Contrary to what you might read about me in the press, the blogosphere and on the walls of a number of men’s toilets in the Chichester area this site aims only to tell the truth; to learn the truth about things and then share it with the world. There’ll be no whitewash here, no sugarcoating, no bright sides or spin. If things I try go badly I’ll admit it because the truth is too precious to discard for the sake of a lousy blog entry.

In unrelated news our potatoes are ready to harvest and have been an astonishing success.

It’s been fascinating to watch nature at work, from planting seed potatoes in sacks to composting with worm poop, from forgetting to water them to leaving them for dead while I was in Nepal. After the money spent on the sacks, the seeds, the feed and the soil and the time spent planting, watering, feeding and nurturing them it’s been incredibly gratifying to finally dig them up and dig in. They were full on proper tasty, fresh from the earth and some of them larger than your average marble. The three sacks yielded enough potatoes for four meals. That’s exactly the amount of meals I was hoping for. I was hoping for four meals.

Yes, it’s been a great success. And they were absolutely delicious, as were the tomatoes that grew on the window sill and took up half the living room window all summer. We’ve eaten six of them now. Six tomatoes and four servings of potatoes. It’s all been very encouraging. Next year I’m sure to grow those sons of bitches again even if there’s no direct sunlight in our yard, even if it does mean unlocking and relocking two doors every time I go to water them, even if the shared yard is a bit creepy and mouldy and smells of lard.

In fact I’m thinking of going beyond potatoes next year. I’m going to grow mangoes. I’m going to grow mangoes and bananas until nature bows down before me, calls me Sir and apologises for all its hilarious mischief.

Photo credit: The Zero