cool picture

took this photo while on a break with mrs p in norfolk last month. no real reason to post it other than i thought it looked cool. enjoy!

did you know...(#7)

... shift happens!

this is a really cool video about how things are shifting rather fast!

you say tomato, i say tomato

some tomatoes from our allotment.
juicy!!

wicket keeper with 10 broken fingers

in 45 years time i hope my hands don't end up looking like this guy's!

david morrison has kept wicket for his local village team, barton cc in north yorkshire, for almost half a century and has managed to break all his fingers and both thumbs.

in his younger days (when he wore only thin chamois gloves for protection) he was reluctant to seek medical attention for fear of losing his place so it was on with the frozen peas for a few minutes then back out on the field.

now, at the age of 62, he's still in the wars. last weekend he picked up both a darlington and district league championship medal and a black eye when a 16-year old leg spinner caught him unawares.

they certainly don't make'm like that anymore!

the good...the bad...and the ugly!

the good.......................the bad.........................and the ugly!

yes, you've guessed it. we've neglected our allotment a bit lately. it's been a bit of a busy summer and unfortunately the allotment has not been top of our list. but now its time for "operation trowel"!

this saturday we plan to give the plot a real good going over to get it fully cleared again and ready for next year. we'll be digging over the natural fertiliser that has been growing on the left side of the plot (they aren't weeds, honest) and finishing digging the final bed at the back of the plot.

we're also going to trim the paths and lay some old bricks around the beds that don't already have edging, just to tidy things up really.

so hopefully by the end of the weekend i'll have some better pictures to show you.

did you know... (#6)

...due to high metal prices in 2006, 2p coins minted before 1992 were actually worth 3p each!

whatever happened to 'olympic spirit?

this story from bbc news made me laugh but also a bit angry.

i totally understand the need to protect the 2012 brand so it isn't used for major counterfeiting or the like - but banning sausages? come on!

elmswell cricket club on the up (again!)

summer is coming to an end (if it ever started!) and with it the cricket season.
my team, elmswell cc, have managed to get promoted for the second season in a row. we finished second in the suffolk cricket league div 4, behind the very impressive team from hadleigh (although we did beat them at their place).

all being well, next season i should be playing from the start of the season so, weather permitting, i should get a few more games than this year. its going to be tough in division 3 as the standard will be a lot higher but i think we can rise to the challenge.

i've got a new toy!

its a mandolin!

its on loan from mrs plowy's family and my task is to have a tune playable by christmas.

so far i've given it a good polish and re-strung it. its been a challenge to keep in tune but once it settles down i hope to get a least a few notes out of it.

i'll keep you updated on how it all goes.

remembering rhys

one of the most moving things i've seen in a very long time is the sight of the family of the late rhys jones standing on the hallowed turf of anfield, wearing the blue of everton as the theme from z-cars, the song everton run out to every week, was played for all to hear.

i was not ashamed to say it made me weep with sadness but also with a sense of pride. pride in the fact that football can still be something that brings people together and gives them a way to pay tribute to someone like rhys.

today my brother told me that rhys's father stephen had written a poem about his son and his untimely death and having read it i felt i had to post it here for others to read;

A poem written by Rhys’s father, Stephen

Now God wanted a football match
And to play it up in heaven
But first he needed players
And select his first eleven

Georgie Best, big Brian Labone
The legend Dixie Dean
Alan Ball and Bobby Moore
All made it in the team

He needed one more player
Someone who would be quick
From up above he looked down
And saw Rhys there in his kit

So Rhys was taken up above
God took him by the hand
To play the game he loved so much
Where sponsorship is banned

There is no cheating either as
God is the referee
There are no mega wages
And the transfers they are free

The games are live on telly
You don't have to subscribe
The players all stay on their feet
Cos no one takes a dive

So Rhys plays now so happily
To the angels in the crowd
And every time he hits the net
They roar his name so loud

