Zoo Music Girl

We ate him.



Very tasty he was too.

( Pumpkin, bacon and sage risotto )

I forgot to post the latest photos!

These were taken on Sunday:



And I took this one just now. It was too bright to take photos but I'm impatient. I don't know if you can see it clearly, but that tape measure is open to 6 inches. I think the pumpkin is about 5 inches across now.



I think the growth rate is slowing down a bit now, but even if it doesn't get much bigger than it is now, I can carve that, it's about the same size as the turnips I used to carve for lanterns as a child.

My other pumpkin plant is a bit sorry for itself. It's taken much more of a drubbing from the slugs and while it produced a female flower the other day there were no male flowers at the same time, and then it got eaten anyway. There are two female flowers about to open in the next few days though, so maybe there's still time. I think the weather would have to improve a fair bit first for it to do much though.

Also, does anyone want some ox-eye daisies? They'll grow in tubs or beds and they don't require any looking after, just a sunny spot. They don't even need good soil, in fact they might even be better in poor soil.



Also up for grabs is my callistemon/bottle brush plant, which just doesn't go with the rest of my garden. It's a healthy plant and again it doesn't require any special attention, just sun and water. It needs more water than it might appear, it's Australian but it's not a desert plant. It's in a pot but you could plant it out.



I am prepared to meet people somewhere to give them the daisies but the callistemon must be collected.

Any real music fan will know what I mean when I talk about gigs that are so intense that you feel for a long time afterwards like there are two types of people in the world - the ones who've just shared this incredible experience with you, and everyone else. Last night was like that. I could write screeds (and I probably will) but I could never adequately express what it was like. We're well into music as religious experience and writing about it as catharsis/exorcism territory.

( long, rambling, slightly incoherent )

For my own reference:
Craig's write up.
Krys's write up.
If you're on their friends list you'd be better off reading their reviews as they're better informed and just generally better than mine.

Yesterday my mum and I went in search of the garden centres that my workmate had told me about. The first one we came across was Northfields Nurseries and it was so amazing that we didn't bother looking for any others. The area dedicated to outdoor pots alone took up the same area as my local B&Q. There were rows of glasshouses, lots of outdoor plants and a small warehouse full of tools, seeds and lighter pots that would blow away outside without earth in them. I came away a hundred quid poorer but I bought some beautiful plants and containers - one large metal square one and two chunky square ceramics, one green and one black. I got a sambuca nigra Black Lace, a Japanese maple/red acer, a jasmine polyanthum, a lavender, a rosemary, a tarragon, a convolvulus, a white/green euonymus, a tray of huge pansies and some small bright flowered plants that I was going to make a window box from but might end up in the back yet.

Yesterday we tore out the old lavender which wasn't flowering much any more, and my mum had already got rid of the two potted conifers for me during the week. Today Simon came over and helped us move the original yellow/green euonymus to the back corner, we moved the lilac tree to behind the gazebo and did lots of potting and repotting. It looks *gorgeous*. I just need to get rid of the gazebo and buy a nice garden bench instead and my garden will be more or less the way I want it.

( photies )

Last night I went to the Water Rats for the first time in February, to see godlike genius Michael Gira doing one of his acoustic sets that have reduced me to jelly twice. Fortunately I've been to the Water Rats before so I had low expectations.

(  Now some of us are weak, and some endure )

Apologies to Craig for the cut text quote (from "Blind"). Couldn't resist. ;)

La Muerte.

A long time ago someone taped three of their records (Scorpio Rising, Every Soul by Sin Oppressed and Kustom Kar Kompetition) for me and I've been keeping an eye open for them ever since without any success. (I actually thought they were Spanish, turns out they're Belgian.) Getting hold of the actual vinyl/cds will still be a GEMM job, but I'm delighted to have found their myspace page and website, and it looks like a DVD is in the pipeline.

They're a bit like the Birthday Party, but even bluesier.

Courtesy of naturalbornkaos, from my birthday card.

( cut for sweary words )

(I don't normally believe in using asterisks in words but I know that word is a particularly controversial one so I'll not put it on your friends list without a cut tag. I have not used asterisks under the cut.)

ARTIST: SHELLAC
VENUE: KOKO
DATES: THURSDAY 17TH MAY 2007
TICKET PRICE : £15.00
VENUE ADDRESS: 1a CAMDEN HIGH STREET NW1
VENUE TELEPHONE:0870 432 5527
DOORS OPEN : 7pm
SUPPORT ACTS: LORDS
ARTIST WEBSITE: http://www.tgrec.com/bands/band.php?id=22
TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM:
www.seetickets.com, www.gigantic.com, www.ticketweb.co.uk,
www.wegotickets.com & www.stargreen.com

http://www.atpfestival.com/events/atp-london-concerts/line_up.php?view=826

We Got Tickets seemed to be cheapest. There are none left directly from Koko.

I finished the Guardian crossword on Monday. However I couldn't finish it on Thursday. Does anyone have Friday's paper who could tell me the answers to 4 across and down please?

If anyone wants to do it the hard way, the clues are:

4 across: Tipple offered as Batman finally snared by the Riddler? (7)

4 down: In Bayeux, where threading hole is weaving (7)

( the letters I've got so far are )