or harmful. I think they are neutral.

Should you spray a pesticide to get rid of the ants? That is a definite no. Since the ants are not harmful and some pesticide residues are harmful, why endanger yourself, the plants or the peony's pollinator (good insects) with poisonous sprays?

Just don't spray.

Instead just enjoy the unique interaction of ants and peonies; an evolutionary effect thousands of years in the making and posing no problems in the long run.

Not that I had actually considered spraying. The mere sight of an ant doesn't have me running for the chemicals! As I said originally, better on the peonies than in the house! Since the peonies have blossomed the ants haven't moved inside either.

An interesting animal/plant interaction, sort of, explained by the Heartland Peony Society.

There we go.

Have fun

Cheers

m

Help A Peony. They Clearly Need Your Support!

I am considering starting a charity for Peonies, as they clearly need our support! The above picture was taken yesterday, May 17th, and this is the first of our peonies to bloom. There are many more in waiting, so will post an update later if I get the chance. This one is hovering just a few inches off the ground though due to being unable to support itself!

Last year after moving in I was really blown away by these little beauties (well quite large actually as each bloom is about the size of a cricket ball or baseball for those North American inclined ;-) ). I watched the buds gradually grown in size until they were so heavy that the plant stems were almost bent over double. The flower bulbs, then flowers themselves are simply too heavy for the Peony stems to support them! By the time the flowers bloomed they were literally dragging in the grass! Such a shame after such an effort to bloom half of them end up in the dirt!

This year I thought I would be prepared and I supported them as they grew. As it turns out I haven't supported them nearly enough, so I have just been out in the rain staking up more support for them. They look a little lopsided, again, but at least this year they are not dragging themselves in the dirt! I need to get out and possibly prop up the supports again as it decided to tip down as I went out this evening to sort it out. A load of rain for the first time in two weeks. Much needed but not the best timing. Ah well that can wait for the weekend. For now they are looking rather majestic in a very lean-to kind of way.

Having watched them grow last year I thought this year it might be nice to document their annual growth spurt. The first time I noticed new growth was in mid March. The following photos is from March 2oth and shows the Peony shoots on their merry way. These are growing up through the cut off stems from last year.

Two weeks later, 3rd of April, they had passed through the ever so inadequate supports I had set up for them. At this stage the supports were fine. Not for long though ;-).

3 weeks later, April 26th, and the bulbs had started to form. They really explode with growth and the ants in the garden absolutely love them! I guess their is some form of nectar that they are going gaga over. The ants have not really disappeared until they have actually bloomed. Is it possible that ants are pollinating the flowers instead of bees? Probably not. They are probably just there for a free feed! Better on the Peonies than in the house I guess!

By May 10th its pretty clear that my inadequate support mechanism is clearly inadequate. It's about this time I should have started accepting charitable donations ;-)

Then before the final push into bloom the bulbs are pretty much in a bursting state. This photo taken yesterday, May 17th.

The first Peony Bloom is the leading picture in this blog entry. This came out probably on the 15th of May. So from humble beginnings in mid march, the peonies have literally exploded into bloom in about two months. As with all garden flowers their existence is all too fleeting. I imagine within about another two weeks the blooms will be tired and haggard, but while they are full of life they are a welcome site! If I am feeling a little macabre in a few weeks I might track their decline so you can have the full Peony life cycle picture. Let's see if I have the time! Quite possibly not!

Anyways there you have it. I am a great fan of the peonies. Their sheer size and intensity are a welcome addition to our garden. Give them a try if you like the look of them. Make sure you give them adequate support though, as I have not done for the past two years!

Have fun

Cheers

m

The RHS Award Of Garden Merit - Chilean Potato Tree

The end of April has seen our Chilean Potato Tree (or Solanum Crispin 'Glasnevin') come back into flower. This is a stunning plant, which maintains its green all year round, and in April and May has hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny purple and yellow blooms on it. It really is a simple way to get a real splash of vibrant colour in our garden. It's such a simple plant to maintain that it has been awarded the RHS Award Of Garden Merit. According to the RHS the AGM is intended to be of practical value to the home gardener. It is awarded therefore only to plants that meet the following criteria:

• It must be of outstanding excellence for ordinary garden decoration or use.
• It must be readily available
• It must be of good constitution
• It must not require highly specialist growing conditions or care and
• It must not be particularly susceptible to any pest or disease

Reading between the lines I believe that this description could be replaced by 'Even an Idiot should not be able to kill it'!

