All Creatures Great and Small
Rich and I have been a bit ‘otherwise engaged’ this week. With the advent of an evening wedding ball and other ‘things’ to do, we haven’t been able to dedicate as much time to doing what needs doing at the Smallest Smallholding. I did get out and about the other day though, snapping away in around the veg plots, and took a macro shot of the sunflower seeds that are slowly but surely developing in the heads of the ‘happy accident’ sunflowers. I read somewhere (I believe it was Rosie Boycott’s book ‘Our Farm’) that sunflower seeds actually grow in a fibonacci sequence, from the inside of the flower out. It’s a sort of nature by numbers - apparently it grows in this way so that the maximum amount of seeds can be fitted into the head of the flower. Amazing really. Makes you think about the architect of nature - just stunning really. Rich has also taken a close up picture of a fly, and it really is fantastic. So many iridescent colours, structures, lines, angles and tiny details in the fly’s ‘engineering’. Part of my challenge as a Smallest Smallholder is that I won’t kill anything (I’m all for prevention) - so I’m left with things like plum moths nibbling away at the plums and damsons, and other ‘problems’ and pests that could easily be dealt with. But when I look at things this close up I sort of remember why I’m like that. I’ve always been like that, and I can’t really see it changing. It does make life harder - and for a Smallest Smallholder it means that I can’t really keep livestock as such (but am a great applauder of those that can give their livestock a great life and swift end) and so I will have to diversify a lot more than usual.
Actually, it’s made me think really - at the moment the Smallest Smallholding is not the main income of this household at all. The egg problems we’ve had have meant that we’ve had a drop in eggs - I’ve had mum on the phone saying she’s got a few people who are waiting for help us out with our usual glut. But it’s made me realise how much one small thing like a few hens not laying properly can have such an effect. Pattie’s eggs have been coming out thin and cracked again, and keep getting squashed in the nest box. So it’s onto Plan B now, I’m hoping that it’ll sort itself out soon, and I’m hoping and praying it’s not something awful that’s causing it. The fact that she laid the other day has kind of given me hope that it isn’t anything complicated that I can’t sort out for her.
Going off on a tangent slightly, I have received a few packets of seeds this week - all part of ‘The Plan’ (Coming Soon), so I shall start getting going with those very shortly. Already turned over one bed (apart from my parsnips which seem to be a little small compared to everyone else’s - hoping for a growing spurt after I feed them some seaweed extract) and started re-conditioning and feeding the soil. Soon I’ll have to start constructing the new compost beds (part of The Plan) - we currently have a 10-15ft long compost heap dumped under the Bionic Dogwood, partly because it’s out of the way and partly because it stops the Dogwood sending out any runners. But it’s not easily accessible for turning or bagging up, and it’s not really particularly pretty, and so will need sorting out soon too. I’m all for function, but I do like to pay attention to the aesthetics too, being a girl and all.