The Idler

Country Diary 85

07 August 2009

DURING THE GOOD weather a few weeks back, I got out my trusty scythe to mow the lawn. I swept and hacked away, but try as I might, I could not get the lawn to look properly cut. The grass looked squashed rather than neatly shorn. So I gave up and finished the job with my cheap electric Flymo, and I have to say that the Flymo did a reasonable job. I still seem some way off from replacing power tools with muscle power, which is the eventual aim. I think I need to take scything lessons, and it was unfortunate that I missed Simon Fairlie’s scything festival this year. But while I have not yet managed to mow a perfect lawn with the sycthe, I have used it successfully to cut the weeds in the field, a process called topping. The weeds need to be regularly topped if they are not to take hold. Alan also came round and used the sychthe to mow down some grass in the field in preparation for a group of campers who came donw here for a “simple living”course. He arranged the grass in neat rows – furrows – and instructed me to turn each furrow twice daily in order to let the wind and sun get into the grass and dry it out for hay. Well, days of sun never came, and although Henry and I did manage to turn over the furrows of grass, they would be dampened by a fresh onslaught of rain. So they hay was never made, and instead we still have eight furrows of wet brown grass.

WE WENT TO collect two ferrets from Brian the Potter. Delilah and Arthur called them Twister and Whisper, and they are a girl and a boy, brother and sister. They are still babies, but the idea is that by October they will be ready to send down rabbit holes and find food for us. I have asked our landlord permission to go ferreting on his land and he has given it. But apart from their practical purpose, the ferrets turn out to be the most playful and amusing pets you could dream of. We let them free in the kitchen and they scamper around like little kangaroos, and play with Poppy the dog. They love running through plastic tubes and playing with balls. They rarely bite. Delilah was bitten at first, but we followed Brian’s instructions on various anti-biting techniques and now they are less nippy.

IN MID-JULY we gathered 120 elderflower heads and made large quantities of elderflower cordial, which is absolutely delicious. Unfortunately we did not add any preservative, so now an entire demi-john of the stuff has started to ferment and we threw the whole lot away. We have also gathered the delciisou whortleberry form the hedgerows. This is a small bilberry that miraculously grows on wind-lashed moorland. We picked two jam jars full and scattered them on our cereal. Delicious, but again, I left a jar in the fridge and two weeks later they have started to ferment. So the moral is that harvesting ios one skill, but what to do with them once you have harvested is another. It has also been noticeable with the vegetables that there is skill in actually maing sure that what you grow is used. I hjave had four or five lettuces bolt on me in the last month, all for want of picking and using at the right time.It is pretty painful to see a bolted lettuce when you think of all the trouble, thought and work that went into growing them. I wonder if I should explore lettuce soup? Or maybe just leave the lettuces to flower and drop their seed in the hope of some free lettuces next year?

BUT OVERALL things are not looking bad at all in the vegetable garden. One of the compost bins has produced beautiful crumbly compost that I have spread over a couple of the beds. I have now harvested al lthe broad beans and we froze a goodly lot of them. They were a huge success as always. The cabbage plants are growing very well. I put a net over them to keep the birds off, but I’ve seen a couple of cabbage white butterflies hovering aruond. They lay their eggs on the underside of the leaves, leading to major caterpillar attack. The thing to do is to keep the cabbages netted to deter the butterflies. However, they still seem to find a way under the net, so you need to squash the eggs with your fingers. Over the last week I have been going up to the veg patch twice a day. I have discovered that it is better to do ten minutes a day than to do nothing for two weeks and then spend a a whole day up there. Even the tiniest bit of weeding is much better than nothing.

I BOUGHT ten kale plants in the market and planted them. There are three different varieties so we shall see which does best. I also cut down all the broad bean plants, leaving the roots in the ground for compost. Then I weeded the patch and went over it with the unrelenting mattock. I covered the bed with a layer of compost from the compost bin, and added straw and lime and a bit of poultry manure. The plan now is to buy a few more brassica plants from the nursery or market, and get them in the soil. There should be room for about twenty plants in there.

I WENT FOR A stroll with Poppy over the cliff path. I found a nice big parasol mushroom on the site of the old Roman look-out point, and a profusion of juicy whortleberries growing on the coastal moorland next to the heather. I ate a handful straight off the plants and resolved to bring a container next time I ramble this way.

TWO CHICKS have survived. But they seem to have two mothers, and I think we should have separated the mothers at an earlier stage. I suppose they will go around as a group of four until the chicks grow up.When I went to collect the eggs yesterday — and we are getting four a day right now from seven hens — I was shocked to see Whisper the ferret in there. She was chasing around the edges of the barn, while the two mother hens clucked and squawked and lifted up their wings to try to defend their chicks. I caught Whisper before she managed to kill anything and banged a couple of extra nails in her hutch to try and make it more secure. We have not seen the fox lately, and it is possible that Poppy is doing a good job in deterring him. She seems to be able to sense his approach. We will be sitting in the kitchen and she and will suddenly perk up, race out and start barking.

ENDS