The Chilean Potato Tree that runs along our back fence has survived quite a deal since we moved in. It survived being ripped off the fence and crudely replaced by the folks who replaced the fence without giving us notice, followed by a lot of work, by us to replace it correctly:

It has come back stronger than ever despite several of the main plant stems being snapped in half.

It basically grows like a weed and grows excessively come Spring and Summer. I gave it its first well needed trim this past weekend, to ensure it doesn't sprawl over into the next door garden. I am sure I will be back clambering up the ladder and risking life and limb to trim it again in about a months time! Although an idiot might not be able to kill it, it certainly has the ability to kill an idiot who falls off a ladder trimming it! ;-)

And the trimmed plant, it doesn't take long to look chaotic again ;-)

A really nice plant though if you are prepared to spend the time trimming back in the warmer months!

Have fun.

Cheers

m

P.S. Another snap from last year,

Testing Blogging From The Android Blogger App

A quick test of Android's Blogger app to see how easy it is to post from mobile. It does seem very easy although there are fewer editoral options when compared to the web. Fair enough I guess ;-)

It does allow you to save though so you could save, get home and edit on a PC and then publish.

The Android app does allow for the addition of photos and location which I will test now ;-)

That's all for now. As I said only a test ;)

Cheers

M

Someone In Brentham Garden Estate Is Making Some Magnificent Hybrids

I might like my little experiments in the garden but these fail in comparison to some of the hybrid work that someone is performing in Brentham Garden Estate! The above seems to be a cross between about 8 different plants and a deck shoe wearing Cousin It from the Addams Family! A seriously wild hybrid. Here I am rabbiting on about three different types of hedge cuttings. Seriously I have a lot more to learn in the garden!

OK, so I am not sure if this actually is a hybrid, although I cannot confirm that it isn't, but it is indeed Jack-In-The-Green who is part of the annual Brentham May Day, that occurred on Saturday May 14th just past. It doesn't say in the description of the Brentham May Day that Jack-In-The-Green isn't a hybrid ;-).

Looking at the history of the Brentham May Day, there is also nothing there to suggest that Jack-In-The-Green is or isn't a hybrid of some description. What it does show is that Jack made a first appearance in 1919! Given his age, now 92, he is still a very spritely chap!

Below are a few more pictures from the Brentham May Day. First the head of the parade,

followed by the band,

followed by the procession,

and the return to the Brentham Club,

and the Brentham club itself,

Quite an interesting day! Especially given the hybrids on show! ;-)

Have fun,

Cheers

m

May Is The Month For Roses In Our Garden

The end of April and beginning of May has seen the roses in our garden bud and come into bloom. The above photo is of the potted old timer rose. Such a stunning flower! Only 10 days ago it was only just coming out. If you look closely below you can actually see the green aphids dining out on the new growth!

The climbing rose over the garage is also putting on a great show. 10 days ago it looked as below:

A few days later it has come right into bloom

and another few days later many more are in the picture!

Finally the rambling rose on the back fence is also making an appearance. From 10 days ago

to today, there are a few in bloom but many more on the way.

I don't think I cut back this rambling rose enough though last Autumn. Almost all of the flowers are growing right at the top of the fence with very few, if any actually blooming up the fence.

When it finishes this year I think it will be cut back a lot more than I managed last year! School boy error I guess. Not having really looked after roses before, you don't really have the confidence to hack the plant back to oblivion! I might go half way there, if half way to oblivion is an actual destination ;-), this year and see the results next! ;-)

have fun

Cheers

m

The Last Word On Hedge Cuttings

Yeah right! Unlikely! I do need to post results based on the best approach for cuttings at some later stage ;-). I have also taken a third lot of cuttings, seen above. These I took on Saturday just before I finally got to finish off trimming the second half of the hedges. At last the wind has died down and the rain held off so I was able to get out and complete the job! With these cuttings I am going to attempt to root in water and once they have rooted I will transfer into pots. This will give me three different methods to compare for best results for next time:

1. Bung the cuttings in a pot with standard garden compost and water regularly
2. A more conventional method of growing cuttings, using seeding compost, vermiculite and rooting gel and
3. Attempting to root the cuttings in water prior to following step 2 again.

Lets see which works best. Will keep you posted in the months ahead.

Have fun,

Cheers

m

Addition: So I published this on about the 12th of May. Then Blogger had its 20 plus hour outage on the 13th of MAy and it disappeared! Turns out it was put into draft mode and so was simply hidden. Oh well published again now.

I Don't Really See The Point Of Google Music.... For Now.

