Saturday Night Supper of Sausages from Bakewell Farmer's Market

Friday Night Gingerbread and Cardamom Coffee

And Thaw

Snow at Last

Breathless, of Derbyshire...

On The Nature of Friendships, Edith Piaf and the Foreign Legion

Each day in January I have visited a friend of mine in hospital. It's not a huge journey, ten miles door to door, and the gossip factor alone makes the couple of hours fly by. She smokes, and I suppose the most important thing I do is wheel her outside for a fag or three. In the last week I have wheeled her fellow-smoker in the next bed, outside too. Smokers are such communal creatures.

Since last week we have been planning my friend's funeral. As a safety precaution. Neither of us do messy, unplanned, thrown-together-at-the-last-minute events. We have the CofE order of service from the internet, and have been selecting readings, prayers and hymns. Now we are moving into the "event management" side of things. You know, does she want her coffin carried out by the men in her family, or by the funeral director's staff; does she want religious or secular music to leave the church by; in what font is the order of service to be printed, and does she want photographs included; where are we having the traditional cup of tea, cake and sandwiches afterwards... So many details, so much time to decide.

We have decided that she wants to leave the church to the sounds of "River Dance" by Bill Whelan, having seen the show in London and like the rest of the world, stunned by the vitality and sheer physical joy of the human body and spirit. So arriving back from the hospital tonight I clicked onto radioblogclub.com and listened to the tune again. Perfect. Fitting. And then something happened that makes me just love the world wide web.

On the same playlist as River Dance, is Edith Piaf, singing Non Je Ne Regrette Rien. An absolute classic. But what are the lyrics? Click onto google, and up pops wikipedia, explaining everything. It's the unoffical anthem of the French Foreign Legion. Oh man, how cool is that. I shall tell my friend this tomorrow. For who can resist the allure of a man in uniform.

http://www.answers.com/topic/non-je-ne-regrette-rien-1

Keeping Up With The Dons, or Forward Planning for February's Seed Sowing

Wide awake and restless last night, no doubt worrying about the storm damage likely through the night. I padded downstairs and raided the study for my sleeping tablets, (that's my favourite Elizabeth David, glossy pictures from Frances Mayes and Fork to Fork by Monty and Sarah Don.) These soothing tomes never fail to settle me down for sleep. Wonderful.

Monty and Sarah write how seed sowing in their part of Herefordshire begins in earnest on Valentine's Day. Right then, the bar's set then! This morning, after a quick tour of the garden, house and outbuildings to check all survived the storms intact, its back to the study and a delicious rummage through my Tiffany-blue seed box. In February's section I have packets of some of my most favourite annual flowers, stocks. I saved seeds from last summer's flowers, "Ten Week Mixed", more about this in a later post. These came up in a beautiful range of soft lilacs, pinks and creams and stand about 12" tall, so were perfect for the front of borders around the roses, iris and in between the herbs near the terrace. I've also some "Giant Perfection Mix" stocks, growing about 18" tall and so perfect for cut flowers for the house this summer. I love the spicy, nutmeg/cinnamon scent these workhorses give out. Perfect. I've also a packet of Penstemon "Sensation Mix", good perennial fillers for the borders.

And then we come to the vegetable seeds! Excitement mounting, I flick through carrots "Early Scarlet Horn," broccoli "Waltham 29," a packet of Halcyon Sweet Genovese basil, and then its on to the tomatoes. Two packets of "Costoluto fiorentino", the big misshapen monsters and the smaller plum tomatoes "Roma." Basil and tomatoes, all I need now is a few bulbs of garlic and I'm ready for heaven! Tucked at the back of February's section is a box of peas I picked up in Cora last year, "Tres Hatif D'Annonay." Tiny colourless bullets rattling round inside comfortingly. I'm all set for summer.

Gale Force Winds and Treacherous Gardening Conditions

This morning opened with gale force winds across the country bringing trees down, fences taking to the air and appalling injuries. The accompanying heavy rains caused local flooding and crazily deep road floods making the school run over the mountains treacherous. Mind you, I drive a diesel, so I rather took the opportunity to give the underside and doors of the car a good old clean by heading through the road floods with enthusiasm... (enthusiasm not foolhardiness, and only on roads empty of other drivers and pedestrians... honest!)

A perfect day to sow brassica seeds in the glass house. I filled my favourite 6x9-plug seed trays three-quarters full with compost (peat-free of course), and then laid them out across the opened up inside of the compost bag, knelt down on the terracotta floor tiles and began to sow at eye level. The rain pounding down on the glass sheets scoured away the winter's grime, and as the skies cleared the sun came streaming through and lit the steam from my tea as it danced upwards. Silence, warmth, still air, seeds to sow, labels to write, dreams to ferment. The transmigration of dream into salad.

Here's the laundry list:

Cauliflower "All the Year Round"

Cabbages "Golden Acre" "Peter" "Primo"

Nicotiana sylvestris

The Nicotiana joined the Mignonette strawberry seeds sown at the beginning of the year, in the heated propagation unit.

Chatterton by Henry Wallis

"As a symbol of blighted artistic genius and the misery of blasted hopes he had few equals."

Description of the painting of Thomas Chatterton by Henry Wallis, at the Tate Gallery. I don't know why, but that really makes me laugh.

January 1, 2007

W.H.Auden put it well:

"I want to approach the future as a friend, without a wardrobe of excuses."

And so my year began with toast and Marmite, a cup of tea and sowing under glass the bluebell and cowslip seeds I stratified in November; Endymion non-scriptus "Bell Bottle" and Primula veris. Tomorrow I shall continue with seed sowing, and also make a start on clearing the pond and tying in the soft fruit canes. I might even make time to pot up the hyacinths and plant the last box of tulips, my favourite of all the lipstick-reds, Hollandia.