Driving up and over the rise from Cann Common to Melbury Abbas.
"Stunted hawthorn, wind worn
Foaming like cresting waves
Up the rippling chalk ridge"
I was very pleased to visit @greenfarming_brothers today to talk about grain and growing some winter wheat for @rye_bakery .
It was wonderful to walk the chalk fields, hear the skylarks, watch the swallows and roe deer, and imagine what the fields will look like in a few scant months when they turn from green to gold.
This wonder was only heightened as we walked along the Dorset cursus, a 5000 year old neolithic monument that runs 6 miles across the local fields. In the penultimate image you can see the parallel lines of the former 2m ditches that formed the edges of the cursus, now silted up and invisible at ground level.
It makes me feel connected to the land and excited for what the land will give back as it has done for thousands of years.
Fool's Gold
I have always struggled trying to find something that is truly and definitively mine with the spoons I carve. So when I shared this in my stories and @geoffhannis (who has followed my progression closely) responded "classic TCG" it was rather touching. This is carved from some nicely hung up, woodland grown Birch: the only Birch worth the effort round these parts.
In a related question: how long is it after you finish making something that you start to see all its (self perceived) faults and loathe it? It's about 30 seconds for me.
Posts get more reach with audio
Hopefully the people who see this will enjoy without
2km from home after running 8 after climbing for two hours. Glad my body can do this, determined not to take it for granted.
Make a rye bread, eat a rye bread
Make a rye bread, eat a rye bread
Make a rye bread, eat a rye bread
Listen to some accordian music...
Make a rye bread, eat a rye bread
etc
Genetic diversity/reversion to type
6 years ago I found a prolific cluster of golden bullace trees in Frome, after collecting and eating more than I can remember I started germinating the seeds.
Two years ago they started flowering and this year I finally got fruit!
1st pic a brand new wild plum, 2nd pic the originals.
As you can see the new plum has sun blushed a beautiful deep red whereas the previous generation have stayed yellow. There were red leaved plum trees nearby... is this some genetic diversity caused by cross pollination or is sunblushing just a innate characteristic of the majority of wild plums?
Who knows but I've got another four trees yet to fully fruit so let's see...
