The no-dig garden update...

Did someone say I planted a no-dig jungle? My no-dig garden is doing wonderful and has provided a bounty that has kept me cooking for weeks.

So far, a million different version of salads, trays of eggplant parmigiana to use up the basil, a day of pizza dough making so I could pluck off and pile on, herb omelettes for weekend brunch...can't wait for winter roasts for the rosemary! Oh and the radishes are almost ready. Plus more marigolds than you could of ever imagined.

A no dig garden + farmer's market = an afternoon of cooking!

The herb potato salad

Yet another tray of eggplant, basil and buffalo mozzarella parmigiana

It's even more of a jungle now than in these pictures from last week. Yesterday I spotted a ladybug as well. However...the caterpillars have arrived...not too over the moon about the meal they have made of my lettuces and also the pak choi! Oh well, you live and learn. Hopefully tomorrow a day of sowing more seeds and harvesting something new...pure bliss!

Ode....to grey marl

Oh grey marl

so very grey and usually

Soft; though light breaks through yonder window,

I know you represent time, time stopped not passing

Time to sit about aimlessly, tv glare upon my face;

face aglow though pale in the lazy haze of laptop screen illumination.

Oh bitter depths (of grey), oh white stitching,

Raglan sleeves make easy work; put it on, pull it off...

Will the cheering reds and brilliant blues, will the killer black and pristine whites

Ever know it's you I dream of. Grey Marl. Like an anchovy blistered in the sun.

A long weekend...still stretching.

PS. to hell with a proper Ode format...!

Launching into the digital realm

A new role for me...just call me the Digital Marketing Officer. So now I get a chance to let my flight of fancy go wild! Well I suppose after all the blogging and internal angst as I mulled over all digital things it is only fitting it's my new purpose in life. Officially starting next week I have a long list of things to do in the digital realm. Wish me luck!

Work anywhere?

Oooh jobs on country estates and boats...one to keep up the sleeves when wanderlust catches up with me.

http://anyworkanywhere.com

Are you in the top 100 Facebook fan pages?

Another link to come back too. The List of Top 100 Australian Facebook fan pages...love the disclaimer about volume!

Do you tweet you thumb at me sir?

So this is how it went down. I am a well know lover of language. However, this does not preclude me from being very excited at how our good old mother tongue will adapt in future. Tweet your Shakespeare? Let's face it, if he was alive today, good old Will would've of done it.

Call it a tenner...? (not a tenor)

Pricing, once barely researched or mentioned in the arts, is increasingly recognised as a critical marketing and financial tool. In terms of maximising revenue, the growing adoption and adaptation of yield management techniques suggest that a new, more dynamic approach to pricing is emerging. Call it a tenner is a new collection of essays and case studies that debunks the myths and legends surrounding pricing in the arts. Commissioned by Arts Council England and written by some of the leading names in the arts, it provides a fresh perspective on the art of pricing.

Are you excited as I am to read this?

The 'Do' list

Again another inspiration from The Sagacious Friend....why have a 'To Do' list when you can have a 'Do' list!

I find 'To Do' lists irksome, especially when nothing seems to move off your list because you spend time doing the things that pop up and are not even worth the time to pop on the 'To Do' list. I've tried to stop checking email when it comes, rather check it 2 or 3 times a day trick. I've tried turning the 'To Do' list into tasks that take 5 minutes or less, around 15 minutes or more than that and fitting them in when I can...I've tried doing all the things I don't want to do first...just grin and bare it!

Anyhow I'm going to see if a change of name for my list is as good as holiday. Ahhh more blogging is now higher up on my 'Do' list...wish it was on my 'Done' list.

A website is not, however, a digital strategy

Via the folks at the ADVICE Project, this article had me at the word 'digital creep'. Here's just a few bits that piqued my interest...

It’s not just about the website – arts organisations should wake up to the wider possibilities of the digital world, says Susi O’Neill.

"I am shaping a holistic map of how it could use digital tools across the organisation: in internal communications, project management, collaboration with trainees and social marketing to improve communication with participants and stakeholders.

We identified existing activities and looked at how to integrate these into a new website that can be accessible to anyone, anywhere, on any device: photos from workshops will be shared on Flickr, a YouTube channel will display documentaries that currently sit on the shelf and mailshots will become blog posts. Website news will be moved onto Twitter, augmenting Threshold’s reach through automated, integrated tools. The new website will position it as a creative curator, exhibiting media in carefully crafted collections. Content hosted on social networking sites will be reintegrated into the main website which acts as a ‘hub’ for activity happening wherever its audiences are. A website is not, however, a digital strategy, and we are considering how to create a community of interest around Threshold’s diverse participants to provide ongoing support.

There’s a fear of the unknown in this realm. We need to form new relationships and create a genuine, meaningful depth of engagement in the online world for both audiences, artists and stakeholders. This is about a culture shift which is both challenging and exciting for the future of Threshold.”

From The Sagacious Friend...found after a long chat about experience versus academic research...

Ivory tower myopia ails marketing

LONG after marketing graduates have forgotten what the fourth P in the marketing mix - product, price, place and promotion - stands for (except when they look at the advertising agency's invoice and think it is profligacy), they remember Theodore Levitt.

Levitt changed marketing with his 1960 essay Marketing Myopia, which argued companies grow when they look beyond the products and services they sell to consider what the market needs.

But marketing academic Peter November, from Victoria University of Wellington, says no journal would accept it now: "It is a persuasive piece of writing but it's not a quantitative study." Hence, the title of November's 2004 essay, Seven Reasons Why Marketing Practitioners Should Ignore Marketing Academic Research.