CornflowerBlue

I'm irrationally excited about tomatoes - last year's rain just burst them all on the vine, so I think I'm going to try keeping them inside. I have an almost south-facing set of french windows, and so far they're flourishing there.

I've only released one, but I'm determined to send a few more out. My sister's caf

I've requested an add to the facebook page as well.

I don't think I'd call everyone who was concerned about those subjects narrow-minded. I'm liberal and have a strong stomach and an insatiable interest in pretty much everything, but some people are just more sensitive. I have to say I started The Lovely Bones and hated it. I found it very wishy-washy.

I loved last night's ep! I love a bit of Gaga anyway but I thought the costumes and songs were brilliantly done. I wanted to be Quinn so much I felt like a very small child watching The Little Mermaid again! I love how they have unexpected successes: I wasn't really interested in the Madonna stuff because I don't really know much of her music, and I expected gaga to just be too raunchy and out-there for me, but actually I thought they played it really well.

I have to disagree with the idea books cause you to try out things you've read. I almost never bit my friends in their deep south plantation houses. Most children, if they're not ready to read/discuss/examine a subject, will not read it. They'll skip the page, put the book down, go 'lalalala' through the bits they don't want to read. The first time I actually read the phrase 'I might even have sex with him', I put the book down, it just wasn't for me yet. If a book about sex makes you think you should be doing it, how can you survive the peer pressure that says the same? There are plenty of books at that ages that are sheer escapism, should that be what you're looking for. I'm 24 now and can look back on my teens with a bit of amusement, but at the time I was even more intense than I am now, and I still never felt I had to try something because I'd read it (though if you'd have offered me Lestat, I probably wouldn't have said no). It's not like having sex at 14/15 is a new thing, I did it and so did a lot of my friends, and I went to a nice grammar school and came from a nice family. The culture around me was all about sex, as it usually is with teens. I think I've rambled a bit, but what I mean is that, when you're 13, 14, 15, sex and violence and drugs are everywhere. If you watch Hollyoaks every night after school, if you've got older friends or siblings, you go to a high school, you watch the big movies movies of the day, then books are still some of the tamest visions you'll be exposed to. One of the fantastic things about books at that age is that they might offer you a different world: instead of the plastic-coated heterosexual clubbing-and-lipgloss-and-alcopops way of life, they let teenagers see that life can be totally different, and that you can be different and successful. Has anyone here read Tender Morsels? Anne Fine criticised in strongly at the Hay festival, then had to admit she hadn't read it. She criticised its content, which includes incest, forced abortions and a gang rape. I've read it, and thought it was beautifully written. It handles the subjects with a compassion and detachment that allows you to watch, as a reader, without being involved. Once she'd read it, Anne Fine said similar. It deals with subjects that are part of our society, and that teenage readers will be discussing with their friends, but there was massive outrage that it was in a book, because books are somehow supposed to be gentler, or nicer, than that. Funnily enough, I've also just read Beautiful Malice. Apparently it's not out 'til February 2011, but I think that's probably going to kick up the same fuss. It centres around the sibling who survives when two of them are drugged and raped. Yes, it's an awful subject, and it was a hard read, but if girls are regularly drinking at 14 and 15, then they're at risk of being spiked, and equally of being raped or assaulted. It was a regular subject of discussion when I was at school, I don't imagine that's changed. If teen and YA books were censored, tamed, made fluffy and sweet, teenagers would stop reading them, and wouldn't that be a catastrophe?

I've asked a few people about this lately, because my diss is in LGBT teen fiction. I read vastly ahead of my age, and my parents never bothered to censor me. I think they were well aware that I would turn away from anything I really wasn't ready for, and I did. I can remember their German best friend reading one of my books and being a bit horrified that I was reading it at my age, but I never read anything that disturbed or upset me. For me it was really important to find books that 'spoke' to me. I was aware very early of sexuality in general: attraction, desire, physical needs. I was also aware that I was somehow other, or different: I remember seeing a Channel 4 show about coming out when I was about six, and feeling that maybe I was a lesbian, but then realising I couldn't be, because I liked boys. Bisexual isn't a word you use much around six year olds Finding characters and situations that resonated with me was hugely important, and I treasured any little hint of someone who was different, or other. It often would have been considered inappropriate subject matter, but it helped define me and give me confidence. I do still have concerns about children's and YA fiction, but mostly that I don't want to see it censored. I am hugely against age banding, which I feel will stigmatise slower readers and make more ambitious readers the victim of over-attentive parents, librarians and teachers. Barry Cunningham now runs ChickenHouse publishing house, but he's most famous as the man who discovered Harry Potter. I asked him this question, in relation to LGBT literature, and he effectively said he wouldn't publish anything with queer themes or characters, 'because you shouldn't terrify children'. He said that he couldn't publish books with a lot of swearing because of the American market, but that there was effectively no limit on the amount of violence a teen book could contain, especially for the US market.