Have fun my little blue boy
You’re safe and in God’s care
‘Till it’s time for me to get my boots
And join with you up there

may rhys rest in peace, may his family and friends remember him with love and may the person who brought this tragedy upon them meet with swift justice.

did you know...(#5)

...the fear of long words is called hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.

when does a courgette become a marrow?

just before we got hitched and went away on honeymoon, i popped down to our slightly neglected allotment to check it over before abandoning it for a few weeks. imagine my surprise when i clapped eyes on one of our courgette plants.

now i'm not up to date on the current EU directive on courgette size and when it should be termed a marrow, but this has to be the biggest one i've ever seen (approx 12cm end to end).

unfortunately we were unable to sample it as we hadn't time, so our neighbour was the grateful recipient of it along with a couple of lettuces.

hopefully we'll have something to tuck into soon!

we've only gone and done it!!!

as you can see we are now officailly mr & mrs plowy. we had a wonderful day, the sun shone and the new mrs plowy looked stunning.

i'd just like to thank everyone who helped make our day so happy and a day both of us will never forget.

cour(gette) blimy!

as we don't have photographic evidence you're going to have to take our word for this, but we ate our first courgette from the allotment today.

we covered them in egg and flour and fried them quickly in oil, and even if i do say so myself they were delicious.

we promise to take a picture of the next one as proof.

yum yum!!

well done boss!!

well done boss!

my clever little bro has only gone and got a degree! he's now got a ba(hons) in interactive media! sounds posh don't it?

well done mate - now the real work starts - figuring out what you wanna do with your life!

brilliant prank, with a very clever message

this stunt was reported by reuters and published in the 7th july 2007 issue of new scientist.
It was pulled by a group of political activists called the yes men who describe their work as "exposing, perhaps deviously, the nastiness of powerful evildoers" by taking part in "identity correction".

basically, two guys from the yes men posed as representatives from ExxonMobil and the U.S. National Petroleum Council, at the Gas and Oil Exposition – aka GO-EXPO 2007 – in Calgary.

they had a keynote speech on the programme and promptly proceeded to reveal a new fuel called "vivoleum" which was "to be used in the event of a global climate calamity and made by transforming the billions of people who die into oil.”

sounds a little sick i know but it could be a valuable option in the event of a nuclear holocaust or similar catastrophe - well here comes the clever bit of their prank.

one of the the yes men, “Shepard Wolff” (aka Andy Bichlbaum) began to explain the process of turning living beings into fuel using 3-d animations and powerpoint slides. he stated “we need something like whales, but infinitely more abundant.”

now here's the very clever bit:

“vivoleum works in perfect synergy with the continued expansion of fossil fuel production,” noted the supposed Exxon rep “Florian Osenberg” (aka Mike Bonanno, another member of the yes men). “with more fossil fuels comes a greater chance of disaster, but that means more feedstock for vivoleum. fuel will continue to flow for those of us left.”

i just love the smell of irony in the morning, smells like victory!

ps. read about the rest of the prank at reuters, including how they gave delegates at the conference a candle made from the "by-products" of the production of vivoleum.

2nd out of 1!

this story made us chuckle...

Woman runner-up in one-horse race

A grandmother won second prize in a cake-baking contest at a fete, only to discover she was the only entrant.

Jenny Brown, 62, entered her Victoria Sponge into the competition and was initially pleased to have come second.

But she was left shocked when a friend revealed to her that she was the only person to take part.

Ms Brown said: "My friend came over to me at the fete and said I had come second.

"I asked her how many more entries there had been, but she just started laughing and said I was the only one.

"I definitely wasn't annoyed about it."

Although the cake was not deemed fit to win the competition, Ms Brown said it was soon polished off with no complaints.

Julie Dent, from the Wimblington Sports Committee, said: "The judges had an expectation and I suppose they didn't feel as though it qualified for first place.

"This was the first year but the cake competition will become an annual event."

She said her own baking was subject to another strange decision.

