MATTOCK IN THE RASPBERRIES Today I used a mattock on raspberries growing as weeds. It’s not a tool I own, but I found one in the shed where I was working, examined it and thought that the feel of it in my hands and shape of the business end kind of made sense. It did. I [...]
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Posts Tagged ‘robin’
25 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman MATTOCK IN THE RASPBERRIES
Monday, January 25th, 201020 january 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman WEDNESDAY EARLY AFTERNOON
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010WEDNESDAY EARLY AFTERNOON Two robins with me on an L-shaped piece of freshly turned earth. One at each far corner while I fork and shake the weed roots free; across, return, slowly working backwards to complete the square. They seem quite at ease with my repetitive motion. A third redbreast drops by. Robbies One Two and [...]
Read More »16 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman SIGNS OF SPRING
Saturday, January 16th, 2010SIGNS OF SPRING On the homeward leg of my daily constitutional, I swung left along a barbed wire fence below the slippage underneath fields adjacent to what was Church Farm. The ground was squelchy; stud-bottomed trainers sunk uncomfortably deep. Leg over an iron gate, across the Very Steep Hill, another gate and shimmy through a [...]
Read More »4 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman JUBILEE STEPS AT TEN IN THE MORNING, (LACK OF) VISION
Monday, January 4th, 2010JUBILEE STEPS AT TEN IN THE MORNING 10am: a dozen or so blackbirds stripping berries from Jubilee Steps cotoneasters. With ground hoar-frosted and hard as iron, it’s a mercy for our feathered friends that such a heavy bounty is to be had. They scorn the scarlet berry clusters during autumn, as if saving themselves for [...]
Read More »3 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman SHE WAS THERE, COMMUNITY ORCHARD
Sunday, January 3rd, 2010SHE WAS THERE She was there on awakening, when I straightened my legs. She shadowed me down the stairs and as I dressed in front of the fire. She waited, then pressed on, impatient with my faffing about, then scampered like a mad thing whilst I nursed a mug of tea and strolled round the [...]
Read More »2 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman WHILST SITTING ON THE FLATTENED BUTT OF AN ANCIENT POLLARD OAK
Saturday, January 2nd, 2010WHILST SITTING ON THE FLATTENED BUTT OF AN ANCIENT POLLARD OAK… … a country robin flitted between nine tanalised fence posts which bordered the bottom of an uncut thorny hedge, one-by-one. It surveyed the frozen pasture from the flattened top of each in turn. Jenny wren emerged from a tangle of dead brambles, looked left [...]
Read More »28 December 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman SOUNDS
Monday, December 28th, 2009SOUNDS 16.09: I don’t like the sounds of those sirens up in town. Their unnatural wailing sounds manic, urgent, like something serious is afoot. At my feet, the warming crackle and spit of golden flames. They seem to follow me wherever I stand and envelop this winter gardener in an aromatic shroud of billowing smoke. [...]
Read More »1 December 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman FIRST FROST, COMPANY
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009FIRST FROST Here in North Dorset we’ve had our first proper frost. It was down by ten o’clock last evening. I noticed a crystalline rind on a car roof when popping out the front for something. Then someone phoned me to remind to check a holidaying neighbours heating, boost it slightly and save his pipes. Minus [...]
Read More »24 November 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman WHILE DIGGING OUT COMPOST
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009WHILE DIGGING OUT COMPOST Owd Robbie nigh on lands upon my boot, flutters to a fallen twig and back. In the moist and fertile crater, he finds many a good thing to eat, and joins me for a snack. A clutch of suprise new potatoes plucked, from the crumbly soil. Three of hen and one [...]
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 [...]
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