An avenue of apple trees outside Gilroy Allotments.   Sign encouraging people to freely enjoy future apple harvests!   Gilroy Allotment site, a thriving community project.   Gilroy Nature Park, a few short steps from the allotments.   Click on the pictures to view them larger.      A new avenue of apple trees lines the narrow public footpath which leads from Gilroy Road in West Kirby, Wirral, and passes the Gilroy Road Community Allotments site and the entrance to Gilroy Nature Park.  The young trees are of mixed varieties, supported by stout wooden posts, and have been planted on both sides of the path.   There is a large sign, shaped like apple leaves, which declares:  "Incredible Edible!  When ripe feel free to pick some fruit!"  Another 'leaf' on the sign reads:  "The apple avenue is an invitation to consider where our food comes from and how we can reduce our food miles, encourage locally grown and and support independe

  Introducing Morgen Bailey!   Today, I'm joined by Morgen Bailey, who has agreed to share some writing tips.  At Riverside Writers, new members often ask about the best ways to go about learning their craft, having been left bewildered by a huge array of 'how to' books which trot out vast lists of Dos and Don'ts.  Here, Morgen keeps things simple.   Based in Northamptonshire, England, Morgen Bailey is a prolific blogger, podcaster, editor/critiquer, Chair of NWG (which runs the annual H.E. Bates Short Story Competition ), Head Judge for the NLG Flash Fiction Competition and creative writing tutor for her local council. She is also a freelance author of numerous ‘dark and light’ short stories, novels, articles, and very occasional dabbler of poetry. Like her, her blog, http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com , is consumed by all things literary. She is also active on Twitter , Facebook along with many others (listed on her blog’s Contact page ). She als

On June 9th, The Daily Mail published an article by Tom Leonard with the title, "Three senior Oxford University academics will pay to be deep frozen when they die so they could one day be 'brought back to life'".  This article was also published on Iol .  Thanks go to John de Rivaz for passing on these links via the Yahoo! newsgroup for Cryonics Europe . The Daily Ma il article attracted 300+ comments, many of which were negative dismissals of the potential of cryonics.  As expected, many of these comments were based on inaccurate beliefs, such as cryo-patients being frozen in ice, or of cryonics being a money-making scam. The Cryonics Institute is a non-profit making organisation.  It's annual finances are published for all to view.  Its directors are elected by the institute's own members. Patients are subjected first to a profusion then a vitrification process, which greatly reduces tissue damage from ice crystals, before being stored in liquid n

Emily and Poppi, June 2013. After a run of hot days, it's fair to declare that summer has finally arrived.  Not to worry, the solstice is less than two weeks away, and it's almost a tradition that it pours with rain then. As can be seen in the photo, our rhubarb is growing well.  In the black tub, to one side of the photo, is a small crop of garlic which isn't doing so well - the spindly leaves look yellowy, so I am wondering if the sun's been too fierce for them.  This morning Richard and I went swimming again.  We're really getting into this, and had a lot of fun today.  I won the race!!!   There was only the two of us in the race, and he does have impaired breathing capacity...but it's the principle.  I won, I won!  This is also the first time in my entire life that I've ever won any race, come to think of it.  I was always hopeless at sports back in my school and college days - partly due to a total lack in interest in discovering who can run r