MSG Event Banstead

Don't know if I've ever blogged about this before but this my second trip to Banstead way out in Surrey at the edges of that London.  We have good reason to go there as there was an MSG event on in the hall there.  Its the Mesemb Study Group for those wondering what I'm on about.  A society dedicated to all things Mesembryanthemum, this includes popular genera such as Lithops and Conophytum and less popular genera such as Psammophora or the myriad weedy annuals such as Cleretum.

Being a mostly South African group of plants and such, they are currently in flower due to it being Spring there, so an autumn show is perfect to show them off.  A mix of 2 buses, the DLR and a Tube connection got us there and after last times failure to find the place we had a pretty good idea where it was.  Its off the main road as you head into town, for those wondering.

Its a nice hall and I paid my admission to go in. There was a bank of tables set out with show plants and at the edges various people I knew selling plants and such.  I got me a Titanopsis and a Mossia both plants I've never actually grown before along with a Conophytum Piluliforme which I've sort of grown (a few conos definitely not that species).

There are some decent show plants there including a giant of a Mestoklema in flower and an Astridia that was something special.  Also really old Mitrophyllum that was older than me.  I didn't stay for the auction which had a map of Namibia that was owned by noted field researcher Desmond Cole.

Going back was a nightmare, I decided to leave early to look around the charity shops and such, decided to take the Croydon bus back not realising that it goes around the houses.  Comes in the top end near the trams and there is a cracking piece of wall art of Astro Boy as you come in that's worth a look.  Took the tram and then some more buses before getting in about 6 ish, a good 3 hours travelling just to get home.

Edit Pics liberated from drop pox.

Astridia Hallii.

Astridia Halli a good 12'' / 30 cm in length.

Mestoklema Tuberosum Flower Details

One of the few tuberous rooted mesembs, this is a huge 2ft / 60cm tall and is around 50 years old.

Ebracteola Montis Moltkeri

A close up of this guy, grown by Eddy Harris.

Tanquana Hilmarii

A habitat type shot, that works so well.

Lithops

Finally some more familiar faces to end with.  Love this Lithops Karasmontana ssp Bella.

Conophytum Group

Comophytum group from Derek Tribble. There is a sneaky Othonna in there too if you can spot it.

Somerset

Should have said that there I was away last week, but seeing as both phone credit is low and the fact that I would have had to use my phone to send this means that you'll get an update where I can type on a proper physical keyboard.

Somerset then, a bit of a *Jehovas curse of a location for me, I lost £40 and my electric shaver down there which doesn't inspire me to come back anytime soon, which is a shame as when the sun was out and the rain kept away its a great lush place.

We stayed with sodseasons. in what turned out to be the dog part of their holiday complex, so if you would look out of your window you could see a great variety of dogs and even be visited by a friendly dog (in our case a choco lab) if your door was open.

We were halfway between Burnham on sea and Brean close to Weston Super Mare.  Which means huge tidal ranges and vast sandy beaches mixed with mud and dangerous quicksand.  It means there is quite a substantial dune system in place for those who like there wildlife, mostly dominated by Sea Buckthorn and bramble with the occasional small tree and wild flowers.

We had a few trips out including Weston Super Mare which is OK but when we went there they had, I guess a dead body under the pier.  There was police tape across the pilings and a hot forensics officer sitting talking to a local.  I have no idea what went on and finding out about stuff is of course is hit and miss as local news doesn't cover this.

We went to Minehead which is infinitely better and because a distant relative of ours lives there.  We had a meal and talked about old times, they live out in the middle of nowhere, off the beaten track which is cool but also a bugger to find.  A nice place but you'd definitely want to drive to get any benefit of the place.

Our final trip is to the village of Watchet which boasts an excellent harbour and a stop on the steam railway, so one for all you trainspotters out there.  Also please visit the community museum there, if you really want to be reminded of what the late lamented Plumstead museum looked like.

All in all a good trip let down by bad luck.

Berrow beach gale edition

Minehead.

Watchet museum well worth a visit.

Weston Super Mare dead body edition.

Manic Mushrooms with Barbara Cartland doubling up for Peach

SClub7 ? Brean funfair.

*thanks for making it this far. I have this notion that the Jehovah's Witnesses cause me bad luck and there was a supposed kingdom hall in Burnham On Sea.

Aunt Elsie

Aunt Elsie and Kim.

echinopsis chamaecereus

Going through a bunch of old slides from my mums side of the family and have come across some that my aunt Elsie took.  I can tell that I'd want to meet her as for starters all her stuff is named and that I find fascinating, as most of what my granddad shot wasn't, just generic shots of my mum and auntie on holiday.

I never met my aunt Elsie as she died before I was born, I knew she grew cacti and had a few books from Brian Lamb, including a pre release version of the pocket encyclopedia of cacti and a binder full of spare pages that made up the exotic collection of their books. 

I have a slide scanner culled from when Maplin went bust and have been slowly digitising my families slide collection. I can tell what slides are her's as well as them being named and that they are on square 127 film slides which are a bugger to scan.  I found adding them manually and jiggling them to get an area in shot is the way to process them.

Blue Pool swanage part a

blue pool Swanage.

Iron Wok Jan

Not sure if I've covered this before (that is the peril of being long running) but have recently started to read Iron Wok Jan again.

For those of you not familiar with this series, its a cooking manga that focuses on uber jerk Jan Akiyama and his rivalry with the Gobancho Chinese restaurant.  Though the issues that I have the rivalry is between the super critic Otani and both the Gobancho and Akiyama families in one big Chinese food cook off. Indeed the earliest anthology I have is volume 14 where Nitani brings in a talented french chef to cook a next level goose dish and challenges Jan, Kiriko Gobancho and Celine to match it, whilst dressed as pigs before a live TV audience.

This is one of the reasons why I like this the other is that its super detailed about food and such.  Things will be added in footnotes about what such and such is and what style its cooked in.  I learned about chinese seasoning and Yuzu, as well as an epic way to steam fish. That was incidentally Jan's battle vs a hemostatic cooker a type of souped up Microwave and the chef with it.

As the books themselves are now out of print, (I have a few picked up cheap from Forbidden Planet years back, in fact this is where I first encountered it) and are not cheap, I've put a link up in the first paragraph to the first 7 books on line that you can read for free, ironically its none that I actually own, but if demand is strong, I would consider scanning what I have (Volume 14, 18, and 20,21 and one or two more) and putting them up on dropbox or archive. org.