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| Potato |
In the vegetable plot at the top of the garden, our seed potatoes are now poking their leaves through the surface of the soil. Meantime, under the laurel bush and the apple trees one of our hosta plants is emerging magically once again. If slugs have hands they will mow be rubbing them with glee.
Up in Frances's bedroom six courgette seeds have finally germinated. They are the third group I have tried in small pots. The two other attempts involved old seeds because The Great Lockdown of 2020 meant there was nowhere to buy fresh seeds. Well, that's not entirely true but where I did see seeds for sale all the vegetable seed packets had gone. When D.I.Y. stores were finally allowed to open ten days ago, I got to buy courgette seeds at "Homebase". I picked the most expensive ones and at the end of this season, I plan to save and dry some seeds after allowing one fruiting courgette to turn into a marrow.
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| Hosta |
Yesterday I proved I am a crazy fool by accidentally leaving my camera at home. I was off on a six mile walk at the northern end of Stanage Edge and it was only when I lifted Clint's tailgate near Moscar Lodge that I realised the camera was still on the bottom step of our stairs. Ah well - to tell you the truth it made a nice change to be out walking without the responsibility of capturing images. I saw the wonderfully-designed wing of a bird of prey left on a rock and I found a pair of brand new reading glasses on another rock.
Late in the afternoon, I two-metred in the queue outside our big "Waitrose" supermarket. I was there to buy my old friend Bert three special bottles of beer. Bert is 83 years old and he hasn't been out of his house in seven weeks. Fortunately one of his sons lives with him. When I called round with the beer, Bert was in good spirits and he was happy to see me.
Bert can remember V.E. Day back in 1945. There was a big party in his street in East London. He has an old photo to prove it. There's little Bert grinning into the camera with a bun in his mitt. How amazing that he is still with us for the 75th anniversary. His favourite song has always been "We'll Meet Again". I have heard him sing it a hundred times or more with a beaming grin across his happy face.
After our evening meal of fresh pasta, salmon and asparagus, I settled down to do a bit more research on the features I described up at Ringinglow. No solutions were found but here's a snip of the Ordnace Survey map of 1888:-
The mysterious "channel" is still there and so is the circular zone. I have read of an ancient burial mound beneath a large cairn west of Ringinglow though its exact location is today uncertain. Might it have been up there at Brown Edge? It's possible.
Sometimes mystery is more pleasing than explanation.
How nice to go seeing an old friend, bringing him special beer and talking about what it was like back then.
ReplyDeleteYour walk sounds interesting with the findings of a bird's wing and reading glasses.
Here in Germany, shops like B&Q or Homebase were never closed, and now all shops are allowed to,be open again, provided they make sure everyone can keep the minimum distance and wears a mask. I still feel it is too early for that, as I have observed people behaving rather thoughtlessly when it comes to grabbing special offers or even just passing others in the aisles.
You are right, sometimes a mystery is better than an explanation, but I'd still like to know... you could write a story about it.
The story would include The Goddess Meike, worshipped by the peasants for bringing peace and fertility to the land in days of yore... And there's a lot of thoughtlessness around in British stores too. Even staff enter my two metre circle. I don't like it one bit.
DeleteSmashing photos YP. I have a Lamium like the one behind the Hostas. Bert sounds a great character with lots of anecdotes.
ReplyDeleteBert's a good lad. He could cheer up the Tory cabinet - and that's saying something. He's proudly Labour through and through like me.
DeleteI'm clause 4 Labour.
DeleteLet's keep quiet about your claws Comrade Northsider. A couple of right wing tossers visit this blog from time to time. I usually have to delete whatever they say.
DeleteThat's the second time that Northsider has said something that has elicited a response from me. I've never voted Tory and am never likely to. However I find the general view amongst many Labour friends who dislike bureaucracy and government diktats and control strangely at odds with Clause IV. The ponderousness of Governments and public expenditure considerations seem rarely flexible enough to respond to the needs of industry in a competitive world. I suppose I'm more a Gaitskellite in that regard.
DeleteHi Graham. I don't really want to talk politics on a Sunday but I think the 1945 Labour government rebuilt Britain and when you build houses you create jobs for manufacturers, builders and even the lady making bacon butties for the builders makes a Pound or two. Hope you mind me saying that YP?
DeleteJust don't get in a fight you two! I know that Graham would knock you out Northsider - raised as he was on the mean streets of Liverpool. As a Labour supporter all my life I know that "bureaucracy and government diktats" are essential to successful governance. All you want is for them to be wise, fair and necessary.
DeleteSIX courgette plants! Are you a Bosh preferred supplier? The 1888 map makes it look even more like a track to the quarry. The extension through to the road now seems to have gone. If it was heavily used for shifting heavy stone it could have sunk down into the peat over time. I can't seem to switch to the satellite image on the old map. Are you sure it's working?
ReplyDeleteAs for the song, unfortunately it always makes me think of Crackerjack (in the Eamon Andrew/Peter Glaze/Lesley Crowther days). Thay always finished with a silly sketch with out-of-context songs. In one they were Arctic explorers who had run out of food and were dreaming of what they could eat, such as whale meat.
"Whale meet again!"? I thought that was an eskimo song. I do not understand your technical question about "switching to the satellite image". But here is where I found the map. I think you will enjoy surfing around on it. The quality of the imagery is excellent.
