Anna Russell, who performed that wonderful parody of Wagner's RING, had died. Here is a link to the obituary in the New York Times (I haven't seen any obits in UK or European papers yet, but apparently her death has also been reported in the Australian press.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/obituaries/20russell.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

"I'm not making this up, you know!"

My favourite lines from her RING parody.

I planted a blueberry bush today!:p
Of course, it doesn't look like this yet....
will re-post in about a year's time!!

I'm so pleased....I've been subjected to a lot of harassment by my landlady, and obviously Camden Council have finally decided that it's serious enough to warrant moving me up the list! It's a ground floor flat in West Hampstead, where I used to live about 15 years ago. And there's a patio for my plants and the compost bin, which is what the harassment was about.....
can't believe it's really happened! So quickly.....usually it takes months.