Author: alex

Sacred blue. Whatever has happened to my journaling habit? I see the last time I posted it was a scorching hot day in October. Well, it’s about the opposite of that now. After an abnormally mild winter, we have finally been hit by the cold and snow. We had a 10-20 cm covering of light powdery snow on Saturday night. Fantastic sticky stuff, perfect for snowmen. Built a great one in the back garden. Then belatedly though should have made one in the common as it would have been easy to make it huge.
Well, a small taste of what’s been happening. Neve continues to be charming, funny and adorable. Very good with words, and very witty with them. Lola is lovely; very caring and patient with Neve. Her reading has come on tremendously and she pretty much read anything.
I’ve painted the inside of the door (but needs another coat). The cupbords either side of the sofa are done, as is the shelf that connects them. I’ve built a suspended desk with shelf beneath into the bay window. Isa has been making enormous lined curtains for the bay. 7 kilos of them, so I’ve been strengthening the curtain rail mounting!
Mum and Dad came for Christmas and that was fantastic.  Tom, Esther and Grace joined us on Boxing day. All gone by the day after…
Lola is learning the piano. She got a casio keyboard for xmas from Grandpa. And she and Neve are both doing ballet up at David Lloyds.

Phew — today is incredibly hot. Possilbly the hottest day of the summer. And it’s October!
We’ve just had lunch outside; the girls have been playing outside all morning while I’ve been gluing and screwing the old shelves for the girls’ room, sanding the front door prior to painting it, and picking/uprooting some of the ready/past it tomatoes. Isa made a yummy peas and ham pasta/peas for lunch.

Now little Nevie’s asleep, Isa’s undercoated the front door, I’ve sanded more featherboard for the cupboard sides…

[later] The primer/undercoat for the front door was spoilt: it was curdled, full of lumps of semi-hard paint. We took a short video to send to Dulux and persevered, though we possibly should have bought a new one. I got a second coat of undercoat on and we left it to dry overnight. Meanwhile, I took the stabilisers off Lola’s bike and then took her (and Neve) down to the rec so Lola could try riding for proper. It was hard for her to pedal on the grass but she tried a few times before the lure of the slide was too much. We went again on Sunday and this time she went on the (tarmacced) basketball court and I was able to let her go completely (while staying close enough to catch her).

Sunday morning I rubbed down the front door; at this point it was more evident that sticking with the lumpy undercoat may not have been the bast plan. I wanted to put the first topcoat on before we went swimming but the girls were too excited and wouldn’t leave me alone so we went after I’d finished the sanding down. It was shaping up to be as hot as Saturday and we ended up trying the outside pools for the first time (at Lola’s request): very nice they were, too. We swam for nearly an hour then got out and showered. Isa had been doing a class in the gym and joined us in the changing rooms. Both Lola and Neve are using armbands at the moment and are both very confident in the water; even Neve can pretty much be left alone. I’m about as keen on armbands as I am on stabilisers but I couldn’t take them both in the pool without them.

So, once back home it was onto the topcoat while Isa did the shopping and Neve slept and now it was a race to get it done before the sun started hitting the door itself. Made it: just. It was sweltering work but enjoyable with Lola nearby reading me crossword clues, then doing some mopping (at her request) before reading some of her books. The music was on and we talked about which songs we liked.

The door painted, I started on putting the sides of the cupboard together from the featherboard I’d sanded and cut the day before. I got one side up and measured up for the next. Then the trip to the rec intervened; Isa (who we had left making ragú) joined us there to see Lola riding solo. Then home and straight off, en famille, to the allotment to get some spinach, water some stuff, and quickly (too quickly, perhaps) plant some spinach (real and beet). I’ve not been watering enough; and I need to do more weeding. And sort the whitefly out.

Back home, got the sag aloo on asap and then got the second side of the cupboard together just before the light failed completely. What a pavlova. Got cupboard side up, ate dins (kids having ragú and fired mashed potato; unusual for them not to eat what we have), got kids to bed, hoovered and mopped, collapsed.

A good weekend.

Not, in fact, the filling of unstructured gaps but simply a lame title for a session of dreary, factual ramblings that attempt to illuminate the unlit period between mid-August and now. First: the allotment.

On Wednesday, I worked at home and harvested the maincrop spuds. I cut the haulms at dawn, did an long hour of digging with Neve at lunchtime (Isa was out in town at a Boden sale), and then went back to finish off before dinner. Got a good crop of Pink Fir Apple — all a good size and little evidence of pests — and a smaller and slightly wormier crop of Rooster; I’d say about 30 per cent of the Roosters had holes in. It was interesting to see that the plants growing in the bed I’d double-dug and then dug-in the chicken manure produced much larger spuds (and larger, greener plants) than the single-dug, top-dressed bed.

Next year, I should try and get the spuds in earlier.

The days are cooler now, and the light shorter. When I get up at 5:30, it’s still dark. I went to the allotment this morning at 5:55 and it was just light enough to tell which tomatoes were ripe enough to pick. I think that within a week the pre-work allotment trips will be over until spring.

The courgettes and cucumbers are done; I may get a final crop of courgettes but the fruit is currently tiny and growing slowly. Although we did get quite a few of the Crystal Lemon, it was never really enough to say they “worked”. I think next year, I should start them earlier and grow them in the greenhouse. And should do some other type as well.

The Mavras pepper in the greenhouse has a couple of fruit on it; I suspect that’s all we’ll get — next year, need to start the peppers much, much earlier. And grow them in the greenhouse borders.

The tomatoes have done very well outside, in terms of weight of fruit; those in the greenhouse have fared much worse. Again, need to start earlier next year — they are only just starting to go red now and I’ll have to pick many green. The F1 Incas are impressive: meaty and tasty — I’ll go for those next year.

