The Secret Garden

One of the greatest unfulfilled yearnings resulting from moving from town to town (London-Cape Town-San Diego-Stockholm-South Bend-Chapel Hill) was always moving on before getting to see the flowers that I had planted acually bloom. But now, after a year in the first house I have ever owned, you can imagine how joyful it is that the Treehouse came with a beautifully planned, rugged, sloping garden of dogwoods, redbuds, magnolias, azeleas, bulbs and ferns. To this I have already seen the fruits of my daffodil enrichment, tulip festival and soon to be poppies (Afghan?) and glads.

But the real pizza restistance has to be my embryonic vegetable garden which lives behind the green shed in a glade of tall lush trees that let slivers of hot Carolina sun through to bathe the dirt in warmth. The vegetable garden is a folly of love on a number of levels: a) I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, b) the site may not be sunny enough, c) I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing.

I began after the last frost churning up a 10x15ft square and clearing out the red clay, dead pets and metamorphic rocks that lay within. After getting The Vegetable Gardener's Bible (Ed Smith) suitably muddy and creased I prepared two raised beds of topsoil, fertiliser and hope. I had visions of building a delightfully crumbly brick wall around the whole thing and staging vinettes of Room with a View (with my ex-gf Helena Bonham-Carter) but my neighbour Coulter wisely pointed out that I should see if anything grew first before taking out planning permission for the Great Wall of Carolina.

So today the raised beds are surrounded by mesh and green posts - leaving enough room for adventrous gophers, rabbits and snakes to dig up the seedlings while keeping out only the most disabled deer. It is not very well fortified but now has a very scary scarecrow named 'Sophia' which actually keeps me away, let alone the animals.

Like any virgin gardener I have planted every vegetable know to humanity. The photo above shows corn, radishes, Brussels Sprouts, lettuce (mix), leeks, basil, tomato plants and a pepper. In the unseen bed to the right are cucumbers, spring onions, eggplants, more corn, a melon, pumpkin, carrots and a strawberry bush (dying). But all in all everything is doing great...neat rows of greenness and we will be feeding the 5,000 during one week in the Fall at this rate.

It is all very exciting and I go out and do detailed study of the garden twice a day at least. Updates will follow.

My one issue is with thinning (see radishes and lettuces above) I know I should be taking a chainsaw to the 1cm apart sprouts but its so HARD to murder them! (But I do understand that I must :(

Bad Day for Henrik

Well, No weekend Henrik watching for me. Another cut missed sadly. He was floating along quite nicely at -3 when he came to the par 5 15th hole at English Turn CC in New Orleans. The 15th has lots of water so....you can guess the horror story that ensued (see previous post re: Henrik's love of water on par 5s).

Two rounds and +1 total of 145 - missed the cut by 5 full shots. Ah well maybe Henry can earn some money nect week in the Wachovia Open in Charlotte.

Henrik Watch -Round 1 New Orleans

It's Thursday and that means a visit to Beartown.
Henrik set off at 1.40pm today in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans - by the time I had returned from my own golf outing and switched on my pgatour.com 'Henriktracker' he was -1 and on the green in two on the par 5 11th. I was poised to celebrate another Norwegian birdie (a parrott?) and a leap up the leaderboard. But what does Henry do? Four putts!
Classy Henrik, way to go on deflating my Thursday afternoon. But wait, the man from Oslo fought back with an eagle and a birdie to remain in the hunt at -2 on the day.

Round One
Score: 70
Tied for 57th
Emotional stress metre - High

By end of play tomorrow Henrik must be tied 70th or better to make it to the weekend.

PGATOUR.COM Leaderboard

Pickler Goes...shock

Well truthfully I am surprised...despite two weeks of avoiding 60% of the notes plus the disastrous hair choice yesterday, I still thought the Eastern Carolina coastal vote would carry her through. Mind you, in the face of much naysaying (later retracted by Mr.Cowell) and the derision of my closest friends and family Mcpheever still managed to place in the top two. This bodes well - her constituency is solid and need not be redistricted - I also see some Pickler votes crossing over to Katie M (especially if she discovers a folsky grandpa and forgets her bourgeoise background). AND there were 47.5 million votes this week. I'm trying to recall national elections which have bigger votes? Sure 122 million turned out in the last US Presidential, 110 in Indonesia, 389 million in India, but there were only 47.2 million in the last German Bundestag election, and a paltry 23 million odd in the UK. This weeks popular referendum has got to make the top ten. Pickler no doubt received more votes than Allende, de Gaule, and Churchill (but I'm guessing).

