A View From (The Shed By) The Greenhouse; The Great Betrayal(s)

My loyal reader may remember an article I published, funnily enough, in May 2022 when I wrote about my encounter with a fellow in Bath and my resultant (and still current) flirtation with herbalism. I started drinking nettle tea on a daily basis from that weekend onwards and rarely missed a day. The gout which I’d been plagued by for some years, and which manifested itself, occasionally agonisingly, in my left big toe cleared up as if by magic. I’d previously been prescribed with Naproxen (for the pain) and Omeprazole (to counter possible stomach irritation caused by the first of these drugs). My basic mistrust of the NHS and my concerns about the need to take a drug to potentially protect me from another drug that was supposed to be helping me had played on my mind, so when I heard about the properties of nettle tea (and had done some research) I felt it was the right road for me to go down. Three years on and hardly a twinge, until last Monday, when I woke in the early hours in gout agony. Any road up and to cut a long story short, I reluctantly paid a visit to my GP practice on Friday, just in case. Against my better judgement I’d started a course of Ibuprofen (another of the NSAID family of painkillers) to try and ease the pain and it worked, to a certain extent. The doctor, a young Nigerian fellow named Precious, came round to my way of thinking regarding natural preventatives, but I did find out two things. I haven’t been drinking enough water (which I kind of knew) and I need a precautionary blood test for kidney function. Nettle’s a strong diuretic, but if you aren’t taking in enough fluids, the kidneys (which lose functionality more quickly, the older one gets) struggle to process any build up of Uric acid. That’s me told and a lesson learned. three pints of water a day, except on beer days, because beer’s mainly water, anyway.

Burt, contrary to popular opinion doesn’t just stand there, dissuading crows, rooks and pigeons from stealing the seedlings. He’s often called upon to oversee the odd experiment in time saving. Here he is, watching on as the hose spray gun, set to “flat” and wedged in the frame of the old greenhouse, attempts to simulate a localised spring shower over the beans, peas, potatoes and the raised beds. Fair enough, the spray isn’t wide enough to do the whole area in one go, and Burt does get a soaking in the process, but my “yawk up” inspired buildings and maintenance to visit Penrith and purchase a sprinkler. This new addition to the tool armoury will free up time and save on (metered) water. Genius! I don’t know why I didn’t think of it!

This tub is where phase two of the fertiliser making magic is undertaken (it also comes in handy, with lid on, as a makeshift work table, given the table next to it has so much crap piled up on it it’s become barely usable). I decant the strong solution from the outside tub, sieving it as I go and mixing it at around 50/50 with clean water, before it eventually makes its way diluted again (by a further 25% or so) to the main barrel, where it settles before being drawn off an put to good use. We do occasionally have a problem with rotted material blocking the tap, but that isn’t really my department.

Just a quick peek into the now full cold frame, where, alongside the fifty or so tomato plants we now have the start of the pepper and chilli assortment, although the new purple chilies have failed to germinate, I’m hoping we won’t be short of either sweet peppers or a mix of different strength fruits, including Padron, Habanero, Cayenne (amongst others). An acquaintance from the neighbouring village, who became aware of my plight, has kindly donated a dozen or so plants. All we need now is for the plants to mature and fruit, allowing me to make another batch of chili jam and a couple of different relishes.

The local village school, which I’d actually given up on hearing from, finally got in touch. Their raised bed project having taken a little longer to complete than anticipated, but it’s almost finished now. I jokingly told the school secretary that she should have consulted our B&M department, but she didn’t get it. Consequently, she asked if I had anything the kids could have to plant in their new garden area. I have a few bits ready, but I asked for a couple of weeks grace to try and get some seedlings going for them. I hope I do, because, if not, they’ll get a few leeks, a couple of dwarf beans and a swede or two (we have a lot of swede ready for thinning out). I do have plenty of spare tomato plants, but it’s unlikely they’d get any success with them, given the location.

