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This weekend behemoth produce will be rolled out at the UK National Giant Vegetables Championships. I’m not sure anything from my garden could be a contender. But if they ever hold a National Mini Veg Competition I could put my carrots forward.

Why people choose to grow giant veg is a bit of a mystery to me, but I guess that’s how supermarket worshippers feel about those of us putting in months of effort to grow a tenner’s worth of veggies for ourselves.

This programme about the pursuit to be crowned Giant Veg King (you’ll notice a distinct lack of women growers - obviously too busy running the world) gives a brilliant insight into the awesome lengths these gardeners will go to. I can’t decide which of them is my favourite, they’re all so fantastic.

There’s nowt so queer as folk.

After a less than thrilling bank holiday shift today I made the most of the late afternoon sun by taking a trip to a local Pick Your Own farm. Tuscany, eat your heart out…

They do the usual row after row of strawberries as well as the less usual…

…marrows, runner beans, and sweetcorn. (more…)

The “Cat Woman” (as she’s labelled online) craziness abounds. Four days on, people in the newsroom are beginning to look a little queasy whenever the word “cat” is mentioned - which is approximately once every 15 minutes.

This story has done the rounds in the “gutter press”, but it’s also appeared in the Guardian, the Indie and the New Statesman, and Radio 4 asked Jilly Cooper of all people to share her opinions on the Today programme.

Someone has started up a Twitter account as @CatBinLady and already has 9,000 followers, while elsewhere in the Twittersphere people are tweeting as Lola the cat. And the footage is still top of the YouTube chart.

And now come a million games and videos, capitalising on the “cat in bin” saga. Starting with the Tabby Trash game above, here’s a round-up of the spin-offs so far…

The Ruskie spin-off…

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I used to think so. And this video, with the biker who plays footsie with the pavement as if he’s on a scooter or a moped, didn’t do much to change my mind. But…

…taking one on a test drive did. I am sold.

The Wisper I trialled works just like an ordinary bicycle - until you turn the power on. (more…)

The reactions in this footage are very moving.

Thirty three miners in Chile are stuck more than 2,000ft beneath the ground at the San Jose gold and copper mine near Copiapo.

The miners have been stuck for 17 days but yesterday managed to write a note and send it up through a small hole drilled by the rescue team.

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The emergency services have warned it could take four months to rescue the 33 men (more…)

Very strange indeed.

I’ve been writing today about a local family who set up CCTV cameras on their house after a spate of burglaries in the area. But one of the cameras has captured a truly bizarre occurrence this weekend.

The couple reviewed the footage after hearing their cat, Lola, mewing and finding her in their wheelie bin. They expected to see drunken louts playing a trick on the moggy, but instead saw a woman stop to stroke the cat before dumping it in the bin and shutting the lid.

On first viewing, I was as gobsmacked by the curious behaviour as everyone else has been. But perhaps what has been more interesting (more…)

This is interesting…

The Guardian’s bike blog took a look at the Copenhagen Wheel yesterday. Bike blogger Adam Vaughan panned the idea but after falling in love with electric bikes this week I’d like to think it has potential. He also flagged up the most obvious problem - and the one that puts me off straight away - this design just screams “steal me”! This bike wouldn’t last a week in our dodgy old shed in Cov before getting nicked.

I had a good giggle reading through research by the Chewing Gum Action Group (yes, they really do exist) into the different personalities of gum droppers. They split them into four groups and it reads a bit like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Thre are: The Show Offs (who make a game out of kicking their gum way), The Careless (who don’t care about littering), The Guilty (who know littering is wrong but find ways to justify it) and The Revolted (who want to get rid of old gum as quickly as they can).

If you recognise yourself amongst these categories you might want to change your ways. If you’re caught littering with gum in Coventry you’ll be fined £80 - and will probably die of embarrassment (unless you’re one of The Careless). We’ll be checking back with them to find out whether the chewing gum clamp-down has the desired effect or if Coventry is destined to be clad in gum forever more.

DON’T we just love to hate cyclists?

We wave our fists as they pass us by on pavements, scoff as they saunter past stopped cars at red lights and tut at the ones who don’t bother to wear helmets - don’t they know they are just asking for an accident?

I’m not sure when pedal power became so roundly hated but the last few weeks have brought (more…)

“Look! Is it a stockbroker? Is it a quantity surveyor? Is it a church warden? NO! It’s Bicycle Repair Man!”

London’s first roadside bicycle repair scheme was launched today and I’d like to think it’s a little something like this…

SE1-based Druid Cycles has a new team of trained mechanics with bike maintenance kits making their way round the capital - on bikes, naturally - repairing punctures and fixing skewiff brakes.

I can already hear the sneers from seasoned cyclists asking, “why can’t people fix their own punctures?” But bike maintenance was one of the few dark clouds that hung over cycling for me before I got my bike and while I’m just about confident fixing a puncture at home, I’m still more likely to just walk my bike home if I get lumbered with a problem while out and about. So if these guys encourage more people to give cycling a go, I think they’re doing a top job.

“Wherever bicycles are broken or menaced by international communism, bicycle repairman is ready!”