I've been reading the various Snaptember stories, especially those from mockduck, jinty and pomma_penses with interest. The Snaptember concept, if I have it right, is that you simply record a snap from wherever you are that day, without any aim beyond showing what it around you that day. So far I've seen it recording workspaces, home environment, family members, trips, aspirations, projects and more. I've been thinking about joining in, but the way I use my camera (load it for a week, then review it, then upload) feels a bit off brief. But, on the other hand...

September 1st - Tim cuts the Krim



Black Krim is a popular home grow tomato which I've tried for the first time this year. Not the last! It looks very strange but the flavour is quite lovely - rich, sweet, and slightly meaty. Just visible: Bovril. I'm not a fan (except when ill) but timscience (wielding the knife) likes it.



September 2nd - The Sunflower Survivors



I've had a lot of trouble getting sunflowers past slugs this year. In the end I grew them in pots in a trug until their stems were woody enough to resist the munching, but even then I had four decapitated, three sliced midway and one snipped at the (woody and I thought inedible) base.

September 3rd - The Churchill Cats



I went up to The Churchill in my lunch hour (a trek and a wait but I had my course reading and my Blackberry, so could work in the queue) and in the Old Hospital, there were cats painted on the windows! I'm guessing it was the Children's hospital once? There are more if you click through, including a kitten in a box.

September 4th - Twitter text alerts reappear!



I got a very unexpected pocket massage, discovered that some people tweet a lot and had my first moment of incandescent twitterRAGE in months courtesy of a retweet by oxfordhacker. All in all, very reconnecting to the mainstream - like watching the Top 40, listening to Radio 1, or reading a the Evening Standard. I turned off some alerts and kept others on - including yours, @oxfordhacker !

September 5th - Welcome to Sunny Didcot



A workplace shot this time - from the mean streets of Didcot. I was just up the road from here, outside Sainsburys, in the gazebo between the Sky salesman and a crew from a childhood cancer, charity, promoting post-16 learning options for young people. I'm sure you will be glad to hear that there are some interesting new options near Didcot, including science park apprenticeships a new UTC. No? Oh well. Have a leaflet.

September 6th - The Librarian's Car



I went to see jinty, tortipede and family after my haircut, and that means cutting through Old Cowley, which is a bewildering mish-mash of architectural styles, from aspirational modernist flats to tiny loaf-fat cottages and everything inbetween, including the amazing and much-beloved curvy library, here suitably accessorised with a curvy car.

September 7th - The Enormous Marrow



Not that I want to suggest that Tim spends his entire life chopping up oversized vegetables, but here he is, at it again! This Marrow was presented to us by his mum, who had gown it to this prodigious size on her compost heap. It had been forgotten on our first attempt to leave the house, and if the last couple of visits are anything to go by, "Have you forgotten the marrow?" is going to become part of the standard goodbye process, alongside "drive carefully" and "see you - well - soon". We ate it stuffed with the (very necessary) help of tinyjo and oxfordhacker.


Week two should feature fewer vegetables and more pie, as September progresses to its logical end.