So. April came and went, as it aways does and always will. I wasn’t wrong to think we had a drought – here in the UK it was one of the driest (and coldest) Aprils on record. The climate crisis is real, is here, and we have to both change and adapt urgently. May has begun to put the drought right, with a stereotypically wet Bank Holiday Monday. My newly-installed water butts are beginning to fill nicely.
It’s a long time since I last wrote here. Things have been busy – April and May are always busy for us gardeners, and this April was extra busy due to the Farm plant sale where I had a stall to sell my knitted goods. This meant lots of sewing in pesky ends, so that all the dishcloths I’d been busy working on were good to go. All the effort was worthwhile – the plant sale was a magnificent success, and I made £120 on my stall. A small contribution compared to what the plant sale raised, but a significant dent in my target of raising £500 for the farm in 2021.
On the allotment and in the garden there was plenty of catching up to do. Somehow there always is. Nonetheless, I’m pleased with what I’ve managed to do, and sanguine about what I haven’t.
In particular, I finally got round to installing two additional large water butts in the garden and replaced the leaking tap on one already there. That brings the garden water butts to 4, mostly tucked away out of sight – I suspect they’re only beautiful to us gardeners: we know and appreciate their worth. Out on the allotment, I emptied and moved the water butt by the greenhouse, so that I can level the original placement and then add yet another there. These two by the greenhouse, one in the hen’s pen, and two more large ones by the shed will save me much water carrying from the site tap, and of course save all the mains water I might otherwise have used. I just wish there was an option not to pay for allotment water when we don’t use it – it might incentivise more people to set up rainwater harvesting.
In other news it feels wonderful finally to have plans to meet up with friends we haven’t seen for so long. So far we’ve managed to meet up with one couple, and I’ve met up with a close family member I haven’t seen for far too long. Over Easter we met with both our sons and their partners/family – such a treat! We’ve even made plans to go away – a few nights in a friend’s caravan by the sea in June, and a visit to a Scottish island in September. Both plans feel outlandishly daring and exciting now even though in other times they might have felt quite modest.
Perhaps that’s a good thing from all this: a new appreciation of the truly good things in life, for those of us fortunate to have them. Checking in with someone with close family in India, where covid rages and medical services are buckling, provides a reminder if one were needed that many are far less fortunate than us. Likewise talking with people who’ve had to struggle with huge emotional and financial difficulties during the pandemic.
I hope that you and yours are well, and that you will be able to enjoy the gradual relaxations of precautionary measures as they come our way.
the magic jug 