An Afternoon in the Garden

I had the afternoon off today and
managed to spend the latter part of it in the garden for the first time this year. This is my third summer in the house (Mrs H was here for about three years before we met). The first summer was something of a dead loss gardening wise, but last year I hit the ground running. Bill paid for a new fence which meant that we could dig out the borders and beds, and we planted out a number of perennials. At the end of the summer I ruthlessly hacked back overgrown bushes; too late in the year to plant anything in the newly cleared space.

Last autumn I planted fifty tulip bulbs without telling Mrs H, which are now in full bloom. The garden is full of promise and the window boxes are reattached to the walls. Sadly we are planning to move house and we will not reap the benefits of all our hard work. At least we can take the tubs, windowboxes and hanging baskets with us. I hope to be able to have a greenhouse at the new address, but Mrs H's tulips will have to be left behind.

Picture from last year's garden

iPhone OS 4.0

All very exciting. Apple have unveiled OS 4.0. New features will include multitasking, improved email, folders for apps and a variety of other changes. I'll be downloading the video from the Apple website at the earliest opportunity.

The Salisbury Way

In 2004 I started a blog called The Salisbury Pages, which I maintained briefly before realizing that writing an essay every day wasn't a good way to relax, besides, I turned out to be a lot less clever, or funny, than I'd thought. More recently it has occured to me that it would be useful to have somewhere to pop my occasional rants; if only to stop me posting them on facebook and alienating my friends. Unfortunately I can't remember my login details for The Salisbury Pages, so I've had to start a new one.

I've used the Salisbury name again because I've a soft spot for Lord Salisbury, Prime Minister twice in the late nineteenth century. To summarize him (badly) he believed it was the duty of government to do as little as possible, because whatever governments tried to do they invariably got wrong, making things worse.

It's a philosophy I've embraced enthusiastically, much to the annoyance of my wife and work colleages. However I can't help feeling that the country would be a better place if twenty first century prime ministers had embraced the philosophy as keenly.

Lord Salisbury, exhausted after doing as little as possible at work all day.