Odd things sometimes happen when the train is a little late and you get to hear two Ted talks back to back, in the order you downloaded them. You get to see Carl Safina identifying the real reasons for “accidental” oil spills: corporations that have bought government out from under us. And you get to see Matt Ridley saying that the average person has gained 7.5 seconds in leisure time since 1950, in the amount they have to work to obtain an hour of light, and that this represents progress.

And that can ruin at least the start of your day.

Actually been back a little while, frantically catching up and trying to cope with too much heat, too much humidity and not enough (or any) escape. Apart from work, where the a/c is about the best that can be said for the experience. So, as the previous post was all about the magic frangipani’s near-death experience and resurrection, I’ll make this a quick what’s happening on the terrace post.

Watering remains a huge problem in this weather, and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Jeffrey and Martha, who stayed here and looked after the babies. Without them, death would have been certain for almost all. So, that’s a single baby frangipani leaf above, and, for comparison, the whole resurrected thing below. Will it flower this year? Who knows.

Then there are the tomatoes, Pugliese Green from my own saved seeds. It is a well-known fact that fruit is perfectly ripe the day after birds have destroyed it. So as soon as I saw that the naughty crows had eaten the ripest, I brought the others in.

They’re wonderful; dense with flavour, and chewy without being tough. A great blend of sweetness and acidity that makes me wish I could grow them in more bulk to try a bit more selection. Which reminds me, I mustn’t forget to save some more seeds later in the summer, and that means keeping the crows away.

And finally, a sunflower, backlit by the setting sun. There’s something really rather sad about sunflowers in a pot, all droopy mangled leaves on sparse stems, which is why I concentrated on the flower. The variety is called Black Velvet, a stupid name if ever there was one. I planted some seeds of Vanilla Ice too, but the pictures aren’t as dramatic. They were my last seeds, and I’ve a feeling that both varieties are sterile, which is a shame.

Anyway, that’ll do for now. I’m also playing with the new Post Image capability to see how that works out. Might mean I have to find an image for everything, which would not be good. We shall see.

Almost a month after I decapitated the magic frangipani, signs of life.

Four or five of the axillary buds have swelled and given forth tiny little leaves.

Is there enough time left for it to build up its reserves for another hard winter?

iBank it is. After giving Moneydance and iBank another few goes around, I was eventually persuaded by iBank to part with my money. I was impressed by its slickness, especially at reconciling statements and getting information seamlessly from teh interwebs. Reconciling is an absolute doddle, as it allows you to just drag and drop from one pane to another, and as you can sort in the to-be-reconciled pane by amounts, that makes it simplicity itself to just run your eye down the columns to find the correct transaction. Share prices too are impressive, as long as you give it the information it needs to find what you’re looking for. Imports just work. The slickness extends also to its nagging and then, when you finally weaken, to the online purchase. Very good all round.

Of course even “simple” financial software is a complicated beast, and it will take time both to learn what I need to know and to discover what bugs me about iBank; some things surely will. So far, though, I’m happy and would strongly recommend it to any other Mac user looking to escape Quicken’s clutches.

Now I need a good replacement for iView Media Pro.

Colleen spotted this great flickr set of new logos for BP. Personally, I think the company will bounce back. After it all, it was only BP’s calamity that brought the Exxon Valdez back into the news, and all of us who swore we’d never buy Esso again slowly forgot our pledges. Kinda stupid putting all rights reserved on the flagship image for the set though.