Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Oh.

What's occurin'?

So a belated Happy New Year to my blog followers and anyone that happens to pop by here. I hope everyone had a good Christmas/festive season.

I had a nice Christmas. It already seems so long ago! You may have seen my post on wild mushroom picking. If not, here it is. For the main Polish Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve, we make little dumplings ('Uszka' which literally translates as ears) filled with the wild mushrooms and served in homemade beetroot soup. It's yummy.


I always feel there should be more photos of soup on garden blogs.


 Just after Christmas I went to see Avatar at the iMax in Waterloo. It was in 3D. It was the most amazing (a word I feel can never be over-used) film and cinematic experience I think I've had. It was all rather exhilerating.

Of course I shall have to link this post to plants in some way. I'm a big fan of computer-graphic jungles, and there were many an intriguing alien plant in Avatar. If you haven't seen it, you must go. There are some underlying messages about having a deep respect for nature and the appreciation and conservation it deserves from us. As gardeners we know this already, being sons and daughters of the soil.

Unfortunately I think I caught the flu at the cinema. Not just any flu either. It was the Swine Flu. I started feeling peaky around New Year (and was fast asleep when Big Ben sounded at midnight). My condition deteriorated a couple of days into January, and I was knocked for six.

Fortunately the gardeners on Twitter kept me amused when I was feeling really rough and ratty. Thank you. You know who you are..

I'm feeling great now, though it took a while to recover fully. What with the snow and all, it was a while before I could get back to work. Before you say anything, it is rather difficult to tidy gardens when the snow is heavy on the ground.

Moving on. I think regular readers might have noticed that this post has been somewhat wordy, and devoid, thus far, of a photo of some botanic subject. This is due to a blip with my Macbook. All fixed now, but my photos are all on CDs, and I'm planning to round off my Africa blog series in a simple link to a photo-sharing website. Just waiting for a chance to upload them all, I'm sure it's quite a slow process. Watch this space. It'll be good.

Okay, I've had a quick look and found some poor-quality iPhone photos of some beautiful effects the cold weather had on some rather normal plants.


Ivycicles


Winter chard 

6 comments:

D said...

Rob, so sorry you have been ill, but thankfully you weathered the storm. ;) It is good to have you back posting. Those iphone photos are pretty nice.

Victoria Summerley said...

Happy new year, Rob! Haven't seen Avatar yet (my daughter had bad flu too, the day we were supposed to go, so I stayed at home with her) but I'm looking forward to it.

Ms B said...

Hi Rob. I wondered where you were. Glad you are feeling better.

I went to see Avatar last week, tho' not in an IMAX, & thought it was quite amazing.

I think soup pictures on blogs would be an excellent innovation in blogworld. Actually, I would prefer the real thing!

Rob said...

Di - thank you very much. My resolution for the New Year is to blog more, here's hoping!

Victoria - the film is pure escapism, I'm sure you will like it.

Ms B - thanks, it's good to be back! Virtual soup doesn't taste as good as the real thing. We have to be careful here, I don't want to end up starting a Soup blog...

Mark D said...

Agreed - more soup on blogs!

Flights to Lagos said...

Hi Rob! i must try your favorite mushroom dish. My family had a plan to see Avatar after reading your post. Now I become more anxious to see the movie as soon as possible. Earlier I have been postponing it for a couple of week.