Limited back yard area? Think "vertical garden". Think BioWall!

Here's the so-called "BioWall" as seen some weeks ago on my first viewing at a major supplier/installer.

 I've since taken an extra 3 piccies, separated by a week or more, showing the relative constancy of its impressive appearance.  (Point and click to enlarge). 

Why am I showing it here?

Yes, free advertising, one might say. But there's a separate, more important reason. 

Wife and I have just had one installed in our back yard! 

Here's how our own BioWall looked immediately after installation, together with our  two curious kittenish cats.

We're most impressed - not just by the appearance, but by the underlying science (especially the largely automatic system that keeps the 432 perennial pot plants regularly watered - but NOT overwatered.

More to follow - especially as regards the brilliant irrigation system...

Friday July 30

Yes, let's take a closer look at the irrigation system, which though largely invisible in the end-product, was captured in the piccies I took while installation was in progress.

Above you see some of the 144 containers (each comprising 3 separate pots) that have been attached to the  timber framework. Yes, they are linked. We'll see how shortly.

Here's a follow-up picture with some of the containers occupied, and with one of the two installers doing some careful measurements nearest the back door:

 Here's a clue to the top-to-bottom irrigation system that keeps the BioWall supplied with a life-preserving water supply.

Yes, you can see the inlet water-supply hose snaking up the side, then running behind the top  horizontal spar of timber to the highest tier of containers.

An here's where the water supply came from - namely an outside tap. It was fitted with a second tap and hose, as you can see on the right, the one on the left being the original.

July 31st, 2021

Here's a few details regarding the irrigation system.

First, here's an elevated view taken from the far end, furthest from the inlet feed to the highest tier:

Note the side tubing which takes water into each container. From this angle one cannot see where the tubes go, or how they end. That info is available, however, in a piccy that I took from the opposite end, i.e. from water-supply:

The side tubes dangle freely into the containers.  But what are those ribbed black objects, of which two are visible in the above piccy? To find out, I went down to a lower level and removed a single pot plant from an end-container to investigate in more detail.

I've placed a tick against the black-ribbed item. (Ignore the hole marked with a cross - it seems irrelevant from a brief glance).

Next I tugged lightly on the black ribbed item.  It lifted off, being the grid-protection for a drain exit for surplus water.

(I've marked the location of the vertically-oriented exit drain with a small yellow arrow). 

Sunday August 1

So, starting at the highest of 13 horizontal tiers, a shallow layer of inlet water from an outside tap builds up under each pot, sufficiently high to reach the base of the compost but no higher.  (One relies on subsequent capillary action to gradually wet the entire compost + plant roots). It then proceeds to overflow into a drain pipe, running down to the next tier below, and thus it continues.

Then what?  

Answer: the surplus finally runs into a gutter installed along the base.

Finally, one sees overflow into a conveniently-situated drain:

Time to turn off the inlet tap (which can be up to 20 mins or so after turning on, depending on when the pots were last watered).

Link to BioWall website:

https://www.biowall.co.uk

(Added note: have deleted the inserted image of a colourful BioWall ad' in a free magazine that came through the letterbox. Why?  Answer:  this posting disappeared completely from a search engine listing shortly thereafter! Cause and effect - or mere coincidence? Let's see if the posting reappears or not.)

Have also just discovered that BioWall has a blogsite!

I'll now take a break, and wait to see what, if any, this posting attracts by way of feedback.

.

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Ace2Ace carpet cleaner - one truly amazing invention!

 I'm not in the habit of promoting commercial products, but I shall now make an exception. Why? Because I'm truly gobsmacked at what it does, what it achieves within the domestic environment.

I'll do this posting in instalments. First, here's a snapshot, taken a few minutes ago, of the product in question, i.e. the Ace2Ace carpet cleaner:

I've shown the device (hand, not power-operated) alongside what it's picked up from my household carpets (despite recent vacuuming!).

More to follow...

