Month: February 2011

mo’

It’s hard to describe the way Neve says, “more”: it’s somewhere in the transition between “Moe” and “myrrh”. She says it a lot, sometimes while pointing at her (maybe empty, maybe not) bowl of food, sometimes when wanting you to continue the game of you-hide-behind-the-curtains-and-I’ll-run-into-the-bathroom-and-giggle. She loves it when we are all together, because then she can point at each of us in turn and say, “Mamma . . . Low-la . . . Papá . . . Meeee!” Lately, perhaps because she has mastered the sound, she is putting an “i” sound at the end of many words. Particularly at the end of “Mamm-aye” and “Low-l-aye”. Oh, how we laugh…

The poor lass has got another couple of teeth coming through at the moment. It doesn’t seem to hurt but she is very clingy and really did not want to stay at the creche while Isa did her paediatric first-aid course this morning. I had to go down and, when she wouldn’t calm, bring her home. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so upset. She wanted to get out of the front door to find Mum and wouldn’t let me touch or hold her. I just had to leave her alone; eventually she made her way upstairs and started playing with the packets of buttons among the sewing stuff in the spare room — that eventually calmed her down. I came up and joined her and we played a bit then went downstairs, by which time she was happy to play alone. Not long after that, while she was doing some drawing on the coffee table, she put her head down and fell asleep. I don’t think we’ve ever seen either her or Lola doing that before.

garlic planted

Planted two rows of garlic in back garden, bed A, rows 1 and 2. Variety is Marco. Cost £2.50 for three bulbs; probably about 30 plants.
“In the late summer/autumn, the leaves will start to die down. Lift the garlic out of the soil and leave to ripen for a few days”.
Today was a lovely, still, sunny day. Chilly, but with good warmth from the sun. Dave popped round to help put the roof back on the shed in the allotment.

king, queen, knave

Recently finished Nabakov’s King, Queen, Knave, which he wrote when he was in his late twenties (IIRC). It’s a remarkable book, propelled convincingly by the lust of it’s young protagonist and, latterly, by the madness of his adulterous lover. Or something like that; preferably something less lame, less pretentious, and more accurate. Anyway, it’s an exciting, hard-to-put-down read, which is slightly contrary to what you might think as you read the descriptive opening passages: something at the back of your mind is saying, “put it down! It’s going to be boring” and then you realise you’re 14 pages in and irrevocably caught up. Diabolically clever prose.

This is the third Nabakov I’ve read recently (I read him quite a lot when in my late teens), the other two being Pale Fire and The Luzhin Defense. Excellent, both. He wireevocablyent to Trinity, doncha know.

Also just read “Nudges”, a book about choice architecture, its effect on Humans, its use and abuse by government and private enterprise, and the potential for good, particularly as embodied in the concept of “Nudges”: non-obligatory hints that conform to a philosophy of “libertarian paternalism”.

Now reading Will Self’s Cock & Bull. “Pure delight to verbal perverts everywhere,” said the Sunday TImes. Seems a pretty accurate assessment so far. Good fun.

seed potatoes

Picked up the seed potatoes today:

  • 3 kg of Lady Christl (first early).
  • 8 kg of Pink Fir Apple (salad, maincrop).
  • 8 kg of Rooster (maincrop)

So, er, that should keep us going. For all: plant March-May. 10cm deep, 30cm apart, rows 70cm apart. Chrhistls should be ready June/July, maincrop Sept/Oct.

Cleaned out the greenhouse, washing down with Jeyes Fluid — a real nostalgia hit: it’s what Dad used to wash down the chicken-shed and pigs’ sties with. Then put up the staging and laid out all the potatoes to chit.

I should plant my garlic. And overwintering onions; which appear to have overwintered in the shed. Ho hum.