Deletehttp://www.archiuk.com/cgi-bin/build_nls_historic_map.pl?search_location=,%20Ringinglow,%20Derbyshire&latitude=53.343161&longitude=-1.580909&password=freesearch@freesearch.com
Interesting. Thanks.
DeleteDo you live near to a Volcano, the soil around that potato looks like lava. lol
ReplyDeleteBriony
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I know you didn't mean to hurt me Briony but your comment has made me cry. Our soil has a large clay content and tends to bake in clumps like that no matter how much I work the vegetable plot. The only way I could solve it is by having all the soil removed and then replaced with tons of nice Lincolnshire top soil.
DeleteMy thought entirely, CCC. Not that I would have voiced it had you not brought it up first. Safety in numbers. Or is there?
DeleteHere, YP, have another tissue, hankies not being hygienic. On the sunny side of clay, what a triumph a potato seedling's will to live is.
U
Yes. They can even push through my soil! Below the baked surface the soil is actually much more friable.
DeleteStrawy fym or well rotten stable manure dug in will sort your clay problem YP.
DeleteBollocks NS! I know you mean well but over the years plenty of F.Y.M. and homemade compost has been fed into our vegetable plot.
DeleteLime
DeleteHave you tried amending your soil with peat moss? We have quite heavy clay-like soil and it has worked for us.
DeleteBeneath the baked surface the soil is okay and at the other end of the plot it is much better but I will certainly keep peat moss in mind for next year. Thanks Jenny.
DeleteI love the way Hostas and the like disappear completely over winter and then push their fingers up through the soil in spring.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It's a beautiful thing. If only slugs did not see fresh hostas as a salad bar.
DeleteHostas's purpose in life to prove snails as the perfect lace makers they are. I can't count the times I have been torn between admiring the slug's achievement and my disappointment.
ReplyDeleteAs to mystery. Whilst, by temperament, I have unfortunate tendency to try and get to the bottom of things (truth by another name) I'd highly recommend to let mystery sleep. That way mystery remains what it is. Mysterious. With all its mystique.
U
In the past two hundred years or so, solving all mysteries appears to have been one of humanity's prime goals. We need some unsolvable mysteries. That's healthy I think.
DeleteI hope you have some success with harvesting the courgette seeds for next year. I may steal your idea to try it here. Every little helps, as they say.
ReplyDeleteIncredibly, my pack of hybrid seeds cost me £3.15 and there were only nine seeds in total! Normally I would go for thew cheapest pack but that day I was feeling like a loon.
DeleteYour soil could not be more different than mine that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteI responded to yesterday's post with "Why would any road/railway be so deep and narrow? Seems unlikely. It could be the ditch half of a ha-ha (just joking). A trench left over from the Wards of the Roses is unlikely given that it preceded trench warfare. In truth after thinking for a while I can be of no help whatsoever." I'm inclined to agree that the interest engendered is possibly more interesting than the real reason.
Thank you for your interest Professor Edwards. During WWII there was a decoy "city" near Ringinglow. I thought the trench might have been connected with that but the older map is from 1888 so that theory is completely scotched. Decoy cities involved the burning of oil etc. to fox German pilots intent on bombing Sheffield.
DeleteHow interesting that the channel and ring-shaped depression have been a mapped feature of the landscape for so long. And I know what you mean about walking without a camera -- it can be frustrating but it can also be a huge relief. We keep our hostas in pots to keep them away from the snails and slugs -- otherwise it's a losing battle, at least in our garden!
ReplyDeleteThere are already a few slug pellets around that hosta now though I never like using them.
DeleteDigging the potatoes must be a challenge! You've given me more respect for our own dusty dirt here. We can dig compost in and enrich it which is good. At one time I lived about ten miles down the road from where I am now and the dirt was much different. Way more red clay to it. The cucumbers loved that.
ReplyDeleteCould the circle have been a henge of some sort? The straight line something like the Mayan sacbes?
Just throwing stuff out there.
Stay safe.
Your notion is by no means ridiculous Mary. Many Bronze Age features have been overlooked or destroyed in this country. I have seen reference to a great cairn in this small area but nobody knows quite where it was. It may have been a revered burial place and sometimes our ancestors built processional avenues to such places. But I know I do not have the evidence to back up this idea.
DeleteFunny how different cultures come up with similar things, isn't it? Especially when they are so very distant from each other.
DeleteMuch success with your gardening ventures. Nothing has started here yet but when it does it is very rapid.
ReplyDeleteVery rapid? Over here we call arugula rocket! That salad plant has got a very rapd name. Maybe it will do well in Red Deer. Was your city simply called Deer before you moved there?
DeleteHow interesting that you found an older map of the Ringinglow area. I would think your hunch of an ancient burial mound in the area could be correct. Are there archeology books available that might have more information?
ReplyDeleteIt was kind of you to visit your friend Bert with a special gift. I'm sure it meant a lot to him to see a friend after being in isolation so long. Your walk sounds enjoyable and maybe even more so without your camera. Although you love to photograph the beautiful countryside it may be a relaxing break to occasionally walk without the camera.
Thanks for calling by again Bonnie - and for leaving such a supportive comment. The questions I have got about that "channel" on the moor have possibly never been answered but I will keep looking.
DeleteYour adventure gathers excitement; you're already back to a sacred 1888 ordinance map. It's time to ask google really penetrating questions and see what turns up.
ReplyDeleteI have tried that Joanne - hunting here and there. There may be answers somewhere but they are extremely well-hidden. When the lockdown is over and Sheffield's archives reopen I think I will go there to do some more hunting.
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