2nd Instalment (July 21, 21)

Enter Ace2Ace into search engines, and what do you see? Answer: prominent references to "pet hair removal" from carpets.  Indeed, that's how I first came across the device. Our two new(ish) cats had been leaving visible hair on our carpets, it had not been vacuuming up as easily as expected. Answer: I deployed an old-fashioned clothes brush initially, noting it was better than the vacuum cleaner, but not entirely successful. Thus the initial internet search under "carpet" and "pet hair", thus the initial introduction to Ace2Ace, followed by a payment of £13.99  to a well-known internet provider, and next day delivery.  

That's when I got the surprise of my life. Why?  Because while the device did indeed scoop up pet hair, consigning in to a compartment, it did much, much more that that, of which there's scarcely a mention in the online literature.

The Ace2Ace device rejuvenated my ancient carpets (inherited from a predecessor). How, you may ask?

Answer - by removing more than pet hair - much much more!  Yes, scarcely visible in situ with the naked eye, but oh-so-visible when viewed in the  Ace2Ace collection compartment - which needed re-emptying at regular 5 minute intervals!

I have just given a mention, correction,  plug,  ;-) to this site and its latest posting. Where?  On my Shroud of Turin website:

https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2020/06/20/shroud-of-turin-final-report-of-my-8-year-learning-curve-entirely-consistent-with-my-final-flour-imprinting-model-10-crucial-second-stage-roasting-of-a-medieval-body-contact-imprint-to-mimic/

Apols.  (I'll spare you the reasons, except to say this: website visibility via a major internet search engine doth play a role!).

Hare's a piccy showing the compartment in which the fluff is collected. It is easy to access - one simply lifts a flap on the topside of the device:

Third instalment (July 22, 2021)

It's hard to know how best to sum up the internal geometry of the Ace2Ace carpet cleaner. It's both simple AND complex at the same time. Yes it looks simple, viewed intact from the outside, or even with the 'fluff collecter' flap opened to reveal and dispose of what's been collected. It's when one takes a closer look that one sees the simplicity (combined with effectiveness ) of its design. Why do I say that?

First, when you look at the underside, what do you see? Answer, at first sight it looks like a cylindrical roller lined with short stubby bristles, designed to dislodge hair (and dust!) from carpets. But no - the dislodging surface is not  a single continuous  bristle-lined cylinder. That's why one doesn't use the tool for long continuous runs across a carpet. There are in fact TWO wide strips of the 'dislodger'  mounted on the cylinder with intervening gaps.  That's why one uses the tool as if a paint roller, i.e. rolling back and forth over a shortish distance. That engages each of the strips in turn - one on the push stroke, one on the pull, gathering detritus  onto the separate strips each alternately and in turn.  But that alone would not transfer the muck to the collector. How is that achieved one might ask? Answer:  simple - but one has to look carefully within the guts of the tool to find the answer.

4th instalment, July 23

So let's see what the Ace2Ace is able to collect from a carpet, correction, a marked-out square metre of carpet.  

I've chosen a stretch of carpet that is not noticeably strewn with pet hair, despite having one of our two kittenish-cats in attendance:

Next step - use a pair of steel rules to mark out a square metre:

Next step: take a close-up photo of the Ace2Ace with an emptied fluff-collecting compartment:

Here's the fluff  collected and stored from just half that square metre of carpet:

Now move to the unbrushed left side of the carpet (with t'other pussy in attendance):

And here's what one sees inside the fluff-collecter  compartment after doing both halves of that marked-out square metre!

So how does the fluff get from the roller strips to the collecter compartment?  One has to peer closely into the narrow gaps between the cylinder and its outer casing (I did consider trying to get a piccy but thought better of it). In short, the answer is both simple yet ingenious from a mechanical point of view: the fluff-acquired cylinder makes contact with two additional strips of  bristly/stubble coating on the inside of the casing. They  gently and efficiently scratch off the fluff, the latter being dumped into the collector compartment. 

As indicated earlier, I find the combined  efficiency and mechanical simplicity of the Ace2Ace simply gobsmacking.   It's not to be seen purely as a device for collecting pet hair. As stated earlier, it picks up months, nay years of microscopic grey fluff and dust, giving one's ageing carpets a new lease of life. The  Ace2Ace inventors have maybe not qualified  (yet) for a Nobel Prize.  But a  consolation Loud Bell Prize of some description, internet- or  (better still) MSM-mediated - is definitely warranted!

