The Idler

Country Diary: 23

The Idler’s Editor, Tom Hodgkinson, has retired to a Devon farmhouse. Here’s the twenty-third part of his diary.

12 April 2005

ON A TRIP to London I visited the superb Arts and Crafts exhibition at the V&A. If you can bear forking out a tenner, which to me seems pretty steep, especially when you consider that it’s a national museum, you are in for a treat. The exhibition traces the growth of the Arts and Crafts movement from the ideas of John Ruskin and William Morris to the establishment of small communities around the world based on the idea of attacking industrialisation and creating a life where life and art mixed together. The Arts and Crafts pioneers included the Catholic perv, printer and carver Eric Gill, who settled at Ditchling in the early 20th century with a few like-minded families. They grew their own vegetables, kept chickens, raised pigs and established workshops for making beautiful objects. It was a radical rejection of the ugliness of the consumer ethic, and the idea spread to Germany, Japan and America. I was particularly lucky to be in the company of Mathew Clayton, whose grandfather was a member of the Ditchling community. Mathew grew up in Ditchling and I’ve been on at him to write a history of the community. It’s a surefire smash!

ON RETURNING from the Arts and Crafts show, I was inspired to buy a chisel and I cleared out the barn to make a workshop. First I made some shelves out of bits of driftwood we’d picked up on the beach. It took about half an hour and though I say so myself they look rather snazzy. Arthur and I also made a model aeroplane out of driftwood. To me it’s the ideal toy: unbreakable, free, not made of arsing plastic and completely unique. And believe me, if I can make things out of wood, then anyone can.

VICTORIA WENT out with the kids to collect nettles and sorrel. Finding free food in hedgerows has a long and noble tradition, is intensely pleasurable and there is a great book on the subject called Food For Free by Richard Mabey. Victoria made a nettle and sorrel risotto form our harvest and it was absolutely delicious. I understand also that it is very healthy: there is a theory that says that the land will produce what the body needs at the right time of year. My friend Penny Rimbaud from CRASS told me about this. The parsnip, for example, has all the stuff you need to cope with the weather during the parsnip season. This is why it is so important to eat seasonally.

WE HAD A PARTY for my 37th birthday. Lots of our friends from round about came for lunch. We cooked pork belly with fennel seeds and drank all afternoon. I got some wonderful presents and I hope you don’t mind if I list them: a trowel with “NDD” carved into it (for North Devon Diggers), a brilliant kindling axe, an enormous wooden box full of fireworks, two tarragon plants, some Pink Fir Apple seed potatoes, a driftwood clock, some cloches and a box of chocolates: a great mix of beauty, utility and pleasure. The driftwood clock was made by my friend James from Lynton, and we are planning to make some Idler clocks out of driftwood. They will have the Idler snail branded on to the wood and each piece will be unique. Look out for them on the Idler website.

WE ATTRACTED OUR CHICKENS back into the barn by the simple trick of feeding them. The poor things had been looking after themselves when it came to food, for at least a month. The trick paid off and one of the chickens finally deigned to use one of my makeshift nesting boxes and laid us an egg a day for a week. Unfortunately, the nest was disturbed by some creature or other and she has abandoned it again. I am going to buy four new hens, put up some chicken wire and see how we get on. Our landlady advised me on where to get good layers for ��4.50 each so I think we’ll go for it.