Compost Heap Blog

Most Remote Customer

We received this email from one of our most loyal customers. I think they’re our most remote customer as well, though south island New Zealand and the Shetland Isles might have a shout.

Hi George
We finally received our order today and I found the long awaited invoice inside the box !
So I will send you a cheque on the first available north bound penguin !

Stanley Garden Centre
Falkland Islands

M23 Works in Sleepy Sussex

Finally work has started on the M23 just close to our offices. The treacherous piece of dual carriageway will be widened, made safer and hopefully will improve the traffic flow. However in the meantime, the lumberjacks have moved in and the first phase is removing all the trees along both sides of the motorway. This has left huge gaps on either side of the road which resemble something more akin to a war zone than a sleepy part of Sussex.

The motorway is closed at night, until early morning and the lumberjack work all night. They’ve such bright light showing them the way that it looks like daylight in the war zone – we can look down from the bridge in Handcross after 8 o’clock! Also the noise travels in the dead of night, and the digger, cranes with tank tracks, chainsaws and log splitters add to the surreal atmosphere – the whirring, whining and crackings are so alien to the normal quiet of the night.

Pan Pipes!

On a recent trip to the Worcester region – home to the infamous Chateau Impney (footballers paradise just outside of Birmingham) – I was lucky enough to need to visit Worcester itself and walk the main streets. The city centre has a nice hustle and bustle, and there are always a few market stalls and local traders selling their wares – ‘finest local sausages – last string - £5 for you – last string…’ – and the occasional busker.

On turning into the high street, a little crowd had gathered and there in the melee was the one and only Pan pipe man. He really works hard and travels around, for this year alone I’ve bumped into him piping away in Sidmouth, Guildford and now Worcester.

In Sidmouth, on a hot early summer’s evening (there was one this year), he was playing on top of the sea wall, tip-toeing and spinning around as the sun went down, dressed in full headdress, and war paint.

In Guildford High Street, he piped the happy holiday crowd about a month later. Again in full headdress and he even had a drums man with him, and the two of them zig-zagged about, the pan pipes at full volume.

And last of all, here’s him finishing the season off in Worcester. More low key in Worcester – perhaps they’re used to that kind of thing.

Has anyone else seen our hero in any other cities this year?

Pan Pipe Man