Spring, it seems, is here. We're having the proverbial March winds aplenty, and the the bulbs I stuck in the ground last autumn have popped up to hail its coming.

So, last weekend I took the opportunity to get going on this year's growings. Last year, despite not moving into my house until June, I planted some rocket, runner beans and radishes. Nether of the latter two worked out particularly well, but the rocket was fantastic and we ended up with large amounts of rocket pesto!

Well, this year I'm a little more planned, and have planted a few seeds already. Tomatoes have gone into trays, and basil and sage are now in pots. For the basil and sage, poking a few holes in some old falafel packages has made the perfect containers.

My books have told me that spinach, on the other hand, can be sown out early, so I've put a row of that into my patch out in the back garden.

For a while now, I've been wanting to grow garlic, but unfortunately I'm still very much a novice at this and didn't realise that it was supposed to be planted around the end of December! Again, one of my books tells me that it can be planted out in the Spring, but only if you don't expect to get much from them until late in the year. Let's hope.

I was recently given a bike by my parents for my birthday. I know that this makes me sound like I'm about 12, but hey ho, they knew that I'd been wanting one for a while and I hadn't got around to buying one. I'm actually really pleased with it.

By most standards, I probably live in one of the best places in the country for cycling (unless you're really into mountain biking or BMX or something else). I live within about a 2 minute ride of a route on the national cycle network and about 5 minutes from the national canal network, which from Bournville, not only goes to university (where I work), but also beyond to the city centre and ultimately the rest of the country.

The ride into university takes about 15 to 20 minutes, which is basically how long it had been taking me by train, given that I usually end up waiting about 5 minutes or so for one.

Now the decision of whether to ride or go by train now seems to me to be an easy decision. As an example of mechanism design, this is how I see it: Each day I get paid £1.80 (the train fare) to exercise for half an hour. It takes up no more time out of my day, and there's none of the expense (and in my opinion boredom) associated with going to a gym.

So, the picture above shows my new route to work. And, as if the benefits already were not enough, instead of being advertised at by the omnipresent telescreens on the train, I instead get to enjoy the drifting smell of chocolate being made at the Cadbury factory, and to watch the ducks and geese flapping and hissing at me as I ride past.

Now I'm just waiting for my first rainy day...

Yesterday was one of the windiest days I've seen for a while. What a fun blog post, eh? Well, not really, except for the fact that I stumbled upon (not literally) this fallen tree whilst walking home, so popped out to photograph it. I've quite enjoyed my night photography of late, and am quite pleased with this one too.

The weather was also headline news - four people died due to it, and my girlfriend Marla got stranded in Crewe on her way to Edinburgh on the train. Thankfully, she got taxied off to Nantwich, where she was given food and wine in an Italian restaurant and a night in a hotel, all on Richard Branson. This was the first day of her travels around Europe - so what a start!

I wonder if "the weather" could be an interesting subject for my photography to focus on...