Pig Sty Avenue

IMG_05611 , originally uploaded by Menage a Moi . That's us at a Flickrmeet in Shields, yesterday. (I'm the bald one in the middle). This was taken by my mate, Simon, aka Menage a Moi . We had a great day. It's the first Flickrmeet Molly and Herself have attended. Lots more photos at the North East Flickrmeets Pool .

blowing a raspberry , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Ave . This is Molly's latest stunt: blowing raspberries. She's really quite good at it . She laughs when you do it back, too.

POST , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Ave . Warm spring sunshine on a Victorian pillar box in Newcastle yesterday. I love the idea that these things have stood there impervious for more than 100 years, and the world around them has changed such a lot.

...Little Gwion's gotten this idea from Shhexycorin .

hidden danger II , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Ave . Waking up this morning, I thought - do I really want to continue with a real-life blog? Why not just go off into fantasy? (This is the Internet, after all...) And besides, there are some crazy people about - do I really want to share so much reality, of our lives, with the unknown? On the other hand, maybe it's a gesture of trust extended the world, that you share yourself like this? Maybe I'm just bored with it...

Molly Foot Loose , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Ave . It's not totally original , I pinched some of the idea from here . There'll be a lower tooth any day now. Not much time for photography lately. Getting to grips with phonetics and phonology is taking up a fair bit of time. And it's shoulders to the wheel at the allotment: despite all the preparation over the winter, the spring seems to have arrived in a rush. I planted 175 redskinned onions the other day, and there are literally thousands of seedlings now getting uppity and wanting pricked out. Dieting has left me feeling a bit weak. I was disgusted to find, on buying bathrooms scales that I'm 15st! I'm aiming to get to 12 over the next few months.

Molly's New Chair , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Ave . She's eating more and more solids now, and started in her wee chair. Though in this photo she does look a bit small and lost in it. And thoughtful. The teething comes and goes. She's stopped sleeping through the night now, and normally wakes up and want attention at 1 and 6am. Small babies just cry: it's lke a switch - upset=cry. But Molly's moved on past that now, and does a kind of shouting thing, like a cry but not quite. The beginning of conscious communication, perhaps.

overeater , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Ave . We went to Shields yesterday, my birthday. It was crap. Markets aren't good places to have a pushchair. I had a mostly grumpy birthday. Forty six! Huh!

the bee hive , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Ave . A few months ago, there was a story on the local television news about a Newcastle man who'd been thrown onto the Metro line at North Shields or somewhere in an "unprovoked attack". Ah right. He'd managed to scramble back up onto the platform, unhurt(ish). I thought I recognised him. That's not suprising. Tyneside's a big conurbation, but you get to know everyone who matters - eventually. Anyhow, I realised later I remembered that lad's face from a lively afternoon spent here, in The Bee Hive. Journalism as it's manifested in our society often depends on playing up the worst in society. The truth is, attacks are almost never unprovoked. The shitty PhotoShopping on this photo, at my hand, would be sufficient provocation for moderate abuse, though.

What you do is, enter three sets of subtitles of your choice to a clip from Indian TV - it's a hoot!

Herself and I were looking at those five year old photos . I was really quite shocked at how slim I looked then, and said, "But I was too thin then, wasn't I?" The silence which greeted this remark was very eloquent. Hmm. I must have put on three or even four stone (that's forty or fifty pounds!) since I stopped smoking. That can't be healthy. So I went out this morning and bought 20 Marlboros... Only joking. I'm going to lose weight. We don't have bathroom scales but we'll get some this week. I used to be 10st 7lb. I doubt I'll get back down to that, but losing a couple of stone will do me no harm at all. To get me started: no butter, pastry or chocolate. No eating between meals. Roughly 1500 calories per day. Lots of fruit, vegetables and exercise. Sit back and be amazed as Pig Sty is transformed before your eyes!

co-op building , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Ave . Today was one of those days when I went out and took a load of photos at lunchtime, and don't much like any of them. This one's not bad, I suppose. Mind you, my head was cabbaged. It's the Easter hols at college. So no students, and I had to fill my time attending a number of "induction" seminars; (should've done them months ago, but I've been avoiding them). PowerPoint is the curse of all those in white collar jobs.

balancing , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Ave . If you can be bothered, click on the photo and follow the links. You'll learn more about balancing and irony than is good for a person.

Molly - trying on her swimsuit, thinking of the summer , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Ave .

I planted out the rest of the herbs from my old allotment, in a small bed across the path from the pond. I'd planted a dozen or so one and two year old fennel plants a few days ago. Today they were joined by a dozen or so sage , in their second (or third?) year, lavender (ditto). There's also an inexplicably different looking lavender, presumably a cultivar of some sort, but God only knows where it came from. There are three thyme , and a very runty, sad wee rosemary . (I've got seeds to sow this year for these last two). There are three feverfew - but they look decidedly unhappy, not to say dead: we'll see if they are resurrected now that they're in good soil. Last of all, like old friends, six rumex scutatus , ("buckler leaved" sorrel, but aka french sorrel). When I got my old allotment three years ago these were the first plants I grew succesfully from seed, so I'm rather fond of them; they're quite big clumps now. I also potted of...

the gutters run red , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Ave . What's going on here, then? Bloodbath on the streets of Newcastle? Actually, there's ironic intent because I was reflecting on how I could go about clutching a camera without serious risk of robbery, and violence tends to be limited to daft lads taking drunken lunges at one another after a lot of boozing. (Outside the home that is. I don't know what the state of play is on domestic violence, but suspect things are much better than they were a generation ago). So. We're at peace and relatively safe. When you see some of the shit that goes down in some parts of the world, we can at least be grateful for that. Click on the photo, and then on "all sizes" to see a bigger version. The texture of the street and the liquid are really good close up: the Nikon D50 is coming into its own at last.

skinny pig sty with cat and large cigarette , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Ave . Tidying up the other day, I found a roll of exposed film. It was developed today and it turns out to be photos we took on a toy camera when we were living in France in 2000. I'm stunned at how much weight I've put on since I stopped smoking. That was a cat who was kind of staying with us at the time, in the way cats do. Herself named her Tigra. And that's a very peculiar cigarette... Click on the photo for a chance to see it bigger, if you're a French policeman or something.

...with Dickhead Cheney. It's a right laugh.

I've just had a brilliant idea for the first podcast. Can't say what it is, it'll be a surprise.

That's my mate Stewy, who nowadays mends really expensive hospital equipment when it goes on the blink. But years ago, he had a modelling contract with Lada cars. I think it all ended badly, for him and for Lada.

lady in grainger market , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Ave . Whilst I was waiting to have a mobile phone "zapped".

Today I sowed bittersweet . I also planted some one and two year old fennel , from my old allotment - 18 of them. The s alad burnet planted a couple of weeks ago is sprouting like barmy.