Monday 21st March - Planting Seeds

Today was bright and sunny again. I pottered about in the garden for most of the morning, sowing flower seeds; calendula and nasturtium. These can be sown out doors where they are going to flower, but that requires me to know where I want them to go. Ah. So I've put them into individual cardboard tubes in the cold frame. If I plant them in the ground, then I get confused between seedlings and weeds; this way I should now what is going on!

I had never seen anything like calendula seeds before; they look like little dried up worms;

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/calendula/

I've also planted a 'bee-friendly plant bomb' that I had  been given a while ago.

https://kabloom.co.uk/

Instead of hurling it into the undergrowth, I have spread the contents over a seed tray so see what comes up. I have a notion of creating a wildflower patch somewhere in the garden, and I read in a blog post from 'notes from a smallholding' about starting the wildflowers from seed in pots, to be planted out later.

I had some other 'seed bombs' last year, and they did seem to come up, in a random sort of fashion. This way I can be a bit more certain.

Noah's Ark; Saturday - these look like quails; the reference is Exodus, but this morning I had reached the chapter in Numbers where the Israelites have a big moan about the food, and God says he will give them so many quails that they will get sick of them.

Yesterday; Some deer, and a phrase from a well known Psalm;  As a deer longs for flowing streams,
    so my soul longs for you, O God.

Today; It's an eagle, and those verse from Deuteronomy will be familiar to readers of Tolkein as well as  Bible readers;

As an eagle stirs up its nest,
Hovers over its young,
Spreading out its wings, taking them up,
Carrying them on its wings,
12 

Lent Reflection 3 - Hear, Listen, Obey

I was wondering what to write today - quite often I know early in the week and spend several days reflecting on the reflection, as it were.

The leader at today's church service (what a blessing it is that our church does a livestream for a number of the congregation who, like me, can't get to the services) is a man who has spent a lot of time studying what life was life in Biblical times, and how the words in the written scriptures were interpreted in those days.

He says that Biblical Hebrew has only about 7,000 words, compared to the 100,000 plus words in modern English, so the Hebrew words had many meanings.

So the word for 'hear', also means to listen, and to obey. 

This brings a whole new dimension to what Jesus means whenever he is says 'he who has ears to hear, let him hear' .

The familiar phrases and stories suddenly take on a new urgency - it is not enough to let the words flow through the air, towards our ears, but we need to act upon what we hear.

I've joined in the international movement to stop and pray for a minute, every day, for peace, an end to all conflicts, for people to turn to God. The time for the UK is 8pm. It's a drop in the ocean. It's a start, a step.

(I haven't worked out if it will still be 8pm when the clocks change - I'm guessing it will!) 

More reflections over at Tracing Rainbows

Friday 18th March - In the garden

Today was glorious.

Sun all day, so I could spend plenty of time outside. 

I've sorted out a row of four patio tubs and grow sacks for my potatoes, and have managed to get them in (with help - much appreciated!) 

They are in the right-hand row of containers, the equivalent to rows 1 and 2 on Huw Richard's plan in 'Veg In One Bed'. They are covered by a layer of soil, and then some scrumpled brown packing paper as a slight protection should there be a frost. 

I have probably put too many chitted potatoes in each container, but how could I throw away any of the valiant little sprouts? The soil is very rich - straight from a brand new bag of potting compost (peat free, of course) so I'm hoping it will all be fine. I have discovered that I can order potting compost from the milk man, which makes life very easy to get hold of more bags.   

I have labelled the pots, or rather, I will label the pots, to correspond with the plan in the book. Here are pots number 5 and 10, with lettuces and radishes respectively. I'm hoping the clear plastic domes will encourage them along.

But wait - I already have a pot number 10! Out of sight, to the left of these, there is a pot with the garlic I planted back in November, in pot number 10! Luckily my system, although small scale, is very flexible. I solved the problem merely by writing out another label.

