Cheap Flights, Flights for 50p …
Reflection of plane on cloud with Brocken Spectre © Pintail Media
We loved this YouTube clip sent in by a reader … hits several nerves. Very, very funny.
Val Reynolds Editor
Reflection of plane on cloud with Brocken Spectre
The same effect is often seen in mountains
© Pintail Media
Spring Clean your Energy Bills + Giveaways
Declutter your bills this spring with the OWL Pink Micro – we have THREE to GIVEAWAY – see below
Think pink go green! … it says on the box – very true in this case! The unit is a somewhat lurid pink making it hard to miss! (husband’s description) – there is a reason!* – wife’s response.
This OWL Pink Micro eco gadget is a special limited edition version of the best selling OWL Micro electricity monitor. A small investment of £25.99 will raise funds to help 46,000 women a year fight breast cancer* and save you £135** on your yearly bills.
With the last of the ‘big six’ energy companies, EDF Energy, set to hike its energy prices this Spring, there is no better time to invest in an OWL Pink Micro.
The unit comes with an easy to follow instruction leaflet, batteries are supplied.
The display shows time, watts/ hour power, costs (after programming in the electricity cost charged by the supplier).
We had a lot of fun with this.
Be aware though that it is extremely unlikely the base line power usage will be zero (we have a base line of 120 watts); most homes have at least some power running somewhere eg central heating, fridges, alarm systems etc. Also it could be rather easy to get obsessed with switching off everything – we did to begin with! Just remember we all have to use some power in life; so a sense of proportion will help to keep the peace in the household! By the way it is unlikely the unit is sensitive enough to pick up low power units like individual light bulbs etc.
However, if the unit succeeds in reducing power bills then it could be said to have saved costs – and to a small extent – the planet!
We like!
Christopher Johns, contributing author
The Pink OWL Micro costs just £25.99, available to buy in all good high street retailers and at www.theowl.com
* For further information about Breakthrough or breast cancer visit www.breakthrough.org.uk or call the charity’s free telephone number on 08080 100 200
** Source: moneysavingexpert
WE HAVE THREE Pink OWL Micros TO GIVEAWAY!
Just send an email to the editorinbalance@me.com with Pink OWL Micro in the subject box and your full contact details in the text area. Last day for entering the draw is 15 May 2011. One entry per household.
To keep up to date with future giveaways click on the Subscribe button on the right.
All Over the Place!
Lady Boothby
Lady Boothby, a really beautiful climbing fuschia, is on offer in a price clearance from Thompson & Morgan
The plant, with two-toned flowers on red stems, is the world’s only climbing fuchsia, suitable for pergolas, trellises, arches, walls, fences and will give years of colour. It will climb up to ten feet and spread over three feet in sun or semi shade, flowering from June to September.
The Thompson & Morgan website gives brilliant instructions on how to grow and aftercare information.
Current prices while stocks last are 3 jumbo plugs for £7.99, 5 jumbo plugs £9.99, and 15 jumbo plugs at half price £14.99. At prices like these you could afford to buy several and give some away as gifts.
Delivery will be by end May 2011, so get your order in now and look forward to a plant that’s sure to attract lots of interest!
Marie Harnett, Artist, Rising Star
The Alan Cristea gallery in Cork Street has an exhibition of some eighty extraordinarily fine pencil drawings by Marie Harnett inspired by film stills, including depictions of Colin Firth, Julianne Moore and Keira Knightley. As part of her technique Marie uses high magnification head glasses to produce these drawings.
All these images are from the film ‘Black Swan’.
Dressing Room
Portrait, 2010
Swan, 2010
We’ll keep an eye on this young artist, we think she’ll go far. It might just be a good time to invest in a picture or two. They had nearly sold out on 8 April, so better get a move on if you would like one of them. The show is on until 21 April. Catch it if you can.
Val Reynolds, Editor
Sowing Tips from Experts
It’s always good coming across a commonsense, straightforward account of how to do something and here are some of the books I refer to frequently for help when getting seeds and equipment together:
Anna Pavord – Growing Food: Eminently readable, easy to digest, beautifully illustrated with line drawings, much in the style of Dorothy Hartley. Anna gives details on a raft of planting plans. One plan I was attracted to was the Potager’s Garden where she advocates some lovely combinations of flowers and vegetables. Much in the way I grow our vegetables and fruit in fact, but she gave me some ideas of companion planting I haven’t used before.
Raymond Poincelot wrote Organic No-Dig, No-weed Gardening which I read cover to cover when I came across it some years ago. It is full of great ideas, clear instructions, and gives a clear understanding of his concept.
Allotment Gardening: An Organic Guide for Beginners by Susan Berger is another book I have by my bedside and is regularly referred to.
Geoff Hamilton‘s Gardeners World … is a bible I refer to frequently. He was my kind of gardener, self reliant and imaginative when looking for solutions, without going too mad on devices, but using commonsense … He gives very useful and clear instructions on how to construct inexpensive cloches.
And then I love reading Carol Klein’s Growing your own Garden. Bliss! I can hear her voice with the enthusiasm oozing out on every page! I have met her and she is just the same in real life. A great lady!
Trawling the Net I came across Madeleine Giddens’ website where she has put a clear and concise guide to sowing herb seeds. She gives useful links to seed suppliers and books to follow up.
I hope you find these helpful – if nothing else it is a booklist for winter reading!
Val Reynolds Brown, Editor
Giveaway Winners – Book & Plug Plants
Anti-Cancer, the book we recommend highly to anyone scared of, frightened by, the thought of cancer. Written by a doctor who has survived ten years after his diagnosis of brain cancer, it is reassuring, inspiring and very readable.
