Girona.

Tonight I am going to show you some more pictures from our visit to Spain, this time we will take a look at Girona. Unfortunately we only got to see a bit of the place but here are some pictures from the bits we did see.

The bridge over the river to the old part of town. We headed straight for the cathedral.


We did go inside and found it fasinating but as with most of these sort of places you aren't allowed to take photo's inside so sorry about that.

Next we took a walk along the Roman Wall in the beautiful warm sunshine. In the picture below you can see part of the wall that we walked along in the bottom right corner. The picture was taken from one of the many towers in the wall.

Also amongst the Roman remains were buildings and courtyards one of which you can see in the picture below.
The short time we were allowed to spend in Girona passed very quickly and it wasn't long before we had to make our way back through the narrow streets to the coach park.
As before I will include this link [Click Here] for those who want to read more and see a few more pictures.

I happened to see the item below earlier today and found it both interesting and staggering.

THE ITEM BELOW IS COPIED FROM YAHOO NEWS

The Taxpayers' Alliance has reported that local councils in the UK collected a total of £328m in parking fines for the financial year 2008-2009. The good news for drivers is that the amount is actually a 16 percent reduction compared to the £379m collected the previous year. Of all the UK local councils, 99 percent responded to requests for information.
Shockingly though, of the ten councils who collected the most fines per head of its daytime population, six are permitted to use parking fines in whatever way they wish - bolstering the theory that fines are just another revenue raiser. The worst offender is Kensington and Chelsea council in London, which collected a staggering £85 per person. The average per person across the UK is £6.14, which is bad enough, but that puts Chelsea's figure in sharp perspective.
In Scotland, Edinburgh council is the worst offender, charging £12 per person on average, in Wales it's Denbighshire with £5.62, and Northern Ireland's average is £3.50 - its fines are dished out by a single body.
Chief Executive of the Drivers' Alliance, Peter Roberts, said: "Parking enforcement has become a massive money making industry and we are seeing unscrupulous and target driven enforcement of parking laws where the penalties far outweigh the offence. This report shows that some local authorities are treating drivers unfairly and cashing in on parking fines."

Setting Up The Heater.

Hello everyone. At the moment leaf raking continues to be the main job in the 'Big House' garden although I’m getting them cornered now.

Another worthwhile job I did today was to make an Autumn sowing of Sweet Peas. It’s getting towards the end for Autumn sowing but I didn’t want to sow them before I went on holiday as they have to be kept a close eye on, especially if there are mice around because it seems their second favourite thing to eat after chocolate are peas. I have mine covered in a propagator at the moment so they are quite safe but once they germinate they will have to be moved to a cool place to spend the Winter and so will need protection from mice somehow. I usually have a mouse trap close by. If you aren’t able to sow your Sweet Peas yet for whatever reason don’t worry as you can sow them in the Spring. I will make another sowing then as well.

Also today I set up the Propane heater in the end greenhouse. This will stay on all the time now as it’s on a thermostat. It’s a free standing heater so I set it up under the grating in the greenhouse floor. Originally this is where the heating pipes would have run when the heating was provided by a boiler.

Propane heater.

Fits snugly under the floor grating out of the way.

Guess where is my favourite place to stand on cold days?!!

Barcelona

Tonight I am going to show you the pictures I took while we were visiting Barcelona last week. Just for this one day we had a proper guide who took us all over the city and a very informative man, he told us far more than I could take in during one sitting. As in the last post please use this link [Click Here] if you want to know more.

Here are the entrances to La Sagrada Família church.

I forget when work on this was started but its still in progress, they build as money allows which all comes from donations so I reckon it might never be finished.

One of many weird and wonderful structures that made up the Barcelona skyline.

One of the back streets of Le Ramblas

Le-Ramblas

The rest of the pictures are what I took while visiting the cathedral.

Sara That is so true what you say about the bridges looking different when you're actually on them. I remember also that it was quite a surprise on seeing it for the first time, it would have no more of a surprise had it been a flying saucer sitting by the roadside as it seems so out of place in its surroundings.

Millau Viaduct.

Hello everyone, how are you? As you will see we returned from our tour safe and sound. It was quite tiring at times as travelling often is, although having spent many long hours on tractors I think I was able to cope more than many. Anyway it’s all part of the experience and it wouldn’t have been much of a coach tour if we didn’t spend time on the coach would it. We had a very nice time and enjoyed nice spring like weather throughout our time in Spain as you will see from the pictures I intend to show you.

Before we reached Spain though I got to see something that I’ve been wanting to see ever since I watched it being opened on TV and that something is the Millau Viaduct.
Below are the pictures I took from the coach as we travelled along. I won’t write all the details as I would only be re-writing what is written on many different websites so I will include this link Millau Viaduct so if you want to know more just click on it to be whisked away to be informed.

