This is a bizarrely-written article

Posted on August 3, 2026 by james

Coverage of a car crash on Merseyside.
The odd thing for me though is that the piece reads as if the car was in control. There’s no mention of a driver losing control or anything like that. “The car” left the road and “the car” crashed into a lamppost. Well, yes, but I assume there was a human being behind the wheel who had something to do with the whole thing?

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How many?!

Posted on August 2, 2026 by james

I noticed this plant whilst watering in the polytunnel this evening. From memory I think (I’m fairly sure) it’s a chocolate sweet pepper. I counted nine large fruit on it. I think this one might be one to save some seed from 😀

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Time to lower the strings…

Posted on August 2, 2026 by james

On my tomatoes, that is. Quite a few of them have reached or are close to reaching the top of the polytunnel now. In previous years I’ve dropped the strings by about half a metre allowing the bottom of the stem to rest on the ground. At the moment however, that would leave many unripe fruit sitting on the compost and likely to become the target of a slug attack.

Whilst I was watering this evening I had a different idea. Close to the bottom of some of the plants where I have removed the leaves and side-shoots, further side-shoots are emerging as in the photo. I’m thinking that it might be interesting to pinch out the top of the plant and then allow one of those sideshoots to become a new leader to see what happens. I shall try it on a few plants and probably continue with the rest as I have always done.

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An improvement (from my point of view)

Posted on August 2, 2026 by james

Another day, another forgotten reading in the evening, but I can at least cope with 140. It’s not enjoyable, but it doesn’t leave me completely wasted. Just mostly 😀

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Break out your recipes!

Posted on August 2, 2026 by james

The courglut is about to start 😀 Any day now we’ll be knee deep in courgettes.

I’m also running out of coleslaw to have with lunch so cut another cabbage in (say it) anticipation. I think this one is going to make an awful lot of coleslaw 😀

My biggest white cabbage ever, though I suspect there are bigger to come.

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It’s all going a bit Pete Tong

Posted on August 2, 2026 by james

Getting close to the limit in the morning, a hideous drop in the afternoon which I did mostly spend lying on the sofa, either awake, daydreaming or asleep, and then I forgot in the evening.

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A confusing letter from the NHS

Posted on August 2, 2026 by james

Not the National Honey Show 🙂 The National Health Service.

At our last meeting my GP said that I should go for an ECG and an ultrasound scan of my kidneys. I thought he was going to organise the former and he gave me a sheet of details that I needed to sort out the latter for myself. Then I received a message saying that I needed to call the surgery to organise an ECG and today received a letter from the NHS saying that my urinary tract scan has been booked for late August.

I’m not sure if a urinary tract scan and a kidney scan are the same thing. I shall have to call on Monday to make sure there hasn’t been a cock-up (if you’ll excuse the pun 😀

The ECG is no big deal but for the fact that they’ll want to shave some of my chest and leave me looking like a panda with alopecia. I’ve done an echocardiogram before — an ultrasound of the heart, basically, but not one for the kidneys, so that will be interesting.

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That’s about what I can cope with

Posted on August 2, 2026 by james

The first (morning) reading, that is. The plummet to 136 (which seems to be a popular afternoon reading) is just too much. Then I forgot to do the evening one.

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A good start

Posted on August 2, 2026 by james

Then it all went downhill from there 🙁 I felt so awful in the afternoon. Second reading is before lunch again, third is after.

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A first “proper” tomato harvest

Posted on August 2, 2026 by james

All from the Garnet vines (they often do stay a little green at the top). Lovely to have with lunch, especially in the warm weather. May there be many more.

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