:(

Here's my Aspararagus:

Hebe got 1st place in the 100Y breaststroke at tri-county championships. Seems once she found her killer instinct it was hard to lose -and she did it from sixth seed, lane 7. This is a hat-trick of breaststroke firsts in multi-team meets after her very first one just three weeks ago. I am a proud and happy mama. She dropped time and placed onher two other individual races too.

Waved Sundae off at the station bout 90 mins ago. We had such fun! Lots of laughter.

Oh, and walking around central London is an entirely different experience when you aren't on your own, and when the person with you knows their way around! Awesome. Kicked around Covent Garden for a bit, taking in the sights (and buying a ridiculously expensive bathrobe from the Covent Garden Bathrobe Company...oh gods but it's beautiful.)

Sundae knew a really lovely Belgian restaurant, so we had our dinner there. I'd never have even noticed it if I'd walked past, what a hidden treasure. Really nice, low-key, chilled atmosphere. Really unusual interior desiign. And prices that wouldn't be out of place in a Halifax pub/restaurant.

I was so glad to have her company for the weekend. Made this a fun trip, rather than just a work trip. Bless her she even watched a Being Human episode with me. Even though it really isn't her thing :p I probably shouldn't inflict my obsessions on my friends, but I just have to....it's a sickness :p

Good fun, great company, and the sights of the city. Yey.

Someone told me once that asparagus takes three years before it actually produces an above-the-surface plant. Is that even remotely true?

From what I have seen , read and heard that is true , also if you take Care of the plant ( Dont Over harvest , Let it do its thing Mostly , Cover it in Mulch in the winter , etc,,,) each Plant can Last up to 10 years .
We started from seeds a few years Back , Have a dedicated Bed Just for the Sparagooes , and Hope fully ( under the dirt ) it is Just a Big ole WAD of Sparagoose Plants that will keep comeing back year after year !!!!

Rock on HEBE !!!

I just got some sparrowguts plants for the first time. They will be Hebe's project, along with the strawberries.

My brother rocking out on a mandolin (maybe?) at SXSW. Unlike some of his other music, I can dig this one. :)

that's a mighty banjo-looking mandolin.

But it's only got 4 strings--I thought banjos had, like, 12? Maybe he restrung it. Hipsters do things like that.

No. Seems to be a matter of choice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banjo

Most I've seen have been called five string, but are really four and a half. :D

Yes, my mom corrected me when I mentioned it in a later email--apparently a standard banjo is 5 strings, but the 5th is too short to reach the other tuning pegs, so it gets an extra little peg halfway up the fretboard. Some have double the number of strings, but it's just repeats of all the existing strings, I guess so you can play extra notes in one strum and thus play faster.

I'm pretty sure they're the only Banjo/Trumpet/Xylophone/Bass/Drum band out there.

Cool video, where was the venue? Looked fun.

It's a small bar/patio called Shakespeare's. They don't always have live music, but during SXSW, everywhere has live music, almost 24 hours a day, just so bands can say they "played at SXSW."

Did you shoot it?