I’m sure you will agree that it is a wonderful piece of engineering and well worth a trip over it if you ever get the chance. I’m not sure but I think it’s possible to stop close by and get a better view but we didn’t as I think the drivers wanted to press on with our journey which was pretty long that particular day.

Off On Tour.

Hello everyone, this is just a quick post to let you all know that I won't be posting anything for a while as me and Vicki are going on a coach trip to Spain and won't be back until late on the 16th. Below is a link to the tour that we're taking if anyone wants to take a look.

http://www.leger.co.uk/Tours/esa/Barcelona_and_Spectacular_Spain_-_All_Inclusive

Best wishes,
Bob.

Short Time.

MY WORK BOOK

See to the sheep
Field
Misc
Thu 05/11/2009 08:00
Thu 05/11/2009 08:50 50 minutes
1) Put out some minerals.
2) Checked and counted the sheep.

Round up the bonfire
Veg garden
Misc
Thu 05/11/2009 08:50
Thu 05/11/2009 09:00
10 minutes
Found some larger bits of wood to give it some body and rounded up any unburnt rubbish from yesterday.

See to the greenhouses
Indoors
Thu 05/11/2009 09:00
Thu 05/11/2009 10:00
1 hour
1) Water and checked round.
2) Re-potted some plants and moved from the conservatory to the greenhouse.
3) Took off some dead leaves.

Shopping
Garden Centre
Misc
Thu 05/11/2009 10:00
Thu 05/11/2009 10:35
35 minutes
Bought some Pansies for the churchyard and three grasses to add to the stone trough by the front door. These being different in form to the others already there.

Break for tea
Home
Misc
Thu 05/11/2009 10:35
Thu 05/11/2009 11:00
25 minutes

Clearing up
Flower border
Main Garden
Thu 05/11/2009 11:00
Thu 05/11/2009 12:45
1.75 hours
Took off all the rubbish that I cut down yesterday. The thinking by some people is to leave it standing over Winter, unfortunately I’m not gifted with the imagination to see a lot of dead stalks as anything but a mess so they had to go.

Break for lunch
Home
Misc
Thu 05/11/2009 12:45
Thu 05/11/2009 13:30
45 minutes

Planting
Churchyard
Public Gardens
Thu 05/11/2009 13:30
Thu 05/11/2009 14:15
45 minutes
Planted up the small trough in the churchyard.

Potting up
Potting Shed
Indoors
Thu 05/11/2009 14:15
Thu 05/11/2009 14:45
30 minutes
Potted up some Geraniums from home, I will probably be able to get some cuttings from them in the spring.

Planting
North Front
Public Gardens
Thu 05/11/2009 14:45
Thu 05/11/2009 15:00
15 minutes
Added the grasses to the stone trough by the front door

See to the bins
Hall
Hall & Pumpend
Thu 05/11/2009 15:00
Thu 05/11/2009 15:15
15 minutes
Put out a green bin and one recycle tub.

Clearing leaves
Lawn
Main Garden
Thu 05/11/2009 15:15
Thu 05/11/2009 15:45
30 minutes
Swept the leaves of the grass to under the beech trees where they can do no harm for the time being.

Clearing leaves
Front Drive
Public Gardens
Thu 05/11/2009 15:45
Thu 05/11/2009 16:10
25 minutes
Swept the leaves from the drive.

Clean and put away the tools
Potting Shed
Indoors
Thu 05/11/2009 16:10
Thu 05/11/2009 16:15
5 minutes

NOTES
1) During the winter I am working reduced hours. The reason’s being is that from March I work one hour extra everyday from 8:00 to 5:30. My contracted hours being 8:30 to 5:00, so for the next 5 months I get to work from 8:30 until 4:00. I find this makes better use of my time as there is never enough time in the summer and in Winter it’s hard to work properly after 4:00 because of the dark so you just end up passing time trying to keep warm.


COMMENTS FROM THE POTTING SHED
Kimmie The only reason I hung up the Parsnip was to take a picture of it.

Pruning & Cutting Back.

TODAYS WEATHER READINGS
So that I can post the readings on the same day as the blog post they are of the previous 24 hours up to 6 pm today.
Temp Low: 7C
Temp High: 13C
Rainfall: 2mm
Cont. Days Without Rain: 0
Dry Days This Month: 1
Wind Level For The Day 34
Pressure: 964.0
Weather: Bright with the odd shower.

2009 Highs & Lows
Min for the year: -5 C (4th February)
Max for the year: 35 C (1st July)
Most rain in 24 hours: 39mm (5th June)
Longest dry period: 41 days (13th Sept – 24th Oct)

MY WORK BOOK

Subject : See to the sheep
Location: Field
Categories: Misc
Start Wed 04/11/2009 08:00
End: Wed 04/11/2009 08:50
Duration: 50 minutes
Message: Checked and counted the sheep.

See to the greenhouses
Glasshouses
Wed 04/11/2009 08:50
Wed 04/11/2009 09:20
30 minutes
Had a look around and did some watering.

