The Cats Tripe

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Shallots and Strays

Today I harvested the shallots planted in March. They've done really well. The parent bulbs were saved from last year's crop and strung up in the cold outside store over the winter. Each bulb has produced about six large new bulbs so I can save 15 or 20 for next year and still have a useful amount for the kitchen, which is what it's all about of course. Probably our best year for shallots all the same. We have another variety, bought in this year, on the other plot. These aren't doing so well and will probably make the sort of tiddlers that are only good for pickling. That's o.k. but less gratifying.

This is a selection of South American plants, oca, ulluco, potatoes and the Magentaspreen (Chenopodium giganteum). The oca and ulluco are doing fairly well although the very hot weather has caused them to stop growing for a while. Plants of the high Andes aren't used to such elevated temperatures. The New Zealand blue potato that I received in a plant swap seems to be about to flower, making it a little later than the Vitelotte noire although this may be due to nothing more than cultural differences. The NZ spud was a tiny tuber and I grew it on in a pot for a few weeks before setting it out in the garden. The Magentaspreen is another self sown weed and I really should get rid of it now before it steals the goodness away from the tubers.

Behind the ulluco you can see the other shallots and the onions which are beginning to form bulbs at last. The long row of potatoes are the Pink Fir Apple which are looking good. Fingers crossed that the change in weather won't precipitate any attacks of blight.

This naughty black cat is no relation at all to the gang of three. It's a feral that has been living in the yard. The first time I saw it I did a double take and had to count the kits milling about my ankles because he or she does look so much like them. This evening there was a standoff between our three and the intruder, who might claim prior occupation I suppose. Not a fight but the sort of staring match cats are so fond of when staking out territory.

The obvious name - Jack short for Jackdaw.

Windmills of your mind

It's been a week and I said I'd write more about truthfulness and honesty in blogging. To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm going to say so I'll just let my fingers do the walking and see where we end up.

Last week I wasn't feeling entirely stable, it's very hard living here entirely alone for a lot of the time. The isolation leads you to trying to make connections that aren't there and human pattern making skills are exceptionally clever at extrapolating entire scenarios from a single word or lack of it. This leads to whole philosophies being built on straw.

I think people need truthfulness at a very basic level. We may be so many quanta swirling in a maelstrom of possibilities but our animal selves require some solid touchstones.

And how does this relate to blogging, exactly? I don't know in any incontrovertible way because it is a very free form medium. I'm drawn to blogs that are, or appear to be, real journals from real people even though I know from my own blogging that what is portrayed is often slanted or altered for all sorts of reasons, few of them to do with deliberate untruthfulness but usually to protect family or friends who might be reading. Where the line between that necessary censorship and total invention lies is always going to be hard to determine but it is uncomfortable for readers who relate to situations described by a blogger to realise that they have been empathising with someone's work of fantasy. Who wants to be taken for a sucker?

So it comes back to self knowledge and managing one's own expectations. After about 15 years of experiencing large parts of my life online, I should be better able to do this. Sadly, it looks like I still haven't quite got the knack.

Anyway, although I've not even broached the writing issues touched on in the comments the shrink in my head suggests I should wrap this up now because it feels just a tad self indulgent. Bring on the cling film because that's all folks.

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

July already!

It's been so wonderfully hot, and dry and simply summery here. I'm really enjoying it although it's also making me miss Paul rather a lot. He's working and a long way away and I want someone to share all this beauty and wonderfulness with.

Anyway, I was thrilled this morning to discover the pickling cucumbers have started to flower and form fruit. I'm going to have to get a brine tub going for them pretty damn quick. I've only just finished (by throwing away the last few jars) the 2005 pickles mainly because the cukes got so big so quickly I had many more jars full than we needed. Tiny cornichons are much more refined and if I can just keep up with the picking we shouldn't end up with more than we can eat. There will still be some that pass under the radar of course but some big dill pickles and a batch of our favourite cucumber and celery seed relish should see to those.

It's also good to see that the beans have started to flower. These are the first flowers of the Yin Yang bean, planted on 1st May. Most of the other plants are way behind because they were sown two weeks later after the first sowing all but failed apart from our friend above.

The delay in getting the beans in may have further repercussions if the weather goes on being as hot as this as the plants are almost stopping growing in the heat. I've been trying to avoid watering as long as possible but with little or no rain forecast for the next ten days I had to start bringing watering cans to the plot today. Any plants stunted by drought aren't going to be very productive.

Still I'm not really grumbling, I've been waiting for a proper summer for years now. I'm going to enjoy it while I can.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Kitten Diary #7

Which I'm just going to hijack for a moment to thank everyone for the thoughtful and lovely comments on my Digression post. Rather than try to make a decent reply in the cramped confines of the comment box I'm going to mull it over for a bit and do another post in about a week, but I'm really touched and grateful for your responses.

It was kitten weighing day yesterday which task I managed to complete before I hit the bottle (hence the youtube links) and I'm pleased to report all the beasts put on a useful amount of weight. They're still growing, yay!

Rook: 4.531 kg
Crow: 3.960 kg
Raven: 3.324 kg

They're still catching stuff too, although thankfully and fingers crossed no more birds since the last diary. I was horrified to find one of them had caught a grass snake and left it on the floor in my office. It looked really gruesome, I took a picture but I don't want anyone to be ill so only click here if you've a strong stomach and a ghoulish nature. The worst is yet to come, gingerly I picked the poor dead thing up by the tip of its tail to dispose of it and it came back to life!

It didn't look too well though. I put it into the long grass by the pond and it wriggled away, I hope it found a hiding place to die in or recover (they are remarkably hardy and I've seen some with tremendous scars) where the cats couldn't bother it. It's not come back in at any rate.

Such terrible terrible creatures who are so soft and warm and cuddly when they're in bed with me you couldn't believe they could be such callous killers.

They all have their preferred places to sleep on the bed. Crow likes to curl up near my head, ideally with his head or paws on my hands. Rook prefers to get into the bed and rest his head on my shoulder, often putting his paws around my neck. Raven rarely gets into the bed but sits on my chest, often flopping down so trustfully that she would roll right off again if I didn't catch her. They match this behaviour at my desk, Crow sleeps on the keyboard, Raven snuggles cosily on my lap and Rook tries to burrow his way into my neck and cleavage until he feels completely safe. Funny little things.