Bah! There goes my hope. We've been trying to alter our account with BT since November, but Daddy dearest loses our digits every time he phones them (the account's in his name).

The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin for me. I know they're supposed to be awful, but a lot of the hatred for them makes me roll my eyes. This implication that anyone brought up with Disney will have their brains liquidised and be cultural black holes is crazy.

Does anyone else always wait for the books to come into paperback? I have Wintersmith and Thud in hardback because they were gifts. The rest are all p/b. I'm dying for Unseen Academicals to hurry up and be in p/b, although I was sorely tempted by the collectors' edition. I'm another Vimes fan, I've loved Vimes more and more - I think he came into his own in Fifth Elephant. I love the bitterness and darkness and anger of him. I reckon there's another PhD in the mystique of the law man - Gene Hunt and Vimes alone would make it fascinating. I'm so selfishly gutted that Pratchett has Alzheimer's -not just on his behalf, but also because I don't want the Discworld books to stop coming.

I'm loving it so far - what a lovely, friendly place

Our soil's not great, lots of sand and gravel from the slabs. There's no access to the back except through the house, and this is our student house, so we've never been able to afford clearing it and adding decent topsoil. It's fine now, we started adding compost and manure about four years ago, but it's very free-draining because of all the sand.

Whoever owns Glee keeps getting them taken off youtube - presumably they're expecting a big market for the DVDs. I'm hoping for a singalong/karaoke one, I have lots of musical friends who would really enjoy that.

I'm 24. I think I might stick with 24, 25 seems like I should have a real job and earn real money, which considering I'll just be starting on a PhD is unlikely!

I've had a search but not much came up except members' individual threads. I've only got a tiny garden, when we moved here it was a paved yard and we've gradually lifted slabs and added compost. Yesterday I roped my ex into coming round and lifting some slabs for me, when we got back from buying lunch he'd lifted all six and dug over the sand and aggregate underneath! I mixed in two HUGE bags of well-rotted manure courtesy of my horsey friend, and now have a 3ftx4ft bed for my curcubits. Courgettes and pumpkins are in, and I'm just waiting for my butternut squashes to beef up a bit before I bung them in. The garden won't produce enough for me to come even close to self-sufficient, but I'll have homegrown lettuce, potatoes, french beans, peas, turnips, beetroot, mini pumpkins, courgettes, butternuts, strawberries and redcurrants. Not bad for a tiny plot! We also have loads of mint which my housemate sowed loose into the garden, so unfortunately we had to have all my friends round and force mojitos on them through the summer

I'm not supposed to drink right now, so I have to keep my quantities low. I'm also not supposed to have caffeine Given the option, I'll have a glass of really good dry white, or a cup of black India monsooned coffee.

I've been on a healthy eating kick for a few weeks, but decided that I was just going to enjoy this long weekend and eat what I fancied. I've actually not been too bad at all, I had a mixed-up version of huevos rancheros last night, and puff pastry tart with mozarella and sweet potatos for lunch. Today, however I have fluffy American style pancakes with chocolate fudge sauce and sliced strawberries, and a whole pot of coffee to myself.

I always miss the ep on a Monday because I'm travelling to work, so I'm unreasonably excited about seeing it on the telly tonight! I'm particularly pleased because 4OD makes the musical bits blurry so it can't be copied, which doesn't make for amazing watching. I watched it this week in light of a bit of recent furore about how Rachel and Jesse's relationship seemed unreal because he's gay and, according to a US journalist, gay men never play convincing straight relationships. I have to say I think he's wrong, I like their relationship and Jesse's really growing on me. Mr Schu singing Aerosmith is a massive highlight for me, I actually made a muffled 'squee' noise

I have freeview built in, and am in a digital area, and no iPlayer on my telly. I'm going to re-scan and check, though, because that would be fab. I didn't like Rory much, either. I'm not a fan of boyfriends tagging along, I thought Mickey was weak too.

This is the one and only time I will be ahead of the game! I loved The Master so much, I have a real interest in LGBT relationships and identifications in the past.

There are some fantastic titles here! I don't think I'll be able to afford to go on holiday, but I have a month and a half break between my dissertation submission in August and my PhD starting in October. Because I'm so buys reading books for my course at the moment, I'm starting to put aside books I really want to read for that break. So far I have: The Ask and the Answer, Patrick Ness, Brooklyn, Colm Toibin Oracle Bones, Peter Hessler, Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett, The Carbon Diaries, Saci Lloyd The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins Look at all those books, already!

The HR manager at Borders used to always ask people's favourite book. Apparently about one in three said "Katie Price's book", and were consequently not hired.

Hello! I love a good Sebastian Faulks, it's ages since I read one.

Hello Ladybug! I'm a newbie too

No one will mind if I don't shower or do laundry for a few months, right?