KW-21 Summer sowings and reading retreats
to a Thunderclap Newman soundtrack
We are solidly entering the time of year where the Ice Saints (Eisheiligen) are behind us, the summer is in front of us, and starting the day at 5:30 in the morning is by far the most sensible thing to do. People talk about the light, how it has a particular quality, but I think it is the air. I guess it must be the ether - the background substance which carries electromagnetic waves.
Thank you to everyone who pointed me in the direction of Merlin Bird ID app. I’ve been enjoying the blackcaps and redstarts and chiffchaffs and chaffinches and in just a few mornings, my lifetime bird list is already up to 22 different species. And that’s just the singing birds. I saw a family of Egyptian Geese (Nilgans - not to be confused with the Nilpferd) in the village at the bottom of the hill; and I’m still very bad at identifying the slowly circling winged carnivores high above us, but they are there in such numbers and such variety of shape and sizes, that I think we have all of them here.
As I am writing this on the Monday just after the middle of May, quite early in the morning, I know that I am not the only person awake here. There are at least two people doing their own practice in the yoga room, and another 8 or so probably just stirring themselves in the direction of the reading room where a buffet breakfast awaits, for the final day of the reading retreat. I think it’s been a great success. More impressions and photos will follow in next week’s newsletter, but it is not controversial to say that I am blessed to have had such a wonderful group of intelligent, interesting and varied people here for the weekend, and I’m going to be sad to see them all dispersing to the winds again later today.
That said, there is a crazy amount of work to do in the garden, and I am also looking forward to getting on with it. The pots and seed trays from last week’s newsletter are now fit to bursting, and almost everything is going to be planted out this week. Also, I am done with the prep of the pumpkin field, so the last 200m2 of that is now ready to receive the soya bean seed. This will hopefully keep the humans in fresh edamame and the pigs in winter protein, each for many months. Also, I’ve been filling the vineyard two or four rows at a time, and I’m good to add another 10 rows of fodder mangolds and probably another few of maize this week as well.
The pumpkins aren’t big enough to survive on their own just yet though. In fact, I might pot them up. There’s really no point putting the cucurbitae out until they are advanced enough to grow faster than the slugs can eat them, and they might just be in pots a little too small for them to really be capable of that. The other solution is to plant them out in such huge numbers that we win the race just by weight of numbers. Maybe, seeing as we have something like 60 pumpkin plants all doing quite well in the polytunnel, we’ll go for a combination of both.
The cabbage family seedlings need transplanting for sure, the celery is getting a bit desperate for its new home, and it really would be a very good week for sowing the ten thousand or so root vegetable seeds that will eventually contribute a mass of colour and texture to the autumnal plates.
And finally this week, I shall put the finishing touches to the Collapse Laboratory page on the website, and see about trying to get it into the press. I think a sneak preview for my lovely newsletter readers is appropriate though. Here it is.
https://www.thebarracks.de/the-collapse-laboratory
Let me know in the comments what you think! Is it all clear what it’s all about? What have I missed? Will you be coming?
And for now, and until next week, take care of each other
Your loving Pirate Ben
xoxo
https://www.thebarracks.de/the-collapse-laboratory
Oh how I wish I could have attended the reading retreat - that sounds like something I could really get my head around...