Yet another great week and a marked change in the weather too. We seem to have moved from late winter to high summer in a week. Still at least it’s due to cool down again fairly quickly next week which should be a bit easier. Gone are the vests and double fleece wearing and bring on the flouncy shirts. Anticipation is already building for the first ‘outing’ of my legendary flowery piece that I wore in the heat of last summer. Having bolstered my case by expressing my confidence in my own sexuality, I am now duty bound to get it out again when the heat builds up this year, although this time with the added expectations of all those who missed out on it last year (luckily it was a very short summer).

Meanwhile the sun coming out and the temperature rising produces the usual irrigation crisis, it always seems to happen when you need the supply most. This time one of the main pumps burst its main seal, tripping out the electric supply and rendering itself inoperable. A man has been to assess it and we need a new pump and pressure vessel due to old age and general fatigue (know how it feels). Not too expensive and luckily we do have a back-up system although pressures are a bit low by the end of the day.

Printer hassle again in the office, with a paper jam error message. Remove paper (stopped in fuser unit), prints one or ten sheets then error repeats. Change all consumables one by one with other printer and think it’s cured but then goes wrong again. Take apart and clean out with air gun, works for 6 hrs then stops again. Now getting a bit cross. Phone consumable supplier, very helpful but never heard of this one before (we always have the errors that have never been heard of before). He gave me the OKI tech support number and the chap there also hadn’t heard of it before but went through a load of possibilities and gave me a number for a printer mender (out of warranty by 3 months). The likely call out charges before time and parts could have made this expensive so I checked the price of a new one. They are currently less than £600 plus £100 cash back, 3 year warranty and a free sat nav. The consumables inside are worth £600+ even when they only fill the toner 1/3 full! This gave me the confidence to take it apart for a closer look. To cut a long story short I sorted it by freeing up a tiny flappy bit which was intermittently getting stuck with one squirt of WD40. Sorted, although I still can’t believe the price of a new one, it is so tempting to chuck away and start again, but what a waste of resources.

Eco Update

Wind turbine planning app has been processed and is now being considered. All the details and dates etc are on the Winchester City Council website and there is space there to send in supportive (or not) comments on the application. If you would like to take a look follow this link;

http://planningapplications.winchester.gov.uk/PlanningWeb/Results.aspx?ID=10%2f00895%2fFUL&tab=0

It’s quite interesting to see the lack of detail in the councils published details, there is much more in our stuff on our website. They have put a scale photo montage of the scale of the turbines in comparison to a big one and a pylon which does indicate nicely how small they are. They are also only notifying by letter, ourselves and our two immediate neighbours which was a surprise. Consultation ends on the 16th June and decision due on 7th June! (I think they mean July) Let’s see what happens now. Suddenly it seems real.

Nature notes

Baby birds all over the place, lots of wagtails crashing about in the tunnels.

Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Just had some very reassuring news. Two of our girls who were working today both confirmed that they too were wearing the double trouser look, and they are both youngsters. Perhaps all my old fart worries are groundless and in fact I’m cool & trendy, or maybe not.


It’s astonishing what you can fit in during just one week. We set up our stand at GAN on Tuesday for the show on Wednesday, which went very well, although we felt there was a shortage of punters overall. Still, the great thing is that it’s not the numbers, it’s the quality that counts, and we did see lots of high class interested parties, oh yes, and some existing customers too!
I have just added several more names we picked up from the show, to the weekly availability list, so a big welcome to those newcomers to the ramblings of the wandering mind of a hairy nurseryman. That reminds me, I did manage a haircut and shave before the show, mind you the haircut was risky, carried out late at night by a rather merry better half. There’s nothing like living life on the edge.

Also fitted in lots of plant orders, printing a large wooden label order, a day at the races, hosting a student visit from the local college and visits from a local conservative city councillor (planning head) and prospective con MP. The printer that died last week is up & running again after replacing the fuser unit, what a con. I got one of those messages that you get just as you relax thinking you’ve mastered the technology, ‘FATAL ERROR CALL SERVICE ENGINEER’. So I did the usual, turned it off & on again several times, but to no avail. Did a quick search on the internet and found a diagnosis, media wrapped around fuser init. Sure enough, there it was. Unwrapped it, but no go. Then I found out that the only way to reset the error fault was to install a new unit (£75), the cheeky monkeys I thought. So when I’ve finished this rant I’m going to send a message to Mr Oki and let him know what I think. I’m sure he will go straight out and change his strategy after a good ticking off. Luckily I don’t have a life so I can just about fit it in.

Having lost sight of my waist several years ago and hearing last week of a close friend (2 months older than me) having to have a stent fitted after a heart problem, I am determined to find it again. I have been trying for a while to get that energy/calorie balance right between input and output and it seems to be working. One tip I will pass on this week is the one about when given a choice, take the physical option, stairs not escalator, walk don’t ride and generally take every opportunity to move more muscles than you actually have to. This can include my own version of ‘Power Walking’ that I have developed over the last few months. Rather than just shuffling along while walking home (usually in the dark) I am now lifting legs higher, using more steps and swinging arms about (more effective when carrying something, as the journey tends to be longer when you have to pick everything up again!). Also warms you up in cold weather. I have now taken this practice off the nursery into our early morning Saturday shop at the supermarket while I push the trolley round, there aren’t many folk about and you can often find yourself alone in an aisle. Oh the joys of being old enough to think that this might be a socially acceptable pastime!

Eco Update

After a positive Lib Dem wind turbine visit last week, we had the Conservatives around this week. Still all very positive, the news has been out for 3-4 weeks now and no-one has approached either group, or ourselves, with any serious objections (one lady in one village who just doesn’t like turbines much). We are the first in the area to put in such an application, yet one of the councillors who is on the planning committee didn’t think it would even go to committee, as the objection level was so low, and the proposal so sensible. Still no reaction from Parish councils directly so I will have to chase them up and see what they would like us to do (presentation/nursery visit) to help.
Don't forget to do your bit