Tom
@tomrees
Blogging the slow rehabilitation of the abandoned allotment we just took on. Also, random likes and rebleets of politics, science, climate, computing, and history. Trying to be pleasant.
Just been to see it on Monday. Ravenna is an amazing place if you ever get the chance to visit. Full of amazing late roman buildings and mosaics. Here's the emperor Justinian (with his general Belisarius on his right)
Compare with the mausoleum of Theoderic, 526 AD. It (probably) used to have a colonnade on the upper level.
Incredible 6th century mosaics in Ravenna. Astonishing that they are still here, undamaged after all this time. A small glimpse of what Rome and Byzantium must have been back in the day.
Crikey. Americans are very sensitive. Can't let the children see Renaissance art! Let's see about this one.
After years in endless meetings at work talking about it, my other half has only gone and done it. She's picked the low hanging fruit.
I like that. Here's my local weather for the past few months, on a scale from -10 to +35 deg C as 0 to 100.
One effect is that global warming becomes invisible, because a warming of 1 degree is not really visible on a 0 to 100 scale. You have to zoom in to see anything. So, not terribly useful in that context.
A miracle on the courgette front. They kept rotting, but a bit of research suggested calcium deficiency, perhaps made worse by planting them where the brambles had been rotting down over winter. I ground up and spread a chalk pebble from the beach, and a week later they are looking magnificent
My first potatoes. Thought there was going to be nothing down there, given how sickly the plants look. Then these beauties appeared. #allotment
Something is hitting my first earlies. AI reckons it's magnesium deficiency and/or blight. #allotment
The weather has finally broken here, so I took the chance to plant out a few lettuces I had lying around. Yes, they are mixed in randomly with some tomatoes and a lone French bean, thanks for asking. Behind I've sown carrots in the middle of more French beans. #allotment
Cleared the brambles and junk from the top corner of the #allotment, carried another 160l of water, harvested some peas. Time for a beer before watering the garden! Also...
Nearly six and it's still 30 degrees in my #allotment - and the sun is still quite fierce too.
Tomatoes are in! The only #allotment task I could be bothered to do today, but they were starting to suffer in their little pots.
Quite the tussle going on on my broad beans. Ants, big black aphids, and four ladybirds on this one plant alone. Plus the odd bumblebee! #allotmentlife