Although the peas are taking their time in germinating, the mange-tout and broad beans are doing well. Not wanting to to completely bore my reader to distraction, I haven’t posted all the pictures I could have, but onions are doing well, two varieties of carrot are popping through, along with several beetroot, some dwarf beans a couple of turnips and a couple of kohl rabi. I wait with bated breath for my french climbing beans (3 varieties) and my runners to germinate. Inside the greenhouse several salad crops (little gem, romaine, mixed leaves and rocket) are also coming along nicely. It looks likely that we’ll get a second decent crop of strawberries, too, although they’ve been needing a lot of water, this past month and it’s been a little too hot for some of the fruit to grow as I’d have liked. Still, you can’t have everything and at least we’re getting the water cheaper (no names, no pack drill) than we would have been if they hadn’t decided the meter needed changing, because, although they’ve disconnected the old one, there’s a different gang coming to fit the new one. The wheels of commerce turn very slowly, on occasion.

The pain hadn’t quite kicked in, so I thought it was about time I got some holes made and fertilised up, ready for the first of the tomato plants,  which I’d optimistically hoped to plant this week (just gone). Unfortunately I haven’t been able to get them in the ground just yet, but buildings and maintenance assures me that if I’m willing to “supervise proceedings” on the Tuesday following the Bank Holiday Monday, that he’ll endeavour to plant them on to both mine and Burt’s satisfaction. I would have asked Burt to step in for me (the supervisory role) but, at this time of year, he has far greater responsibilities on his shoulders.

I won’t revisit my trip to Brougham and I won’t post exactly what I would like to post, given the current climate, but I will revisit the 20th of June 2016, the announcement of David Cameron’s resignation, made the following day, and an observation I made at the time, for which I was roundly chided. I can’t remember if I posted my thoughts on this august platform, although I find it hard to believe I wouldn’t have, any road up I said and wrote something along the following lines; “Cameron’s resignation may be the most honourable stance he’s ever taken. I believe he’s done this because he knows, whatever he or any of his successors may say about “Honouring The Result”, that the UK will never be allowed to fully Leave the EU and, furthermore, malign and powerful forces will stop at nothing to reverse the result of this Referendum.”  Okay, I get the “honourable” thing may have been a step too far, he is, after all, a politician, but events over the intervening years have shown, at least to me and several close friends, that I was right. I could turn this into a long and probably tedious essay about Blair, Mandleson, Robinson, Starmer (and why I believe this particular staunch Remainiac was chose for the task) but it’s all been said before. I believe though, in essence, that Starmer (a totalitarian by nature, which makes him a perfect fit for a future EU berth, Ukrainian rent boys notwithstanding) has nearly finished the job he was appointed for.

He and his ministers have broken just about every promise they were elected on, in a series of betrayals of the ordinary folk of this country, that I feel is unparalleled in the history of our politics. They’ve weakened the country in the eyes of the world, allowed illegal immigration to increase at a pace that’s almost mind boggling, shafted the medium sized working farmer, the State Pensioner, the energy bill payer and and the council tax payer without a second thought. Starmer himself has “done a deal” with allies of China and Russia, to in essence, remove British protectorate status from the Chagos Islands and leave the citizens of that place to the mercy of an alleged communista and his lawyer cronies, who just happens to Starmers’ pals. All this, in my very humble opinion, moves us ever close to the EU and the benefits of the “closer ties” were were always coming. Tory wets were happy to throw away an 80 seat majority to allow it to happen, such is the power of the EU lobby both within Westminster and further afield. Membership in all but name is the reality we face, whether we might like it or not. The only question really remaining to be answered is will Reform stay the course and, if it does, will it be able to unravel what’s already been done (and what will be done)  before the end of this Parliament?

PS. A Starmer resignation in the near future, whether it be scandal related, or due to internal machinations within the party itself, won’t make any difference. Westminster was (and remains) overwhelmingly majority Europhile and, whilst ever that remains the case, the path Starmer and his confederates has embarked us upon will remain fixed. We’ve been sold out, as I always feared we would be.
 

© Colin Cross 2025