The French beans finished over a week ago; and the Borlotti plants have withered; the pods are drying on the plants. Fennel is looking good but not sure when it’ll be ready to harvest. Kale is thriving; much of a good size and ready to eat. The spinach ad beets, and the emerging and various brassicas all look OK, though much weeding is required. I look in vain for signs of the spring onion…

Now I need to dig over the potato beds and sow the Hungarian Grazing Rye.

This is the poem that Lin will read at Julia’s memorial service today. She died on the 30th of August.

Words For It

by Julia Cameron

I wish I could take language
And fold it like cool, moist rags.
I would lay words on your forehead.
I would wrap words on your wrists.
“There, there,” my words would say–
Or something better.
I would ask them to murmur,
“Hush” and “Shh, shhh, it’s all right.”
I would ask them to hold you all night.
I wish I could take language
And daub and soothe and cool
Where fever blisters and burns,
Where fever turns yourself against you.
I wish I could take language
And heal the words that were the wounds
You have no names for.

I suppose it’s a couple or three weeks since Mum and Dad came to stay for the weekend. They chose their time specifically so as to intersect with Nonna and Assunta’s stay and, by a sort of arranged coincidence, Singe and Christine were around, too; specifically, in a campsite in the Shelfords. I took the Friday off and Mum and Dad arrived for lunch, parking the van in front of Ali’s house. We spent the afternoon hanging out at home. I was hobbled by an infection in my heel which was pretty darn painful. I think we all had a nice game of Performance which Mum and Dad had given Lola for her birthday. We had lamb casserole for dinner. Gosh, isn’t this all just too exciting. You can tell the muse is really with me as I type this…

A densly-packed weekend ensued, starting with a trip out to Upware for a picnic by the river. The lock there is quite impressive with its big motorised sluices and we watched one narrow-boating couple go through onto the lode, on their way to Wicken Fen. A lot of effort (albeit largely mental effort spent working out which buttons to push to get the sluices to operate) to rise the inch or so required. Much boaty chatter, unsurprisingly, from Singe and Christine who have only recently sold their own narrowboat.
It’s lovely up at Upware with the junctions of the Cam and various lodes and lots of boats moored up along the banks, many stopping at the “Miles From Anywhere” pub which backs onto the river. I’m now inspired to hire a boat for a week’s holiday around our local waterways.
So, we walked, ate, chatted and played. I saw a woodpecker. Green: I’ve not seen many of those. Then back in convoy (two motor homes across the narrowly-roaded fens) in time to cook the ham for the evening’s ham, egg and (bought) chips.
The next day, we arranged to meet St John and Christine in town for a wander around the colleges. Isa, Lola and Neve stayed at home so they could go to Rosie’s birthday party.
We parked up by the botanic gardens and walked up to the Fitzwilliam to meet S&C. From there we fought our way through hoards of Asian tourists to the queue for entry to Kings. We quickly decided that wasn’t a clever idea and wandered off to find another college to invade. Appositely enough, we ended up touring St Johns which was impressive, not least in the herbacious borders department.
I then exhausted everyone with a walk back to the van through the backs. (I later salved my guilt by working out that the route was barely longer than returning through town.)
I’d started a shoulder of pork earlier and left it in a low oven so just had the taties to roast and veg to do. I forget what, bur probably spinach from the garden.

The next day it was all aboard the branch-line train to Newmarket. We had Neve very much in mind for this trip as she had spent the last couple of months going on about our Minehead trip: “HAN-pah, sit down, woo-woo! Nonna, sit down, woo-woo! Etc”. It was somewhat stressful getting everyone in the camper and to the station on time but we made it with minutes to spare. Unfortunately, it turns out that that line is not part of Network Sourh-East and so not covered by my gold card. Luckily, tickets were cheap anyway.
It was fun going down that line: behind the beehive centre, across the common, past the allotments, over the level-crossing at Cherry Hinton. Funny how fast we went past it all – it was hard to spot everything – yet the train seems so slow when we watch it from the common. Within 20 minutes, we were stepping out onto the platform at Newmarket.
I have a tip for anyone going to Newmarket: don’t. At least, not until you’ve exhausted all the other options on your list. I mean some of the buildings were interesting enough and the horse market (and the ostentatious houses around it) and the Jockey Club HQ added colour, as did the “modern art” statues of horse dotted around the place. But there was a grim air of abandonment about the place; much of the high street was woefully dilapidated and populated with outlets (definitely not shops) that spoke of approaching doom. A seedy (is there any other kind) table-dancing joint dominated one end of the street.
We stopped for tea at the Museum of Horseracing, which appeared to double as a rest-home for the elderly. They did have a pleasant garden to sit in, though — I doubt we’d have found anywhere better. A quick tramp around the town and we were back on the train, heading home.

London’s burning and I’m blogging about the allotment. Suspension of belief. Not that they’re rioting about anything, appears to be an excuse for a night out vandalising for entertainment. With free gifts. Of course, I may be being glib. This is an interesting read

Anyway. Cucumbers are not really producing; lots of small fruit but I had to remove larger ones as ends rotten. Isa did excellent work removing bad foliage and putting wood under to hold off ground. Courgettes much cut back due to white leaves but still producing.

The outdoor Incas all have a lot of fruit; green as yet but fingers crossed. French beans are cropping; borlotti getting big but beans not quite ready last I looked.

The stuff planted in Nonna’s bed is coming on. Beetroot and Beet leaf now 3″ or more; spring onion is appearing, red cabbage is inch-high, and the rest all seems to have germinated.

The fennel is looking good: at least eight inches tall and bulbs starring to form. Dwarf kale next to it also thriving.

Transplanted kale at the back has taken well and is also looking good