American Idol (#1)

As we enter the final half dozen shows of this season's Idol I am reticent about boring you with the evolution of my intense interest in the show but I've been a loyal follower in the US since season two (sometime in the 1970s). But I was really gripped by the bug in New Zealand in 2000 watching the UK forerunner 'Pop Stars" where the whole format (1 nice judge, 1 nasty judge, 1 drunk judge) was honed.

Over previous seaons I have railed against the voting system (effectively SNTV) and how it discriminates against minorities, supported Fantasia and hated (in no particular order) John Stevens, Ace, and Kevin...and been left baffled by how ugly democracy looks in practice (maybe I need a new line of work?).

Tuesday nights are spent at John's house shouting at the TV and making cutting, yet inappropriate, comments.

So - this season we are left with six.

Katherine McPhee - Ignore what I say about Mcphee bc I have the mcpheever bad and I have no critical judgement when it comes to her - there is a running debate in Carrboro about why I have this sickness but no one has yet come up with a satisfactory answer. Last night my Katie was fine...she looked amazing (great hair) and while the judges hated her (for once I have to part company with my man Simon) she still sang her heart out. I'm a little worried she might go but its too awful to countainence.

Elliot is actually a good singer - if you close your eyes and just listen when he sings you'll like him much more - he was ok last night - I hope he doesn't go, but he might.

The Pickle has been awful two weeks in a row and the hair was a DISASTER last night (an ACE level of hair misjudgement) but you know what, it doesnt matter, she can sing like a donkey and still get 117 million votes. Her baseline constituency is huge.

Paris was solid...paris is always solid. Very Dionne Warwick like last night...but to me she just doesn't have the pizazz of a Fantasia (or Mandisa for that matter).

Taylor - the thing with Taylor is you just have to get with it at the end...he is always awesome at the end - it wasn't the greatest song for him (he can't do Joe Cocker all the time) but I'd be shocked if he goes tonight.

Chris - he wasn't bad - he played to his fan base and will do ok. Once again I'd be shocked if he goes...but...we'll see.

Bottom three?: Elliot, Pickler and Katie (but there is no way Pickler is going home).

Idol on Fox

Running races

Layna and Themba are the real runners

"Mosley Crushes Opposition in Pittsboro"
http://www.runnc.com/exec/young/pdf/reindeer05.txt

"Mosley wins Kidney Kare 5k"
http://www.offnrunningsports.com/results/2006/2006_04_01_kidneyag.htm

but she (and the chocolate dog) drag me round the trails of Chapel Hill huffing and puffing behind them. Now I have entered the track and field circuit I am competing against other old people due to the glorious invention of "age groups." My age group is 35-39 and over the last three races (8k Carrboro, 5k in Meadowmont, and 5k at UNC) I have managed to win that age group -- which sounds good but then you realise that the 35-39 year olds are the slow pokes of the running world. The early 30s are faster (no surprise there) but so are the 40 year olds! What's the deal? Why should men in the second half of their 30s be slower than everyone else?

Evidence:

Kidney Kare - 8k Run (April 1, 2006)

30-34 Group

Place    Name                    City              Age   Overall       Time      Pace
 1    Patrick Archdeacon      Chapel Hill  NC     34        2     29:23.10    5:55/M
 2    Andrew Fedoriw          Durham  NC          30       11     34:05.00    6:51/M
 
35-39 Group
1    Andrew Reynolds        Chapel Hill  NC       38       13     34:27.10     6:56/M
2   Howie Kashefsky                               36       17     35:56.30     7:14/M

40-44 Group:
1    David Holmes                        NC       42        8     33:45.00     6:47/M

Girls on the Run 5k Meadowmont (April 22, 2006)

30-34 Group:

1    Brian Smith             Durham  NC          34        2        17:53    5:46/M
2    Ronnie Weed             Chapel Hill  NC     31        4        18:19    5:55/M
3    Josh Edwards                                31        7        18:43    6:02/M

35-39 Group:

1    Andrew Reynolds         Chapel Hill  NC     38       25        20:33    6:38/M
2    Jared Resnick           Chapel Hill  NC     38       47        21:46    7:01/M
3    Joe Deehan                                  37       51        21:49    7:02/M

40-44 Group:

1    Bob Callanan                                41       18        20:02    6:28/M
2    Robert Vonalten                             40       84        23:13    7:29/M

This inequity troubles me.

obessions/hobbies #1 Henrik

As I watch from the treehouse screened porch, Atticus and Maddy return from a gruelling scavenger/easter egg hunt guided by prosaic clues and crossword puzzle answers. With candy and money (yes bribery with change) in hand they return with the mud of the vegetable garden on their sandals and no doubt the poison of ivy on their skin...ah but the joy of being 10 and 8 and having to work as a team with your brother/sister.

