juliet

Mirrored from Twisting Vines.

I’ve just cleared out three of the raised beds in the back garden (some failed crops – no sign of turnips this year; some that are over – broad beans and winter lettuce) and need to plan my summer planting. To the seed lists!

• Greens:
  • Pak choi
  • Tatsoi
  • Tsoi sim (a good catch crop as it is only 3 wks to harvest)
  • Mixed and oak leaf lettuce
  • Winter lettuce from August
  • Rocket

  I also have broccoli raab and mustard greens, but previous experience suggests that we just don’t eat these, so there’s no point in growing them. I’m actually a little ambivalent about the lettuce, but I’ll give it another go.

• Veg
  • Carrots (til end July)
  • Petrowski turnip

To avoid the perils of the monoculture, the planting plan looks like this:

• NW bed: rocket, lettuce, pak choi (all broadcast)
• SE bed: carrots, pak choi, tsoi sim in between the rows (to come up in 3 wks to make more room for the other veg as they grow)
• SW bed: turnips, tatsoi, lettuce between the rows (to come up as microgreens / mini greens to make more space as the other veg grow)

Normally I’m all about the succession sowing, but I think this time I’ll get it all in at once, and see what’s come up and where there’s space in two or three weeks, and decide then whether to plant more.

The ever-lovely uon & I spent last weekend at the Waveform Project festival, down near Exeter. And it was entirely made of awesome. Highlights, in no particular order:

• Cycling to festival! This was far less stressful than customary hanging around for bus kerfuffle. Also we got there at the same time as the bus-people from our train (much to all of their surprise :) ).
• TIPI. The tipi was amazingly great. I normally camp only under sufferance; this I found actively enjoyable. It was enormous (big enough for us + bikes at least twice over), and you could stand up in it, and there were cushions & rugs & a little table & lanterns.
• FIRE IN TIPI. Even more awesome. Plus we were able to get enough wood for 3 nights of fires just by gleaning from under a couple of trees, which was nice. Good to sit around it on Sat night with mouseboks & luciousa, as well.
• Massive hippyness. We took part in the opening ceremony on Friday night (around the wishing tree!), and the Earthdance whatsit on Saturday night, & it was as hippy as a very hippy thing, & really very lovely indeed.
• On the hippy subject: lovely chillout area, with a really sweet little garden/shrine, with plants in pots, and bits of pretty things and junk and little notes.... I now want to make one in the allotment!
• Music: fab all over. If you like psytrance, anyway. Although actually I found myself also dancing to hard dance, and gabba, and a bunch of other stuff. Even some minimal techno in the chillout area on Sunday night.
• Everyone there was nice. And cheerful, and friendly, and entirely up for a good time. And chatty - we fell into conversation with loads of people, & all of them were ace.
• Saturday night in the MonsterTent was probably the friendliest & most loved-up crowd I've been in. I happily dumped all my stuff (including phone, wallet, & camera) by the side of the tent & got on with the dancing.
• Compost toilets! I approve. Also they stayed clean - enough so that when wandering around barefoot on Sat/Sun afternoon, I didn't bother putting my shoes back on to visit them (the advantages of wooden construction).
• Stars. Beautiful clear night Friday & Saturday, & the stars were absolutely amazing. I'd forgotten there are so many.
• Civilised campsite: nobody making 'orrible racket all night or nearly setting fire to themselves & everyone around them (thank you Glastonbury Idiots) or anything.
• Lovely food - the Furnace in particular did food that actually tasted like stuff I'd eat at home. Also the Moonbeam Cafe with a storming veggie breakfast inc sosmix & potatoes. And all the staff friendly & chatty as well.
• Only 3,500 or so people - so you kept running into people again, which was nice.
• SUNSHINE. Undoubtedly this made a big difference - there was grass around, and you could sit down, and it was very cheering. Hurrah for the sun.
• V little litter. And a decent recycling/composting/etc policy.
• Dancing in the sunshine to lovely psytrance. Aw man.
• Pimms from a roving Pirate Pimms Cart!
• Police being surprisingly tolerant when surrounded by fvcked & talkative ravers on Saturday night :-)
• People doing fire poi & fire staff & so on every night by the wishing tree who were actually rather good & worth watching.
• Trees! And generally pretty site all over (we saw DEER on the way home).
• Arriving at Exeter St Davids on the way home with 50min to kill - time enough for 2 x swift halves apiece (6 guest beers!) & an unexpected chat with some v friendly elderly chaps, one of whom used to live in Bermondsey & the other work on Tooley St, in the 1960s/70s (apparently there used to be lots of prostitutes under the railway arches back then). We thought they might be anti-festival-goers but not at all :-)

I have doubtless forgotten lots of things. It was basically perfect from start to finish - I swear we spent the entire time grinning. I am totally going back next year. (As long as they keep it small, anyway - the organiser said something about the site having a 50,000 capacity. That would be rub. Up to 10,000 would prob be OK but they really really should stop there. Small festivals = Much Better.)

Edit: doop's photos, my photos.