The winners of this great book are:
S Pearmain, Middlesex
B Smith, Argyll
T Rylatt, Leeds
M Jarman, Surrey
K Barrett, Huddersfield
Kathleen Mallard – Lobelia Erinus – 10 plug plants Thompson & Morgan
An old fashioned double rosebud flower grown by the Victorians, ideal for hanging baskets, patio containers, window boxes and front bedding as it has a close knit habit and forms a perfect ball. Its height and spread is 15cm/6 inches.
The winners are:
J Vaughan, Worcs
J Rayner, Derby
F Scholz, Aberdeen
A Johnson, Angus
R Holtom, Birmingham
Congratulations everyone.
Val Reynolds Brown, Editor
It’s Mother’s Day – My Day of the Dead
What does that mean to you if you no longer have a mother, nor do you have any children. Nothing really but it does make me wonder whether we should have a Day of the Dead as they do in Mexico. The church does commemorate the dead on All Souls’ Day or Feast of all Souls on 2 November.
A specific date would give my siblings and I a chance to formally remember our mum together. Talk about her and share memories. And a day I could use to come to terms with the hole having no children leaves in my heart.
And think about those I have so carelessly lost. I say careless because yes people die and they may not have meant a lot to me then but they have become more important as the day they died moves further and further away.
I now really miss my dad. As time has passed I realise I didn’t ask him questions I really want to know now. I also realise we didn’t take the time to talk about how we felt about each other. He was a dear man who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, let his inner feelings show. I do wish he had. To some extent I resent it because it has left another hole in my heart that can never be healed. A continued ache that hurts more from time to time.
And then there are close friends who are so missed. Ones it is still difficult to believe have gone. Forever. Vibrant, fun people who gave us joy. And those who died unhappy, confused and sad. One friend lay down on a local railway track and it still haunts me whenever a train thunders through the station while I’m waiting to go to London, or worse in the other direction where she died. My toes curl at the thought. We did talk, lots of times, about her unhappiness. The last time we talked she was more optimistic than usual. I never thought she would take her life in such a terrible way.
There are people I really don’t miss at all. And that is a function of my relationship with them of course. Those people who I have never, ever been able to reach. Never been able to relax with, have fun with, my fault, their fault. Who knows. Why even use the word fault. That’s life which has to be got on with.
So Mother’s Day is a day for remembering. But on my own. It’s my Day of the Dead.
Elizabeth Bryant – contributing author
Ecstasy & Under Milk Wood
Jeannette Nelson Jeannette is a bit of a culture vulture who enjoys art exhibitions, cinema and classical music, but her main interest is the theatre. For several years she ran theatre discussion groups for which her MA in Modern Drama together with teaching skills stood her in good stead. She prefers to concentrate on the many off West End and fringe productions as well as that real treasure of the London theatre scene, the National.Rare Picasso Lithographs in London
Lithograph making fascinated Picasso and you can see a few of the prints, some of which were never intended for sale, at a London Gallery for the next few weeks.Paper 74.3 x 54.9 cm / Plate 63.0 x 47.0 cm to 64.5 x 48.6 cm
Third and final state
Unique impression on grey Arches wove paper aside from the edition of 50 and six proofs reserved for the artist and printer
Mourlot catalogue reference 307
Bloch catalogue reference 847La Femme au Fauteuil No. 1 (d’après le rouge) 2e état, 13 December 1948
The Woman in the Armchair No. 1 (from the red) 2nd State
Lithograph using sandpaper, needle, pen, crayon and brush on zinc on the red plate of Woman in the Armchair, Mourlot catalogue reference 133, on Arches wove paper
Paper 76.2 x 56.0 / Plate 69.8 x 54.5 cm
One of six proofs reserved for the artist and printer
Initialled by Fernand Mourlot, inscribed 2e état (2nd state) and numbered 6/6 verso
There was no edition of this state
Mourlot catalogue reference 134
Bloch catalogue reference 586
La Femme au Fauteuil No. 1 (d’après le rouge) 9 e état, Le Manteau Polonais, 30 December 1948
The Woman in the Armchair No. 1 (from the red) 9th State, The Polish Coat
Lithograph printed in black and blue-grey from the red plate of Woman in the Armchair, Mourlot catalogue reference 133, on Arches wove paper
Paper 76.0 x 56.2 cm / Plate 69.5 x 54.5 cm
One of six proofs reserved for the artist and printer
Initialled by Fernand Mourlot, inscribed avec un gris (with a grey) and numbered 6/6 verso
Aside from the edition of 50, which did not include the background colour
Blue-grey is one of two colour versions, the other being grey-green
Mourlot catalogue reference 134 (grey-green version illustrated)
Bloch catalogue reference 587
Forced Rhubarb – First fruit of the year
Forced rhubarb ready to cut
It’s so unbelievably easy to get juicy, sweet rhubarb so early in the year. And yet we do it, every year. We just place an old plastic dustbin over the new shoots when they appear in early spring and a few weeks later hey presto there’s rhubarb to pick.
We generally get too much at a time so it is cooked with a little sugar and stored in the freezer ready for later use. Great with yogurt, on cereal, with ice cream. We made some delicious wine one year, it was a beautiful pink colour. We do bottle some, best for us in the smaller jars, a whole kilo jar tends to languish in the fridge for far too long. Anyway as it has a high oxalic acid content it’s best not to eat rhubarb for extended periods. Once a week is probably wiser. We generally go for crumble or pies, with a generous amount of ground ginger to give it that little extra zing.
We have no idea which variety of rhubarb we have, we think it’s been in this garden since the 1930s. But good plants can be purchased from Thompson & Morgan, here is a link to their comprehensive rhubarb catalogue page.
Val Reynolds Brown, Editor
In Balance 