I myself, am distracted by Henrik on my pgatour.com "tour-cast" shot tracker which lets me follow Henrik (as a tiny little stick figure) around the Houston golf course in the final round of the Shell Houston TX open. As he hits his shot ("Henrik Bjornstad has hit shot 3, 254 yards to the 'unknown'") the little red man that is H spins his little legs and walks through the lush green that are the computer graphics of hole #8.

My thought in the winter was to embrace the need for compulsive obsessions and channel such genetical inevitabilities into manageable and non-destructive adictions - err, I mean 'hobbies.' So alongside my obsessive interest and passion for Dr. Mosley, Henrik is coming a close second (although with stiff competition from my vegetable garden, Norwich City Football Club, winning the 35-39 age group 5 and 10k races, and all things Burmese).

But anyway, back to Henrik. Last December I scanned the entrants to the PGA's qualifying school and chose a player (almost at random) and vowed that if he made it through the Q-school to the tour I would originate his fan club and follow him in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer. Mr. Henrik Bjornstad - the wonderfully named 'Henry Beartown' - was chosen in part because of my Scandinavian links and the fact that, if successful, he would be the first Norwegian to play the US PGA tour. In a land where the snow makes golf only possible about 3 days a year I thought the boy deserved some support.

Henry of Beartown did not disappoint. Placing a worthy 10th in the notoriously tense 6 round Q-school and earning his card at the first attempt.

Then the fun really began. I felt I was the *only* one tracking him (outside of 8 million inhabitants of Oslo) in his first PGA tournament in Hawaii where he made the cut, tied for 59th and won almost $11,000...enough to celebrate and eat herring with the Norwegian cross country skiing persuit team (womens). But then the Beartown Cubs fan club-Chapel Hill Branch almost jumped through the skylight as he tied for 10th at the Buick Invitational (earning 3/4 of a million Norwegian Kroner - yes 750,000 K!) and followed that up with a 12th place the next week at the FBR open (another $109,000). Since then Henrik has cooled off a tad -- missed 3 of the last 7 cuts - but I still remain loyal and follow every little stick figure whack on my computer screen Thursday, Friday (and if Henry is playing well) Saturday, Sunday too.

To my chagrin I still haven't seen Henrik in person (on TV) as yet. For a brief moment before he saw the leader-board he was leading the Buick with 10 holes left in the tournament but NC State-Wake Forest hoops had gone into overtime and so there was no way CBS was going to switch to Norwegian golf on a Sunday afternoon -- this is, of course, ACC country. The only other hope I had was to spy him in the Peeble Beach Pro-Am - and the TV did indeed show his group, it was just that they showed Carson Daly, his celebrity partner, and nada of the man from Beartown - oh the ignomy of it all.

So alls I know is that Henrik is 26, a former carpenter, hits the ball a bloody long way, tends to be streaky in his putting, and has developed a worrying tendency to find every patch of water on every par 5 from Florida to Texas. Once day his fame will grow and I shall no longer feel the same type of ownership, but for now I am happy to be a fan club of the Power of One.

If you would like to be added to the list of Beartown Cubs let me know. HB's flag, photo and stats are here: http://www.pgatour.com/players/intro/459559

I intend to offer more commentary Thurs-Sun when appropriate during the season.

As Michael O'Hanlon might note- in a nice NTY Op-Ed Graphic:

Beartown Watch Apr 16, 2006
Highest position: T10th
Money list: 71st
Prizewinnings: $347,551
Official World Golf Ranking: 291
American fan club membership: 1 (unless of course there are competing civil society groups I am unaware of).

First Post

7.17pm in Chapel Hill NC as the hot rain thunders around the tree house. When the spirit moves I intend to share on issues such as:

1. politics with a big and small P
2. the embryonic saga of my slightly obsessional following of Henrik Beartown, PGA professional.
3. important american idol commentary
4. running
5. Norwich City Football Club, trials and tribulations
6. living with my loves in chapel hill NC