• http://www.simply-google.com/
  Simply Google – all of Google in one place, which either shows how wonderfully powerful and helpful Google is or how, like BBC Online, it has just got to be too big to be good for the Intahnets. via Gordon.
  (tags: Google tools online search internet software)
• BBC NEWS | Business | Music firm ‘goblins’ in copyright war
  I’ve got a whole heap of promo-only CDs, mainly with only one, two or three tracks on them and largely by obscure artists (although there are a couple of Björk ones in there too). I wonder if they are about to rocket in value?
  (tags: news law music copyright)

• BBC NEWS | UK | Salad production on mass scale
  Impressive by UK standards – but for anyone who (like me) spends a lot of time in glasshouses around Maasdijk and Naaldwijk in the Netherlands, it’s not really that unusual.
  (tags: horticulture glasshouse news)

• Daily Telegraph – first beaver dam in England for centuries
  Yes, but – they are German beavers and they’ve built a dam! I can hear the roar of Lancaster bombers already. Call for Barnes Wallis!
  (tags: beavers dam nature news England)

Today is Sussex Day. Hurrah! I expect you all to be singing.

• diamond geezer – De La Warr Pavilion
  DG visits Bexhill. H and I keep saying that we must go and have a look around the Pavilion (we were last there when the restoration was still in full swing).
  (tags: Bexhill De_La_Warr_Pavilion art architecture)

• The Old Lawnmower Club – Vintage and Antique Mowers
  A nicer bunch of lunatics/enthusiasts, you’re unlikely to meet. It has to be said that they are just as interested in beer as they are in mowers, if not more so.
  (tags: lawnmowers mowers collecting club vintage antique)

• The Video Nasty Project: The Project
  Watching every single Video Nasty so you don’t have to. I remember the fuss about video nasties in the 80s – Mary Whitehouse and the Daily Mail in full flow. Link goes to explanatory page.
  (tags: video nasty banned Whitehouse BBFC)

I’m waaay behind. Way behind with work. Way behind with stuff that needs doing around the house. Way behind in keeping in contact with people (sorry). Way behind in sleep. Way behind in blogging.

Part of the reason is that this weekend sees the 14th Garden Event at West Dean. Last year we were royally rained upon – 32mm in the first few hours. I’ve confidently been telling people that we couldn’t possibly have two years in a row like that, but the forecast suggests that I might be wrong. Oh well, at least Sunday looks a bit better, and West Dean is on a shallow soil over gravel, so drains remarkbly quickly.

Anyway, do come along. It will be good – plants, tools, equipment – in fact, pretty much everything garden related, plus a good selection of food and drink. Bring an umbrella to keep you dry and some cash to spend. And your mere presence will cheer me up.

UPDATE: the forecast now says that we should miss the worst of the rain tomorrow during the day (it will be damp, rather than wet, when we are setting-up in the morning). The heaviest rain will pass through overnight tomorrow, so I’m hoping we might just get away with it.

Even though Tom is not yet two-and-a-half, he’s having his first taste of school, right now. OK, so it is not proper school – it’s the Montessori nursery school – and it is not a full day – he’s having a one-hour "taster session" to see how he likes it. He’ll begin in earnest in September, going two days a week to begin with.

Naturally, his mummy was a bit teary once we left him there. He was a little unsure at first, but with Miff by his side he was soon diving in to the educational wooden toys with gusto. He’s used to coping on his own for two days a week at his childminder, so dealing with nursery school isn’t too much of a challenge for him. Hels and I are just having a cup of coffee and a piece of cake before we go back in a few minutes to collect him and get a report of how he has got on. No doubt he will have flirted with the girls, carried Miff everywhere and generally had a fun time. And the fear of it will be reduced – so when he does go for the first time, hopefully we won’t have too much of a scene.