Noah's Ark; today's picture appears to be a frog;

Exodus chapter 8 1-3 confirms my guess;

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2 But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. 3 The Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls.

A hideous thought. It could have been a lot worse; in Australia they are plagued by poisonous cane toads, introduced from South America in 1935 to deal with two types of native beetle that affect the sugar cane crops. Like many of these 'good ideas' it seems to have gone spectacularly awry.  

I think, on the whole, I'd rather have the ants that seem to be everywhere in our garden, and occasionally in the house, than cane toads.

Thursday 17th March - can it be....?

 Can it be (sh, softly now) spring?

After yesterday's washout I didn't hold out much hope for today's weather, but today started well and turned out even better.

I managed some time in the garden heaving out weeds and cutting away at some shrubs; apparently one follows the rules of the three 'D's when at work with secateurs, removing anything

'dead'

'diseased'

'discoloured'

and also 'duplicated' if embarking upon larger trees and shrubs.

I have prepared two very large flowerpots ready for radish and lettuce seeds, and I have plastic cloches which will exactly fit over them so that should help them along. That's tomorrow's work. I'm also coming to conclusions about where to site the potato growbags, currently somewhere in the shed, so that the potatoes can go in. According to Huw Richards 'Veg In One Bed' that's the main target for March.

Today's Noah's Ark; an allegory on the banks of the Nile. Alright I know, it's a crocodile. Actually, looking up the scripture verse, it's a monster!

'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “'I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, you great monster lying among your streams.'

We had to study Sheridan's play 'The Rivals' at school, and Mrs Malaprop, a character in the play, describes someone as being 'as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile'. So that's what popped into my head when I saw the picture.

How doth the little crocodile

Improve his shining tail
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!

I used to teach a rather good jazzy setting of this poem when I was working as a primary school class music teacher. Not this one; which is also very good. I don't think I can find the version I taught.

The crocodile poem comes from 'Alice in Wonderland', when Alice discovered that she could no longer remember the poems that she had learned. Here is the original, by Isaac Watts

How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!

How skilfully she builds her cell!
How neat she spreads the wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.

In works of labour or of skill,
I would be busy too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.

In books, or work, or healthful play,
Let my first years be passed,
That I may give for every day

Some good account at last. 

 

Wednesday 16th March - not twiglets

 I had one of the last bread rolls, cut into cubes and toasted into  crunchy croutons and spread with marmite as my 'little snackeral' this morning. They tasted just like twiglets! 

I had the 'every so often catch up' blood tests done last week, and there weren't any real surprises except for low folic acid. So they've sent me a prescription, but I remembered from years and years ago that marmite is a good source of vitamin B so bought some in the last shopping order to have on toast.

I didn't spread butter on the croutons so that made it more or less zero fat - but I suppose all that salt will be bad for me in some other way. 

Noah's Ark; two days again;

yesterday; Storks "Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration." Jeremiah 8;7

today; Mountain goats "Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?" Job 39;1-2

Wild, or mountain goats reminded me of  'Wild Asses' from 'Carnival of the Animals'  I learned the hard way never to play this to the children unless they were calm, sitting in their own space and completely forbidden to get up and dance. 

'Now, children', (in my best Joyce Grenfell voice), 'I would like you to let your hands move with the music, but you MUST stay sitting down and you may NOT make any noise.' 

I adopted this kill-joy approach after one disaster lesson when 30 small children completely lost the plot one wild, wet, and windy day. I was lucky to get away without having to dial 999, or, even worse, call the head.

This version of it shows the score.... do you suppose the pianists play the whole lot in one breath?

This is the BACK of my current piece of embroidery - there's still a lot more to do, some green, some grey, some black... but I'm just so pleased about how tidy this looks. So far. It won't last! I've learned how to start off without leaving any knots. I'll post the completed picture sometime next week, hopefully.

The variegated threads are all that could have hoped for.

