A View From The Outside Bit; More In Common?

I’d say that I’m at about 95% on my road to recovery, still one or two niggling issues, but I’m hoping time will sort them out. I did manage a few pints and a decent game of dominoes last Tuesday (the 10th), so that’s progress of a kind. The trauma of the seven nights in a hospital bed, with all that entails when you’re quite poorly, will probably stay longer with me than the operation and what led up to it, but that, I suppose, is life. On to other matters. The four raised beds are now all weed free, topped up and “fed”. It’s an onerous task, but one I enjoyed, now that I’ve rediscovered the ability to both kneel down and bend from the waist without needing a manual aid to help me back up. Buildings & Maintenance had a sick day (self certified) but the work has continued apace and, as of Friday just gone, structural repairs are (hopefully) finished for this year, barring unforeseens. The recent windy couple of days dislodged a sheet of roof glass, without breaking it, which pays testament to the works carried out so far.

What a difference the new window and work surface has made to the whole business of getting things ready to plant and also being able to enjoy the shed just that little bit more. It’s tidy (by my man standards at least), far cleaner than it was and much better organised. I’m under strict instruction to keep it like this, not only from the B&M team, but also from Mayas’ mum, who will only allow her to visit me (and help) if said shed passes muster. It may not be this year, but I’m hoping that the little one’ll be planting seeds with me, and getting thoroughly mucky in the process, in 2027.

When Mrs C asked me what I would like for my birthday last year I was at a bit of a loss, the sock drawer and the pants drawer both holding enough stock to see out the present decade. How about something to make your life easier at the greenhouse, she suggested. I fell for it (happily enough) and the two heated propagators, which I’d initially intended to situate on a south facing windowsill now take pride of place in the shed. Twenty small pots holding individual tomato seeds and twenty split between two varieties of peas (two to a pot) and leeks (three to a pot). For the last two years I’ve planted both peas and leeks directly into the soil, with varying and a little disappointing degrees of success, so I’m giving pre-planting a go (something which has worked well in the past). It should mean that I can put them into the final growing spot a couple of weeks on. I’m going to plant the peas with a weed barrier, too and see how that pans out.

Although Mrs C says she can’t abide garlic (what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her) she has a fascination for growing it. I’m happy with this, but when I say “growing” I mean planting, as the responsibility for its well being rests squarely on my shoulders. It’s been in the greenhouse over winter and it’s doing fine, although I didn’t expect it to grow it’s own mushrooms! I’m unsure as to whether to transplant it to outside when the weather finally settles down. Maybe the answer lies within the pages of The Smallholders Almanac, I might take a look one day.

Apropos of nowt, really, beyond showing off my weeding skills (ignore the moss) I cam across this small, but perfectly formed Chantenay carrot as I finished off bed one. This bed will either end up with climbing beans or a mix of brassica which I’ll get started a little later. I’m still cogitating on whether to plant all French style climbing beans, as I ended up with a glut of runners last year which weren’t that well liked. They seem to have gone out of fashion a bit, but just about everyone likes the smooth skinned French type varieties. I suppose it’s the texture, but I also have to consider the village show, although how anyone expects runner beans to be ready to show on August 1st, this far north (unless they’re forced under glass), is beyond me.

Although reasonably please with the carrots, first time around, there were neither enough of them for my liking and, apart from the Chantenay, it was clear a little bit ore growing room wouldn’t go amiss. The solution, for this time around at least, has been to create four rows, mounded up with a mix of sieved compost from the heap and from a bag of peat free. I’m hoping this allows them to get a good start in the growing down and straight department. I’ve put seed in three rows now, leaving one to grow “show” carrots, hoping that if they crop well and early enough I can go again. There’s nowt like a fresh carrot!

Getting carrots in early, especially so far north, is a bit of a gamble, so I came up with this ingenious idea to protect any early sprouting seedlings from the late frosts we always seem to fall prey to. A bit of black tape joining two foamex boards together (which didn’t need cutting), pinned down against the wind with thin steel spikes which could have been made for the job. There’s always a level of satisfaction when summat gets repurposed, especially for this Yorkshireman!

Having put away hammer, saws, router and chisel (for now at least) the Buildings & Maintenance team has turned its attention to the important work of rotovating the soil in the greenhouse, in preparation for the fast approaching growing season. As you can see from the photo, the trial run went very well and as of today (16/03), two full passes have been made and the fertiliser is down. A third and final pass will dig the fertiliser in and, once raked, we’ll give the whole lot a good soaking with a nettle water and organic seaweed solution. Job (almost) done.

If the result of the by-election in Gorton and Denton has taught us anything (beyond the obvious) it’s that successful multi-culturalism and the fallacy which partners it (we have more in common than that which divides us) is an unachievable myth. There are several reasons why the Green candidate won, including, but not restricted to, “he’s a racist” social media messaging, aggressive doorstepping, “cultural” familial pressures, voter apathy (at below 48% a growing problem), media focus and, to my mind at least, a two fingered salute from two ostensibly opposed groups of voters to the “traditional” parties.  Labours’ share of the vote fell by almost the same percentage as the Greens share rose. Reforms share increased by a similar level to that by which the Tory party share fell.

The Green Party is no longer, if it ever truly were, focused on environmental issues. Under it’s new leadership it has become the beacon to which almost every minority “social” cause is drawn, whether that be the “trans” issue lobby, the now aging anti-war blob, the Socialist Worker supported and George Soros funded “refugees and illegal immigrants welcome” zealots, the reparations/statue toppling activistas’, the “Just Stop Oil” styled Klimate Kranks & the tax the rich until they squeak brigade, along with the vagabond crowd of workshy benefit claimants, who clearly see in Zack Polanski a man who would move heaven and earth to make sure they’d never need to work again, nor even be questioned as to why they’re unfit to do so. Even given all these disparate groups it’s unlikely that the Greens could have won this particular constituency had it not been for the Muslim vote. Muslims make up 28% of the constituency and, up until this election they would, most probably, have been solid Labour voters. You may well ask, bearing in mind the above broad demographic, what, on the face of it, do Greens have in commonality with Muslims, especially those who openly support Hamas, the regime in Iran and who keep their wives and daughters clothed, head to toe in a burqua?

On the face of it, there’s nothing, but Islam is no stranger to using those on the “left” of politics to achieve its goals, often (if we take Iran and The Lebanon as examples) to the detriment of the vast majority of the citizenry it eventually comes to hold sway over. I’m only speculating here and it may well be that Mr. Polanski (not his real name) knows exactly what he’s doing, but I somehow doubt it given his past record as both a failed LibDem and a less than successful hypnotist come boob enhancer.It’s likely to all end, at best, in bitter tears and acrimony but maybe not before even further damage is done to what’s left of this once great nation. Ironically, the Deputy Leader of the Greens and myself both share a passion for growing things, as to whether that means we have more in common than that which divides us, I really couldn’t say.
 

© Colin Cross 2026