ruralidiocy.wordpress.com
“…and then the grass turned into soil!” (70 days to go) |
https://ruralidiocy.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/and-then-the-grass-turned-into-soil-70-days-to-go
Welcome to our home…. A handmade peasant life. 8220;…and then the grass turned into soil! 8221; (70 days to go). It’s been all quiet busyness at Kervéguen this week. Just plodding progress constrained by the limitations of one slightly old, slightly fat and ever-so-weary man. Bears the gentle euphemism ‘hay’ for this neglected set up…. Now look at it! Funny though how such principles were nowhere to be seen when a friendly local farmer showed up out of the blue in a big, blue tractor. He wondered if ...
ruralidiocy.wordpress.com
Retrospective (12 days to go…) |
https://ruralidiocy.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/retrospective-12-days-to-go
Welcome to our home…. A handmade peasant life. Retrospective (12 days to go…). Reverie about how much things had changed soon got me thinking (in a very middle-aged way) about how I’d ended up having a ragged, happy birthday in a toolshed in Brittany rather than the pre-ordained one: dejected in a suit in a bar in West Yorkshire. Why had my official life plan unravelled so absolutely? But I do know that strimmer is working just fine now. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window). May 19, 2011.
ruralidiocy.wordpress.com
Things preserved (42 days to go…) |
https://ruralidiocy.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/things-preserved-42-days-to-go
Welcome to our home…. A handmade peasant life. Things preserved (42 days to go…). Most of this process is spread over months. Sometimes you sow a seed and have to wait until the following year to enjoy the harvest. Which reminds me, it’s broccoli sowing time isn’t it? So much sugar goes into those preserves I reckon I could make a palatable lawn chutney or maybe a molehill pickle? But whatever the wretched dentist or the wretched sugar plantation worker might say, I say long-live the W.I! But we need rain.
ruralidiocy.wordpress.com
Anyone for dock pudding? (25 days to go…) |
https://ruralidiocy.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/anyone-for-dock-pudding-25-days-to-go
Welcome to our home…. A handmade peasant life. Anyone for dock pudding? 25 days to go…). I’ve not even started yet and it’s apparent this subsistence thing is like crossing a big, hungry river on wobbly stepping stones. But even more profoundly peasanty is deciphering the back-story that is the hedgerow harvest. Could there be an unbroken, three-season narrative to uncover, starting with the wild garlic and ending with wild mushrooms? I’ve already discovered that the main attraction of this food. Back in...
ruralidiocy.wordpress.com
Vegetables for pigs scheme (80 days to go…) |
https://ruralidiocy.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/vegetables-for-pigs-scheme-80-days-to-go
Welcome to our home…. A handmade peasant life. Vegetables for pigs scheme (80 days to go…). Welcome to the Mummy pigs’ field! The resulting plan which emerged from this mental soup actually only took an hour to execute. I then selected 25 of my biggest, ugliest tubers from last year and planted them through the mulch. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window). Share on Facebook (Opens in new window). Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window). March 15, 2011. March 15, 2011 at 8:26 am. I’...
ruralidiocy.wordpress.com
Last of the winter salad (78 days to go…) |
https://ruralidiocy.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/last-of-the-winter-salad-78-days-to-go
Welcome to our home…. A handmade peasant life. Last of the winter salad (78 days to go…). This post is simply a retrospective tribute to some humble salad crops which have been significant contributors to our diet since New Year. Thanks to their existence within the weedy ranks of the polytunnel beds, the first three months of the calendar year aren’t such a fearsome prospect any more. This slideshow requires JavaScript. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window). March 17, 2011. It’s good to ...
ruralidiocy.wordpress.com
Spring forward? (73 days to go…) |
https://ruralidiocy.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/spring-forward-days-to-go
Welcome to our home…. A handmade peasant life. 73 days to go…). This slideshow requires JavaScript. By any measure, spring has arrived. Typically, the demarcation “on the ground” is less certain. Beautiful, but frosty, mornings give way to sunny, but dry, day times and none of that is particularly conducive to rampant growth. Underneath a dusty exterior, the soil retains its winter stock of moisture for now – but we definitely need rain soon…. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window). Hazel suppor...
ruralidiocy.wordpress.com
Stop gap solution (36 days to go..) |
https://ruralidiocy.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/stop-gap-solution-36-days-to-go
Welcome to our home…. A handmade peasant life. Stop gap solution (36 days to go.). Sometimes it feels like water, time and cash are the same substance. They all flow (generally in one direction – away! They’re easy to take for granted, until scarcity requires you to be more resourceful. And a severe deficit in any defeats self-sufficiency. I’m going to keep plodding on, not least because the effort laid down in previous months requires it. And I’m getting a great tan out there! Click to share on Reddit (...
ruralidiocy.wordpress.com
January Journey |
https://ruralidiocy.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/january-journey
Welcome to our home…. A handmade peasant life. In case airports aren’t confusing enough, they put a man in the way of their signs. In a parallel world where tooth paste. Definitely a liquid, sir. An I help you sir? Living in the middle of nowhere, you end up a kind of weathered residue of your former self which makes normality appear very strange. The early-morning shopping precincts had been transactionless but people showed up anyway. Why does a sign need a man to explain the sign? I stop to pee by the...