September, my favourite month. I usually say that a sunny day in September is the best of all days, but this year I am enjoying rainy days in September. July and August died. September is a new birth. Californian poppy seedlings are growing outside Louise’s door. Standing in the rain is an activity, as well as picking tomatoes. Not much else has grown. In the house a new kitchen and laundry room are being born, to live with us for the rest of our days. We are so lucky. We have such delightful problems.
No talking.
I give you a garden, I give you my arms and legs, my time, my labour, my words. I listen. I’m listening now. Speak to me, I will hear you.
Yesterday I went to the allotment and spent a couple of hours weeding and listening to Late Victorian Holocausts by Mike Davis. The book is describing famine in India in the nineteenth century and the British complicity. It’s harrowing and I wonder why I’m listening to it when I look around the world now and realise that we have learn very little in 150 years. We roll towards destruction by continuing to burn fossil fuels while busily spending fortunes on weapons.
Damn. I wanted this blog to be about gardening. One of the offshoots of the making of the new kitchen is that I can’t do much in the garden here. It’s partly psychological and partly practical. There are always people here, and we are using my garden shed as a camp kitchen.
The garden has suffered this year. The little lawn is brown and there are not very many apples on the apple tree. Beans and peas more or less failed, and the courgettes are barely alive. The giant spinach is not very giant and the kale is being gobbled up by flea beetles. There is some excitement in the greenhouse, where as I mentioned, there are masses of tomatoes grown from saved seed. There are two plants grown from seed I brought back from Marseilles last year. The fruit are still green, but they remind me that I saved them because I liked the shape. They are large pear drops, with wrinkles at the thinner end where they are attached to the stem. It’s fun to watch them develop. Also shining are some peppers and chillies, some of which are looking rather hot.
Another hot harvest is Szechuan pepper. The tree is developing well, and has produced a good few seeds. It is rather a vicious tree, and harvesting is completed with special care. The thorns are sharp and ubiquitous.
One last thing. I have a gnome in the window that holds a Palestinian flag. He fell off the ledge recently and his legs and base are broken. I’ve put him back and he stands somewhat askew, with the shards of his support beside him.
The picture is of Szechuan pepper. If you eat a few seeds they make your lips go numb. Not sure why I mentioned that! The plate is by Judith Rowe.
