Diarmuid in trunks, top tweets, leek custard, garden centre humour

Diamuid Gavin. ****s in trunks. Splash ITV1. Celebrity gardener Diarmuid Gavin will be mentored by Olympics hero Tom Daley alongside a host of stars eager to perfect their diving skills in ITV1′s new show Splash! on 12 January.

1. Wrote some of this on gardening trends in the Telegraph. Nice mix of what I thought trends might be and what more celebrity writers hoped trends might be. There are 15 here in the original.

2. One trend was Scotts Flower Magic seed shaker. Mail ran it months ago (obviously after trade media had)  Independent ran on 7 Jan, from news agency Solent News, picked up from Amateur Gardening/trends piece.

3. Also wrote this for thinkinggardens on garden columnists.

4. This about 70,000 ash imports was in a paper or two over Xmas from HW.

4. Daily Mash garden centre humour.

5. How was Xmas etc? One person I asked said not good. An elderly relative fell ill. I said I hope he got better. They said he died four days later and they had to visit hospital every day.

6. Sandringham was in news over Xmas.

7. Secrets of a Good Marriage ran on c4 in early Jan.. A guy I know was on it, talking about how he was a stay at home dad (showing him going cycling daily while his kids went to school) while his wife worked. On the night the programme went out, his £1,000 bike got nicked from his shed.

8. Good story in Telegraph on new slug  (picked up from BBRSC) and in Garden News on snowdrop ailments. Though narcissus leaf scorch does not really affect amateur gardeners, it was still an original piece. What’s going on?

9. A tweet sent by Produce World’s Farming Director Jason Burgess has been listed as one of Sainsbury’s top tweets from December 2012. Produce World, the UK’s leading grower and supplier of fresh produce, featured in Jason Burgess’ tweet after he visited a Sainsbury’s store in King’s Lynn and noticed its impressive onion display. The tweet read:

@ProduceWorld @SainsburysPR Great display of our British onions at New King’s Lynn. http://pic.twitter.com/7nWvI7bR

10. Quite liked this from Anne Wareham on Garden Media Guild awards.

11. uk wine POWER LIST 2013
• 1 Julia Stafford, The Wine Pantry, London
• 2 The Red Lion Hotel in Clovelly
• 3 John Worontschak
• 4 Mike Paul
• 5 Dr Stephen Skelton, consultant
• 6 Olly Smith
• 7 Plumpton College
• 8 Camel Valley
• 9 Ian Edwards, Furleigh Estate
• 10 Frazer Thompson, Chapel Down
• 11 Christian Holthausen, Nyetimber
• 12 Cherie Spriggs, Nyetimber
• 13 Art Tukker, winemaker and owner of Tinwood Estate in West Sussex
• 14 Nick Hall, Herbert Hall Wines
• 15 Bolney Wine Estate
• 16 Mark Driver, Rathfinny Estate
• 17 Chris Scott, ThirtyFifty
• 18 Julia Trustram Eve, English Wine Producers
• 19 Susanna Forbes, DrinkBritain.com
• 20 James Graham, ukvine.com

12. Off to sister resto of Cumbria’s best resto L’Enclume. Roganic.
6 Course Vegetarian Menu

Leek custard with dill broth,
salsify and mustard

Artichoke dumplings,
with truffle, Ragstone and perilla

Beets and butternut,
parsley and hazelnuts

Cauliflower in juniper whey,
velvet caps and scurvy grass

Hay-baked celeriac, broccoli stem,
sage and bittercress

Pears, chestnuts
and crispy cake

£55
13. Snotty hacks berate PRs for doing PR work. Who do they think they are?

14. A little boy asked his mother, “Why are you crying?” “Because I’m a woman,” she told him. “I don’t understand,” he said. His Mom just hugged him and said, “And you never will.” Later the little boy asked his father, “Why does mother seem to cry for no reason?” “All women cry for no reason,” was all his dad could say. The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering why women cry. Finally he put in a call to God. When God got on the phone, he asked, “God, why do women cry so easily?” God said, “When I made the woman she had to be special. I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world, yet gentle enough to give comfort. I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children. I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up, and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining. I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances, even when her child has hurt her very badly. I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart. I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly. And finally, I gave her a tear to shed. This is hers exclusively to use whenever it is needed.” “You see my son,” said God, “the beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart – the place where love resides.” Author: Unknown

15. George Best alive and well on Keswick market.

16. National Trust Morden Hall play area opendd last year hit by rain. The flying fox/deathslide is closed because of subsidence.

17. Wimbledon art college garden