Angels and Positrons

So we will shortly be having another film based on another Dan Brown book: Angels and Demons. I'll say now that I have neither read the book of or seen the film of The Da Vinci Code and have not read Angels and Demons and strongly doubt I will watch the film. Nothing personal, but I only have my allotted span and suspect I would rather avoid spending the requisite hours getting annoyed.

Anyway, the plot of the forthcoming film involves antimatter created at CERN (and, so I understand, a man-portable antimatter bomb), and members of the cast and production team have recently made a publicity trip to CERN itself. Seeing as the people at CERN know a thing or two about antimatter (yes, it does exist and, yes, they do create it at CERN) they have a web page explaining some of the science, which was initially published a few years back (after the book came out) and has been updated more recently. Great stuff.

Back in the Garden

I have a good feeling about the garden this year. 2007 was a dead loss (horticulturally speaking), with a new baby plus an OU course leaving me with precious little time or energy to do anything much outside. 2008 was not much better, having fallen off the wagon the year before what little effort I did put in was in trying to prevent the garden from reverting to Ancient Forest. This year we are off to a decent start though.

We've been discovering that the Youngling, now past her 2nd birthday, is interested in helping out with things outside. Of course, this sort of help tends to slow things down somewhat, but them's the breaks. So a couple of weeks back we took a few bits of 6"x1" and built a raised bed (my assistant happily dropping nails around the place and occasionally passing them to me at useful times), which is still only half filled with soil, sand, compost and the like. The plan is to add another raised section or two and pave around them (for non-muddy access) using the slabs that came off our patio when the conservatory was being built.

Last week we planted some broad beans, with me poking holes in the ground and the youngling dropping beans into the holes. She loved that — it's just a pity she will have to wait some time for seedlings to start to appear.

Then over this weekend we planted some basil to grow indoors (I pledge this year to start a fresh pot of basil every few weeks to feed my herb habit!) and sowed some seed trays with broccoli and parsley to plant out when the weather gets warmer.

This is turning out to be a very equitable arrangement: the Youngling gets to help out, spend time outside, and hopefully learn some stuff, and I get to do some gardening while still spending time with my daughter. Hopefully we'll be able to continue this for years to come.

In the meantime, the rhubarb is just starting to show its head. Give it a month or so and we'll be able to take a crop. I'm looking forward to that.