A thought  and a prayer for Spanish Farmers. All we need is one scary story and a whole crop can go in the dustbin and thousands of people lose their livelihoods. One media cafuffle and it is all over for the cucumber. I am  seeing the tragedy in  this story.

But on a lighter note, Mr P. has been helping with a local garden, that is being turned into a ‘transitions’ allotment. He seems to be one of  the only people who really knows about growing things, but has made lots of new  friends who are really cool and are all mucking in BIG TIME.

But then we start getting the phone calls. There is a cucumber plant in the local area, and someone wants Mr. P. to have it. The word is out that Mr P. has a greenhouse and is to be trusted. (Don’t tell them about the house plants kids!) The phone calls go on for several days, and I become involved in the covert mission for the handing over of the cucumber plant. I have got to know the person with the plant quite well as we had about 8 phone calls, about rendezvous, and passwords (well almost). It finally arrived under cloak of dusk last night and was swapped for some nerine bulbs.

So when the backlash starts and you have no cucumber for your tsaztiki or  cucumber raita,  (almost the same thing apart from the strain involved in the Greek alternative) you will know where to come!

The greenhouse is a lovely story too. When I first met Mr P. all those years ago, I asked him what his dream was. He said he wanted a greenhouse -at the time he was a travelling fringe actor and not a landscape gardener at all. When I got my first proper job, I bought a greenhouse from B&Q (not in Wigan) for £85 ( in the sale) If only all dreams where that easy. ahhhh.

SONG OF THE DAY 

Green Onions – Booker T. and the MGs

Great track,  and unusual for the times, Booker T. & the M.G.’s was one of the first “racially integrated rock groups”, having two white members, at a time when soul music  and the Memphis music scene in particular, were generally considered the preserve of black culture.  Thank goodness those days are over…well they are in the world of contemporary music that is for sure.