Yesterday was so ,lovely and sunny that we got out into the garden and cleared the winter detritus of leaves, weeds, and general scruffiness from the front of the house, pulling up more goose grass along the way. I mulled over sowing lettuce and radish and planting seed potatoes, but decided against. 'Tomorrow is another day'

Tomorrow yesterday is today, today, if you follow; In the morning the sky was dusty yellow from Saharan sand to begin with, and the temperature had dropped to that seeping cold that penetrates through to the skin. I expect the sand is now coating the car and everything else after half a day of determined, persistent rain. 'Tomorrow is another day?'  

Monday 14th March - Bread

 Today's Noah's Ark;

 'As for the earth, out of it comes bread; but underneath it is turned up as by fire. That no bird of prey knows, and the falcon's eye has not seen it'

Looks more like a blackbird to me, but let's not be too picky; if I tried to draw a falcon it would probably look just like this.

I'm more interested in the first part of the quotation; 'out of it comes bread'.

Experiments with bread making are still under way. While I was looking up youtube videos about satin stitch (try this one for starters) I tripped across this one for making bread without using the oven, and now I can't find it anymore which is ridiculous.

I've just had a go at it myself, and can tell you what I did;

I used my usual recipe for no-knead bread, reducing quantities slightly because - I don't know why I chose to do that. Anyway I used 12 ounces of  strong flour and about 3/4 teaspoon Doves yeast and 3/4 teaspoon salt and enough warm water to make the dough. It was fairly wet compared to traditional dough - what they call 'shaggy'. I mauled kneaded it in the bowl for a couple of minutes, and left it to double in size. 

Then I tipped it out onto a floured board,- very sticky, but a floured spatula overcame all resistance - gave it a good sorting until it became dough again, cut it into seven pieces and rolled them into balls.

Next; arrange them in a non-stick heavy pan

cover, and leave for half an hour. I'm glad I oiled the inside of the lid. You will be too. Cook for 15 minutes, covered, on a low heat - I noticed the setting for the hob in the video was 5, so did the same. 

This is what it looked like. Now here's the tricky bit, you have to flip it like a pancake, no, not like a pancake. Using oven gloves(!) hold a plate over the pan, tip it over, so that the bread is cooked side down on the plate, and then persuade the whole thing back into the pan. Hurrah! This looked very promising.

Cover and cook for another 15 minutes.

After which time it turned out, when I turned the bread out, that I had burned the bottom slightly.

  It still looks plausible. We shall find out at suppertime.

Gardening news,

It is as I thought; the reason why the strawberries didn't do so well last year is that they were infested with vine weevils. I had my suspicions, and when I upended the pot into an old dustbin lid to take a look I saw that the soil was packed with little fat corrugated white grubs curled up nose to tail. I've disposed of all the soil into the garden waste bin where I hope they will meet their end, and shall invest in nematodes.

What a brilliant name for the stuff! You mix them up in a watering can and water your pots with it.

The goose grass is just emerging, but thanks to a major effort in the past two years there is hardly any - yet. I pulled every strand I could find, early in the year before it had a chance to flower and seed, and kept at it, and managed to discourage it from getting a hold.

The little rosemary bush by the back door has just started flowering. It is one I bought from a supermarket and planted up when the old one died last Summer.

More Noah's Ark;

yesterday;

'Cast not your pearls before swine'

I've always enjoyed the quick wit of Dorothy Parker;

. According to the story I heard the other person was the glamorous socialite and playwright Clare Boothe Luce.

“Age before beauty” said Luce while yielding the way. “And pearls before swine,” replied Parker while gliding through the doorway. Is this quotation accurate and is this tale true?

Quote Investigator: There is more than one version of this story, and the earliest description does not refer to Clare Boothe Luce by name. However, the second oldest version does identify her and Dorothy Parker as the antagonists. Further, this version was written by the Hollywood columnist Sheilah Graham who claimed that she heard it directly from Parker in 1938.  (https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/06/29/pearls-before-swine/)

Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. 

Hm.