Bike ride

- with cousin Keith & Bethan and their tandem on west side of North York Moors. Shared this lunch spot in a churchyard with tiny frogs and a bumble bee nest.

Colourful lunch - summer at last!

Allotment

Pics were demanded - here they are : Bill looking proprietorial,lots of spuds liberated from under the sink, S gathering rasps, an aubergine plant (bought at local greengrocer's and looking very exotic). My favourite is the bendy willow wigwams for the beans and sweet peas which were begged from someone pruning their tree. With any luck they will take and we will have a willow plantation! Just put in some wild straws too.

Insects and lies

There is evidence that neonicotinoids marketed by the likes of Bayer, Syngenta and Monsanto (of genetic modification fame) are killing bees...Yes, of course its not ALL farmers who use this kind of stuff, but many do - and so do many ordinary gardeners.  We've reached a point where its seen as 'normal' to use poisons in farming and gardening.  Look at the common use of slug pellets ...and when did you last see a thrush ?  I find it laughable (and of course very sad) that humans see themselves as so separate from nature that they think its fine to soak the planet in poisons - whilst assuming it won't affect them!

New Allotment

 Allotment

 

out of the blue came the letter from the Town Council - 'you have an allotment - plot 48b - you can start right away'.

- suddenly we are people who can grow stuff...well, serious stuff! - so Luke dug and we planted some chitting spuds from under the sink

we broke off the old raspberry canes and stuck them in the ground.

we dug some more and planted onions and garlic (released from a pot in the kitchen).   Chris pulled up the long tough grass growing round the strawberry plants and gave us baby brassicas and a chestnut tree in  a pot 

we filled carrier bags with dandelion clocks and seed heads - '1 year's seeding 7 years weeding!' said Steve

Sue gave us a key to her new shed and showed us her sherry, glasses, kettle, and the red and green grass cutter her dad had given her (no petrol, no electricity)

Steve said - 'Oh you're growing brassicas...you'll have to cover them or birds 'll have 'em - you can borrow my cages'

'Don't you need them? ' 'No - I've got club root - can't grow brassicas - you can't get rid of it'

we cut Steve's grass path with Sue's mower 

Margaret had some palettes and Bill built a compost stable - also using the bricks at the back of the plot.

 

Now our allotted plot looks quite 'meant' ...... allotment

 

The blackbirds approve of the digging as it unearths worms - but I'd like to do some permaculture...so we're going to start a small tree nursery with the tiny oak trees  dug out of the grass at the playground near Thirsk, Chris's chestnut and some birches rescued by Luke.

 

 

 

Candidate for the Greens for Yorkshire and the Humber in 2014
http://shanoakes.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.facebook.com/shanoakesgreen

Lost cat found!

I have just witnessed a lovely thing: the reunion of a woman with her lost cat.  He had been missing for a week so she had leafleted the area and received a call that someone had seen him.   I came across her calling for the cat, in a back street in Beverley, and then saw a grey cat sitting  behind her, mewing.  She turned and saw the cat and couldn't believe her eyes!  She picked him up and buried her face in his fur and kept saying 'My cat! My cat!' through her tears.  I know the feeling as I once lost my cat for 2 weeks... Such a relief. 

They eat horses dont they...?

Horsemeat hidden in food products....which raises the question - what else is going on?  Its clear, isnt it, that if you trust 'the market' and close down or decimate all the watchdog organisations such as the Food Standards Agency  anything goes...

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/features/horsemeat-is-not-the-only-unsavoury-secret-lurking-in-retail-s-supply-chain-1-5444491

....'The price of freedom is eternal vigilance'