I think someone's bum must have gone to sleep, as I think I heard it snoring.
It is strange to come back home after a short break, I have a couple of wind up clocks, one had stopped, my cacti all seemed unphased, but a succulent looked a little parched. The fridge was empty, you could smell the vague dog smell, but he was still at the kennels. A large pile of mail, none of which looked very interesting. About 120 emails, likewise, little of interest there. Outside the garden all seemed equally unphased, the grass has continued its patchy growth in parts, and in general it all looks a bit shaggy and unloved, but basically it is becoming a fertile spot, the spent loganberries falling to the ground, the bramley bent with heavy fruit, the sweetpeas, supplying yards of wonderful colour. The onions plants seem pretty much spent, so I will probably just pull them and weed them at the same time. Overall a bit of attention and the garden should be fine, the basics are all there, stuff seems to be growing, and seems to be happy, so the rest is simply detail. I'm not sure that it will ever be a low maintenance garden, but hopefully not a high maintenance garden either. It is quite flattering that most of the plants in the garden seem to have grown very well in my absence, some even flowering!
I really will need to knuckle down and figure out how to train my loganberries, after a couple of years in the ground, they have started to produce long heavy branches each year, and some proper framework and system is clearly required. I would also like to move the water butt, from where it sits unused next to the shed, closer to the house, and run it from a diverter from our house rainwater gutters. With the slopes in the garden this would work fine. One of the problems with a big plastic water butt, is that it really does need to be sitting on something flat and level, or it will gently fold and collapse. Not so easy in much of my rather lumpy garden!
I had intended to spend half today in the garden, getting it a little tidier, but today would appear to be a day of steady drizzle, so I may need to change my plans! Also on the list for today is picking up our dog from the kennels, as it really takes a dog to make a home!
I took plenty of photos on my holidays, with my ultra cheap digital camera, about a third seem worth keeping, so I'm jolly glad that I did not have to pay to develop them. The photos always seem a bit hit or miss, so I try and take a few of each potential shot, so that hopefully there will be one good one in there. I'll sort out a photo album for this site, and probably write a little more about the holiday.
I really enjoyed the holiday, it is wonderful to be able to spend some time away from the routine hassles, and I just love being in the country. I would like to be able to shift the balance of how I spend my time now, so that I can spend more time outdoors, growing stuff and enjoying.
It was also great to be able to catch up with family members we had not seen in a too long a while.
I think successful rural communities rely on community spirit, whether is it just people using good local shops, keeping their gardens, having time to chat to neighbours, or helping out as volunteers.
Another element of the holiday that I really enjoyed was being able to visit the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, generally called Mac by the locals. I am always a bit wary of these things, I really like things green, but I don't have much time for the outer green fringes, of knit your own jumper from lentils, and lets listen to gaia's angry whispers. Having said that I do try and listen to everything with an open mind.
Anyway, I really enjoyed looking round CAT, it was really spectacular, and it was great to see how they were managing to apply green principles in an everyday way. Often I feel that the ecology movement can be joyless and worthy, or an expensive affectation, but for me, CAT seemed to strike a pretty good mid-point. I particularly enjoyed looking round what they were doing with the gardens and greenery generally, they seem to be moving along similar lines to myself, and if I say so myself, I think that my garden is slightly ahead of theirs in areas. Much of my planting and choice of plants here has been fairly quixotic, so I was glad to see that in parts it chimed with theirs. I do just love to see bushes and trees with fruit on them.
Also interesting to see how they were working on generating energy, like everything else, generating energy all seems pretty peripheral until you need to start doing it yourself.
There was an excellent book about CAT - although it was 10 years old, it was a wonderful read, I was really sorry to finish it, and I would love to read more in a similar vein. Although there is a lot of focus on green technology and green lifestyles, there seems to be little said or written about more sustainable communities, which is probably an issue that we need to start tackling as a society. how can we reconnect our local communities and give them meaning.
Anyway, to wrap up this little discourse, pulling together these threads, almost as if I had planned it that way,
on returning from my holiday, I recognise the value of much of I am doing already, and would in future like to focus on
spending more time outdoors, and connected with nature
better links with my family and friends
work on strengthening the local community, as it is community that gives life and meaning to our built environment
- in more concrete terms,
- look over my finances, to focus on investing prudently, with a view to being able to free up time to do stuff other than just working,
- get an extra computer, which would reduce the family queue to use it,
- consider moving over to a woodburning stove for our living room,
- and for the garden
- sort out the loganberrys
- not feel that routine work is a chore, it is the effort from which all else flows
- consider building in storage for logs etc in the spare space,
- consider collecting rain water,
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