Bearded Dragon - 5 months old

Left: 31/08/09      Right: 03/12/09

So Hagrid will be 5 months old later this week and has turned into a real character!  He gets moody if I go away for the weekend and is usually angry with me for a few hours after I come back, he is moody when shedding - this is very normal shedding can be quite stressful for dragons and they just like to be left to get on with it in peace mostly (still try to handle a little bit but less than normal).  During this time they are likely to display their beards and even hiss - Hagrid does this when he really wants to be left alone - mainly when he's shedding. The rest of the time Hagrid is generally very friendly and loves to be handled, he really enjoys coming out of his vivarium and will literally bang on the glass when he really wants to be out.

I'm pretty sure Hagrid is male now, he is showing all the signs of being male and when he does display his beard it sometimes looks black - which means that it is more likely to be male (I'm hoping he is - Hagrid wouldn't be a great name for a female!)

He is eating a lot more in the way of vegetables than he used to along with plenty of crickets, he also really loves locusts (I'd say they are his favourite and he gets them as a treat).  Favourite vegetables - anything and everything so far, there doesn't seem to be anything yet that he doesn't like.

Hagrid has more than doubled in size since I got him - not surprising with the amount he eats and he does seem to shed quite often - due to his growth speed!

Hagrid at 8 weeks old

              Hagrid at 5 months old

What to plant and when to plant it!

Ok, moving house in a few weeks - finally. After living in a flat for nearly 6 years it will be so nice to have a garden again (an enormous garden too!).

There is in place already an area set aside for a vegetable patch, so I need to plan what to plant, when to plant it and how many different things I can fit in. Obviously there will be the usual - potatoes, carrots, cabbages but I'm also wanting some things that are a little different. I've had my orders regarding what certain things I have to plant for my lobster aka Kevin to make his soups so there are squashes and pumpkins going in and a few other things that I'm unsure as to how or if they'll grow in this climate - but time will tell and I have to say I like a challenge so will give them all a go!

So, we move in in December so there isn't much that can be done at that time of year as regards sowing, and pretty much the only thing that can be planted is rhubarb. So to start - rhubarb it is! Other than that the only work to be done is preparation of the beds ready for sowing things like onions, sprouts, lettuce, potatoes and peas - so this is where I'll make a start. New pair of wellies needed at the time of the big move too - plus a number of gardening tools will be required as I got rid of mine on moving to the flat (there may be some of my tools in my parents garage along with all sorts of other stuff of mine that I just couldn't fit into a 2 bed flat!). So that's December sorted - what with moving in, Christmas and parties I reckon that's plenty.

Doesn't seem there's much to be done in January either - I guess making plans of what to plant where and when will be the main thing for the colder months when sowing can't be done, a strawberry bed could be prepared at this point if planning to grow strawberries of course!

Then comes February and that's where the excitement begins! All sorts of things can be sown at this point from sprouts, to carrots, to onions - if sown this early they will need protection from any frost.

Enough planning to be getting on with I reckon, keep checking back for progress reports and pictures!

What is matter?

In simple terms matter is anything that takes up space - this does not necessarily mean you can see it of course. Matter is anything that has a mass so this includes gases which of course cannot normally be seen - the air around us is matter, the water we drink is matter, we are matter. The universe is basically made up of matter and energy. Put really simply, matter is stuff and energy is what moves stuff. Matter can be broken down into 3 different states, solid, liquid and gas (there are more but these are the basic 3).

Matter can change from one state to another for example when heat is applied (ice is a good example - it starts as a solid, apply heat and it turns to liquid (water), apply yet more heat and it turns to gas - steam) - so in this case the heat is the energy.

So basically matter is what makes up all substances. Molecules, atoms and sub-atomic particles are all matter. The major properties of matter is that it takes up space, has a mass and attracts other matter with gravity.

LHC - Recreation of the "Big Bang"?

So, the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) is being started up again after it's repairs from it's blow out last year after only 9 days of running.

This is a big step for scientific research if it works to be able to get an idea of what happened 13.7 billlion years ago. To try to recreate this scientific researchers in Switzerland have built a highly complex piece of equipment. It is basically an enormous particle ac

celerator which is used to study the smallest known particles. When they switch on there will be two beams of sub-atomic particles (hadrons), either protons or lead ions, these will then travel in circular directions inside the circular accelerator and with each lap it does it gaining energy. Physicists at CERN in Switzerland are hoping to recreate what happened immediately after the big bang by colliding the two beams head on at extremely high energy. The particles created in the collisions will then be analysed by a number of physicists from around the world by doing various experiments.

These experiments will hopefully give us some idea of what gives matter a mass, as matter makes up only 4% of the universe what is the other 96%, why does nature prefer matter to anti-matter (opposite electric charge to matter) and how matter evolved from what happened 13.7 billion years ago.

There are many different opinions on what these physicists are doing some feel they are playing with fire and it could all go horribly wrong, others see it as a massive breakthrough in the world of science.

Choose life quote - Trainspotting

Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that?