More than a quarter of readers of YA are over the age of 28 research shows. I love that more people think of themselves as readers. I’ve been a reader, pretty much since I learned how. I also read YA, and for me it’s always been about story and plot. I recognise good writing but I don’t read to discover how clever the author is. Lots of adult fiction (AS Byatt, I’m looking at you!) is trying to tell me how clever it is. Tell the story properly and I’ll work out how clever you are. Show don’t tell….
In my family (as I’m sure is the case in every family) there are words and phrases that become family language. Some particular gems are ‘cutty sarks’ for cul de sacs, ‘cross H’s’ for hot cross buns, ‘don’t call me lucky, call me lucky, lucky, lucky’ I have no idea where that came from, ‘little girl with dirty fingernails’ which was my description of myself at a point before I was five*. There’s the whole ‘full head of hair and a filthy temper’ that was my brother describing our Dad and me and questioning his parentage.
All this to explain, ‘no, it’s broken’ is a thing because when my youngest nephew was very small, he was ‘helping’ my brother fix a chair. He looked at it and was asked “Can we fix it?”. His reply was “No, it’s broken”. To every question…
On Saturday, that was my very embarrassing answer to how I was. I’m not that fit but I’m a good walker, I can’t run but I can walk, when I had my osteotomy, the physio AND the surgeon both commented on how well I’d done to be walking as much as I did with my bunion. So I can walk. This Saturday, I risk assessed a walk the team is doing next month. It was 13 miles, it did not go well. Because apparently, I can’t walk those kind of distances anymore, without my piriformis muscle being extremely unhappy and causing issues. Christelle came with me and was not as broken, I was upset and mortified.
Of the 13 miles planned, we did 10 (and I did 13 miles over the day) but I need to plot some shorter walks for people who may not be able to do the whole amount AND I need to spent the next three weeks, doing yoga and stretching my pesky piriformis muscle so I can do the whole walk without being ‘broken’. Sue does 12 miles without blinking and she’s a decade older than me!
So Saturday was walking, Sunday was stretching and what I like to call, ‘fun with tennis balls and foam rollers’
The rest of the week was good, I had Monday and Wednesday afternoon off. Wednesday was to see ‘Nye’ at the National Theatre. Worth seeing, brilliant staging and a hell of a play to put on in an election. year. It put me in mind of this:
Which brings me to my reminder for those of us in the UK, there are local elections this week, please vote and if you’re voting, remember to bring ID!
My plan for this week, is work, stretching and sowing seeds. It’s a Bank Holiday next week so I have an extra day on the plot (assuming I can walk!) and no plans or commitments.
Have a good week!
*I hate having dirt under my fingernails and apparently always have, which makes my love of gardening ironic.
I’ve been happily using a Nivea face cream for a couple of years, it’s great (not £3.99 anymore but fine). Last year, I noticed that my eyelids were sore and red. I couldn’t work it out, tried excluding various things on my face. It’s the nivea!
I don’t know if it’s my age, menopause or what but my skin has become really touchy as I’ve got older, it’s also started to dry out, so I went to Altruist and bought this.
Like all of the Altruist things I’ve used, it doesn’t irritate my skin or cost a lot. I’ve been using it day and night, my eyelids aren’t red and scabby anymore and I’ve not broken out in spots, so it’s a win.
Links are coming late this week because, I’ve been tired and busy…
Thames Water could raise bills to £627 a year to help fix leaks. I can’t explain how angry the Thames Water situation makes me, I can switch energy suppliers, I can move my phone and broadband provider, I have to use Thames Water, there are no other water suppliers in London. It’s a monopoly and the shareholders have extracted all the value from the company, whilst making no major improvements to the system, essentially profiting from years of government investment and now there’s no money left they’d like everyone else to pay. I’m so mad about this.
Landlord speaks out after pub sign goes viral. Having grown up in an era where all pubs were child free, I find this interesting, how immediately, it’s ‘you hate children’ rather than an acceptance that children don’t belong everywhere.
