I'm from Bury...

Damn, I love this song. And the video, well, it's... beautiful. The Fall deserve it.

Goooaaaaalllll!!!!

AVANT AGAIN

ADELAIDE, 1986...

GIDDY UP.

pretty happy with this one:

a fine vintage...

AVANT GARDENERS

King Chief Birdman

1974,

YO.

THE SEEMING & THE MEANING

A DAY OFF...

...and i needed it.
so much to catch up on, and as the day draws to a close, there's still plenty on the to-do list.
oh well.
nothing better than relaxing in the late arvo with a coffee and some music, courtesy of our friend Grover:

FOR THE LOVE OF FONT...

I love this site. Boy, oh boy, this site rules for a font nerd like me. Showcasing some of the best design in the world using a brilliant layout, Typeneu is on my daily visit list.

HOW GREEN IS YOUR GARDEN?

with the rather unusual weather we've been having, the garden's getting a real head start on summer... sure we're gonna cop in heatwave style in january-march, but right now, the garden is totally loving the cooler days and shock horror - the rain.
here's a selection of what's happening right now at the homestead:

the honeysuckle is FINALLY flowering

the coral barked maple

my three (hopefully cacti-styled) dahlias are making headway amongst the zinnias

we're gonna have a lotta lemons! the smell of lemon flowers washes through the back yard - awesome!

the gardenia is finally flowering, but is struggling somewhat. i don't think i've got the knack with these things yet...

gladioli - a vibrant red one. looks great amongst the yellow field daisies and lavender

the lebanese cucumbers are ripening up - by christmas day we'll have five or six to eat!

the clematis! finally! it's here!



a lil' punk cosmos with it's stripe...

WHAT COMES AROUND...

lots of things on the boil at the moment.
birthday - tick! lots of fun.
thanks to all who wished me good things. i like you. all. a lot.
awesome-ly relaxed weekend. awnings up. shelves up. gardening. watching "no country for old men" on friday night.
still, it goes toooooo quick, i'd like another three or four days before going back to work. sheeeeeit hey. oh wellbs.

lots of pohdos now:

new spring onions - we have about 500 coming up!

my birthday morning. opening presents from sam - yay!

painting the wall: adrienne and the k lady work their magic


carrots - lots of them. all from our garden.

WELCOME BACK KOTTER...

Hasn't it been a long time?
Life has been carrying on as usual, work, play and lots of rest...
since we last spoke - well, it's been fun: japan, melbs, down south and plenty inbetween...
i'd wished to have kept this blog going right thru all then, but, knowing me, that was never going to happen...
anyway, let's try again with this ruddy blog. maybe even regular like.
Anyway, back to The Wire (mos def).

IT'S BEEN TOO LONG...

2007 - it be ending...

It's been a good, but damned busy year...
japan was the obvious highlight, but there's been plenty of aktion to keep us entertained...
my top five list would be:
1. Japan - such an amazing place, very excited to be going back again next year, at around the same time (may). I can't wait... In some ways it feels like home away from home...
2. The garden - coming together in one short year - it's really done well for us - already planning next year's assault on the front yard, whilst still kicking it hard in the back yard - see photos above! after four or so years without a real garden to speak of, it's been brilliant to spend most of my waking, non-working hours getting the garden up to scratch and enjoying every moment of it... i think next year I'll calm down a bit, and start to focus on some of my other passions... but i'll still be getting up at 6 in the morning and enjoying le petit jardin for all it's worth...
3. Trams - yes - the butt of many jokes against me, but fuck it - i love 'em... finally, after nearly 50 years Adelaide has new trams and a new (albeit small) extension... What a controversy it created for what amounts to a brilliant improvement in service and rather a small (1.2km) extension of the line... here's to many many more km's to come!
4. A Labor government! after 11 years of being shat on from above, we're rid of lil johnny scumbag and his merry misanthropic misers... Lord knows it won't be a seachange with Labor, but anything was better than another term with the coalition... already though, Rudd has ratified the Kyoto protocol, made steps towards saying "sorry" to the aboriginal people and pressured japan into cutting their whale slaughter... not bad after one month, n'est pas?
5. My lady friend, Adrienne... through our ups and downs, we emerge stronger and more loving than ever... but it's been a fantastic ride and i can't wait for next year's surprises and well, all sorts of fun! i love you girl!!!

work is still getting better - some of the things we're doing now make me actually proud and even passionate for my job. working with a awesome bunch of dudes and getting shit done, i never thought that'd happen - bring on 08 y'all!

merry xmas and rock the new year yo!
xxxx

2007 - it be ending...

DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES...

Well, somewhat.

Plenty of rather cool events have meant the future looks brighter than it has been for some time... Mostly Work - it's a whole new world there now - I'm actually pleased to be there, 5 days a week. Strange.

Been riding to and from work on the bicycle - sometimes with Scoot from Work. It adds up to just under 40kms a day, not too bad for an old, unfit codger like me. I'm determined to ride every day the heat isn't baking us into the ground.

And hopefully I'll never run into, again, the brown snake I nearly rode over last Thursday. It was a scary little ordeal that involved me narrowly avoiding being bitten by a venomous snake as it leapt up at me while I rode within mm's of it. Long fucker, too.
It stretched across most of the path, and moved like a freight train through the hills as it buggered off into the scrub. Scrub, this was under Hackney Road Bridge for goodness sakes!
Bloody snakes in the city! What shit creek are we all paddling up to have snakes in the city?

It got me thinking that it's high time that I really knuckle into the backyard - it's a bit of a mess. We've finally ordered though, today, the mulch to cover over our sorry attempt for lawn... plus some pavers to make some nice new pathways thru the mulch.
Hopefully it will tie everything in together and make a year's effort pay off. Thinking of putting together two new beds, probably for more veg/fruit...
We've got 12 or so tomatoes (there's volunteers popping up all the time), 2 eggplants, a lone capsicum, 8 cayenne peppers, 100 or so spring onions, 50 or so brown onions, tonnes of silverbeet (still!) and barrow loads of herbs and lettuce. We're self sufficent in onions and greens, we'll see how it goes with the tomatoes... Hoping to make tomato sauce this year.

Did some freelance work recently that I've very much enjoyed... Got me thinking I should be spending WAY more time sketching and reading than I do.

Anyway, a shot to end off with...

My pride and joy. Let the sauce making begin!