Sunday, 17th August 2003
Evening Flights
99 Onions
Barbara cleans off the soil while I tie them in groups of ten (two bunches of 5 on either end of a piece of 12 inch piece string). We end up with ten bunches hanging over a piece of rope at the back of the garage, 100 onions (or rather 99, as one small onion drops from the last bunch). It's airy there so they should continue to dry off. With a few odd small ones left
over that's 107 onions in all. I'm pleased because this is all from
an area of deep bed that's no more than 4ft x 3ft - the size of
a hearthrug - and we've got the equivalent of an onion bag, enough
to keep us going for a month or two. They're in assorted sizes of
course, but the smaller ones will be fine for putting in a casserole.
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Fruits
of the Earth
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It's
been cloudier today but a least that makes it pleasanter to work:
a week ago record temperatures of 100°F were reached in the
Midlands and at Heathrow. It's a good opportunity to trim back the
hawthorn hedge. Perhaps one more quick trim next month will be all
that it will need to last it through the winter.
As
we sit out with our evening meal house martins
circle above us. There's 
no
sign of the swifts this week; I suspect that they
must have set off back to Africa.
A
woodpecker (we're not sure which species as it's
silhouetted against the sky) flies with characteristic dipping flight
towards the wood and, a little later, a heron makes
it's way down the valley with measured flight: their respective
flight rhythms like a boy on a bicycle compared to a policeman on
the beat.
As
we sit there after our meal, Barbara mentions that rain is forecast
so - just before the sun sets - we go down to the veg beds and pull
up all the onions. Most of the tops have now dried
and shrivelled but some of the larger ones still have green stems.
