KW-13 Kitchenalia and soft furnishings

The way to the heart of a Pirate

There are 52 cards in a deck, four suits, and thirteen cards in each suit. All human games are either ball games or pattern matching. We are one quarter of the way through the year.

A very slow and deliberate start to the sowing season. Tomato, lettuces, peppers, aubergines chervil (!) and melons.

My social feeds, which do have quite a lot of gardening people on them - from hobbyists tinkerers to full time commercial professionals - is starting to fill up with people getting flustered about being late to the seed-sowing party. Well, be assured, you’re not. It’s way less important when you sow your seeds than the well intentioned panic of early spring in your bones makes you think that it is.

For the commercial growers, there is a lot of money to be made by being the first to market. For everyone else, don’t be in too much of a rush. If your seed packets say “March to May” on them, then you’re definitely good for a while. Slow and steady is good. Having a plan is good too, but plans have to change.

A very light dusting of snow for a Sunday morning.

My plan for this week just gone was to sow the summer wheat, but the weather decided otherwise. It rained quite a lot, and on Sunday morning (was that really only yesterday?) we had a surprise sprinkling of snow to wake up to. It had all vanished by about midday and our brief foray into the marginally sub-zero temperatures overnight is going to be replaced with at least 15 degrees by the end of this week, with some prognosticators claiming up to 20. I doubt that, but snow one end of the week and sunbathing at the other end of it - is this what they are calling the new normal?

I did have a little fun in the woodshop this week, making a cover to close up the hole in the ground which formed the business end of of the recently moved composting toilet, and a platform for the freshly denominated new one. It makes falling in considerably less likely, and we are going to call that a step in the right direction for the Barracks becoming a luxury estate. Imagine that - the best of both worlds, wild crapping and not running the risk of an extra nasty laundry day!

Do NOT stare into the eyes of the hypno pig!

So what are we going to do this week?

Mostly, advertise the Reading Retreat. A little haven of calm, surrounded by fellow book nerds, reading, being read to, fireside and bedtime stories, excellent food and even better company. I’m doing this for myself as much as anyone else (but I’ll enjoy it more if you all come as well!). It’s going to be the one week of the year where the Barracks is dedicated to relaxation (with a good book), and nary a mention of any of that collapse stuff that occupies my thoughts for the other 51 weeks of the year. Come and share it with me. For me and the piggies!

Come if you can. The dates are Friday - Sunday, but the Monday is a bank holiday, and you can easily slide into Monday as well if you’re feeling good about thing. Oh, and I got in touch with both the forester and the man with the saw mill this week. I am 100% certain that between now and the retreat, we will be filling the library with bookshelves. The Reading Retreat will therefore also be the consecration of the library. A monumentous achievement that I know you will want to share with me!

And with that, I shall bid you all adieu for the week.

Much love

Your Pirate Ben

xoxo

ps: I have just done the voice over and realised that I completely forgot to allude to the title of this here episodic epistle. I was having a call with an FOTB (Friend of the Barracks) who said that he was hoping to come in August and that he had some things to bring with him, but “nothing to get excited about”. Well, those things were nicks and nacks for the kitchen and “some stuff like cushions and blankets”. Are you kidding me? There’s little that makes me happier than kitchen nicknacks and soft furnishings! Bring it on!

P.B. xx