I have three books to review and there's a film on the way. I don't get paid but I do get to keep the books and the DVD. So this weekend is read and review weekend.
One of the reviews will appear here, although I see Dick Puddlecote has already beaten me to the punch with his own review. Best get caught up.
This will mean little blogging activity over the weekend (I've said that before then descended into rage anyway). I will overlook the Leftie rage at Cameron telling the truth for once, and Ed 'Sweaty' Balls talking, well, balls as usual. I'll have to pass on the day-to-day life of a country Cameron wants to give even more money to, and skip the speculation on whether it's because he admires that sort of thing and wishes it was happening here. As for this, oh dear, the red mist is forming...
No, I have to read and review these books before that film shows up and the to-do pile gets even bigger.
Never mind, there'll be plenty more lunacy in the papers when I'm finished. The world has an inexhaustible supply. If we could harness the power of stupid, we wouldn't need any other energy source ever again.
Forgot to add: I also have to find suitable transit packaging for a few of these little babies. My little garden won't accomodate them all. The stems are still easily breakable but I'm sure there must be a way.
My, haven't they grown?
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Well, between this and the anti-sugar story (next post) it looks as if the Foodists are putting in a last-minute bid to become the Coalition’s New Best Friend. They don’t stand a chance, of course. It’s far easier to use the anti-smoking template against alcohol than it is against any kind of food (“passive drinking?” just think of crime, car crashes, industrial and personal accidents, domestic violence, neglect and abuse of children and it’s easy to see where they’ll get their “innocent bystanders” from). And besides, bans on sugar, chocolate, puddings, fried food, fast food, butter and full-fat milk don’t close pubs, do they? Which, of course, was – and always has been – one of the “unspoken” aims of the smoking ban.
Well LI, you bast*rd! Your triffids are giants compared with mine. But I have 40!
Just in case Customs and Excise are watching, I have no doubt that they will all die, or be eaten by slugs and snails - no doubt whatsoever. I think that we should tell each other how badly our triffids are doing - the worse, the better - if you understand what I mean. "My triffids are dying like flies" means that my triffids are doing very well.
I wish to say as little as possible about the subject of legitimacy, but there are curious things about 'bringing to case' and 'smokable' and 'manufacture' which tend to deny the simple statement, "you must pay duty on homemade tobacco". In fact, I think that some person unknown has, without any legal justification, introduced this idea into the regulations. It reminds me of the introduction of the idea of smoking in cars in the highway code as 'a distraction'. It may well be that the regulations regarding 'tobacco duty' bear no such interpretation.
Oddly enough, it would be in the interest of 'big tobacco' not to contest this idea (growing your own legally and duty free), since the alternative is to antagonise people against 'big tobacco'. They have nothing to gain by making home growers pay duties - their advantage is simplicity of production, as compared to the complexities of home production - how much easier is it to buy a pack of fags than to make that pack of fags yourself?
So, yes, I will go ahead with my experiment with the triffids. I will not 'manufacture' anything at all, nor will anything that I do not manufacture be 'smokable'.
I think that I will say no more publicly. If I mention it, it will be surreptitiously - as an aside. I do not wish to be a Nick Hogan - why did not all publicans 'go on strike' in his support? ARSEHOLES!
If you want to be posh contact a top supplier like Morgans and see if they'll see you some packaging.
Now, I'm not sure if this will work for your production, but every year I send leaves of my latest Cape Primrose (no I can't eat, drink or smoke it unfortunately), to a friend in a plastic bag - a tough one. I blow it up then seal it really tight and stick it in a box. You must send it first class though.:)
She says they arrive in perfect condition every time.
Oh, I wrap the bottom of the leaves in soaked kitchen roll. Lots of it.
Don't use jiffy bags. Postmen seem to think they can all go through a letter box.
Junican... there are other trays out of shot ;)
The ones I've already put in the garden aren't growing so fast. A greenhouse or at least a cold frame is key, I think.
