Marilyn and Lionel Partridge have grown a marrow in their vegetable patch which looks just like a duck!

Marilyn Partridge, 62, said, “I have never in my 40 years of gardening and growing my own vegetables come across anything that looks like an animal before.
“I am absolutely delighted. The marrow just looked a bit odd at first, but we then realised that it looked like a duck.
“When I saw it, I burst out laughing. It is so realistic. We haven’t done anything to it, it is perfectly natural.
“It is in the shape of a duck with its head turned about to preen itself.
“We couldn’t eat it because it looked so adorable. Besides, would it be a meat or vegetable course?
“My two-year-old granddaughter Sophie loves it. She kept looking at it and saying “duck, duck”.
“Everyone thinks we must have done something to it to make it grow like a bird but we didn’t. In fact we completely forgot we had planted it.”
Marilyn added, “It would be great to grow another odd-shaped plant but seeing it took us 40 plus years to find this one, we won’t hold our breath.”

Marilyn and Lionel’s marrow is now part of a display in honour of Wild Bird Care Week at the garden centre where they bought the original plant.
‘Marilyn said, “When our grandchildren, Matilda, Henry and Finley Doel told us that they had entered a bird modelling competition at Sanders GardenWorld, we decided to take it along to add to the garden centre’s display.”

Posted on ZEITGEIST

ZOQY

I wonder what Burberry will make of the Norwegian artist who has painted the exterior of his house, which used to be a public toilet, in the brand’s signature Haymarket check?
Artist Jens Werner, 33, has covered his entire house in the famous beige, black and red tartan design. Jens Werner lives in Larvik, and he said the painting took several weeks and cost thousands of pounds.
Jens said he thought it would be ‘a fun idea’ to repaint his house, which he has owned for six years.

Burberry is over 150 years old, and is worn by lots of celebrities including Alexa Chung and Agyness Deyn.
The Burberry brand was commissioned by the War Office to adapt coats for officers which would be suitable for the conditions of contemporary warfare. When the war ended the macs became popular with civilians.
Burberry’s signature print, the Haymarket check, became incredibly popular in the 1990’s with football fans and then the chav generation took a liking for the design, and millions of cheap imitations were sold at markets across Britain.
Daniella Westbrook, an actress on the BBC 1 soap EastEnders, is often blamed for the chav love affair with Burberry after she was papped whilst out with her daughter, both of them were dressed head-to-toe in Burberry tartan, even the pushchair was in the matching design.
Burberry fought hard to rid itself of its association, with ‘Chavs’ and U.S. businesswoman Rose Marie Bravo transformed the brand’s image after joining the company in 1998. She set about Burberry’s renaissance using Kate Moss, Rachel Weisz, and Emma Watson to star in its advertising campaigns.

I’m not sure Rose Marie Bravo has completely managed to rid Burberry of its Chav associations, as the Haymarket check is still pretty common.
I definitely wouldn’t wear it, or any other piece of Burberry clothing for that matter, which is a shame as I do like some of their stuff, especially their coats, but I still associate Burberry with the word chav!

When I first saw the photos of Jens Werner’s Burberry check painted house I thought it was a photoshop project - maybe it is!

Posted on Zeutgeist

Life in France

Revenge of the animals.
Let’s milk this son of a bitch!

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The Wine Connoisseur

It’s tiring being a party animal!

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The Wine Connoisseur

Stick your paws up!

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LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE

Maybe there really is gold at the end of a rainbow - liquid gold!

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Life in France

These amusing pictures are photos that were taken by passers-by at US Superstore Walmart, from the peopleofwalmart.com website.

There sure are all sorts of people in this wonderful world!

The Wine Connoisseur

I’m not particularly interested in gardens or gardening, but I do like this Formula 1 car shaped hedges.

Not surprisingly this hedge isn’t in a private garden, it’s at the Williams F1 headquarters, where the gardeners spend several hours every month trimming their topiary to keep the fantastic shape of the Formula 1 car and mechanics.
The Formula 1 car is 11ft long and consists of six plants, and the 6ft mechanics are each made from two plants. They all sit on top of gravel.
The Williams F1 headquarters is in Grove, near Didcot, Oxfordshire, England, and visitors are usually pretty impressed by the topiary which shows a couple of mechanics changing the cars wheels during a pit stop.
Apparently an Italian nursery originally made the model for Ferrari, but Williams purchased it and then changed the shape of the car to reflect their car design.
It wasn’t a quick chnage as the plants took two and a half years to weave round the metal frames which are now completely covered.
Tim Lightfoot, facilities manager at Williams, said visitors are impressed by the detail of the work.
He said, “Our gardeners trim the plants into shape by hand and take a great deal of care doing it.
“It is hard work but the result is really impressive.
“The topiary has pride of place outside our conference centre and is popular with the many people who visit us each year.
“Many guests are shocked by the size of it.
“We often have people trying to sit in it but it’s not a very comfortable drive. It doesn’t go very fast either.”

Williams-Toyota are currently sixth in the Formula 1 constructors’ championship on 30.5 points.
Driver Nico Rosberg has secured all their points, and lies in sixth place in the drivers’ championship. Kazuki Nakajima is yet to score this season.

I love everything about cars, and if I ever had more money than sense, I think I’d get my gardener to make me something similar to this. Maybe I’d have a Bugatti Veyron shaped hedge?
Who am I kidding - I’d have chocolate shaped hedges!

LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE

Having a wee while pretending to do some stretching exercises ~
Priceless.

RICHARDS REALM

A enlightened Chinese farmer is growing Buddha shaped pears!
The farmer, Gao Xianzhang, has created 10,000 of the miniature pears this season, and he intends to export the novelty pears to the UK and Europe.
Gao Xianzhang reportedly spent six years trying to perfect the Buddha shaped pears by carefully crafting each pear as it grows inside an individual mould.
The Buddha pears cost £5 each, but that doesn’t seem to have discouraged locals in his home village of Hexia, in Hebia, northern China, buying them as they have reportedly been snapping them up.
Gao Xianzhang said, “People seem to think they are cute or lucky and will buy them as soon as they’re off the tree.”

In July EU officials returned wonky shaped fruit and vegetables to supermarket shelves, after EU rules had restricted the sale of 36 varieties of odd sized and shaped fruit and vegetables for the last 20 years, with marketing standards encouraging only the sale of the best looking produce for sale in shops.
So Gao Xianzhang should have no problems getting UK and Eurpoean supermarkets to stock his Buddha shaped pears, although I’m not sure how many people will be willing to pay £5 for one though.

This story reminds me of the April Fools Day ‘Spaghetti growing on trees’ hoax.

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