To be fair I have not played with it so this is possibly a little harsh ;-) Google Music was unleashed as a US invite only beta at Google IO yesterday. It allows up to upload up to 20,000 songs to the cloud and then you can play them across any of your devices. OK sounds reasonable but it means that you still have to buy all of the music you want to listen to and you only have access to what you own (No I am not suggesting illegally downloading is an option here ;-)). This is a fairly traditional way of interacting with your music. You buy it, play it and most of the time move on.

Compare this to Spotify. On Spotify there is no need to 'own' a piece of content. It's a streaming service that allows you the same sorts of interaction as you have in iTunes, i.e. creating playlists and building up a library of music you like. Then you can play it across any of your mobile devices through a dedicated native app. To have unlimited access to music, i.e. the number of times you are allowed to play a particular tune, you need a premium account, which currently runs at £10 a month, but that is relatively cheap if you are a traditional music consumer, i.e. purchasing content on iTunes or even the old tech buying of CD's.

Spotify also allows you to download tracks for offline use, if your device is not connected to the internet, in the same way that Google music will let you. I guess the question is, 'Is it necessary to actually own digital content?'. When there is a streaming service is as good as Spotify I would answer, 'No it's not'.

Google music, in my view, would have been great about 3 years ago. In an era of streaming services though, to me at least, it just doesn't make sense. I guess though the next obvious step for Google Music is to offer a streaming music service as well. Since they also announced movie rental services at Google IO as well, I guess music cannot be too far behind! Are there any Google folks knocking on Spotify office doors yet? ;-) Guess now Skype has gone to microsoft there should be a few deal makers free :-))

Oh and as @throg points out, Spotify isn't perfect! There is still loads of stuff, including AC/DC, that is not available on Spotify. That being said Spotify do allow you to ingest the music you own into their service as well. For me this is a stop gap until they do have rights to stream more ;-)

Anyway for now, especially as I don't have an invite to the US only Google Music Beta, I don't think I will be uploading all of my accumulated digital content to the cloud. I guess most of it is already there anyway as I can stream it from Spotify ;-)

Have fun

Cheers

m

P.S. Ha! I guess with the announcement of Google Chromebook this does fit in nicely ;-). Everything in the cloud, playable on every device including your Chromebook. Still I don't see the need to own digital content when it is far simpler to stream it.

A Quick Virgin Media Tivo Review

I have had Virgin Media's Tivo for a couple of weeks now. I am not going to bore you with a massively long review of it as there are plenty of those elsewhere, but I do really like the system. The user interface is intuitive, I love the search functionality (Hey I found re-runs of Babylon 5 on FX - it must be good!), and even the recommendations are OK. Sometimes it's a little slow loading menus however never frustratingly so and the Youtube integration is cool as well. So a few good points and a few points where it might be improved. It can be improved with software updates over the wire after installation.

First the good!

• Searching for TV shows, Browsing through the guide and TV on demand, and Youtube integration as mentioned are intuitive and pretty cool. It's nice to be able to search for what you are looking for, as opposed to trawling through an endless EPG! Although text input is not exactly fun without a keyboard, but you get used to it and it's not as if you write novels on the remote control ;-). Also great that search is based on live TV as well as TV on demand.
• I love being able to set up recordings via Virgin Media's website. If you forget something you can set it from your PC. It's not exactly user friendly on a mobile device, as its a flash heavy website but it does work on an HTC Desire S web browser via WiFi. I could not get it to set a recording via the iPhone. The EPG dumbs down on an iPhone due to lack of flash support in the browser but it wasn't this that prevented recording it was the fact that for some reason, while on an iPhone it could not determine if my Tivo at home was powered on or not. Recording via your mobile as mentioned is not exactly user friendly at this stage but @VirginMedia on twitter did confirm that they are working on Android and iPhone apps to support this. Look forward to seeing those. It sort of needed as Sky has this functionality available on iPhone ;-)
• Being able to define wish lists based on show, actor, director or genre is also very cool. Simply add the name of an actor and everything that he is in will be recorded to the hard drive. Nice. Again you don't have to trawl endlessly through the EPG to find something.
• Although it's trivial I really love the fast forward 30 seconds button on the remote control. When the add breaks come you quickly learn how many times you need to push the button to skip through the add break to get back to the show on the exact right spot in the recording. For Babylon 5 this is typically 8 clicks every add break for those of you that want to know ;-) . Such simple functionality but such a bonus! You never inadvertently miss the restart of your show after the ads ;-)

On the negative side I really think Virgin Media missed a trick with Social Network integration. The Twitter app is pretty useless if I am honest. You can only see the last 10 tweets in your tweet stream which is mostly irrelevant if you follow loads of people. What I would like is an integration with the EPG such that you can share program details with friends and also an integration with twitter hash tags for specific shows. This would require minimal real time configuration on Virgin Media's side to keep hash tags for popular shows up to date but if the app then allowed you to follow real time tweets with real time TV that would be huge! So much TV now is shared in real time on twitter that it is an obvious next step for Tivo I hope.

