Bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger.
This year really is turning out just like last. No rain, then spuds frosted in May. Bang go my hopes of new potatoes before June.
Oddly, though, I already feel stirrings of what the French – with genius – call j’en-foutisme (untranslatable in proper English, but rough meaning: “Don’t-give-a-fuck-ism”). So last year was shit, now this one is too.
So what? At 42 years old, perhaps it’s time I started worrying about things that actually matter?
Update, 7th May: I see from my incoming Google traffic that LOTS of you, like me, got caught out by the frost. Don’t panic if you’ve not seen this before: Potatoes DO recover from frost damage. It just sets them back a few weeks and may slightly lower yield. A pain, but not a disaster.
Posted on 4th May 2011
Under: Potatoes, Rants | 12 Comments »
The ground is frozen hard as iron today, so digging impossible (thank God).
Thus had a wander around Hampton Court Palace. In summer, it’s black with tourists and makes you wish you’d brought a machine gun. In winter, delightful. Hardly a soul about.
We molested swans, poked ducks with sticks dipped in dog turd and generally availed ourselves of the usual amusements of a sunny day out in midwinter.
On the way out, there was the additional pleasure of watching brain-dead, overweight holidaymakers falling on their arses on the . It looks nice in the publicity pix, but don’t be fooled: more than 10 minutes wearing the rented skates and you need your feet amputating. Plus they pack you on the (slushy) ice as tight as penguins in Antarctica.
But hey, it’s a nice day out if you like breathing other folks’ BO and repeatedly falling in a cold puddle.
Posted on 20th December 2009
Under: Winter | 6 Comments »
The recent frosty mornings have been so beautiful.
I’m lucky enough to drive through Bushey Park in south west London on my journey to work. So I see deer every day. When it’s frosty, the statue in this circular lake is swathed in steamy clouds of blue-grey water vapour.
Wish I could take better photographs.
Posted on 5th December 2008
Under: Uncategorized, Winter | 2 Comments »