Rounded up the bonfire
Veg garden
Walled Garden
Wed 04/11/2009 09:20
Wed 04/11/2009 09:30
10 minutes

Pruning
Potting Shed
Walled Garden
Wed 04/11/2009 09:30
Wed 04/11/2009 10:25
55 minutes
Pruned the climbing rose on the potting shed wall.

Break for tea
Home
Misc
Wed 04/11/2009 10:25
Wed 04/11/2009 10:50
25 minutes

Getting veg and flowers
Hall
Main Garden
Wed 04/11/2009 10:50
Wed 04/11/2009 11:35
45 minutes
Took in some Parsnips,

A Parsnip I dug up the other day.

Potatoes, two pot plants and some Chrysanths.

Pruning
Conservatory
Glasshouses
Wed 04/11/2009 11:35
Wed 04/11/2009 12:40
65 minutes
Pruned the climbing rose in the old conservatory.

Break for lunch
Home
Misc
Wed 04/11/2009 12:40
Wed 04/11/2009 13:30
50 minutes

Cutting back
Herb Garden
Walled Garden
Wed 04/11/2009 13:30
Wed 04/11/2009 14:00
30 minutes
Cut back some things in the herb garden.

Cutting back
Flower border
Main Garden
Wed 04/11/2009 14:00
Wed 04/11/2009 15:15
1.25 hours
Cut down everything I could in the flower border.

Clearing up
Flower border
Main Garden
Wed 04/11/2009 15:15
Wed 04/11/2009 15:55
40 minutes
Started picking up the rubbish that I cut down earlier.

Clean and put away the tools
Potting Shed
Indoors
Wed 04/11/2009 15:55
Wed 04/11/2009 16:00
5 minutes

Winter Planters

TODAYS WEATHER READINGS
So that I can post the readings on the same day as the blog post they are of the previous 24 hours up to 6 pm today.
Temp Low: 8C
Temp High: 15C
Rainfall: 0mm
Cont. Days Without Rain: 1
Dry Days This Month: 1
Wind Level For The Day 48
Pressure: 997.9
Weather: Bright and sunny.

2009 Highs & Lows
Min for the year: -5 C (4th February)
Max for the year: 35 C (1st July)
Most rain in 24 hours: 39mm (5th June)
Longest dry period: 41 days (13th Sept – 24th Oct)

MY WORK BOOK


Subject: See to the sheep
Location: Field
Categories: Misc
Start Mon: 02/11/2009 08:30
End Mon: 02/11/2009 08:50
Duration: 20 minutes
Message: 1) Checked and counted the sheep.

See to the greenhouses
Glasshouses
Mon 02/11/2009 08:50
Mon 02/11/2009 09:20
30 minutes
1) Water round.
2) Sweep the path in the old conservatory.

Pruning
West Shrub Border
Walled Garden
Mon 02/11/2009 09:20
Mon 02/11/2009 10:30
70 minutes
Gave the two Laurel bushes a trim.

Break for tea
Home
Misc
Mon 02/11/2009 10:30
Mon 02/11/2009 10:50
20 minutes

Pruning
Rose Garden
Walled Garden
Mon 02/11/2009 10:50
Mon 02/11/2009 12:45
115 minutes
Pruned the roses around the front of the conservatory. (Note 1)

Break for lunch
Home Misc
Mon 02/11/2009 12:45
Mon 02/11/2009 13:30
45 minutes

Planting
South Front
Main Garden
Mon 02/11/2009 13:30
Mon 02/11/2009 14:15
45 minutes
On Saturday whilst visiting home I bought two Calocephalus (centre) from Chatsworth Garden Centre, one each for the two earns.


Started the bonefire
Veg Garden
Walled Garden
Mon 02/11/2009 14:15
Mon 02/11/2009 14:45
30 minutes
I had some more things to burn from Friday’s and this morning’s work so I got the fire going again.

Burning
Veg Garden
Walled Garden
Mon 02/11/2009 14:45
Mon 02/11/2009 15:15
30 minutes
Burnt the rubbish.

Raking up leaves
East Mulberry tree
Walled Garden
Mon 02/11/2009 15:15
Mon 02/11/2009 15:45
30 minutes
Cleared all the leaves from under the Mulberry tree.

Pruning
The long Walk
Walled Garden
Mon 02/11/2009 15:45
Mon 02/11/2009 16:00
15 minutes
Pruned the two roses between the conifers on the long walk.

Cleaned and put away the tools
Potting Shed
Indoors
Mon 02/11/2009 16:00
Mon 02/11/2009 16:10
10 minutes


NOTES
1)I give them a trim back now as they grow quite tall and then the winds rock them about so I trim them back for the winter. It’s a sheltered position so they don’t seem to take any harm and actually get going earlier in Spring.
2) A couple of troughs planted up for the Winter/Spring.