The stress of cheating on my wife is making me ill – but I can no longer suppress who I am. There are times when I miss the less sympathetic agony aunts. The bisexual thing is a total red herring. I wasn’t aware that being bisexual meant that you had to sleep with a man and woman it just means that you can, it doesn’t make cheating ok. I have two theories, a) he’s actually gay, b) the wife is probably carrying the majority of the domestic load because if he has time for an affair, he’s probably not in the trenches of caring for young children. Either way he’s a liar, but wants sympathy because of the stress he’s under. Man up, be honest and make a decision, live with it.
I’m not actually ignoring the news but Bayern beat Arsenal this week which made me happy (Bayern are the only one of my Champions League picks for the family draw, so all my hope rests with them!)
Former head of Shin Bet: Hamas’s nightmare is a two-state solution. It’s really easy, when solutions are complicated and no-one wins, to pick a side and stay firmly entrenched there. Ami Ayalon, hasn’t done that. He’s clear about what he wants and also clear that Israel won’t get it without treating Palestinians as people. I’m currently reading his memoir and it’s both hopeful and heartbreaking. On the back of this I also watched ‘The Gatekeepers’ which I would recommend.
What Cass review says about surge in children seeking gender services. I think caring for children is in crisis. Just look at how terrible the CAHMS waiting lists are right now. I also think that parents are in a continuous state of low level crisis and don’t have good coping skills and therefore can’t teach children coping skills and goodness knows teenagers have to try on a lot of personalities before they settle to who they are. I think teenagers are telling us something, it’s about how uncomfortable and uncertain they feel and whether that expresses itself in gender questioning or anxiety adults need to deal with it. Which takes time and money and understanding. None of which the NHS has nor is the government prepared to fund the NHS so that it does.
The plot is looking ok but things are happening, I need to weed more before they all start growing again. However the rhubarb is back and I’ve already been told that the rhubarb and ginger jam I made recently is very good! Last year, I did small batches of 3 to 5 jars, I might consider doubling it this year because I like making it, I use it to flavour yoghurt AND it makes a very good gift.
Anyway, work. I started with weeding the ‘windows and orphans’ bed (and the surrounding paths), and I planted the 2 early potatoes (Nicola), on Sunday it had been very warm for the season but the weather has turned so I was glad that I decided to mulch the bed with straw. I would also like to ask the wildlife of Ealing what it was thinking, I found 5 baby oaks in the bed!
One potato bed, the main crop potatoes will wait for the compost delivery at the end of the month
That done, I tackled the polytunnel. It has not been a success, but I cleared it m salvaged what kale I could and removed some slugs, they were everywhere, I put some herbs in there prior to planting out and gave the buggers some tasty greens. I’ve left the garlic and onions and a few of the fennel that the slugs hadn’t eaten. I’m going to treat both the beds with slug nematodes or nothing is going to survive in there this summer.
That done, I picked some rhubarb. This feels like my first proper harvest of 2024.
After admiring the various blossom and tiny fruits on the blackcurrants, gooseberries and strawberries, I pruned and moved a blueberry bush. To discover that it had an ants nest in it. I don’t mind ants in their place but that place should not be in the roots of my blueberry bushes. So I’m going to treat them with ant nematodes, it’s the season for nematodes (my sister in law is waiting for it to warm up to kill the leather jackets that have been killing her lawn – she thought it was the dog!)
BlackcurrantsGooseberries Strawberries
Then it was a bit more weeding. I dug up the crocus bulbs to replant in the autumn, and dug out some more grass from the front, I also gave the thyme and chamomile lawn in the jasmine bed a tidy, the jasmine needs a haircut but I need to sort out some support for it before I do that. I have a plan, I just need to remember to charge the drill! I weeded some of the beds at the front and in what is becoming a theme, the surrounding paths, I love that the woodchip improves the soil but I also understand why people have concrete paths, less weeding required! And yes I am inconsistent because there are plants that I leave in the paths (mostly verbena, oregano, borage, chives, cornflowers, calendula) and there are plants I’ve deliberately put in there (rosemary, chamomile, thyme and there will be more of this year), but I like those plants, I don’t enjoy bindweed, couch grass, 90% of the verbenas or cinquefoil). I also planted the walking onions in a bed that’s going to have carrots sown in there next week. And yes, I’m hopeful that they will wander!
