Friday 14 March 2014

Look away now



The boys have had fun trying to disappear into the mist on the way to school on the past couple of mornings.  It makes a change for them to have something to disappear into, rather than just disappearing.  I do like to start the day by yelling up the road like a fishwife.

After I'd dropped them off yesterday I had some breakfast and went to the allotment.  I'd quite like to have breakfast at the allotment one day, in the summer maybe.


The mist didn't clear the whole time I was there and there weren't many other plotholders around.  I spent some time putting in a new strawberry bed.  I'd pulled up lots of little plantlets from the garden, and I planted them through weed control fabric, to try and give myself less work to do later on.  Twenty-one Cambridge Favourites and the same number of Honeoye.  Hopefully they'll crop one after the other.  I've tried everbearing strawberries that give a continuous supply of fruit, but I much prefer the ones that only last a month or so.  With five of us, I'm happy to have a glut.  If we don't manage to eat them all fresh, I can make jam for putting into swiss rolls and rice pudding in the winter.

Right now I'm trying not to think about cakes and puddings too much though.  I've given up sweet things for Lent, and I'm not quite used to it yet.  In fact right now I'm pretty hungry.  The kitchen is calling.

On my way back up through the allotments I passed this shed.


The ground is sloping down to the left, the shed is sloping up to the right.  It's a fantastic mish-mash of bits of wood and panelling.  I do love to nose round the allotments at these cobbled together creations.  And look at that rhubarb!  Mine should be ready for the end of Lent I hope.  A crumble sounds delicious right now.

The sedum I bought last year at a community plant sale is shooting already.  I think it might be overshadowed by artichokes later on, but right now it's looking good.  I'm hoping it will provide lots of food for bees come summertime.



In the garden the peach tree is blooming.  It will no doubt need hand pollinating with a brush as there aren't many bees around to do the job.  A bit of a design flaw I think, flowering before the insects are ready for it.  It is nice to see the beautiful colour though, it's the first thing in bloom in my garden, which really doesn't have many plants in.


I had a bit of a shock the other evening.  The biggest boy has a lovely bird book, with 365 pictures in it, one for each day of the year.  They are all beautiful photographs of the birds in their natural habitats, and I often glance at the picture of the day.  He likes to read it every night before bed.  We've had all sorts of birds, from all over the world, flying, splashing, eating, swimming.  Beautiful.  Until March 14th.


It's nailed to the wall!  Say what now???  I read the page opposite, and there is not one word of explanation.  Did Philippe J Dubois just wake up one day and think, "I've had enough of this beautiful appreciation of birds in their own natural habitat, let's nail one to the barn door"?  Words fail me.

31 comments:

  1. Goodness. I would have screamed at the sight of that photo. What in the world? My son would probably love it, though. I appreciate that you would characterize your yelling as being like that of a fishwife because I say that about myself all the time. Sometimes it's the only way to get through. My husband thinks it's so funny when I say that, mainly because he doesn't seem to think there is such a thing as a fishwife. I think eating breakfast at the allotment sounds wonderful. I wish I could join you.

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  2. Heavens, that Barn owl picture is awful! Especially considering the wonderful pictures you do see of owls. Dreadful. Love the spider's web pic - they're beautiful, aren't they? Have a good weekend.

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  3. YIKES! That does seem like a terrible picture for a nature book.

    Love the picture of your spider web. Spiders are AMAZING!

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  4. Your garden photos are beautiful! Those glorious yellow blooms set against that hazy fog are gorgeous! And those photos of your boys getting lost in the fog remind me of very happy days as a child...so wonderful that you were able to capture that! The allotment looks so alive! Love that web! And to think that your sedums are already coming up...such a lucky lady! I am all about getting a full crop of strawberries to eat as well...and I have given up sweets which has been very trying but good on the waist-line!!! But goodness gracious....did they have to go and nail a bird on that page?!! Just crazy! Maybe your son can make a new page for that particular day and rip that one out! Have an outstanding weekend and I do so hope that you are able to get that breakfast at the allotment soon! Take care...Nicole xoxo

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    1. I've given up sweet things at the moment as well, so strawberries do sound good. It'll be a few months yet though.

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  5. That's an awful photo of the Barn Owl...What was the author thinking!! Great photo of the spiders web and my sedums are up like yours too. Enjoy the weekend :o)

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  6. Poor thing! How horrible. However the rest of the photos in your post are beautiful and calming.

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  7. Hmm that is a little bizarre.

    The rest of your photos are, as always, utterly wonderful. I do hope you are feeling a bit more yourself now?

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    1. Thank you, I am feeling a bit more myself now. All that spring energy is helping I think.

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  8. urgh. I hope your son isn't put off the rest of the book. love the allotment photos and the idea of going for breakfast. when we had our allotment we would sometimes take the little camping stove and have dinner there, it was always a real treat, even if the old men allotment holders (the ones who hated children) would scowl at us.............

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  10. A glut of strawberries - what a wonderful thought.

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  11. What an awful thing to put in what sounds to be a lovely book - I'd write and complain!