"About 11 years ago I entered a show with some fruit scones. I was the only entrant but I came third."

better luck next year Jenny!

did you know...(#4)

seb coe is partialy colour blind?

might have something to do with the 2012 logo then!

darks skys ahead

what with all things about weather and precipitation being in the news at the moment, i thought i post this dramatic picture of the sky over central suffolk this week.

camper!

me and mrs plowy (soon to be) have decided to start planning what will be the trip of a lifetime.

we both really fancied going to new zealand but didn't really see the point in going for just a couple of weeks as there's just too much to take in.

so, after seeing them telly, we've decided to hire a really cool campervan and drive from one end of the country to the other. now when i say "campervan" i don't mean any old thing i mean one of these babies!

each van is individually painted with a different design and there are loads to choose from. they are fairly roomy (for a van!) and have a surprising range of facilities.

Its hopefully gonna be the trip of a lifetime, with the freedom to go almost anywhere we want and the pace we want.

It want happen for a couple of years as we'll have to save quite a bit but its something to aim for. watch this space!

ps. the title of this post is an in joke for anyone who has played a childs boardgame called 'jump the queue'. you know who you are! (camper, limpo, scooooooooter!)

money+football=ripped off supporters

so not only do we have to pay £30+ a time to watch 22 rich men play in a sponsored stadium, wearing sponsored shirts, whilst 'enjoying' over-priced sponsored food & drink, reading the 'advert' that passes for a match day programme, we now have to pay for the privilege of knowing who our team is playing.

the information below was taken from freethefixtures.com and it makes very interesting reading.

"On Thursday 14th June the fixtures for the 2007/08 football season were published. However most fan run websites will not be displaying them....

Football DataCo Ltd is a British company that grants licenses to third parties allowing them to reproduce certain intellectual property such as fixture lists and statistics.

Football DataCo is wholly owned by FA Premier League and The Football League. Fans have 3 options.....

1) Become the clubs nominated fanzine and get a licence for the fixtures for £1+VAT and a delivery charge to your site £104+ VAT, delivery via email! A total of £123

2) Get authorisation from the club to use their fixtures in isolation. This would be £266+VAT plus delivery charge A total of £435

3) Without authorisation from the club you must buy fixtures for all clubs - this is £4244+VAT for the licence and £5200+VAT for delivery A total of nearly £12,000.

The fees are charged to all 3rd parties including independently owned football fan sites and fanzines. Numerous fan sites have been closed as a result of legal action initiated by Football DataCo Ltd.

We the fans should be free to publish our teams fixtures on our sites.

Please sign the petition and we will present it to the people that are responsible for charging the fans to publish THEIR fixtures!"

i think you'll agree that this is getting silly and needs to be stopped before the soul is totally taken out of the dying body that is football.

sign the petition!

stop it now!

did you know...? (#3)

...that ipswich used to have an underground railway network?

i know its hard to believe (and i'm not sure i do yet) but apparently its true.

there's even a website about it. have a look and decide for yourself.

---UPDATE--- its an april fool from earlier in the year! i'll admit it had me going for a minute but the stuff about Stalinist sympathisers started some alarm bells ringing.

another little visitor

we've had another little visitor to our patch recently, but this time i was more than happy to welcome him (or her) onto our allotment. hopefully from the picture you'll be able to see that we've had a little mouse come and say "hello". i'm pretty sure that they haven't been the ones eating all our crops (bloody pigeons!) so i'll be more than happy to see it again.

it grows on you

after all the fuss about the new logo for the london 2012 games (now i'm gonna say the next bit quietly) it's actually beginning to grow on me a little bit.

what about the price? £400k? yes it is a lot of money, but compared to the rest of the 2012 budget, and compared to the huge amounts of money spent by private companies (and other public sector organisations) it is actually not that much.

you can't fault the boldness of seb and his team on choosing a very striking and provocative design, and it has certainly gained a reaction. but what would you prefer? a logo that no one can remember and disappears even before the games have begun (there's still 5 years to go don't forget), or something the gets a reaction and will last in people's memories for a long time to come (good or bad). i know which i'd choose.

