Pig Sty Avenue

Surely the coldest day of the year so far. There's the mixed feeling that we're in the depth of winter, but yet that it's drawing to a close, and Spring's only weeks away. Thoughts are turning more and more to the allotment, and what's to be planted. I can't really say "it's good to be back at work". I mean, I like my job but work's work. It is good to have shaken off the last of that 'flu or chest infection or whatever it was. Above, is a photo I took this morning at the Benwell campus. Looks like those workmen are painting the frost onto the tree, though actually they were mending a streetlamp. And here's another photo I took today, which I really like.

After Her First Porridge , originally uploaded by Pigs Ahoy, aka Pig Sty Avenue . This has been a big day for us: Molly took her first solid food - porridge. She loved it. After the first spoonful, I was amazed to hear her wee stomach rumbling, as if to say, "at last! I'm sick of milk." Her mouth worked every spoonful. And in between each one she gave me a big grin: "this is more like it!" She enjoyed it so much, she wanted to eat her bib, too, look. Or maybe she's just for wiping her own wee chops? It's important for lots of reasons but, because she still refuses to take a bottle, geting her onto solids menas that we can begin to think about all going out together. The next part of the conundrum is to work out how she can get a drink. Oh yes, and now I've to get to grips with the food processor, so that she can have some of our meals, pureed. It was bought months ago for this very purpose, and has sat neglected on top of the fridge ...

the three of us , originally uploaded by Pigs Ahoy, aka Pig Sty Avenue .

All this about Simon Hughes being gay came as a shock to me. Not that he's gay. I thought everybody knew. I've distrusted him for twenty odd years, since the Bermondsey by-election , when the right wing, Thatcher-supporting press crucified Peter Tatchell because he was gay, and the openly gay (I thought) Hughes kept quiet. Apparently not, we now learn that he's been in the closet all his life because he didn't want his Mam to find out . Hmm. I was listening to talk about this on the Today programme whilst I was in the bath yesterday and got to wondering: how did I know Simon Hughes, MP was gay, when apparently even his own mother didn't? And then it came back to me, as things do sometimes in the bath. It was 1983. I was a law student at Newcastle Poly (now Northumbria University). I was having an end of term pint (several pints probably) in The Concert Bar, just across from the law school with a gang of mates when we were joined by a couple of our lectur...

foghorn and the lassies , originally uploaded by Pigs Ahoy, aka Pig Sty Avenue . The hens are going from the allotment. The fox - a vixen we are presuming, with a late litter to feed, - is becoming incredibly bold, taking hens in broad daylight. The Old Man's been spending whole days there, armed with an air rifle and a vengeful attitude. But it's all too stressful, so tomorrow they go to a new home. And we're to concentrate on vegetables and herbs this coming year. Dad's downcast, I can tell.

A wee trip for the forty-something (+) UK reader. And whilst I'm being foolish, here's Magical Trevor . Yes, I know I've linked to him before, but he always cheers me up.

My HP laptop went kaput back in November. It went back to the shop, who had to send it back to the manufacturer, and I got it back a fortnight later, with a new hard disk and CD/DVD RW drive. It was practically a new laptop, as the woman in the shop observed. (She's called Heather, and was in my class at school... But that's another story.) Hmm. I don't know what exactly was wrong to make the drives go awol like that - but I suspect it had gotten clogged up with the omnipresent dust of Libya. Anyway, whilst my faithful friend was away, I had to start using Herself's laptop, a Toshiba. I didn't like it. The keyboard and mouse seemed to have minds of their own, selecting text unasked. And the monitor wasn't too good either. But by the time mine came back from the shop, I'd done a load of work for my MA on it, and it would have taken too much time to transfer it all over to mine, as well as setting mine up - we all know how long a brand new computer t...