Parsley and Passports

Lots has been going on these past few days. Of notable interest, has been my parsley-growing experiment. Not to be mocked, this is of massive scientific interest. Finding myself in a defiant mood one day, I ignored the instructions on the back of the packet and decided to sow the seeds in late September, mainly out of interest to see whether herbs really are seasonal or not. As I only own those decomposable pots that are supposed to be planted outside, I decided to experiment with other household containers...and herein lies the thrill of my experiment. I thought I'd post weekly photos of the speed of growth to demonstrate the best growing conditions for parsley seeds, in a damp country in the autumn.

Week 1 photos


1. Pot numbers 1-4: exposed
Note the stunted growth, the spores growing in the soil and the rather yellow stems. Interesting...

2. Pot n.2: pot within a mug
Note the thriving healthy stems simply thrusting themselves skyward! The enthusiasm of these little beauties warms my heart

Pot 3 is growing within a jam jar that is about 3 inches higher than the top of the brown pot, and although there is no photographic evidence yet, it may fascinate you to know that the stems are growing rather chaotically, twisting around each other and seemingly confused about the right direction to point at.

My hypothesis at this early stage is therefore to ignore the words on packets of seeds and plant away so long as you give them a nice coffee mug to grow in.

3 years of university were definitely not wasted on me.

In between racing back and forth through country lanes to Go Ape Operations HQ, I have also been a frequent and frustrated visitor at the local post office, where the old dears have helped me try to interpret the hundred-and-one regulations and documents that a Brit whose parents were born abroad and whose passport is totally damaged, has to produce.

Passport prices went up on Thursday last week from £51 - £76 and so the whole of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I was digging through old folders, trying to persuade someone to countersign section 10 and find my blasted birth certificate (a very helpful service if you ever need a replacement is through each town/city council website - I would put a link but it wouldn't be helpful to anyone born outside of Edinburgh - anyhow, it's £25 for next day delivery). Anyhow, it went off and I'm nervously awaiting my new one as I have a flight to London in 2 weeks time.

I have also booked my flights to Costa Rica (WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!), and so the concept of being in Central America is becoming all the more concrete and I am starting to cast my eye about for trekking / jungle bits and bobs. I'm not sure I am ready to go with the "to save money, but to have an extra culinary treat, just fill an old camera film case with salt" but I'm definitely up for anything that helps me sleep in a jungle where I'm more than likely to come across 15 foot anacondas slithering underneath my hammock in the mornings, and spitting green poisonous toads.

And, as for fundraising - only £700 left to go, and hopefully the wine and cheese evening we're running next week will help towards that. And if it does, I'm quite tempted to forget the whole idea of the half marathon dressed as a giant spider and spend the morning shopping in Tiso instead.

Dilemmas. Where would I be without them?