Another small gripe is that BBC iPlayer isn't integrated in the catch up services menus. Instead it has its own stand alone app in the apps section. Why? Sure once you know it's OK, but iPlayer is catch up TV at its best so why segregate it?

It's still very early days for the service though, so perhaps it'll be introduced down the track. Overall it's a great start and the platform itself is updatable over the internet so it's forseable that loads of improvements are hopefully on the way!

I am still hoping that Google TV actually does something in Europe. Is it ever going to be released here? Maybe some kind of announcement at Google IO this year? If it is it should drive competition and innovation further on Tivo as well so that would be nice ;-) How about developer API's such that Developers can create apps that run on Tivo as well?

Anyways gotta dash and I did promise this would not be too long ;-) Chores await!

Have fun!

Cheers

m

The Bees Are Getting High In The Poppies Again!

I posted in April about the early arrival of the poppies this year. Last year I seem to remember that the poppies came out later in May and then into June. This year I blogged about them on April 22nd. Much earlier. To be fair in has been a very warm and early Spring so it is to be expected.

One thing that I had not seen this year was the bees going absolutely berserk in the poppies. Last year the bumble bees were going seriously mental in the flowers, lying on their backs and buzzing like chainsaws on heat as they soaked up the pollen! They were seriously mental and completely oblivious to me!

This is until this weekend. On early Saturday morning and early Sunday morning we finally had some overdue rain. Saturday we had 2.5 mm and Sunday 5 mm. On both mornings, as can be seen above the bees had returned to the poppies. I am wondering if the rain provided a catalyst to release some of the pollen in the poppies, or at least magnify their scent? Not sure, but the onset of the rain certainly had the neighbourhood bees congregating round my place this weekend! The heady days are back for the bees! Time to party!

Another picture of this years poppies below

As mentioned before I am a huge fan of the poppy, and clearly the bees are as well! Pictures from last year of the bees getting a dose of poppy pollen!

Have fun,

Cheers

m

P.S. It has just be highlighted to me that noting I am a huge fan of the poppy, might not be the best thing to say. It is just the flower and how the bees interact with them that is of interest to me. Any other poppy use is outside the scope of my fan-ship! ;-)

Brentham Foxes Have A Flip Flop Fetish!

OK so the picture is not quite of a flip flop, it's more of a sandal, but as a headline 'Brentham Foxes Have A Sandal Fetish' rolls off the tongue like a brick! So please work with me people! ;-) The 'Flip Flop' above, read sandal, is the last remaining one we have due to, we assume, scavenger Brentham foxes!

In September last year we went prawning off the beach just east of Yarmouth, on the Isle Of Wight. It was really a treat for my Grandfather as it was his birthday and below is an image of the catch we were able to get him. Not too shabby. Trouble is prawning involves wading through thick sticky mud, that stinks to high heaven, which is basically impossible to remove from feet and shoes that come in contact with it. Consequently we wore our sandals, which we thought would be easy to clean afterwards. Turns out this is simply not the case and the sandals still stink, or still stunk I guess as most of them are no longer with us, 8 months later!

It turns out the stench of these sandals seems to be somewhat loved by the Brentham foxes! Gradually over the course of the last month our sandals have been disappearing one by one! Although I have not actually seen them being taken by foxes I am hoping that this is the only explanation? I guess there could be some other creature with a foot fetish, but I have not installed Infra-red cameras to find out. The fox explanation seems most plausible and for comforts sake it is the one I will stick to!

After finding out that my pair of sandals had disappeared, for some reason, possibly excessive tiredness impacting my logic circuits, I didn't think it an obvious thing to move Mon's sandals inside to prevent them from going the way of the dodo as well. To be fair they still stank so inside wasn't an option, but this should have at least triggered a thought that the foxes might be interested in these as well. It didn't, so one of them was missing early last week. Then this morning I wake up to see the final one in the middle of the back garden as pictured below! Perhaps the fox was interrupted while trying to get this one? Who knows!

Oh well, I didn't actually like my pair of sandals so no great loss for me. I am not particularly sure that they would fit the feet of a fox, but each to their own I guess. Mon however did like hers which is a real shame as now she has to hop around for the rest of the Summer ;-)

Have fun

Cheers

m

P.S. If you see a Brentham fox about wearing three sandals, could you at least ask them to leave a note next time they borrow something? That would be great. Thanks!