I'll leave it there for now.  Comments welcome...

July 26, 2021: Back again. Why?  While keeping an eye open for interesting new additions to the shelves in retail outlets, here are two more to which I intend to give brief exposure. (Strictly interest only - no commission payments whatsoever, whether invited or received!).

I'll start with  a piccy of the two new additions,  parked side-by-side, taken just a few minutes ago:

One is a unusual Chilean white wine (from a  climate-blessed grape-growing zone region slightly inland from Valparaiso which wife and I visited in  late 2018).  The other is a novel vertical floor-standing outlet for electrical appliances.

More to follow hopefully  in a day or two. 

(My mind right now is preoccupied with yet another retail product that is being installed on our patio tomorrow, namely  a "BioWall".   (See  local retailer/installer display item below):

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Late insertion - July 27:

My very own "Biowall" was installed today. Pussies are investigating: 

Yes. A real treat of an addition to the back yard of  one's otherwise humble household!  Read: instant garden (correction, "vertical garden" !) 

The suppliers have ok'd it being subject of a new posting - expect in a few days or so...

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"BioWall" may well be the subject of a separate  future posting - from a strictly botanical point a view (432 perennial plants in 144 angled containers - creating a "vertical garden" suited to confined spaces!) 

Going back to earlier,  here are some close ups of  the label of that "unusual"  (oh so distinctive!) Chilean white wine:

Yes, it's a  plain-old " Chardonnay". But much else besides. Read on..

Label reads:  "Overflowing with tropical fruit flavours and citrus notes".

How come, one might ask?  (Not that I was complaining - having taken my first sip , and thinking " Oh boy,  oh boy, that makes one helluva  change from regular, routine white wine"). But beware - there's a tiny sting in the tail... see what else appears on the label 

New instalment: July 27

Here's a piccy I posted on my Shroudie site (tail end!) back at the, er, tail end of 2018:

It showed where missus and I stayed briefly on our 2 week excursion to far-flung Chile, up in the Andes.

But most of our stay was in Santiago (the capital) plus the adjacent Pacific coastline to the west - seaside-resort Algorrobo and  (then) the characterful  Valparaiso port city a short way to the north.

<i>En route </i>, we traversed the much-acclaimed  (ideal-grape-cultivation climate ) wine-making region with "Casablanca" a prominent place name:

Here's a map of that part of the  particular (long skinny)  stretch of Chile, with our travels approx midway north to south of that amazingly-elongated  country (with amazing contrast between  mix of coastal hill and plain, with nearby Andes to the east). 

Back to that newly-sampled wine from that oh-so-special region of Chile.

Here are two piccies  of the label in close-up:

Yes, it talks up (and rightly so) its exceptional flavour. 

But here is the sting in the tail, flagged up earlier, when on reads the adjacent small print:

 

Yes, it reads: " It is recommended that that this wine be consumed within one year of purchase". 

?????????????????????????????

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!

Why? Why ? Where's the explanation? Where's the SCIENCE?????

It is totally news to me that any wine (exceptionally flavourful or otherwise) should be consumed within ONE YEAR OF PURCHASE.  Never before in my wine-sipping life have I ever encountered that message before. What's the reason? What have I (and probably others) missed regarding wine - which we thought improved (not deteriorated) on storage?

Here, after a quick internet search, is a website that gives the answer as to why some wines store and improve better than others:

https://oureverydaylife.com/wine-not-expire-33989.html

It's to do with what accompanies the alcohol, the flavour etc. The accompaniments to the alcohol etc (notably acids etc) may affect the durability of the wine!

That is/was news to me. Am I the only one to be surprised by what for me was an eye-opener - arriving oh-so-late in life ?

So, you pays your price. You may get exceptionally "fruity" flavour etc in the new wine - a year or two old - but there's a big big price to pay. Consume while the wine is still young".#

Enough said re wine ...

More to follow: