A View (Actually) From The Greenhouse….Everything Is Not As It Seems…

Like me, you’d have been saddened but unsurprised by the latest in a long line of cars, as if driven by some kind of divine hand, crashing into innocent people going about their ordinary, if festive business. Five people, including a nine year old child,  were murdered in this dastardly, pointless act of mindless violence. Amazingly, the perpetrator of this crime was immediately identified as an “apostate ex-Muslim” with a penchant for all things “far-right”. No misunderstood “lone wolf” this time. No “lost soul” who’d been bullied at school and only wanted a better life, but ended up being “radicalised” on line. No “mentally-ill” refugee, with an Imam who simply couldn’t understand it. I make no judgement here (I’ve got more sense), but I will say two things. If it looks like a duck, acts like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck. Also, if I wanted to insert myself into a culture that I’d been brought up to despise, I’d not be going around telling people, least of all the government of the country where I wanted to insert myself, what my true intentions were. I’d lie to them, all the while biding my time until I felt it was the right moment to let my actions speak for me.  At best our governments and their functionaries are completely incompetent, at worst, they know exactly what they’re up to and innocent people, enjoying simple “western” pleasures, as they’ve been doing for many a long year, are acceptable collateral damage.

On to matters more mundane; as you’d imagine, very little of any import gets achieved in the “kipper months” where green-housing is concerned. A cursory inspection once or twice a week (on my part) and a bit of glass replacement by the buildings and maintenance team, following the latest round of “storms”. It isn’t so much the glass that’s the problem, but the wooden frames. They’re getting renewed bit by bit, but it’s a time consuming job, as the glass and frame are all imperial sizes and, consequently all the timber needs cutting down from metric. I suppose this is our version of a third world problem. The strawberry plants? Those that are thriving will be planted out in January.

I’m not going to get any sprouts, but I didn’t really expect to. What I will have is some decent fresh greens to put in soups or eat as part of a meal. I’m putting the brassica outside next year and bringing the climbing beans back into the greenhouse (I may already have mentioned this). I’ll leave the runners and peas outside, they both did well this year. I’ve neglected the weeding a bit, but it gets cold in there at this time of year and, TBH, I can’t really be bothered anyway, the old “rough gardener” never really went away.

I’d fully intended to use my own compost to replenish the strawberry beds, but having seen how much seed there is in it (last years potting) I decided to get a couple of bags as topping for the existing beds, after feeding with chicken manure and nettle solution. As I mentioned above, I’ll split those plants that have managed to survive the last few weeks and stayed looking reasonably healthy, plant them out (in the carefully prepared holes) and cover them with fleeces until the weather breaks. With a bit of luck I should get an early crop, if we have a decent spring and decent later pickings, so long as the back end is similar to this year. Optimism, however misplaced (or not), helps to see us through the lean months.

We call it “the bait cabin”. It’s stood on this same spot for over forty years and my eldest daughter fondly remembers Norm reading “Button Moon” and “Billy Goats Gruff” to her as he fed the pet lambs, or took a break from tending his tomato plants. It did have a feed store at one end, but there’s some shelving there now, which, in the short time it’s been installed, has managed to attract all manner of potentially useful (might come in handy one day) clutter. Sadly it’s looking a little tired. The roof was re-felted a couple of years ago, but it’s time for the outside to get a bit of TLC. Choosing a colour could be fun. Buildings and maintenance will probably want to stick with black, but I fancy a very dark grey. Let’s see what happens.

I’m not really struggling for things to write about, honest, but; You may remember that I took a trip last year (with geologist Dave) to help him tidy up (as he puts it) some of the smaller branches that a good friend (a logger) of his deems too small to be worth bothering with. Much of it is hornbeam, although there’s a mix of different woods involved. My small, but very efficient wood burning stove is exactly the right size for the resulting logs. Any road up, I gave them a decent period of time to season and I’ve just moved a ton or so into my garage. They could have maybe done with a bit longer to “season” as they take a bit of getting going,  but they burn hot and slow, which is is just what’s required. Tomatoes and chillies went the other way, I’ve a feeling that barter (more of which later) will become a little more widespread going forward.

It’s that time of year again and the dominoes have come out, along with the “we might start the league back up early next year” rhetoric (I’ll believe it when it happens). The venue wasn’t my local and I got talking to a chap of my acquaintance who keeps pigs. We’ve come to an accommodation of sorts, where tomatoes, peppers and preserves will be taken in trade for lovely, free range pork products. Meat being of a higher commercial value than my produce the conversation turned to how we’d balance our trade gap. The solution was a very simple one and I come out of it very well, without even trying. “How about we do it on weight, pound for pound” was the suggestion (not from me). Hands were shaken and the deal done. Grand.

Turkey prices are rising every year, my local farm-shop’s offering free range birds at £15 a kilo, but the farm up the road was £3 a kilo cheaper and I know the farmer, so I took my business there again. I’ve been buying my Christmas poultry from this same family since we moved up here, they haven’t let me down yet, so the fact it’s less expensive’s an added bonus. They don’t have a card machine, either! I like the way they set out the wares, in the same shed where the birds are slaughtered and plucked, they’ll even let you visit the birds while they’re growing, if that’s what floats your boat. For the first couple of years I actually thought you could pick your own pre-slaughter!

Labour (ho hum) gets itself in another knot over the “plight” of The Waspi Women. They’re finding out, the hard way, that being in opposition is a very simple job when it’s compared to actually being in government. My wife’s a “Waspi”, she knew what was coming and although it didn’t suit us or our plans, she got on with it and put off her retirement by three years. She also knew that, whatever noises politicians of every stripe were making, the likelihood of a retrospective payment of some kind was highly unlikely. I’m guessing Labour knew this too, but they lied and misled those affected anyway, either being too stupid to think it would ever come back at them or (more likely IMHO) thinking that a stint in government was so far in the future that everyone would have forgotten their mealy-mouthed promises. People don’t always forget, although I’m sure most politicians work on the theory they do and feed us their rhetoric based on the premise. Now we learn, as this latest debacle gets shunted aside (not in the Manifesto) that Keir needs a holiday, so stressed is he by the tribulations of running the country. I’m not surprised he’s “feeling it”, when both you and your incompetent media facing minions are being continually caught in a lie, it’s bound to take its toll, even if you lack the slightest understanding of, or real empathy for the people you supposedly work for.

Any road up, that’s all from this old curmudgeon for 2024. Whatever you’re up to over the festive period, I hope you all have a great time and come out the other side with a smile on your face. Next year’s going to be a doozy. Don’t let the bastards grind you down1

Merry Christmas one and all.
 

© Colin Cross 2024