Cut down

Just had a mooch around Bury Waitrose - and I'm crestfallen.

Ok, so I was looking at the baby stuff and my eye fell over the bottom butter area...nothing weird though.

There's now a sign up.

'Due to high customer demand and high media focus, bottom butter is temporarily unavailable.'

No mention of this blog.

Cut down in my prime...

Should I tell the manager? Am I being precious? Why am I talking to myself?

Here we grow, here we grow, here we grow

I am a gardener.
It's official.
Bean Jnr is now Bean Senior:

Sunny the Sunflower has also come out to take a look around the kitchen:

Err...what do I do with them now?

World shortage?

Been a little worse for wear the past couple of days.

Normally, the above does for me.

However, seems there is something of a world (or at least BSE) shortage.

Sainsburys: 'Sorry, sir, we have them on order. They are repackaging.'

Moreton Hall pharmacy: 'Sorry, sir, would Vics Sinex do?'

Tesco Express, Lawson Place: 'Sorry sir, we don't stock that'.

Be warned, oh snotty people of Bury...

Shock horror

...and it would seem the doors at Waitrose have this evening been broken.
Shoppers are being told to use the side doors - either they are expecting a rush for Bottom Butter or the stampede has broken the electronic mechanism.
The power of the blog.

The bottom line

Bottom butter. There, I've said it.
It was a shock to me - the nearest butter gets to my derriere is on my toast.
The Daily Mail story (link below - other news sources are available) says that the £2.49 Waitrose own brand pots are flying off the shelves.
I did a bit of detective work at the Bury branch - that very nice man Clive gave me a cheery smile as I went in - and it's right.
'Temporarily unavailable' said the little sticker where the BB should be.
Women, apparently, are lapping it up - and slopping it on their faces. It's cheaper than many (all?) the other creams around and leaves faces feeling like a baby's, er, bum.
Whatever next?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=560636&in_page_id=1770

Aerial up

Mr Nice Aerials Man (got his name from the Moreton Hall Directory) was a star.
Would happily recommend him to anyone.
Being a more sedate sort of person, the sight of him hiking up to my roof holding another ladder in his free hand will haunt me for ages.
What a wimp I am.

Broadly speaking

Back to the broad bean saga.
I overwatered the pot - hence the weird shape you can see at the base. It's giving way. Drastic measures needed.


Then came a new pot and Bean Junior (BJ) started to flourish.



Yesterday saw a growth spurt - it felt like something out of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Summer's on its way

The (gardening) gloves are off...
Mini Bean and I got down to business yesterday.

The sunflower race is on...

It was like Gunfight at the OK Corrale; we picked our seeds, filled the pots with soil and set them.

We're hoping for this:

Presently, we have this:

Ain't nature grand!

Joy or heartache?

Pic courtesy BBC

Is it a joy or a blessing?
I see the Bury Bummer has a story about one of my childhood heroes today - Pauline Quirke.
She's in town tomorrow to launch a new youth drama academy.
I loved her in Birds of a Feather and it got me thinking about these TV types.
Trevor Eve (Shoestring) took years to move out of that shadow until Waking the Dead came along. Jean Alexander will forever be Hilda Ogden (depite her sojourn in Last of the Summer Wine) and the list goes on (suggestions welcome).
Pauline Quirke will forever be stuck in time as a TV show from my youth -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/birdsofafeather/

Hope you enjoy your look around our nice town.
The BFP article is here:
http://www.buryfreepress.co.uk/news/Pauline-brings-fun-to-drama.3992316.jp

Read all about it

Flicking through my random thoughts, you might have come to this blog from another blogger's musings...that's how I do it.

Then I got to wondering what we did before blogs?

I guess we talked to one another more, sent letters or knocked on someone's door for a coffee.

Funny world.

The links down the side are the ones I read the most - I love the way DogWalker takes such a close-up picture.

http://www.burydogwalker.blogspot.com/

He must have some camera.

Ruby, for me, kicked much of us into shape. I still refer back to see what she is up to - nice picture of Howarth this week.

http://livinginburystedmunds.blogspot.com/

21st Century Mummy has become a media star - now that's something for Bury to be rightly proud of. I like her writing style. She's muscling in on my coffee theme so I'll have to start talking about children and Moreton Hall to counter...on the other hand, I'll stick to espresso and beans and just up my game.

http://21stcenturymummy.blogspot.com/

And I have to say I do like reading Paul Farmer's blog - he updates regularly and gives a real insight into the life and times of a busy councillor. I admire anyone with musical talent - mine starts and ends in the shower each morning with renditions (varying) of Sinatra's New York, New York (available on iTunes as download, 79p - other MP3 providers are available but Apple has seen off most of them from the marketplace, or bought them).

