KW-37 Autumnal Vibes
September really is different from August!
If the entry into Autumn is about anything, it is about change. Metreologically speaking, and why not start with the weather, we have had ten days of constant 30C+ temperatures, with snow predicted in the south of Germany for the end of the week.
Overnight, we had 5cm of rain, with no sign of it letting up for at least a few hours.
I started the week at Oma’s funeral (it was sad and lovely, the priest who married Oma and Opa 53 years ago came out of semi-retirement to conduct the service which was very Catholic, very nice. He seemed like a sweet man with many nice things to say about Omi), and ended it back at the barracks surrounded by the dilligently scribing ladies of the Writing Retreat.
The pumpkins are starting to achieve spectacular sizes and turning their final colours - yellows, oranges, British Racing Green, and the green green grass under the maple trees is starting to prepare for the annual raking of the leaves.
It is indeed Autumn.
The Writing Retreat
This was an adventure. The first completely externally organised retreat of the barracks. I did the cooking, my old friend from London and Berlin Seçil did the rest. We had a social around the firepit on the first evening - fire being famously good at breaking ice, and after that, I heard almost nothing that wasn’t the sound of a quill being pulled across a parchment for the rest of the weekend.
A total success, I think it is fair to say, and full of learnings for how I can make my own retreats better.
Next year, I think we might repeat it, but also I want to have other (barracks sensitive) gatherings of people being inspired by the energy and the space, and using it to help further their own projects and groups. Hit me up with your suggestions, and let’s get planning!
Pirate Gardening Tip of the Week
Pirate gardening is mostly old man gardening. It was old man gardening when I started with my first vegetable plot 30 years ago. So really, it’s just the ancient ways of doing things.
This week, I sowed the potato patch with green manure. I am quite pleased about this. For the last two years, I have been so keen to get the winter wheat in, that the only place to put it was where the potatoes came from, which meant that it now became a grain break, and this is not what the 6 Year Pirate Rotation says it should be. That says it is pumpkins. After a green manure crop over winter. This year, I”m either going to get the wheat in where it is supposed to go - the vineyard - or I am not going to get it in at all. But I shall have my pumpkin break!
So, anyway. Green manure. The pirate gardening tip of the week is never leave ground bare. And if you can use something that makes lots of nice low ground cover, is leguminous where possible, and for extra bonus points, if the pigs can eat it as well, then double, triple the joy. Maybe the gardening tip of the week is to pick your plants for as many benefits as possible. Growing something simply as a crop is bad gardening. As far as is possible, there are nothing but benefits to considering the environment you are creating, every bit as much as the food you are going to eat.
The Week Ahead.
There is so much to do this week, I almost can’t get it out on paper. That thing where it is hard to start for fear of missing something out. Stupid brain…
Make tomato sauces
Pickle beetroots, onion, peppers, gherkins.
Eat more kale. I had the first kale this week. It was awesome. One leaf from each plant made a salad enough for 8 people.
Pick the apples. They might not be totally ripe, but if we are going to save any from the wasps, we need to get them off the trees now.
Try to progress the pumpkin patch as far as possible. It is not likely that I will get the rapeseed in there this week, but we have to see how far we can go. It really does need sowing! Or saving for next year. But we will decide by defeat, not by surrender!
Stack the wood. I still can’t quite believe that I haven’t had time for this yet. Urgh.
Try to make something. Either progress on the tomato house, or the frames for the solar collectors. Probably the latter.
Four Years Ago
New visitors to the barracks generally take a moment to be able to tell my piggies apart. Tony is the easiest one to recognise, on account of the tusks if nothing else, but his full kennel name - Sir Anthony Marmalade Nutsless - or at least the Marmalade part of it has to be taken on trust. They are all much the same uniform caked-in mud colour these days. Marilyn, on the right left of this picture, and Brunhilda also used to be considerably more distinctive than they are now. These days, you have to do it mostly on size and ear floppiness. Back then, they were very different piggers.
But weren’t we all? :)
I’m going to go and make myself a cup of tea and listen to the rain.
Much pirate love, and I hope you are all taking care of each other,
Your Pirate Ben
xoxo
So glad Austrian trip went well with. Xx
Thank you for the green manure tip - i shall doing that this week.