    Like you I'm not really impressed with everbearing strawberries.

    I deleted the last comment as Martyn spotted my typos - fingers are faster than the brain this morning.

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  12. How fabulous are these foggy photos! Love them and glad you got those strawberries planted and captured the beauty of the blossoms, what a colour.
    That a horrible scary photo for a bird book, surely if they couldn't get a good photo of a live bird owl ( Google search, not hard) they could have got a 'nice' taxidermy one looking natural!! Oh , grrr

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  13. There is something wonderful about eating breakfast outside in warm sunshine. Hope you can do this soon. I'd be fascinated by all those cobbled together creations, too - and the rhubarb does look impressive.
    The photo of the barn owl is horrible - I think I would be tempted to get some sort of explanation from the publisher. I wonder if there have been any reviews on it on line where people think the same.

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  14. Love your photos and your beautiful writing, but that last picture is indeed very disturbing.
    Hags,
    Meredith

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  15. That last picture is creepy indeed. Very odd. I am constantly screaming down the road at my two to "stay where I can see you" and "don't run too far ahead" on our walks to school. I'm sure everyone nearby must by now know the names of my selectively deaf children. x

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  16. Yes, very disturbing! Even if the owl was found dead, that is not a respectful way to display it, though that is how entomologists pin their insects, which I am not a fan of either. Moving on, YOUR pictures are beautiful - love the row of daffodils and spider web. That rhubarb is fantastic - lots of pies coming from that!

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  17. It's a wonder that shed is still standing, there's one or two like it on my site but not quite so dilapidated. I hope that my rhubarb looks like that in a few weeks time.
    If that was my book I think that I'd contact the publishers expressing disquiet at including such a picture, which I think is totally inappropriate. Flighty xx

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  18. The mist has been like pea soup for a couple of days hasn't it, gone today thank goodness.
    What is going on with the owl picture? how very strange - what did the biggest boy think of it?

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    1. He was calmer than I thought he would be, he said he's seen it too and didn't like it. He normally really hates any cruelty or suffering to living things, so I was expecting him to be a bit angry.

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  19. Funny, the associations one gets when reading a lovely post. You shouting like a fishwife made me think of a song that Annie used to sing when she was little: sweet Molly Malone (a woman fish seller in Dublin. I am sure I am making not sense at all. I quite like mist and your photos are capturing the quietness feeling of it very well. I am glad it is not me hand pollinating the peach tree... I suppose peach trees are native to climates where bees awaken from their winter rest earlier. The barn owl picture is just bizarre, there must be so many opportunities to photograph a living bird that it is really impossible to understand why to show a dead and mutilated creature instead. Hope this is the only such photo. Have a lovely weekend. Cx

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  20. Sounds like you're getting a good start on your allotment, and are hopefully enjoying some sunshine once the mists clear - we've had them here too and it usually ends up sunny.
    That really is shocking to show an owl like that in a book about birds - totally bizarre and in very bad taste. I hope it didnt upset your son too much, it really is out of order.
    Gill xx

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  21. Yes I am lost for words too, oh my!! Well done you for giving up sugar for lent, I need to give you a few more recipes that will help. You will be flying through it in a weeks time without looking back. It's been 69 days today and it's amazing just how easy it is. I hand very find memories if disappearing in the mist on our way to school, me and my brother had endless fun! It sounds like I can learn a few things from you with regards to strawberry planting, mind are a bit of a mess right now. Your allotment looks great as does that gorgeous peach tree!! Beautiful photo of the spiders Webb. Wishing you a good week xoxo

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  22. Oh, I would have been so shocked to have come across that picture! It seems so very strange and out of place. I hope that you are not still too upset by it and that it didn't upset your boys too much. Your strawberry planting sounds very exciting and productive - I hope that you get lots and lots. I have rhubarb envy though, those plants that you showed are amazing, ours are not doing at all well this year, one is showing a few shoots and the other hasn't appeared at all, so I fear the worst for it! Hope that you have a good week without any more horrible shocks. xx

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  23. What an awful photo, you don't expect to come across something like that in what would otherwise be a lovely book. I think I'd complain to the publishers if I were you. Tell them it's a book that your son's enjoying and you don't want to have to explain something like this to him. We've had the mist too, but we've got wind again now, I hope the greenhouse is more secure now that it's been reglazed. Love the photo of the spider's web.

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  24. That picture of the bird is so sad! Why would the author do that? Hopefully your boy was ok. It was so nice to read about your time at the allotment and seeing all the things that are ready to spring to life. That mist is quite a site!

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  25. I spelled sight wrong. I should have proofread before I hit submit. I hate that:)

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  26. Good grief at the barn owl!

    I love your allotment posts ... I'm living the life of an allotmenteer vicariously here.

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  27. Oh my!!! Seriously this picture is awful!
    I haven't start anything in the garden and I still have to buy some seeds and plants... My yard is north oriented so it is still a bit early for me to start even though we have beautiful days... I have had been lucky to eat a rhubarb and frangipane. It was delicious.

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  28. That fog is insane! Oh my god I've never seen anything like that before!

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