A bit tidier
Finally, I cut some herbs, fresh mint tea season has begun and I cut some chives, rosemary and oregano. I’m thinking of taking some of the oregano and pot it up as gifts and for the plant sale in July, but that really depends on how much energy I have left after all the weeding.
Mint tea season
Next week I need to get to the rest of the squash bed, rose beds and paths at the back.
Over grown squash bed
I have a new neighbour on Dennis’ old plot and they are really putting me to shame.
Really cracking on next door!
Last thing for this week is that the yellow rose at the back is in bud!
I came back to a new kitchen and there was no good place to put the bokashi bins and one of the bins started leaking and I just gave up.
It was easy to stop because I don’t think I really got the hang of it in the first place. My bokashi never smelt pickled, it always smelt foul and the bins were a massive pain in the neck!
However, just before Easter, I ordered compost for the plot. 50 80 litre bags and it cost £175. There was also a 7-8 week wait. I need to start making compost on a slightly grander scale and I think bokashi will help.
So I decided to try again. I cleared a space for the bins behind the kitchen door and bought new, more airtight bins from Wiggly Wigglers
I’ve decided that I needed to commit to it, which means using more bran and draining the bin every day.
It’s a new year (I’m convinced that the new year should start in spring and as the start of 2024 was rockier than I’d hoped, I’m just starting it now!) and I’m going to make this work and make composting on the plot work!
Last week was a good week. At work it was a reporting week which is always busy, there’s a lot going on. I’m still working on the balance between the new role and the old one. It’s definitely all about balance and I’m notoriously bad at balance.
Outside of work, I got to catch up with Kathy and Sue. Ma and I finally went up to see Ben, Laura and the boys! We had a lovely lunch but did have to contend with QPR losing 3-0 to Hull. Poor Ben. QPR need to pull their socks up even more than my beloved Chelsea do!
The rose is budding already
I got an afternoon on the plot on Sunday, I feel that given how sore my back is that the plot should look tidier!
Light evenings make walking home from the station 100% more picturesque.
Plans for this week are more of the same. I’m writing this on the train into the office. So at least two days in the office and the usual stuff.
As Ma reminded me this morning, 10pm bedtime and getting up 6:30am latest, exercise every day (my back is demanding yoga and stretching!) and good habits generally! I need to spend some time organising the flat and more time on the plot!
Socially, I’m going to a birthday party on Saturday night!
Getting the plot ready for Spring is taking longer than I planned, partly because of time and also because weather.
However, we are making progress. The new paving stones are down and most of the blueberries are on them.
I’ve extensively weeded and woodchipped the front of the plot. I need to net the goosberries in a week or two and think about how to cover the blueberries! Most of the things I need to do down there are about pruning some plants and/or need compost which should come sometime in the next couple of weeks!
So my attention has turned to the back and the grass infested chaos that is/was the squash beds. As an April treat we’ve subscribed to the garden waste collection (I don’t think much of the cutting of the service to March to November but keeping it at the same price!) but I don’t have space to effectively compost weeds to get them hot enough to kill them effectively and I don’t have a car to take green waste to the dump so this is my solution. Yes, I shall be transporting a green wheelie bin through the streets of Ealing every two weeks but needs must as the devil drives. Pray for my back!
Getting there
It’s really overgrown, but I have to have it sorted for the time the compost arrives, so best get on it.
Other things, I bought some trees. Patio trees a cherry, a pear and an apple (I’m unbothered about the apple but I did want the cherry and the pear!)
Plans for this week are to finish weeding the squash beds and paths and woodchip, plant new potatoes, pot up the mini trees and if there’s any time left sow some carrots, carlin peas, peas and beetroot. I’d also like to clear the kale from the poly and have a bit of a tidy!
Nic Dempsey 