KW-39 Harvest moon
Making preparations for the winter.
I remember once being particularly struck with the idea that throughout our lives we frequently do things for the last time, without ever knowing that it was actually the last time that we did it. I can remember the first time I watched a VHS tape - it was a dodgy1 copy of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial at my Uncle George’s house in North London, but not the last. There must have been a last time, but I have no idea what it was.
This week feels like it is probably going to be the the last week of mowing. The start of Autumn is like that. It tries to convince you that tomorrow will be winter, but it’s just not true. October is usually 80 - 90% lovely around here. November is indeed quite wintry. This week, the 16 degree rule has been followed most days2. On the subject of the grass, though, it’s quite important to the general health of the greeneries to get this as right as possible. That is, we want to cut everything reasonably short, but with enough growing to come afterwards for it to grow back, but not to get long.
I went to the opera this week. It wasn’t very good, but it was quite enjoyable. There was a good line in it, though:
Elsewhere the lawn is more pleasant and enjoyable
In the greener grass stalks the snake
The Week Ahead.
Mowing everything. The entire barracks
Moving some more wood. There really is rather more of it than I was expecting. Every plank that gets carried and stacked is an exciting reminder of things to come. The sauna, the tomato house, bookshelves…
Sow onion sets and garlic. I just realised, I don’t have any onion sets. See below!
Once the wood is stacked, there is a lot of debris where the logs were lain, and the sawing done (bark , sawdust, twigs, dirt). This all needs to be moved. I have an idea that it isn’t going to go far, and we are going to create a new wooded area at the front of the barracks. The Hellard Copse!
Work continues apace on the Guard House
Clear the winter space for the piggies, and put up new fences
More preserving of all the things. And, eating a cauliflower.
Think about retreats for next year. The writing retreat has encouraged me to try to find more collaborations.
I’m also going to pop up to Berlin to sit in cafes with my daughter and granddaughter.
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.
Experimenting with onions.
Ok. So this is definitely not a tip. Maybe it will be a future tip, maybe it will be a disaster.
Everyone knows that you can sow onion sets in Autumn for an earlier crop next year. Around these parts, it’s the only time to sow them. If you sow sets in Spring, they will simply not have enough time to mature properly.
And that to get the best onions from seed, you should sow them as early in the year as possible. And the way this pirate is thinking is that onion sets are just immature onions, so why not sow seed now? Onion seeds starts very slowly, so maybe I should have done this a month ago for a better test, but I figure that if they get a good month’s worth of growing in now, they might just survive the winter and give bigger, better, tastier onions next year. I’m going to give it a go and let you know next year.
Five Years Ago
I planted the first fruit trees in the orchard.
With time and patience comes progress. The fruit trees might have been a frost-hit wasp-party disaster, but they did grow. They got bigger and stronger, and as long as they carry on doing that, they will give more fruit.
Patience and trust, my pirates. Patience and trust.
Promise me you are looking after each other, and I shall see you all next week.
Your ever loving Pirate Ben
xoxo
ET was shot on a budget of around 100 million US Dollars. It went on to make 800 million at the box office, and the same again in rentals and sales. There was a huge advertising campaign in the 80s and 90s about how pirating videos is stealing and bad. Well, this terrible quality pirate video, taken with a hand held camera in a cinema in the US and sold from the back of a lorry in a Norf Lahndahn car park features prominently in the birthing story of my life-long love of cinema. So you can take your corporate greed and stick it right up your Third Encounter.
It’s not a rule. Shirts come off to work in the garden at 16 degrees. It’s just one of those things. I did wear long trousers a few days this week, though. That’s Autumn!
That's an interesting experiment with the onion seeds - I think I will head out tomorrow or the next day (whenever it actually stops raining) and do the same - we can compare results next year, although I'm sure yours will be better.
Fancy you remembering all that about ET! Xxx