The news that three McDonalds stores in Iceland are closing at midnight pleases me. This is not a tirade against a dodgy multinational but my opinion based on the principle that supplying locally produced food to local people has got to be the sustainable way forward – especially on a remote island. And in that [...]
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Posts Tagged ‘october’
31 October 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman UNSUSTAINABLE REALITY
Saturday, October 31st, 200930 October 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman 92 MILES TO MAIDENHEAD
Saturday, October 31st, 2009I left the house in darkness at the stroke of 6am. Unlocked the van, slung in a case, climbed in, turned the key and switches, pulled out and along St James away. My day unfolded whilst travelling west to east across Salisbury Plain. Daylight proper came somewhere betwixt Andover and the M3, though we all [...]
Read More »29 October 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman THURSDAY MORNING 6.35
Thursday, October 29th, 2009A buzzard flew over the garden, low, in silhouette as I sat on my bench and nursed a cup of tea whilst watching the day wake up. I love the sounds at this early hour; songbird song which comes across so crystal clear, the gentle rasp of crows in anarchic passage from big trees here [...]
Read More »28 October 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman HOT WEATHER AT THE END OF OCTOBER
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009I don’t doubt for a moment that I’m not the only home-producer still picking delicious raspberries. Such has been the weather that my autumn-bearing canes still hang heavy with luscious fruit. I vied for a ripe ’un with a bee who was after flowers on the same bunch. We both got what we wanted. True, [...]
Read More »27 October 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman EARLY AFTERNOON IN THE ORCHARD, BY THE FIRE
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009If I was to leave the fruit garden to nature it would soon be swamped by creeping buttercup and grasses. Then goodness knows what else’d come in and try to take over en route to becoming a small wood. Over the last half-dozen years I’ve carefully nurtured my collection of nuts and top fruit to [...]
Read More »26 October 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman NOT QUITE HOT ENOUGH
Monday, October 26th, 2009It was incredibly warm today in Shaftesbury. Tee-shirt weather at the end of October. I had to open extra vents in the greenhouse. Gave a drink of water to revive wilting salads in pots. Also took the hoe to a smattering of weeds that peppered bare soil between Brussels sprouts and recently planted winter onions [...]
Read More »25 October 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman ALLOTMENT PROVISION
Sunday, October 25th, 2009If you cultivate veggies due to concerns over pesticide and fertiliser use or because you want to beat the credit crunch by growing your own food, you are among an increasing portion of the community that is wanting land to realise your dreams. Tenuous agreements, dating back to 1066, were adapted and firmed up over [...]
Read More »24 October 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman SWEEPING LEAVES
Saturday, October 24th, 2009Love Lane, a sweeping tongue of asphalt upon which plays a rippling jig of golden leaves. Like fishes in panicked rush when rounded up and attacked by sharks, they catch the mild autumnal teeth of breeze and scamper in somersaulting fashion to rest and settle further down the road. Blackbirds chink in garden hedges, a [...]
Read More »23 October 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman SQUIRRELS IN GLEBE GARDENS BASINGSTOKE
Friday, October 23rd, 2009In each direction I see squirrels busily stashing the autumn haul. Shiny chestnuts in their jaws, they bound and flicker across the lawns in a stop-start manner which is so endearing and typical of the species. Take this little grey fellow to my right. It moves across the dewy, close-mown sward with clockwork pounces, each [...]
Read More »22 October 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman STILL PICKING RUNNERS
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009With no frosts yet and continued careful husbandry, I’m pleased to report that we’re still picking runner beans. True, some are thick and twisted like grotesque green overgrown fingernails. Others are small and limp, unattractively brown and feeble-looking. But there remain bunches of smooth and gently curved beans amongst the turning foliage. Rummage through the [...]
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