ps. i think it looks better against a dark background like at the end of the launch video (don't worry, its safe now!).

we're spitting feathers now

just a quick update on the allotment invaders. well it turns out that the rabbits weren't to blame for our damaged cabbages. it was a squadron of fighter pigeons with a taste for half grown veggies. needless to say we have taken evasive and hopefully they will not be tucking into our produce again.

watch this space to see what happens!

rabbit pie anyone?

we've had a little visit from some of our neighbours, and they didn't come round asking for a bowl of sugar! we've been invaded by rabbits, and by the look of what they left, i think they'll be pretty fat by now. the top picture shows what remains of one of our cabbage plants, which should have nice large, green, lush leaves by now.

so we've decided to sure up our defences to try and prevent another attack (and if that fails i'm gonna get me some of those wmd's!). the bottom picture shows our new perimeter fence along our northern border. we are also planning to construct a second line of defence around each of the individual beds. we will never surrender!

i don't like cricket...

...i love it! (or so goes that old song).

well last sunday was my first game for elmswell and i did pretty well. we lost the toss and were put into bat first. i was a bit shocked to be asked by the captain to bat at number 3 but i didn't really mind. i managed to score a fairly solid 15 runs which i was quite pleased with that. we got a grand total of 121 for 9 off 40 overs which we thought might not be quite enough, even though the pitch was playing very slowly after all the rain we'd had.

as the opposition were preparing to come out to bat we had a bit of a warm up and a couple of the guys were hurling balls at me to catch (i'm a wicket keeper by the way, that's not some kind of sick initiation thing they do to new players!) which was quite helpful really as it was a while since i'd kept wicket.

i made some pretty good stops and only let a few stray ones past me so i was very happy. we manged to bowl them out for 70 so it was a fairly convincing win in the end and i thoroughly enjoyed it.

adding that to previous results now means that we're top of the league and have an unbeaten run stretching back to the start of last season. no pressure then!

this weekend we've got two games (friendly on saturday and league game on sunday) so i'll post some results here afterwards.

did you know... (#2)

...in chinese, the words for crisis and opportunity are the same?

get well soon sir bobby

ipswich town fc fanzine those were the days is running a page to send your best wishes to former ipswich & england manager sir bobby robson who has recently been diagnosed with cancer for the fifth time.

give it a look and leave your own message for one of the greatest figures in sport this country has ever produced!

get well soon sir bobby!

the fruits (& vegetables) of our labours

we went a bit mad today and got another bed dug and two beds planted out with mainly cabbage and broccoli.

things are looking good and hopefully very soon we're gonna have something to taste for our efforts.

we're now planning our next expansion, with a couple more beds to dig beyond the two we've done today. they'll probably be planted with some green fertiliser and then used next year (or later this year).

beyond that we plan to have a long thin strip of land for some climbing plants like runner beans or similar (we're open to suggestions).

did you know...?

at least once a day (usually much more) i will start a sentence with the words "did you know...?" this is then followed by the people present rolling their eyes in preparation of another one of my gems of wisdom.
well now i'm going to extend this onto the iplow blog, so beware!

so here i go. the first of many is;

did you know...that squirrels can peel bananas?

and there's plenty more where that came from!

dig for victory

well we've only gone and done it! me and sue have gone and got ourselves an allotment! here's a little 'before & after' shot of our little plot.

we're trying to be as organic as possible so we're fully prepared for some very funny shaped carrots (i'll be sure to get photographic evidence and post it here).

hopefully i can use this little blog to keep a record of how we get on and any successes and problems we have along the way.

those of you interested in allotments and growing your own veg should check out the organic catalogue (link in the "i like" section to the right). Its got loads of things to buy and its nearly all organic and very cheap.

post 1 of ???

welcome to the iplow blog and thanks for having a look at my page.

I'm shiny and new to this blogging lark so its probably gonna change a lot over the next few days and weeks but hopefully i'll settle on a style and focus all of my own.

keep checking back here regularly to find out what i'm up to.

cheers