This year was my first year trying out the art of home grown vegetables. I always thought this was reserved for old people and/or folk you see on TV, but I was inspired this year to try my hand at it.

Well what can I say, it’s on the whole been a big success. I’ve had rocket, lettuce, tomatoes, courgettes, herbs, carrots, chilies, sweet peppers and runner beans. The only thing that got munched (not by myself) by insects was my second installment of rocket. Apart from that it has been a summer of garden goodness.

Also to note is that we have a load of woodland and hedgerows in this neck of Essex, and so I have managed to pick about 3kg or so of Blackberries this summer. The last of which I picked today along with some apples which will probably be going into a crumble and some smoothies this week!

Last week I was on my way out for a bit of lunch and decided to take a stroll over to Covent Garden to check out the O’Neill shop. Whilst walking down Earlham Street (one of the streets that links off the Seven Dials) I passed by a shop which caught my eye: King Apparel. I decided to pop in and check out the sale that was on and was pretty stoked to find a load of cool clothing at good prices.

After chatting to the guys in the store and picking up a new track top and a few pairs of shorts I walked back to the office with a new stoke. It is always cool to find a new clothing label that produces quality items which are a little different from what everyone else is wearing.

So Copping (and a few others) thinks I resemble Jarrod (Flight of the Concords fame) from the film Eagle Vs Shark. I am not really sure if he means I look like him or moreso my style is similar, anyway I guess you can decide for yourselves. BTW, go check out the film it is funny as hell!

Check out the trailer for Eagle Vs Shark below:

So after a year’s break from working for myself, I have taken the leap and re-established Hungry Browser. I left Crayon in April 2008 and re-started my Freelance career in the form of Information architecture and User experience consultancy. I’ve set up a Hungry Browser as a UK limited company with the view to have more control over my scedule and work/life balance. All is going well so far with great demand for IA and User experience skills.

I was reading one of the free London papers on the way home from work the other evening and stumbled upon an article about recycling. It detailed a poor 74 year old man who had put his rubbish bins out only to return to them the next morning to find they hadn’t been taking away and a note had been left on his bin.

On closer inspection of the note it seemed that because he had left 1 teabag in the bin that it had been branded as “contaminated”. Now I am a stickler for the rules as much as the next guy, but refusing to take away a whole week’s rubbish due to 1 tea bag is just pathetic.

This leads on to a similar story in which an old lady who struggled to lift her heavy bins out for the dustmen was greated by a ’sorry we can’t take them away’ response from one of the dustmen. The reason this time was because they were too heavy and against EU legislation with regards to the health and safety.

It seems to me that the government is completely out of touch with the real world and when it comes to common sense, there is none.

The UK Government plans to build 3 million houses by 2020. Part of this is the proposal is to build an ‘Eco Town’ between Elsenham & Henham. This will constitute 5,000 new houses being built on a Greenfield site. Currently the population of Elsenham is about 1500. So even with a low estimation of 2 people per new house, this would increase the population from 1500 to 11500.

A blow for village history, character and the environment

To cut a long story short this will ruin the scenery, history, atmosphere and environment of both Henham and Elsenham. The current infrastructure of roads and railway can’t cope with the present population (I travel to London every day and the train is already operating at capacity a.k.a overcrowded).

There is an online government petition where you can sign up with an email address (that won’t be spammed) to show your support against this proposal.

Sign the petition

There are currently 558 signatures on the petition, please show your support and sign up here: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/kenmcneil/

Thanks!

NB. You must be a British citizen or resident to sign the petition.

Update 18 June 2008

There are now 714 signatures on the petition, that is nearly 200 additional signatures over the last 7 days which is great news!

Current pictures of Elsenham/Ugley Green

For reference, currently Elsenham/Henham and Ugley Green look like this, with your help we can keep it this way!

So me and the gang went to Koko last week to see the Quantic Soul Orchestra play. We had a really cool time and I personally was really impressed with the quality of the performance. Here are a couple of pics from the evening.

So Rose and I spent a lovely weekend in Ugley and London walking and chilling out. Sunday was amazing, we walked from Camden Lock in North London to Warwick Avenue in West London and got some amazing photos along the way. Have included a few snaps below, the rest are on Flickr.

Crowds on Camden High Street

Rose relaxing on the Regent Canal, London

Me in Ugley Green, Essex

In trying to promote the local campaign against the development of 3000 new homes in Elsenham, Essex (where I live) I thought I would publish the email that I sent to the District Council.

“To whom it way concern,

As a local resident of Elsenham, I am writing to you to object to the recent Option 4 proposal by Uttlesford District Council for the development of 3000 new homes in Elsenham and Henham.

I object wholeheartedly to Option 4 for the following reasons:

• I have been a resident of Elsenham for over 20 years (I am now 29 years old) and have enjoyed being brought up in a countryside setting. If I wanted to live in a town/city I would move to London, but I don’t. Creating 3000 new houses will change the village atmosphere and the surrounding physical environment into something not disimilar to Harlow, i.e. a concrete jungle.
• The existing rail link to London (which I use everyday) is already run at capacity, with overcrowding and delays, adding more potential passengers through the development of Elsenham will only make the situation worse. The is no room for the expansion of the station, which at present is already inadequate.
• There is already a problem with commuters parking their cars and blocking the roads in Elsenham. An increase in commuters will only make the situation worse.
• The historic nature of the area will be completely detroyed.
• Local employment through development would most likely be in construction, and the service sector, thus not adding “career” prospects to the area, but more likely low-skilled, uninspiring jobs.
• Elsenham primary school is far too small to cope with such an increase in pupils.
• I am outraged that the local residents weren’t consulted during the proposal stages of this consultation, rather only after it was proposed by a member of the Council who doesn’t even live here.
• It would make more sense to spread the developments out amongst the villages, so that no one settlement is overwealmed and the so-called “benefits” can be enjoyed by all.
• Is the motivation behind the development focused on Elsenham in the interests of the people that live here, or moreso those of the District Council who will receive financial “perks” to concentrate development in once place rather than decentralising it.
• I feel as if my right to protect the local area where I live and my own neighbourhood has been taken away from me.
• What do the District Council actually mean by “affordable housing”? Most of the recent developments in Bishops Stortford have been branded as “affordable” yet these developments are out of the reach of many first time buyers such as myself.

In conclusion it would be nice to think that these comments and those of other local residents will actually make a difference in opposing the development in Elsenham and Henham, but more than likely the nimby (not in my back yard) attitude of a District Council, and ill thought out planning strategy will mean that our opinions will fall on deft ears and our villages will be destroyed forever.

Regards

Ben Ellis”

I stumbled across some cool light painting this afternoon. It is a technique where you use a slow shutter speed and then create shapes either in the air or on an object or building and then capture that on camera. There’s loads of great stuff on flickr, check it out…

Both photos were taken from Flickr.