No Molestar also keeps me thinking about various issues - be they council or football-related.

http://www.blogstoday.co.uk/bloghome.aspx?username=No%20Molestar

Most use Blogger - wonder what the next big techie thing will be?

Classic stuff

Did you catch it on TV last night?

I only caught the last half hour - but it was enough...

Here's the front cover of the one I read all those years ago, too.

Had a snoop around the arc last evening.
Mr very brave Craneman was hard at it - how does he stick that height?
I get a nosebleed walking up Abbeygate Street...
It's a pity they can't leave the Debenhams like it is now. There's something of the Pompidou Centre, in paris, about it at the moment, which all that cladding is going to hide.

I'm a dad: Welcome Bean Jnr

Congratulations all round in the Bean household.

A new little Bean emerged at the weekend.

I'm sure Bean Jnr (BJ) will grow and grow over the next few days.

(Hopefully there will be no more instances of near-misses with the latest arrival from the Hartwell Blind Company which tried to swipe BJ this morning. Jealousy is such a nasty thing)

That's him just poking his head out at bottom right...

All the answers

It's Moreton Hall - the A14 is just in the background.

Fascinating.

More than 200 new homes are planned for that area of Bury - taking the total up there to well over the 1,000 mark - and a new road is going to be built first.

Here's the map from the Free Press and you can read their story at http://www.buryfreepress.co.uk/

I'm a great one for leaving things as they are. Why change? I can, however, see the reason why towns need to attract people and investment and that's certainly happened in spades up on MH.

(Oops, sorry - pictures and map courtesy of the Bury Free Press)

The way we were

Very interesting article in the Bury Bummer today.

Any idea where this is?

21st Century Mummy should know (BIG clue).

Green fingers

It's great to have a garden.

I have bought a new pot of parsley to transplant.

Parsley

And a new pot of Dill (two for a fiver at Bury Homebase).

Dill

My youngest has set a broad bean seed, which I am trying to nurture.

Broad bean (hidden from view)

I have not had such great luck with a Christmas rose, donated by my mum.

Poorly plant

All suggestions gratefully received before she next descends...

Coffee art

Sammy Lin - artist

Back to my original posts - which were all about coffee.

Sammy Lin is from New York and is a latte artist par excellence.

Judge for yourselves.

I wonder what they cost - and whether they could produce one in Nero?

Mind you, I wouldn't want to drink one...they're too nice to look at.

Read all about Sammy and Coffee Art here:

http://www.vancouvercoffee.ca/archives/2006/11/sammy-lin-coffee-art.html

Old age

Smarty pants

There was drama and there were tears (mine) - and it all came down to just one point.

Unfortunately, I was on the wrong end of it and smarty pants, above, creamed me at Bury Bowl on Sunday.

Look, I'm getting on a bit but this is the point, I guess, when the youngsters start to pity me.

They already make fun of my lack of real bulky hair and the styling of what little I have.

They are already starting to make fun of my sporting ability - or rather the lack of it.

Now, ten-pin bowling...what next?

Anyone got a number for sheltered accommodation?

Useful links from this story:

http://www.stannahstairlifts.co.uk/

Wildlife wonders

Borat

Azamat

I love birds. I love watching them- they are both graceful and yet alarmed.


That's probably because of the actions of the youngsters in my home, though.


They have named two of the robins which visit Borat and Azamat. Borat won't fly away when they scare him, Azamat will.

My youngest decided to get in on the blogging lark, taking some pictures of their comedy-named wildlife.

Annoying technical wizard

And he put me to shame.

At least it got him away from Brian Lara Cricket 2007, Fifa Street 2008 and Fifa 2008 for a few minutes...

WMD (Weapons Meaningless to Dad)

Not bad, son.

Why is that kids can pick up a piece of equipment and they just know how it works?

I have struggled, battled long and hard to work out my new camera.

They come along. Ping-ping-ping, eureka.

Grrrrr....

Hungry starling

Wet morning in Bury

Why all the fuss?

Ooh, la la

No, not a revelation that I'm really a renowned French chef...sorry regular reader(s).

Bumped into Jean Christophe Novelli at the Ideal Home Show at the weekend and what a nice chappie.

Typically, apparently, he turned up late - over half an hour. He bemoaned the state of West London's traffic.

I felt like shouting out loud about Bury St Edmunds' traffic and parking but felt it would fall on deaf ears.

When you think about it, a few months of pain on the Cattle Market, King's Road shut for 12 weeks, above-inflation hikes in parking fees at St Edmundsbury's car parks and today, Parkway multi-storey closed to early morning drivers...

Living in Bury St Edmunds (sorry, Ruby) sounds just peachy!