Time will tell. The ones in the garden are toughening up even if they are not so big yet.
Duty isn't relevant until they are smokeable. We could say 'Digger'to indicate a broken dam (wait, I'm getting confused). Even if all my plants grow perfectly, I have no idea whether I can produce anything smokeable from them. I might not admit to it if I did.
As for Big tobacco, they have been happy to see me shiver outside pubs, they have been delighted to watch me harangued on the street, they charge more and more and laugh at the shit I have had to endure daily. Fuck big tobacco. Let them play the Arnott game. I've cashed in my chips.
As for the drink industry, fuck them too. They are playing the same appeasement game as the big tobacco cretins.
Making my own booze is easier than growing my own baccy. I already know how.
Anon -passive obesity is already in the game. Passive sugar is just days away now.
Subrosa - I think these have to be boxed. They are too breakable for anything else.
The trick will be, can they be packed so that even the post office can't break them?
First class is essential, the rate these buggers grow means that any time in the dark is wasted time.
Those are some very healthy looking plants!
Good God Leg Iron, they're huge! Mine haven't even grown over the side of the pot yet and if I remember rightly, I planted them about the same time as you did.
Must be the greenhouse. I had to make do with cling film.
Thick white stems 7" to crown, lower leaves 12".
I started them in a heated propagator at the end of January, re-potted regularly, and they have been growing on the sunny windowsill next to my computer.
Planted out mid-May.
Very easy plant to grow, the only thing it really hates is frost.
Yes, I have done this before, because they make the most beautiful ornamental subject for the back of the border.
:)
So everyone can join in the fun, could I suggest growing Nicotiana Sylvestris next year?
It's a similar plant but grown for it's scent and has recently been banned in Australia.
Packeted seeds available at your local garden centre.
Rose
use toilet roll or in your case paper towel roll cardboard to protect the stems.the bases taken out of the pots and wrapped in a plactic bag,then taped to the base of the cardboard cylinders.Then again if you cut them down before posting you will get bushier plants later.
Toilet roll tubes! Genius!
It doesn't matter if the leaves stick out because I can secure the tubes. The worry was that if I tied a bag around the rootball, the stem would snap in transit.
Okay, all I need now is a dose of the squits and I'll have all the tubes I need. Curry time!
JuliaM - healthy plants indeed, although they might give the Dreadful Arnott an attack of the vapours.
The ones I put outside are fine but aren't growing as fast as the ones in the greenhouse. So there's one dug in to the greenhouse floor.
Maybe summer will arrive this year. It's managing to stay above freezing at the moment, but often, only just.
Bucko - they are getting big enough to shout 'Feed me' whenever I open the greenhouse. I smoke in there, it doesn't seem to have stunted their growth.
I still can't believe these things grew from seeds that look like dust.
Subrosa - the ethos here is 'as cheap as possible'. I keep the pastic trays food comes in and use them as seed trays, I'll recycle yoghourt pots and Pot Noodle pots as plant pots, if I buy pots I get them at the pound shop.
Never use unglazed ceramic pots. They lose water throught the sides. Cheap plastic pots don't look as nice but they're better for keeping plants alive.
That blue tray is the bottom half of a thrown-out hamster cage (the hamster had already left to stuff his cheeks with the sunflower seeds in the sky).
Nothing that can be re-used escapes me. I'm pure dead green, so I am.
This means that buying packaging is always a last resort. I'll go with the toilet roll idea, I think that can work.
Junican, perhaps we need a code word? The name of a dog, maybe?
'Fido Fido Fido, hooray'.
That's what the Plastics next door have called their dog. Yes, really.
Bah. Typos. My fingers are drunk again.
This plant is a tremendous organic pesticide. If you were to grind it up and spray on plants it will send aphids running for rope to hang themselves. Apparently you can also make tea out if it thus avoiding intake via the lungs..
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